MArcH 10, 1906.] 

hides, I find that a large winter hide, when 
shaved and trimmed, weighs from ten to twelve 
pounds, if perfectly dry and clean from meat. 
Extra large weigh from thirteen to sixteen 
pounds. Fall-killed hides are thicker and weigh 
more; but it takes a very large fall hide, when 
shaved and perfectly dry, to weigh twenty 
pounds. 
moose shét at West Seboois by Ben and Joe 
Rollins, of Brownville, Maine, which was as 
clean as parchment and closely trimmed of neck 
and shanks, which weighed thirty-seven pounds. 
It was not shaved, but as the hair was very 
short, four pounds would be a large deduction 
to make for the hair. This is the largest moose 
hide I ever saw in many thousands, and I doubt 
if its match is ever found. The nearest ap- 
proach to it which I ever saw, was one clean- 
shaved and dry, which weighed twenty-six 
pounds, and there is not one in a thousand, if 
as clean, to duplicate this. MAN Ly HaArpy. 
[At the annual meeting of the New York 
Zoological Society, held Jan. 9, 1906, Mr. 
Charles Sheldon showed among many interest- 
ing Alaska photographs one of a cow moose 
accompanied by a calf, and the cow carried a 
distinctly shown bell, or tassel. Attention was 
called to this photograph in Forest AND STREAM 
of Jan. 20, page 93. The animal wearing the 
bell was not killed, but it was a hornless moose, 
in autumn and accompanied by a calf.] 
What Bird is Spring’s Harbinger? 
WE are accustomed to speak of the azure- 
coated red-vested bird, which the poet happily 
speaks of as shifting his load of song from post 
to post along the fence, as the “harbinger of 
spring.” Certainly he is one of the earliest birds 
to appear, yet it is by no means certain that he is 
not—in these Middle States, say in the latitude’ 
of New Jersey—a permanent resident, keeping 
himself hidden during much of the coldest 
weather, but when the sun shines warm and the 
ground softens and the air has that balmy touch 
which we Ike to call the “spring feel” venturing 
out from the retreats in which he has concealed 
himself and now perching on the topmost boughs 
of the gnarled oid apple trees in the orchard, and 
from such vantage ground he may now and then 
pitch down into the tangle of bushes that grows 
over the old rail fence, and drawing from some 
crevice or cranny a half-frozen insect with which 
he returns to his perch where he pounds the prey 
against a twig and devours it with the proud 
feeling that virtue has been rewarded. 
In these latitudes, then, it may be doubted 
whether the bluebird is more a migrant than the 
song sparrow or even the meadowlark. ‘There is 
another bird which certainly does not remain 
with us during the season of snow and cold and 
yet which often makes its appearance long before 
ice and blizzard have been forgotten—often in 
early March, sometimes even late February. This 
is the phcebe bird—no songster it is true, but a 
close friend of man and an architect of neat 
homes of mud and moss which it places on the 
rafters of the barn, on the ledges of piazza pil- 
lars, on shelves left over doors of outhouses. 
As a fly-catcher the phoebe is dependent on in- 
sect life, and for the most part on insects that fly, 
and so does not belong here in the coldest 
weather. Yet, often it braves the rigors of the 
New England climate before the calendar winter 
has ended. MHardy, self-reliant and on the best 
of terms with its neighbor, man, it is not strange 
that a phoebe is one of the most popular of our 
birds. Is not he the real harbinger of spring? 
Trenton, N. J., Feb 26. NEW JERSEY. 
Robins in the South. 
_ West Pornt, Miss., Feb. 16.—The weather here 
is fine; I have planted my garden, and plowing is 
pretty general all over the South. I notice that 
the robins are with us on their way north. It 
distresses me to see the wanton slaughter of the 
innocents that always begins in the South with 
their arrival. Everyone is out after them. I saw 
a boy Saturday with twenty-two, and from the 
banging I heard on every side I think they must 
have killed a thousand, for they never miss one, 
always shooting them sitting. Wve Wie 4h, 
But I once weighed the hide of a 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


New Jersey Beaver. 
WE have received from Mr. J. Von Lengerke, 
of Von Lengerke & Detmold, and have on exhi- 
bition at this office a beautiful beaver cutting that 
is worth inspection by everyone interested in 
nature. This is a large black ash tree trunk cut 
by the wild beavers of Sussex county, N. J., and 
is the same block that Mr. von Lengerke has had 
for some time at his store in New York city. 
Mr. Von Lengerke tells us that during last fall 
he has secured some very fine specimens of 
beaver work including trees some fifty inches in 
circumference. Another tree trunk, eight or nine 
inches through and 4% feet long, has been 
gnawed in three or four places and almost sev- 
ered in each. 
From all signs the beaver are doing well and 
steadily increasing. A number of new houses and 
dams have been built and beaver signs are found 
everywhere along a stretch of low ground a 
couple of miles long. 
Mr. Von Lengerke says that he has not heard 
of one beaver having been killed, although some 

Black Ash cut by Beavers in 1903 in Sussex Co., N. J. 
From J. Von Lengerke. 
houses have been opened and dams destroyed, the 
latter sometimes being done in self-defense. 
The beavers about which Mr. Von Lengerke 
has told us in Forest AND STREAM are believed to 
have escaped from the preserve of Mr. Ruther- 
ford Stuyvesant, at Allamuchy, N. J., and there 
are other Iccalities in Sussex county where they 
are found. 
A correspondent has written: “We have been 
told that originally two beavers lived near Two 
Bridges, N. J., but one died some years ago, the 
other stayed there. In the winter he made trips 
to other lakes supposedly in search of company, 
and on one of these trins he was killed. 
“He had his house on the east side of Lake 
Losee, now called Beaver Lake; we have rowed 
over to it several times, but never could find him 
at home. He went out for his food chiefly at 
night, but has been seen during the day. We saw 
the large limbs of trees he had sawed off to make 
his house. They were laid criss-cross, and on 
these limbs grass and weeds were growing. It 
was quite a large mound on the edge of the lake. 
“There was a penalty of $100 for anyone who 
should kill or injure the beaver, but the train did 
it. The beaver was killed by a Susquehanna train 
at night at Two Bridges, some time. in February, 
1905.” 
Biological Survey. 
THERE was printed in Forest AND STREAM of 
Feb. 24 an extract from the last annual report of 
the Biological Survey relating to the subject of 
game protection. The introductory paragraph 
spoke of this extract as a “summary of the work 
of the Biological Survey for the year 1905.” This 
may have been misleading. The extract was a 
summary of that portion of the work of the Bio- 
logical Survey which relates to game protection, 
383 

and the work relating to game protection is only 
one of the four divisions of the Survey work. In 
some quarters there seems to be a tendency to 
look on the division of game protection of the 
Biclogical Survey as the whole work of the 
Biological Survey, which is by no means the fact. 
Rhinoceros Hornbill. 
A HIGHLY interesting and remarkable case of 
birds is on exhibition in the National Museum 
at Washington. The group represents a breed- 
ing pair of Bornean rhinoceros hornbills (Bu- 
ceros rhinoceroides), and shows in addition to 
the birds themselves a section of a large tree, 
in a cavity of which the female has her nest. 
The female is on her nest, with only the tips of 
her bill exposed.to view, having been. plastered 
in by the male, according to the universal and 
altogether peculiar habit of members of this 
family of birds. The male is perched upon a 
branch slightly above the level of the entrance 
to the nest and is in the attitude of reaching 
down to the female with a fruit in his beak with 
which to feed her. The accessories to the birds 
are made in papier maché in very exact imita- 
tion of a forest tree trunk with vines and foli- 
age; and the group is upon the whole a very 
striking and interesting one. The species rep- 
resented is with one exception perhaps the larg- 
est and most conspicuous of the family. As 
stated above this remarkable habit is entirely 
peculiar to the hornbills. The reason for it is 
not certainly known; some observers state that 
the plastering is done by the male, others main- 
tain that the female incarcerates herself. If the 
male does it, his object is doubtless to prevent 
the female from leaving her nest before the 
eggs are hatched. If the female does it, it is 
probably that protection from enemies is her 
object. The female is fed by her mate during 
her incarceration, and should anything happen 
to him during her imprisonment her life would 
necessarily be sacrificed. 
Death of John T. Irving. 
On Tuesday, Feb. 7, John Treat Irving, a 
nephew of Washington Irving, died at his home 
in New York. He was born in the year 1812, and 
had a successful career. 
For the readers of Forest AND STREAM, the 
passing away of Mr. Irving has a peculiar inter- 
est in the fact that he was one of the very early 
travelers in the trans-Missouri west. In the year 
1835 there appeared from his pen “Sketches of 
an Expedition to the Pawnee Tribes,” a work in 
two volumes giving an account of his trip to the 
Pawnee country the year before. The work is 
simply and attractively written, gives a most 
interesting account of the manners and customs 
of the Pawnees, and is a valuable contribution 
alike to literature, to history and to ethnology. 
It was published in this country and in England. 
The following year he published a romance en- 
titled ‘‘Hawk Chief,” the scene of which was laid 
among the Pawnees. 
Mr. Irving was a lawyer of distinction, but 
amused himself by writing these and a number of 
other works. In his long and busy life, he did 
much good. 
The Pointing Instinct. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am the possessor of a dachshund which was 
imported last summer from the celebrated kennel 
of the Duke ot Saxe-Coburg, in Germany, said 
to be the finest strain of black and tan dachs- 
hunds in that country. I am told in olden times 
they were used for birds as well as rabbits, bad- 
gers, foxes, etc. The dachshund this last fall 
came across a bevy of quail and stood them as 
staunch as any old setter or pointer. Is it in the 
blood or an exception? YORICK. 
[It is not uncommon for individuals of many 
of the different breeds of sporting dogs to imi- 
tate the point of the setter and pointer. We have 
shot a ruffed grouse over a foxhound, who 
pointed it as staunchly as a setter. We have also 
seen a half-bred rough-haired terrier frequently 
point sparrows in the street, remaining perfectly 
rigid until the bird flew.] 
