30 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 2 



ORNITHOLOGISTi^^^OOLOGIST 



A Monthly ^fagazine of 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



ESPECIALLY DEVOTEP TO THE STUDY OF 



THEIR XESTS AND E(1«S, 



and to the 



INTERESTS OF NATURALISTS. 



Under the Editorial Management of 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, Hyde Park, Alass. 



J. PARKER NORRIS, Philadelphia, Pa. 



PUBLISHED AT THE 



MUSEUM AND NATURALISTS SUPPLY DEPOT 



FRAXK BLAKE WELJ.-STER COMPANY, 



INCOKPOR.^TED, 



Hyde Fabk, Mass., U. S. A. 



The O. & O. is mailed each issue to every paid sub- 

 scriber. If you fail to receive it. notify us. 



Brief Notes. 



Large Clutches. — Cold Springs, N. Y., 

 Jan. 8. Mis. Ellsworth Miller gave birth to 

 her second pair of triplets to-day. In seven 

 years she has given birth to fourteen babies, 

 twice triplets and four times twins. They 

 come in pairs or three of a kind every time. 

 Mrs. Miller is only thirty years old. — Wade's 

 Fibre and Fabric. 



Sheep have two teeth in the centre of the jaw 

 at one year, and add two each year until five 

 years old, wlien they have a " full mouth." 

 After that time the age cannot be told by the 

 teeth. — \Yade"s Fibre and Fabric. 



A camera attached to a i-ifle is the latest 

 photographic invention. It takes a i)icture 

 wlien the trigger is pulled. The chief advan- 

 tage nf it is tiiat the victim is spared the 

 anguish of seeing how he looked. — Posr. 



The death of the old horse Comanche, which 

 was the only living thing belonging to the 

 United States that survived the battle of the 

 Little Big Horn, where Custer fell, recalls the 

 most horrible massacre in the history of Indian 

 warfare. After the battle Comanche was 

 found covered with wounds and riderless, the 

 body of every other horse that carried the 

 brave cavalry into the fight naving been found 

 dead among the heaps of slain soldiers. From 

 that day to this Comanche has lived on the 

 bounty of Uncle Sam, and no one has been 

 permitted to sit upon his b ick. His hide 

 will be stuffed and his image will survive as a 

 reminder of a memorable figlit. 



One Use for a Bullhead's Horns. — 

 Lexington, W. Va., June 16. A black snake 

 about three feet long was seen swimming in 

 Tomlinson's Kun yesterday with a fish, com- 

 monly known as bullhead, in its mouth. The 

 fish was nearly eight inches long. The snake 

 had succeeded in swallowing the fish, begin- 

 ning at the tail, up to just back of its head, 

 where its forward fins are reinforced by strong 

 horns or spines. Beyond this point the snake's 

 jaws could not get, for so long as the fish sur- 

 vived just so long would it instinctively raise 

 its fins and horns whenever it felt the end of 

 the snake's jaws touching them. With a 

 strong forked stick the snake was lifted out of 

 the water, whereupon the fish fell out of the 

 snake's mouth. Evidently it had been there 

 some time, for it was lacerated, livid in spots, 

 and its life blood seemed to have been horribly 

 su(;ked out of it, leaving the most of its body 

 ])ailid and colorless. When released it sank 

 head first to the bottom of the pool, then 

 levived and came to the surface, and after- 

 ward swam slowly and laboriously away. — 

 Pittsburgh Dispatch. 



Seal Capes Will ije Lowkil — San Fran- 

 cisco, Xov. li). James Waiden of the Con- 

 solidated Black Cat Co. is here from Fairhaven, 

 Wash. He is one of the stoikholdeis of a 

 novel company just organized on l^uget Sound 

 for the propagation of black cats. An island 

 is to be i)urchased and there the black cat 

 breed is to be perpetuated. These <!ats will 

 live on fish and are to be raised for their fur. 



At THE WixTEiJ Resorts. — The rush of 

 tourists to Florida increases every winter, and 

 so much shooting (every man, nearly, takes his 

 gun) is rapidly diminishing the game all 

 through the country. Tiie time was and only 

 a few years ago. when every bay and lagoon 

 was teeming with birds; but when the fashion 

 demanded thafevery woman's bonnet should 

 l)e decorated with some kind of a bird or its 

 feathers, men were sent to F'lorida to procure 

 them, and one expedition returned, it is said, 

 with one hundred thousand bird skins, shot in 

 one winter. Such destiuction is now felt, and 

 although the authorities have now prohibited 

 the slaughter, it is like locking the stable aftei- 

 the horse is stnlen. On the Apalachicola river 

 wild turkeys and ducks are shot wantonly 

 from the decks of the steamboats, and alliga- 

 tors all along the banks come in for a fusillade 

 from the rifies of the passengers. On my 

 recent trip on this river 1 saw numbers of 

 turkeys shot as they were running along the 

 banks, that were of course wasted, as tlie boat 

 could not stop to pick them up; and every 

 fioek of ducks that rose was fired into, killing 

 or maiming more or less of tlieni. Not only 

 on the ground of wanton cruelty should the 

 owners of these boats prohibit the use of fire- 

 arms, but it is a great annoyance to many 

 passengers to have rifles and shotguns banging 

 away around them, to say nothing of the 

 danger to life from careless use of guns by 

 mere boys, as some of them were. It is a 

 theme the Forest and Stream might properly 

 bring to the notice of the proper authorities 



