FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 23, 1907 ! 
Hunting Without a Gun. 
Millhurst, N. J., Feb. 14. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Saturday morning, the 2d of February, 
a fierce northwest wind was blowing and the 
mercury was only a few degrees above the zero 
mark, but a bright clear day withal. Donning my 
heavy overcoat and mittens I started out for a 
walk off to an extensive tract of woodland to 
the south, and no houses near. 
In the woods is a steep decline and beyond 
that an open meadow. On the side hill I found 
a place well protected from the freezing blasts, 
and quite sunny and pleasant compared with 
other places; so laying a few sticks together 
with several handfuls of dry leaves upon them, 
I sat down to enjoy myself and think about 
Several apples were in my pockets and I got 
them out and had a woodland feast. How good 
they tasted as I slowly munched away on them ! 
A family of black-capped nuthatches came 
peeping near me among the trees. They seemed 
to be quite pessimistic little things, running up 
and down the trunks and branches of the trees, 
peeking into a knothole in one place and pecking 
away at the bark in another, and all the while 
keeping up those low plaintive notes. How 
such little mites, scarcely bigger than the end 
of one’s thumb, could keep from freezing to 
death up there in that cold wind seemed strange 
to me; but they seemed contented and happy 
while getting their daily rations of grubs, in¬ 
sects and worms. 
By and by a big fat gray squirrel hopped along 
Some Audubon Copper Plates. 
From Goodspeed’s Catalogue. 
WHITE-HEADED EAGLE, FROM “AUDUBON’S BIRDS OF AMERICA.’ 
things. Getting somewhat chilly, I gathered a 
few leaves together at my feet, and scraping the 
rest away to a safe distance, with a magnifying 
glass, which I always carry with me, I soon 
started a fire, and to prevent much of a smoke 
fed it with dry brush. So I was soon warmed 
up and enjoying myself immensely. 
Several crows came over, flying against the 
wind. How they could get up power enough to 
make headway against that fierce and freezing 
northwest gale I couldn’t understand, but they 
did and made good progress, too. Shortly after¬ 
ward several j uncos came flying among the thick 
bushes just below me. They hopped about 
among the leaves and bushes and then flew 
away. Not a bad looking bird, the junco, with 
its dark slate-colored plumage on the back and 
pure white breast. 
Next a couple of bluejays came squawking 
overhead and lit in a tree nearby. And weren’t 
they beauties, though? So trimly built, with 
heads crested, and the loveliest suits of jet black, 
pure white, and the brightest of blue. To my 
thinking the bluejay is the most beautifully 
plumed bird that we have, even more so than 
the scarlet tanager or the Baltimore oriole. 
Then I heard the note of a robin. Could it 
be possible that any robin would be around 
that time of the year and in such a freezing and 
blustering day as that? But surelv that was a 
robin’s note. Yes, there was the bird, perched 
on a tree a short distance away. It seemed 
much out of place; either an early arrival or 
else a lone stayover. 
among the leaves. Coming up to within a dozen 
yards or so of where I sat he jumped upon 
a stump, turned his little noddle to one side, 
stood stock still and watched me. Probably he 
was wondering why that old gray-haired duffer 
had invaded his domain on such a cold day when 
most of the old gray-haired duffers were sitting 
by the fires at their houses. Things not look¬ 
ing just right to him he sprang on to a nearby 
tree, hung to the trunk head downward, and 
then how that little furry rascal did chatter and 
bark ! Perhaps he thought that by making such 
an awful fuss he would drive me away. After 
blowing me up to his heart’s content in squirrel 
jargon, and seeing no signs of my leaving, he 
ran up the trunk out along a limb into another 
tree and was soon lost sight of. 
In experimenting with the magnifying glass 
I found I could start a blazing fire with a swamp 
magnolia leaf in three to five seconds; with a 
white oak, a barren oak, or a sassafras leaf, in 
from six to ten seconds; with a maple, a gum, 
a black oak, a post oak. or a scarlet oak leaf 
from ten to fifteen seconds; with a chestnut oak 
leaf from fifteen to twenty seconds, and with a 
chestnut leaf I had much trouble to start any 
fire at all. The glass I had I bought at an eye¬ 
glass and spectacle factory in Massachusetts and 
had it ground specially for me. It is three 
inches in diameter and is much more convex 
than is usual in glasses of that size. Being rim¬ 
less it takes up but a trifle of space in the hip 
pocket and is always ready to use in making in¬ 
vestigations. A. L. L. 
Some time ago Goodspeed’s Bookshop, of 
Park street, Boston, Mass., came into possess! 
of two hundred and eight plates from an origi' 
subscriber’s copy of Audubon’s Birds of Ameri 
This interesting collection has recently been d 
cribed in Mr. Goodspeed’s catalogue No. 43, fr> 
which we are permitted to reproduce a numl 
of these beautiful plates. 
It is exceedingly unusual for individual cop 
of the plates of this edition of Audubon’s Bi 
to be offered for sale. On the other hand, pla 
of the edition of 1861 reproduced by lithogra 
in New York, by the Audubon sons, Victor , 
John Woodhouse, are frequently seen. It is v 
recognized that this original edition is matchl 
for its beauty, its fidelity to nature and its ! 
tistic excellence. No man ever knew more ab 
the birds of America and the ways they li' 
their lives, than did the “American woodsmr 
who gave his life to their study and to a delin 
tion of their beautiful forms. Each plate of 
original work was engraved in London, and a 
being printed was accurately colored by ha 
A comparatively small number of copies w 
printed, some authorities say about 175, and 
these many have been destroyed bv the vari 
accidents of time. How highly they are val 
may be judged from the fact that a comp 
set of the work from which these plates w 
taken sold at auction in 1906 for more t 
$4,000. 
The plates are all printed on Whatman’s h; 
made paper of a uniform size 38x25^2. As sc 
of the birds are large and some of them 
small, the plate mark, or size, of the picture 
self varies. Sometimes there are two small pk 
on a single sheet. The whole great work cl 
sists of four volumes of this immense size, c 
taining 435 plates, and to these are added I 
five volumes of Ornithological Biographies wl 
describe and give life histories of practically 
the birds of North America then known. 
When it is recognized that the whole w 
included 435 plates it is seen that those offe 
by Mr. Goodspeed include about one-half of * 
work. Of the species figured in these pi: 
many are small birds, but many are large. Th 
are curlews, gallinules, a rail or two, the r 
ivory-billed woodpecker, many of the herons, 
of the hawks, some owls, and gulls and tt 
not a few. Among the list is the famous p 
of the passenger pigeon, now practically exti 
the splendid wild turkey, the great white pelii 
and of course a great multitude of other b 
which we cannot enumerate. 
The singular beauty of these plates is il 
trated in those which by Mr. Goodspeed’s 1 * 
permission we here reproduce. 
Young Red Squirrels in October. 
Lockport, N. Y., Feb. 4. — Editor Forest j 
Stream: Oct. 10 last, while walking on one 
the popular residence streets of this city, an j 
English gardener, who was raking the leaves 
the lawn, called my attention to two young 
squirrels between the sidewalk and the 0 
nibbling at an apple. Although the apple 
not frozen they hardly succeeded in making 
impression on it. They got so excited ove 
that when their heads came together they w< 
fight each other for an instant. This occurrt 
number of times while I was watching at a 
tance of not more than six feet from them, 
occurred to me that I might pick them up, I 
when my hand was within a few inches of t 
they ran in opposite directions. One went ac 
the street and the other up a nearby tree. 
I then broke the apple up so that they mi 
feast more easily, and resumed my walk, 
turning half an hour later, I found one of t 
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