400 



FOREST AND STREAM 



Hatottino Codfish.— The Fish Commission at Gloucester, 

 Mass., are meeting -with very satisfactory success in their 

 work of hatching codfish eggs. New cones have been substi- 

 tuted for the ones formerly in use, and the necessary circula- 

 tion of water is secured by the use of Mr. Ferguson's method 

 of a lever and engine. 



Tboot.— Superintendent A. W. Marks, of the Creene 

 County Fish Hatchery, arrived in town on the Gth inst. from 

 western New York with 20,000 California salmon in cans, 

 hatched, with the sac yet attached ; 100,000 salmon trout 

 spawn, and 120,000 brook irout spawn. The California sal- 

 mon were taken in Cloud River, Cal., by Professor Baird, of 

 I he U. S. Fish Commission. The whole'lot of very valuable 

 fish and spawn was secured on very favorable terms, costing 

 but a trifle.— CaUkitt Recorder. 



Madison, Dec. IS.— Editor Forest and Stream: The State 

 Fish Commissioners met in Milwaukee December 10 and re- 

 ceived the reports of President Welch, of (Madison, and Su- 

 perintendent H. W. Welcher, of Milwaukee. Both papers 

 report that the work of the past season was very successful, 

 and that the various points had in view are fully stocked, as 

 had been desired. The Commissioners received from the Mil- 

 waukee city authorities the right to continue- hatching in the 

 water works building on North Point. Beyond the reports 

 routine business engrossed the attention of the board. 



Rovbb. 



What a Fossn, Cost.— Our readers will no doubt remem- 

 ber the announcement of the discovery some time since of a 

 specimen of ArcJiceopteryx lithograpldcus in the Jurassic beds 

 of Solenhofen. As but one specimen of this most remarkable 

 fossil bird was previously known, and that specimen an im- 

 perfect one, there was of course no little desire on the part of 

 paleontologists to secure this second one and to have the honor 

 of describing more fully the bird which has proved to he so 

 important in connecting those two apparently different classes 

 of the animal kingdom, the birds and the reptiles. Letters 

 and telegrams bidding for the fossil poured in upon the fortu- 

 nate collector, who wisely refused at first to sell and has only 

 recently parted with his treasure. 



The purchaser of the specimen is Dr. Otto Folger, President 

 of the Freie Deutsche Hochstift, who paid for it the sum of 

 35,000 marks, or about $8,500. It is presumed that it will be 

 handed over to some eminent German paleontologist for de- 

 scription, and the scientific public are anxiously looking 

 foward to the publication of a memoir upon it. 



The remains in question are said to be in several particulars 

 more perfect than those now in the British Museum, which 

 have until recently been unique, and which have engaged, at 

 different times, the attention cf the most noted British paleon- 

 tologists, among whom in the first rank are Professors Owen 

 and Huxley. ■ 



That Helgbamitb.— In our issue of OctoberSl an unlucky 

 correspondent, who innocently supposed that he was doing 

 fishermen a good turn, gave a description of this insect, but, 

 not being by profession a " bug hunter," some of his state- 

 ments were a little wide of the mark. Through inadvertence 

 his communication was printed just as it was received, and 

 ever since the date of its appearance we have been fairly over- 

 whelmed with letters correcting the errors of our contributor. 

 In our issue of November 14 we printed a brief but pregnant 

 note from "A Naturalist" which we had hoped would arrest 

 the flow of ink upon this subject, butit seems that we reckoned 

 without our host. 



The following note corrects Isaak's statement that the dob- 

 son feeds on vegetable matter, a manifest error, for it has long 

 been known that these larva are decidedly predacious in 

 habit. We should say, however, that Isaak did not say that 

 the dobsons are larval butterflies, but that it is "a theory of 

 some naturalists " that they are. We would respectfully sug- 

 gest that the non-scientific bass fishermen among our readers 

 cut out the Latin name of the helgramite and paste it in their 

 fishing hats. By carelessly using the term occasionally they 

 can win great fame as scientists among those of their pisca- 

 torial companions who do not read Forest and Stbeam. 



The note of correction above referred to is bb follows: 



In your issue of Oct. 31, "Isaak" attempts to give the 

 natural history of the helgramite, but leaves the reader much 

 the worse for the reading of his article. The helgramite 

 rmOa) is, in the winged state, not a butterfly by 

 any means, but one of the Neuroptera, having gauzy, grayish 

 wings, the males having two long, black, curved horns. 

 The female lays her eggs in a mass on twigs overhanging the 

 water, and the young, on hatching, make their way to the 

 bottom and hide under stones or logs. Here they remain for 

 three years, subsisting on insects, etc., and never, so far as is 

 known, upon vegetable food. During the month of May the 

 oldest larvaa may be found in abundance under stones, not far 

 from the stream, and especially on warm stmdy knolls. At 

 other times they may be taken as " Isaak " states. 



^_ R. T. M. 



A Stealing Shakk.— There was discovered on the flats at 

 the western part of Provincetown, Mass., harbor last Friday 

 a fish which was new to even the oldest fishermen of that 

 seaport. Professor N. E. Atwood, of that place, identified 

 the specimen, which belongs to a remarkable species of spiue- 

 ous shark, Le chien de mer bmiole, this name being given to it 

 by Brossennet, who first described it. Yarrell mentions it in 

 his History of British Fisheries. Its habitat is from the 

 North Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the shores of 

 Italy into the Atlantic. It is very rare in British waters, 

 there having been only four specimens of it known to science 

 between 1838 and 1841. It has never before been seen in 

 American waters, and what the Provincetown fish was doing 



here now is more than wc can explain. The Boston Herald 

 thus describes it : 



It is about eight feet long, has a thick body, smooth skin, 

 except that there protrudes from the skin numci 

 hooked and bony thorns, varying from one-eighth to one-half 

 an inch in length. It has a good-sized mouth on the under 

 side of the fish, with one row of flatted teeth on each jaw. 

 pointing from the centre to each side, like the teeth of a car- 

 penter's spliting saw ; eyes not very large, one entirely blind; 

 the snout flattened and rounded on the edge. The fishermen 

 are puzzled, calling it a moDgrel of shark and dogfish. 



" Gkouse-Tiors." — A contemporary, speaking of the lack 

 of young birds among the grouse killed this season, says : 



We mentioned in these columns a short time ago the fact 

 of grouse having been destroyed by what was taken for 

 " ticks " by casual observers. That it amounted to an epi- 

 demic is easily conjectured from the small number of young, 

 or this season's birds, that have been shot, by sportsmen. 

 Dick Christy, of Sussex County, owning a farm in the Sussex 

 hills, and being a thorough sportsman, had his attention called 

 to this thing by the number of young grouse he found dead 

 during the months of July and August last. Upon examina- 

 tion he found in every instance a lot of grubs in their necks, 

 just below the throat. At first he supposed they had gotten 

 on after the death of the bird, but finding so many dead, he 

 shot a few on purpose for investigating, and found in every 

 bird these same parasites. He also found the fly which laid 

 the eggs, from which were hatched the grubs in question, 

 This fly he describes as about twice the size of our house-Ays 

 and of the same color — brownish gray. He found th sc fiie. 

 also on the old birds which he has shot this fall, but no grubs. 

 The grubs, he informs us, have something the appearance of 

 a tick, but that they are much more lively in their move- 

 ments. They were in great numbers, and he found all the 

 young birds terribly thin and emaciated. Their necks were 

 bored in holes as the bark on an apple tree is encircled by a 

 different one. Ho also thought that these grubs crawled, 

 after batching, into the ear openings and adown the throat, 

 but unfortunately did not think of making an examination 

 until too late. That it has been terribly destructive is seen 

 in the fact of such small lots of these grouse being secured 

 this season, upon ground that is generally found alive with 

 them. 



These remarks are very interesting, but we could wish that 

 they were more detailed, and that the insect which causes the 

 great mortality among the young of this finest of our game 

 birds could be identified. We have never seen either the fly 

 or the grub, but an old sportsman tells us that the larva; 

 which do the mischief get into the young bird's throat, and 

 that the symptoms resemble those of pip in the young of the 

 common fowl. 



We have several times oalled attention to this disease, and 

 should be glad to receive any further information on this sub- 

 ject from those of our readers who may have had an oppor- 

 tunity to observe either the cause or effects of this lamentable 

 epidemic. 



1 • ■•• ' 



A Bied's Storehouse ?— CleveUmd,, Ohio.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream : While passing through the Lake View Ceme- 

 tery of this city, with a friend last winter our attention was 

 called to a fine clump of sumachs (Rhus typhina) in an open 

 field, loaded with their bright red fruit. With no other ob- 

 ject than to crumble a few of the bunches in my hand and 

 scatter the seed, 1 gathered one after another, but to my sur- 

 prise, I found in addition to the usual quantity of seed one 

 or more beech nuts in the interior of the sumach fruit, as you 

 will notice in a specimen I send you. The lobes of "the 

 sumach fruit are quite open in the fall, but as the winter cold 

 approaches they close up. Within forty rods of this clump 

 of sumachs stands a number of bearing beech trees. I think 

 some blue jay or other winter bird put the beech nuts in this 

 unusual place for his winter store. Da. E. S. 



—In the Berlin Zoological Garden, on the night of the 7th 

 and 8th of November, the royal tigress brought forth four 

 young ones. Last year, within five months, she gave birth 

 twice, on the 2d of May and the 4th of September, to two 

 strong cubs each time, an event said to be unparalelled in 

 zoology. After the first birth, on the 2d of May, she refused 

 to suckle her young, and the director was obliged to place 

 them with the Newfoundland bitch Alinka, at that time nurs- 

 ing, who faithfully reared them with her own two puppies. 

 The tigress nursed the cubs born Sept. 2 with the greatest 

 tenderness. All four grew to be splendid animals. 



LAND-LOCKED SALMON AND SMELTS. 



* 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



I wish to protest against the continued use of the name 



Salmo gkiveri, Girard, by some of your correspondents for the 



land-locked salmon ot tho lakes of Maine and New Bruns- 



ick. There are two or three good and sufficient reasons why 



this name should not be used. 



1. It is not the oldest name, the name Salmo sebago of the 

 same writer (Proc. Ac. Nat. Sol, Phila.,1853, page 380) hav- 

 ing nearly a year's priority, the date of &. glovm being 1854, 

 page 85, of the same series. 



2. The original type-specimen of Salmo glovm, which is 

 still preserved, is probably merely a smolt, or the young of 

 the common salmon, not a land-locked at all. This also is the 

 opinion of Dr. Hamlin (on the salmon of Maine, Keport U. B. 

 Commr. Fisheries, 1873-8, p. 349), The species was probably, 

 like many of Dr. Buckley's, a purely complimentary one, ('. e.. 

 one named for a friend cir correspondent without any expecta- 

 tion that it would prove valid. A doubtful compliment, in- 

 deed. 



3. The land-locked salmon, in my opinion, cannot be con- 

 sidered as a distinct species from Salmo salar. It is simply 

 a modified race of the latter species, hardly even a variety, in 

 the zoological sense. Dr. A C. namlin, in the excellent 

 article above quoted (p. 341), makes the Indian, Toma, say, 

 " There, that 'fish brother to salt water salmon, only he forgot 

 to go to sea, but stay in lake instead." And, with Dr. Hamlin, 

 I think the Indian is right. In the lakes of Sweden are other 

 land-locked salmon, whichl have closely compared with ours, 

 and I am unable to indicate the slightest permanent difference. 



As, however, it is convenient to have a name for the land- 

 locked salmon, we may call it Salmo salar, var. sebago, or 

 after the fashion, desirable in many respects, which Dr, 



QOues and Others are trying to introduce, Salmo salar sebago, 

 or even for short Salmo sebago, but let us no longer continue 

 the galvanized fife of the synonym, Salmo , 



In regard to the American smelt, there are several land- 

 locked forms in the waters of Maine which have been 

 described as species, but which are probably local rai 

 Henry J. Bice, of John Hopkins University, has lately com- 

 pared the American Osmerus mordax with the European Os- 

 merus epcrlanus, and considers the two identical. After ex- 

 amination of a considerable series, the writer is compelled to 

 agree with Mr-. Rice in thinking that no permanent difference 

 exists between them, although'ours has on an average two or 

 three more scales in the lateral line. Our smelt is, therefore, 

 Osmerus eperlamis, L., or, if we choose, Ornnerui 

 var. mordant. David ,S. .Toedan. 



Irvinghm, Ind., Den, 6, 1878. 



Philadelphia, Dec. '.), 1878.— In regard to the question asked 

 by " W. \V. F." in last week's paper as to habitat of smelts, 

 would say that I have known them to have been caught in 

 tide water in the Schuylkill below Fair Mount dam. Sixteen 

 and twenty years ago fish of different kinds were plenty at 

 that place ; shad, herring, catfish, eels, perch and striped 

 bass in large quantities, the latter from pan fish up to twenty- 

 five pounds, caught trolling with live minnows ; but fishing 

 is played out here on account of gas tar covering the bottom 

 from the dam to the mouth of the stream. Many a happy 

 day have I put in trolling for bass. If " W. W. F." wants to 

 know more about smelts caught in the Schuylkill let him inter- 

 view Charlie Vogel or BUI Lark, frequenteis of Uncle John 

 Kxider's sportsman's depot, old Philadelphia fishermen. He 

 can get all the information he desires. 



Yours respectfully, H. L. Lewis 



Mr. Editor : In Professor Jordan's article on black 

 bass nomenclature, he describes the large-mouthed bass 

 as the one described by Cuvier, under the totleof Ztouro nigri- 

 cans, and the small-mouthed fish as the one spoken of in 

 foreign books as the Orystes salmoides. Reading that article 

 set me looking over the plates of "Jardine's Naturalists' 

 Library," and in the volume devoted to perches 1 find not only 

 these two fishes mentioned, but another one yclept the Ameri- 

 can black bass (Centropristes nigricans). This last is, accord- 

 ing to the plates, a different ami much more beautiful fish than 

 either of the others. I would like to know what kind of a 

 bass it is. I have only seen the large-mouthed bass, and hence 

 do not know whether the plate of Jardine is correct or not 

 with regard to the small-mouthed one ; but if he is correct in 

 his delineation of the third "American " black bass, we must 

 have a fish in our waters more deserving of capture than 

 either Zhoro nigricans or (f-rys/.rs mbnoidm. Do you know 

 anything about this fish ? The letter-press description in Jar- 

 dine says the fish is very abundant in the United States and 

 highly esteemed for the table, but I have never chanced to run 

 across a bass that fills the description. There are other fishes 

 in the river here that come pretty close to the engraving in 

 shape, but they do not possess such gorgeously colored scales 

 as jardine's specimen. What is this Ceniropristss nigricans, 

 called nowadays ? Gut RiVehs. 



AN EXPLANATION WANTED. 



Mr. Editor : Several years ago, in November, while fol- 

 lowing a cow path through a thicket of scrub oak and beach, 

 1 found, what is not uuusiial for like localities, a nest of the 

 song sparrow ; but what was to me a surprise was to find 

 the nest filled with fine sand and gravel, although there was 

 no sand of any kind within a quarter of a mile. I gave the 

 credit of this unusual contents of the nest to the freak of some 

 mischievous boys, and would have thought no more of the 

 circumstance had it not been for a like discovery made two 

 years ago last December. I had been waiting for a certain 

 marsh to freeze over so that I could reach some button bushes 

 (Vtphalanthus occidmtalis) in order to procure cocoons of the 

 Atticus cecropia. The morning finally came when the ice 

 would bear, and I know that 1 was the first among those but- 

 ton bushes that season. While gathering cocoons, which 

 could he counted by hundreds, I came acrossa song sparrow's 

 nest, and this too was rilled to the brim with fine gravel. 

 Now the nearest gravel to this nest is a railroad embankment 

 forty rods from the border of the marsh. The pond is neck 

 deep in water the year round, and in all parts iB inaccessible 

 for a boat, owing to maugrove-like thicket of button-wood 

 shrubs. Both nests referred to were uew ones, that is of tho 

 previous spring, and contained nothing to indicate that they 

 had been used for incubating purposes. This is an open 

 question ; How did the gravel find its way to these two nests? 



Dk. K S. 



ARRIVAL8 AT TUB ZOOLOGICAL CSARPEN, CINCINNATI, UP TO JJjO, 1. 



18T3.— Two spotted hyamss, II. .jrociita, one aoudail, .1. 

 born in garden. Two Humboldts lagothnx, L. hnmboMi ; one iuiui- 

 monda spider monkey, A. helzebuth ; one black upc, CynopitKecut ni<ier; 

 five weeper capueUUiB, C. ca.pw-.ius ; two brown oapuehin.i, < 

 one i nree. banded donronconli, < v/iKm; one liyaoln- 



thineporp liyrio, P. hyacinljnnw; three blue and yellow maeiws, .1 

 ararauna; twelve common boas, Boa eWWtrfctor; purchased. One 

 woodchact, Arctomyn monax, presented by Mr. K. Johns ; one gray 

 squirrel, & cinereus, presented by Mr. Q. Relolie; ona ruffed gronae, 

 JSonasa wnbellus, deposited ; one screech owl, Swpsojip, presented by 

 Mercer Co. Shooting Clnb ; one tiger, JFsBj tig ria, deposited by Wells 

 Bros.; three prairie chickens, Cupi&onia cupitio, presented by Mr. W. 

 Klstou ; one herring gnll, Lotus ur./,:ntatu« ; one Bcarlet ibis, 

 one cock ot the rock, Supimla enact : seven crested groimi 



' gray-headed payrakeetB, 



cana; one linnea parrot, Eleetnu linnet; one intermedial e 

 intermedins, purchased ; oneloou, Colj/mbu/itor^iiatux, presented; one 

 zeba, Bos indicm, born in garden. Fiunk J. THOHfSOH, Aet'g Bapt, 



Takgke Foor. — There is nothing very solemn about this, if 

 it be true, and it probably is ; 



An Englishman was walking down Park Row, near Ann 

 street — one of the most crowded places in the world. He had 

 a blaek-and-tan dog at the end of a long, thin chain, and he 

 was reading a newspaper as he walked. Whenever the dog 

 tangled anybody's legs with the chain the man would look 

 around and say : "Aw, guess these Hamericans 'ave no 

 heyes." 



®" Fokbst and Steeam will be sent for fractions of a year 

 «s follows : Six months, $ 2 ; three months, $1. To clubs of 

 five or more, $3 per annum. 



