snow, and shivering with fright and cold. Not knowing what to make of her, he took her to the old mother, who was very learned in all things, and asked her what this fair and frail thing was that he had found shivering under a fir bush in the snow. The old mother Grizzly, who had things pretty much her own way, bade him leave the child with her, but never mentioned it to anyone, and she would share her breast with her, and bring her up with her other children, and maybe some great good would come of it. The old mother reared her as she promised to do, and the old hairy father went out every day with his club on his shoulder to get food for his family. till they were all grown up and able to do for themselves.

"Now," said the old mother Grizzly to the old father Grizzley, as he stood his club by the door and sat down one day, 'our oldest son is quite grown up and must have a wife. Now, who shall it be but the little red creature you found in the snow under the black fir bush?" So the old Grizzly father kissed her, said. she was very wise, then took up his club on his shoulder, and went out and killed some meat for the marriage feast. They were married and were very happy, and many, many children were born to them. But, being part of the Great Spirit and part of the grizzly bear these children did not exactly resemble their parents, but partook somewhat of the nature of both. Thus was the red man created; for these children were the first Indians.

All the other grizzlies throughout the black forests, even down to the sea, were very proud and very kind, and met together, and with their united strength, built for the lovely little red Princess a wigwam close to that of her father, the Great Spirit. This is what is now called "Little Mount Shasta." After many years the old mother Grizzly felt that she soon must die; and, fearing that she had done wrong in detaining the child of the Great Spirit, she could not rest until she had seen him and restored him his long lost treasure and asked his forgiveness.

With this object in view, she gathered together all the grizzlies at the new magnificent lodge built for the Princess and her children, and then sent her eldest grandson to the summit of Mount Shasta, in a cloud, to speak to the Great Spirit and tell him where he could find his long lost daughter.

When the Great Spirit heard this he was so glad that he ran down the mountain side on the south so fast and strong that the snow was melted off in places, and the tokens of his steps remain to this day. The grizzlies went out to meet him by thousands; and as he approached they stood apart in two great lines, with their clubs under their arms, and so opened a lane by which he passed in great state to the lodge where his daughter sat with her children.

But when he saw the children, and learned how the grizzlies that he had created had betrayed him into the creation of a new race, he was very wroth, and frowned on the old mother Grizzly till she died on the spot. At this the grizzlies. all set up a dreadful howl; but he took his daughter on his shoulder, and turning to the grizzlies, bade them hold their tongues, get down on their hands and knees, and so remain until he returned. They did as they were bid, and he closed the door of the lodge after him, drove all the children out into the world, passed out and up the mountain, and never returned to the timber any

more.

So the grizzlies could not rise up any more, or use their clubs, but have ever since gone on all-fours, much like other beasts, except when they have to fight for their lives, when the Great Spirit permits them to stand up and fight with their fists like men.

That is why the Indians about Mount Shasta will never kill or interfere in any way with a grizzly. Whenever one of their number is killed by one of these kings of the forest, he is burned on the spot, and all who pass that way for years cast a stone on the place till a great pile is thrown up. Fortunately, however, grizzlies are not plentiful about the mountain.

HERE is one native of China now

T domiciled in Oregon and rapidly

taking possession of the country, who will neither be required to register under the Geary law nor be expelled from the country for failure to do so. Sportsmen declare him to be the finest game bird that walks the earth, in plumage, in the sport he affords the sportsman and as a table dish.

Nearly eighteen years ago, Judge O. N. Denny, a citizen of Portland and at that time consul general at Shanghai, China, introduced these birds into Oregon. There is no need of laws to protect them in China, for the farmers there never do anything to destroy them or to frighten them away from their fields, believing them to be friends rather than enemies, doing far more good than harm to the crops. They destroy insects in great numbers.

The Chinese catch them in snares and nets for market. The fact that they were often very poor induced Mr. Denny to purchase them by the dozens and fatten them in a large enclosure, and he was prompted to send a few of them to his home in Oregon. The Multnomah Rod and Gun Club then commissioned him to procure a large number, and of the thirteen varieties in China he sent five kinds. The club had secured legislation for the protection of the ring-neck pheasant, but not for the silver, golden, copper or green varieties, and therefore these four were placed on Protection Island, Puget Sound, for safe keeping until a suitable game law could be passed. The law now includes them, and one enthusiastic sportsman who has a large fruit ranch at North Yamhill, secured a number of these choice birds and is propagating them rapidly. Doubtless these, also, will be numerous in a few years, but, being less prolific and wary than the ring-neck, they will probably never be so abundant, for the latter have multiplied until the four dozen pairs re

leased in the Willamette valley a few years ago have now millions of descend

ants.

By the first protective laws all persons were prohibited from killing these birds at any time, or having them in their possession, dead or alive. At first the farmers were hostile and made much complaint.

Many killed all they could of them, and expressed a determination to exterminate them, but their prolific breeding habits and their extreme wariness were too much for this ignorant crusade, and they increased rapidly in numbers. Now that the farmers generally have been educated on the subject, they are firm supporters of protection, and market hunters receive but little encouragement. So rapidly did the birds increase in numbers, and so general was the disregard of the law, that even sportsmen yielded to the temptation and sought the bird afield.

Beautiful in plumage, with the strut of a peacock and the courage and pugilistic skill of a game cock, the male pheasant has no rival in the field. The female is much plainer in plumage, but has clean-cut, graceful outlines, a fit companion for her proud lord and protector, for such he is in the fullest sense of the word. He weighs about two pounds, has long clean legs, with long toes and sharp spurs. His bill is long and sharp, and his eye keen. He presents the personification of alertness and pugnacity. He has been known to go into a chicken yard and whip every rooster in it, and, like the conqueror of old, take possession of the spoils of war and the admiring females. No hawk stands any show of foraging from a brood under this bird's care, and if he is wise he will not come too near that pointed beak and those vicious spurs. His protective instinct has been observed to manifest itself in taking full charge of a brood when the hen bird has been killed. No

doubt his careful guardianship has much to do with the rapid increase in numbers of these birds, while grouse, with equal legal protection, seem not to increase at all; yet prolific reproduction is the chief secret. A sportsman who is one of nature's naturalists, in that he studies carefully the nature and habits of the birds he hunts, affirms that there are at least two generations produced each year. Mother hens have been killed in the fall, whose breast bones were but gristle, showing that they were spring chickens. The procreative instinct is so strong that if a nest of eggs is destroyed the bird immediately begins again, and keeps at it constantly. From this habit of two generations a year, it is inferred by this gentleman that an open season beginning much later than August I would be preferable.

The distinctive color of the Mongolian pheasant is brown, and the female bird is of that color exclusively, richly mottled with dark shades on the lighter tints; but the cock is rich in brighter colors. The upper part of his neck and around the eve is of a deep green shading, in places almost a peacock blue, the color possess ing the changeableness of velvet. Below this, just above the breast, his throat has a complete ring of white, and it is this distinctive mark that has won for him his special name as the ring-neck pheasant. His breast is very dark, the greenish hue shading into brown, while his sides are very light, splashed with dark brown spots. His back is covered with dark brown feathers tipped with a lighter hue. His long tail, extending stiffly to the rear at a slight elevation, fully two feet long and ending in a point, is very light brown with dark brown bands at regular intervals of about an inch. Only in his spread of tail does the peacock excel this beautiful bird, but in all other features falls far below him as an ornament for a park aviary.

Sportsmen who have hunted grouse in the foothills and quail in the underbrush, who have bagged woodcock on English preserves, brought down the swift partridge in New England woods and the heavy prairie chicken in the Western fields, place them all far below the Mongolian pheasant as game birds.

He is a runner and travels almost exclusively on foot, his long legs doing him excellent service. If flushed and not brought down it is almost useless to watch where he lights and follow him, for his legs may take him off at right angles to his flight half a mile before he considers himself safe. His eye is sharp and he is ever watchful, after the first few days of the season. A dog cannot hold him in cover like he can a chicken The latter crouch down and seek to hide, but the wary Chinaman steals away and thus fools the best trained animals. I have seen chagrin that was almost human on the face of my dog when, having come to a point, he has seen me advance and find nothing where he had undoubtedly located birds. Bagging a whole covey, as is often done with other birds, is impossible. They scatter on foot in all directions, and for that reason the huntsman can never tell when he will flush a pheasant. And how he does fly! The partridge flies fast, but he rises from the ground with his wings and takes an instant to get in motion. Not so the pheasant. pheasant. He starts with a run, and when he rises from the ground he has already gained considerable velocity. A quick eye and a ready trigger are needed to bring him down. Nor does he fly blindly or aimlessly. His flight is seldom straight away, but almost always to the side. so that he can keep his sharp eye continually on the enemy. If he can manage to put a tree between himself and the hunter, he directs his course so as to keep covered by it. All these qualities make him the king of game birds, and the satisfaction the genuine sportsman takes in bagging him exceeds that afforded by birds requiring less skill and care.

From the time the hunter leaves the farmer's door, if there he spends the night, he must be on the alert and ready to shoot. The wary bird may jump up from the garden patch, or he may be in the orchard, the meadow, the corn patch or wheat field. He may be in the little clump of timber or along the margin of the brook, as, indeed, he is very apt to be during the heat of the day. Unlike other birds, he has no favorite spots, and semper paratus must be the motto of the

hunter who hopes for success in bagging him. Even the best guns are satisfied with a bag of two dozen in a full day's sport. Larger bags are frequent, but so are smaller. The hunter earns every bird he gets and each one has an individuality of his own.

How well he would thrive in the colder prairie and New England states is not certain. In Oregon he finds the same mild winters and abundance of food as in China. Yet a bird so active, so courageous and so intelligent should be able to maintain himself wherever a prairie chicken or a grouse can, and he would doubtless thrive in the Northern states, possibly not increase in numbers so rapidly as in the mild and equable climate. of the Willamette valley. In the Southern states he would be at home. This noble bird might, by propagation and distribution, be made to add materially to the food supply of the country in a few years, besides providing pleasure for thousands of sportsmen. That his adopted habitat will extend finally over the entire United States there is little doubt, and this renders the question of

his name one of interest.

There is a general desire in Oregon to call him the "Denny" pheasant, in compliment to the gentleman who first brought him to this country, but as Mr. Denny did not discover an unknown species, and as other localities will also soon have these birds direct from China, this name can never become more than local and its use is of doubtful propriety. As he is but one of thirteen varieties domiciled. in China, five of which we now have in this country, it seems scarcely sufficient identification to call him the "Mongolian" pheasant, the name most commonly used, unless the word "RingNeck" be added. Indeed, a combination of these two best identifies the bird, for it undoubtedly is from the same parent stock as those imported into England from India and kept in game preserves there. He has somewhat differentiated and has become sufficiently distinct to make the use of "Mongolian" necessary to distinguish him from the English variety which he much excels in all the qualities that make a game bird.