Dec. 3, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
893 
The Queen Charlotte’s Islands Caribou. 
Word comes from British Columbia that 
Francis Kermode, Curator of the Provincial 
Museum, has just returned from a month’s ex¬ 
ploration of Graham Island, where he went in 
search of specimens of the caribou known to 
exist there. These caribou have been vainly 
sought for many times, and by naturalists who 
were eminently competent for the work. Charles 
Sheldon spent a long time on the island trying 
to find them, and W. FI. Osgood, then of the 
United States Biological Survey, did the same 
thing. Mr. Sheldon saw tracks. 
In the latter part of the year 1909, three speci¬ 
mens, two bulls and a cow, were shot by two 
half breeds named Yeomans and White, and were 
photographed. The capture was announced in 
Forest and Stream of Jan. 16, 1909, by Allan 
Brooks, and the photograph reproduced. 
Mr. Kermode returned from his expedition 
without any spec'mens of the caribou nor did he 
condition for mounting, as the Indians did not 
know how to prepare them for this purpose and 
I suppose were not much interested anyway. 
"During our trip G. Pittendrigh, who was with 
me, and I, not only saw the tracks of which I 
have spoken, but we found the ske’etons of the 
three caribou killed by the Indians in 1908 and 
brought back the big bones to be used in the 
mounting of the skins if possible.” 
The mystery of the Queen Charlotte's Islands 
caribou thus remains still a mystery. No one 
knows how many of the animals there are, how 
they got there, nor even what they are like— 
since the known specimens are so few. 
The Home Life of the Spoonbill. 
From the press of Witherby & Co., of London, 
comes an attractive volume which deals with 
"The Home Life of the Spoonbil’, the Stork and 
Some Herons.” This life is described by Bent¬ 
ley Beetham, F.Z.S.. and illustrated by thirty- 
New Publications. 
Wilderness Pets at Camp Buckshaw, by Ed¬ 
ward Breck. Cloth, 240 pages, illustrated 
from photographs, $1.50 net. Boston and 
New York, Houghton Mifflin Company. 
What Dr. Breck calls a plain tale of his camp 
in Nova Scotia and his pets may be mistaken as 
a book for little folks, as indeed it is; but it is 
also one every adult may read with profit, as he 
or she is certain to do with pleasure. The char¬ 
acteristic bear story is essential'y humorous, for 
among the lower order of animals the black 
bears are the wearers of the motley, and Dr. 
Breck has described the antics of t,wo cubs in 
a way that appeals to the readers’ sense of 
humor. And there are other pets whose habits 
he watched and recorded—crows, a raven, gulls, 
loons, squirrels and a porcupine. There is no 
nature faking in the narrative, and indeed the 
doctor gives a hint here and there of his opin¬ 
ions concerning those who write animal fiction. 
WILD LIFE IN THE PONDS OF MR. TILLEY AT DARIEN, CONN. 
even see any. He is quoted by a correspondent 
of the New York Sun as follows: 
“We spent our time mostly on the west coast 
of Virago Sound, where traces of these animals 
have been found in the past. We saw tracks 
of two, but these were several weeks old and 
of the animals themselves we obtained no sight. 
“The existence of this particular species of 
caribou was first reported in 1882, and a de¬ 
scription was prepared by Ernest Thompson 
Seton from rather scanty materials, as all he had 
to rely upon was a fragment of skull and one 
horn, together with a description of the skin 
given by a man who had seen it. From these 
data Mr. Thompson Seton felt warranted in 
concluding that the caribou was of a hitherto 
unknown species. 
“Some traces of the animal were next ob¬ 
tained in February, 1906, by officers of FI. M. S. 
Shearwater, who visited the Queen Charlotte 
Islands for the purpose of making a search. 
They saw tracks and picked up a shed antler 
but did not catch .sight of their quarry. 
“In November, 1908, some Indian hunters were 
more successful. They killed three of these cari¬ 
bou and brought in the skins as conclusive evi¬ 
dence of their story. These skins were obtained 
for the Provincial Museum, but were not in good 
two excellent mounted photographs made by him. 
The volume contains four chapters of about 
twelve pages each, describing what the author 
saw of the life of the birds while waiting to 
photograph them. The chapters contain much 
that is interesting. 
After a short time the birds became entirely ac¬ 
customed to the tent from which the author made 
his pictures, so that his experience in this matter 
was entirely like that of Mr. Chapman, who has 
done such a vast amount of work of this kind. 
In his account of the life of the common heron 
—not widely different in habits from some of 
our own larger herons—the author speaks of see¬ 
ing an old bird returning to the nest bringing a 
young rat as food for the young. He notes also 
that the pellets disgorged by the herons are 
largely composed of "the tough wire hair of 
rats, whose bones also naturally figure abund¬ 
antly in the collection,” and adds that "the birds 
must, therefore, do a good deal of useful >vork 
for which they receive little or no credit.” 
The volume is one that will interest all orni¬ 
thologists. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
An interesting example is found in his descrip¬ 
tion of hoV two young gulls learned to fly, first 
by flapping their wings, then by little runs along 
a canoe float, and finally by jumping off the end 
of a spring board extending out from the float, 
or from stones alongshore. He gives the time 
consumed as about two weeks. 
In one of the concluding chapters Dr. Breck 
records the capture, on a handline, of a tuna 
measuring 9 1 / feet and weighing 800 pounds, 
which he says is not a record. After playing the 
big mackerel three hours, it was shot. 
Sportsmen who have read Albert Bigelow 
Paine’s "Tent Dwellers” with pleasure may jump 
to the conclusion that in the “Uncle Ned” of the 
book of pets they have identified the “Eddie” 
of Paine’s book. 
Books Received: "Forest Life and Sport in 
India,” by Sainthill Eardley-Wi mot; New York, 
Longmans, Green & Co. “The Young Guide,” by 
Clarence B. Burleigh; Boston, Lathrop, Lee & 
Shepard Company. “A Gamekeeper’s Note¬ 
book,” by Owen Jones and Marcus Woodward; 
New York, Longmans, Green & Co. “The Big 
Game of Africa,” by Richard Tjader; New 
York, D. Appleton & Co. “In Forbidden Seas,” 
by H. J. Snow; Longmans, Green & Co. 
