148 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



#4 §tilt,w. 



This Journal Is the Official Organ of the Fish (lultiir- 

 ists' Association. 



FISH CULTURE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND. 



THE people of Newfoundland, notwithstanding the 

 fact that they own some of the finest marine fishing 

 banks in the world, have taken the prclimuary steps, lo 

 establish river pisiculiure as one of the most, prominent in- 

 dustries Of the counr.iy. They, like ourselves, feel the im- 

 Mi, a Of tliis movement, so we have little doubt (bat 

 when they have gained tile preliminary experience tin y 

 will make the industry a success, The following letter in 

 tin- Standard shows what the organizers of the movement 

 have done thus far. 



"We are, at present, in communication with 0. G. Atkins, 

 Ks,|., of the Bueksport Salmon Breeding Works of Maine, 

 Fail ril Shiles, and others, with reference to this matter; 

 also, One of our members of the St John's Lodge, No. 5, 

 is at present on a tour through Canada and the States, 

 where he intends visiting the fish breeding establishments 

 of those countries, and t trust that upon his return, we 

 shall have much practical information which ivill greatly 

 assist us in the construction of our hatching house, m, idi- 

 ot' manipulation, &0, The great difioulty we have now to 

 contend with is the want of the necessary funds 1'or the 

 purpose of erecting a suitable building for "carrying on our 

 operations. These Works, we allow, will cost about £100 

 or £150, and that sum, I fear, we shall be unable to raise, 

 unless the Government or men of capital come to our as- 

 sistance. If we can succeed in procuring our necessary re 

 quisites, this Fall and Winter, we propose importing from 

 the Bueksport works a quantity of salmon ova; and 1 doubt 

 not that before very long we shall succeed in turning inlo 

 our waters millions of young fish. 



We have many obstacles to overcome — imperfect know- 

 ledge, want of means, and men— who, from their position, 

 should be foremost in such an undertaking — giving us the 

 cold shoulder. We have very few Sympathizers in Con- 

 ception Bay, though, I am happy to say, many influential 

 and working men have joined us in St. John's. 



It is our intention to appeal to the Government for aid 

 in the erection of the required building; and I believe its 

 leading members will afford this national project all en- 

 couragement in their power." 



■♦♦*■ 



The Grayling Again. — One of the most interesting de- 

 partments of the Michigan State Fair was that devoted to 

 the exhibition of fish. This was much better than any 

 person could reasonably anticipate, as such exhibitions are 

 of recent occurrence in this country, and especially in the 

 West. All the principal species indigenous to the Michi- 

 gan waters were represented, but the first prize, \hc blue 

 ribbon, was awarded to the grayling (ffiymaUm tricolor) for 

 its powers of endurance; for though subject to the hard- 

 ships of being transported over four hundred miles, ami 

 confined to bad water, yet when placed on exhibition it 

 showed more sprighlliness and energy than either the bass, 

 brook trout, California salmon, bass, and the salmon family 

 of New England, though the latter were often more favor- 

 ably situated and better attended. While several of all the 

 latter species died, not one of the thymallus showed even 

 signs of debility. From this fact we should deduce that 

 the grayling having, greater power of endurance than any 

 of its congeners, is about the fittest of the icthyc order to be 

 transported long distances, and that it will thrive where 

 other fish species cannot. This is an important fact to tish 

 cullurists, for they know ntrsv which species is best adapted 

 to withstand the rough usages of travel and the unfavorable 

 conditions of impure water. 



Massachusetts Angleus' Association.— A regular 

 meeting of this society was held at their elegant room in 

 Boston on Tuesday evening 7th inst., President Ordway 

 in the chair. Quite a number of members were added to 

 the roll, and more received for consideration, M. Julius 

 Eichberg of the Boston Conservatory of Music, a member 

 of the Association, presented to them an elegant engraving 

 entitled "Great Expectations." The engraving, which is 

 very fine, consists of four children hovering about a 

 boulder on the bank of a small stream, all intent upon a 

 baited hook which one of the group has cast into the placid 

 walers beneath. A very handsome pen and ink tray of an- 

 tique piscatorial design was also presented by another mem- 

 ber. In both of which instances a vote of thanks was pre- 

 sented. Attention was called by the President to the ele- 

 gant paintings and engravings presented during the Sum- 

 mer vacation, which adorned the walls, and that books, 

 papers &c. , would be very acceptable for the reading room. 

 It was voted that a special committee be appointed to use 

 its influence against any change in the present smelt law, 

 and to look after the interests of the lobster, cod aud had- 

 dock, before the next legislature. The chair appointed as 

 the committee, Messrs. James P. Richardson, S. M. John 

 son, Charles E. Pierce, John F. Mills, James Walker. The 

 President w^as uuanimosly chosen chairman of the com- 

 millee. Mr. S. M. Johnson of ihc Executive Committee made 

 some remarks upon the lobster question. He thought that 

 the law now in force had been satisfactory in its working. 

 lie regarded license as better than prohibition in regard to 

 lobsters as well as some other things. He agreed with 

 the President that the law was somewhat imperfect, lie 

 advocated the passage of the same law in New York which 

 prevails in this State, inasmuch as lobsters under size are 

 taken in Massachusetts walers and shipped to the New 

 York market. Several other gentlemen made remarks of 

 the same tenor. 



IS FISH CULTURE PROFITABLE? 



Editor Forest uoi Stream:— 



Your item of my misgivings on fish culture not. being a profitable busi- 

 ness, hardly lilts the point. Not, our loss or salmon called out the inquiry, 

 bnt a question of dollars and. cents. And to explain: We have heen to 

 considerable expense to procure a coml stream Willi abundance of water, 

 and have in snick some 12,000 trout, grayling, .Sainton and black bu»e, 

 procured and hat, -lied I he past year. Birring this lime Mr. Perkins has 

 ,-i B i v if ... ami we have tiuulo many inquiries as to its being profit- 

 able to -row iront for market, hut 1 must say that, np to this time, we. 

 ftfl !, St been »We to llud the first man that has made anything by it in 

 that, way. Money has been inadt: In. Selling the spawn and yonng fry. 

 &c; arid I would now (ml Hie question to yom* home office— Will it pin- 

 to raise them tor market'!' If so, where is your proof, other than Agates, 

 or who is doing it? Do not think I would throw cold water ou uu enter- 

 prise new to u», and one in which I feel a deep Interest, 'hut, would liud a 

 practical demonstration of its results H. 



If any of our pisciculturists can show that fish culture 

 for market is profitable, we should lie pleased to hear from 

 them, as we think it is, or at least can be made so.— Ep. 



HOGS TRAILING RATTLESNAKES. 



igtUmal Ijjiisforg. 



K — • 



The Blue Frsn Pauasite. — A short time ago we sent 

 Prof. Verrill, of Yale College, a parasite taken from the 

 siomaeh of a blue fish, 'and requested him to classify it and 

 give us its specific name. The following courteous loiter 

 I'm Irishes the needed information:— 



New Havkn, October 2d, isri 

 Editor Forest anu Stream:— 



The Rpecimen of parasite from the stomach of a bluelish, scut byyou 

 was duly received. It proves to be the Dittoma ctaeatim, 8 parasite that 

 baa buen described in Europe from the tunny, bonito and coryplnena. 

 but not found before in the blueflsh, so far as I know. I found u similar 

 one last Summer ibut larger and longer) in the stomach and gill cavity of 

 the 1. ill li-li." and there are over 250 species of iln- •renu- : ahvady de- 

 scribed. They occur In animals of various classes, bnt especially in birds, 

 reptiles and fishes. The creature has a large sneker in the middle of the 

 body for linn adhesion, but the month is in the bottom or centre of the 

 small sucker at the front end of the body. Although somewhat resemb- 

 ling a leech externally, it really belongs to a vcrydiffcrout class of 

 worms. Its internal anatomy is entirely unlike that of a leech. 



Very respectfully yours, A. E. VERRnx. 



*♦♦ 



A Can Fish Hear. — Mr. G. H. Jerome, in the query "Can 

 Fish Hear?" relates the following curious incideut relative 

 to the fish recently on exhibition at the Michigan State 

 Fair:— 



"The large aquariums, containing the fish, were assigned 

 by the committee of arrangements to "Music Hall." And 

 when the piano, the harp aud melodeon were in active 

 blast, coupled with the invading music of the extempor- 

 ized rival choirs, the fish would start up from their semi- 

 lethargic repose, move about with greatly increased rapidity, 

 in a manner showing a delirium of pleasure and gratifica- 

 cation. And as the waves of the "concord of sweet sounds" 

 died away, the finny audience gradually subsided to their 

 previous condition of composure and quiet. 

 -»•«- 



Brains op Men and Animals. — At the recent meeting 

 of the British Association the Dean of Clonfert, Dr. Byrne, 

 made a very praiseworthy attempt to trace to the anterior, 

 middle, and posterior portions of the brain-hemispheres or 

 cerebrum, the various mental faculties which we see suc- 

 cessively developed in those lower animals most nearly 

 akin to man. He pointed out that in the rabbit, dog, ape, 

 and man, certain portions of the brain are relatively of 

 larger development as we pass from the first to the last, 

 aud that accompanying this development we have the de- 

 velopment of new psychical powers. In the rodents aud 

 ruminants there is first perceptible the. power of thinking 

 of a Beries of connected acts. In the carnivora there is a 

 power of design, and in the anthropoid apes it sense of 

 ireneral principles. Cases were cited to support these pro- 

 positions, and it was suggested, in accordance with the corres- 

 ponding anatomical arrangements, that the anterior lobes of 

 the cerebrum belong to the act of thinking of single objects 

 of sense; those of the middle lobe to the act of thinking of 

 such objects, with a sense of their succession, and of 

 each as a part of the succession: and those of the posterior 

 lobe to the act of thinking ofthe co-existence or succession 

 of them as a general principle. 



An "Aqtjahium Fight. " — The inhabitants of Havre seem 

 to be making bad use of their tine aquarium, by. setting 

 oetopods and conger eels to fight. A number of spectators 

 assembled the other day to witness the disgusting exhibi- 

 tion, among whom was a correspondent, who declares the 

 affair, which was advertised as a "combat," to have been 

 a mere slaughter. The oetopods, formidable as they are 

 lo rnany of the denizens of the deep, are far from being a 

 match for the agile and voracious congers. Accordingly, 

 no sooner did the eight-armed combatants perceive their 

 antagonists than they endeavored to escape from them by 

 throwing out the inky fluid which is their chief resource 

 in the hour of danger; but the eels knew whereto find them, 

 and a shocking scene then ensued. The congers seized the 

 tentacula of the oetopods in their powerful jaws, dragged 

 the helpless creatures round and round, till I heir feelers 

 were so twisted that a violent wrench was sufficient to tear 

 them off, and pursued this system till nothing remained of 

 the oetopods but their bag-like bodies, which the victors 

 then devoured. One octopod alone distinguished itself by 

 an energetic resistance, and core out the eye of a conger, 

 but the result was the same, and the eight-footed champion 

 went the way of his colleagues. 



-o-~e- 



Stkanoe Freak of Natuke.— Some youths in the vicin- 

 ity of Eagle, near Wallacetown, Ont., captured a raccoon 

 the other night that had three perfect ears on one side 

 of its head and one on the other. It can hear with equal 

 distinctness with all four ears. 



■♦*♦■ 



—A long-lost American mammal, a black footed ferret, 

 has just been ferreted out in Kansas. 



Woburn, Mass., October, 18" J. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Reading in Forest ,«o Stream of September t7th the account of 

 ilack snakes devouring woodcocks, recalls to mind an instance in my own 

 xpiri.iii-e. Wuen a schoolboy, with another lad, I was one day out in 

 he wooiis where we discovered a iletnl tree with a woodpecker hole in it . 

 My ''chum" climbed the tree, and got his head aa high as the hole, when, 

 Itl i nM/Ti change Oi countenance, he fell to chezronnd, the causa be- 

 ing si aden appearance of a black snake at the hole, where he doubt, 



Bnt speaking Of ertakes, reminds me or what an old "Forty-niner" told 

 mi. lie sail] wlntn he had reached the mines he sua many strange 

 Bights, none of which astonished him more than the. following: One 



setllir tin- meaning of their action:., he was Cold that, they were trailing 



have somewhere read of an eccentric Englishman who shot, woodcocks 

 , i :, i, ' trained forlhat purpose, but never heard sueh a snake story 

 from anyone, else, did yon ? E . 



— The use of carrier pigeons for press purposes is on the 

 increase, and the breed is "rapidly improving. By careful 

 "selection" and allowing the "survival of the fittest," 

 powers have been developed which a few years ago would 

 have been thought impossible. They can be specially 

 trained to fly over 500 miles, and it is no uncommon thing 

 for despatches to be brought to London from Paris, Lisbon, 

 or Brussels. Land aiv.l Water records a case of interest. 

 An ocean "homing" bird, of great docility, intelligence and 

 spirit, has been found in Iceland which flies at the meleor- 

 like speed of 150 miles an hour. A pair of these birds 

 whose present home is in Kent, within ten miles of London, 

 recently carried despatches from Paris to their home in one 

 hour and a quarter. Press pigeons carried on the despatches 

 to London, and the whole journey' of the despatches from 

 Paris to Loudon occupied only one hour and a half. The 

 press pigeons now commonly used are not the ordinary 

 earlier pigeons, but are bred by Messrs. Hartley, of Wool 

 wich, from, prize birds selected from the best lofts of Ant- 

 werp, Brussels, and Liege. 



CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 



DEPARTMENT OP PUBLIC PARKS, I 



Nw York, Oct. 11, 1874. | 



Animals received at Central Park Menagerie for the week ending 

 October 10th, 1874: 



Two Barred Doves, Geopelia sliinln. Uab. India. 



One Spider Monkey, Al/es belzebttlh. Hub. south America. 



One Sooty Mansjalcy, C'frcocebnsfiiligiiiosvs. Hub. West Africa 



One Yellow Bird, Chripomitris tristix. Presented by Martha Gabriel 

 B. Obarrla. 



One Opossum, BiadelphyS ■cirtjinumn. Presented by Mr. Galvln (.'. 

 Atwood , 



One Canute, OdWitm pertimj.r, Hub. Frazil, Presented Dy Mies 

 Miller. W. A. Conkm.n. 



iffoodlwid, J£mvn and <§nrden, 



BIRDS AS THE FRIENDS AND CO- 

 LABORERS OF THE GARDENER. 



A SHORT extract from a letter from a friend now trav- 

 eling in Vienna says: "All the principal men among 

 our best agriculturists here have come to the conclusion 

 I hat many of our birds are a necessity to agricultural pros- 

 Here there are to be found, as is well known to many of 

 our readers, in great abundance and variety, both game 

 ami other birds, many of which are migratory, and are, as 

 accurate observation" has verified, very beneficial to the 

 small as well as extensive gardeners and fruit growers. 

 The wanton destruction of the migratory, useful birds, has 

 been very great, and now the question of their preserva- 

 tion is of great practical interest. In the absence of any 

 game or protective laws, such as we have in the United 

 States, every one deems himself "a law unto himself," 

 and, consequently, accountable to no one. Here is to be 

 found that gamev bird called the meadow lark, so familiar 

 all over the world— a fine game and good eating bird. This 

 is one of the useful birds that should be spared and pro- 

 tected. The lark is one of the earliest, returning game 

 birds of the migratory season, and is one of the earliest 

 visitors to Germany in Spring time. This bird is a great 

 devourer of insects; he puts out of sight innumerable mul- 

 titudes of noxious insects every hour you allow him to 

 work, and may truly be called the friend of man. If they 

 work as hard on the borders of the shore, in the uplands, 

 and in the German gardens as they do in America, they 

 should be called the" 'benefactor bird." I have seen one 

 pair of larks in the space oi an hour pick up, as close 

 as I could count, over two hundred insects, grubs, and 

 grasshoppers. This bird is a great devourer of insects 

 near the salt marshes, and is considered very "mouthy" by 

 all epicures and lovers of game. In some sections of Eu- 

 rope they abound in multitudes almost without number, 

 and on the great plains of Leipsic Ihev are killed in great 

 numbers as'" market birds, and always find a ready sale. 

 These birds are also found in great numbers on their mi- 

 gratory passage from Italy, and along the entire Mcditer 

 raneau coast.' Xow these" birds, numerous as they are, are 

 jusl beginning to be appreciated for the great good they 

 perform as the destroying enemy of the numerous pests 

 which infest our gardens. With us, this bird, although 

 not so numerous as in the countries above cited, are never- 

 theless becoming more plenty every year, and in places 

 where they are not, molested they are found both in our 

 meadows "and gardens. Although rather a shy bird, aud 

 ready to take wing at danger quite remole, yet they will 

 acquire confidence and boldness in man. I have found 

 them year after year in a meadow not far from mygrouuds, 

 and tliey seemed to know me from strangers, for I could 

 approach within short pistol shot of them before they 

 would rise, aud then they would only fly a short distance 

 from me before alighting, aud were not frightened at my 

 a:,pr,ia.',i \\ in" le-'C-onucii:;'.": -V a ..'ranger rhcy seemed 

 to be as well aware of the fact as myself, and we could 

 not approach them nearer than a long gnn shot range be- 

 fore they were up and off in double quick time. At. this 

 time these birds can be found in goodly numbers upon the 

 Ipswich salt marshes. They are quite fat, and are afford- 

 ing good sport of a morning, especially on one of our hazy, 



