934 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June ix, 1910. 
The lands included in the reserve being ele¬ 
vated and rocky are generally not suited for 
agriculture, but are of great value for the sup¬ 
ply of wood and lumber to the prairie country 
east of the mountains for the requirements of 
coal mines and for the protection of the sources 
of the main streams of the Central West, and 
it is proposed to administer them so as to pro¬ 
tect the water supply, while at the same time 
providing for the proper utilization and repro¬ 
duction of the forest. 
This vast area, adjoining as it does Glacier 
National Park at the boundary line, gives a con¬ 
tinuous area of approximately 16,000 square 
miles of mountainous territory brought under 
special a’dministration by two neighboring coun¬ 
tries, and will secure the protection not only of 
the forests, lakes and rivers, but also for the 
fish, game and bird life, and incidentally will 
preserve for the enjoyment of this and future 
generations the beauty and charm of the “ever¬ 
lasting hills.” 
Hippos for Louisiana. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been reading with a considerable 
amount of amusement the idea of importing 
hippos, to rid the rivers in Louisiana of water 
lilies. 
The devastation that these animals will cause 
on land will be hardly commensurate with the 
good they will do by ridding the rivers of water 
lilies. Hippos land by night and enjoy them¬ 
selves, destroying everything that is handy in 
the agricultural line, and to class them as not 
dangerous is in a sense entirely wrong, as an 
old bull or cow hippo, when in the mood, will 
wreak dire vengeance on anything, whether it be 
a human or an animal. They cannot be fenced 
in like cattle, and it is a proposition which re¬ 
quires the most careful consideration, otherwise 
the cure will be found to be very much worse 
than the disease. I do not pretend to be an 
authority, but can only write with the experi¬ 
ence of one who has been upset in a large canoe 
by one unprovoked in the Zambesi River some 
years ago. John A. M. Lethbridge. 
A Deer Drowned. 
Milford, Conn., May 28.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: As stated in Forest and Stream of 
May 28 a deer was drowned near here recently, 
but a few words may be added. 
P. IT. Fitzgibbons, manager of the Oak Grove 
House, Meadows End, and Eli Pritchard, while 
fishing near Charles Island, saw a deer swim¬ 
ming, and supposing it in distress, chased it for 
half an hour, caught and towed it by a rope 
about its neck to a place called the Hermit’s, at 
Fort Trumbull Beach. Instead of landing the 
deer there, they towed it again about a mile to 
Meadows End and then drew it up on the beach 
and let it lie there two hours, where it died. 
Sheriff Nash, also game warden, was notified 
and found the deer dead. He found bru'.ses on 
the hind quarters and the tail broken. There 
were bruises on the neck where the rope had 
been. The two men were brought before the 
town court, were fined $5 and costs about $30 
each. They claimed they were trying to save 
the deer’s life and appealed from the decision 
of the court. Reader. 
A Dutcher Testimonial. 
Some admirers of the- great work accomplished 
by William Dutcher, president of the National As¬ 
sociation of Audubon Societies, wish to express 
their deep appreciation of the monumental ser¬ 
vices which he has performed for the protection 
of birds and animals in this country. He has 
not only accomplished wonderful results in creat¬ 
ing public sentiment and securing the enactment 
of a tremendous number of beneficial bird and 
game protective measures, but has built the Na¬ 
tional Audubon movement until it stands to-day* 
at the head of all similar institutions in the 
world. 
It has been decided that no gift would prob¬ 
ably be more pleasing to him than to establish 
for the Audubon association a fund known as 
“The Mary Dutcher Memorial,” in memory of 
his only daughter. She was closely associated 
with him in his fight for the preservation of 
wild birds and animals, and an unusual amount 
of sympathetic feeling existed between them. 
The executive committee desires to raise for 
this purpose a fund of five thousand dollars, the 
interest of which will be an annual benefit to 
the cause so near his heart. 
Contributions to this fund are invited and 
checks mav be sent to W. W. Grant, Ireasuiei, 
140 Nassau street, New York. 
The Passenger Pigeon’s Nesting. . 
Coudersport, Pa., May 24. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Prof. C. F. Hodge, quoting Prof. 
Whitman as authority, makes the statement that 
the passenger pigeon “never lays more than one 
egg.” While seeking no controversy with the 
authority quoted, from personal knowledge I 
know the statement to be incorrect. 
In the spring of 1867 the passenger pigeons 
were very plentiful in this locality, and there 
was a large nesting of these birds that spread 
over from fifteen to twenty thousand acres of 
forest lands. One end of this nesting was with¬ 
in two miles of my father’s home. I was at 
that time thirteen years of age. The nesting 
took place in the latter part of April and the 
early part of May, and from the time the nests 
were built and the eggs laid until the depaiture 
of the old birds, about four weeks elapsed. The 
young birds remained a feyv days longer. 
During the time of this nesting there was 
scarcely a single day, a portion of which was 
not spent by myself on this nesting ground, and 
I know from personal observation that thou¬ 
sands of nests had two eggs in them and later 
were occupied by two squabs. While it was true 
many nests contained only one egg, I believed 
at that time, and still believe, that the passenger 
pigeon lays two' eggs, and the missing egg was 
accounted for by the nests having been robbed 
by birds of prey, or the egg being rolled out of 
the nests by the pigeons. 
My observation was made in one instance by 
climbing the tree to where the nests were. Two 
eggs were seen in each nest and four or five 
nests were observed. A day or two later I saw 
an Indian named Jamison stand on the ground 
under the nests and shoot some nests out of the 
trees with a bow and arrow. From two of these 
nests two eggs fell. This Indian Jamison was 
a scout sent by his people from the Salamanca 
Indian Reservation to observe how far advanced 
the nesting was, so that they should know when 
the squabs would be large enough to eat, at 
which time the Indians came to the nesting 
ground in large numbers. In numerous other 
cases the eggs and young birds could quite plain¬ 
ly be seen from the ground by looking up 
through the nests, which were frail affairs, being 
made of a few small sticks and twigs and were 
not sufficiently compact to hide the eggs or 
young birds in all cases.. 
As to identifying these birds; while the female 
and the young of the passenger pigeon some¬ 
what resemble the mourning dove—sufficiently 
so perhaps to deceive the careless observer—the 
resemblance ceases here, for the male pigeon, 
with his much larger size, his glossy purplish 
blue neck and back, dull red breast, eyes and 
legs, makes such a striking contrast to the 
modest apparel of the mourning dove that no 
observer ought to mistake the one for the other. 
The last passenger pigeon nesting in this, 
Potter, county, Pennsylvania, was in the spring 
of 1888, but was a small affair as compared to 
the one mentioned in the beginning of this 
article. F. N. Newton. 
Injury by Field Mice. 
A Connecticut correspondent reports a crime 
of the field mice which is new to him. It is not 
uncommon to hear these little pests accused of 
eating crops of all sorts, and of destroying young 
fruit trees by girdling them, but our correspon¬ 
dent has a novel grievance. He has set out on 
his place at various times some thousands of 
young white pine trees, some as seedlings, others 
as two or even four-year-old. Two years ago 
a number of the seedlings were transplanted 
and are now from one to four feet high. Dur¬ 
ing the past winter or spring many of these 
seedlings have been attacked by field mice, the 
roots in many cases gnawed off and in others 
wholly stripped of their bark. Of course, the 
tree so injured died. This has been going on 
for some time, and this spring the correspondent 
has frequently, on taking hold of a withering 
plant, had it come up in his hand, and seen that 
the roots were all gone. On one noticed early 
this month, the new growth was three or four 
inches long, showing that the attacks had been 
made some time during the spring. The corres¬ 
pondent asks for help or suggestions, but we 
have nothing to offer. The mice should be de¬ 
stroyed, but how can this be done? 
Kidney Worms in Mink. 
Godbout, May 30 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
The observations and notes on this subject by 
W. M. H. in your issue of May 14 are quite 
correct. I have observed this affection in mink 
many times, but in all those I saw there was 
only one worm. I recall one case where this 
worm was about ten inches long and looked 
very much like a round worm ( Ascaris lumbri- 
coides). Strange to say the animal does not ap¬ 
pear to suffer from them, because I specially 
noticed that the animals were in good condi¬ 
tion. Of the kidney there was nothing left, ex¬ 
cept the outside membrane which was yellowish 
in color. Before being cut open it feels very 
hard to the touch. Nap. A. Comeau. 
