300 



FOREST AND STREAM' 



sage brush, and lined perhaps with a few bits of dried grass. 

 Here the female deposits her eggs, from ten to fifteen in num- 

 ber, of a greenish drab color, and scantily marked with dark 

 spots, which she broods with unremitting care. The young 

 are usually hitched in May, and by the middle of July are 

 well grown, and at thla age are better for the table than at 

 Bay other. About the edible qualities of the sage grouse, 

 however, perhaps th8 less said the better. We have eaten 

 them under many different circumstances and cannot recom- 

 mend them. We once believed that if the birds were drawn 

 as soon as killed they would be free from the laint of the 

 sage, which is the only disagreeable thing about the flesh ; 

 but recent and more extended experience has shown us that 

 this is not the case. The flesh of the young sage grouse, 

 when about the size of a domestic fowl, is white and tender, 

 though, like that of all immature animals, a little lacking in 

 character ; but even at this early age it is strongly impreg- 

 nated with the sage. We have seen the time in camp when 

 a single young sage grouse, cooked in the same frying pan 

 with some ducks and mountain grouse, gave such a flavor to 

 the whole dish that those who objected to the sage were un- 

 able to eat any of the other birds. 



During incubation, and while the broods are only partly 

 grown, the male birds remain alone or in pairs •, but at the 

 approach of winter, and often as early as the last of Septem- 

 ber, the birds commence to flock together until, as already 

 remarked, they form immeuse packs. 



There appears to be a considerable diversity in the time at 

 which the sage grouse lays her eggs, for we have sometimes 

 come upon birds so young as to be barely able to fly late in 

 July, while at this date most of the broods could not be dis- 

 tinguished by their size from their parent. These young 

 birds are very gentle and unsuspicious, and usually pay no 

 attention whatever to the report of a gun. They seem to 

 think that there is no cause for alarm until the mother flies. 

 As soon as the flutter of her winga is heard, most of the 

 young take to flight, and the few that remain at once squat, 

 make themselves as small as possible, and in a moment or so 

 they, too, take wing. While feeding they utter a plaintive, 

 peeping cry, calling to one another constantly, like the young 

 of the dusky grouse. As an instance of the tameness of these 

 young grouse, we may remark that we have seen a flock of 

 them walk unconcernedly along in the road, a little in ad- 

 vance of a wagon, while the teamster emptied his revolver 

 twice at them ; and we have often seen a flock move along in 

 the same nonchalant fashion, while one or two men on foot 

 walked behind trying to shoot the birds' heads oil: with their 

 rifles. It seemed as if nothing could disturb the equanimity 

 of the little brood. At each report the birds would stretch 

 up their necks and look about, evidently wondering what the 

 noise meant, but they never manifested any sign of uneasi- 

 ness unless one of the number waB wounded and fluttered over 

 the ground. That seems to be the signal for all to be off, and 

 ia never disregarded. Heads may be knocked off right and 

 left but so long as their owners lie still the alarm is not taken. 



We saw this past summer in the town of Medicine Bow, in 

 Wyoming, an albino Bage grouse, the first that has ever come 

 to our notice. It was almost pure while, but some of the 

 darker markings could be traced on each feather. The speci- 

 men was regarded by the local sportsmen as a white-tailed 

 ptarmigan, but was really a good-sized sage hen. When 

 killed it was said to have been in company with another one 

 similar to it in all respects. 



It seems a great pity that so large (and, in some respects, 

 fine) a bird should be so worthless for food. Nevertheless 

 they are killed in great numbers, an acquaintance of our own 

 having, as he told us, killed ninety-six in a morning. To ua 

 the sport of killing these birds has always seemed very tame. 

 They get up slowly and heavily, and present a very large 

 mark, and a man who shoots at all quickly will find little dif- 

 ficulty in knocking over most of his birds. They are tough, 

 however, and an old cock that gets under good headway will 

 often carry off a whole charge of shot. 

 (To be eontinwd,) 



In two spring brooks not far from Lake City, just thousands 

 of them are found. Out of these same streams I have taken 

 many trout, but have never yet seen one attached to this fish. 

 I have seen, probably, two dozen at a time all attached to 

 pebbles on the bottom Where the current was quite strong, 

 their heads all up stream and their bodies keeping up an ever- 

 lasting swaying and wriggling below. Grasp one and try to 

 lift him out of the water, and if you can hold on you will bring 

 him out, and also the pebble to which he is attached, 

 throw him to land and he soon will let go. Now if you want 

 to save him, split a stick and straddle his neck, or just behind his 

 saucer-shaped mouth, take liim up,and after examining him put 

 hiniinto your whiskey flask. The whiskey willkeepklm first- 

 rate until you get home, and if, meantime, you want to 

 take a " snifter " you needn't remember where you put your 

 specimen. Who cannot forget that there are snakes in his 

 whiskey ? Another season 1 shall be pleased to furnish speci- 

 mens of the lampern to any who desire, and who will pay 

 the small expense of bottling. Dr. D. C. Estbs. 



Dtcaiur, Illinois, Nov. 2.— Besides the sea lampreys which 

 often ascend rivers along the coast, there are at least two 

 species known to inhabit the great lakes and the Mississippi 

 Kiver and their tributaries which have never been found in 

 salt water. Unlike the sea lamprey, these rarely attain to 

 more than afoot, in length, whereas the former often reach 

 three feet or more. These small lampreys or lamperns are by 

 no means rare in the larger streams of Illinois, and 1 learn the 

 same is true of other Western States. They are frequently 

 brrj; s ut up in seines attached to the spoonbill (Polyodon) and 

 other smooth skinned fishes. Prom one haul of the seine in 

 Peoria Lake in July, 1875, several specimens were taken, and 

 others were seen, but escaped by dropping off the fish into the 

 water before they could be reached. A number taken at that 

 time are now in "the museum of Cornell University. 



yours, A. Naturalist. 



Grayling of Coi-ocado.— Our valued correspondent, Wm. 

 N. Byers. of the Denver Newt, who finds time, apart from 

 his manifold and varied dutieB, to send occasional Rocky 

 Mountain sketches of the most reliable and interesting sort 

 to the readers of Fukbst and Stream, wrote us a letter re- 

 cently which contains some fresh information respecting the 

 grayling of that section. These fish to which he refers are 

 found in a tributary of the Yampah River. He says, speak- 

 ing of a member of the camp : 



" Leaving the river he went to a large creek, a tributary 

 just above its mouth, which he reported literally full of gray- 

 ting of small size, crowding up stream. We caught no more 

 fish. In one week, and including the days referred to, five 

 teams, of two, three or four horses in each, and with two or 

 three men to each wagon, came into this park to load with 

 fish. All got some, but only one secured a load — about 

 l,2001bs. These were grayling, caught near the mouth, in a 

 creek which they were crowding up. They are not protected 

 by law and are netted and trapped mercilessly. In this case 

 the fishermen (two) so arranged in the bed of the stream that 

 in passing up a swift shoot, the fish were turned back into a 

 trap, from which they were picked out by hand. The gray- 

 ling were spawning ; some entirely through and others only 

 partially so or just beginning. Their method seems to be to 

 move in schools of even-sized fish out of the main stream, up 

 some tributary, where they remain but two or three days, 

 when they again swarm buck down stream. Oct. 12 nearly 

 all the fish moved on down the river— the grayling in immense 

 crowds, the trout more leisurely and scattered ; in fact, the 

 movements of the latter extended through several days." 



i 



Thb Lampekn.— Lake City, Minn., Nov. 5, 1878.— 

 Bince your correspondent, 8. 0. dark, mentions the fact of 

 seeing one of these singular fish in Lake Pepin, I am induced 

 to sulimit that they abound in this lake and many of cur 

 sorings and brooks. It is a very common thing to find them 

 adhering to the polyodon and pickerel, and often to other 

 fish 1'he scaleless surface of the polyodon affords them 

 "green pasture," and, like some of the genus humo, they 

 seem to reveiin drawing the last drop of blood from their 

 hi niter relations. The polyodon is one of the greatest j umpers 

 in tue lake, and it is a common belief among fishermen that 

 thev lump out of the water to free themselves from this ugly 

 narasile. It. is quite usual to find the dead polyodon on our 

 shores and many of them, I have no doubt, have been killed 

 bv the lamperns, but have never seen one attached to a dead 

 fish siuce the one mentioned by Mr. Clark, which I well re- 

 member. I have often seen them let go as soon as the fish 

 was dead, and often before. When thrown on the sandy beach 

 tbev will then squirm about until they find water. More 

 than once I have found them fastened to the gills, here they 

 are soon satiated or kill the fish outright. If found on in a 

 pickerel it will be close to the base of the caudal fin, where 

 the scales are few and small, and where, as is well known, 

 blood is easily drawn. I have allowed them to fasten on to 

 mv hand but they won't let go, that's the trouble, and one 

 don't care to handle the little bloodthirsty squirmer but once. 

 At. one lime, having pulled hard to detach one winch had 

 firmly attached himself to my left hand, and failing to induce 

 him to let go, I took out my knife and cut off his tail, and he 

 immediately let go, and who wouldn't ? 



More than twenty years ago I met Prof. Louis Agassiz in 

 the citv of Albany, and he showed me specimens of the 

 imperii which he had himself obtained from Lake Pepin. 



The Grayling— Oat. 29.— Mr. Editor: In an old copy of 

 " Mackenzie's Voyages," in the volume containing his voyage 

 down the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean, I find this 

 description of a fish presented him by the Indians at about 

 latitude 69 deg. north, on July 9, 1789 : 



■itemed us wii.U a mo.-r delicious fish, which wae lees than 

 aheniuir'iDd vt-iy beantlluljj spotted with blacfc and yellow, lis dor- 

 sal iln leautied from tue head toibe tall; in its expanded slate it takes 

 a tiiananlar foroi, and la variegated with the colors that enliven the 

 Bcaies rue head is very small, and the mouth Is armed with eharp- 

 pointed tecth."-Vjl. I., P- in, pub. isoi. _ 



' Query ; Is not this the grayling? and if ao, is not this the 

 first mention of the fish in American waters ? I do not re- 

 member, however, any notice of the grayling in so high a 

 latitude elsewhere. Hi 



Your fish is what ia known as Back's Grayling, TaymaUus 

 signifer. It is referred to in all modern works on icthyology. 



~ Ed - . 



. ■ — ••< — • 



V The Sea Serpent in England.— We take the following 

 from Nature. A great many of the sea serpent stories rest 

 upon even less foundation : 



On Monday, August 5, a number of geologists crossed in the 

 Folkestone boat to Boulogne, to study the interesting forma- 

 tions of that neigbborbood, and, when about three or four 

 miles from the Freuch coast, one of these gentlemen suddenly 

 exclaimed, "Look at that extraordinary object passing across 

 the bow of the 81 earner, about a mile or a mile and a 

 half in advance of us !" On turning in this direction there was 

 seen an immense serpent, about a furlong in length, rushing 

 furiously along at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour ; 

 it was blackish iu front and j paler behind; its elongated body 

 was fairly on the surface of the water, and it progressed with 

 an undulating or quivering motion ; mirum erat speetaculum 

 sane. Of course many suppositions were immediately started 

 to account for this extraordinary phenomenon, but they quickly 

 changed and settled into the fixed idea that the object before 

 them could be nothing less than the great sea serpent himself; 

 for— 



" Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 

 Lay floating, many a rood, In bum at huge 

 As wlioiu me fables name ot nionatrooB shte, 

 Leviathan : which Gon, of all his worst 

 Created hugest, mat awim the ocean stream." 

 The writer fortunately had with him a pair of the best opera 

 glasses, and, after a few moments' use of this little instrument, 

 the wonder was satisfactorily resolved. The first half of the 

 monster was dark and glittering, and the remainder of fainter 

 hue, gradually fading toward the tail. The glass did not de- 

 termine the matter until the extreme end was reached, and then 

 ' it was seen to consist of a mass of birds in rapid motion ; those 

 that were strong on the wing were able to keep well up with 

 the leaders, and so make the head appear thicker and darl-er 

 by their numbers, while those that had not such power of flight 

 were compelled to settle into places nearer the tail. Doubt- 

 less the birds were shags (PeucanusorktaiM) returning to their 

 homes for the night from the distant waters in which they 



had been fishing during the day ; perchance it may bo wrong 

 to assert positively as to the variety of the bird, but inasmuch 

 as the writer has often seen shags on the Cornish coast in 

 smaller numbers returning in single or double file to their 

 roosting-places, and since it is stated in works of natural his- 

 tory that they have been noticed occasionally flying in this 

 peculiar manner to the number of a thousand or more, it does 

 not appear an unwarranted liberty in supposing that they 

 really were Pelicani cristati. It is to be feared some of the 

 geological gentlemen still doubt the interpretation of the loTg- 

 nette, preferring the fond deceit of a large and unknown ser- 

 pent ; but, as in this case, individual birds (scores of them) 

 were distinctly seen flapping their wings, the writer has 

 thought it his duty to report the circumstance to you that 

 your readers who voyage across the seas may keep their opera 

 glasses in their pockets and verify for themselves, on the first 

 opportunity, this interpretation of the great sea serpent. 



JoSEI'H Dbkw. 



Domestication or the Mallard Dcck.— The following 

 very interesting letter is from Mr. Jacob M. Winner, of Ni- 

 agara Falls, New York. We are delighted with Mb most 

 favorable report. Actual experiments have proved that the 

 wood duck and sprig-tail duckB and the Canada goose can be 

 domesticated, and we should think it might pay our friend to 

 raise ducks exclusively for use as decoys : 



Mb. Editor : I received, January 27 last, one drake and 

 three ducks from "Jardine," on Will Hall's marsh, below 

 Detroit, Mich., and Feb. 27 they laid one egg, and up to the 

 17th of this month those three ducks have laid 378 eggs, and 

 I have hatched out under " hen mothers " 167 little ducks. I 

 have now got 150 odd wild mallard duck, which I wish you 

 could see come out of the pen as I saw them this morning. I 

 let them out on Niagara waters all day long. About five or 

 half-past five o'clock they come to their feed In front of the 

 mill, and then they go to the pen for the night. And it is a 

 sight. Such a racing and dancing as they have when first let 

 out in the morning is wonderful 1 And the most wonderful 

 part of the whole is the young ones have, commenced to lay 

 within the last week. I wish you could see them. But 

 next Wednesday morning I am going to take thirty of them 

 and start off for " Jardines" to use for decoys, and hops to 

 have a good duck shoot. 



Correction. — Mr. Editor: The report of the Linnean 

 Society, of October 24, the woodpecker taken by Mr. Merriam 

 was given as Picoides arciicus, it should been Pk-oides ameri- 

 canus. Mr. Brewer in his note on the subject the following 

 week is therefore perfectly correct. Fbankiln Bknner. 



Another Opinion— Editor Forest and Stream: A few 

 weeks since an article appeared in your columns entitled 

 "Spare the Sparrow," wherein its writer, Mr. Robert B. 

 Roosevelt, attempts to answer Dr. Coues' able article in the 

 American Naturalist. I differ with Mr. Roosevelt concern- 

 ing the insectivorous habits of the bird. He says that the 

 sparrow i'b more insectivorous than any ot our native birds. 

 I have made this bird an object of special study, and I have 

 always found it to prefer grain — especially maize — to any 

 insect I could procure. In fact, I never, except in one or two 

 cases, could discover one even attempting to procure insect 

 food. 



I differ from him also when he asserts that we have no 

 song birds in America. Any one that has heard the melodi- 

 ous voice of the wood and hermit thrushes will need no argu- 

 ment to convince him on that point. 



I would not have any one infer that I wish the bird driven 

 out of the country. 1 merely wish to have the laws prohibit- 

 ing their destruction repealed and to have people stop feeding 

 and petting them. They will then be kept under like any other 

 bird, and will cease to become the nuisance they now are. 



Washington, JD. 0. Richard Hovet. 



Powers or Sight in Birds. — So keen is the sight of the 

 condor of the Andes that if a carcass be exposed where the 

 naked eye can detect none of theBe creatures in the horizon, 

 yet in few minutes they are seen streaming from all directions 

 straight toward their hoped-for meat But, though birdB be 

 long sighted, it is also highly necessary that they should see 

 minute objects at a short distance. No entomologist will de- 

 ny that an insectivorous bird must have keen eyes for a short 

 distance if it is to get its living with ease. A microscopic 

 sight is scarcely less requisite for a grain-feeding bird. The 

 swallow, which plunges with such reckless impulse through 

 the air, will nevertheles seize a small insect a 

 with almost unerring certainty. Usually the prey i3 so small 

 that the wonderful powers of the bird displayed in the chase 

 cannot be observed j but sometimes, when the insect has large 

 wings, this dexterity may be seen. The writer has seen a 

 swallow seize, while in a headlong flight, the beautiful, scarce, 

 swallow-tailed butterfly, and shear out its savory body from 

 between the wingB, and let them float severally down ; and 

 then, not satisfied with a feast so little proportioned to the 

 splendor in which it was dished up, glance around and seize 

 the several pieces before they reach the ground- How, 

 then, is a long sight and a keen 6hort sight to be obtained 

 irom the same eye ? This is done mainly by the aid 

 plates so disposed that the edge of one is capable of sliding 

 over the edge of its neighbor ; so that when the fibreB of the 

 muscles which unite them contract they compress the eye all 

 round and make it more tubular, while the humors of the 

 eye, thus subjected to pressure, cause the ornea to protrude 

 more, also the retina to be removed further from the lens.— 

 C'atselFt Popular Advocator. 



A Canary Bird's Song.— Newark has a canary bird that 

 whistles waltzes. Hs has been in training for nearly a year, 

 and now goes through the whole music ot a German waltz. 

 Whenever there is a false note Dick warbles a while, and then 

 begins again. When the bird was just off the nest his mis- 

 tress put him into a dark room, where he saw no light and 

 heard no sound. Then daily she played the waltz t 

 or three times a day, for fifteen or twenty minutes every 

 time. The instrument was an organ, with the shi 

 out. At the end of a month or two the bird 

 note of the waltz, then another. Soon it combined them, and 

 after a time he whistled an entire strain. It was n early a 

 year, however, before his education was complete. Mocking- 

 birds may also be trained in this way. A music-box is very 

 useful, and, eaves much labor in the long cool 

 musical teaching. 



