FOREST AND STREAM. 



203 



apace there still exist others too strong and agile to be cap- 

 tured by our devices ? 



In the Ti rtiary period there existed, as is proved by the. 

 fossil remains, two great cetaceans, either of which, if now 

 living, would rrMiuihlc very closely Ihe Ma-serpent bb ordi- 

 narily described— one of these, the ZengUdon, the other, the 

 Jl,i.-,ii.^t«>-i;< ; creatures growing toalength of a hundred feet, 

 with round bodies as "thick as a barrel," with small, pointed 

 heads and tapering necks. May not still living members of 

 one of these families be occasionally seen ? 



MoCloit. Rivbb IJATcmiNo Station.— Editor Forest and 

 I ream : Following is a statement showing the dailyrecordof 

 al mon taken at the United States Salmon Hatching Station, 

 McCloud Kiver, Cal, during the season of 1878 : 



■Yuk 80 .in 000 • Auk. 22, 30,n0fl: Aug. 23. 62.000; Aug. 24, 54,- 

 000; Auk. 2G, 110,000s Aug. 27. lS2,OO0i Ang. 28, 302,000; Aug. 29, 

 30fi 00fl;"AuK. 3(1 444.000; Aug. 31. 490,000: Sept. 2, 682,000: Sept. 

 3 34S ilOO ,s p I :: 1,00(1 3epfr. 5, USC.000: Sept. G, 582.000: 

 Srat. 7. 57S.000. Sept. S. 740,000; Sopt. 9, 573,000; Sept. 10, 714,- 

 000- Sept. 11, 891,000: Sopt. 12. 722.000:' Sept. 13, 858.000; Sq.L 

 M, 920,000: Bapt. 15, 500,000; Sept. 16, 648,000; Sept. 18, 700,000. 

 Total, 12,2-16,000. LmaeSTON Stone. 



Bttirtt, .Shasta Co.. Sep*. 28. 



-i — ■♦» -. 



Seeds of the NET.nMBrcM: Ltjtbum.— We have received 

 from Dr. JE. Sterling, of Cleveland, O., some seed pods ol the 

 Nclumbium luteum, the lotus whoso adaptation to fish 

 ponds was discussed by Dr. Sterling in our issue of Sept. 25. 

 The pods will be distributed judiciously among flshculturists, 

 and we will plant some seeds in the Blooming Grove Park 

 lake. We shall subsequently note the success of the experi- 

 ment. The seeds planted now, before the shell of the nut 

 hardens, will sprout readily next spring. If they are not 

 planted before spring time the shell should be peeled off at 

 the germinal end. They will grow wherever the Nymphasa 

 ordonata is found. Roots of the plant may he procured later 

 in the fall. 



.— •!— • 



Tms Lotos in Canada.— Editor Forest and Stream: While 

 angling for bass on the outlet of Lake Calumet last summer, 

 my attention wits drawn to the large size of the water lily 

 tNytnphWl odorata), as compared to the lily growing on most 

 of the lakes in this part, of the Laurentides. My guide in- 

 formed me that the lotus also grew there, and on expressing 

 a wisli to see the plant., he pulled his boat up to the outlet of 

 the lake, and there, sun; enough, the water for several acres 

 was covered with the broad, green leaf, twenty to thirty 

 inches in diameter, the stem growing from the centre of the 

 leaf. Mr. Beeves, of South Chicago, informed me that be 

 bad dug up a number of the roots, and had transplanted them 

 successfully. If any of your readers would like to procure 

 any for planting, I think he could furnish them with the 



roOtS. W. H. PABKEfe. 



St Wlie, P. Q., Oct. 3, 1878. 



We should like the roots very much, with minute instruc- 

 ions when and where to plant them.— Ed. 



^ Oai.tfoiwia. Trout in New Yoke:.— Mr. Editor : 1 have 

 three hundred mature California brook trout. I took '10,000 

 spawn from them last spring. They commenced Bpawning 

 March 14 We have 20,000 of the young now at our works. 

 They are doing well. They do not require near the attention 

 to raise them that it does our brook trout. I have stocked 

 some streams with them, and tbey are doing finely. They 

 grow much faster than ours, and 1 think they will be a good 

 fish to stork ("p- streams, and when the young stock we have 

 on hand grows up we shall be able to furnish a great many 

 vouii" fry to a t' «k onr public waters. Seth Green. 



black on the upper part of the body, suddenly changing to 

 white on the sides and abdomen. Immediately above and 

 rather behind the eye is a while, patch, not unlike an eye-lid. 

 The dorsal fin, about the middle of the body, is very large, 

 being about four feet high, and the pectorals are also large. 

 Its head is more rounded than that of a porpoise and its fore- 

 head more convex ; its snout is short and round. The lower 

 jaw is somewhat bent upward, broader but not so long as the 

 upper. 



The grampus is not often seen around these coasts, Green- 

 land and Davis Straits being its favorite resort. It is common 

 in the British seas and firths. This is the first instance of the 

 capture of a grampus on our shores of which I have heard. It 

 is no easy task to master one of these powerful animals, and 

 had it not been that the tail of this one got entangled between 

 the logs ot wood forming the breastwork of a wharf, it would 

 have escaped. The grampus is at once cautious and daring. 

 It is on record that four of them were taken in the Thames at 

 different times, between 1750 and 1793, and one in Lynn har- 

 bor in 18211. Sir Joseph Banks gives the particulars of one 

 taken in the Thames in 1772 : "After being pierced With three 

 harpoons it ptdled the attached boat twice from Black wall to 

 Greenwich, and once as far as Depiford, against the tide, 

 running at the rate of eight miles an hour : and for a long 

 time unimpeded by the lance wounds which were inflicted 

 when it came to the surface. So long as it was alive no boat 

 could venture to approach it, and the dying efforts of this for- 

 midable creature, were very terrible. It was finally killed op- 

 posite Greenwich Hospital." I suppose the one I have been 

 describing must have got thoroughly exhausted by its efforts 

 to escape, otherwise it would have made a more desperate 

 fight in its last moments. Probably never before was a gram- 

 pus caught by the tail. The skull, with the mouth open, dis- 

 playing the teeth, will be a striking object, in out museum. 



St John's, Newfoundland, August, 1878. M. Haovkv. 



Bot 



Still Another Sale or Bkkecb-Loading Gcks.— Barter & Co. an- 

 nonnee in another column their fourth annual auction sale of fine 

 BflgllaJ] met American breech and mnzscle-Joading irons. The above 

 ffrtn are mating a specialty of guns, and are giving this depanment, 

 close attention, selling no gun they cannot fully guarantee. The next 

 sale of the. season will tate place as soon as the receipt of an important 

 invoice arrives.— lAde. 



^ainml §is(org< 



For Forest and Stream and Bod and Gun. 

 SOMETHING ABOUT THE GRAMPUS. 



AVERT unusual scene was witnessed recently iu our har- 

 bor. Two full-grown grampuses entered the Narrows 

 in the wake of one of the Allan line of steamers, and were ob- 

 served dashing rapidly about the harbor, blowing at intervals 

 and seemingly quite bewildered. A boat's crew from a man- 

 of-war. which happened to be in the harbor, was dispatched 

 in pursuit of one of them and chased it to the headof the har- 

 bor, where its tail caught between the piles of a wharf and it 

 became completely powerles. Ropes were passed round it 

 and it was speedily dragged into shallow water xn one of the 

 coves and dispatched. It proved to be a full-grown grampus, 

 25ft. 4in. in length and 15ft. in circumference. Its com- 

 panion managed to find the entrance to the harbor and escaped. 

 The dead grampus was cut up for the sake of the oil it con- 

 tained, but very little could be extracted. I managed to ob- 

 tain the skull and jaws, which are in perfect condition. They 

 have been thoroughly cleaned, and I shall preseDt them to 

 our local museum. There are eleven teeth in the upper and 

 under Bide of each jaw-forty-four in all— very powerful, 

 large conical and somewhat hooked, those furthest back being 

 flattened at the summit. Two of them are broken, indicating 

 the Severe battles in which it bad been engaged. This arma- 

 ment of powerful teeth, which interlock when the mouth is 

 closed, indicate-, the voracious aud warlike character of the 

 grampus It attacks and devours seals and the smaller por- 

 p,,-,..,: •; , , . nut, lives chiefly on cod, halibut, skate, 



:'nd turbot, of which it consumes immense numbers. It is 

 slut (-I that a number of them will m company attack a Green- 

 laud whale biliug aud tearing its flesh with their powerful 

 teeth some seizing the tail, others the lips and tongue, like so 

 many mastiffs fighting with a wild bull, and seldom ceasing 

 the contest till finally vietoflons. I made a careful examina- 

 tion of the great animal soon after its capture. The color is 



SPARE THE SPARROW. 



Eottok Forest abd Stream: 



I lately saw an article from Dr. Coues, in which he renews 

 his abuse of the sparrow, or, to speak more accurately, of 

 those who approve of the sparrow. He divides the advo- 

 cates and supporters of the foreign little bird into five classes, 

 four of which he calls idiots, and the fifth weak-minded. 

 There is a very powerful aud almost conclusive argument 

 against the sparrows. There is no denying the logic of epi- 

 thets, and we are fairly inclined to answer, " You're another." 

 Still, there is a weak point in Dr. Coues' position. We, too, 

 can resort to epithets. So long as we have Denis Kearney 

 among us we shall never be at a loss for a Bounding sentence 

 of vilification. We will not, however. We will only mildly 

 and gently term all the haters of the poor bird " sparrow- 

 hawks." Who has not seen the sparrow-hawk pouncing from 

 above with sudden dash and resounding whirr of wing, or 

 darting like the arrow from the bow in direct pursuit of his 

 innocent prey ? — savage of eye, bloodthirsty of heart, merci- 

 lesB and relentless. The poof sparrow dashes here and there, 

 seeks for refuge and escape, doubtless says his prayers, and 

 thinks over the many good acts of his harmless life; but in 

 vain, the sparrow-hawk overtakes him, sei7.es him in its cruel 

 claws, rends him asunder, and calmly sits down to eat him 

 up. So would Dr. Coues pursue, slay aud, possibly, eat the 

 lively little bird. 



Tliai I may not be accused of wrongly stating Dr. Coues' 

 forcible and able argument, I quote his words: 



" The friends of the sparrow in this country fall in the fol- 

 lowing category : First, those who know nothing and care 

 nothing particularly about them, except that they ' rather 

 like ' the perl aud brusque familiarity ot the birds— a class 

 composed chiefly of children, women and old fogies. Sec- 

 ondly, those who are or were instrumental in getting the birds 

 here, and are interested, either in reputation or in pocket, to 

 keep them here. Thirdly, quasi-ornithologisls who have been 

 misled into hasty expressions of opinion to which they feel 

 bound to slick. Fourthly, the claqtiers of the last, who 

 play a sort of ' Simon-says-up ' game. Fifthly, a very few in- 

 telligent and scientific persons, but not practiced nor profes- 

 sional ornithologists, who recoguize fully what little good the 

 sparrow undeniably does, and shape a favorable argument 

 mainly from the undisputed advantages which result from a 

 certain just and proper number of sparrows in Europe." 



Advocate though I am of the spcrrow, I cannot defend him 

 at all points, and the sparrow-hawks bring one serious and, 

 it must be admitted, well-founded charge against him. The 

 cruel little bloodthirsty monsteT is accused of lulling his big 

 brother, the robin. The evidence upon which this accusation 

 is founded is so ancient and universally accepted that it can 

 no longer be disputed. We have all heard it from the days 

 of our infancy, and it seems never even to have been denied, 

 and absolutely' to have been supported by the admission of 

 the culprit himself : 



Who killed dock Robin? 

 " I," eatd tie SpatrOW, 

 " Willi my bow and arrow— 

 " I Killed CockK.-biu." 

 There is nothing further to be said, therefore, in way of 

 direct answer to this heinous accusation, which is so ostenta- 

 tiously admitted, and condign punishment, it would seem at 

 first blush, ought to follow, as Dr. Ooues contends. But 

 herein lies the greatest error, as we insist, of the sparrow- 

 hawks. They forget a well established axiom of law that 

 sometimes killing is no murder. It is true that the Sparrow, 

 armed with his deadly bow and arrow, Blew Cock Robin ; but 

 did not the latter deserve his death 1 and was it not a case of 

 justifiable homicide, or even proper and praiseworthy punish- 

 ment? Outlaws, habitual criminals and public enemies de- 

 serve punishment at the hands of any citizen ; and a cri min al 

 caught in an act of felony may be slain with impunity. Does 

 not the robin occupy that position ? He is a fraud of the 

 deepest dye— a confidence bird of the most barefaced impu- 

 dence. His acts are only the more base because of the as- 

 sumption in wmieh he endeavors to cloak them. His name is 

 a lie, and his pretended good works utterly without founda- 

 tion. He calls himself a robin, whereas he is nothing but a 

 miserable thrush. He philanders about in the livery of 

 Heaven, claiming to be the robin redbreast that covered the 

 Babes in the Woods, whereas he is a thieving, squeaking, de- 

 ceitful bird that never did good to any one. The whole world 

 knows hu steals cherries and all maimer of good fruit, but it 

 does not always consider that he wastes ten limes as rnuch bs 

 he consumes, lie claims to destroy worms, but he does 

 nothing of the tort, as our farmers, with their ruined or- 

 chards and fruitless plum-trees, can sorrowfully testify. If he 

 touches a worm it is a harmless earth worm, and yet he 



makes a s muc h parade about it as if it were a canker causing 

 cerculio. Jj e is a big, cowardly brute, too, like all pretentious 

 rogues, to let himself be whipped and slain by a little spar- 

 row not one-half his size. De is a very outlaw— an enemy to 

 humankind. He is all bad; does no good and much harm— a 

 hollow case of false pretence, and the worthy policeman spar- 

 row Should send a shaft through him at sight and without 

 mercy. We destroy worthless curs, we eradicate weeds, 

 we hang murderers ; instead of abusing we ought to thank 

 good master sparrow that he. helps rid us of the robber robin. 

 Dr. Coues demands that the sparrow shall be perfection— a 

 very angel with wings and a harp ,- and yet, what can be set 

 up in this country as a rival to him? Apart, from the game 

 birds— which are not surpassed the world over— what 

 miserable, birds America— at least, the northern States— pro- 

 duces? They have neither beauiy of feather nor sweetness 

 of song ; and as to their habits, Ihe less said the better. The 

 game laws talk ol* protecting insectivorous and song birds. 

 Why. there are no insectivorous nor song birds in our land, ex- 

 cept, possibly, the lowly cat-bird, of which little is said by 

 the declaimers on Sparrow Cruelty. We have squawk-birds, 

 but that is about the nearest we come to leathered songsters 

 and our trees covered with worms — black worms and white 

 worms, red worms and gray, hairy worms aud smooth worms, 

 crawling worms and walking worm3, worms singly, in pairs, 

 by hundreds, in armies aud in tents— prove only too clearly 

 that we have no insectivorous birds. Let us look the ground 

 over in detail. There is the blackbird; but he is indeed a 

 wicked bird. Not only does he steal the bluebird's nest aud 

 eat the bluebird's young, but by the same proof that Dr. 

 Coues brings against the sparrow, be. has done much worse. 

 Remember his brutal attack upon the young maid engaged in 

 a useful household pursuit ; how, when she was busy hang- 

 ing out the clothes, 



Along came a black bird and snipped off her nose. 

 This is a worse infraction of right than any alleged against 

 the sparrow. It was a direct attack on the superior race, and 

 the better sex of that race, and deserves no mercy. Dr. 

 Coues will not dispute my authority, as it is the same as his, 

 which proved that sparrows kill and probably eat robins, blue 

 jays and possibly cranes -who knows but the very American 

 Eagle himself when ho comes in their way— and has equal 

 probability for its foundation. 



Then there is the blue-jay. Now we appeal to any one to 

 know if the blue-juy is a sweet boon ? Then there is the use- 

 less blue bird and the senseless swallow, the humbug lark, 

 which does not mount the sky to send forth its tuneful note 

 far overhead, but slops on a fence and gels off something be- 

 tween a squeak and a whistle, and altogether like the. rasping 

 of a rustv door-hinge ; but on the American insectivorous and 

 song birds that never kill an injurious insect nor sing a plens- 

 Sntsong let the sparrow "arise, kill and eat" till they lie 

 "heaps upon heaps," a worthy testimony to his virtues and 

 his valor. 



I have a place in the country where we cultivate the native 

 birds and allow no gnu to be she/, that will disturb them. 

 Thev abound, they till the nests that are. built for them, mar- 

 tins Bail through Ihe air, woodpeckers climb the limbs of trees 

 ami keep tapping on the bark, robins and orioles and blue- 

 jays flit through the leaves, their chirps and squeaks resound 

 on every side, and yet I can show you every variety of 

 noxious ting and harmful insect that exists. Them the birds 

 never touch, but not a cherry do they leave on my young 

 trees, hardly a strawberry or raspberry that they do not destroy 

 or deface. Better a voiceless woods than one filled with the 

 discordant, uotes of such a useless crow. Lay aside fancy 

 and tradition and answer if I am not right. 



The sparrow may eat grain— he has not done so yet— but 

 the sparrow hawks" alltitn Unit he will one of these days. Let 

 him. So do the black-birds and reed-birds and tho-e sweet 

 creatures— the crows— that the admirers of our native species 

 are continually calling upon us to love and spare, and so, 

 doubtless, do almost all our birds. And what is the value of 

 a few kernels of wheat or corn in comparison with lovely, 

 luscious oxhearts.'or rosy, enticing Antwerps, or the big juicy 

 jacundas or tiiumph-de-gauds. Let the sparrow come, and if 

 he will only eat the worms, clear our orchards and save our 

 plums, he is welcome to fill his little crop with all the grain 

 he can stow away. 1 will raise an acre of wheat solely for 

 the sparrows that will drive out aud keep out the worms from 

 my orchard. It would be a saving of labor and infinitely 

 more of vexation of spirit. _ 



Have the sparrow-hawks already forgotten the condition ot 

 our city parks and all those streets in which trees grew before 

 the advent of the sparrows ? Dow they were practically im- 

 passable from the numbers ot disgusting measuring worms 

 which hung in festoons by threads from the limbs part way to 

 the ground ? It seems, forsooth, that, some very delicate minded 

 gentlemen have their tender sensibilities shocked by the 

 rough ways of the busy and boisterous sparrow and cab tonus 

 extinction to save their feelings. Take such people, Dr. 

 Coues, and walk them out to a city park where, no sparrows 

 exist; let the measuring worms crawl over them, get on 

 their clothes, creep up their sleeves, lay out quarter sections 

 in their hair, crawl arouud their necks and wander down their 

 backs. Tone up their nerves by a short course of such treat- 

 ment and they will cease to howl against the sparrow. Dr. 

 Coues says he is himself not one. of such, which we are glad 

 to hear; but we do not observe that he includes this class 

 among the idiots to which he had previously referred. 



Our parks were utterly useless as pleasure resorts till the 

 sparrows came; they were not only deserted, they were 

 avoided. No lady could cross them, no man cared to. They 

 were abandoned wholly and absolutely to the worms, which 

 by June had stripped every leaf from the trees, often killing 

 the. latter and always making them as bare and denuded as in 

 mid-winter. Tbey were, instead of pleasure grounds, simply 

 nuisances, and the trees would have had to be removed, as 

 was done by many private persons wilh the trees before their 

 doors, if the sparrows had not come. Shall we so soon forget 

 how much we owe them? But it is said our native birds 

 might have done the same service. " Might have done ! 

 they never did. 



Of all Ihe weat words that never have won, 

 The weakest ol all are, might have done. 

 The sparrows did not pave the parks with good intentions, 

 they set about their appointed work and did it. They did 

 not idle on bush or limb to squeak a feeble attempt at har- 

 mony : they did not slip off lo steal fruit ; they did not satisfy 

 their, mlndsand feel they bad performed the whole duty of 

 birds by selling up their feathers ami saying, " llow pretty I 

 am" They were expected to kill worms and they killed 

 them. Early and late, without folly or idleness or wicked in- 

 dulgences, they performed their duly till ihe measuring worms 

 ceased lo be and the place that knew I hem knows them no 

 more. Go ou, good sparrow, our farmers should say, I urn 

 the fury of thy anger on all vile worms and destructive in- 



