454 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 17, 1910. 
Quail and Upland Plover. 
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 8 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: "it" you should intimate that quail in 
Texas late in the fall pack together in bands of 
hundreds,” remarked Billy Townsend, to a little 
knot of sportsmen, ”you would expect to be 
called down, wouldn't you? But it is a fact. I 
have seen many a pack of quail in the Lone Star 
State containing as many as one hundred birds'.” 
Texas is not the only section in which quail 
pack. They do it in Nebraska to some extent. 
Fifteen years ago, however, next month, while 
shooting ducks on the Lake Creek marshes in 
Dakota, I saw at least 300 quail in one pack on 
the White River. They arose out of the strag¬ 
gling weeds on the flat side of the river, and I, 
and Indian Jim Reshaw, who was with me, were 
not more than twenty-five yards from them when 
they arose. They flew across the river and 
alighted in a pack among the scraggy pines, but 
scattered the next time we put them up. We did 
not shoot into them because Captain Penny, then 
the commandant at Pine Ridge, religiously pro¬ 
tected the quail. That quail also pack in this 
State I have not the slightest doubt. I have 
seen covies of sixty and seventy-five birds many 
and many a time up the Platte and in Stanton 
county. One fall, while shooting in the latter 
place with Ted Ackerman and Frank Campbell, 
we flushed numerous covies of from fifty to one 
hundred birds. 
Favorable reports are reaching me every few 
days about the encouraging prospects for quail 
this fall; that is, of course, in certain localities. 
In the central counties there will be plenty of 
birds. There are many other points, too, from 
which I have good reports, especially where 
there is plenty of natural cover. The very gen¬ 
eral understanding last spring was that the birds 
had been extensively winter-killed, but it seems 
that the few left over have been particularly for¬ 
tunate in producing large broods. The weather 
could not have been finer for the breeding of 
either quail or chickens, and thus the natural 
laws of compensation have been nicely balanced. 
While all good sportsman will feel much elated 
over these fine prospects, they will likewise bear 
in mind that there can be no quail hunting in 
this State this fall, as the law provides for no 
open season. The probabilities are, however, 
that a brief open season will be provided for 
by the next Legislature, although the advisability 
of such a move is extremely problematical. 
W. D. Townsend and Eddie George were in 
Fillmore county Sunday last after upland plover. 
They found the birds in widely scattered bunches 
and exceedingly wary, but bagged fifty-one. 
George Carson and Charlie Thorpe, of Geneva, 
were in the part}', and altogether they had a 
good day’s sport. 
Not nearly so many plover passed over Omaha 
this season as usual and those that did come 
down from their northern breeding grounds 
came two weeks later than usual. When it is 
understood that the season for nesting has been 
one of the best for years, it is hard to under¬ 
stand why the birds have been less abundant and 
why they came in so late. I am in receipt of a 
letter from George Carson, of Geneva, who, 
while he says the birds have begun to leave, 
thinks he can give me a capital day’s shooting 
; f I come down. 
Dr. J. H. Mackay, of Norfolk, on the Elk- 
horn, writes me that a farmer residing near his 
place found a nest of fifty-six garter snakes 
about half grown and killed every one of them. 
In destroying these snakes the farmer upsets 
the balance of nature on his farm and this will 
work an inevitable injury to himself. All the 
nonpoisonous terrestrial snakes of Nebraska are 
harmless, and being carnivorous they are useful 
in subduing the rodent family. The common 
garter snake cannot bite and is a great mouser, 
being particularly fond of hairless young rats 
which he captures by crawling under logs, boards 
and into the holes where rats and mice breed. 
Occasionally he devours a fledgling bird, an egg 
or a frog, when mice are scarce. The bullsnake 
lives almost exclusively on the prairie ground 
squirrel, as does the rattlesnake. 
Many farmers will take the chances of their 
teams running away to pursue and kill a bull- 
snake that protects their crops from the ravages 
of the rodent family. The national rat bill of 
the Lhiited States is $180,000,000 per year. The 
terrestrial snakes are not migratory, and they do 
not disseminate disease like the rat family. Not 
only do rats and squirrels carry the plague, but 
it is believed that many other diseases of man 
and animals are spread by rats. The extermina¬ 
tion of the rat and mouse seems hopeless. The 
extinction of his natural enemies seems inevi¬ 
table. Snakes of all species are becoming less 
plentiful in agricultural districts where rats and 
mice are most numerous and work vast injury. 
The cutting of groves where hawks and owls 
nested, and the wholesale slaughter of these 
birds by farmers, add another chapter to the sad 
story of how the farmer destroys the friends 
of his farm. In a nest of redtailed hawks ex¬ 
amined some years ago on Union Creek I found 
eight ground squirrels that had been killed that 
day. In the crop of a red-tailed hawk I found 
portions of a young rabbit, two prairie squirrels 
and a small snake. The preference of a’l hawks 
and owls is for small animals, and only when 
they become depraved or from a scarcity of 
mammals do they capture birds, the big-horned 
owl and the Cooper’s hawk being the chief of¬ 
fenders. 
The badger excavates the citadel of the pocket 
gopher as a- woodpecker would invade the sanc¬ 
tuary of a worm in a rotten tree, but whoever 
misses an opportunity to brain this useful ani¬ 
mal classed everywhere as “varmint?” The skunk 
has earned a bad name, but if its life story were 
fully known the balance would be on the side of 
the service he does to agriculture. The coyote 
never misses a chance to snap up a mouse, rat 
or a gopher, and as these during the summer are 
easier to get than other food, he follows the line 
of least resistance in pursuit of his daily meals. 
Sandy Griswold. 
Log Cabin Again Burned. 
St. John’s, N. F., Sept. 8 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Many Americans who have visited 
Newfoundland will read with regret the follow¬ 
ing from this morning’s News: 
The Log Cabin, Spruce Brook, has again 
been destroyed by fire. The conflagration oc¬ 
curred at 4 this morning when all the inmates 
were asleep, and. but for the alertness of Miss 
Ashbourne, they would probably have lost their 
lives. She was awakened by a strong smell of 
smoke, which came pouring into the rooms, and 
immediately aroused Mr. Poulet and the other 
inmates. There was no time to dress, and Mr. 
Poulet, the guests and servants fled in their 
night clothes. One of the servants became ex¬ 
cited and could not be induced to descend the 
stairs. The delay occasioned in the attempt to 
rescue her from an upper window, prevented 
any attempt to save the contents of the hotel. 
In a few minutes the rafters fell and the lately 
erected edifice was a smoking ruin. No insur¬ 
ance was carried and the hotel is a total loss. 
Several parties had arranged to stay at the 
Log Cabin for the fall shooting, and those will 
be disappointed to hear that it has been burnt. 
Messrs. Dodd and Poulet, profiting by past ex¬ 
perience, built the Log Cabin with all its ap¬ 
pointment right up to date. 
The first contingent of caribou hunters arrived 
last week from the United States, and these are 
but the forerunners of many more to come. As 
many of them are armed with cameras as well 
as rifles, I shall not be surprised during the com¬ 
ing winter to see in Forest and Stream some 
interesting illustrated articles dealing with can 
bou hunting in Newfoundland. 
W. J. Carroll. 
Back at the Cabin. 
Alleghany, Cal., Aug. 29 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: You have no idea what a joy it is to 
get a copy.of Forest and Stream after a year 
and a half of non-arrival of the journal, for I 
must confess shamefacedly that I allowed my¬ 
self to do without a sight of the publication for 
all of eighteen months. My excuse is my no¬ 
madic occupation—prospecting in the sierras for 
gold-bearing ledges. It has led me through 
seven counties in Northern California, and I 
have had no permanent address for some time. 
I had to drop Forest and Stream until a few 
months ago, but on arriving at my home camp 
recently I found an accumulation of issues. It 
is like getting back to a circle of old friends 
from whom you have been separated for many 
years. 
In my one-room log cabin on Lafayette ridge, 
at candle light, beside a blazing open hearth fire 
of red oak and yellow pine I sat the other eve¬ 
ning pulling off the wrappers and eagerly reading 
the articles pertaining to various phases of out¬ 
door life. 
I am not going to say much in this letter be¬ 
yond letting you know that I am still on earth, 
and that later I shall tell of my experiences and 
observations while seeking the native locus of 
gold. Northern California has had a dry sum¬ 
mer. The Yuba, Feather and American rivers 
all have been lower this season than in many 
years and all industries have suffered more or 
less. One feature in connection with the drouth 
t 
is the prevalence of fires in the grand old forest 
that clothes the western slope of the Sierra 
Nevada range. A couple of weeks, ago I had 
to take part in a forest fire-fighting campaign, 
the conflagration visiting one of my own claims. 
Fires have been raging in neighboring counties 
for the past two or three weeks, and the atmos¬ 
phere over a large area is heavy with smoke, the 
temperature is high and the weather sultry. 
However, the nights are cool and when I have 
retired shortly after dusk to my couch of pine 
boughs and woolen blankets, Somnus and Mor¬ 
pheus are both kind. 
I invariably awake at daybreak and can see 
the deer drinking at the spring in the ravine 200 
yards below the cabin. They might be easily j 
