Nov. 12, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
765 
hardware dealer’s place of business, when he 
told me the following: “One Sunday several 
years ago I was out for a walk with a young 
dog I had just purchased; and, naturally-enough, 
my steps led to a small cover near town, where 
an occasional woodcock was found. I thought 
possibly there might be one there, and wished 
to try the dog on a point. I did not have a 
gun with me, but carried a light walking-stick. 
The dog worked carefully through the cover 
without even making game, but just as he came 
out on the further side he froze stiff about ten 
feet from a cedar bush. I came out about ten 
feet on the opposite side of the bush, and could 
plainly see a woodcock sitting under it. The 
thought came to me to make a rush and hit 
him with my walking-stick as he went up; but 
after less than a second’s deliberation, I raised 
the cane and threw it at him, striking him fair 
in the head, and stunning him so that I ran 
and picked him up before he could recover.” 
The above is vouched for by several reputable 
men; and by its oddity it reminds me of one of 
the strangest occurrences which has happened 
in my hunting life. The snow was about a 
foot and a half deep and light. We were hunt¬ 
ing rabbits. The bag was rather light, so when 
I spied a partridge in a hemlock tree, I prompt¬ 
ly fired at him; but the effect of my shot seemed 
only to hasten his speed more than usual if 
possible. We followed, and had gone some dis¬ 
tance without seeing him again, when I stepped 
on to an old log to get a better view. As I 
stepped off on the other side I felt something 
moving under one of my feet, and I could 
hear the confused fluttering of wings. Quickly 
looking down I saw that I had stepped on a 
partridge, which had, probably, striven to hide 
under the snow. On capturing and examining 
the bird a shot mark was'found on one of his 
legs, which was the only wound seen; and a 
post-mortem confirmed the diagnosis. So he 
was, probably, the bird shot at, which had flown 
some distance, and, striking the snow at an 
angle, had gone under for safety, as they some¬ 
times do during severe storms. 
In this narrative of novel happenings the fol¬ 
lowing seems worthy of a place: A young 
gentleman of the name of Northup, who was 
staying at Dunbar’s, at Stillwater, a short time 
ago, went to Mud Pond, about three miles 
above Stillwater, to’ watch for a daylight shot. 
He waited until daylight waned without seeing 
any game; and as he was some distance from 
camp and one of the plucky kind, he concluded 
after eating his lunch to make a night of it and 
try his luck the next morning. So finding as 
comfortable a spot as possible to lie on, he pre¬ 
pared to sleep. Night had let her blanket of 
darkness fall upon the land, and Morpheus was 
lulling him to a quiet slumber, when suddenly 
he was startled from a dream of a monster deer 
by the sharp cracking of dry sticks, as if some 
animal were walking. He raised himself to a 
sitting posture, and as he did so the thought 
occurred to him that it was a deer coming 
down to drink. 
The night was dark as Erebus; he could not 
see his hand before his face. How he was to 
see the deer, to say nothing about shooting her, 
was a question. After a few seconds’ thought, 
he decided to get his rifle ready anyhow; it was 
close beside him; and as he reached for it his 
hand brushed against the paper bag he had 
carried his lunch in. At this moment a scheme 
flashed across his mind and he proceeded to 
execute it and the deer at the same time. Silent¬ 
ly cocking his rifle, he laid it across his knees, 
with the muzzle pointing toward the sounds 
he had heard, then he took off his hat. carefully 
picked up the paper bag and placed it, or as 
much of it as he could without making any 
noise, in the hat. When this was done he took 
out one of those old-fashioned, blue-headed, 
Gate’s eighteen-day matches (it takes something 
like that amount of time for the brimstone to 
burn before there is a flame that can be used), 
and holding the hat with the paper toward him, 
he lit the match in his coat, and as soon as 
possible lit the paper bag, which instantly 
blazed up, when he could see a fine doe standing 
a few yards from him. As the bag lighted he 
had turned it toward the deer, which immediate¬ 
ly turned her eyes full upon the light. In an 
instant Mr. Northup had raised the rifle to his 
shoulder with one hand, holding the hat with 
the blazing bag in it with the other, and shot 
her in the head, dropping her in her tracks. 
He then built a fire, by the light of which he 
dressed his deer and hung her up, after which 
he awaited daylight by enjoying that sleep 
which a contented mind always brings in the 
woods. The next morning he returned to camp 
for help to bring in his deer and told his story, 
which was generally voted to be the “biggest 
lie of the season,” but to the guide who went 
with him after the meat he showed such con¬ 
clusive evidence of the truth of his story that 
its veracity is not questioned. Osceola. 
BIRDS BUILD INCUBATORS. 
The mound builders sometimes called Mega- 
podes—big feet—are an odd group of birds 
found in East India and some other tropical 
lands. They seem to have retained, after a 
fashion, the method of incubation practiced by 
their reptilian ancestors millions of years ago. 
F. W. Reid, in the Los Angeles Times, says 
that these birds built incubators which, of 
course, is not far from the truth. 
Some birds even depart from the custom of 
their class and build incubators in order to 
hatch their eggs without the trouble of brood¬ 
ing. The “mound builders” deposit their eggs 
in a huge pile composed of dirt, dead leaves, 
dry sticks and other debris of the woods. See¬ 
ing one for the first time in a Malayan forest, 
the traveler takes it for a mere heap of rubbish, 
and is surprised when his native guide proceeds 
to burrow into it in quest of eggs. But when 
the searcher, after removing the top layers, un¬ 
covers a clutch of eggs or a lively little chick, 
fully feathered and able to fly, the secret is out. 
The brushwood pile must surely be an incu¬ 
bator. 
These birds have surely “builded better than 
they knew.” It is easy for us to see that the 
mound acts like a gardener’s hotbed. The slow 
fermentation of the vegetable rubbish heats it 
from within; the tropical sun from without. 
The climate of their habitat is equable; the dif¬ 
ference between the night and day temperatures 
is small. The evaporation that follows a heavy 
fall of rain reduces the temperature considerably 
even in the tropics. But the birds lay only in 
the dry season. The mound is loosely put to¬ 
gether. Thus air is admitted to ventilate the 
eggs, and light enough to put the newly born 
chicken on the track of the outside world. The 
mound is, in fact, an incubator in the rough, 
practically adapted to the needs of birds living 
in a warm climate. 
QUAIL IN CITY LOTS. 
A large number of quails are making their 
homes and feeding grounds in the gardens of 
Bedford and are to be found there, especially 
at night. It is thought that they take refuge in 
the gardens for safety from hawks, one of their 
most relentless enemies, as the hawks are about 
as plentiful as quails in the country districts. 
The quails have become very tame. W. F. 
Molloy, a traveling salesman of Cincinnati, 
caught two quails as they flew up to him in the 
Court House Park. About many homes the 
quais may be heard calling bob white every 
morning.—Indianapolis News. 
Let Us Ten Your Hide. 
And let us do youi- head mounting-, rug, robe, coat, and 
glove making. You never lose anything, and generally 
gain by dealing direct with headquarters. 
We tan deer skins with hair on for rugs, or trophies, or 
dress them into buckskin glove leather. Bear, dog, calf, 
cow, horse or any other kind of hide or skin tanned with 
the hair or fur on, and finished soft, light, odorless, i#oth 
proof and made up into rugs, gloves, caps, men’s and 
women’s garments when so ordered. 
Get our illustrated catalog which gives prices of tanning, 
taxidermy and head mounting. Also prices of fur goods 
and big mounted game heads we sell. 
THE CROSBY FRISIAN FIR COMPANY, 
584 Lyell Avenue - - Rochester, N. Y. 
MOUNT BIRDS and ANIMALS 
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NORTHWESTERN SCHOOL of TAXIDERMY 
1728 Elwood Building, OMAHA, NEB. 
Perfection Bird 
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Beautify your grounds 
and help your bird 
neighbors by securing 
one of our Martin 
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Nesting boxes for 
Wrens, Bluebirds 
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Send 10c. for new 1911 cata¬ 
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second supplement booklet, 
containing reporls from per¬ 
sons who put up our Martin 
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Jacobs Bird House Co. 
404 So. Washington St. 
Waynesburg, Pa. 
CARP BAIT. 
Stark Corley, aged n years, of Elkins, W. 
Va., eaught a big carp with a hook and line 
near Tyre Ford, not far from Elkins recently. 
The boy baited the hook with corn grains and 
succeeded in enticing the carp to take a bite, 
after which he worried it until it became ex¬ 
hausted and was landed without difficulty. The 
fish measured 35^2 inches in length, 21 inches 
in circumference and weighed 25 pounds.—Balti¬ 
more Sun. 
WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 
Containing Scientific and Practical Descriptions of 
Wildfowl;' Their Resorts, Habits, Flights and the Most 
Successful Method of Hunting Them. Treating of the 
selection of guns for wildfowl shooting, how to load, aim 
and to use them; decoys and the proper manner of 
using them; blinds, how and where to construct them; 
boats, how to use and build them scientifically; re¬ 
trievers, their characteristics, how to select and train 
them. By William Bruce Leffingwell. Illustrated. 373 
pages. Price, in cloth, $1.50; half morocco, $2.50. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
