FOREST AND STREAM. 
8<3 
V. 21, IQOS.J 
iese points at the more northern Hudson 
osts. Wherever rabbits are plentiful and 
;nowfall not too heavy, coyotes are pretty 
to occur. 
southern British Columbia they were greatly 
rated about eight or nine years ago by an 
mic of mange. Many of them were practi- 
denuded of hair, and when such were 
ht in a trap in anything like cold weather 
would be frozen to death in one night. I 
caught them and found them dead in No. 1 
, staked down solidly for smaller animals, 
in this condition; which plainly showed how 
they had become. When in full vigor I 
known a coyote to break the chain of a 
rouse No. 4. 
t now the mange seems to be entirely eradi- 
, but coyotes are not increasing in numbers, 
lbly owing to the increased Provincial 
ty. 
may perhaps be interesting to note that 
t the year 1893 coyotes appeared in the 
er Valley at Chilliwack, west of the Cascade 
; and only sixty miles from the coast line. 
w an undoubted specimen that was killed 
in 1897. Since then they have almost dis- 
rred from that section. In no portion of 
Province are they confined to the “arid re- 
1 They are even found regularly in the 
ner and fall above timber line on the highest 
•Rains. Allan Brooks. 
iteresting in this connection are Edw. A. 
le’s remarks on the coyote in the recently 
] shed number of North American Fauna, 
h contains his Biological Investigation of 
\thabasca-McKenzie region. He speaks of 
j iccurrence of the coyote in the neighborhood 
'ort Smith on Slave River, about latitude 
t ind of the reported killing of two coyotes 
e year 1898 near Fort Nelson on Fort Nel- 
River in about latitude 59. In the year 1894- 
. Alden Loring found the coyote more or 
abundant about Jasper House, still further 
le south.— Editor.] 
The Nesting Black Duck. 
cw York City, Nov. 10 .— -Editor Forest mid 
am: In Forest and Stream of Oct. 24 , 
r the head of “Black Ducks Breeding in 
Jersey,” the question is raised as to the 
ling of an ornithologist who finds it neces- 
to kill the nesting bird of a well known 
es. 
the particular instance referred to it seems 
a collector who has a license from the State 
1 commission of New Jersey found a black 
nesting in the southern part of the State, 
j duck was either so tame or so absorbed 
; Dusehold duties that she had to be literally 
1 ;d from the nest so she could be shot and 
; 2ggs taken. 
>w, the black duck is a well known bird, 
cord of one breeding in New Jersey is noth- 
new to ornithology. The collector could 
had no trouble in identifying the bird. He 
it have photographed her. He might have 
.‘d the place several times and collected notes 
cientific value. 
hat right had this collector to kill the mother 
and take her eggs ? Because he holds a 
lit which gives him the privilege of taking 
and birds for scientific purposes, can he 
d his action under the name of science? 
Who knows but that this fellow, who is duly 
authorized, may set about killing all the robins, 
chickadees and song sparrows he sees ? 
With wild ducks so scarce, how long will it 
take for a collector of this caliber to extermi¬ 
nate them in his locality? If the Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission uses any care in bestow¬ 
ing privileges, how is it that this collector still 
holds his permit? 
William L. Finley, 
Lecturer for National Association 
of Audubon Societies. 
The Bison Fund. 
Subscriptions to fund for Montana National 
Bison Herd, secured through Forest and 
Stream, up to and including Nov. 10, 1908. 
PREVIOUSLY ACKNOWLEDGED. 
July 24— 
YVm. Barker, Jr., 10 Whitman place, Troy, N.Y. $5.00 
Nels A. Tuveson, Weston, Neb. 2.00 
July 30— 
Collected by William Barker, Jr., 10 Whitman 
place, Troy, N. Y., as follows: 
E. R. Cary, 9 Whitman place, Troy, N. Y. $1.00 
William Barker, Round Lake, Saratoga 
Co., N. Y. 1.00 
William Barker, 2d, 10 Whitman place, 
Trov, N. Y. 1.00 
J. Hull Amory, 60 Montgomery street, 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 1.00 
Z. Mead, Jr., Powling avenue, Troy, N. Y. 1.00 
I. H. Barker, First Ave., Watervliet, N.Y. 1.00 
W. B. Perry, 511 16th St., Watervliet, N.Y. 1.00 
J. Lindsay, 1415 5th Ave., Watervliet, N.Y. 1.00 
C. Whitney Tillinghast, Jr., 153 Second 
street, Troy, N. Y. 1.00 
James C. Corree, Locust Ave., Troy, N. Y. 1.00 
- 10.00 
$17.00 
RECEIVED SINCE LAST ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 
Oct. 24- 
Dr. William A. Valentine, 115 W. 74th street, 
New York city . $10.00 
Oct. 26— 
Edmund G. Hamersly, 715 Walnut street, Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa. 5.00 
Oct. 28— 
C. A Dean, Dean Bldg., Boston, Mass. 25.00 
Oct. 29— 
Nels A. Tuveson Mgr., Weston Grain & Stock 
Co., Weston, Neb. (sent $2 July 24, 1908).... 3.00 
Nov. 6 — 
Robert S. Van Buren, Norwalk, Conn. 1.00 
E. F. Randolph, Morristown, N. J. (sent $10 
before) . 10.00 
(This subscription was sent direct to Forest 
and Stream, and by them remitted). 
Joseph P. Whittemore, Galesburg, N. D. 1.00 
Total ..•.. *. $72.00 
To Feed Winter Birds. 
Southport, Conn., Nov. io .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Now is the time to think about mak¬ 
ing life easier for the useful flesh-eating birds 
that are likely to be with us for the next four 
or five months. These are especially wood¬ 
peckers of one kind and another and chickadees. 
If you will hang bones with a little meat on 
them or pieces of suet or even plain scraps of 
meat from the table in the branches of the trees, 
or will fasten them to the tops of fences, the 
birds will pick at them all winter and thoroughly 
clean them off. 
They do this not merely in winter, but in sum¬ 
mer also in some places. Last summer I was 
in an Indian camp and saw three species of 
woodpeckers, the redhead, the yellowbelly and 
the downy at different times visit the place where 
an Indian woman had hung up her meat rations 
to dry, and from these rations they took quite 
liberal toll. It seemed to me that they ate the 
fat rather than the lean meat. I noticed re¬ 
cently that Manasseh Smith, of Maine, says that 
the downy woodpeckers eat the fat from meat 
while the chickadees prefer the lean. I wonder 
if this is always true? M. R. 
Woodcock and Snipe. 
A good many years ago, when the woodcock 
was far more abundant than now, there were 
printed in Forest and Stream many arguments 
in a heated discussion on the subject of how 
the woodcock makes the whistling noise, so often 
heard in autumn when the bird rises in flight. 
Quarts of ink were spilled and reams of paper 
spoiled in the discussion, and at its close, per¬ 
haps, not a single convert had been brought over 
from one of the opposing camps to the other. 
An interesting thing about this discussion was 
that sportsmen of abundant experience were 
divided on the question, some declaring that the 
whistle was made by the bird’s wings; others 
that it was a vocal sound, and not only were 
sportsmen divided on the question, but ornitholo¬ 
gists of eminence were equally divided. Here 
is an echo of that old discussion which will in¬ 
terest readers of to-day: 
I know very few men who have hunted this 
beautiful bird more than I have, covering a 
period of about thirty years, and while I have 
not yet learned all there is to know about this 
shy and mysterious creature, yet I have come 
into possession of many facts by close observa¬ 
tion relating to his general habits and to others 
which are due to and contracted by change of 
locality. 
The young of the woodcock never whistle. I 
have seen and caught them during spring while 
following small brooks trout fishing, and have 
seen the mother bird early in the morning after 
a dark rainy night feeding her little ones. I 
have seen them when hardly able to fly, and 
when after a few yards of flight they would 
slowly sink to the ground, striking stones, sticks, 
trees or anything which might be in their way, 
just as young grouse do when learning to fly. 
I never saw a young bird that whistled. 
1 he feathers on the wings grow out before 
they get strength to make rapid flights. When 
well along in the summer and the birds have 
grown strong of wing and are capable of swift 
flight, then like the old birds that can fly swiftlv 
they always whistle during rapid flight. 
Many years ago, when mink pelts were worth 
$io, I used to put out my traps early in the 
spring before the ice was fairly out of the 
brooks, and often used to visit them at night, 
going over the whole line if the nights were 
on a big moon. Woodcock were frequently seen 
and heard, often flying so near that they would 
pass within an arm’s length, and as they were 
all old birds at this season of the year, every 
one had his whistle with him, and was plainly 
heard, especially if the nights were without 
much wind. 
During the summer months, while I have been 
in camp on the shore of a lake or by the bank of 
some river, these birds have often been seen and 
heard while flying at night. Also when I was 
softly plying the paddle or fishing at night, 
woodcock have passed so near that they could 
be reached with the paddle, and on nearly all 
of these occasions the whistle, although not so 
loud as when rising in cover, was plainly and 
distinctly audible. Later still in the summer, 
after the family has grown up, they are in moult¬ 
ing, and if my observations have been correct 
do not fly or move around either by day or 
night so much as at other seasons of the year, 
(Continued on page 836 .) 
1 
1 
