












FOREST AND STREAM. 






Canada Lynx and Wildcat. 
RoLtitinc Fork, Miss., July 27—Editor Forest 
and Stream; I am very* much interested in 
Mr. Hardy’s articles. In his first of June 29 he 
“T well remember a hunter named Willard 
and his hunting partner Crockett, a man who 
weighed not much if any over 100 pounds,” and 
tells of a joke played by Willard on his partner 
in turning loose a lynx and telling Brother 
Daniel to hold on to him or pay for his skin. 
Now, I am no novice in love for, or knowl- 
edge of, the wild, and my experience is not of 
a purely local nature. As Mr. Hardy says, the 
lynx and wildcat—and he might add panther or 
mountain lion as well—are of a wild sneaking 
disposition, disposed to avoid men on all occas- 
ions except in the mating season, and are rarely, 
if ever, met by man. I grant this for the man 
who has time only to make his run of traps 
set, and afterward to get back to his lean-to 
or shanty by dark, whose time is taken up by 
strictly matter of fact business: so many days, 
sO many much money. But for the 
lover of the wild, the man who leaves traps and 
guns behind and goes purely and solely to 
into and study animal life, with no 
thought of the mercenary part, no intention to 
destroy one of creatures, either for 
pleasure or profit, it is different. While it is often 
difficult and takes both time and patience, it can 
be done, and all animal life may be studied at 
close range, and a knowledge of their habits 
and haunts may be clearly arrived at. As to 
neither ever injuring or attacking human beings, 
if Mr. Hardy so desires, I will take pleasure 
in giving him the facts of several instances in 
the South where cats have sprung on to and 
lone some injury to man. 
Careless reading is 
Says, 

skins, so 
OOK 
God's 



also charged, and as I 
am one of the great army of hunters—men who 
are interested in animal life and have no desire 
for anything but the truth to go into the records 
—I still want to know of Mr. Hardy if he 
wishes to make a part of said record up by 
vhat men have told him, or by his personal ex- 
periences, vouching for same. In open court 
man is allowed to tell what he has heard. It 
is what he knows;. Mr. Hardy must announce 
the facts over his own signature, with per- 
knowledge I would like to see such a 
combat between lynx, bobcat or wildcat and any 
man living, regardless of his prowess. 
Too many nature writers make it a point to 
assume that they are to a certain extent in the 
animal's place, know his motives, interpret his 
feelings and actions, when they are absolutely 
in the dark, except from the human standpoint, 
which, in the nature of things, is w rong, so few 
of us even understanding the motives that con- 
trol man, much less animal life. That each and 
every species of animal and bird life is specially 
endowed by an all wise and all powerful Maker 

age Se 
sonal 
to live, understand each other, and has means 
of communication, I as firmly believe as that 
I live The experience either of others or 
our own is our teacher and guide. 
R. E. Stratton, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I would like to see more articles like Mr. 
Hardy’s, fearlessly and convincingly routing 
error with truth. ; i 
Yet I cannot help wondering if there are not 
occasionally much larger and fiercer specimens 
than any he has known, despite his very wide 
experience and undoubted accuracy of observa- 
t10n, : 
People all over the Middle West used to say, 
“fight like a wildcat” or “fierce as a wildcat” 
whenever they wished to express the superla- 
tive in fighting. I have heard the phrase hun- 
dreds of times. This is no weighty evidence, 
pro or con, as verbal inaccuracies often acquire 

a vogue equal to maxims of known soundness. 
But, are the majority of animal story tellers 
willful prevaricators, or do they simply come 
under my heading as persons guilty of “hastily 
formed opinions?” 
Many years ago a friend wrote me from 
Cowley county, Kan., that she and her dog had 
just killed a catamount which, upon being 
weighed by her brother-in-law, went to ninety 
pounds! As she was very conservative and mat- 
ter of fact in most particulars I cannot doubt 
her word, but her prey may have been a panther; 
yet, as the panther has an enormous tail, no 
hunter could mistake one for a “bob.” 
Whether Mr. Hardy’s observations cover the 
whole subject or not, the fact that an opinion 
directly opposite his, as to size and powers, is 
widespread, is one of the sure things; even 
Webster's dictionary (old issue of the seventies) 
sanctioning it and making it respectable by de- 
fining wildcat: “A feline animal, very strong 
and fierce.” 
Personally, I am very sorry to have to adinit 
that I know nothing whatever of either the wild- 
cat or lynx in a state of nature, although I have 
done my very best to induce them to attack me 
or show up in some manner. I have gone un- 
armed and alone at night, without a light, into 
their reputed stronghold, yet not one cat of 
either species ever materialized by sight, sound 
or touch. At times I was tempted to believe 
both mere myths, as the “mad dog” usually is. 
Then, either I failed to pass near any of the 
terrible creatures or else they all deserved the 
opinion of them held by Mr. Hardy. 
And while I think of it, Malty, the trick dog, 
weighing only eleven or twelve pounds, ran a 
mother wildcat right away from her nest of 
young, with only an unarmed woman—my cousin 
Kate Morphew—behind her! My cousin took 
me next morning to the nest, in a hollow white 
oak, but the kittens had been removed. 
A year or two ago McCleod, of Happy Hollow, 
Hot Springs, (a jolly chap, well known to many 
ForEST AND STREAM readers), had a ’coon and 
cat (the latter resembled a jaguar, but was very 
little larger than the ’coon) together in one of 
his large cages. JI asked the keeper why the 
cat did not kill the ’coon, and he replied: 
‘Cause he can’t! They do fight now and 
then, but they’re so evenly matched in action 
that neither can gain any advantage.” 
The ’coon went wherever he liked, showing 
not the slightest dread of his terrible room mate. 
L. R. MorreHew. 

The Growth of Alligators. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some years ago several alligators not more 
than a foot long were brought from Florida 
to Indiana in the latter part of May. One of 
them soon escaped and was not recaptured. The 
others were kept in confinement and were fairly 
well fed, mostly with small live fish, of which 
they seemed very fond and were expert in 
catching. None of them appeared to grow at 
all. In the following February there came a 
thaw and the water from the melting snow 
broke up the heavy ice in a small creek near 
where the alligators were kept. In the frozen 
mud adhering to an overturned cake of ice on 
the bank of this creek, a brother of mine found 
the body of an alligator a little more than two 
feet long, evidently the one that escaped. It 
had doubled its length and was probably several 
times as heavy as it was when it escaped. 
O. H. Hampton. 
THE ForEST AND STREAM may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
Bird Thoughts from Vermont. 
New York, July 19.—éEditor Forest and 
Stream: I can vouch for the veracity of the 
writer of the inclosed letter to the Manchester 
Journal, and think it worthy of a place in your 
columns. ‘Truth is stranger than faking. 
“T would like to give your reads an account 
of an interesting occurrence of a robin build- 
ing a nest On a passenger car. June 27 I had 
business at the ‘quarry station, the terminus 
of the M. D. & G R. R. Ernest West and 
myself had been conversing on the trip, and as 
the train reached the station, the conductor, 
Kirk Adams, said, ‘Gentlemen, I should like to 
show you a curiosity.’. Taking us to the front 
end of the car, where it is coupled to the engine, 
he showed us a robin’s nest under the platform 
in a snug place on the couplings of the air brake. 
He said the nest was begun the Friday before 
(six days) and there was now one egg in it. 
Engineer Harry Blanchard said the bird rode 
up as far as Charley Ames’ cattle way, when 
she came out from under the car with a flutter 
and lit on the tie guard and sat there until the 
engine passed. He said he would run slow 
enough to get her to ride to Dorset sometime, 
as the robin was a_ resident of Manchester. 
Harry is an old railroad man and this is the 
first instance he knows of the kind. As our 
people on the line of the M. D. & G. know, 
Harry runs a coach ahead of his locomotive to 
Dorset four trips a day, about forty miles, and 
the robin built her nest while the car waited 
at Manchester. 
“Another instance of bird trust in human 
beings: While a friend, with myself, were eat- 
ing our lunch in the woods one cold day last 
Winter a pair of chickadees came around us with 
an inquisite way, and soon one came to me, 
lighting on the knuckle of my forefinger and 
broke quite a good sized crumb from the bread 
I was eating. Both came back several times and 
took pieces of bread within a few feet of us. 
Mrs. Taylor has a nesting box for bluebirds on 
our back porch and she painted that two coats 
while the female was sitting—the bird seeming 
to care very little about her presence. 
“We read from magazines the writings of 
ornithologists, but have we no young people with 
us who are interested in the study of birds? It 
would seem to me that young people of leisure 
could find nothing more interesting than this, 
combined with their botany and ‘nature study.’ 
I think the knowledge gained. by young people 
by spending a few days each season in observ- 
ing the habits of our native birds would be a 
source of pleasure to them for the remainder of 
their lives. The birds with which we are most 
familiar are the ones that seem to like human 
society. The robins love to build near farm 
buildings; the phoebe is suited best to nest 
under bridges or old buildings and is not quite 
as sociable; the bobolink dearly loves our low- 
land meadows, although it is difficult to find 
their nests. The bluebirds are forerunners of 
spring all right, but ours were fooled this year, 
for they commenced house building too early, 
and had to suspend operation on account of the 
weather and because: of the late snow storm. 
Crows are like the poor—we always have them 
with us, but the man or woman who has never 
surprised a mother partridge with a full brood 
of chicks, has missed something in their lives 
that nothing else will take the place of. No 
matter if the little ones are within a ten foot 
circle one note of warning from the mother 
bird and you cannot see a single baby, and you 
are invited to come away from that spot at 
once. I suppose most of our young people can 
tell the different birds by their song, but I should 
like to have them go with me back on the moun- 
« tains and listen to a species there, one that we 



























































































































