Norwich bulletin., 1911-12-02
THE QUAIL TRAP
Phoenix Abinos and Melanism-The Quail Trap Raven roost?-Local Game Bags-incidents of the Chase The Latest Hold-Up

The Quail Trap. Nov. 30, 19t1.-Was there not fabled bird of old called the phoenix, which, rising from Its ashes, scared away into the blue em- pyrean beyond the sight of mere nor tai man? Well, up to this time there seems to have been no resurrection from the holocaust of birds at the Quail Trap.
 Hungarian cartridges from the smouE derfng ruins two days after the fire, and Rev. l.. k. Rawson saw a black squirrel cross the path leading to the was blaekened by the fire, but con slider It d case of nelanisn.
 neighbor the same day saw snow-white grey sqnirrec.
 MT Charles Perrin, chairman of the game committee of the late 1egisla- ture, flushed a ruffed grouse with pure-white head.
 It is pleasant to note that no att tempt was made to shoot these anom- alies- A bantam bullet covering a clutch of incubated eggs in the ashes of the books on birds is the nearest approach to phoenix which We will have this season
 l am not sure that deer were not firelighted by the phosphorescent glow from the bins of burning coal in the cellar. for tiny hoof prints were seen around the black walls.
 The local museum is gone, but the keeper thereof is still to the fore, even if he can no longer act as barker and repeat for the hundredth time:
 Yes, this is the plarypus-of all creatures of fur or feather here shown the strangest; an egg-laying mammal, with a bill like d duck, tail like a beaver; wep-footed amphib- that does not belle it's name in science, ParadoNus ')rnithornycus. Certainly, madam, it's fur made into a steamer rug or auuo-rug might cost you two hundred in American gold in the Syd- ney shops. If you will be kind enough to look at this otter taken in the Lebanon branch of the Yantic river you will see that it's pellage closely resemb bles that of the duck billed platypus we have just shown you. No, this mounted otter. The brook trout under its fOfefeet was caught from the pr. Johnson bridge on the Colchester turnpike,-anL so on ad nauseam- But 1t was a passing snow and the barker's voice was strangely silenced-
 The refugees from the Quail Trap have taken the adjoining farm, which was vacant, so that the present field of bird observation will be the same as at the old bungalow. But what shall we call the new headquarters? Shall we date our notes from the New Quail Trap, the Annex, or the Quail Trap, Jr.? The old delivers in heraldic de- vices say that Rawson is a. corruption from the original Ravenson, and as a raven Is always on every design of the family crest, would there not be a. de- gree of propriety in naming the new place Ravenroost?
 The open shooting season has closed with growing impression that the next legislature will make a close sea- son on quail and ruffed grouse from three to five years. For the last three days of the season, in our own range of unposted woods, one would have thought by the continuous din that all the ninety-eight privileged men were firing in pairs, by squads, and volley- ing. It would not seem as if a living thing could have got out of the showers of shot But in these woods today I know of three gray squirrels warmly housed for the winter in a roofed-in dry nest, and when drawing cordwood MT l.. B. Raw5on saw a fat raccoon which had slipped out of the line of fire into Whippoorwill ledge. There was a large flight of October woodc Ick here, and among the large bags taken by the Pafnes were fifteen woodcock