
1OLA 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 28, 1907. 

The Castleman Elk Antlers. 
LoursvitLE, Ky., Dec. 13.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Iam sending you a photograph and a 
copy of a letter in reference to a very unusual 
pair of elk antlers, which you may perhaps find 
of interest to your readers. The letter follows: 
Gen. John B. Castleman, Louisville, Ky.: My 
Dear General—It is a rare privilege to have 
visited you and Mrs. Castleman in your bungalow 
in Castlewood and to place the tape on a re- 
markable pair of elk antlers, and I have the 
pleasure to inform you that a careful comparison 
of their measurements with well authenticated 
records has proven beyond doubt that you have 
had in your possession for more than a quarter 
of a century, a trophy which may establish a new 
record for elk antlers, as I believe their ex- 
tended massiveness of beam exceeds that of any 
elk horns which have been exhibited in the 
sportsmen’s shows or which have come to the 
observation or knowledge of the highest authori- 
ties and best writers on the subject of big game. 
Mr. P. F. Collier, of New York, who I under- 
stand is to become the recipient of this magnifi- 
cent old trophy, will possess antlers which 
Selous, Van Dyke, Baillie-Grohman, Roosevelt, 
Phillips-Wolley, Hornaday, Buxton or any other 
international reputation 



big game hunter of ) 
would prize above almost any trophy in their 
possession, and I am sure you could not be- 
stow it On a gamer or more worthy sportsman 
than Mr. Collier. 
It is unfortunate that the horns are detached, 
for it is possible that they may also have had 
an extraordinary spread. There are five govern- 
ing features to be considered in measuring and 
comparing wapiti or elk (Cervus canadensis) 
antlers; namely, 
(a) Girth of beam usually between bay (or 
bez) and tray tines. 
(b) Spread or greatest distance between 
antlers. 
(c) Length around curve from skull to ex- 
treme tip. 
(d) Weight of antlers. 
(e) Number of tines. 
It would no doubt prove of great interest to 
natural historians and sportsmen in general to 
learn the correct history of these, for I believe, 
General, that your record of them is incomplete, 
for as you say they came to you from San Antonio, 
Texas, in 1875, and were bought and presented 
to you by the late John B. Hereford, but the 
impression that they were taken from an elk in 
western Texas is probably the result of incor- 
rect information. I have never heard of a very 
large Texas elk; in fact, I know nothing of 
Texas elk and am not aware that the elk ever 
roamed that far south, and it is my belief that 
this head came from Wyoming and was borne 
by possibly the largest bull wapiti ever seen by 
a white man, for they do not look like castoff 
horns, and the animal must have been bagged 
by a sportsman. I account for their being down 
in Texas in this way: 
When the cattle industry of the West first 
sprang into prominence about the close of the 
Civil War, the nuclei of the ranchman’s herds 
came from Texas. The cattle were driven hun- 
dreds, even thousands of miles, over devious, 
rough and often dangerous trails to the fresh, 
rich grass lands of Wyoming, Montana and the 
remote north Rocky Mountain country. A Texas 
cattleman who recognized the value of the horns 
as a rare trophy on account of their extraor- 
dinary measurements and weight, even in those 
early days when the sportsmen seeking heads 
were few and far apart, hauled the massive 
horns in his camp wagon on his return trip over 
a journey which, counting the actual cost of 
transportation, would make them worth about 
their weight in precious metal. Therefore, I 
feel confident that the horns were grown by a 
Wyoming wapiti almost as big as one of your 
three-year-old saddle-bred horses, and that he 
was the undisputed monarch of the Wind River, 
Big Horn or Jackson Hole country, and that he 
ruled a harem more numerous than any Sultan 
ever commanded. I can readily imagine his 
trumpeted challenge sent forth from one of the 
lofty granite ledges of the Hoback. at the sound 


THE 
of which every young bull within miles trembled 
on his hoofs. Alas! there is left no elk bearing 
such antlers for the sportsman to pursue. 
For the purpose of enabling you to make com- 
parisons, I herewith incorporate a table of the 
largest heads known of or possessed by English, 
American and Canadian sportsmen, and you will 
note that they all came from the State of Wyo- 
ming: 



Length of Girth of 
Beam. Beam. No. of 
Inches, Inches. Tines. 
Wm, A. Baillie-Grohman........ 6354 1% 12 
Frank Cooper 814 16 
T. D. Cobbold 8% 12 
MajVC; (CNBILISh wo ae eae eee 603% TY, 12 
Hrnest Marquaare eens ere meee 62 73 14 
Ei.) Granty aac creek Cor ee 6014 81 13 
Tie eton-Karrask tec oe eee 61 8 12 
Siri Be, Menxie sy sores sen ee 55 814 17 
A; Pendarvis Vivian. ...o.) 05. . 05 84 12 
Theodore Roosevelt ............. 5614 6% 12 

As I believe they will be of general interest to 
sportsmen and students of nature, I herewith 
append the measurements of the unidentified 
Texas antlers, carefully taken, of the various 
prominent parts, measurements being taken at 
smallest circumference: 


Right Left 
Antler, Antler, 
s Inches. Inches. 
Girth” oftburr. juua. sin Mee ne e ee 1214 12 
Girth of beam bet. burr and brow tine...10%4 10 
Girth of beam bet. brow and tray tine....1014 10% 
Girth of beam bet. tray and 4th tine..... % 8 
Girth of beam bet. 4th and 5th tine...... 77 1% 
Girth of beam bet. 5th and 6th tine....... 8 7% 
Girth around bay and tray above beam... 9 10% 
Length of outside curve.................. 58 58 
Leagth or brow tines tenes eee 1¢ 14 
Length of “bay! tines se. ta eee 11% 14 
Wenpth sofutray tine wocure pee eae 14% 16 
Length of fourth (royal) tine, tips broken, 
ieitimorethantrightaneness en nae 10 15 
Length of fifth tine, left tip broken off..17 17% 
Length of sixth tine, left slightly tipped.141%4 1344 
Length of sur-royal (seventh) tine........ 18 16 
Length of eighth tine, irregular 23... oo 2% 1 
Length of beam bet. burr and top side 
Ol tray” Jct cstmecsest eerie ee ee 8% 8 
Length of beam bet. burr and bottom 
Side jot tray seen cee eer ae ae 5 
4 
Present weight thoroughly dried out, right, 18%4lbs. ; 
HOE ache Weights given of antlers usually include the 
skull, 
The antlers are well balanced and fairly sym- 
metrical, as the accompanying photograph shows, 
and the irregularity of the bay and tray tines; 
growing together, makes a very interesting and 
unusual feature, preventing the taking of the 
circumference at the usual point between bay 
and tray. The massiveness of beam is some- 
thing wonderful, as shown in the great girth 
from burr to sixth tine, ranging from 12 to 74 
inches, the latter being the smallest. Of course 
the spread cannot now be determined by meas- 
urement. Tradition or legend might yet, possi- 
bly, establish this, as the tape must have been 
placed on them before they were detached from 
the skull, which was perhaps for the purpose 
CASTLEMAN ELK 

ANTLERS, 
of facilitating their transportation to Texas. 
Allow me to suggest that you permit the facts, 
so far as escertained, to be published in Forest 
AND STREAM so that the best authorities on 
antler measurements may be given an oppor- 
tunity to express their opinion of your posses- 
sion, and through these channels the complete 
history of the head may also be established. 
Brent ALTSHELER. 

Prolificness of the English Sparrow. 
WHILE collecting eggs of the English sparrow 
early last May in Syracuse, N. Y., for embryo- 
logical purposes, says A. M. Reese, of West Vir- 
ginia University, in a recent note to Science, I 
was able to gain some idea of the remarkable 
prolificness of that ubiquitous little pest. 
Mounted upon a bicycle, I accompanied for a 
little more than two hours, an electric light 
“trimmer” (similarly mounted), on his rounds. 
During this time forty-five lamps were visited, 
and in every lamp an English sparrow’s nest was 
found. The lamps were of the common type of 
street arc light, with a metal hood that made an 
excellent nesting place, 
The trimmer said he never bothered to tear out 
the nests, as they would be rebuilt before his 
next round, That this was probably true was 
illustrated in one case, where, after collecting 
the eggs, the man pulled out a handful of straws 
and feathers from the nest and threw them from 
the top of the pole to the ground; before it had 
reached the ground one of these feathers had 
been caught by the female bird, which was ready 
apparently to immediately begin the process of 
reconstruction. 
_From forty-five nests one hundred and twenty- 
eight eggs were obtained, an average of nearly 
three eggs for each nest; therefore, in the eleven 
hundrd are lights of the city of Syracuse there 
were probably more than three thousand eggs. 
If the number of young birds also had been 
counted, the total number would have been largely 
increased—and this was only one brood. 
Of the eggs collected, only two or three per 
cent., possibly less, were infertile; so that there 
must be a fortunately heavy mortality among the 
young and adult sparrows, or their number would 
be even greater than it already is, 
While the are lights furnish the most common 
and easily accessible nesting places, there are, as 
is well known, hundreds of other places, so that 
the number of eges of any one breed is much 
greater than the figures given above. 
The greatest number of eggs found in any one 
nest was seven; the smallest number was two, 
though this was proabably due to the fact that 
the full number of fresh eggs had not yet been 
laid. The usual number of eggs per nest was 
five; more than three-fifths of the nests that con- 
tained any eggs at all contained that number. 


