Dec. io, 1910.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
923 
Big game 
hunters can 
outfit at the 
right prices at 
Philadelphia’s 
Sporting Goods 
Headquarters 
Write for Catalogue B. 
Shannon 
816 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia 
BIRDS THAT STAY. 
All of the robins do not leave for the South 
when fall blends into winter. Many cockrobins 
and hens remain with us throughout the year. 
They can be found any bright day in winter on 
the southeast slopes of our foothills, in the 
densest patches of evergreens, feeding on cedar 
berries and seeds of such plants as protrude 
above the snow, and they seem to come out fat 
and husky in the spring. If it became neces¬ 
sary all of these birds could fly 500 miles south¬ 
ward on a December night and come back next 
day, but really it seems that many of them pre¬ 
fer to endure some cold and scarcity of food 
rather than take the flight. 
Robins have been found roosting close to¬ 
gether on the boughs of firs, spruces and 
balsams weighted down by four or five inches of 
snow, but the snow was merely a warm blanket 
to keep the wind off, and each feather of the 
birds was curled to hold air warmed by the 
bodies of the birds. They looked as big as quail 
under such circumstances. It is a well-known 
law of nature that a film of air is the best non¬ 
conductor of heat, and the trick of curling the 
feathers is represented by the birds in the same 
manner as the housewife arranges the bedcloth¬ 
ing—in summer a light cotton sheet; in winter 
a woolen blanket, whose interstices are full of 
air, or a quilt of downy feathers. The birds 
knew this law of physics before man or woman 
discovered it. Hence the fact that every bird 
looks thin and sleek in warm weather and fat 
as a butterball in sharp weather. The wild 
fowls, gulls, petrels and penguins of the North 
are thickly covered with down under their 
feathers and have the sense and power to curl 
their feathers to hold in a blanket of air. Their 
feet seem to be absolutely immune from the 
effects of cold, and they sleep comfortably on 
snow or ice, but it will be noticed that while 
reposing they invariably squat down on their 
feet and keep the tops warm with the thick coat 
of feathers. A hen on the roost on a cold 
winter night will do the same thing, and that 
is the reason why poultry growers give them 
flat roosts so that their toes will not freeze. 
The birds of the desert are scantily feathered 
and those which they grow are apparently for 
ornamental purposes only. The migratory 
birds molt on going South and assume new and 
brighter plumage in spring to make themselves 
attractive to the sober colored females. The 
bobolink comes North in May with a gorgeous 
plumage of black, white and yellow. In a week 
or two his plainly garbed mate arrives looking 
like a hen sparrow. After mating and raising a 
brood or two, the male bobolink assumes, by 
molting or otherwise, a plain drab coat, slightly 
mixed with yellow and black, and then he be¬ 
comes a reed bird in the New England and 
Middle States, a rice bird in Virginia and the 
Carolinas and a nuisance still further South, 
wherever rice is grown. 
The migration of birds is a great puzzle and 
has never been mapped or in any way solved. 
Some birds fly South in pairs or families. 
Others go it alone, while others, such as swal¬ 
lows, swifts and the blackbirds, go southward 
in flocks containing thousands. Ducks flock 
and take short flights, stopping to rest and 
feed on the way, though capable of faster speed 
The Atlantic Monthly—1911 
THE PATRICIANS 
A Serial Novel by JOHN GALSWORTHY 
The Atlantic has not published a serial since 1908. The editors have been waiting for a story 
which seemed to unite marked narrative interest with that finish of workmanship which should 
characterize an Atlantic serial. Such a story is “The Patricians,” a new novel by John Gals¬ 
worthy ; the story of agreeable people living their lives among the shifting problems which 
confront the English aristocracy of to-day. It is fundamentally a love story, and the two con¬ 
trasted heroines will be remembered long after the last chapter is read. 
A JOURNAL OF THE SIERRAS 
By JOHN MUIR 
John Muir left college with little money and less health, and offered his services to a ranch¬ 
man. He was engaged as a herder to help drive some two thousand sheep. This journal is a 
finished record of this unforgettable journey. Besides its exquisite appreciation of the glories 
of the sierras, the journal gives a highly entertaining account of the drive, interspersed with 
philosophy, wit, knowledge, and infinite enthusiasm. 
ROBERT E. LEE 
By GAMALIEL BRADFORD, Jr. 
A series of sympathetic, fair-minded studies of the character of a great American by a writer 
educated in the traditions of Massachusetts’ abolitionists. In the preparation of these papers 
Mr. Bradford has exhausted every source of first-hand knowledge. The Lee he draws is the Lee 
of fact, not the Lee of legend. 
A YEAR IN A GOAL MINE 
By JOSEPH HUSBAND 
The author of this narrative, after graduating from college, sought employment in a coal mine 
of the Middle West. After months of labor in a community of underground workers composed 
of every nationality, a fire broke-out, and against it for three months the men fought a series of 
tragic battles culminating in utter disaster. The story is told with great dramatic energy, and 
the pictures of life four hundred feet below the earth’s surface are strangely interesting. 
THE CO-OPERATIVE FAMILY 
By FRANCIS E. LEUPP 
A series casting a white light upon many 
domestic difficulties. Among them will be 
such papers as “ The Crooked Stick,” “ The 
Problem of Priscilla,” “ The Stranger within 
Our Gates.” 
MAN AND BIRD AND BEAST 
Few regular readers of the Atlantic have 
forgotten Mr. H. C. Merwin’s delightful 
paper on “ Dogs and Men.” It is good news 
to announce other papers in the same category : 
“ Horses and Men,” Henry C. Merwin. 
“ My Dog Punch,” Robert M. Gay. 
“In Praise of Parrots,” Franklin James. 
THE ETHICAL CONDUCT OF 
GREAT BUSINESS 
This is at the heart of the most important 
problems confronting the American people. 
The Atlantic hopes to number among its 
earlier papers on this topic “ The Public and 
the Railroads,” E. P. Ripley, President of the 
Santa Fd;” “Manufacturing and Industrial 
Peace,” Myron T. Herrick, capitalist and 
former Governor of Ohio. 
NEW ARTICLES 
By GENERAL MORRIS SCHAFF 
Nothing which the Atlantic has printed of 
late years has brought a more human response 
than General Schaff’s “ Battle of the Wilder¬ 
ness.” General Schaff is now at work on a 
new series of historical papers for the 
Atlantic. 
THE ATLANTIC CALENDAR FOR 1911 
will be similar in form to the one published in 1910, the quotations being entirely new. This 
calendar is a storehouse of ideas, exquisitely expressed, and a constant reminder of what is 
best in American literature. Price 50 cents postpaid, or a copy will be sent to new subscrib¬ 
ers sending us $4.00 for 1911. 
The Atlantic Monthly Go., Boston, Mass. 
35 CENTS A COPY $4.00 A YEAR 
TO SPORTSMEN 
HITTING vs. MISSING. 
By S. T. Hammond (“Shadow”). Cloth. Price, JLOO. 
Mr. Hammond enjoys among his field companions the 
repute of being an unusually good shot, and one who is 
particularly successful in that most difficult branch of 
upland shooting, the pursuit of the ruffed grouse, or 
partridge. This prompted the suggestion that he should 
write down for others an exposition of the methods by 
which his skill was acquired. The result is this original 
manual of “Hitting vs. Missing.” We term it original, 
because, as the chapters will show, the author was self- 
taught; the expedients and devices adopted and the 
forms of practice followed were his own. This then may 
be termed the Hammond system of shooting; and as it 
was successful in his own experience, being here set forth 
simply and intelligently, it will prove not less effective 
with others. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
HOW. WHEN AND WHERE 
TO COMPLETE YOUR BAG 
The number of distinguished visitors, including Royalty, bears 
ample testimony to the advantages of the 
Highlands of As a 
British Delightful 
East Winter 
Africa Home 
The most fascinating and instructive, playground in the world 
A veritable mecca for Sportsmen in Search of Big Game. 
For reliable information address Publicity Department, 
Uganda Railway, Dewar House, Haymarket, S. W. — D. G. 
LONGWORTH, London Representative. 
