FOREST AND STREAM 
627 
tion of the destructive white grub, the chimney 
swift, which keeps the air free from the tiny 
insects that would make breathing impossible if 
not removed, the scarlet tanger, night hawk, 
flicker and many other invaluable birds were 
shown and their work explained. Each bird has 
its particular work, and the faithfulness with 
which it is performed seems to be appreciated 
only when so many have been killed that the in¬ 
sects multiply beyond control. 
Many seed eating birds were shown, and the 
hawk came in for praise for removing the pests, 
such as the rodents. Pussy received her share of 
blame for catching the birds, and had some hard 
words said about her uncleanliness and tendency 
to spread disease. 
The bird homes as placed in bird sanctuaries 
were numerous and simple as the construction is, 
many birds could be saved through the coming 
winter. The return made by the added protec¬ 
tion of the trees makes it worth while. The 
closing pictures were of Mr. Burroughs in his 
homes. The first of these showed his early home 
and the first schools he attended. Then the 
lodges where he absents himself from human so¬ 
ciety and gets near to Nature to give his won¬ 
derful impressions as he receives them out in 
the open where the spirit of that of which he 
writes creeps in until one sees through his eyes 
and enjoys it with him. 
THE BIG DEER MYTH. 
Elizabethtown, Oct. 30. 
What a deer weighs and what the guessers 
think he weighs are often far from the same 
figures. The “two-hundred-pound buck” is in 
most cases thirty to fifty pounds shy of a round 
200 pounds, while the three-hundred-pound deer, 
with the weight assured by a reliable pair of 
scales, is one of the rarest things that comes out 
of the woods. 
Mart Moody’s estimate of the big buck killed 
by President Chester A. Arthur is a case in point. 
The President killed an unusually large deer, 
and wanted some authentic record of its size. 
So Uncle Mart devised a means to weigh the 
deer. A half dozen guides worked half a day to 
build a big “scales,” a balance from one end of 
which the deer was hung and from the other end 
a load of stones and rocks. The men piled on 
the stones until they balanced the big buck. 
“Two hundred and forty pounds,” Uncle Mart 
pronounced. 
“Well, here, how do you get that?” President 
Arthur wanted to know. Mart persisted that the 
scales showed a weight of 240 pounds, and when 
driven into a corner he explained: 
“I guessed at the weight of the stones,” naively 
and with a smile. 
And while Uncle Mart’s method was tant¬ 
amount to guessing at the weight of the deer, in 
its essence it is the method used in weighing 
most bucks that are killed nowadays. The “two- 
hundred-pound buck” when hung on the butcher’s 
scales usually shows a weight of 150, 160, or 
possibly as high as 180 pounds. Now a buck of 
180 pounds dressed, is a big deer. In fact it is 
so big as to be very rare. All of which goes to 
prove that the bonafide 200 pound buck, dressed, 
is indeed an uncommon trophy. 
Usually speaking, a deer will dress about 
seventy-five per cent, of his live weight, which 
means,, of course, that your buck of 150 pounds 
dressed weight would have tipped the scales at 
close to 200 pounds in life. But as most deer 
nowadays are weighed, or guessed at, after they 
have been dressed, the dressed weight should be 
considered the basis of official record. 
For the reason that most “two-hundred-pound 
bucks” are guesswork, most sportsmen who kill 
really large deer are anxious to weigh their game 
on accurate scales. The scales weight show tha* 
three remarkably big bucks have been killed in 
the neighborhood of Saranac Lake this fall, and 
estimating dressed weight as seventy-five per 
cent, of live weight, two or these deer are really 
in the 300-pound class. 
The buck which C. M. Palmer and Garry Van- 
denburgh shot at Forestdale last week was one 
of these. The deer weighed 227 pounds dressed, 
or estimating this as 75 per cent., it must have 
weighed in the neighborhood of 300 pounds alive. 
Fred Bailey's deer, which hung in front of a 
market here half a day Friday, tipped the beam 
at 237 pounds, dressed, and must have weighed 
315 pounds or thereabouts in its live state. 
Albert Fisher’s deer, killed on Roger Mountain 
three weeks ago, showed 212 pounds dressed 
weight, which sends it into the class of 280-pound 
live deer. 
These were all grey-haired bucks of age and 
discretion. They are wary and hard to kill, but 
they make a great bag for the hunter so fortu¬ 
nate as to bring them down. 
HAVE KILLED 1,674 PHEASANTS IN 
ESSEX CO. 
State House, Boston, Oct. 31-—Up to and in¬ 
cluding October 29, since the opening of the sea¬ 
son for shooting pheasants October 12, returns 
have been received by the fish and game commis¬ 
sion for 6,194 pheasants killed. 
This leads Chairman George W. Field of the 
state commission to believe that his original esti¬ 
mate of 10,000 pheasants likely to be killed dur¬ 
ing the open season of 1914, will not be exceeded. 
The average per day from October 12 to October 
28 was 379 killed. On October 29 there are re¬ 
turns of 213 pheasants killed for that day. 
■In the seven counties in which there is an open 
season for pheasants returns have been received 
of pheasants killed as follows: Barnstable county 
18; Berkshire county 310; Essex county 1,674; 
Hampden county 239; Middlesex county 1,686; 
Norfolk county 440; and Worcester county 1,061. 
During the three days when shooting was sus¬ 
pended by the governor’s proclamation, on ac¬ 
count of forest fires, returns have been received 
for the seven counties, showing that 180 phea¬ 
sants were killed during those days, but as it 
was impossible to get notices to all of the hunters 
in the field there were no prosecutions and these 
birds were undoubtedly killed by those not no¬ 
tified of the suspension of the season. 
DEER WEIGHED 300 POUNDS 
Auburn, Calif., Oct. 24.—Gilbert Sprague, cash¬ 
ier at the Lower Town branch of the Placer 
County bank killed a 300-pound buck near Iowa 
Hill. The head weighed 40 pounds. The antlers 
bore eight prongs and were four feet across. 
This is the largest deer ever killed in Placer 
County. The head will be exhibited at the world’s 
fair at San Francisco. 
MUSK DEER. 
The musk deer carries no trophy worth speak¬ 
ing of with which the successful sportsman may 
adorn his walls, but to counterbalance this fact 
the shooting of him does not usually entail a 
hard day’s work, as it is more than likely that 
he is encountered and shot when in pursuit of 
larger game. True, the male of the species 
carries a pair of very pretty little tushes which 
may measure from two to three inches long, 
and also the pod of musk from which he de¬ 
rives his name, and which renders him a very 
valuable prize in the eyes of the native shikari, 
since a fair-sized specimen will fetch from 
fifteen to thirty rupees. The female is devoid 
of either of these recommendations, and ag¬ 
gravates the fact by being practically in¬ 
distinguishable from the male. 
On one occasion I shot a specimen of each sex 
as the result of a beat planned to produce one 
or more musk deer—male for preference—and, 
as the after results serve to show the cupidity 
with which the native shikari regards the musk- 
pod, and also the lengths he will go to obtain 
one, or rather its contents, I consider that the 
incident may perhaps be worthy of record. 
Just above the village of M., in Upper Garh- 
wal, there is a patch of low jungle, about four 
hundred yards each way, composed of what I 
imagine to be dwarf rhododendron. I had been 
shooting burrhel in the neighborhood and had 
arrived at M. on my way back to the lower hills. 
On the afternoon of my arrival, a villager who 
visited my camp for the purpose of selling milk 
informed me, in the course of conversation, 
that the above-mentioned jungle held several 
musk deer, and that he had often seen them 
playing about on the upper edge of it when he 
was herding his goats- In order to test the 
truth of this information I forthwith took him 
with me and made a “chukker” through the 
patch. I saw no musk deer, but I came across 
large heaps of their musk-scented droppings. 
From the appearance of the latter it would seem 
that these little animals are in the habit of re¬ 
pairing, time after time, to the same place for 
this purpose, but I do not know whether this is 
an es f ablished fact or not. However this may 
be, all the signs so evidently pointed to the fact 
that the jungle was inhabited by one or more 
of them that I decided to stop on at M. and 
devote a day to trying to secure a specimen. 
My experience of the afternoon convinced me 
that walking through the jungle would at best af¬ 
ford me a difficult snapshot, and in all probability 
would not result in even that. There were, 
therefore, two courses open to me—-either to 
sit about at the edge of the jungle in the early 
morning or evening and trust to a musk deer 
showing himself, or to try a beat. The first 
plan I rejected at once, as involving too great 
a strain on my patience, not to mention the fact 
that the musk deer with the charming perversity 
of all game animals, would probably appear 
where I was not. 
My shikari strongly advocated a beat, and 
I found myself for once in agreement with him, 
as the ground was admirably adapted to one, 
and the number of beaters required to be em¬ 
ployed would be few—in fact, I decided that 
my own personal s'aff would suffice, and, fall¬ 
ing them in, forthwith proceeded to explain 
matters to them. The “staff” - consisted of, in 
