April 19, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
495 
Natural History Notes. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
A PARTY of scientists and hunters recently 
returned to San Francisco from a trip to Hono¬ 
lulu and the Laysan Islands. The journey from 
the island port to the little sand spit, now an 
important Hawaiian bird reservation, was made 
in the U. S. revenue cutter Thetis, and ninety 
days were spent on the island. The census of 
bird life that was taken showed that there were 
approximately 50,000 albatross, 50,000 petrel and 
15,000 frigate birds. The island was infested 
with rabbits, and 5,000 of these were killed in 
an effort to exterminate them. Trees and shrubs 
were planted, and it is likely that the island will 
show a changed appearance in a few years. On 
the shoals of this island and nearby sand spits 
numbers of warm water seals were found. 
Among the members of the party were W. S. 
Wallace, George Willett, A. M. Bailey and Com¬ 
modore G. R. Salisbury. 
The power schooner Teddy Bear has cleared 
from Seattle with a party of scientists aboard 
bound for the Bering Sea to make a study of 
animal and bird life. Among those making the 
trip are Joseph Dixon, of the Museum of Com¬ 
parative Zoology of the University of Califor¬ 
nia ; W. Sprague Brooks, of Milton, Mass., rep¬ 
resenting the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
at Harvard, and Samuel Mixter, representing the 
Smithsonian Institute. Points in southeastern 
Alaska will be visited, and then a call made at 
Dutch Harbor, the Bogoslov Islands, the Attu 
and Rat Islands, followed by a visit to the Siber¬ 
ian coast, Anadir Bay, Nome and possibly 
Wrangell Island. On the trip home the Teddy 
Bear will touch at Nome, the Pribilof Islands 
and Walrus Island. 
The California Audubon Society has been 
incorporated at Los Angeles, Cal., by Mrs. K. H. 
Coit, F. W. D'Evelyn, C. F. Holder and others. 
Tagging Birds. 
St. Louis, Mo., April 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: As the McLean bill has become a 
law, I think it wise for sportsmen to consider 
how this will eventually affect hunting migra¬ 
tory birds, and I believe the following sugges¬ 
tion is worthy of consideration; 
That the Federal Government issue licenses, 
say at a cost of $10 per year, or $i for three 
consecutive days, and charge a fixed sum for 
every head of game killed, by the means of a 
stamp tag. This tag could be made of two thin 
discs of brass, about one inch in diameter, with 
a paper insert between them, with thirty-one 
holes in the outer circle and twelve in the inner 
circle. The holes in the outer circle being num¬ 
bered from one to thirty-one, respectively, and 
the inner circle from one to twelve, each tag 
bearing the year and a serial number in the 
center, and having two wires attached. When 
the game is killed, one wire is passed through 
the outer circle, indicating the day of the month, 
and one wire through the inner circle, designat¬ 
ing the month of the year. This would cancel 
the tag, and the inspector could readily ascer¬ 
tain whether or not the game was properly 
tagged. 
These tags could be issued by the Govern¬ 
ment at, say, ten or twenty-five cents each, or 
different prices for different game. For instance, 
ten cents for snipe and twenty-five cents for 
duck. All funds so obtained to be used to prop¬ 
erly protect and propagate game. The protec¬ 
tion is especially necessary when the game is 
very young, and during the hatching period. 
It should not seem difficult, if we paid 
twenty-five cents for every duck killed, for the 
Government to be able to hatch and replace with 
that sum three or more ducks six or seven 
weeks old, at which time they should be able to 
shift for themselves, especially if placed in a 
lake where their natural enemies did not abound. 
It is well known that game bred in captivity 
turns wild very rapidly. 
Furthermore, it would be necessary for the 
license holder to report back to the Government 
when securing a reissue of tags, the game he 
killed, and the tags purchased; this under oath. 
I think that the conditions cited above would 
enable us to continue spring shooting, enable the 
market hunter to ply his trade, and for restau¬ 
rants and hotels to serve game. It would be 
necessary of course that restaurants and hotels 
take out licenses, which would permit them to 
sell game, and making it obligatory that they 
turn in all tags and make report under oath as 
to the game they disposed of. 
A. J. Meier. 
Woodpecker as Imitator. 
Raleigh, N. C., April 10.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The “National” woodpecker must, 
to be sure, be an imitator, and he has suc¬ 
ceeded in giving the most admirable imitation 
of the noise of the riveters who are doing work 
on steel structure buildings here. A day or two 
ago in the early morning, as the writer was 
approaching a residence on top of which are 
finials of galvanized iron, the noise made by a 
couple of riveters apparently was heard. It was 
found that two of the “Nationals,” each on a 
finial, were rattling away with their bills. Half 
a dozen other birds of the same kind were on 
trees in the neighborhood, and these were doing 
the best they could on dead limbs, but the ones 
on the finials seemed to enjoy their superiority 
as noise-makers. Several persons came and 
watched their performance, which the birds evi¬ 
dently enjoyed. 
One would rattle away, and then cock his 
head to one side and look around at the other, 
as if to say, “Listen to me.” Then the other 
would do his best. Three or four of the 
“Nationals” who were in the trees flew over and 
saw how the noise was made, circling around 
in the air, watching and listening. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Hedgehogs. 
New York City, April 12.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: On behalf of hundreds of sports¬ 
men readers of your journal, I most sincerely 
deplore the lack of knowledge of ordinary ani¬ 
mal life exhibited by the writer about “Hedge¬ 
hogs” in the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, 
quoted in your issue of April 5 inst. The article, 
too, was written under the shadow of the Uni¬ 
versity of Vermont. 
We Essex County, N. Y., men want a 
bounty of twenty-five cents each put back on 
the American porcupine (commonly and incor¬ 
rectly called “hedgehog”). 
This animal is a positive menace to stand¬ 
ing timber, as all woods men know, and to the 
sweet corn, even in carefully watched gardens. 
He is, therefore, cordially hated by all agri¬ 
culturists, and his extermination is eagerly 
looked for. It is the writer’s belief, founded 
upon some experience, that old “porky” avails 
himself of the grouse eggs that lie under the 
low hemlocks on the sunny slopes of our moun¬ 
tains up there not far from his rocky dens. 
In one locality alone where, owing to local 
activity, the porcupines were nearly extermi¬ 
nated under the recent bounty law, the grouse 
which had been almost extinct suddenly began 
to increase, until last year the woods and road¬ 
sides were full of old and young birds. I noted 
no corresponding increase in other remote dis¬ 
tricts in the same town where these pests had 
been let alone, although same had been for¬ 
merly the best of grouse cover. 
Does anyone suppose that one of those 
blundering, awkward beasts weighing thirty or 
forty pounds would take the trouble to walk 
around a nice little nest full of fresh eggs if 
it were right in his path? I trow not. 
But, back to the newspaper story, which is 
certainly free in its statements. Hear this: “His 
favorite food is clover, and this when abundant 
so fully supplies his modest wants that he asks 
for few additions to the menu.” This being so, 
how does the Free Press man account for the 
almost constant visitations to old soap barrels 
and salt-soaked hemlock boards and boxes by 
his “hedgehog.” Does he know how the animal 
makes night hideous with gnawings and devour- 
ings of said lumber if, indeed, he does not con¬ 
sume an entire porch? Worst of all is the con¬ 
cluding paragraph; “Plis favorite abode is at 
the edge of the farmer’s wood lot, in reasonable 
proximity to a clover field. In such a hedgehog 
paradise he luxuriates in the farmer s clover all 
summer and dreams about it all winter in his 
long hibernation.” This last word makes a man 
smile who has often seen and killed “quill-pigs” 
in the woods in the depths of winter, and has 
found their little runways cut deep in the snow 
crust. 
Will the Free Press man amend his interest¬ 
ing article by striking out the word “hedgehog” 
wherever it occurs therein and substitute the 
word “chuck”? Peter Flint. 
Jersey City, N. J., April 5.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: After buying Forest and Stream 
on the news-stands regularly since the days of 
“Kingfisher,” “Nessmuk” and Sam Lovell, I feel 
entitled to become a subscriber and therefore 
inclose check. Robert H. Carson. 
