Jan. 13, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
51 
By Way of Criticism. 
Brewer, Me., Jan. 3 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of Dec. 16, under the 
heading of “A Trapper’s Secret,” I notice you 
quote Mr. Joseph Kalbfus as saying that he 
has “been assured that dogs will not eat the 
flesh of muskrat,” and that, with this as his 
sole basis, he goes ahead and recommends a 
scheme for laying out poison, this advice being 
presumably intended for settled and farming 
communities; that is, the East. 
Now, without going into all the phases of his 
scheme, which to one acquainted with the woods 
seems to be rather a stupid and unnecessary 
performance, I wish to state very frankly that 
dogs will and do eat muskrat. Not only that, 
but they are often exceedingly fond of it. 
Dogs which I have owned would eat it either 
raw or cooked and often in preference to other 
food. When engaged in fleshing muskrat pelts, 
my old dog used to sit beside me and beg so 
continually for the fleshings and for me to hurry 
up and finish skins faster, that he was often 
positively troublesome. At times he would 
eat so much raw muskrat that he would make 
himself sick, but he never seemed to tire of it. 
Muskrat meat is good, and while not all dogs 
have the same taste, there is no reason why 
any dog, when hungry, should not eat it, and 
it is particularly the tired and hungry dog, com¬ 
ing home after a day’s run, that is in danger 
from just such a fool arrangement as this. In 
a country where there are no wolves or moun¬ 
tain lions, there is no excuse for laying out 
poison. In some sections there are strict law.-5 
against such practices, and there should be sucli 
laws in more. 
Moreover, no good trapper—and there are more 
good trappers in this country than there is 
game to supply them—has the slightest need of 
any such dangerous, wasteful, unnecessary 
method. No man in the East should lay out 
poison on any account. 
As for what dogs will eat, you never can tell 
what they will do. At times, as everyone 
knows, they show all kinds of depraved tastes. 
For example, only a year or so ago, I had a 
large and well-cared-for farm dog begin to 
feed upon the carcass of a decayed and most 
unsavory wildcat and get caught in my trap 
while so doing. He was so near home and 
good food that his owner heard his outcry and 
released him. He had not been merely sniffing 
around, but actually eating the cat. W. M. H. 
Noteworthy Wildfowl. 
Although occurring casually as far south as 
the seaboard of the Middle States, the eider duck 
is nevertheless sufficiently unusual to make the 
capture of one worthy of record. At the taxi¬ 
dermist’s shop of Thomas Rowland, Sixth 
avenue. New York, are now to be seen two 
eider ducks recently killed on Long Island, one 
by E. S. Bailey, Jr., the other by William S. 
Dana, both of New York. One of these is ap¬ 
parently a young male just about to assume his 
full plumage. In old times eider ducks were not 
infrequently captured off the Connecticut coast 
in Long Island Sound, being found associated 
with the coots—scoters—of various species. 
At Rowland’s there is another interesting bird; 
a very beautiful male hybrid between the mal¬ 
lard and the pintail duck. The head is very like 
that of the pintail, but is heavily glossed with 
green. There is some mallard red on the breast, 
and the body colors are a mingling of mallard 
and sprig. The speculum is mallard, but its 
border is the regulation russet of the pintail. 
The specimen closely resembles one killed by 
G. B. Grinnell many years ago in Wyoming, and 
described in Forest and Stream, and also men¬ 
tioned in “American Duck Shooting.” 
The bird at Rowland’s is understood to have 
been killed by Mr. Cheney, of the Pine Island 
Club, which owns the land formerly known as 
Palmer Island Club. 
Wild Life in the Mountains. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., Jan. 5.. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: The migration of birds has 
been irregular this winter, owing, I presume, to 
the vagaries in the weather—snow and ice quite 
early in November, soft days, rain and great 
changes in temperature in December. I saw a 
woodcock the first Monday in November, and 
think this was the last, as the ground was hard 
frozen soon after. A kingfisher lingered on until 
Nov. 28, seemingly unable or unwilling to leave 
a shallow spring brook in which were a quantity 
of small trout, much exposed to the bird’s at¬ 
tacks. 
Such hardy birds as the bluejay have of 
course been seen and heard, and many crows, 
but the reappearance of wrens, goldfinches and 
other small birds after several weeks of cold 
weather surprised me. I saw a gray squirrel 
in a snow storm on Dec. 2, and another on 
Christmas day. Red squirrels are extremely 
numerous and are out in all weather; they are 
very hardy. All animals love to play in the first 
soft snow that covers the ground, and it is in¬ 
teresting to follow the tracks and ascertain where 
they are at home. Long stretches of woodland 
may be almost devoid of life, but where there 
is food and good cover, there many tracks will 
be found. 
Rabbits or hares have been abundant for sev¬ 
eral years and are considered a pest by owners 
of vegetable gardens and fruit orchards of 
young trees. In summer they have their young 
in shallow depressions in grass or hay fields and 
are much in evidence in August and September. 
They go to ground more and more as the weather 
grows colder and the number of holes is surpris¬ 
ing. They sit out in form a good deal on fine 
days, but feed mostly at night. They were very 
active during the period of bright moonlit nights 
in November, with snow on the ground. Two 
very large owls will levy heavy toll upon the 
rabbits and grouse this winter. The varying 
hare or so-called white rabbit is still found and 
shot in this part of the country, but seems more 
confined to large evergreen swamps than for¬ 
merly. I was disappointed in the size of this 
animal, as I expected to find it much heavier. 
The only one I put on the scales weighed 414 
pounds, but men tell me that they reach a weight 
of at least six pounds. 
Ruffed grouse must be well informed as to 
the law closing the open season on Nov. 30, as 
they were less wild in December; in fact, I saw 
several that allowed me to approach them very 
closely before taking wing. 
There are enough grouse to afford good sport 
next year, if all goes well and particularly if the 
breeding season is a good one. 
One ruffed grouse shot by a friend of mine 
had a tick of some kind upon its head, but this 
V as the only one I heard of. Theodore Gordon. 
Yellowstone Park Notes. 
A RECENT report from the Yellowstone Na¬ 
tional Park gives an estimated number of 500 
antelope on their winter range near Gardiner. 
I'he elk have come down to the antelope win¬ 
ter range and interfere with the superintendent’s 
efforts to feed the antelope which seem dissatis¬ 
fied with their usual range, and are constantly 
drifting down the Yellowstone River outside of 
the park. The elk break down the fence and 
the antelope go through it, though troops are 
trying to drive the antelope back and hold them 
inside of the park. 
Twenty-seven wild buffalo were seen last 
spring on Pelican Creek. This is about the 
usual number, arid indicates that they are just 
about holding their own. During the summer 
eight wild buffaloes were seen seven miles west 
of Thumb Station. 
About the ist of December there were 147 buf¬ 
falo in the fenced herd, of which twenty-nine 
were calves. Since that time eight young ani¬ 
mals have died, of which four or five were calves. 
This is the first serious difficulty that this herd 
has met with. 
The mountain sheep have come down from 
Mount Everts and several young have been seen. 
Coyotes are extremely abundant. One hun¬ 
dred were killed during the past year, but they 
are too numerous, and undoubtedly destroy many 
young game animals. It was necessary last year 
to plow up the alfalfa field which the deer, 
antelope and mountain sheep have depended on 
for winter feed ever since Colonel Pitcher es¬ 
tablished it years ago. The experiment has been 
made of sowing sod land with wheat, for wheat 
hay. 
This autumn the elk came down from the 
mountains before the Montana hunting season 
closed, and crossed the park line about Crevasse 
Creek in considerable numbers. About 550 elk 
were killed in about ten days by licensed hunters. 
A number of wounded animals came back into 
the park to die. The game preserve established 
by the Montana State Legislature last year along 
a portion of the northern and western borders 
of the park is believed already to have assisted 
in protecting the park game. 
Purple Grackle in December. 
New York City, Jan. 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Walking in Prospect Park on Sunday, 
Dec. 24, I saw a purple grackle apparently in 
fine condition. Is it not very unusual to see 
birds of this species north so late in the season? 
I have seen robins, but never a purple grackle 
before. F. M. 
