FOREST AND STREAM. 



279 



:,rui : Itnd and Qun. 

 TN SULLIVAN COUNTY. 



»f X/ES," mjd Loser, "that's so! I ain't joking, the woods 

 X are just full of them. As soon a? I lie law is up they 

 come nut and statu} in your way just like barn swallows." 



We know ft ran experience bpW nn swallows stand. Years 

 ago. co vii at Bill ( . Bamegat Beach, at snipe 



B callows for toothache drops. Our 

 individual score, not. of birds hut of drops, was kept in chalk 

 on a bejjun of the Imp- ceiling In 'be bar-roorn, and we recollect 

 that the result genet QUI five more straight lines 



added to our account. 



This i? swallows stood for us. 



in go half way up the mountain," continued Loser, 



"shut your eyes iwd pull the trigger; you'll hear partridges 



drop like chBstnuia after a frost Ain't, that so, Colonel?" 



ii. Colonel failed to corroborate; a man had just passed 



the. Son of Malta sign, and be was preparing his chin for a 



bin \ Off in the little bai 



What do we care about dogs? I never saw a 



|, didn't worry you all to pieces before the day was 



half over. I once borrowed an imported dog, a setter, and 



counted so much on him f had almost a mind tc leave my 



But when I sat on the fence I made up my miud 



that he wasn't worth shucks. You can see that very fence 



now. just come ground to the back of the house and I'll show 



ere and told him to go into the piece 



of woods and hunt. I waited for about an hour for him to 



fetch out something, when, darn his black and tan hide, if I 



Uidnt't hear a snort near me, and there he was, worrying a 



pool beetle almost underneath my feet. I really believe the 



brute bad been Sitting there all the time. We don't want 



dogs when we mean work up here. Get your gun up— write 



' i .i it, get it up somehow— and if I don't show 

 as is sport then my name isn't !.■■ 

 We. sent for the gun, and, in spite of Ids antipathy to the 

 canine race, our dog came with it. As soon as we readied 

 the fence Liser tuok his favorite station, while we plunged 

 into the Bttip of woods. Flora acted nobly considering it 

 was her first hunt of the Beason. The birds were tame and 

 lay close, rising generally within easy gun shot. In a little 

 swale a braeo of woodcock were bagged, and wo were indeed 

 proud of the general result. Loser, loo, we felt, was doing 

 his share, as the occasional bark of his piece rBng through the 

 woods. It must have been two hours when we completed 

 the circuit, and emerged at the same spot where we had en- 

 tered. There sat Loser, on his pet rail, and we imagined he 

 had got tired and liad gone to his old quarters to rest. 



"I wouldn't, sell that little piece ot mine for a fortune, " and 

 he slapped the slock of hia gun. "Just think of it, eight 

 with the right hand barrel at the first shot." 



" What!" we exclaimed, " eight partridges?" 



"No! the mischief! no! Eight shot in that little bit of 

 paper," and he pointed to a scrap he had pinned to a tree, 

 which we had failed to notice. 



"Where are your birds?" we asked. 



" Birds ?" said he in amazement, " I haven't got any birds. 

 I've been waiting for you here. I was afraid you'd get lost, 

 and I've been watching for you to come out, excepting a short 

 spell when I laid down and took a nap, but the durned ants 

 look my ear for a habitation and tried to cart in a load of 

 sticks and sand, which woke me. But let's go home; it's 

 about dinner time, and you'll need a rest if you must go to 

 York to-night.' 



However, there was quite a decent bag to show, and Loser 

 grew several inches taller when be showed what ics had done. 



Liberty, N. 7., Oct. 10, 1878. Pbtkb Keh. 



THE AQUARIUM. 



Its Formation and Management. 

 /""IIAMBERS' Journal of two years ago published an article 

 ^— brim full of useful hints and information on the manage 

 menfc ot Aquaria, from which we make extracts herewith 

 The same rules apply to general flshculture and the roanag- 

 ment of ponds. The information is just what hundreds of our 

 readers are desiring at this very moment: 



The leaves of all growing and healthy plants give off oxy- 

 gen, the great source of the life-suet aining power not only of 

 the atmosphere, but of the. water. We now see why fish will 

 live in water with growing plants, aud die without there But 

 the mutual relation between plants and animals, as carried on 

 in the world, extends even farther than this, and is not altered 

 at all because they live in water. Not only do the plants pro- 

 duce oxygen for the animals to live on, but they appropriate 

 and use up in their own tissues the carbonic acid gas thrown 

 off by the animals. Unless this mutual arrangement existed 

 both plants and animals would die. Carbonic acid, which is 

 poisonous to animals, is absorbed by the plants— it is composed 

 of carbon and oxygen— and plants have the power of separat- 

 ing and using the carbon for their own substance, and letting 

 go the oxygen. 



Thus we find in a jar of water a true microcosm— a little 

 world, in which all the changes go on which are necessary for 

 the maintenance of the life of man and animals on the surface 

 Of the earth. Overcrowding is one fruitful source of disease 



