Jan. 9, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
5' 
following Monday morning, the next day being 
Sunday, a fact that caused us no regret, since 
it would assure us one more whole day in 
nature’s grand pavilion. Buster was profuse in 
his thanks to me for ignoring the date of his 
own selection for starting on our tour, as we 
would then have had so much less time for 
what to him had proved the pleasantest season 
of both recreation and acquisition he had ever 
experienced. I was forced to admit that I had 
no specific purpose in hastening our departure, 
simply coming earlier than he had intended be¬ 
cause the preparations were completed. He 
then insisted that there must have been a 
Providential guidance in the matter. 
Coahoma’s Puzzle. 
Coahoma’s dilemma as to what was meant by 
“quite a few” reminds one of the feelings of the 
stranger in West Virginia who asked a native 
the distance to a certain place he wished to go. 
The reply was, “I reckon it is a look to a look 
and a half; maybe two looks.” E. T. Judd. 
[Which is similar to the old-time country 
Mexican’s reply to a query as to the distance 
to a certain place: “It is about fourteen or 
fifteen miles, perhaps eighteen, but I think it 
is eleven miles.”— Editor.] 
The Glacier National Park.—HI. 
To the sportsmen and the nature lover Sena¬ 
tor Carter’s bill to create a National Park, to 
be known as the Glacier National Park, pos¬ 
sesses an especial interest. Within this area 
of over 1,400 square miles, lying on both sides 
of the Continental Divide, immediately south of 
the international boundary line, is to be found 
the possibility of perhaps the greatest game 
refuge on this continent. 
By comparison with the Yellowstone National 
Park the territory is small, yet the variety of 
game which it contains is greater than that to 
be found in the Yellowstone. To be sure there 
are here no buffalo, yet in the olden times this 
was a great range for bison. In years long 
gone by we found in it the bones of bison that 
had been killed within two or three years. We 
recall especially one killing in a little nook in 
the mountains where the Indians had slaught¬ 
ered four or five animals only a short time be¬ 
fore, and among these was a little calf, to frag¬ 
ments of whose hide the yellow hair still clung, 
and whose skull had not yet fallen to pieces. If 
the park should be established here and buffalo 
should be introduced in it, they would not fail 
to thrive and do well. They could perfectly 
well winter on the upper reaches of many of 
the streams, provided only they were protected 
from attacks by man. 
Mountain sheep and mountain goat are rea¬ 
sonably abundant in the territory proposed to 
be set aside as the Glacier National Park. For 
many years we have scarcely ever gone into the 
mountains there without seeing sheep or their 
fresh signs, and a friend who went there in the 
spring of 1907 found himself one day within 
seventy-five or eighty yards of a bunch of 
twenty-eight sheep, of which fifteen passed by 
him within eight or ten steps. It is but a few 
years since we saw at one view something over 
forty white goats feeding on the borders of a 
little valley. This is of the past. There has 
been much hunting in this region, and if that 
is continued the game will shortly become prac¬ 
tically extinct. 
Besides sheep and goats there are at least four 
species of the deer family found here, the moose, 
the elk, the mule and the whitetail deer. No¬ 
where numerous, because they are so persist¬ 
ently hunted, there are yet enough of them. 
with protection, to stock the whole park with 
these various species. 
There are black bears, too, and no doubt 
some grizzlies, though bears have been so con¬ 
stantly hunted there as to have become exceed¬ 
ingly shy. Often they will not approach a bait, 
and in fact if they learn of the presence of a 
hunter in the country on their range, they are 
likely to abandon it and to strike out for new 
feeding grounds. 
Six species of grouse, the sage grouse, the 
dusky, Franklin’s, sharptail, whitetail ptarmigan 
and ruffed grouse are found in this region, and 
lend an added charm to travelers through the 
dim and silent forest, or over the rocks above 
timber line. The smaller birds are those of 
the North. Here are found, besides many 
other species, the Bohemian waxwing, the gray- 
crowned finch, Clark’s crow, rarely the evening 
grosbeak, the little dipper, or water ouzel. Here, 
too, has been seen the varied thrush, though 
the observer could hardly believe his eyes; yet, 
of course, the ornithologist is well aware that 
the varied thrush has been found well down 
toward the Atlantic coast. 
Of the smaller mammals nothing need be said, 
yet a word should be spoken about the fish 
which are so abundant, so large, so good to 
catch, and so delicious to eat. In some of these 
lakes are at least three species of trout—the 
ordinary black-spotted, the dolly varden and the 
lake trout, and two species of white fish, only 
to be caught by nets. In the warm outlying 
lakes on the prairie is found a pike. 
Here is a country where the hunter and fisher¬ 
man may live well; where, if he goes at the 
proper season of the year, with a little bacon, 
flour, coffee and sugar, he can—at least he could 
a few years ago—live on the fat of the land. 
But too many people have been doing that of 
late years, and it is high time protection should 
be thrown around the wild things of this beau¬ 
tiful region. When the Glacier .National Park 
shall be established, when its wild inhabitants 
shall be efficiently protected, so that they will 
increase, there will forthwith be a constant over¬ 
flow into the surrounding territory of game 
bred within this park, an overflow sufficient not 
only to satisfy all those who reside near the 
borders of the park, but to draw thither from 
distant localities the sportsmen who love this 
hunting and fishing. 
The Birds’ Winter Basket. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The entire family is interested in the native 
birds that inhabit our big back yard, and as a 
result the pretty feathered creatures return the 
friendship many fold and do us a great service 
in ridding the trees and ground of noxious in¬ 
sects, together with the creeping and crawling 
vermin, to say nothing of delighting our ears in 
the spring time with delicious music and giving 
us many happy studies in bird architecture and 
in feathered domestic economy. 
I think it was the little boy who evolved the 
idea of a “bird basket” and resolved to have 
a permanent feeding place for such of the pretty 
things as made the yard their winter hotel; so 
he secured an old grape basket, and fastening 
it in his favorite Baldwin apple tree, set up a 
“meals at all hours” stand for the birds. Old 
bread, scraps of meat, meal and the like have 
been on hand now for the past two winters, and 
to say that both the birds and the family have 
had great pleasure in the aerial luncheons, is 
stating the case mildly. There have been as 
guests redbirds, blue] ays, sparrows of several 
kinds, a robin or two, turtle doves (last winter 
when it was so cold) and others, to say nothing 
of “Bill.” 
Bill is a male hairy woodpecker, and the top 
of his head bears a handsome splotch of crim¬ 
son. He flew against the basket one snowy day 
in December with a resounding spat and imme¬ 
diately sounded his own dinner call in a series 
of loud and joyful shrieks. He soon became so 
tame that one member of the family at least 
could go within three feet of him, and either 
Bill or his twin brother has been at the same 
old basket for two winters. Unlike the other 
birds. Bill developed a manner of getting his 
food that was unique, but when one came to 
study the case a trifle closer, the woodpecker 
was simply following out his nature. His ances¬ 
tors had always secured their living by pecking 
and boring, and why should not he? 
Instead of getting up in the basket and feed¬ 
ing like the rest of the birds. Bill proceeded in¬ 
dustriously to peck holes through the sides and 
so laboriously got his meals. Perhaps he ex¬ 
pected to find some insects or worms in the 
basket, and then again his bill might have been 
so long that he could not well pick up his food; 
