UNE, 1918 
FOREST AND ST R E A M 
361 
"Alo~&sr' 
A CORRECTION 
itor Forest and Stream: 
)n page 206 of jour April issue ap- 
red a photograph of a Stone sheep shot 
me and underneath it was stated that 
head was mounted by Schwarz, St. 
iis. As a matter of fact, this sheep 
; mounted for me by James L. Clark, 
) Southern Boulevard, New York City, 
) has mounted practically all of my 
'hies. I will appreciate the favor of a 
ection. 
Powhatan Robinson. 
AN INTERESTING QUERY 
or Forest and Stream: 
any years ago I had some correspond- 
with Mr. Geo. Bird Grinnell, then oc- 
ing your chair, and though I do not 
v whether he is still occupying the 
should feel much obliged if it could 
scertained, possibly by a brief query 
lur columns, whether other sportsmen 
have shot specimens of the antelope- 
of the Pacific Coast, Mountains— 
'ocerus montanus —have observed a 
■what remarkable habit exhibited by 
? I am alluding to a pose they as- 
when they desire to increase their 
on by squatting on their hindquarters 
sitting up like a begging poodle or a 
rabbit. I have seen them doing this 
-veral occasions and mention it as a 
us habit in my “Fifteen Years Sport 
Jfe in Western America” (1900), but 
te I have heard of several men who, 
;se they have not seen it, throw doubt 
y tale. I am away from my books, 
f my memory does not betray me a 
sman from your side who did a good 
mountain-goat shooting confirmed in 
'f his books or articles my observa- 
Do you happen to remember the 
?e? If so, particulars would oblige 
:ry much. 
sibly it was ex-President Theodore 
if' Z de - S ° f F ?™ st and Stream are invited 
on various subjects, although their views 
Roosevelt who hunted in the Kootenay 
country some years after I had been there 
(he wrote a very interesting Foreword for 
one of my books) and I would write to 
him direct, but do not like troubling him 
at such busy times and with his health in 
an unsatisfactory state. If you think he 
has sufficiently recovered, and are unable 
to assist me, perhaps you will be good 
enough to forward him this letter, on the 
chance of his finding a spare moment to 
reply to it through his Secretary. 
Apologizing for troubling you in the 
matter, 
Yours faithfully, 
W m. A. Baillie-Groh man, England. 
[We have referred your letter to Dr. 
Grinnell, who writes: 
“I think it quite possible that Mr. Baillie- 
Grohmann may' have been the first person 
who described this odd habit of the so- 
called white goat ( Oreamnus montanus), 
but the habit of sitting up on the haunches 
like a dog, or even sitting up with the fore¬ 
feet raised in the air, has been alluded to 
by a number of people who have shot this 
species. I do not think Owen Wister, who 
wrote the article on the white goat and its 
country for American Big Game Hunting, 
and also one for Scribner’s volume on 
Bison, Muskox, Wild Sheep and Goats, 
speaks of it, but it is well known to all 
hunters who have pursued this species.” 
Col. Roosevelt is in good health and we 
believe will be interested in your letter 
which will be placed before him. Editors.] 
FROM A REAL OLD-TIMER 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The April number of Forest and Stream 
is a thing of beauty and interest. Beauty 
begins with the front cover page; although 
1 can appreciate the wonderful colors of 
the many different flies, mj ? interest in 
these practically ends there. 
I once wrote the late Fred Mather that 
I was no angler. Was too lazy to fish; 
but would row a boat all day for some one 
else to do the fishing, if I could have my 
gun laying on the seat beside me. Mr. 
Mather wrote back, “You are just the man 
I am looking for.” In August, 1855, I did 
this for Grover Cleveland for two days; 
he got the fish and I got the ducks, squir¬ 
rels and partridge (we had no grouse those 
days), and we were both satisfied. I re¬ 
member he hooked a large black bass in a 
flood wood and lost him. He staved there 
an hour for that fish but failed to get it, 
but he caught others of less size. I am 
just fisherman enough to know that it 
to use these columns to express their opinions 
may not coincide with those of the Editors .] 
is always the largest fish that get away. 
After the beautiful cover page, came the 
wonderful photographs of “The Drumming 
of the Ruffed Grouse,” which was more in¬ 
teresting to me. I never dreamed, much 
less ever expected to live to see a dozen 
photographs of a drumming grouse. In 
my boyhood days I have often tried to get 
even a glimpse of one in the very act, but 
never succeeded in doing so. That ’ was 
probably owing to the fact that I did not 
give them time to do so before I shot them. 
At that time I had never heard of shooting 
a partridge while flying. After the grouse 
article came the interesting (to me) “Amid 
the Hills and Dales of Warwick,” by Wid- 
geon (a name that I remember in Forest 
and Stream nearly 40 j^ears ago). I say 
that it was interesting to me, as I know 
it must refer to ‘'The Warwick Wood¬ 
lands” of Frank Forrester, which was the 
first sportsman’s story book I ever read, 
more than 40 years ago. In the third col¬ 
umn, page 204, Widgeon asks,* “Have 
any of my readers eaten a breakfast 
of buckwheat cakes, from buckwheat 
grown on your own farm?” Yes, Wid¬ 
geon, I have hundreds of times, of course 
I mean on my Father’s farm, as long ago 
as I can remember, which is at least 80 
years ago. But we did not have honey 
made from the buckwheat flowers as we 
did not like that brand of honey. We pre¬ 
ferred maple syrup from our own sugar 
bush, and we also had butter from our own 
cows, and I milked the milk furnished by 
those cows at least 73 years ago; and I 
think that I might make a year or two 
longer and be within bounds. 
I am indebted to Widgeon for one thing 
that I have been trying to prove for manv 
years. Again more than 70 years ago I 
was following two mowers in the meadow, 
spreading the grass, when one of the men 
cut the head off a black snake four or five 
feet long, that had a white ring around its 
neck. Both men said that they had never 
seen a snake like it before, and I have 
never seen one like it until more than 
j'ears after this occurrence. I was 
visiting my boyhood home in Jefferson 
County, New York, some 12 or 15 y-ears 
ago, when I caught and killed a smafl black 
snake 16 inches long which had a white 
ring around its neck. I showed it to at 
least 50 people in the village, and none of 
them had ever seen one like it. I put it 
in a bottle of alcohol expecting to bring it 
home, but forgot it. At the top of page 
205 Widgeon tells of dropping astride a 
dead black snake with a white ring around 
its neck, which was at least eight feet long 
