FOREST AND STREAM 
557 
Autumnal Observations 
A Chat on Birds and Bird Lore 
By Robert Page Lincoln. 
the long ago and continuing until now, always 
the same. From the market shooter with meager 
earnings of a hundred dollars a season to the 
millionaire in his yacht, whose daily expenses 
were more than the other’s yearly income, with 
but few exceptions all were “hail fellow well 
met,” and the opportunities of knowing such 
as brothers of the craft and their genial com¬ 
panionship smoothed off many of life’s rough 
angles. 
The one opportunity the writer wishes to tell 
of, happened in the Texas oil country. It prob¬ 
ably is not well known that in the Gulf between 
the Roll Over where the surf beats across a strip 
of sand into Galveston Bay, and Sabine Pass 
there was, and no doubt now is, a spot sometimes 
a mile square, often more, occasionally less, 
made smooth by under water oil springs. In 
this place the waves never broke, and its surface 
was always quiet but for the long rolling swells 
which were never foam-topped and which rolled 
on in their might so gently as not to fill a 
cockleshell. 
When storms swept the Gulf with death and 
destruction in their wake, here seabirds gathered 
by thousands. Gulls, cormorants, brant, ducks 
and often geese, swans and pelicans. They would 
swim, dive and when small fish abounded, feed 
in contentment, undisturbed if winds blew, un¬ 
ruffled by waves which, on waters close by broke 
in wild fury and filled the air with clouds of 
spume and spray. 
When the writer first reached these parts, 
shooters and fishermen told him of this phenom¬ 
enon and asked why it was. What caused the 
calm water, what made the refuge for sea fowl? 
They said, “You are book read and have seen 
much of the world. Explain it to us.” 
“Must be caused 'by oil, I reckon,” was the 
answer. 
Oil it afterward proved to be and by not in¬ 
vestigating the door was slammed in the face 
of opportunity. 
Later when shooting on a chain of lakes reach¬ 
ing towards Wallisville, the writer poled up an 
almost currentlcss stream where an oily scum 
smeared the weeds along its banks. “What is 
this green stuff?’ he asked of a herder who was 
riding by. 
“Looks like oil, doesn’t it?” the man replied. 
“And where does it come from?” was the next 
question. 
“How can I tell ? ” was the response as he 
galloped away. 
So here for lack of common sense was 
the door not only slammed, but locked, 
barred and bolted with opportunity shivering 
outside in the cold, for land then of little value, 
two or three dollars an acre, in a few years, 
when oil had been found, went up by jumps to 
a fabulous price with many bidding and none 
anxious to sell. Those who were lucky enough 
to buy, often made fortunes over night on their 
investment. 
But such is the way of life and if foresight 
only was as good as hindsight, what mints of 
money we all would have. 
William Penn, in his Charter of Rights, pro¬ 
vided that for every five acres of forest cleared 
one acre should be left in woods. Foresters to¬ 
day maintain that on an average one-fifth of 
every farm should be in timber 
On the 9th day of October, close on the hour 
of twilight two hundred and sixty-eight crows 
flew over the cottage, and the surrounding woods, 
edging southward, and to roost for the night. 
They came in three great companies, and 'kept 
the mind so keen counting them that I seemed 
to rise off my feet in the great effort at catch¬ 
ing them alb However, by a feat of the con¬ 
sciousness, and a quickness at estimation, I got 
what I consider an exact count. All day long 
they seemed to have been gathering. At various 
points they were assembling, and the cawing and 
hullabaloo at these points was such as to be 
easily heard for miles. From all points of the 
horizon others would come, and more and more 
cawing would ensue. This flock rose at a seem¬ 
ing given hour, and trailed away, shortly to be 
followed by one immense company that appear¬ 
ed over the hill, and which almost staggered 
my brain in counting. This trailed away, and 
was followed shortly by another, and shortly 
after that another separate division. Also in 
the early twilight, with a luminous sunset mist 
hanging over the land, I noted one large flock 
of blackbirds; and early in the morning of that 
day fifteen killdeer plover, with plaintive twit¬ 
terings flew over, moving southward. During 
the same day, in wandering through the 
great woods, there were counted one hundred 
and seven robins; thirty flickers (yellow-ham¬ 
mers) ; one bluebird; fifty-eight juncoes; eighteen 
tree sparrows; and forty other sparrows, not 
including the varieties of the English contingent; 
ten Wilson snipe; one lone woodcock. Every¬ 
thing seems to be going southward, or east by 
south; and even the monarch butterfly is easing 
its wings for the great trip to the land of sun¬ 
shine and flowers. I saw one hanging specula¬ 
tively over a full-blown dandelion while turning 
potatoes in the field today. As yet the frosts 
have been mild; nothing heavy has been the 
result, as witness that the tomatoes are as fine 
as ever in the fields. The woods are now alive 
with bird voices. I was sweetly enough recalled 
to the hours o'f springtime, when, at the close 
of day, I heard a robin singing its full plain 
song in the large cottonwood on the hill. Also 
the blackbirds singing without a break as they 
do in the marshes at breeding time. On the 
evening of the ninth also I noted several hairy 
woodpeckers, several brown creepers, and two or 
three nuthatches. They are now in pleasant evi¬ 
dence. With the leaves gradually falling off, 
the great trunks of the trees stand revealed and 
they are easily noted following their 'business¬ 
like operations of helping mankind with the 
insect pest. My chickadees returned one week 
ago. During the summer I saw very little of 
them, but now they have returned to the cot¬ 
tage door, for more of that suet I had tied on 
the limb near the door last winter and which I 
replenished all that season with tidy care. Won¬ 
derful, wonderful little creatures: they are al¬ 
ways happy and unconcerned; always inquisitive¬ 
ly eager, and not in the least bit afraid- I trust 
they will soon be perching upon my finger as 
of yore, that our eternal friendship may be ex¬ 
tended. When the winter has set in cold and 
rigid, then it is very pleasant indeed to have 
at your beckoning these little reminders of the 
summer now fled away. No matter how cold 
the day; no matter how the blinding snow flies, 
or how the north wind is thundering down over 
the land, there they will be with cheery song 
to wake you out of your ominous reverie. God 
bless the chickadee, the dearest friend of them 
all, and by far the most winningly courageous. 
The woods are now fast shedding their foliage. 
The full reservoirs are crowding the heavens 
and the cold autumn rain is not so very far 
in the future. The flight of the northern ducks 
has not yet found its inception. When they 
arrive we will know, for the thunder of wings 
on the marches will be the tell-tale hint. So 
far the hunting has been fairly good, with the 
home bred ducks furnishing excellent sport for 
•the crack shots- I have already lain in the 
wet, cold blinds three whole days, thudding away 
with the old smo'ke-stick, with the ducks flying 
the rounds at morning and at eve by the hun¬ 
dreds. I stood the other week at the pass and 
had a queer thing happen. The teal were shoot¬ 
ing in like bolts from a cross-bow. I had to 
lean far down to see. One is not allowed to 
shoot one hour after sunset, and time was not 
up yet, for high up it was light. Down lower 
it was dark. As I stood there an incoming teal 
whirred so close to my face that had he been 
six inches closer he would have knocked me 
galley-west. After this I am going out with 
an armor around my dome of thought, thank 
you. I do not like the thought of having the 
fastest flying bird make a target of me. Some 
very fine home-grown mallards, green-wings, 
blue-wings and spoon-bills have found their way 
to the game bag; but when the bombarding on 
the great Kandiyohi sloughs cease there is the 
common hope among the hunting contingent: 
that the northern flight will soon be on. Hearts 
seem to be throbbing as one, from the meanest 
single barrel devotee, with his Sears and Roe¬ 
buck, long-barrel appliance, to the automatic 
fiend down there at the other end of the lake. 
Kandiyohi county this year is one mass of 
swamps. I never saw the country so full of 
water. The farmers have been ruined nearly 
by the water. Twenty-eight days of rainfall in 
June, and then the great hailstorm that did such 
destructive damage to all the tillers of the 
honest soil; add to this the hog cholera that 
seems to be going the rounds and it has been 
a bad year—the only crop worthy of note be¬ 
ing the ducks, but thousands of these were 
drowned out also. Was surprised in crossing 
a field there to run across a flock of prairie 
chickens. They have hardly ever been noted 
here in any great numbers. Quail are here now 
quite a thing of the past. There are more right 
here at home, close to the great lakes and civili¬ 
zation. In home territory this year I have had 
good partridge and gray squirrel hunting, thanks 
to my friendliness with men who have guarded 
woods, with keep-off signs upon them; and with 
pick-ups of quail, now and then, have managed 
to make the autumn well of note. I will estab- 
