APRIL 14, 1906.] 


FOREST AND STREAM. 
589 

at 
A SNAPSHOT OFF THE PORT QUARTER, 
Photo by R. J. Christman. 
but was too much alarmed to go nearer—when he 
saw that a deadly conflict was going on, and the 
water in places streaked with the color of blood. 
No remains of swordfish have been reported, and 
those which were destroyed, if any, may have 
been devoured by the killers or sharks. A large 
number of the latter were observed feeding upon 
the dead whales. A school of large swordfish 
could do great injury toa pack of killers if so dis- 
posed. They often attack sharks and even whales 
with their deadly thrusts, and their swords are 
often found broken off imbedded in ship bottoms, 
and men in small boats engaged in harpooning 
them, have been seriously wounded and occa- 
sionally killed. J. PARKER WHITNEY. 
[The killer is by far the most ferocious of the 
whales, and the only sort that feeds upon its own 
kind and upon large prey. One writer states that 
from the stomach of one of these whales were 
taken no less than thirteen porpoises and four- 
teen seals, and Scammon speaks of them as to 
“be seen peering above the surface with a seal 
in their bristling jaws shaking and crushing their 
victims, apparently with great gusto.” 
largest of the seals are not safe from the attacks 
of the killer, which while he may not be able to 
devour the adult walrus at least hunts the young. 
In Alaska the killer is abundant and is very 
frequently seen, and, as Mr. Whitney intimates, 
it is a most impressive beast.] 

Pigeons in Colorado. 
OnE afternoon in the early part of June, 1901, 
I took a stroll along the ridge of one of the many 
foothills that stretch away from three sides of 
Mt. Fisher to the lowlands of the Purgatoire. 
These ridges for the most part are very rocky 
with only enough soil to sustain a scant growth 
of scrub oak two or three feet high with here 
and there a tuft of coarse grass that grew almost 
as tal! as the bushes. 
In some places, where the soil is a little deeper 
or the supply of moisture greater, the growth is 
so dense and the brush so stiff as to be almost 
impenetrable. Away up on the north side of the 
mountain close to the base is a regular jungle of 
oak underbrush, live and dead cottonwood, 
mountain cedars, pines and pifions, some of the 
cottonwoods being forty feet tall—a capital place 
for wild animals or birds. When coming near 
this jungle from the neighboring ridge my ap- 
proach startled seven wild pigeons from their 
nests or roosts in the trees. Not having seen any 
wild pigeons since the spring of 1876 in Logan 
county, Ohio, I did not recognize them as being 
Even the. 
pigeons, so I did not investigate as to whether 
it was a nesting place or not. They seemed to 
be very wild and were within gunshot but a sec- 
ond or two and flew away beyond the trees which, 
from my position, hid from me their further 
flight. This is surely an unusual part of the coun- 
try in which to find wild pigeons, but there grow 
here nearly every year plenty of scrub oak acorns, 
wild strawberries, raspberries and chokeberries 
and perhaps other food that would sustain the 
life of a pigeon. The place is so solitary that I 
do not think it visited by human beings on an 
average of once a year, and I should not attempt 
to enter the jungle any distance alone or un- 
armed. Every year since, I have planned to re- 
visit the place, but as it is a difficult trip I have 
neglected to do so. Perhaps during the coming 
June, nothing preventing, I may take the trip, 
_make the investigation and report to the readers 
of Forest AND STREAM, .. I. P. FARRINGTON. 
[These were no doubt the: band-tailed pigeon 
(Columba fasciata), a resident of Colorado and 
the Pacific coast. |] 7 
‘Field Columbian Museum, 1904-1905. 
THE annual report of the Director of the Field 
Columbian Museum for the year ending Sept. 30 
has just reached us and tells of one of the most 
important and interesting years in the history of 
the institution. The consideration of the. plans 
for the new building, the acquisiton of a large 
amount of valuable material from the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, results of the expeditions 
sent out by the Museum and the various im- 
portant collections purchased have all contributed 
to make the year ending Sept. 30, 1905, important. 
The cost of maintenance for the year was about 
$120,000 and the total expenses $208,467, the dif- 
ference being accounted for by repairs, expedi- 
tions, equipment and collections purchased. As 
usual, lecture courses were given in the fall and 
spring, a number of important publications were 
issued and the library was increased. The work 
of cataloguing, inventorying and labeling the col- 
lections goes on. Important accessions to the 
collections have been made in all departments, 
those in geology being especially noteworthy. 
The total attendance record for the year was 
something over 200,000, a decrease of 37,000 .from 
last year, for which there is no known reason; 
but from the point of numbers the average daily 
attendance cannot be considered unsatisfactory, 
for few European museums have an average daily 
attendance of over 500. It must be remembered 
that Jackson Park is a long distance from the 
center of the city, and that of the vast popula- 
tion of Chicago comparatively few people know 
of the existence of the Museum or appreciate the 
wonderful beauties and splendid arrangement of 
its collections. 
The present report is beautifully printed and 
is illustrated with a number of superb half-tone 
engravings, examples of which are shown else- 
where in this issue. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. BoSTON OFFICE.— 
I beg to compliment you on the improved appear- 
ance of the fine old weekly and the continued 
good quality of its contents. “In the Lodges of 
the Blackfeet” is a yarn of really exceptionally 
high quality besides being ethnologically of great 
importance. Epwarp Breck. 

ORCA OR WHALE KILLER, 
Photo by R, J. Christman. 
