652 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 23, 1910. 
Spring’s Attractions. 
Minneapolis, Minn., April 9 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The weather thus far this spring 
has been splendid and it is said that it has been 
the mildest March since 1822, which undoubt¬ 
edly is as far back as they have record of 
weather in Minnesota. The beautiful sunsets 
and stillness of the twilight hour reminds one 
of June, and there is evdience of bursting plant 
life on every hand. The hazel brush are flaunt¬ 
ing their numerous streamers and the white ash 
trees are crowded with wormy, hair-grown 
tokens of spring. Just now the willows claim 
the attention of the nature lover by their gay 
pussies, some large and round, some small and 
gleaming silver-like in the warm sunlight. What 
a charming reminder of golden days! The sight 
of them revives many a memory of other days 
when I brought them to school at the behest of 
the teacher. 
On the hillside slope the crocus has thrown 
aside the fetters of inaction and here and there 
smiles in purple glory upon the world of sun 
and sky and gentle south winds. What vast in¬ 
spiration one may obtain from this first sweet 
offering of Dame Nature—to stand on the slope 
and with shaded eyes admire the work that is 
under way everywhere. The bird notes thrill¬ 
ing in every copse rejuvenates the body that has 
been cast into dreams through the weary winter 
months and fits one to a new dawning life—a 
life shorn of worry. The woodland ways are 
full of ecstacies that breathe the very essence of 
life and pleasure. The meanest thing claims at¬ 
tention. These lines I have penned in the note 
book : 
march. 
“O drowsy month of indolent repose, 
Reclined at ease upon the gently tinging sod, 
The birth of spring is heralded by wood and way 
On swelling mead and plainland rich and broad. 
The feathered kindred tune their trembling lyres, 
And everywhere the joyous notes ascend, 
Sweet carols thrilling full of joy, 
The newborn life to soothingly attend. 
Beam down in splendor, golden sun. 
Let all thy mightiness enwrap the land, 
And once again behold the fruitfulness 
That springs beneath thy softened hand. 
The jewelled dawn will come to life anew 
Beneath the charm of dreamy skies so blue.” 
Most of the birds have put in their appear¬ 
ance. I have fashioned several more bird houses 
and expect to “let” them ere long. Much has 
been said in condemnation of the sparrow, yet 
the sparrow kills more insects and rids us of 
more filth than any other of the song birds. 
They are a nuisance in a way, yet we should 
not be too harsh in our judgment. Unlike other 
birds, the sparrow was brought to this country 
expressly to kill off insects, and it has lived up 
to its object. The sparrow is one of the few 
birds we see in the winter time. In the trees 
by the study window they often come in small 
flocks in the dead of winter and sit on the 
branches, twittering lightly. Then one feels a 
sort of pity for them. 
Several sparrows are thinking of locating in 
one of my houses. At present, one which I 
judge is the female is pruning herself on top of 
the domicile and twittering and bowing in a 
coquettish fashion. A number of other spar¬ 
rows, males, fly down, and then with a cooing 
string of notes she hops into the house followed 
by the uncertain males. Robert Page Lincoln. 
Edmonton Notes. 
Edmonton, Alberta, April 14 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Although we had a very early 
spring and the ice ran out of the river at a date 
that has not been equalled since the records have 
been kept, still at the date of writing very few 
wildfowl have arrived in this part of the Prov¬ 
ince, and but few summer birds are reported. 
I infer that the wildfowl are laying back in fear 
of a big snow storm and that they will soon be 
extremely plentiful in Southern Alberta and 
along the boundary line. 
It is said that the results of the last round 
up of buffalo in Montana are soon to be seen. 
Ploward Douglas says that he expects the last 
shipment of the buffalo, from 80 to 120 in num¬ 
ber, will be received by May 1, and will imme¬ 
diately be sent through to Wainwright by way 
of Edmonton. 
With this shipment Michel Pablo will complete 
his contract with the Dominion Government. 
When the bargain was made he would only un¬ 
dertake to supply 200 head, though he thought 
300 might be captured. Up to the present time 
he has delivered 602 and there are about a hun¬ 
dred more to be delivered. The old breed owner 
has worked hard to fulfill his contract with the 
Government, and Mr. Douglas says that the 
amount of labor he has expended is almost be¬ 
yond conception. W. H. C. 
Home Surgery for Quail. 
Bethlehem, Pa., April 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A reader of Forest and Stream has 
requested me to give an account of how I 
nursed and healed a female Virginia quail that 
had both thighs broken, one leg out of joint, the 
muscle out of its proper shape and also bone 
split open at the dislocated joint. 
Some time in the winter a friend traced the 
quail by its tracks in the snow and caught it 
while hiding. While taking the quail to show 
it to friends, the bird tried to escape. Ihe man 
closed his hands and held it by its feet only, 
and the bird in its struggles received the in¬ 
juries mentioned. My friend knowing I had 
caught a male quail, brought it to my house, 
thinking I might help it. 
When I reached home my wife showed me 
the quail and on examining the bird I told her 
it was best to kill it and put it out of its misery. 
At supper, however, I changed my mind and 
undertook to cure the bird, and this is how I 
went at it: 
Taking a handkerchief I wrapped the quail 
in it, leaving only the legs exposed. Then pluck¬ 
ing all the feathers on both legs, I put the 
muscle in its proper shape, brought the joint to¬ 
gether and set the broken bones. With some 
silken thread I sewed up the open skin. I put 
some salve on a linen rag and bandaged the leg. 
After that I put some insulating tape over the 
rag so as to strengthen the leg and also to keep 
on the bandage. I had some plaster-of-Paris in 
readiness and put that over the tape, holding 
the leg stiff till the plaster-of-Paris had set and 
was hard. The other leg was treated in the 
same manner. 
I placed the bird in a box and left it for two 
weeks, and then thinking it was time to look at 
the wounds, I took it out and examined it. After 
taking off all the plaster-of-Paris, the tape and 
rag, I was surprised to find the legs in good con¬ 
dition. The bones were grown together, but the 
split in the skin was not quite healed. I put 
on a fresh bandage with salve as before and over 
that the tape, but this time no plaster-of-Paris. 
The bird had now become quite tame. I put it 
on the floor of the room, but it had lost the con¬ 
trol of its legs. It tried to walk or stand, but 
could not. In a few days, however, it was able 
to occasionally stand on its legs, using its wings 
as crutches—as supports on either side. Often 
it fell over, but tried and tried again. In 
the course of a week it was able to walk, but 
on the top of its feet. When it could do this 
I took the wrappings off and in a short time 
it was able to walk. 
The latter part of March I liberated it, as 
sound as a dollar, and not even lame. 
A. H. Schippang. 
[Mr. Schippang is the person who owned the 
tame quail that was on friendly terms with a 
cat. The picture of the two chums was pub¬ 
lished in Forest and Stream, July 10, 1909-— 
Editor.] 
Recent Publications. 
The Scientific American Boy at School, by 
A. Russell Bond. Decorated cloth, 338 pages, 
314 illustrations, $2. New York, Munn & 
Co. 
Seven students at a college organized a secret 
society which they called the Modern Order of 
Ancient Engineers. They were practicing the 
usual student horseplay when the professor over- 
hauled them, and being a young man himself, he 
promised, if they would take him in as a mem¬ 
ber and stop doing things on the sly, that he 
would help them in a way that would be bene¬ 
ficial as well as interesting to the boys. This 
was done, meetings were held, and the result 
was that, with the professor’s advice, they built 
a club house and workshop on piles in a pond 
nearby, built a dock and a boat, dammed the 
outlet and worked out numerous experiments 
and problems that furnished no end of amuse¬ 
ment for them. They tried all sorts of mechani¬ 
cal contrivances to prevent a gang of young 
hoodlums from despoiling their work, and 
numerous fights resulted. The narrative is of 
the wholesome sort that any boy will read with 
pleasure, while the description of how these boys 
constructed various devices is plainly written, and 
with the aid of the working drawings, can be fol¬ 
lowed readily by any boy who may wish to adopt 
the ideas. Boat building is given a prominent 
place. Then there is surveying, sounding, signal¬ 
ing, bridge building, seismographs, sun dials, kite 
photography, water kites and water sports, hunt¬ 
ing with the camera, underwater photography, 
work bench and lathe hints, camping outfits and 
a host of hints every boy will read with care. 
The manual is a sequel to “The Scientific Amer¬ 
ican Boy.” 
Boy Killed by a Swan. 
The London Fishing Gazette says: 
“It was stated at a Nottingham inquest re¬ 
cently that while a five-year-old boy named Cecil 
Barratt was playing on a landing stage he was 
pulled into the River Trent by a swan, which 
attacked and drowned him. The boy’s father 
dived several times at the spot, but failed to find 
the boy, and was also attacked by the swan be¬ 
fore he reached the landing stage.” 
