406 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 30, 1912 
Native Deer Cross With Sambur. 
Apalachicola, Fla., March 23. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: I recently shot a buck deer on 
my St. Vincent Island game preserve that is un¬ 
mistakably a cross between the Indian sambur 
and the Virginia whitetail deer. Four years ago 
the three sambur does were without a buck of 
their own species. While it was generally sup¬ 
posed that these large deer from India would 
not cross with the small Florida deer, yet I 
think it must now be admitted that under favor¬ 
able conditions they will do so. 
The specimen deer shot was apparently about 
two and a half years old, or not more than 
three years, judging from its horns. While 
without any very distinct prongs, its long spikes 
have several knobs or blunt nodules and are 
somewhat flat, rather wide and are quite dif¬ 
ferent from either of his two progenitors. In 
color he was not so dark as an Indian sambur, 
but was darker than are the Virginia deer. The 
length of the tail was divided between those of 
the two species and had a distinct. dark . stripe 
down the center of its back. 
The deer was much larger than the adult 
native deer of Florida and its venison proved 
to be of fine quality. 
During the summer following.the winter when 
the sambur does 'were- without' a buck of their 
own species, my gamekeeper often' 'iiisTsted that 
he had seen some of them being followed by 
fawns, and in one case he claimed that lie.had 
seen two fawns following one of these does. 
Now that I have killed a deer that is evidently 
a cross between the two species, I can no longer 
doubt that he did see fawns following 'these 
does, as he reported, and there are no, doubt 
several of the cross species now on this island. 
The sambur deer have here the ftilb range of 
an island of over eleven thousand acres, abound-' 
ing in lakes, ponds, creeks, marshes, ridges, and 
jungles. They are well protected and are breed¬ 
ing very fast, as are also the native deer. As 
they are now showing a disposition to produce 
a new type of deer that promises to be much 
larger than the small deer common to the South¬ 
ern States, I am sure this must be regarded as 
a very valuable discovery. 
I therefore hope that others may procure some 
of the Indian sambur does and introduce them 
among their Southern deer and I am confident 
that thereby the deer will be greatly improved 
in size. Those which I introduced were obtained 
from William T. Hornaday, director of the New 
York Zoological Society, of whom I have no 
doubt others may be able to obtain them, as sur¬ 
plus stock is sold from time to time, they being- 
prolific breeders. R. V. Pierce. 
Woodcock in Trinity Churchyard. 
New York City, March 20.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I recall a number of occasions when 
woodcock have been seen in New York during 
the migration. Many, years ago my brother in 
crossing Union Square flushed one, which flew 
straight east along Fifteenth' street not very far 
above the pavement, and disappeared in the di¬ 
rection of Stuyvesant Square. A few years ago 
there was recorded in Forest and Stream— if I 
recollect aright—a case of a woodcock seen in 
spring in City Flail Park. No doubt there have 
been many other cases of this kind. 
On Monday, March 18, someone looking out 
of the windows of a broker’s office in 71 Broad¬ 
way, saw a bird walking about under a little 
bush just south of the path passing close to 
Trinity Church. He said to someone standing 
near: “Why, that looks like a quail!’’ but pres¬ 
ently, when the bird walked out into plainer 
view, it was recognized as a woodcock. 
People pass frequently through Trinity church 
yard, and on one or two occasions, when men 
walked along the path near which this bird was, 
it retreated under the bush and hid until the 
coast was clear again. At last, however, some¬ 
one frightened it and it flew toward Broadway 
and in front of Trinity Church and probably 
alighted on the north side of the church. Not 
very long after this it was again seen flying in 
front of the church, and realighted near the 
place where it had formerly been. The little 
bird did not get much rest, being startled again 
and again. What became of it no one knows. 
It disappeared, or was forgotten, by i or 2 
o’clock in the afternoon. 
It is well known that the little parks and open 
places in this city are frequently occupied for 
brief periods by migrating birds. Perhaps it 
was last spring that a scarlet tanager was seen 
in a tree either in St. Paul’s churcli yard or 
Trinity church yard, and owls and hawks al'ght- 
ing on trees in parks, or on signs in the street, 
draw crowds to look at them, once or twice a year. 
There are few people left alive who can re¬ 
member when wild birds were often seen in 
what New Yorkers now call “down-town,” 3'et. 
it seems but a few years since the death of 
Charles FI. Haswell, who in his most interest¬ 
ing volume, “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian,” 
told how, when he was a young man, he used to 
shoot snipe on the Lispenard meadows and wood¬ 
cock in the swamps of Tompkins -Square, Broad¬ 
way from Forty-sixth street to the North River, 
Fifth avenue at Thirty-second street, and the low 
land from Sixteenth to Twenty-third streets, and 
Sixth to Ninth avenues. 
In his day canvasback ducks sold for fif y 
cents a brace. There was then no “high cost 
of living,” though perhaps people grumbled then 
nearly as much as they do now. G. 
Robber Crows. 
Granger, Tex., March 20.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In Forest and Stream of March 16 
is an article in regards to crows. I have closely 
studied the habits of the crow since my boy¬ 
hood and have come to the conclusion that the 
crow is the worst enemy that the quail and 
poultry have. On one or two occasions I have 
seen the crow stealing the eggs of the wild tur¬ 
key despite the fact that the turkey hen was 
on her nest. The way it was. done was very in¬ 
teresting. A pair of crows after circling over 
the nest would alight about twenty feet from the 
nest, one on each side, then both would advance 
to the nest at the same time, and while one 
would boldly attack the turkey by taking hold 
of and pulling her feathers, the other would 
stealthily run up to the turkey, thrust its bill 
through the egg and carry it off. I have often 
seen them carry off the young of the common 
brown bittern. They are also very destructive 
to young ducks, and I have seen them attack and 
kill a two-thirds grown duck. 
Several years ago while I was examining a 
crow’s nest, the mother bird came in and I 
caught her with No. 8 shot. I noticed when I 
fired that she dropped something, and upon ex¬ 
amining the place where she fell, I found a 
quail chick, which probably was not older than 
two' or three days, and under the tree I found 
the wings and legs of two mourning dove squabs 
which evidently were taken from their nest. 
In the spring the crow destroys vast numbers 
of young toads ' found in the vicinity of the 
ponds that are useful in destroying many harm¬ 
ful insects. The crow is not only a destroyer 
of game birds,, but also of corn and other grahi, 
and therefore should be exterminated. I have 
always tried to kill the crow at every chance and 
have destroyed their nests whenever I found 
them, and I think that every county in this 
State should place a bounty on crows to help 
the farmers and sportsmen to get rid of them. 
A. C. Mussil. 
Starlings with Crows. 
Hartford, Conn., March 22. — Editor Forest 
nad Stream: I have watched with interest for 
further information concerning crows and star¬ 
lings flocking together. So far but the one ob¬ 
server seems to have noted it. So I will give 
my little experience. Three years ago last Feb¬ 
ruary while driving with my brother past some 
fields about half a mile east of Matawan, N. J., 
■we saw large numbers of cro.ws feeding, and with 
them a large number of what we took to be red¬ 
winged blackbirds, although it was early in the 
season for them, but which proved to be star¬ 
lings. As we drove past, those nearest the road 
flew up, many crossing directly in front of us, 
and alighting a short distance away, resumed 
their search for food. The crows flew in their 
usual scattered manner. The starlings in com¬ 
pact flocks of. from twenty to perhaps one hun¬ 
dred birds, but on the ground they scattered 
among the crows and seemed on the most friend¬ 
ly terms with them. I never before saw so many 
crows feeding together in that vicinity or so 
many starlings together there. I think there 
must have been close to 300 crows and nearly 
as many starlings. 'Whether their being together 
at that time was merely accidental or not I do 
not know. 
About a month ago I saw a flock of about 200 
starlings just south of Hartford, and despite the 
severe winter, they were very noisy and lively. 
A small flock seems to make its headquarters 
in a church steeple here in the city. 
I have had little opportunity to observe the 
starling in summer, but have heard no evidence 
of his having done any harm whatever, and it 
seems to me his faults, if he has ani', should 
be clearly proved before we destroy this beau¬ 
tiful and interesting addition to our bird life. 
The starling is not as handsome as the red¬ 
winged blackbird, but he stays with us all winter. 
E. N. Reid. 
