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854 FORESTANDSTREAM. [Nov. 27, 1909. 
the dried ground cherries from which Alfred 
had flushed his birds. We found fresh tracks 
and fresh droppings, showing that the birds had 
been there after the day the Sioux made his kill. 
“Along the White River in this particular re¬ 
gion are extensive fastnesses well adapted to 
the fancy of wild turkeys, low scraggy acorn¬ 
bearing oaks, deep arroyos, with numerous 
springs, thickets of plum, crab and grape, rose 
fields, ground and choke cherry patches and 
many vegetable growths on which the birds feed 
in the fall and summer.” 
The Reshaws (Richard) are a well known 
family of Sioux mixed bloods, descendants of 
one or more French Creoles who served the 
American Fur Co. about 1850 or earlier, and 
who married Sioux women. 
Through the kindness of Col. Hugh L. Scott, 
superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy, 
I am enabled to give the most northerly defi¬ 
nite record of the wild turkey on the Missouri 
River of which I have any knowledge. Col. 
Scott, learning of my interest in this subject, 
recalled that more than twenty years ago Gen. 
D. L. Magruder, U. S. A. (retired), had told 
him of killing wild turkeys near Fort Randall, 
Dakota, in 1855. He, therefore, wrote to Gen¬ 
eral Magruder and received from him a letter 
dated Sept. 6, 1909, as follows: 
“From July, 1S55, to October, i860, I was 
stationed at the different garrisons along that 
stream [the Upper Missouri River] from old 
Fort Pierre Chouteau to Fort Randall. 
“On Dec. 17, 1855, I accompanied General 
Harney upon a hard winter’s march, from Fort 
Pierre Chouteau to the mouth of the Niobrara 
River. The march was by land as far as the 
present site of Fort Randall, where we were 
compelled by heavy snow drifts in the ravines 
to abandon the prairie and take to the ice upon 
the river, where the march was continued, both 
going and returning until our arrival back at 
Fort Pierre, Feb. 17, 1856. 
“During the trip, both going and return¬ 
ing, I killed deer, rabbits, grouse and turkeys 
to supply our mess, finding each of the kinds 
of game in plenty and quite fat in most of the 
heavily timbered points along both sides of the 
river. The turkeys were particularly fine 
flavored, their food being abundant, consisted 
mostly of wild grapes, rose apples (the seed 
pod of the wild rose), cottonwood buds and 
hackberries, the latter apparently their favorite, 
at least to judge by the quantity contained in 
their crops. 
“The last turkey killed by me was at a re¬ 
turn camp about thirty miles above Fort Ran¬ 
dall. Beyond that point I have no personal 
experience, but while stationed at Fort Pierre 
I was told by the interpreter of the fort that 
turkeys formerly were quite abundant in the 
heavy timber about the mouth of the Big 
Cheyenne River about thirty miles above.” 
The statement made by the interpreter at 
Fort Pierre furnishes quite satisfactory evidence 
that turkeys were once found on the Missouri 
River as far north as the mouth of the Cheyenne 
River. 
Col. Scott has also called my attention to the 
diary of Lieut. Rufus Saxton, printed in Vol. 
I., Pacific R. R. Reports, 1853-54. which says 
of Cedar Island, on the Missouri River, below 
Ft. Pierre: “Saw wild turkeys for the first 
time. They are seldom seen above this point 
and have never, I believe, been found beyond 
the Rocky Mountains.” The reference of course 
is to the northern Rocky Mountains. 
Alexander Henry, the Younger, states that in 
1806 the Cheyenne Indians coming up from the 
south brought with them the tails of turkeys 
which the Mandans and Minitari greatly desired 
for use as fans and for which they traded, and 
from this we may infer that there were no 
THE WING BONE REFERRED TO BY MR. BUSH. 
turkeys found on the Missouri or its tribu¬ 
taries as far north as the then location of those 
tribes—Knife River. 
I suspect that in the Rocky Mountains turkeys 
seldom or never crossed the divide between the 
north und south forks of the Platte, and that 
they never got as far' west as the Black Hills. 
George Bird Grinnell. 
[to be concluded.] 
A Remarkable Recovery. 
Kalamazoo, Mich., Nov. 8. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: I am sending you a little souvenir 
of things that are wild in the form of the wing 
bone of a duck, a bluebill, broadbill or black-' 
head that I shot a few days ago. The duck was 
flying swiftly but somewhat wobbly when killed. 
When dressed and on the table, it being in 
prime condition and quite fat, I noticed that 
one wing appeared much larger than the other. 
Upon ascertaining the cause I found that the 
wing bone had been broken (probably last 
F 
A, proximal end of humerus; E, distal end; B and C, 
fractured ends, which have slipped by one another; 
II, bony substance thrown out from shaft and binding 
the over-riding portions together. The same thing is to 
be seen in the bone of the duck’s wing sent in by Mr. 
Bush. 
spring), this bone afterward reuniting with a 
truss or brace formation that seems truly won¬ 
derful. 
Imagine that lone duck far from its summer 
home or breeding grounds in the far north 
patiently waiting and finding food for subsist¬ 
ence while good mother nature in her ceaseless 
care caused the broken bone to reunite and be 
strong again. 
We who shoot know little of the misery and 
suffering we may cause when we fail to secure 
wounded or crippled game birds. The broken¬ 
winged duck, grouse or quail, the woodcock or 
the snipe with long bill broken by a shot pellet 
•—all these must suffer until they die a linge 
ing death or nature repairs the damage. 
There is too much shooting at too long d 
tances. Shooters are too anxious to kill a: 
do not center their birds with their charges 
killing ranges. Then again, many shooters ca 
not rely upon their ability in the aligning 
their guns, and in consequence use ammuniti' 
that is loaded to give wide patterns of the sh 
pellets at a loss in killing force; these loa 
generally having but medium powder chargi 
Recently I saw a shooter using such loads fi 
at three ruffed grouse, each of which was 1 
and knocked down, but escaped being secure 
Is it not better that game should escape u 
scathed rather than be crippled and not securei 
For my part I would rather lose the opportuni 
for a dozen good shots at game than to allc 
a cripple to escape, but then a crippled due 
grouse or quail is often pretty cute and w 
elude the very best of dogs. 
Ben. O. Bush. 
[In past years not infrequent examples 
healed injuries of this sort have been broug 
to the notice of Forest and Stream readei 
We recall many years ago the case of a bo 
white whose broken leg had mended itse 
though it remained crooked. In Forest ai 
Stream of Oct. 6, 1881, was printed, with 
figure of the bone, an account of a ruffed grous 
strong, plump and well able to fly, which h; 
suffered a break of the humerus not unlike th 
in the duck sent in by Mr. Bush. We repr 
duce a drawing of the bone printed in Fore 
and Stream twenty-eight years ago. At th 
t’ime John G. Bell, long noted as a taxidermi 
and naturalist in this city, but long ago dea 
told us of a woodcock in which a broken boi 
had united in a similar way. —Editor.] 
Muskox at Bronx Park. 
Last week the New York Zoological Socie 
received at its park in the Bronx a muski 
from Melville Island in the Arctic. 
The specimen is a cow less than a year 0 
and was captured last summer by Captain Jose) 
Bernier, the Canadian explorer. It was pu 
chased from him by Dr. Cecil French, of Was 
ington, D. C. 1 
It will be remembered that some years aj 
the Zoological Society had at different times tv. 
young muskoxen, both of which ultimately die 
One of these was presented by the late Willia 
C. Whitney, and while on exhibition they '<■ 
tracted much attention. One of them was 
one time on exhibition at the Madison Squa 
Garden. The New York Zoological Society 
to be congratulated on having again secured 
muskox. 
Game on the Croton. 
According to the report for 1908 of Wat 
Commissioner O’Brien, under the sanitary poli 
ing of the Croton watershed, the bodies of 
horses, 9 cows, 32 dogs, 11 pups, 10 calves, , 
woodchucks, 17 turtles, 10 chickens, 1 duck, 
pig, 1 rabbit, 1 mink, 1 fox, 4 skunks and 
sheep were found and disposed of. The cor. 
missioner also reports that only two cases 1 
typhoid fever were reported in the shed in tl 
last quarter of the year and only ten for tl 
year. 
