Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-15

Ehe. only chanae IN both cases is at the
Germafi-Russian frontier, where YOU
leave the narrow gauge line to step on
to a magnificent broad gauge train,
which, for comfort and luxury rivals your
best trains in America
Nowhere in the world have I seen such
When not IN light they perch on the to3s
as there are both on the trains and at the
Russian railway stations. / have seen
freshly cooked cartridges, pheasants.
grouse and most magnificent fish, such
as salmon and sturgeon, served at rea-
sonable prices in the railways buffets. To
the man who is fond of shooting. or
hunting" as it is called in this country
hunting, as We call it, means fox hunt
Ing or hare hunting with harriers), Russia
Is the most wonderful field, and should
say that some of the remote parts of ST.
IBERIA would furnish perfect paradise for
sportsmen.
In many places in Siberia. along the
Chinese and Manchurian borders, the
long-haired tiger still is to he found in
considerable numbers, and the largest
bears in the world are to be found in the
Altai mountains. | have one dear friend
who has spent nearly all his life in Siberia
as hunter and gold miner. He is born
naturalist and one of the most fascinating
men L have ever met. He speaks seven
different languages, all equally well For
all the world he looks like a typical
western American mining man. He has.
believe. shot more bears than any man
living. He is now a man OF advanced
years, and, although as active as ever,
he has told me he now hates to destroy
life. and now takes his hunting pleasures
in merely watching the animals he used
to love to shoot
l remember one beautiful. starlit. au-
tumn evening in Russia. We were some
thirty miles from ST. Petersburg where
this most delightful character lives. He
is beloved by all in the neighborhood, as
he never refuses to help any one, and in
consequence. is always more or less in q
state of poverty. Were it not for an old
ter and occasionally puts her foot down
and throws the buns out, he would get
nothing to eat.
On this particular evening he said he
would take me into the forest and show
me the strange behavior of the caper-
calizee. These are birds about the size of
turkeys strong on the wing and difficult
to get near. they are exceedingly shy.
When not in flight they perch on the tops
of the highest trees. and livei off the
young shoots of the fir trees. 1t is only
at night you find them on the ground.
and this is what we went to get. Baron
Traubenberg. my friend had sent his
keeper scouting to locate the birds, and
when we neared the spot we crawIed on
hands and knees as near as We could
to where the birds were congregated.
l saw a most extraordinary sight. There
We're some thirty of these enormous birds,
and for all the world it was like boxing
ring. The female birds were all grouped
in a circle, and in the center We're two
cock birds fighting for all they were
worth. and the outside of the ring
there We're several other cock birds APP
parently waiting to how the fight
would go and bordering whether they
would tackle the victor or not. The fe-
male birds made strange cultural "crieks'
and tremendous noise by Tapping their
wings.
Just at the critical moment when one
of the cocks apparently was going to lay
the other out. I sneezed, and in an in
slant the whole troupe of birdS-uncanny
in their intelligence-had vanished into
the forest, and we saw them no more.
l may say that in reaching the battle
ground we ,crawled through several
swa mps, and when / reached home i was
wet through. but the baron seemed to
think nothing of this. Night after night
he used to go to the forest and spend
hours studying it's denizens. The next
evening he took me to see the wood
cocks lighting" I learned much of the
beauties of nature from this great nat
ura'iSt