732 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 8, 1909. 
you approach a squad of young cormorants or 
a nest full of gulls, they will begin vomiting 
in all directions, and then take to their heels, 
as if the}' knew exactly what you wanted. 
William L. Finley, 
[to be continued.] 
The Modern Indian. 
New York, May i. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Modern Indian life has many paradoxes. The 
dignified savage who to-day may be seen tinker¬ 
ing a mowing machine with nickel-steel knife- 
bar, to-morrow may be observed manufacturing 
a stone-headed club in the style of his ancestors 
a thousand years back, for, so far as he is con¬ 
cerned, he is living in a combined age of stone 
and nickel-steel, and though steel tools are 
readily accessible, the rudest and simplest stone 
implement—a split pebble from a mountain 
brook—is often used for graining and soften¬ 
ing buckskin, probably for the reason that in 
skilled hands it is more effective for the purpose. 
Sitting Bull talking in his native tongue over 
the telephone would seem another curious- 
anomaly. I saw his first, and perhaps only 
attempt, in the use of this instrument at Stand¬ 
ing Rock in 1884. He had expressed the be¬ 
lief that the telephone was a mere bluff on the 
part of the white man to puzzle and intimidate 
the Indian, but was convinced when he found 
it spoke his own language. 
For years past many Sioux have been able 
to read and write the Dakota language, thanks 
to the efforts of missionaries among them, and 
thus much of the trouble caused by the ghost 
dance uprising of 1890-91 was brought about 
by the use of the United States mails as a 
means of easy and secret communication be¬ 
tween the different agencies. But even among 
tribes who have no means of writing their own 
language, the illiterate usually have no difficulty 
in finding an educated Indian of the younger 
generation who can write in English for them. 
Several individuals have kept up a correspond¬ 
ence with me by this means. 
Topamby, a son of the late Chief Tendoi 
of the Shoshones, a promising young fellow 
who is likely to succeed his father in the re¬ 
spect of the tribe, wrote recently that he had 
visited the Lemhi Valley, where he found that 
the white people had subscribed $700 for a 
monument which they had erected to the 
memory of his father, the chief, to whose pro¬ 
tection the settlers owed their safety during the 
Nez Perce war. 
I believe this to be a case almost unique in 
our history, where so sparse a population, in 
a remote valley, far from towns and railroads, 
and where blanket Indian's are still no rarity, 
has raised so large a sum to erect a memorial 
to an Indian chief recently deceased. It speaks 
volumes for the character of Tendoi and for 
the generous appreciation of the people of 
Idaho. De Cost Smith. 
Martins in Villages. 
New York City, May 3.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Will some reader who has had ex¬ 
perience inform me whether martins can be in¬ 
duced to nest in a village? If a box is placed 
on a pole 100 feet distant from houses, will 
martins be likely- to find and nest in it? 
N. F. W. 
The Otter in Massachusetts. 
Philadelphia, Pa., April 30. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Regarding the range of the otter 
in Massachusetts, which has been the subject of 
two or three articles in recent number’s of Forest 
AND Stream, I may perhaps have something of 
interest to add. 
In m3' list of mammals, reptiles and fishes of 
Northern Worcester county, published in the 
Gardner (Mass.) Journal, April 21 to 28, 1904, 
I quote as follows from my notes on the otter: 
“Much more common than is commonly sup¬ 
posed. To my certain knowledge there have 
been fifteen otters within three miles of my 
home within the last twelve years. For several 
years a pair used to breed in the bank of Otter 
River at the Flood Wood, and I have often 
watched them at their play of a summer even- 
TENDOI, THE CLIMBER. 
Late Chief of the Shoshones, from a photograph taken 
about 1883. 
ing. I carefully kept their secret and mine until 
the lumbermen came, followed by some of the 
imported material from which citizens are some¬ 
times made, bringing with them a natural or 
acquired taste for horned pouts and fire water, 
the inspiration of which latter was mistaken for 
musical ability, making conditions so uncongenial 
for both otters and nature lover that both have 
shunned the polluted spot ever since. 
“At Rock Brown’s mill one seldom failed to 
find fresh signs and recently used slides up to 
two years ago, when the woods were cut off. 
Their peculiar trail could often be seen, as in 
the exercise of their passion for traveling they 
took in turn Bourn’s Pond, Trout Brook and 
Day Pond, then taking to Otter River they fol¬ 
lowed that stream up to the pail factory region 
and then up a small brook to Bent’s Pond, near 
Warren Corner, and would go racing back over 
the same route, or else taking a short cut up 
Mill Brook to the reservoir at East Templeton 
and then following through the- swamps into the 
Burnshirt Valley again.” 
These animals have been fairly common on 
Otter River and Burnshirt River in Northern 
Worcester county during my life time, and over 
twenty years ago I ,oontributed an article to the 
Philadelphia Press, describing my visits to one 
of their breeding places where I had exceptional 
opportunities for observing their habits, and 
while still a boy I was taught to recognize their 
peculiar signs and their trail through the snow 
as well as the appearance of the slides. 
I have been an observer of wild things all my 
life and have never known the time when I' 
could not have pointed out unmistakable evi¬ 
dences of the fact that there were otters with¬ 
in three or four miles of my home. 
Later, as the woods have been cleared away 
and guns and hunters have become more com¬ 
mon, those left alive by gunners and trappers 
seem to have kept more out of sight in their old 
haunts. Up to about fifteen years ago the otter 
was very abundant in some of the towns of 
Northern Worcester county, only one or two 
being taken out at intervals in winter by trap¬ 
pers or hunters and they became very bold, so 
much so that they were even seen in the day 
time gamboling in the water near the road sides. 
This led to their pursuit by every hunter and 
trapper within the region, in some cases I re¬ 
gret to say with success. I believe that this 
has been a colony of itself, dating from the old 
times when the river they frequented was named 
after them on account of their numbers there¬ 
abouts, as their migrations or wanderings seem 
to be confined to a definite route which could 
easily be traced. 
I believe there is at least a pair or two left 
there still, and it is to be hoped that they and 
their progeny may for many years survive the 
efforts of trappers and hunters to exterminate 
this most interesting representative of our sadly 
depleted fauna. Chas. E. Ingalls. 
A Prolific Wolf. 
Blanca, the fine timber wolf in the London 
Zoological Gardens, acquired in 1901, has given 
birth during her captivity to five litters, consist¬ 
ing of forty-two cubs, of which twenty have 
been reared. The last litter, according to the 
Field, numbered ten, of which five were saved; 
one has been left with the dam, and a bitch pup 
with its foster mother provided for the other 
four. It is intended to bring up this pup with 
the young wolves, and in due course to breed 
wolf and dog hybrids. One such hybrid was 
presented by the King (then Prince of Wales) 
in 1872; and others have been exhibited in zoo¬ 
logical collections in England and on the conti¬ 
nent. One would like to see an attempt made 
to procure fox-dog hybrids and the reverse 
cross. A widespread belief exists that such 
hybrids have been bred, and Mr. de Winton and 
Mr. Trevor-Battye are quoted by Mr. Lydekker 
in his handy little book on British mammals as 
having claimed to have seen such hybrids. On 
the other hand the careful experiments in Prof. 
Kuhn’s Institute at Halle-an-der-Saale led to 
no results. But since the keeper of the wolves’ 
dens is an experienced man, it would be in¬ 
teresting if the experiment could be repeated 
in the gardens under the supervision of Mr. 
Pocock. 
A PLEASING DESSERT 
always wins favor for the housekeeper. The 
many possibilities of Borden’s Peerless Brand 
Evaporated Milk (unsweetened) make it a boon 
to the woman who wishes to provide these 
delicacies for her family with convenience and 
economy. Dilute Peerless Milk to desired rich¬ 
ness and use same as fresh milk or cream 
— Adv. 
