20 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



JVs// gltUltM. 



This .Tnnrnal is the Official Organ of the Fish fnltnr- 

 ists' Association. 



FLASHES FROM THE "BLUELIGHT." 



* FIFTH WEEK. 



EVEN Noank, with its much praised climate, haa not 

 been proof against the bad weather, which for the 

 week just passed has given us alternations of southerly 

 blows, with fog and rough seas, audi afll irli gales and rain 

 by the reservoir full. Twelve inches of fresh water in one 

 twenty-four hours falling from the clouds perceptibly in- 

 creased the volume of the Mystic River, and much troubled 

 the owners of cars full of sea bass and lobsters anchored 

 near the wharves, to await the sale of I heir contents. Sen 

 ed, and lobsters by the thousand succumbed to 

 the unhealthy flood, and departed this life unboiled. Our 

 sagacious i wover, saved his car load. Foresee- 



ing the probahle results, he towed them over lo Ram Isl- 

 and, v. here in deeper water and stronger tides they sur- 

 vived the flood. In the laboratory the effects of the rain 

 were equally disastrous — dying sponges, closed up and sick 

 anemonies, wilted hydroids and dilapidated algae, gave 

 plain evidence that when Nature established them in salt 

 water, Nature knew best, andwas not to be tampered with. 

 The "Bluelight" brought in breakers (if I spell that word 

 correctly, — -rpanish little barrel— I doubt its 



being understood) of sea water, but it went but a little 

 ys, for it soon grew foul, and lost its life-supporting 

 power. Fortunately, though, the thorough system of la- 

 bor adopted, by i evening's or night's work 

 clears away, classifies, and preserves the result i : 

 dredging, as far as possible before rest is sought, saved us 

 from serious losses. And there is no lack of work; our 

 field is so rich thai with but a few hour's work at sea 

 enough is gathered for many more over the (able. 



the weather the "Bluelight" has made live trips 



in the six days. Upon one of the trips Prof. Alexander 



ecompanied us, and expressed himself as highly 



pleased with our appliances and methods of managing 



them. "We landed him at the Pequol House, and a NoaiUE 



carrier] on shore by another of our gue 

 ,h.iv, created due sensation on the wharf, and as we shoved 

 ;id sec that our friend was bavin!: eo 



way through the interested groups 

 ate people who spend the summer at the Pequot. 

 One day when it rained hard— that is to say. too hard to 

 go' dredging, hut just about righi •■ . —with Ches- 



ter I tried for black fish (Uattog), and in three hours caught 

 about thirty nice ones, of from two to four pounds weight. 

 Rock crabs, one half inch in diameter, 



equally effective, except that they 



other fish — cunnere, dog fish, and skates — and 



lis bother. The crab seemed to secure a greater 



proportion of the black fish bites. We fished Ram Island 



Ledge and 



No blue : 'i 



A. fine specimen of the tarpumwaa sent to Prof. Baird 

 by Mr. S, Powell, ft was caught in Newport on the 12th, 

 the card attached Bsid, but although received i I 13th, 

 -bowed strong evidence of decay. It •.■■:- regal fish- 

 great silver scales, and well proportioned, five 



Isotnesl fish I ever saw, 



except, pel - inn which I once caught on the 



Africa, and toid you about long ag 



In the laboratory every table has become ij 



each collect i accon pecialty, added new 



■ ■ : k. 1 1 o ie il le that of Mr. 



Trumbull, there lies in a large dish of sail water — or, 



rather, did till the freshened water was supplanted by alco- 



j.ol— perhaps the finest cluster of eggs of the squid ever 



found, 'i _js in July. 



■ in the form of transparent, gelatinous capsules, 

 if- inches in length, a half inch in diameter/and 

 each containing a great number of Jitfl 

 which an development, some 



even to tin- .and these, if examined through 



the microscope, are seen lo possess more or less of the Bl- 

 ind form of the more mature animal; they rap- 

 idly expand and contract, and their color changes, making 

 a most beautiful sight. Hundreds of these capsules are united 

 in one great cluster (the one we have is at least nine inches 

 in diameten like grapes. The little one, as seen still in the 

 egg, shows plainly its large brown eye-. : - , 

 projecting from its mouth, the yolk sac, upon which il 

 lives by absorption. The squid is peculiar in this point, 

 as in most fishes thai have the yolksac it is atfc 

 and absorbed through, the "umbilicus." When free from 

 swims freely about by means of 

 its syphon, from which it ejects jets of water, and by the 

 reaction darts to and fro. The figure accompanying is of 

 i ted naturally, its yolk sac nearly absorbed, and in 

 je abi ■ I to *i ialli otsonil 



J. The young of the squid furnishes food to 

 many fisl 9 even in Ihe inert, and apparently 



helpless',: ■ '•'' jellyfish. Later in life, when 



six inches to a foot in length, it returns the compliment, 

 and While sought eagerly by bluefish, bass, etc., it makes 

 , i their young,' and kills quantities of mackerel 

 five to sis inches in length 



Profs. Smith and Harger observed at Province town large 

 numbers of. squid capturing and devouring young mack- 

 erel v uii I rein . The squid would dart rapidly 



backward into a school, turn suddenly to the right or left, 

 :. fish by the back of the neck, cutting out With 



their sharp beaks a piece, the bite re 



tad almost instantly killing thi 



erupts, and the school become fright- 

 ened, the squid would drop to the bottom, thi 



lid lying low in the sand, to the 



i| hid transformed itself, it would lie in 



wait for the dispersed school to return. The little mackerel 



seemed to know that th< ir safety depended upon being in 



ater, and kept there, for when iu his backward 



ilart the squid toui mtly pump 



in, and at every jet force himself 



farther and farther ashore. 



There are many varieties of the squid, one, Hie 

 Vmadux, growing to great size. It is of this species that 

 old sperm whalers tell most remarkable stories. The 

 sperm whale is provided with immense teeth, and. unlike 



the ordinary "night whale," who feeds principally on small 

 Crustacea, devours in large quantities the squid. When 

 struck by the harpoon, and finally landed, he in his 

 "flurry, "'as his dving struggles are termed, frequently dis- 

 gorges from his stomach 

 great morsels, still undi- 

 gested, of the arms and 

 bodies of squid, and from 

 the taper of the arms, as 

 known in smaller species, 

 estimations are made that 

 the fish from which the 

 fragments were torn must 

 have been from one to 

 two hundred feet in 

 length. And many an 

 oldNew Bedford man will 

 swear to squid three hun- 

 dred feet across. These 

 stories are undoubtedly 

 exaggerations, as were 

 those recently passed 

 down to us of the Kraker 

 found on the Norwegian 

 coast, who, with his Int- 

 ra e n s c arms, dragged 

 down great ships. The 

 length of the arms does ^_ 

 not increase in direct pro- 

 portion with the body. 

 Prof. Verrill has in his 

 collection a portion of the 

 body and all ten of the 

 arm's, and the beak of an 

 immense squid, whose di- 

 mensions were — body, 8 

 feet; long arms, 24 feet 

 in length! This specimen 

 was captured in Logie 

 Bay, Newfoundland, last 

 fall. He has also photo- 

 graphs and measurements 

 of one of the arms of an- 

 other squid, which was 

 thrown over a boat in 

 Conception Bay, in which 

 were two men fishing; 

 the arm was cut off by 

 the men with an axe, the part preserved measuring nine- 

 teen feet, and the Whole length of arm estimated at fortv- 



• ' i >t. This individual has, I believe, already figured in 

 the FoiuisT AHD Stream, the arm being now preserved in 

 the museum at St. John. The beaks of the one in pos- 

 session of Prof. Verrill resembles that of a parro 

 dark hue, horny texture, and over four inches broad at the 

 base. The "devil fish" of Victor Hugo, by his descrip- 

 tion, is more closely allied to the octopus family, although 

 considerable allowance would have to be made for imagin- 

 ation to class it with them. 



Our trips this week have been three in the shallow waters 

 "f Fisher's Sound, one to the neighborhood of Block Isl- 

 and and Montauk, and one to the "Race" south of Fishers 

 Island. Many things of interest were obtained on each 

 trip, but the b'-st grounds Were found on Ihe last named, 

 where we again struck the cold current, finding a bottom 

 temperature of 58fc" in thirty-two fathoms of water. Off 

 Moutauk, in twenty fathoms, the bottom temperature was 

 0:U : , surface 66°. 



Among the new additions made to the fauna are a beau- 

 tiful tubularian {T/mmrwenidia spectabalis}, growing in large 

 pink boquet-like clusters on the bottom of a ve r sel lufuled 

 up for repairs, and Neptkyt eaeea, a peculiar Arctic anne- 

 lid, previously found on the coast of Maine, but originally 

 in Greenland. 



The meeting of the Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at Hartford, drew away a portion of our party for 

 a few days, and some have "left us altogether. Dr, Leidy, 

 of Philadelphia, who has made most interesting n 

 in the formanifera; Prof. Eaton, of Yale, who has devoted 

 himself to the marine algae: Mr. Sehuman, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and Dr. Holder, of New York Central 

 Park Museum, have left. PtbECO. 



tnral Jjistorg. 



THE CRA. MESOF AMERICA. 



F.T Dlt ELLIOTT COCES. It. 8. A. 



[Some of our correspondents having, expressed a desire 

 lobe informed respecting the species of cranes of this 

 country, we referred the matter to Dr. Coues. who sends 

 us the following: Ed.] 



THERE are but two well ascertained species of crane 

 in North America. There may he a third, but I am 

 not prepared to admit this without further evidence — the 

 supposed third species being thus far only known by a 

 single skin taken at Albuquerque, New 3Iexieo. The two 

 good species are the white or whooping crane. Brut Ameri- 

 cana, and the brown or sandhill crane, Kr/v/s canadensis. 

 They were formerly considered, by Audubon and other dis- 

 inguished onrithologi I hi the same species— the latter 



being supposed to be the young of the former. This is not 

 so, for however closely the young of the whooping crane 

 may resemble the adult of "the sandhill crane, the two 

 species are unmistakable when in perfect plumage. The 

 young sandhill crane is ashy, much varied with rusty-red; 

 "il loses this last color early, becoming a nearly uniform 

 ashy, and so remains during its whole life. The whoop- 

 ing crane, on the contrary, grows at least pure white, with 

 black-tipped wings; it is also considerably larger than the 

 other; its bill is thicker and deeper in the terminal part, and 

 ■ rh species grow bald with age, there is a differ- 

 ence in the contour of the naked part of the head. In the 

 adult whooping crane, again, the inner wing-quills become 

 enlarged, curled and flowing, to a much greater degree 

 than is seen in the other species. These are the principal ex- 

 ternal characteristics; the anatomical features are still more 

 strongly pronounced. Prominent among these is the aston- 

 ishing length and complexity of the windpipe of the 

 whooping crane — a conformation which results in the 

 hoarse and far-resounding cry of the bird, to which it 

 owes its name of "whooper." "This anatomical peculiarity 

 maj' be thus described, as shown in a fine preparation I 

 have lately had an opportunity of examining:— 



The sternal keel is broad and tumid, and is entirely ex- 

 cavated. The greater part of the excavation is occupied 

 by the singular duplications of the trachea, to be presently 

 described: but. there are two— an anterior and a posterior — 

 large empty air cells in the bone, with smooth walls, and 

 two other air ceDs — one superior and one along the edge of 

 the keel— filled with light, bony meshwork. Excepting 

 these cancellated portions, the whole keel is hollow, and is 

 occupied by the folds of the windpipe, as follows: Com- 

 ing down the throat, the trachea enters the sternal keel at 

 its anterior inferior apex, and runs along the lower edge of 

 the keel, inside, almost to the very posterior angle; curving 

 abruptly upward and forward, at about forty-five degrees, 

 it runs along the top of the keel just under the body of the 

 bone to the very front, where it appears; curving nest 

 downward, it re-enters the keel just alongside!*? original 

 entrance, passes about a third way to the posterior end of 

 the bone, then coils upward with a strong curve, folding 

 on itself, to re-emerge from the bone close alongside 

 its first entrance: and thence passes up to the bronchi with 

 a strong curve. In fewer words, the trachea, entering the 

 apex of the keel, traverses the whole contour of the keel in 

 a loug vertical coil, emerges at the front upper corner of 

 the keel, enters again at the lower corner of the keel and 

 makes a smaller vertical coil in the centre, emerging again 

 where it went in. On looking at the object from the front, 

 we see three parallel vertical coils, side by side; the middle- 

 one is the trachea coming down from the neck above; on 

 the left hand is the bulge of the first great coil; on the right 

 is the wiDdpipe passing to the lungs after it had 

 made its second coil inside. Measuring loosely, with a 

 thread laid along the track of the folds, I find there are 

 about twenty-eight inches of windpipe coiled away in the 

 breast-bone— certainly over two feet^from upper laryns to 

 the entrance is about twenty-two inches, and there are 

 about eight inches more of the tube from the exit from the 

 bone to the forks of the bronchi; altogether, fifty-eight 

 inches. The whooping crane has a windpipe between four 

 and five feel long— quite as long as the bird itself. 



We may continue the subject with some observations 

 on other "points relating to the two species. The distribu- 

 tion of the whooping crane is somewhat peculiar. It is 

 said to be found throughout the fur countries; but in the 

 United States its dispersion is limited. I find no satisfac- 

 tory evidence of its occurrence in New England, and it 

 must be exceedingly rare in the Middle States, though it is 

 said to have bred in New Jersey iu Alexander Wilson's 

 time. It is noted in Florida and Texas. But. its principal 

 area of dispersion and migration in the United States is 

 along the Mississippi Valley — using this term in a broad 

 sense. I have myself only seen it alive in Dakota and Min- 

 nesota, where in the Summer of 1873, I observed it fre- 

 quently, as I have, also, this present season, (.Tune 1874) 

 while ascending the Missouri River in the vicinity of Fort 

 Stevenson; and I saw it a few days ago in the neighbor- 

 hood of Brainerd, Minn. T have no doubt it breeds in this 

 region. In New- Mexico, Arizona and California, where I 

 became accustomed to large numbers of sandhill cranes. 

 I never recognized any white ones. 



Regarding the sandhill crane, I find no indication of the 

 occurrence of this species anywhere in the Eastern or Mid- 

 dle States, nor indeed east of the Mississippi and its tributa- 

 ries, excepting in Florida. There it is attendant, accord- 

 ing to severarbbservers. Dr. Bryant refers lo its breeding, 

 stating that two eggs are laid, from early in February until 

 abouUhe middle of April.. I have met with it in various 

 parts of the West, finding it breeding in northern Dakota, 

 quite plentifully, on the broad prairie. Late in September 

 and early in October numbers of this species and G. am&ri- 

 cana together were migrating through ihe same region; they 

 to journey chiefly by night. Often, as we lay en- 

 camped on the Mouse River, the stillness of midnight 

 would be broken by the hoarse, rattling croaks of cranes 

 coming overhead, the noise finally dying in the distance, 

 to he succeeded bv the shrill pipe of" numberless Wadets, 

 the honking of geese, and the whistle of the pinions of my- 

 riads of wild fowl that shot past, sotinding to sleepy ears 

 like the rushing sound of a far away locomotive. 



We have accounts of the sandhill cranes from the whole 

 extent of the Mississippi Valley (in the broad sense of the 

 term), and of their breeding in Iowa and .Minnesota, as 

 well as in Dakota. In Alaska, Mr. Dall says, it is a com- 

 mon bird at St. Michael's and around the mouth of the 

 Yukon, but less so in the interior, as at Nulato. "The 

 eggs, obtained June li, on the Yukon River, are laid in a 

 small depression on the sandy beach, without, any attempt 

 at a nest." He adds that the" fibula is a favorite pipe-stem 

 with the Indians, who, also, are fond of domesticating the 

 3'Oung; the birds eating up vermin and insects, as well as 

 refuse 'laps of food about the settlements. Further 

 south, on the Pacific coast, says Dr. Suckly, sandhill 

 cranes are very abundant at Puge't Sound, on the NisqUsl- 

 loy piains, in autumn. "They there commence to arrive 

 frbm the summer breeding grounds about the last week in 

 September, from which lime until about the 10th of No- 

 vember they are quite plentiful. After this they disap- 

 pear, probably retiring to warmer latitudes dating Ihe 

 cold months, "in the fall they arc found on all the prairies 

 near Fort Steilacoom, but are not indifferent to choice or 

 certain spots. These are generally old 'stubble-fields,' or 

 spots of ground that, have been ploughed. They rise 

 heavilv and slowlv from the ground on being disturbed, 

 and, flying in circles, at le:,. the desired eleva- 

 tion. When proceeding from one favorite resort to another, 

 or when migrating, theflighl i- high, and not unfrequently 

 their approach is heralded, before they are in sight, by 

 their incessant whooping clamor. While feediug they are 

 generally silent." To this account Dr. Cooper adds that 

 the brown cranes are corn mon summer residents ia Wash- 

 ington Territory, "arriving at the Straits of Fuca in large 

 flocks, in April, and there dispersing iu pairs over the in- 

 terior prairies to build their nests, which arc placed amid 

 the tall fei n on the highest, and most open ground, where 



ee the approach of danger. They frequent, at 



tins season, the mountains to the height of 6,000 feet, above 

 the sea. The young are often raised from the nest by the 

 Indians for food." 



"In the autumn, and winter," Dr. Newberry observes, 



is I i lint on the prairies of California, and is always 

 the markets of San Francisco, where it is highly 

 esteemed as an article of food. In August we free 

 saw them about the Klamath Lakes, and early in Septem- 

 nscade Mountains, in Oregon, the cranes 

 were a constant feature of the scenery of the beautiful but 

 lonely mountain meadows in which we encamped. We 

 found them always exceedingly Bhy and difficult of ap- 

 proach, but not unfrequently the files of their tall forms 



