AUG, 10, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

Within the past year the general condition of 
the park has been wonderfully improved. All 
the old time features of beauty and value have 
been retained, no trees have been cut down or 
rocks removed; but many vacant and unsightly 
spots have been filled with new and _ beautiful 
plants which as they grow will become still more 
beautiful. New Yorkers may well be proud of 
their Zoological: Society’s Park, which is certainly 
the: largest, and will be the most beautiful and 
most complete in the world. 

A North Woods Lynx. 
NortHwoop, N. Y., Aug. 3.—Editor Forest and 
Siream: Apropos of the lynx discussion, here 
is a photograph of a mounted specimen which 
was caught Nov. 16 last, at Willseyville, eleven 
miles south of Ithaca. John Hallet, a farmer 
living at that place, missed chickens every night 
or so, and thinking a fox er a mink responsi- 
ble, he set a trap where the offending animal 
Was sure to step into it. The next morning the 
trap was gone, but as luck would have it a flurry 
of snow sprinkled the ground, thus enabling the 
farmer to trace where the trap had been dragged. 
Following the dim tracks into a patch of woods. 
he came to a brush heap under which he peered 
and to his astonishment saw two glaring eyes 
which were so large and far apart that he 
deemed it wise not to tackle the animal with a 
club. He ran back to the house, got down the 
old gun and returned. It had left the brush 
heap, but he found it further on in a hollow tree 
and shot it. ‘ 
The animal, which was mostly whiskers and 
legs,. being different from anything the farmer 
had ever before seen, he took it to Cornell Uni- 
versity to find out what it was and to get what 
he could for it. Dr. Wilder, of the zoological 
department, told him it was a Lynx canadensis 
and purchased it for ten dollars. Then Dr. 
Wilder turned it over to an assistant, A. A. 
Allen, for measurement. Allen took the animal 
by her hind leg and holding her out at arm’s 
length, it stretched from hind foot to the front 
foot fully’ six feet. This length is significant 
when one considers that most animals, especially 
the cat tribe, can jump several times the length 
taken this way. But this measurement is not 
scientific, so he measured ,from the nose to the 
root of the tail and found the length 37 inches, 
tail 5 inches, right hind foot 934 inches, weight 
26 pounds; sex,* female. 
The striking feature of the beast is the size 
of her legs and feet. She made a track as large 
as the bottom of a doubled fist. Many “panther” 
tracks are most likely lynx tracks. The farmer 
said that he thought there was another in the 
neighborhood. E. A. SPEARS. 

Nesting of Birds in Confinement. 
From the Zoological Society Bulletin. 
Rarny and cold though the spring has been, 
many birds in the collection have nested. The 
sand hill cranes built their nest and laid two 
eggs as usual, and the mallard ducks began to 
incubate almost before the frost was out of the 
ground. There were seventeen of their nests 
around the Wildfowl Pond alone, although so 
well hidden that they were invisible until the 
sitting bird was flushed. Many broods of duck- 
lings of various ages are now on the several 
ponds and ‘foraging for themselves among the 
grass. As usual, on the appearance of the first 
broods, a crow or two developed a sudden fancy 
for ducklings and six or eight unfortunate young- 
sters were carried away before the black marau- 
ders were shot. Soon afterward*a stray cat was 
shot while stalking a brood, but since that time 
no enemy has interfered with the young mallards. 
The griffon vulture laid a large white egg in 
the corner of her cage and savagely resented its 
removal The brown pelican, white-breasted 
guan, Egyptian goose and Himalayan jay thrush 
laid eggs for the first time, but none of these 
built nests. 
Considerable excitement was caused one day 
in the big central flying cage of the bird house 
by the sudden appearance of a young saffron 
finch, When first observed it was squatting on 
the sand with an admiring, or at least interested, 

MR, HALLET’S 
gallinules, 
Where it 
mystery, 
pigeons, 
about it 
circle of birds—terns, quails, 
larks and orioles 
had been reared was for a long time a 
but when it was old enough to care for itself 
the secret was discovered, as the parents . built 
a second nest deep within one of the old crowns 
of a palm tree. 
At the present time a half dozen species of 
doves and pigeons are sitting on their eggs, while 
the young of bluebirds and robins are already 
hatched. There are seven robins’ nests in one 
cage, a fact which leaves little dotibt as to their 
happiness and contentment. Although these birds 
gatherec 


were all nestlings when placed in the collection 
last year, yet their first attempts at nest build- 
ing, far from being awkward or abortive, have 
resulted in well-thatched, mud-lined structures, 
strong and well built. Common as is our robin, 
its entire history is far from thoroughly worked 
out, and here; where the nest building, laying 
and incubation are all accomplished within a yard 
of the cage wires, a. wonderful opportunity is 
afforded for careful observation at close range. 
Pans of mud are provided and the robins may 
be seen filling their beaks with this soft black 
building material, carrying it to the half-finished 
nest and molding it into shape with beak and 
breast. : 
On cold days the parent sits so close that only 
her head and tail are visible above the rim of 
the nest, while on hot days she half stands with 
partly lifted wings, as a shield against the in- 
tense heat of mid day. 
In another cage a grackle is sitting on a great 
bristling mass of straw and twigs, whose out- 
side gives no hint of the smooth interior which 
holds the beautifully marked eggs. .A European 
wood pigeon has the flimsiest nest of all, merely 
a handful of straws, laid one over the other in 
a crotch. How her two white eggs manage to 
stay on is a miracle. A yellow-billed cuckoo sit- 
ting on three eggs is an interesting sight, as this 
bird has never before been known to lay in cap- 
tivity. In another corner of the cage are six 
others which she has laid. A white peahen is 
incubating a half dozen eggs, and rarest of all, 
a pair of trumpeter swans has built a nest on 
an island in the Beaver Pond. These birds are 
all but extinct, and if they succeed in rearing 
young it will be a notable event. 
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supply you regularly. 
LYNX 
AFTER MOUNTING. 
Weasel and Rat. 
Hermit Point, with its two hundred yards of 
sandy beach and adjoining grassy glades under 
the trees, once the site of an immense _ stone 
crusher whose workings ruined a long section of 
the face of the Palisades of the Hudson River, 
is now a part of the Interstate Palisades Park 
which extends from old Fort Lee, N. J., thirteen 
miles to Sneeden’s Landing, N. Y., at'the lower 
end of the Tappan Zee. Ten years ago the only 
residents of New York who knew this strip of 
wild land well were the canoeists; who camped 
every week end in summer under some of the 
old trees; and every one of them knew every 
other one intimately. But within a few years 
these seekers after a quiet and restful spot to 
pitch camp for two days found their recreation 
being adopted by hundreds of young peoplé, and 
last year the great park was thronged and the 
pioneers were almost driven away. Last fall, 
therefore, the organized canoe clubs of New York 
city combined for the purpose of securing quie 
camp sites together, and this Hudson Canoe Club 
Federation asked for and obtained permission to 
camp as a body at Hermit Point, promising th 
commission to protect the trees and other par 
property in return for the privilege 
O Met 
a 

a 
This season the clubs affiliated with the Federa- 
tion have shown their appreciation of the trust 
imposed in them, particularly in respect to the 
native birds and mammals, which may be seen 
all about the camp. site—crows, catbirds, king- 
fishers, pine squirrels—and a couple of pairs of 
eagles nest a little higher up the cliffs. All of 
the smaller native birds appear at times in the 
trees, and many of them nest near by, as they 
have done for years. A couple of wild domestic 
cats, abandoned by former squatters, have been 
seen at times among the rocks, but so wary are 
they that all attempts to kill them and thus save 
the birds and rabbits have failed. Opossums are 
common in the vicinity, raccoons have not as yet 
been exterminated by the professional fishermen, 
who also hunt at times, and gray squirrels, though 
very wild, still frequent the wooded slopes ; wood- 
chucks are occasionally seen. Although wild 
enough, these grizzly old fellows are so accus- 
to seeing persons who do not try to harm 
as been possible to approach within 
photographing distance of them, provided one 
moved slowly and avoided unnecessary motions 
A short time ago a number of the 
on the sand of the beach 
Saturday night 
tomed 
them that it 


canoeists 
at Hermit 
camp-fire 

were gatherec 
Point, enjoying their 


