2(i 



struck with several pellets of No. 5 shot which caused 

 instant death. Its breast and abdomen were so badly 

 lacerated that it was valueless for cabinet purposes. 

 A guide who was with me said it was the work of a gar, 

 blaek bass or catfish, all of which, he claimed, would do 

 such tricks. At different times I threw into the St. 

 Johns river, at a wharf where catfish were abundant, 

 small birds which had been too badly damaged by shot 

 to be skinned; the catfish would come to the surface 

 and carry them out of sight. The place, of course, 

 where these experiments were made, was a kind of 

 feeding ground which I had established for the catfish 

 by throwing, almost daily for nearly a month, into tU'; 

 water the carcasses of several hundred birds which had 

 been skinned. 



THE VORACIOUS PIKE. 



rike which love to hide in still waters where lily 

 pads, tall gra&ses and rushes grow, hove on diffinent 

 occasions been known to catch and devour small bird.i 

 perched on low branches, leaves and grasses resting 

 on or near the water's surface. 



Ducklings of both wild and domesticated kinds arc 

 very frequently, it is asserted, captured when dabbling 

 in the water by numerous kinds of greedy fishes. 



A RED SQUIRREL, SPARROW AND HUNGRY CHUB. 



In my school boy days when fishing on the historic 

 Braudywine, I heard a loud out-cry among a colony of 

 birds in a cluster of low willows and hazel bushes 

 which overhung the banks and stream where the 

 waters rushed madly over a stony bed to form a deep 

 dark pool where fallfish or chubs lay in wait for food. 

 I was acquainted with the spot, having repeatedly 



