In the Navajo Country. 
Las Animas, Colo., Sept. 15.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: On a trip just concluded along the 
continental divide in Northwest New Mexico, 
the absence of bird life was noticeable. With 
the exception of a few mountain jays, spar¬ 
rows and turtledoves, nothing of the bird kind 
was seen. A year’s drouth in this region may 
account in part for this, vegetation of all kinds 
being scarce. 
This section is utilized by the Mexicans and 
Navajo Indians as a winter sheep range. The 
Mexicans live in tents and the Navajoes in 
jacals or hogans. Jacals are wide log houses 
12 by 14 feet in dimension; the hogan a circular 
corral of posts covered with poles on which 
dirt is thrown. They are filthy and dark, having 
no windows and are infested with vermin. When 
a member of the tribe dies in one of these hovels 
it is abandoned permanently by the occupants. 
These primitive deserted habitations are to be 
seen on every side and are located on the sides 
of the cedar ridges some distance from the 
water. The Navajoes, like other tribes, have a 
superstition that it is unhealthy to camp near 
water. 
In Sandoval county the remnants of immense 
corrals used in capturing antelope are still to 
be seen. These corrals were built many years 
ago and thousands of antelope were driven into 
them and killed. West of the Rio Puerco (dirty 
river) are long lines of cliffs composed of a 
substance that hardens upon being wet which 
would make an excellent material for surfacing 
roads. We drove some distance over this 
material that had been washed from the cliffs, 
where our wagons left scarcely a mark. Other 
ridges with perpendicular sides showed one coal 
seam above another for miles. Fossilized logs 
protruded from the banks of arroyos, and in one 
section, doubtless of geyser formation, quite an 
area was bare of all vegetation, while soda 
springs were numerous. The internal gases 
made these springs (of unfathomable depth) 
bubbling fountains. The water was cold and 
not unpleasant to the taste. Around them the 
minerals in the water had formed natural bath 
tubs considerably raised above the surrounding 
surface. The action of the elements has left 
many peculiar and grotesque formations in this 
section, and to come upon them suddenly in the 
dusk of evening is often startling. 
Numerous herds of goats were passed with 
no attendants save a dog or two. If the goats 
were resting the dogs would be found lying in 
their midst with a goat as a bedfellow. On our 
approach the dogs would bark, but make no 
attempt to leave the goats. These dogs are as 
pups suckled by goats and at night sleep in the 
corral with them. The goat apparently has no 
idea of, nor attachment for, the corral where it 
has been raised. If turned out it will wander 
off never to return. Although the goats will 
play with the dogs and butt them around quite 
strenuously, when evening comes the dogs turn 
them toward home and if necessary nip them to 
make them keep the pace. On arriving at the 
corral where the camp or permanent habitation 
is, they wag their tails or pucker their lips, ask¬ 
ing for human recognition of their labor. It is 
pathetic to see how poorly the services and de¬ 
votion of these unkempt curs are repaid. Al¬ 
though the goat is well able to protect himself 
from coyotes and bobcats, these dogs will give 
up their lives in their behalf. 
Oftentimes in winter storms prevent these 
dogs from returning the goats to their corral 
for days, but when they are found the dogs are 
in attendance. These dogs are often ill treated 
by their owner, but their sense of duty is so 
strong that they will perish rather than desert 
their charges. The fact that they are nursed 
when young by a goat and are fond of them 
does not account wholly for their wonderful 
devotion. Whoever has passed a winter on 
these deserts at an elevation of 7,000 feet knows 
of the severity of the storms, and the heat of 
the summer in these barren regions is little less 
endurable. Water is scarce and generally min¬ 
eralized or stagnant. The goat can go a long¬ 
time without it, but the dog requires it often, 
especially in summer. 
If a monument is ever built on these deserts 
it should be in memory of these faithful goat 
herders. The first rains for more than a year 
were frequent while we were in this region, 
and we were often obliged to wait some time 
for the subsidence of the waters in a gulch be¬ 
fore we could cross. Great quantities of iron 
washed from the hills are in solution in these 
waters and our shoes were soon coated with a 
red mineral paint which is used as such by the 
natives. The Navajo children are deathly 
afraid of Los Americanos and run to cover as 
soon as they see one. From the squaws, of 
whom we often inquired the way, we could get 
not a word. They understood our Spanish, but 
a wave of the hand indicating a direction was 
their only expression. Every hogan contained 
a squaw weaving blankets. Many of these 
blankets were made of different colored wools, 
no artificial colors being used. Although our 
Government has furnished the Navajoes num¬ 
bers of well-bred bucks, little improvement- is 
evident in their herds. The full blood animal 
is not adapted to this poor range and is generally 
killed for mutton. These Indians possess many 
herds of undersized horses which show the 
same lack of breeding as their sheep. Their 
reservation is a desert and until railroads enter 
it and make its extensive coal and oil fields de¬ 
sirable, there will be no great change. When 
this time comes they will probably be asked to 
vacate. This will be the beginning of the end. 
There are but two courses for them to accept— 
assimilation or elimination, and the former of 
these they seem incapable of. F. T. W. 
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Breeding Wildfowl in Captivity. 
New York City, Sept. 18 .—Editor Forest at 
Stream: In the year 1903, my brother, Walti 
B. Lawrence, purchased a number of wildfow 
among them a pair of woodducks and a pa 
of pintails. A spring-fed pond was inclosed I 
a high board fence with wire netting at the tc 
■—to secure seclusion and prevent the entrarn 
of cats—and suitable coops for nesting purpos* 
were erected—some on an island in the midd 
of the pond and others on posts standing i 
the water near the shore. The ducks too- 
kindly to their surroundings and throve froi 
the first. 
The first season, though the female wooc 
duck laid a number of eggs, she failed to hate 
any, but in the spring of 1904, she laid sixtee 
eggs and hatched out fourteen of them. Or 
of the little ducklings was killed in some wa; 
but the remaining thirteen were raised. TI 
pintail duck hatched out two that same yea 
and one of them disappeared, when only a fe- 
days old. 
To increase the attractiveness of the ir 
closure, six bullfrogs had been obtained an 
liberated. While watching the young wooc 
ducks, a day or two after the disappearance c 
the little pintail, one of the bullfrogs was see- 
to make a jump at one of them, and thoug 
the little fellow was unharmed, it was decide! 
that no matter how attractive the deep “jug-oi 
rum” calls of the bullfrogs might be, they wer 
a menace to the young ducks, and five of th 
six were shot. The remaining bullfrog, how 
ever could not be found and the last little pin 
tail had disappeared. The following day, how 
ever, the bullfrog was seen and promptl 
gathered in. Noticing a suspicious plumpness 
the frog was opened and the young pintail wa 
found inside, only partially digested. 
A number of broods of woodducks wer 
raised each season, and the 1 “old lady” did he 
share, but there were no such large broods a' 
the first. The pintails, however, did nothin; 
until last season, when of two hatched, one wa 
raised. This season the pintail duck hatches 
a brood of nine, and the little ones were thriv 
ing finely, when the old mother woodduck wa 
seen to catch one of the little pintails and de 
liberately kill it. As she had always been th 
most devoted of mothers and had a brood 0 
her own at this time, it was very hard fi 
understand her action, but when, one after an 
other, she had killed four more of the littl 
pintails, it was deemed advisable to confine hei 
and she was placed in a wire coop on the edg 
of the pond. It was naturally supposed that b 
this action we had stopped her power of harm 
ing the little pintails, but not long after W' 
found two of them dead within the coop. Evi 
dently they had wandered too close and ha< 
been caught and killed. Of the two remaining 
young pintails, one died a natural death, am 
after three weeks’ confinement in the green 
house, the mother woodduck was let out, a; 
we thought the virulence of her maternal pro 
