716 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 31, 1908 - 
MOre Honors Won 
AND 
More Long Runs Recorded 
In 1908 by 
DU PONT BRANDS 
of Smokeless Shotgun Powder than by all other 
powders put together* 
A further positive proof of the 
REGULARITY AND R ELI ABILITY 
of the Smokeless Shotgun Powders manufactured 
by the Powder Pioneers of America. 
99 
“DU PONT BRANDS are 
Dupont Smokeless Hazard Smokeless 
“New E. C. (Improved)” “New Schultze” 
a.nd “Infallible Smokeless” 
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER COMPANY, 
Established 1802 Wilmington, Del. 
. 
HUNTSM 
Keep, 
conditi 
52-P 
JOSE! 
;ED DIXON’S GRAPHITE 
lock mechanism in perfect 
ite. Booklet 
JERSEY CITY. N. J. 
WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 
Containing' Scientific and Practical Descriptions of 
Wildfowl; Their Resorts, Habits, Flights, and the Most 
Successful Method of Hunting Them. Treating of the 
selection of guns for wildfowl shooting, how to load, aim 
and to use them; decoys and the proper manner of 
using them; blinds, how and where to construct them; 
boats, how to use and build them scientifically; re¬ 
trievers, their characteristics, how to select and train 
them. By William Bruce Leffingwell. Illustrated. 373 
pages. Price, in cloth, $1.50; half morocco, $2.50. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
It may truthfully be said that here is not only good 
shooting—which may be had in many places— but also 
excellent accommodations, and a luxurious table, lhese 
last are matters of which add enormously to the comfort 
of a traveler, Gen. Frank A. Bond, of Buies, N. C., will 
be glad to correspond with anybody interested. 
Many of the readers of Forest and Stream are 
familiar with the Castle Dome cut plug tobacco, manu¬ 
factured by Jaspar L. Rowe, of Richmond, Va., and 
many more ought to be familiar with it. It makes an 
excellent smoke, and of this any one may convince him¬ 
self by sending ten cents to the manufacturer for a 
sample. 
This is the age of cigarette smoking, and of all cigar¬ 
ettes there is perhaps none so universally popular as 
the Nestor. Under this brand are manutactured three 
sorts, the “Nestor,” the “Imported,” and "Royal Nestor. 
These cigarettes have been popular for nearly a gen¬ 
eration and still are so. 
Sean Lovel’s Boy. 
By Rowland E. Robinson. Price, $1.25. 
Sam Lovel’s Boy is the fifth of the series of Danvis 
books. No one has pictured the New Englander with 
so much insight as has Mr. Robinson. Sam Lovel and 
Huldah are two of the characters of the earlier books 
in the series, and the boy is young Sam, their son, who 
grows up under the tuition of the coterie of friends that 
we know so well, becomes a man just at the time of the 
Civil War, and carries a musket in defense of what he 
believes to be the right. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
Hunting Without a Gun. 
And other papers. By Rowland E. Robinson. With 
illustrations from drawings by Rachael Robinson 
Price, $2.00. 
This is a collection of papers on different themes con¬ 
tributed to Forest and Stream and other publications, 
and now for the first time brought, together. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
BIRD SUPERSTITIONS. 
Country folk in the United States still have 
many singular beliefs and superstitions touching 
wild birds. Few of these are more curious than 
the widespread popular disposition to ascribe 
moral qualities to the wild feathered creatures. 
There are good birds and bad birds, according 
to popular notion. The robin, in part no doubt 
because of his somewhat remote resemblance 
to the English robin, familiar in fact and fiction 
to the early settlers of New England, stands 
high as a moral bird all over the North, and 
only the Italian pot-hunter north of Mason and 
Dixon’s line is likely to kill a robin. In the 
South, however, where the robin is a tuneless 
winter resident, with a keen appetite, a sharp 
cry and a plump body that commends him to 
the spit, robins are shot by the score. A New 
York clergyman of southern birth was fined 
some years ago for shooting robins on Staten 
Island. The bewildered parson felt himself 
deeply wronged by the law, and stoutly main¬ 
tained that the robin was not a song bird. 
It is the mocking bird that holds in the South 
the place in popular affection according to the 
robin in the North. “Jes’ as innercent as one 
o’ yo’ mammy’s mockin’ birds” is the phrase 
of Uncle Remus conveying the Southern esti¬ 
mate of this wonderful songster. The mocking¬ 
bird is held almost sacred all over the South, 
from Maryland to Florida. As a matter of fact, 
he sings on fine days almost all winter long, 
and is~ beloved by black and white. He is 
the favorite cage bird, but in many cases the 
caged mocking bird of the South is hardly a 
prisoner, for his cage door is open almost 
daily, and his song is heard as often from the 
shrubbery hard by as from behind his bars. One 
of the charms of those leisurely steamboat 
voyages in Chesapeake waters is the song of 
the mockingbird, which strikes the ear when¬ 
ever the vessel approaches shore. 
The sandy mockingbird, as the brown 
thrasher is called in the region just below 
Mason and Dixon’s line, runs a close second 
with the true mockingbird in popular affection, 
and sings almost as well. On the other hand, 
the catbird, who is the tuneful rival of the brown 
thrasher, is unpopular in the country because 
of his unpleasant catcall, and of his voracious 
attacks on small garden fruits. In the latter 
particular he is not worse, however, than several 
song birds that have few human enemies. _ 
Another indictment against the catbird is that 
he attacks the nests of other birds. This is a 
sin popularly charged against several birds, and 
among them the bluejay. It’s commonly be¬ 
lieved in New England that other birds will not 
come about a place where the jays are accus¬ 
tomed to nest. The jays and the robins have a 
perennial war, and this fact has helped to increase 
the unpopularity of the former. Perhaps the 
harsh voice and large size of the jay have led 
to the belief that he is usually the aggressor in 
his wars with the robin. . 
There is an old saying in the region bordering 
Mason and Dixon’s line that “the jaybird goes 
to hell on Friday,” and country folk sometimes 
soberly assert that a jay is never seen between 
Friday and Monday. The superstition probably 
has some remote connection with the crucifix¬ 
ion and resurrection of Christ. 
Where the cardinal grosbeak winters the 
brilliant and beautiful male of the species is 
often trapped and caged, for the sake alike of 
his beauty and his delicious whistle. It is be- 
