8/2 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 23, 1908. 
Going back to camp, he told Sawyer what he 
had seen, and they followed over the same 
ground, noting carefully the kind of track the 
animal made. Capt. Sawyer said that the track 
was a little over four inches across. 
Capt. Sawyer and Haskell went back to camp, 
took guns, ammunition, grub and bedding, and 
started on the track. They followed the trail 
into the Little Sourdnahunk notch quite a ways, 
up into the mountains, but could not locate him. 
Special Correspondent. 
The Passenger Pigeon. 
Saginaw, Mich., May 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I do not know whether or not I have 
reported this to you before, but in going through 
some old papers this morning I have found a 
letter that had been mislaid. It is from Mr. 
Ruthven Deane, of Chicago, and is dated Oct. 
31, 1907, and he says: “I was in Milwaukee 
last week and hunted up four live passenger 
pigeons, all males; the remainder of the flock 
I went to see several years ago and wrote about 
in .the Auk. It was good for sore eyes. The 
man who had them in charge said they were in 
healthy condition. Three were recovering from 
moult and the other was in excellent plumage." 
Recently I received another letter as follows: 
It was from C. F. Blue, of Chicago: 
"I take great pleasure in acknowledging re¬ 
ceipt of your recent favor and also a copy of 
‘The Passenger Pigeon.’ I was born at White 
Pigeon, St. Joseph county, Mich., in 1869, and 
at that time the passenger pigeon was very com¬ 
mon. My father, D. B. Blue, was one of the 
many sportsmen who caught the birds in nets. 
He told me that on the day I was born he caught 
eighty-five dozen pigeons. Every summer and 
fall after that he made a business of catching 
pigeons on his farm, which bordered on the 
White Pigeon River. This stream was a great 
feeding court for pigeons when feeding on 
beechnuts. In the spring of 1875 he made over 
$400 catching pigeons, and I believe it was in 
the spring of 1876 that I assisted my grand¬ 
father in making a haul of \2 ]/ 2 dozen at one 
time, which, in that locality, was a record catch. 
“Father and his brother, my uncle John, were 
noted as expert pigeon catchers of southern 
Michigan, and until a few years ago always kept 
stool pigeons in hopes that the passenger pigeons 
would return. The last passenger pigeons were 
caught in that country in the spring of 1886, 
when just across the line from Michigan in In¬ 
diana and about three miles south of where I 
was born, a large flock came to feed, but it was 
impossible to decoy them to the net beds. We 
erected a bough-house and did our utmost to de- 
c©y them by the old tactics, but failed until one 
morning when my father was away, my brother 
and I succeeded in decoying a small flock of 
one and one-half dozen, and although I was 
very small at the time I succeeded in swing¬ 
ing the net and caught the bunch. 
“Referring to the picture of the old stool I 
greatly regret that I am not able to furnish you 
with one of the old relics. They have them at 
home, however. I also note the picture of the 
net which you have in your book. This is not 
the kind of a net used by us. My father and 
uncle John have the old nets we used and many 
of the other requirements used in the sport of 
catching pigeons.” W. B. Mershon. 
Enemies of the Quail. 
Doniphan, Mo., May 10. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Sportsmen, as a rule, are the ones the 
farmers invariably blame as the greatest de¬ 
stroyers of quail, but it is a fact that to a 
certainty the farmers every year indirectly 
cause more loss of bird life—especially among 
the quail family—than all the effects of the 
modern shotguns in the hands of skilled wing 
shots. The steady increase in the price of 
Eastern and Western farm lands, and with it 
the increase in taxation, has made intense culti¬ 
vation necessary to bring the farmer profit on 
his present high-priced land. And where these 
conditions prevail, it is absolutely certain that 
decrease of the quail family must follow. 
To begin with, the cornfield is one of the 
chief places in which the quail suffer in winter. 
By intense cultivation not a weed or grass 
seed is left on the ground, and what even was 
shattered in gathering and fallen to the ground, 
the hogs of the land holders are supposed to turn 
into profit; so, when winter comes, is it any 
wonder that birds migrate south to our country? 
If they stop in the favored agricultural sec¬ 
tions that remain there, then the fate of 
starvation awaits them. The old rail fence, the 
home of ragweed, beggar-lice, briars and 
noxious weeds, is no more left to the birds, the 
modern woven wire fence has abolished this, 
and at the same time a refuge and feeding spot 
for quail. The increasing acreage of meadow 
land with its sequence, the mower, makes nest¬ 
ing conditions very unfavorable, especially 
where there are no open tracts of timber as 
here, where birds can ignore all attempts of tbe 
tiller of the soil to drive them away from the 
country. 
A heavy sleet of several weeks’ duration is the 
only thing birds have to fear here, for then the 
food is covered and many freeze—something 
that has happened twice in the last thirty years. 
And then what I think saved a lot, to multiply 
in numbers again, w T ere the ever-present red- 
birds of the tanager family, whose ferocious at¬ 
tacks at the ice-bound sumac, scattered suf¬ 
ficient amount on the ground to make a meal 
for the birds, enough so to keep w'armth in 
their already weak bodies. 
Fields of sorghum and cow peas helped in 
like manner, but owing to an extreme drouth 
during the summer that usual food supply for 
the birds was wanting. For two whole weeks 
the ground was covered with sleet, and the 
thickets of sumac were covered with ice. It was 
impossible to secure corn at any price; but the 
writer with very little trouble carried safely 
through the inclement period eighteen coveys 
of birds, to his knowledge, if not more. The 
method of procedure was to go through the 
thickets of sumac and knock off tops with a 
heavy stick, and it was not long before the birds 
hugged these places. It was pitiful to see some 
coveys run ahead, almost sliding on the ice, but 
scarcely able to fly any but a short distance, 
and when they would, they would alight sud¬ 
denly, almost stunning themselves when they 
reached the ground. 
Heavy snowstorms we never fear, for the 
jungles of white oak tops, left by the tie makers, 
furnish a place for some food and shelter better 
than man can devise, and that great helpmate, 
the razor-back hog, clears off the snow in 
places and brings food to the birds, also the 
tanagers, jays and sparrows shower sumac, rag¬ 
weed and other seeds. So a heavy snow alone 
does not work a hardship on these birds. In 
many of the cornfields plenty of feed is left for 
the birds, the practice of sowing cow peas at 
the last cultivation of corn and the stalks left 
standing for forage, insures the quail family 
against ordinary conditions of famine. If in the 
farming sections, where the woven wire fence 
has displaced the old quail shelters, shelter and 
food are scarce, this could be avoided by sowing 
cow peas close to the fense. The climbing or 
vining kinds are the best, such as the black, 
clay and red ripper; they will not only furnish 
food all winter, but if planted thickly and live 
stock kept away from it, it will furnish good 
shelter. For tbe North the vining peas, the 
red ripper and clay would be the best. They 
make lots of vine and do not rot in wet seasons 
as many other varieties in the North. Cow 
peas should not be planted until first of June, 
and they will then make a crop by the month 
of September. Sorghum, if tops here and there 
are tied together, will help for food and shelter, 
and so much more so, if in the same hill two 
or three cow peas are dropped in. It will not 
interfere with the growth. 
Loch Laddie. 
Grouse Habits. 
Wellesley Farms, Mass., May 12.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: I have read with interest 
the articles on the scarcity of our ruffed grouse 
and would like to suggest as an explanation that 
last fall the birds entirely changed their usual 
habits. 
I had very good luck in finding them last year 
and managed to get my usual number chiefly 
through a lucky discovery. The first of October 
I started early, and for a week found pn an 
average perhaps two birds a day, mostly old 
ones. During this time I looked for them where 
I had usually found them at that time, in the 
swamps or in close cover near the swamps. 
About the tenth of the month I happened to 
cross a small hardwood hill, mostly beech woods, 
and jumped nine birds which I followed and 
had good sport that day. 
After that I had very little trouble in locat¬ 
ing birds for the rest of the- season, though I 
do not think they were as plentiful as I have 
seen them. This was in southern New Hamp¬ 
shire, and I heard many say that there were no 
birds. My finding them makes me think that 
the other fellows did not look ■ hard or far 
enough. 
I did not, however, find the usual number of 
young birds and several of those I located had 
a good many lice aboard, which may explain 
why there were fewer youngsters. Woodcock 
were unusually plentiful which, when the grouse 
are scarce, I have noticed is often the case. 
Why, I do not understand, as their habits are 
so radically different. Perhaps someone can en¬ 
lighten us on that. Mark Hopkins, Jr. 
CAMP SUPPLIES. 
Camp supplies should include Borden’s Eagle 
Brand Condensed Milk, Peerless Brand Evapor¬ 
ated Milk and Borden’s Malted Milk, all of 
which contain substantial and compact nourish¬ 
ment, and supplying every milk or cream re¬ 
quirement.— Adz: 
