[Feb. 15, 190?. 
252 
vegetarian crow-like bird, which has a crow-like 
partiality for eggs and for young birds and ani¬ 
mals. These birds are reported to hunt out all 
nests built in the open, with the persistency and 
regularity of a hawk beating over a field. The 
black grouse suffers somewhat from poachers, 
but their attacks are not very serious. 
Like many of our own grouse these birds meet 
at mating time in the open and dance, display 
themselves and even fight; for the apparent bene¬ 
fit of the hens gathered ■ there. They make a 
hooting, cooing or gurgling call, and sometimes 
really fight so as to make feathers fly. 
The gray hen builds her nest among grass, 
ferns and rushes, and lays from six to twelve 
eggs. The young are pretty well able to take 
care of themselves, and reach a good size and 
are fully feathered by early fall. The recurved 
tail feathers that mark the adult male are not 
seen in the young of the year; nor, indeed, until 
the third season. There is record of at least 
one gray hen nesting in a tree in Scotland, an 
old owl’s nest being occupied. The eggs are 
spotted, as will be seen by the illustration which 
we publish. 
Many years ago black game was imported to 
Newfoundland and turned out there, but the 
birds disappeared. The importation was re¬ 
peated—with unknown results—only a year or 
two ago. Twelve or fifteen years since caper¬ 
cailzie and black game both were turned out in 
Maine, but nothing has been heard of thepa 
since. More recently capercailzie and black 
game were both turned out, we believe, in the 
Algonquin Park, in Canada, and also on Grand 
Island in Lake Superior, the great game preserve 
of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. From time to 
time word has come to us that young capercailzie 
have been seen in the Algonquin Park, and we 
have been told also that young black grouse have 
been seen on Grand Island, but definite informa¬ 
tion as to just how these birds are doing is not 
at hand. 
Skunk Tales. 
Plainfield, N. J., Feb. 8. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mr. Jaques’ skunks, that never die a 
violent death without casting a scent, are dif¬ 
ferent from those with which I had some ex¬ 
perience in Maine a few years ago. I killed 
perhaps a dozen around my cottage on Casco 
Bay, and but one announced his departure from 
earth in a “loud” manner, and that one did it 
involuntarily. 
I discovered one trait of the skunk family at 
this time which I had not known of before, and 
that was the inviolate rule of the skunk never 
to cast reproach upon the atmosphere while he 
was in captivity. Several of the cottagers had 
been forced to bury their Sunday clothes before 
we built a box trap, with a figure four trigger. 
This was baited with a chicken bone, and the 
next morning we had a fine fat specimen that 
for a time looked like an elephant on our hands. 
Several ways of hurrying him over the great 
divide were suggested, but the proposer in each 
instance modestly allotted the actual carrying out 
of the plan to another, and the other always 
“ducked.” No one wished to touch the box 
trap first, but by lot one was finally chosen to 
lift the box upon a barrow, and eggs were never 
handled so carefully. The barrow was wheeled 
down to the wharf at the bay, and as the top of 
the box was gently lifted the box itself was 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
sharply tilted and the skunk dropped into the 
water. He had scarcely started to swim toward 
shore when a rifle cracked and he "went away 
from there.” 
We caught fully a dozen in this trap, and sev¬ 
eral were kept two or three days before they 
were shot. Not one exhibited any one of the 
celebrated traits of this animal while in the trap, 
although latterly the box was handled with less 
■ and less care. Men get used to- handling even 
dynamite. Neither did one cause any disturbance 
after being thrust into the water, except one. 
A friend who had been exchanging sweet 
nothings in a hammock one Sunday evening 
with a young woman friend did not notice a 
striped animal as it wandered across the porch 
until it was too late. He was present at the 
obsequies of an unfortunate which was caught 
a morning or two later. In a spirit of revenge 
he called to the man behind the gun, after the* 
rifle had cracked once: “Shoot him for me, too. ’ 
As the breeze was strong from the sea there 
were no breakfasts eaten that morning in the 
settlement. That was the only violent death that 
had a sequel such as Mr. Jaques says are in¬ 
variable in his experience. However, these 
skunks may have been strongly local in their 
character, as some natives in that particular part 
of Maine hated to give up a cent upon any pre¬ 
text, violent or otherwise. 
After a dozen or so had been killed I returned 
to New York on business. A few days later I 
received from my wife a letter in which she 
unconsciously made the very unflattering asser¬ 
tion: “We haven’t seen a skunk since you left.” 
R. F. R. Huntsman. 
Braislin’s Birds of Long Island. 
Few localities in the United States have been 
so thoroughly gone over for birds as Long 
Island, New York. The residence of two of the 
early ornithologists, and later of gunners, ob¬ 
servers and collectors, and a favorite shooting 
ground, it has many times been explored for 
birds from end to end and from ocean to sound. 
Such men as Dutcher, Allen, Dwight, Chapman 
an*d the Lawrences, together with many others, 
have at different times reported interesting birds 
and interesting facts about birds from the region. 
The last list to appear is that by Dr. William 
C. Braislin, published in the “Abstract of the 
Proceedings of the Linnaean Society” last issued. 
Dr. Braislin’s list is a bringing together of pre¬ 
vious observations and records to which are 
added his own up to date of issue, and besides 
this he gives a bibliography of 253 titles which 
cover all that has been done on Long Island. 
The number of species given is 364, besides 
one unnumbered which the . author and Mr. 
Dutcher believe ought to be included in “Birds 
of Long Island.” This is the European long¬ 
billed curlew' (Numenius arquatus). The A. O. 
U. committee does not take that view of the 
specimen, and it is therefore not numbered. 
Among the species given are the extinct pied 
duck, the heath hen, several species introduced 
from Europe, together with a number of wan¬ 
derers, which have reached these shores from 
the old world. 
The work of compiling the lists both of species 
and of the bibliography is extremely well done, 
and the list is particularly useful to every New 
York ornithologist. Dr. Braislin is heartily to 
be congratulated on so excellent a piece of work. 
Egg* and Young of Game Birds. 
Carman, Man., Jan. 31.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In all my hunting for partridge nests 
I have found only two, one with twelve eggs and 
one with thirteen. I also once came upon a 
brood of very young partridges which must have 
been just from the nest. It was on an old road¬ 
way on the hillside above the mill pond which 
ran my mill near London, Ont. The wind had 
blown a lot of leaves on the road and from among 
the leaves an old hen partridge started, and 
flapped away very slowly, until she had led me 
about twenty yards from where I first saw her, 
when she flew across the mill pond and I went 
back. I found one or two of the young birds 
each with its head under a large leaf, and as I 
looked longer and longer I discovered one after 
another until I saw twelve in all. They were 
absolutely motionless and silent. I moved away 
very carefully for fear that I might step on 
them, and sat down close by, and in about twenty 
minutes the mother partridge flew back to where 
she had left the young ones and gave a call, and 
at once I could hear the leaves moving and see 
the young birds run to their mother. 
I found a wild turkey’s nest one day in a big 
brush heap where I was looking for some nice 
straight poles to put across my head race to 
keep out driftwood and ice from the flume. I 
saw a very nice straight ironwood pole in the 
center of a brush heap and got up on top of 
the brush heap to cut it, and at the very first 
cut into the pole up flew a hen turkey close to 
my head. For the moment I was somewhat 
startled and taken by surprise, not thinking that 
there were wild turkeys so near the mill. This 
was near a pine wood scrub, mixed with oak, 
and beech scrub. I counted thirteen eggs in the 
nest, and as 1 had a hen which wanted to set 
I decided to come back the following Wednes¬ 
day with a basket and take the eggs and put 
them under the hen; but when I returned to the 
nest there was nothing in it but empty shells. 
I saw once a Canada goose sitting on a nest 
in the middle of a lake of some sixty acres. 
She had made her nest on top of a muskrat 
house. I kept a good distance from her so as 
not to disturb her. 
The farmers’ sons here when they plow near 
the sloughs often find duck nests in May and 
early June. I once found a mallard duck nest 
on top of a stack of wild hay on my brother s 
farm near Boissevain, Manitoba, in the year 
1882. W. H. r. 
The Passenger Pigeon Book. 
Toronto, Can., Jan. 23.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have had the pleasure of reading a 
copy of Mr. Wm. B. Mershon’s book, “The Pas¬ 
senger Pigeon.” While knowing that the com¬ 
piling and publishing of this very interesting and 
instructive work has been a labor of love with 
Mr. Mershon—and no doubt this genuine am. 
whole-souled sportsman is satisfied to work for 
nothing in the interests of his fellow sportsmer 
and posterity—yet the sportsmen of this conti¬ 
nent, custodians of libraries and others shoult 
see that he has not to bear the whole expense 
This most valuable educational work, showing 
how rapidly extermination by unwise method! 
can be accomplished, should be in the hands 0 
every sportsman on the great American conti 
nent. E. Tinsley. 
