138 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1911- 
Drouth and Tagged Birds. 
New York, Jan. 16 .—.Editor Forest and 
Stream: In Forest and Stream for January 
14th. I note on the editorial page the statement 
that the long drouth in the East has affected 
all vegetation, and reduced the winter food 
supply of the birds. 
This is a point which I had previously over¬ 
looked, and shows the special need for feeding 
quail in winter. In the vicinity of my country 
place at Stamford, Conn., local records are said 
to show that we had more than ten inches 
shortage in rainfall in 1910, about eleven inches 
shortage for 1909- and about nine inches short¬ 
age for 1908, giving approximately thirty inches 
shortage for the three consecutive years. Many 
of the weeds which furnish food for quail in 
winter did not mature seed well, as I had oc¬ 
casion to observe while collecting seeds ot 
weeds for purposes of sowing in a worn-out 
field Quail would still have the buds of trees 
and shrubs to fall back on, and these buds 
would furnish a complete food supply for 
grouse and for pheasants, but I do not remem¬ 
ber to have found a great number of buds m 
the crons of quail. 
The food supply of fish has also been reduced 
in all probability by the drouth. In the streams 
the water was so low that in quiet places it 
froze entirely to the bottom, and ice still re¬ 
mains on the bottom where it has been now for 
considerably more than a month. This prob¬ 
ably means the death of untold numbers ot 
ephemera, crustaceans, mollusks and small 
fish, and it is a question if extensive stocking of 
streams would be desirable next spring, before 
the lesser life has had opportunity to multiply. 
On the same page in Forest and Stream 
I note the killing of a wild goose in Nebraska 
which bore a message from a prospector m 
Alaska. It occurs to me that we might learn 
much of the migration of waterfowl if summer 
travelers in the North were to take along tags 
of copper, bearing inscriptions, which could be 
fastened to young birds. It is not at all diffi¬ 
cult to catch adult wild geese while they are 
moulting, and young ducks and geese are 
caught in numbers—forming in fact a good part 
of the regular food supply of travelers in the 
North. It would be no trouble at all to tag 
a number of these birds, noting the date and 
locality, the only problem in my mind being 
the point for attaching the tags. If the wires 
connected with the tags were placed about the 
leg or wing it is probable that the birds would 
keep pulling at them. If placed about the neck, 
growing birds might choke later. I have often 
put young geese in the canoe and kept them 
all day “for company,” returning them to the 
parents at night. I could not kill them, be¬ 
cause they would eat out of my hand and had 
a friendly attitude. Robert T. Morris. 
[Dr. Morris’ remarks on the stocking next 
year of streams which have been depleted of 
their fish life by the drouth of the last three 
years, deserve careful thought. People are very 
prone to imagine that because one year has 
been dry, the following one will be wet, but the 
experience in Connecticut and elsewhere in New 
England, shows that no dependence can be 
placed on this belief. 
It will be recalled that a society devoted to 
the tagging of birds is already in existence. A 
notice of it was printed in Forest and Stream, 
March 5, 1910. This society has expressed its 
willingness to supply at nominal cost bands to 
be attached to the feet of wild birds to anyone 
wishing to tag them. The only condition 
is that the bands should bear the association s 
serial number and the inscription “Notify the 
Auk, New York.” While this effort to trace 
the movements of individual birds is as yet 
in its infancy, some interesting results have al-. 
ready been secured, especially in connection 
with a number of young night herons which 
were banded at a rookery at Cape Cod, some 
of which were later reported from three dif¬ 
ferent New England States. The president of 
the American Bird Banding Association is Dr. 
I.eon J. Cole, University of Wisconsin, Madi¬ 
son, Wis. Wires are not used in attaching tags 
•to birds’ legs.— Editor.] 
Latham’s Duck Shooting. 
The first detailed account which we have seen 
of the shooting of ducks from an aeroplane, by 
the French aviator, to which reference has been 
made in our columns, is published in the 
Breeder and Sportsman of California. The ac¬ 
count is interesting in connection with our re¬ 
cent comments on the event: 
“When Hubert Latham, the French aviator, 
sat down to dinner December 22d, wild duck 
was served as the honor dish of his menu. It 
was a little duck of the scaup species, and fa¬ 
miliarly called bluebill by hunters of water- 
fowl. But it was an extraordinary honored 
duck in that it was the first ever shot from an 
aeroplane. Latham brought down the fright- 
driven bird with the first shot fired from liis 
fast-flying Antoinette monoplane while going 
at the rate of fifty miles an hour at the Bolsa 
Chica Gun Club preserve at noon that day. The 
distinguished bluebill dropped into the ocean, 
fifty yards from the beach, but was carried 
ashore by a roaring surf, and picked up after 
a frenzied search by a score of men. 
“Nothing quite so spectacular in the way of 
aerial exhibitions has ever been seen as 
Latham's shooting expedition on this occasion. 
He had talked of it for a week, but few took 
him seriously. However, he got permission 
from the Boisa Chica Gun Club, an exclusive 
organization having 3.4°° acres of the finest 
preserves in Southern California, to fly ovei 
and have a try at the game. 
“Early in the day the dapper little French¬ 
man was on the aviation field at Dominguez, 
near Los Angeles, urging his mechanicians to 
hurry the preparations for the expedition. It 
lacked half an hour to noon, however, before 
the big monoplane was ready, and Latham took 
his seat for a few turns on the field. Satisfied 
that everything was ready for his flight across 
country to the gun club, he came down at his 
hangar and asked for his gun. A 20-gauge 
shotgun, a light type of fowling piece, was 
brought out and Latham swung it over his 
shoulder by a strap. 
“It was just a quarter to the noon hour when 
Latham gave the word and the motor was put 
into motion. Rising quickly, the big machine 
soared east for two miles and then turned south¬ 
east along the ocean shore. 
It was fifteen miles from the aviation field 
to the gun club, and it was just on the stroke 
of noon that the gun club members and their 
guests caught sight of the dragon-shaped 
monoplane. Two minutes later he came whir¬ 
ring over the power-house that marks the boun¬ 
daries of the club’s game preserves and headed 
straight down the long lagoon. He had made 
the trip from the aviation field in almost a 
mile-a-minute speed. 
“As he dipped over the power-house and 
swooped above the thousands of waterfowl in 
the lagoon there was utter consternation among 
the birds. They arose in swarms. 
“Latham flew straight over the lagoon for 
half a mile, 200 feet above the water, veered 
suddenly oceanward, and headed straight for a 
big flock of terror-stricken ducks. A few hun¬ 
dred yards from the shore he took his first 
shot. A bluebill fluttered and fell straight down 
into the ocean and was afterward picked up on 
shore. 
“The monoplane followed the flock of ducks 
for two miles to sea. They then wheeled shore¬ 
ward and Latham followed. The ducks, how¬ 
ever, were quicker on the turn, and whenever 
Latham would come near enough for a shot 
they would change their course. 
“The chase lasted fifteen minutes. Up and 
down the coast and around in circles the fright¬ 
ened fowl flew, not knowing which way to turn 
to avoid the monster that pursued them. 
Latham was handicapped in his shooting, be¬ 
cause the huge blades of the propeller of his 
Antoinette are directly in front of his seat, and 
he was obliged to turn half way around or get 
beneath the ducks before he could use his gun. 
“Whenever he would gain on the flock they 
would rise high above him, and wheel around 
and start for shore. 
“Finally the flock that had amused Latham 
for fifteen minutes made straight for the sea 
and the little Frenchman turned his attention 
to the marshes. In thousands the fowl flew 
quacking loud notes of alarm around the aero¬ 
plane and Latham began to shoot. He was not 
more than 200 feet above the marsh at any 
time, but so far as he knows he did not kill 
another duck in the dozen shots fired, although 
he believed he crippled several. He had great 
fun chasing the ducks that were so frightened 
that they flew round and round in circles. 
“Latham finally descended in the yard of the 
clubhouse and stepped out to be greeted by 
the members and escorted to luncheon. 
Book Exchange. 
Among the readers of Forest and Stream 
there' are many who are interested in old out-of- 
print and rare books on sport, travel, explora¬ 
tion and kindred subjects, and frequent letters 
are received at the office ordering such books. 
In the very nature of the case, however, these 
cannot be supplied on order, and it often takes 
months of search to secure copies, by which 
time the person who ordered them may have 
forgotten all about the matter. Within a few 
weeks we have received from readers and from 
dealers a dozen orders for a supposed book 
called “A Boy in Indian Camps,” which orders 
were called forth by an article printed not long 
ago in Forest and Stream, describing a book 
published in 1850 and long out of print. Such 
books as Dodge’s “Plains of the Great West,” 
