THE CANADIAN 8P0RTSMAJI AND NATURALIST. 





to do it. Notwithstanding the sentimentalism 

 of the Rev. Mr. Clementi, Mr. 8aunder . 

 President of the l<fntomological Society of 

 Ontario, stated in his lasl annual addr< 

 that learned body, that robins were one of the 

 most mischievous of our birds, and I a 

 you the piety and extreme humanity of such 

 correspondents will nol weigh with me aboul 

 relishing Fieldfares. In all the leading hotels 

 in all the large cities <>l the United States, 

 " robins" arc to be found on the bill of rare. 

 Do they know that 25,000 dozens of birds, 

 mostly Red-wing Blackbirds, Rusty Grackles 

 and Bobolinks, were sold las! year in Phila- 

 delphia alone at 75 cts. to $1.00 per dozen, all 

 under the name of " Rice-birds." Robins and 

 Meadow larks were not included, though thou- 

 sands were also sold. I would advise the Rev. 

 Mr. dementi to make a tour in the United 

 Slates to lecture on the cruelty of eating robins, 

 God's birds. I hope to read no more of these 

 strictures as it might perhaps add vim to my 

 pen. Do they think they have written me 

 down ? In regard to the tradition of the robin 

 picking a thorn out of Christ's head, I consider 

 Mr. Clementi the pious composer. Again if 

 the English robin had its breast dyed by our 

 Saviour's blood, it is surely neither an un- 

 reasonable nor irreligious idea, to expect the 

 dyed feathers to be a blood color which they 

 are not, and if a miracle had been performed 

 it would have been true to the color of blood 

 and not blotched, or, if true to color, then His 

 blood was like no other mortals. How does 

 the truth of this tradition tally with fact and 

 colour? Will Mr. Clementi explain, as Robin 

 red-breasts are neither found in the Holy land, 

 nor is it mentioned in the Bible as far as I am 

 yet aware? John H. Garnier, 



Lueknow, Oct. 1st, 1881. 



DEER HORNS. 



Sir, — I wish to ask yourself or readers 

 of the Naturalist the reason that on a 

 two year old buck, one horn has grown 

 about five inches, and the other onlv shows 

 above the hair. I have a buck and doe, and 

 this is the way his horns have grown. The 

 doe is last Spring's fawn ; large lor its age. 

 Both are very tame, eating readily from my 

 hand. Forty Dollars will buy the pair. 



Yours, 

 Gravenhurst, Ont. R. B. Scriven. 



Note.— We cannot positively say what is 

 the cause preventing the growth of the second 

 horn of your deer. It may be that the skiu 



covering the tips of the horn •••■ 

 il started i- jrow, thu topping thecircul 

 of the vital fluid paeeing under it. The b 

 carry the -kin lion, the l-n-<- until they are lull 



oid while the thin skin i- attached I 

 them the horns arc -,,ti and easily injured. 

 We ha vi seen many bearing mark- ol injury 

 received while tin % were covered with 



Velvet skill. — C. 



A GENERAL DELUGE. 

 i;v o. w. iskown, M.r>. 

 (From Our Home, and Science ffoerip.) 

 The gases continually escaping from the 



interior of the earth, bringing along with them 

 a vast amount of scoras, through the immense 

 volcanic craters of an earlier period, reduced 

 the amounf ol molten mass within, and un- 

 fitted it longer to sustain the heavy crust 

 resting upon it. Alter rocking, heaving and 

 swelling lor a time, like a ship on a billowy 

 sea, fissures were formed, the com pn 

 escaped, the crust tell down upon the 

 mass, leaving the Andes. Rocky, Himalaya 

 and other great mountain chains' to mark the 

 site of these magnificent operations ol nature. 

 Tranquility followed for a time when I 

 disturbances ensued. Thc.-e violent agital 

 of the crust of the earth everywhere ruptured 

 the indexible rock, sometimes leaving wide 

 spaces into which were injected the molten 

 mass from below, forming the perpendicular 

 veins of metamorphic rock, the admiration of 

 all who look upon it. 



With the subsidence ot a continent, beds of 

 oceans were elevated^ and the water.-, in seeking 

 their equilibrium, swept over receding con- 

 tinents, perhaps engulfing them until another 

 great upheaval followed. Amid these awful 

 paroxysms ot a convulsed earth, the principal 

 inhabitants were swept away. The tew sur- 

 vivors, with no historic records, communicat- 

 ed from generation to generation, in their rude 

 language, as clearly as they were capable, 

 an account ot these wonderful and startling 

 operations ol nature. Wherever survivors re- 

 mained each had a vivid recollection of the 

 grand cataclysm, and imparted his impressions 

 ol it to his successors, and thus on from parent 

 to son through all the ages. 



The present eastern coast ot Asia may have 

 been the western coast line of a submtrged con- 

 tinent. The Adam and Eve of Hindoo, 

 Assyrian and Hebrew story may have been 

 the only survivors of some ot' these grand 



