
FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Nov. 16, 19| 






Passenger Pigeon Questions. 
St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 7—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of Nov. 2 appears a note 
headed “Wild Pigeons.” 
For five years we have been trying to locate 
the passenger pigeon and so far have failed to 
hear of a single specimen. The young writer, 
who signs himself C. A. V., seems not to be 
aware of the importance of his discovery, if the 
birds seen really were passenger pigeons. Dr. 
Palmer, of the Biological Department at Wash- 
ington, would be most pleased to hear of the 
existence of wild pigeons. 
Some time ago Forest AND STREAM gave a 
description of the band tail pigeon which many 
persons believed to be the old time passenger 
pigeon, until your article appeared. All who 
are interested are now convinced that they are 
not the passenger pigeons. 
Possibly what C. A. V. and his father saw 
were plover, as when flying high the flight of 
those birds is much like that of the wild pigeons. 
We would be much pleased to know where 
this flock of pigeons were seen. The passenger 
pigeons disappeared from our Missouri forests 
back in the eighties and never have been seen 
in Missouri since 1883. A few were shot along 
the gulf coast in 1889 near Corpus Christi; the 
last great flocks passed over Missouri in 1878-0. 
Years previous to this there were millions upon 
millions of them; our forests were literally alive 
with them from September to December, when 
they migrated into Louisiana, Arkansas and 
Texas. J. D. Avers. 
[C. A. V. wrote from Miamisburg, Ohio. The 
place was omitted by a printer’s error—Ep1ror. ] 
Dog-Wolf Partnership. 
NEw York, Oct. 14.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: About two years ago I called atten- 
tion in Forest AND STREAM to some dog-wolf 
hybrids that I saw at the home of my friend 
William Rowland, in Montana, and I have now 
again to.report something of the same nature. 
Last September I was camping on Tongue 
River, Montana, with my old friend Hotua 
Hwokoma is, which means “The Bull is White,” 
though it is commonly translated White Bull. 
Late in the night when the waning moon flooded 
the river bottom with brilliant light, I was 
awakened by hearing close to my head the howl- 
ing of a gray wolf. I had not heard the sound 
for several years, and it was very pleasant to 
me, but what specially interested me was that 
it was made by a wolf within a very few feet 
of the cabin. The call was followed by the howl- 
ing of two or three dogs, which were evidently 
baying the moon and not barking at the wolf. 
When I spoke about this next morning, White 
Bull told me that last spring a bitch of his had 
given birth to six puppies by a gray wolf, and 
that all six—in appearance at least—were wolves. 
The mother looks somewhat like a small hound, 
but with short ears, and is white with some 
liver and tan about the eyes and some brown 
spots on the body. The puppies were so wolf- 
like in appearance that they were eagerly bought 
by the Cheyenne young men before they were 
half grown, but all of them soon after being sold 
became afflicted with mange and died or were 
destroyed. 
About White Bull’s house was a dog looking 
somewhat like a badly bred bull terrier and the 
size of a small pointer bitch. He was white with 
lemon about eyes and ears and one or two lemon 
spots on back and tail. This dog White Bull 
told me associated last winter on friendly terms 
with this same gray wolf and helped him kill 
live stock. The wolf used to coffe to the hill 
near the house and wait for the dog, which 
would join him and be gone all day. Two or 


three times they saw the wolf waiting, and shot 
at it, but did not get it. 
On one occasion last winter the wolf and dog 
were seen in the hills at work killing a colt. In 
the late spring and summer the dog seemed to 
give up his excursions into the hills, but he is 
now taking to going off again and I have no 
doubt that the wolf I heard that night at White 
Bull’s had come down to visit his wife and 
partner. 
White Bull, the owner of the dog members of 
this triangular partnership, is a man now about 
seventy years old. In his young days he was 
a good warrior and a great medicine man. He 
took part in the Custer fight thirty-one years 
ago, three years later surrendered with his band 
to Gen. Miles at Fort Keogh, and for some years 
after that rendered excellent service as scout 
for Miles in his work of breaking up the bands 
of hostile Sioux and Cheyennes that were scat- 
tered over southern Montana. He was present 
at the Lame Deer fight, of which he talks in- 
terestingly. Geb sG, 
A Little Bear Story. 
New York, Oct. 12—Editor Forest and Stream: 
On my way back from the West recently I met 
on the train Mr. Gilmore, of the Geological 
Department of the United. States National 
Museum of Washington, who was returning 
from Alaska, and talked with me most inter- 
estingly about his summer’s trip. 
Mr. Gilmore had started for Alaska in the 
spring in a search for deposits of recent fos- 
sils, hoping to find in place some skeletons of 
the mammoth. The gravels of Alaska con- 
WALTER - 
KING .« « 
STone..- 

DIGGING OUT SWALLOWS’ NESTS. 
tain great numbers of bones of these huge 
mammals, but, so far as known, mostly in- 
dividual bones; in other words. the deposits 
are of a secondary character, and the bones 
found in them have been transported from 
other localities. Reports and rumors of mam- 
moth skeletons in place and even of mammoth 
carcasses frozen into*the ice have been fre- 
quent enough in recent years, and these stories 
—always inventions—have been confirmed in 
the popular mind by a wild tale of the killing 
of a living mammoth, which appeared a few 
years ago in a monthly magazine of wide cir- 
culation. So far as I learned from Mr. Gil- 
more, he found no deposits of mammoth bones 
in place, but did discover plenty of moved 
bones, among them skulls of bisons, and one 
skull of a muskox. 
This last discovery interested me, for in his- 
toric times the muskox has not been known 
west of the Mackenzie River. The bones of 
this species have been found in Alaska before 
at the bone cliffs at Eschaltz Bay, I believe. 
Mr. Gilmore told me a capital story about a 
little bear, which is to be commended to the 
guild of nature fakers, who can work it over in 

a multitude of fashions. The beauty of 
Gilmore’s story is that it is true. 
During a long journey of 1500 miles ¢| 
the Yukon River, made with a single « 
panion in a light Peterborough canoe, 
Gilmore examined a great many gravel ex| 
ures; usually cut banks on the Yukon, o| 
the streams running into it. On the Noi R 
a stream running into the Yukon from 
south, a vertical bank was observed pie 
by a number of holes. Just below these 1] 
a little shelf ran along the bank and the | 
martins had breen breeding in small holes} 
cavated in the face of the bank. For a 
distance above the shelf, however, appe 
larger holes, and an examination of the ic! 
ity showed that a little bear—as shown by! 
footprints and clawmarks—had walked al 
this shelf and had enlarged all the swall 
nests that he could reach and dragged} 
from them young and eggs, which he ha’ 
course devoured. The little fellow’s path! 
strewn with feathers and small debris of! 
lining of the sand martin’s nest. G. B. | 



























































I 
A Great White Wolf. 
Axzout Oct. 28 a monster white wolf was ]| 
about four and one-half miles north of Ed| 
ton. The-animal was secured by W. H. Ht! 
an old-time trapper of the Athabasca. I 
For some time past there has been much | 
plaint of destruction of young cattle in the| 
Park district, lying north of Edmonton. 1 
ravages have been attributed to coyotes, bi! 
investigation by Mr. Hunter showed that| 
harm was done by a wolf which it was} 
portant to kill. Starting from a point abou 
miles north of Edmonton, Mr. Hunter beg: 
look for sign of the wolf, and traveled abou! 
miles further north and then returned tc! 
starting point. He had his boots smeared 
“medicine,” so that the wolf might follov! 
trail. It did so, but for some days it was 
possible to get a shot at it. However, Mr. || 
ter snared rabbits, and left them about vy} 
the animal could get them, and hid in the bj 
waiting for an opportunity for a shot. At I 
he saw the wolf tackle. a colt and cut it : 
by hamstringing it. The wolf was about 
yards off and Mr. Hunter killed it. 
The animal is said to have been of great 
Its height was 42 inches and length 7 feet 1 
The fur is almost pure white. It is said 
the Department of Agriculture has securec} 
hide and will have it mounted. There is a bc 
of $15 on wolves. 






Horned Does. 
Reports from the Adirondack regions de 
that this year two does with horns have 
shot there. One of them is said to have 
killed by Mr. Wm. N. Brown, of Ilion, ar} 
have had three horns, two being about 
inches long and branched, and the third shc 
growing from the skull between the others. 
It is reported that, previously, a doe wi 
single horn, as. well as a white buck, had ! 
brought out of the Adirondacks by hunters 













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A Fox at Close Range. 
Monrcrair, N. J., Oct. 28.—Editor Forest 
Stream: I inclose a snapshot of a fox yi 
I secured in the Maine woods this summer. [ 
fox looks as though he were in a trap, but | 
is not the case. My driver threw food an 
came down out of the woods within ten fe 
me, and whirled to run back, when I sn; 
him. W. E. Pinxa} 
















