436 
FOREST AND STREAM 
the Pennsylvania subscription stake, one of the 
classic stakes of the bird dog world. This stake 
carries with it 'the Pennsylvania subscription cup, 
a purse of $250 and 85 per cent of the entrance 
money. 
This event will give Pennsylvania an oppor¬ 
tunity to see the best that the world produces in 
the way of bird dogs. Champion Babblebrook 
Joe and Babblebrook Bob, owned by Louis Mc- 
Grew of Pittsburgh, 'will be among the entries 
and will help largely to increase the interest, as 
they were both winners in the recent all-Ameri¬ 
can trial's at Aberdeen, S. D. 
Many cups and trophies have been presented. 
The club will also hold a bench show for bird 
dogs, in connection with the trial. 
A. F. Hochwai't of Dayton, O., Dr. W. A. 
Bruette of Pittsburgh and G. Muss-Arnoit of 
Tuckahoe, N. Y., will be the judges. 
THE BLUNDERS OF “ARM CHAIR” NATU¬ 
RALISTS. 
Surrenden Park, Pluckley, Kent, England, 
Sept. 12, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There is a class of naturalists who delight in 
giving animals long Latin names and, (never 
having practical experience of the habits of 
animals, and merely working from stuffed speci¬ 
mens and books,) make blunders which practi¬ 
cal big game hunters smile at. 
These “Arm Chair” naturalists sit in their 
studies surrounded by books, which they look 
on as a preacher does his Bible, as infallible, 
anything these books (or “Authorities”, as they 
call them), say is Gospel Truth, and everything 
else is untrue. 
Some of their earliest “Authorities”, however, 
they do not now believe in; for instance, one 
“Authority” says, “The elephant never lies down 
to sleep, ‘but props itself against a tree, 'because 
it has no joints in its legs.” The same “Author¬ 
ity” gives the two following gems: “The peli¬ 
can feeds its young by tearing its breast and 
nourishing them on its own blood,” and “The 
phoenix is a bird which, when it feels itself 
about to die, builds a stack of sticks, seats it¬ 
self on this stack and sets it on fire; being con¬ 
sumed by the fire, it rises with new life out of 
the fire.” 
i will give below a few of the blunders these 
naturalists make: their “Best Authorities” say 
that a stag, when he sheds his hornS, has two 
extra points, each year on his horns, that is to 
say, his first set of horns have two points, (one 
on each), his second set four points, his third 
six points, and so on each year. Now I have 
within two hundred yards of where I am writ¬ 
ing, (alive in the above park) two stags, 
each a year old, with five points to his horns, and 
one with four points, a two year old stag with 
fourteen points to his horns, instead of the four 
points the “Authorities” say he has. A stuffed 
stag’s head is over my writing table with only four 
points, which I shot in Scotland, which was a 
very old stag and should, according to the 
“Authorities,” have had at least 24 points. 
He is what we hunters call a switch horn. 
There is also a “Hummel” stag who never had 
any horns all his life although he was not a 
gelded stag. 
The “Authorities” say that Sika deer never 
have more than eight points to their horns. Now 
outside my window are feeding a herd of Sika 
deer, and the 'two nearest stags have nine and 
ten points respectively; also one is spotted and 
has red “velvet” on his horns, and the other no 
spots and black “velvet” on his horns, although 
the “Authorities” say that the Japanese Sika 
deer is of only one variety. 
Next the “Authorities” say that the various 
species of deer cannot interbreed. Now I have 
alive in this same park crosses between the Wap¬ 
eti and Red-deer, between the Wapeti and Altai 
deer, a triple cross between the Wapeti, Altai 
and Red-deer, and a quadruple cross between the 
Wapeti, Altai, Marral and Red-deer, and all 
these crosses are fertile among themselves, 
proving that these races of deer are not different 
species, as the Arm Chair naturalists prove by 
their books, but merely varieties of the same 
species; also, the triple cross referred to above 
is much more like the drawings of the cave 
dwellers than any other deer, proving that the 
various so-called species are merely variations, 
caused by food and climate from an original 
stock. 
Also, by selecting those Wapeti stags with 
horns most like Red-deer horns, and keeping 
breeding from the most suitable, I have evolved 
a herd of pure bred Wapeti deer with horns 
like a Red-deer. 
The Arm Chair naturalists also say there is 
only one species of bear in Russia. 
BRISTOL, KINGFISHER AND PORK. 
Troy, N. Y„ Sept. 15, 1914- 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The rod I used was made by the Horton 
Manufacturing Oo. of Bristol, Conn. It is a 
“Luckie” rod and I think No. 308. It certainly 
proved all that its name implies, as it won for 
me the Forest and Stream trophy, which I was 
tickled to death to win. I take extreme pleasure 
in thanking the Forest and Stream people for 
putting up su'ch a cup. 
For bait I used “night crawlers,” frogs, live 
bait, (minnows) dobsons, crawfish, and last but 
not least, pork. 
It was with pork that I caught the cup winner. 
We happened to have a lunch out with us as we 
bad to go about fifteen miles to our favorite fish¬ 
ing grounds. Our bait ran out and we resorted 
to our pork sandwiches. We used the white 
rind and shaped it into minnows, and just 
wiggled it in front of the bass. 
I used a “Kingfisher line of which I had a 
hundred and fifty feet, which wasn't any too 
much. It proved to be a very good line. Many 
times when the hook caught on the bottom, it 
woffl'd pull the heavy motor boat around against 
a heavy ‘wind and wave. To pull in the big 
ones I used a quadruple reel. I can’t just re¬ 
member the name of the reel, but it was a good 
one. Of course, I kept the rod and reel well 
oiled, and, believe me, when they took the white 
When shooting in Russia this spring, I shot 
a small, full grown black bear with very big 
paws and claws, otherwise built more like a 
sloth bear than the Russian brown bear. 
The peasants told me he was known as “The 
Dwarf Bear” and was of the flesh eating species, 
whereas the ordinary brown bear is a root and 
berry eating animal. 
I only give a few instances of facts well 
known to all big game hunters, but ignored by 
the Arm Chair naturalist who never studies ani¬ 
mals except from books and stuffed specimens. 
In these books, the Fallow deer is said to have 
two sub-species, the ‘black and the spotted, 
whereas I who have lived among deer all my 
life, know of at least ten sub-species. These 
include (besides the black and spotted) the dark 
brown with white rump, the dark chestnut with¬ 
out white rump, the white, the steel gray with¬ 
out white rump, etc., and the spotted can be 
divided also, as one sort has a black stripe down 
its back, has few spots on its shoulders and has 
dark brown velvet on it horns (when they are 
growing), whereas the other sort has no black 
stripe down its back, has many more spots and 
also has a white water line stripe along the 
middle of its body, has very pale pink grey vel¬ 
vet on its horns and -white legs. 
The above are only a few instances of what we 
hunters know of animals and which the Arm 
Chair naturalists cannot find in their books. 
WALTER WINANS. 
F. Z. S. 
pork into their mouth, we snapped them right 
“off the reel” not attempting to give them an inch 
of line. They were all in sight; that’s why we 
didn’t give them any line. This is the way we 
caught twenty-five large small-mouth black bass 
in two days, and that’s why I take extreme pleas¬ 
ure in having won the cup and also in thanking 
the Forest and Stream Co. for putting up such 
a handsome cup. 
EDWARD N. GRAY. 
[Mr. Gray won the Forest and Stream Trophy, 
at Parkers, North Hero, Vermont, with a 4- 
pouncl small-mouth black bass—Editor.] 
R. L. GORHAM WINS TROPHY AT LAKE 
SUNAPEE. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
We close on Wednesday and we have been 
keeping a record of salmon caught this summer. 
The largest salmon was caught by Mr. R. L. 
Gorham, of Newport, N. H., weighing 10 lbs. 4 oz. 
I will deliver the cup to him to-morrow or 
the next day with your compliments. 
There has been a great deal of interest in the 
Forest and Stream -cup this year, and I think it 
a very nice feature of you to give the cup. I 
have had it on exhibition on the desk all sum¬ 
mer. 
Thanking you for the cup and with best wishes, 
W. W. BROWN. 
