426 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



indicative of disappointment, then return to 

 deliberately ' beat ' and ' quarter ' the ground 

 aerially speaking, with all the tact and per- 

 severing sagacity of their canine compeers." 

 Gosse relates an instance that occurred in 

 Jamaica, where vultures circled around a 

 house in which some meat had been allowed 

 to spoil, though they could detect nothing 

 by sight. The smelling power which ena- 

 bles them thus to detect their prey must 

 be very delicate ; for Mr. Ehoads could not 

 detect any taint in the atmosphere while he 

 was working over the burial-place. Doubt- 

 less the birds also use their eyes, but these 

 instances prove that the olfactory sense 

 alone is sufficient to guide them. 



Pond-Mnd as a Diarrhoea-Breeder, — 



A fact is related in the report of the State 

 Board of Health of Connecticut that illus- 

 trates the effect upon health of exposing 

 the bottom of a pond. A small village in 

 the town of Union was situated close upon 

 the borders of a pond that was drawn down 

 entirely during the summer and fall, for 

 several years in succession, in order to get 

 the water from another pond lying above it 

 and communicating with it. When the pond 

 was first drawn down, while the decaying 

 materials at its bottom, which probably ex- 

 tended over twenty or thirty acres at least, 

 were drying, offensive odors were complained 

 of, and it was stated that they caused nausea 

 and vomiting ; and diarrhoeal and dysenteric 

 troubles were stated to be unusually fre- 

 quent. But no cases of malaria were re- 

 ported as having originated in any part of 

 the town. Several large ponds between 

 Palmer, Massachusetts, and Union, have been 

 completely drawn down and had their beds 

 exposed, without any cases of malaria being 

 known to have originated in the region. 



Pigs as Wine-Bibbers. — Mr, W. Mattieu 

 Williams says that he once witnessed a dis- 

 play of drunkenness among three hundred 

 pigs, which had been given a barrel of 

 spoiled elderberry-wine all at once with 

 their swill. " Their behavior was intensely 

 human, exhibiting all the usual manifesta- 

 tions of jolly good-fellowship, including that 

 advanced stage where a group were rolling 

 over each other and grunting affectionately 

 in tones that were distinctly expressive of 



swearing good-fellowship all around. Their 

 reeling and staggering, and the expression 

 of their features, all indicated that alcohol 

 had the same effect on pigs as on men ; 

 that under its influence both stood precisely 

 on the same zoological level." He quotes 

 also MM. Dujardin-Beaumetz and Audig6's 

 account to the French Academy of Sciences 

 of their experiments during three years on 

 the effects of alcoholic diet on pigs. " Eight- 

 een of these animals were treated sumptu- 

 ously, according to old-fashioned notions of 

 hospitality, by mixing various alcohols with 

 their food, in proportions about correspond- 

 ing to a modest half-pint of wine at dinner. 

 The alcohols that we drink in wine, malt- 

 liquors, whisky, hollands, brandy, etc., in- 

 variably produced sleep, prostration, and 

 general lassitude, while absinthe (included 

 as another variety of alcohol) produced an 

 excitation resembling epilepsy. Some of 

 the animals died from the effects of alco- 

 holic poison. The survivors were killed, 

 and subjected to post-mortem examination. 

 All were found to be injured, but the mis- 

 chief was greatest when crude spirit was 

 used, less when it was carefully redistilled 

 and purified. 



Food-Fishes of Lalce Erie. — In a paper 

 read before the Buffalo Naturalists' Field 

 Club it is stated that Lake Erie and the 

 Niagara River furnish thirty -seven market- 

 able varieties of fish. But their numbers 

 are becoming rapidly reduced in those wa- 

 ters, owing in great measure to so many 

 fish being taken when they are full of roe. 

 Some fish spawn late in the fall ; the east- 

 ern salmon, salmon-trout, whitefish, brook- 

 trout, and lake-herring, belong to this class, 

 but the majority spawn in April, May, or 

 early June. Black bass choose a place for 

 their spawn-beds where the water is shal- 

 low and the bottom is a sandy gravel. They 

 leave their winter quarters in deep water a 

 month or six weeks previous to spawning. 

 The eggs hatch in from one to two weeks, 

 according to the temperature. Bass are 

 very prolific, yielding fully one fourth their 

 weight of spawn. The bass and the mus- 

 kallonge {Esox nobilior) are the recognized 

 game-fish of the lakes. Whitefish do not 

 take the bait readily, but are caught in gill- 

 nets, and can be taken in great numbers 



