Dec. 9, 1911] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
857 
Y OU know mallards—wisest and wariest of all 
ducks—Solomons of the air. You can t knock 
down mallards with a paddle nor can you get them 
with a gun that plasters its shots all over the face 
of creation. 
A mallard shot is general)/ a long shot, and long 
shots require a hard-shooting, close-shooting gun. 
That’s why the long-headed man who goes to a 
mallard country takes a Lefeeer. When he swings 
it on a towering pair of mallards he does not ques¬ 
tion the result. He know it— 
TWO CLEAN KILLS 
The reason a Lefever kills clean and sure and 
far is Lefever Taper Boring. 
But if you buy a Lefever for the taper boring 
alone, you will get more than your money’s worth. 
For instance, you will never be handicapped with 
looseness at the hinge joint. The exclusive Lefever 
screw compensates for a year’s wear by a trifling 
turn that you make yourself with a screwdriver. 
LEFEVER 
SHOT GUNS 
Sixteen other exclusive Lefever features and Lefe¬ 
ver simplicity and strength make the $28 gun the 
peer of any S 50 gun on the market. Upwards to 
81 , 000 . Send for free catalog and get Lefever wise. 
Lefever Arms Co., a) Maltbie St., Syracuse,N.Y. 
brush, a very good cleaner for field work, but 
for thorough and careful cleaning I have found 
nothing to equal the brass rod. Don't be con¬ 
tent with a single wiping, but wipe out thor¬ 
oughly, using white rags until they come 
through clean. 
“After the gun is thoroughly cleaned a rag 
should be moistened with oil and run through 
the barrel to give it a light coating of oil. One 
should be very particular of the kind of oil 
used for this purpose, as some oils contain acids 
which are very injurious to rifle barrels. After 
thoroughly cleaning and oiling the rifle should 
be laid away in a dry place out of the reach of 
moisture.”—Fur News. 
WHY THE CUCKOO BUILDS NO NEST. 
A Danish legend about the cuckoo is very 
curious. It relates that when in the early 
spring time its voice is first heard in the woods 
every village girl kisses her hand and asks the 
question, “Cuckoo, cuckoo, when shall I be 
married?” And the old people, borne down 
with age and rheumatism, ask, “Cuckoo, cuckoo, 
when shall I be released from this world's 
cares?” The bird in reply continues to sing, 
“Cuckoo!” And as many times as he sings they 
count one year to the fulfilment of their desires. 
It is said that the poor bird has so many 
questions put to her that before she realizes it 
the building season has gone by and she is 
forced to put her eggs into the hedge-sparrow’s 
nest.—London Globe. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from any 
newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to supply you 
regularly. 
SPARROWS IN WINTER NESTS. 
“There’s a thing I wish you’d tell me,” said 
the old-timer. “Do English sparrows make 
winter nests for themselves in the old country?” 
The information was not forthcoming, says 
the Sun, and works of reference and books on 
natural history failed to cast any light on the 
subject. 
“Do you know,” he resumed, “I am inclined 
to think it is a way they have got into since 
coming to Canada. Though I remember the 
little pests since they first came to the country, 
I don’t remember seeing their nests until a 
couple of years ago. 
“They are pretty slick nests, too. The little 
critters gather a pile of dry grass into a fork 
of a tree and weave it so that the strongest wind 
will not stir a straw of it. They make it with a 
tunnel in from the side, and in the center is a 
little chamber that they line with feathers and 
bits of wood till it is just about as snug a place 
as you would want to see. 
“When it is finished the nest is about the size 
of an eight quart pail. Would you like to see 
one?” 
As it was night the question was about to be 
brushed aside as unpractical when the old-timer 
protested. 
“This is just the very time to get at them, for 
we will have, a chance to find Mr. Sparrow at 
home,” he said. 
It was not necessary to make the plea that 
what was being done was in the interests of 
science when the nest was lifted gently from its 
mooring, so as not to shatter it. Farmers make 
a practice of destroying the nests of the spar¬ 
rows, though it makes little difference in their 
numbers. They are born adventurers, quite 
capable of roughing it in any kind of weather, 
but it did seem rather cruel to turn the little 
householder adrift on such a night, with a high 
wind blowing and the thermometer hovering in 
the neighborhood of zero. 
The nest was taken into the house and on ex¬ 
amination proved to be much as described. 1 he 
walls of the little grass house were from four 
to six inches thick, and while the grass could 
not exactly be said to be woven, it was com¬ 
pacted together into a sort of thatch that must 
have been both wind and rain proof. In the 
chamber was a good handful of small chicken 
feathers that were not arranged as a lining, as 
is usual when feathers are used in a nest, but 
were loose, as if the sparrow were in the habit 
of burying himself in them when he retired for 
the night. 
“That isn’t the only kind of nests they make 
either,” the old-timer said. “When using the 
haystack I found that the sparrows had bur¬ 
rowed into it just the same as bank swallows 
burrow into the clay bluffs down by the river. 
“They made tunnels just like the one in that 
nest and then lined a chamber with feathers just 
as that fellow did. They do the same in the 
strawstacks and in the fodder in the mows in 
the barn. I expect before long to hear of them 
building igloos for themselves as they work up 
to the Arctic region. 
“And talk about their being wise.” he 
grumbled. “Say, a sparrow has every kind of 
fish, or fowl beaten for cuteness. Folks began 
to shoot them a few years ago when they began 
to get plentiful and now if a man appears out¬ 
doors with a gun every sparrow in the neigh¬ 
borhood clears out of sight. 
“It’s no use scattering out feed and hiding 
till they come to eat. They soon get wise to 
that trick and they will not touch scattered 
grain. I guess they know that the average 
Canadian farmer isn’t spreading a banquet for 
them. That’s why you can’t poison them either. 
But they never fail to turn up when the hens 
are being fed and a flock of them will eat as 
much as a dozen hens. 
“Do you know, I’ve struck quite a lot of odd 
nests this winter. When I hauled home the 
stack of clover hay from the field I found the 
cosiest rabbit’s nest I ever saw. The rabbit had 
worked his way under the stack and then started 
to eat the sweet clover. 
“When I came to the nest he had eaten a 
space that was fully two feet in diameter and 
went up into the stack about two feet. He 
didn’t have to do any scurrying for food and 
lodgings. When he wanted to make his house 
a little bigger he just ate a little out of the side 
or roof. I guess if I hadn’t disturbed him he 
Would have eaten that stack to a shell.” 
“He was something like the boy in Gelett 
Burgess’ rhyme,” said the visitor. Then he 
quoted: 
I make my house of graham bread, 
Except the roof. It’s white. 
I make my bed of angel cake, 
I eat my pillow every night. 
“That was it to a dot!” said the old-timer. 
Fixtures. 
DOG SHOWS. 
Dec. 12-13.—French Bulldog Club of New England, Bos¬ 
ton, Mass.. Walter Burgess, Sec’y. 
Dec. 16.—Associated Specialty Clubs, Chicago, Ill. A. 
W. Cates, Supt. 
1912. 
Jan. 3-!).—Fort Orange Kennel Association, Albany, N. Y. 
T. S. Beilin, Sec’y. 
Jan. 26-27.—Lynn (Mass.) Kennel Club. W. Rolfe, Sec’y. 
Feb. 6-9.—Fanciers’ Association of Indiana, Indianapo¬ 
lis, Ind. C. R. Milhous, Sec’y. 
Feb. 12-15.—Westminster Kennel Club, New York City. 
William Rauch, Chairman. 
Feb. 20-23.—New England Kennel Club, Boston, Mass. 
R. C. Storey, Sec’y. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Dec. 11.—Southern Field Trial Club, Letohatchie, Ala. 
J. H. Wallace, Jr., Sec’y. 
Dec. 18.—Kentucky Field Trial Club, Letohatchie, Ala. 
All-Age entries close Oct. 15. S. W. Linebaugh, 
Sec’y, Russellville, Ky. 
1912. 
First week in January.—Eastern Field Trial Club, Cotton 
Plant, Miss. S. C. Bradley, Sec’y. 
Jan. 7.—United States Field Trial Club. W. B. Staf¬ 
ford, Sec’y. 
Jan. 14.—National Field Trial Championship Associa¬ 
tion. W. B. Stafford, Sec’y. 
Toy Spaniel Club. 
The ninth annual exhibit of the Toy Spaniel 
Club of America held one of its most successful 
meetings at the Astor Gallery, New York, last 
week. The awards: 
French Bulldogs (dogs)—Grant Notman’s 
Gamin’s Riquet, first; Mrs. B. S. Andrews’ 
Apache, reserve. 
French Bulldogs (bitches)—Mrs. C. M. 
Hamilton’s Hewlett Chiquita, first; Mrs. Hosea 
Higgins’ Vixen, reserve. 
Boston Terriers (dogs)—Rockcliffe Kennels’ 
Rockcliffe The Joker, first. Miss Frances Ryan's 
Dee Doddy Delmar, reserve. 
Boston Terriers (bitches)-—Julian M. Platz's 
Whisper-by-the-Way, first; Mrs. George H. 
Pell’s Wampagne Queen of Hearts, reserve. 
Schipperkes (dogs and bitches)—Willard G. 
Aborn’s Wicklow Gypsy, first; same owner’s 
Champion Wicklow Rastus, reserve. 
Pekinese Spaniels (dogs)—Mrs. Arthur R. 
Holland’s Vi-Sin, of Alderbourne, first; Mrs. 
M. E. Harby’s Champion Nowata Min-Chi, re¬ 
serve. 
Pekinese Spaniels (bitches)—Dr. H. W. Has¬ 
kell’s Ashton Tai-Tai, first; same owner’s Nan- 
Lu, reserve. 
Pugs (dogs and bitches)—Henry Huber’s 
Boston Boy, Jr., first. 
Toy Poodles (dogs)—Mrs. Nicola’s Gaston, 
first; Mrs. William Bechtel’s Marquis, reserve. 
Toy Poodles (bitches)—Miss Edna M. 
Cassidy’s Ruffles, first; same owner’s Georgette, 
reserve. 
Yorkshire Terriers (dogs and bitches)—John 
Galloway’s Broomloan Wonder, first; Mrs. M. 
Thorpe’s Clayton Marvel, reserve. 
Maltese Terriers (dogs)—Malta Pura Terrier 
Kennels’ Sonnekin, first. 
Maltese Terriers (bitches)—Mrs. Nicolai’s 
Sonora, first; same owner’s Sonita reserve. 
Toy Black and Tan Terriers (dogs and 
bitches)—Mme. Rose Carreno’s Mirza, first; 
