FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 19, 1906. 


~ 
SPECIMEN OF BLUE BEAR IN NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
It is strange that even the best trained dog of 
the pack can seldom resist the unexplained fasci- 
nation of the fretful porcupine, and attacks it 
regardless of the many cruel quills he will most 
certainly accumulate at this amusement. Age, 
chastisement and future misery do not seem to 
teach a dog that the porcupine is always loaded. 
In the past, and even to-day in the more out- 
lying districts, deadfalls and snares are resorted 
to with much success in the capture of the blue 
bear. The former consists of a half-rounded pen 
of stout stakes baited with a salmon, having a 
tree trunk heavily weighted with logs held in 
place by means of a trigger, which, being sprung 
by a small cross-stick at the entrance of the in- 
closure, drops the deadfall on the animal’s back, 
crushing him aimost instantly. The snare is 
simply a noose of plaited sealskin, which is set in 
a favorite trail, and, being sprung, instantly 
tightens around the bear’s’ neck when a heavy 
tree trunk is set free and the animal is partly sus- 
pended and strangled. 
To the natives all bears are people like them- 
selves. Their fur is simply clothing which they 
put on for protection and remove at will, but the 
blue bear is believed to be a hybrid between the 
mountain goat and the black bear. From the 
former he inherits his white coat, while to the lat- 
ter he owes his more timid heart. This strange 
emblem figures conspicuously from his great 
knowledge, strength and courage, but the black 
and blue bear, like the deer, goat and other more 
harmiess animals, have no place in the traditions 
of the families. Gro. T. EMMONS. 
Arbor Day Annual. 
THE State of Wisconsin has issued a beautiful 
Atbor Day annual of about 100 pages, intended 
for use in preparing orders of exercise for Arbor 
Day and Bird Day, which, by proclamation of 
Governor Davidson, of Wisconsin, came this year 
on Friday, May 4. One of the purposes of Arbor 
Day is to bring the children to a realization of 
the beauty of trees and flowers, instruct them of 
the economic value of things in nature, and to in- 
stil in their hearts a healthful love for the things 
of the earth, Therefore, says the proclamation, it 
is recommended that this day be observed by our 
educational institutions by the planting of green 
things, and by such exercises as will impress 
upon all the great importance of this noble work. 
Poems, songs and selections of beauty and in- 
terest have been brought together by Miss Maud 
Barnett, the State library clerk at Madison, Wis., 
some of the songs being set to music. There is 
also an extract from Filibert Roth’s “First Book 
of Forestry,’ which shows the money value of 
the wood lot. The work of the Audubon Society 
has a place in the volume. 
Tame Wolf and Wild Dog. 
Du.utH, Minn., May 8.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: One Sunday not long ago a man was 
seen leading a full-grown timber wolf on the 
streets here. He was so tame that you could pat 
him and he seemed as friendly as a dog. In 
speaking of him, the owner said he had caught 
three of them when pups, and had sold the other 
two, and that they were as tame as this one. The 
one he had was a dog wolf and his coat was as 
fine as a collie’s, 
Yesterday a friend and patient, whom I know 
to be thoroughly reliable, related the following 
as having happened at his lumber camp the past 
winter, sixty miles north of here on Lake Su- 
perior. 
Wolves are numerous there and have given 
them a great deal of trouble. A man named 
Murphy, who ran a tie camp, owned a St. Ber- 
nard dog which joined the wolf pack and had a 
large female wolf as companion. The dog used 
to come to the camp, and the camp boss tried 
every way to get a shot at the wolf. He used 

A, deadfall, a tree trunk weighted with heavy logs, B, B, B; C, trigger, which is sprung by touching D, 
when deadfall is released and falls, breaking bear’s back. 
belief is universal among the Tlingits, but they 
also say that the blue bear is a chief among the 
bear family. But this does not prevent them 
from killing him upon every occasion. 
The custom of cutting off the feet immediately 
upon death is almost a religious observance 
among the coast tribes, and after the skin is re- 
moved and hung up to dry they sprinkle the 
down of the eagle over the head to show the bear 
people that they honor their dead companion as 
well as to console them in their grief. In all 
ceremonies, dances and festivities the brown bear 
to throw out bones for the dog, but the wolf 
would not show herself. The dog, however, used 
to carry off what he could not eat and used to 
howl and act much as the wolves did. Lindberg 
owned a big sixty-pound bull terrier. One day 
he and the St. Bernard got to fighting near the 
camp, and the noise called the men out. It was 
just at break of day. The bull terrier was get- 
ting the best of it when the female wolf ran out 
and helped the St. Bernard and nearly cut the 
bull terrier to pieces. 
When they broke camp last week the dog had 
been away again, and they left him, they sup- 
posed, with the pack. So Jack London’s “Call 
of the Wild” was, no doubt, founded on fact. I 
have every confidence in the story as my friend 
related it to me, as I know the man, and his boss 
told me the same story. Dr. N. B. McNutty. 
Where Were the Warblers? 
New York, May 13.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: May I ask a question of some of your 
bird loving readers? - 
I used to be an observer of birds, but for a 
good many years past have been closely confined 
to the city. Last Friday, May 11, believing from 
past experience that I ought to find the warbler 
migration at his height, I took a day in the coun- 
try on the shores of Long Island Sound and spent 
all day abroad looking for birds. The results were 
very disappointing. Most of the summer resi- 
dents seemed to have arrived but the warblers I 
did not find—at least not in anything like the old- 
time numbers, I saw two or three Maryland 
yellowthroats, two prairie warblers, two or three 
black and white creepers, two or three oven birds, 
a water thrush and a black-throated blue warbler. 
Why were there not more? 
Will some kind hearted person tell me whether 
the migration was over, or whether this year, 
on account of the backward spring, the warblers 
have not yet reached here? 
It used to be a great delight to me to watch 
these birds in their passage and with my glass 
to pick them out of the tree tops. At an earlier 
stage of my existence I collected a great many of 
them, and I recall that in my young days I used 
to make fifteen skins of these small birds in an 
hour, but it is many years since I have done 
anything of that sort. I appeal to your bird ob- 
servers for information on the points above 
noticed. Brrp Lover. 
A Flock of Wild Pigeons. 
West Park, N. Y., May 11.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have received evidence which is to 
me entirely convincing that a large flock of pas- 
senger pigeons was seen to pass over the village 
of Prattsville, Greene county, this State, late one 
afternoon about the middle of April. The fact 
was first reported in the local paper, the Pratts- 
ville News. An old boyhood schoolmate of mine, 
Charles W. Benton, was, with others, reported 
to have seen them. I have corresponded with 
Mr. Benton and have no doubt the pigeons were 
seen as stated. Mr. Benton saw pigeons, clouds 
of them, in his boyhood, and could not well be 
mistaken. He says it was about 5 o’clock, and 
that the flock stretched out across the valley about 
one-half mile and must have contained many 
hundreds. It came from the southeast, and went 
northwest. Mr. Benton says that a large flock 
was reported last year as having passed over the 
village of Catskill, and that a wild pigeon was 
shot near Prattsville last fall. A friend of mine 
saw two pigeons in the woods at West Point a 
year or sO ago. 
I have no doubt, therefore, that the wild pigeon 
is still with us, and that if protected we may yet 
see them in something like their numbers of 
thirty years ago. JoHN BurrouGHSs. 
THE spotted catfish of the Mississippi basin, 
which was so successfully planted in the Potomac 
River a number of years ago, has become more 
abundant, and is now caught in large numbers by 
anglers and market fishermen. The fish attains 
a weight of upward of 20 pounds, and is a gen- 
eral favorite on account of its excellent food and 
game qualities. In 1905 the fishermen about 
Washington began to catch another nonindigen- 
ous catfish, of which samples were submitted to 
the Bureau for identification. The fish proved 
to be the great fork-tailed catfish of the Missis- 
sippi, which was doubtless introduced at the same 
time as the other snecies, the young of the two 
being much alike, This fish attains even a larger 
size than the spotted cat, and examples weighing 
over 30 pounds have been reported by local fish- 
ermen. 
