July 29, 1911-] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
175 
Louisville’s New Museum Open. 
The museum of the Jefferson Institute opened 
its doors to the public in Louisville, Kv., on 
July 8. Formalities were dispensed with on ac¬ 
count of the midsummer heat. The scientific 
contributions of a number of members were 
displayed, chief among which is the collection 
made by William N. Souther, of Groton, Mass., 
the generous gift of Rogers Clark Ballard-Thurs- 
ton, who also provided specially designed cases 
constructed for the purpose of best displaying 
and preserving their contents. The Thurston- 
Souther collection embraces valuable and interest¬ 
ing specimens of ornithology, entomology, con- 
chology, ichthyology and mineralogy, the but¬ 
terfly cases being especially notable, the entire 
collection being the result of the painstaking 
and intelligent efforts of Mr. Souther in warm 
climes. Mr. Souther abandoned his work as a 
skilled mechanic, and for considerations of 
health and inclination took up the more learned 
pursuit of a field naturalist and his achieve¬ 
ments in this direction have been much admired. 
Except for intermittent displays in connec¬ 
tion with the library, the Jefferson Institute’s is 
the first public museum to be opened in Louis- 
ivlle, a city which has made correspondingly 
greater progress in population, wealth, school 
education and other accomplishments of mature 
age. Its backwardness in science is especially 
contrasted with the great wealth of its particu¬ 
lar field. 
When George Rogers Clarke, Daniel Boone,. 
Simon Kenton and other pioneers came to 
Kentucky the Colonial soldiers made camps, it 
is said, of the bones of mastodons and other 
prehistoric beasts found about the numerous 
salt licks in central and northern Kentucky, so 
plentiful were these remains. Elk, buffalo, deer, 
bear, wolves, wild turkey and small game are 
said to have been as numerous as are the mam¬ 
mals in the heart of Africa to-day. Little of 
this faunal wealth is left in Kentucky except 
fading memories. The rich contributions to 
archaeology from Indian and prehistoric mounds 
and to paleontology from the rock beds of the 
Ohio Falls have followed the fossil bones to 
other States and foreign countries where Ken¬ 
tuckians now have to go to study their illustrious 
past. 
There is some prospect for its future, how¬ 
ever, when citizens of great resources like Mr. 
Thurston and S. T. Ballard become interested 
in the history, science and art of their State. 
The two men in connection with Brent Alt- 
sheler, President of the Jefferson Institute, and 
Mr. Souther, have planned three notable trips 
for the immediate future, which give promise of 
adding something to the volume of scientific 
knowledge. They are trips into the remote and 
little known mountains of Central Alaska, and 
the Highlands of India and East Central Africa. 
T he Louisville Museum is to receive trophies 
or exhibits from these distant lands, and a much 
larger and older institution in the East has 
made requests especially for rare mammals 
much needed for completing its different fam¬ 
ilies, classes, etc., and obtainable on the pro¬ 
posed expeditions. It is especially desired to 
procure specimens of large and interesting 
mammals rapidly becoming extinct on account 
of the gradual spread of commercialism, which 
specimens now through modern development 
of taxidermy may be preserved lifelike almost 
indefinitely. 
On the Indian trip Messrs. Thurston and 
Ballard may have the rare pleasure of hunting 
the royal tiger from the howdahs of trained 
elephants, as they will have good introductions 
to native Indian princes through a celebrated 
American mining engineer who will entertain 
them on this trip. 
Cats and Quail. 
Raleigh, N. C., July 15.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: This is one of the greatest years for 
quail on record, and the outlook is that the 
North Carolina crop of this bird will be a big 
one. May was dry. June was intensely dry, 
and until almost the middle of July the same 
condition existed. The dry June was good for 
quail. The highest temperature reached here 
this year was 100 degrees on the nth of June. 
Streams went very low and I was interested 
to observe how much the birds hung about the 
streams. A few days ago I walked to the stream 
which gives Raleigh its water supply, and there 
saw a sight unusual in this part of the coun¬ 
try. Walking very softly through a bit of 
meadow I approached a clump of plum bushes 
and saw in a yard of these eight or nine par¬ 
tridges, their heads held up high and all to¬ 
gether. All were grown birds. Suddenly two 
or three ran under the plum bushes, while the 
others went away like spokes from a hub, whist¬ 
ling as they went, one perching a few yards 
away on a snag and looking all about, another 
alighting on a log and running up and down 
it, making a quick note as he did so; yet an¬ 
other dropping on a fence post and turning 
around several times. 
But while it was queer to see these old birds 
together at this time of the year, a far stranger 
sight was the killing of a full grown cock quail 
by a cat in a field of wheat stubble in which 
there were low bushes and weeds. As I passed 
along a road a cat suddenly sprang into the air 
and came down, its forepaws widespread, upon 
a quail at the very instant the latter sprang 
from the ground. I ran to the spot and saw 
the cat give, the bird a finishing stroke with a 
paw. The cat fled and the bird, still quivering, 
was picked up. It was a long way from any 
house, but the cat had evidently stalked the bird. 
There is a great outcry against the running 
at large in the spring and summer of dogs. Not 
only do they kill sheep, but quail also, and they 
suck birds’ eggs. The house cat is something 
to be taken into account. Colonel Charles E. 
Johnson, a veteran sportsman of Raleigh, passed 
a field, and near a negro cabin close to the road 
he saw a cat with a good-sized bird in its mouth. 
The cat ran toward the cabin. Colonel Johnson 
was so interested that he stopped at the cabin 
and found the woman picking a full grown quail 
which the cat had just brought in. The woman 
told Colonel Johnson that the cat brought in 
birds very often. This cat, not selfish like 
others of its tribe, did not hunt for itself, but 
for the family. 
At the beautiful grounds of the Raleigh Coun¬ 
try Club, which were opened on Wednesday, 
there is a lake, and on this I saw two splendid 
specimens of the snowy heron. One bird was 
after frogs, while the other sailed lazily about. 
Suddenly one heron rose and came close to me, 
alighting in shallow water and began to preen 
itself; the other one flew round in graceful cir¬ 
cles, and was soon followed by its mate. They 
seemed to be showing how attractive they could 
be. Fred. A. Olds. 
Their Little Joke. 
Patten, Me., July 16 .-—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Shortly after purchasing a fancy 
double barrel twelve-bore gun I went hunting 
on the marshy shores of Great South Bay with 
two young budding naturalists and trappers, sons 
of a neighboring farmer. I bagged a bittern 
and a night heron (quakl), but they bagged (we 
were shooting in rotation) a beautiful marsh 
owl, a mounted specimen of which I much de¬ 
sired for my den. About a week later, while 
reading in my library, I heard a frantic knock¬ 
ing at my back door. On answering the sum¬ 
mons I found one of my young neighbors in 
great excitement apparently, and urgently beck¬ 
oning to come over to his farm with my new 
gun, as there was a large owl in a tree back of 
their chicken house, and he said it was a fine 
chance to secure my much coveted trophy. 
With the frenzied ardor of a novice I grabbed 
the weapon, after carefully loading same with 
No. 4 shot, smokeless powder, and rushed pell 
mell after the boy, who by this time had reached 
his own farm. On arriving near the chicken 
house I heard a slight hissing sound and saw 
his father, the farmer, holding his first finger 
across his lips, and while cautioning me to be 
quiet, pointed to the top of a tall maple tree and 
said : “There he is! Be sure you hit him !” I 
crouched down like a skulking redskin and 
breathlessly wormed my way toward the tree. 
Finally my eye did detect an owl in the treetop 
and I took careful aim and pulled the trigger. 
There have been many famous shots fired in 
history, but never one more epoch making than 
this one. Instead of seeing a fine owl in his 
death struggles I could not see at all for a 
period of about twenty seconds on account of 
a storm of sawdust. 
While still engaged in cleaning the small par¬ 
ticles from my eyes, head and clothing, I heard 
a roar of convulsion and mirth, and turning 
round beheld the farmer lying prone on his back, 
holding his stomach and convulsed with mis¬ 
chievous glee. Then I cast my eyes upon the 
farm house windows and the full force of the 
trick dawned upon me. 
After posting his mother and sisters at the 
windows with a good view of the tree, one of 
these rascals had climbed the tree and put their 
old stuffed owl in a most natural position on a 
limb, and having every arrangement made for 
my complete deception, I fell into the trap in 
the most unsuspecting manner. 
My advice to green gunners is, be sure you 
start your bird first or else you are liable to 
start a saw mill. L. T. Carter. 
