February 8, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



compartment called an artificial mother. This is a box 

 warmed by hydraulic heat and curtained with flannel, so that 

 the chick sits"under the folds as under the wiugsof a mother. 

 When the egg is put in the date is marked on, and they arc 

 then merely turned over once a day till hatched. But let us 

 leave art and see something of nature, which is more interest- 

 ing. 



Returning to the breeding camps we follow the farmer in 

 liia feeding operations. A donkey cart is waiting beside, a 

 shed where a fire is burning. The cart is loaded with large 

 green vegetables, in shape like flattened pouches. These are 

 the fleshy leaves of the prickly pear, which have been gath- 

 ered wild about the homestead. They are unloaded with a 

 fork, and each one singed on the fire till the prickles snap ami 

 burn ofl. Then they are chopped up into fragments an inch 

 or two square, and loaded back, to be taken to each camp. 

 As the call goes along a couple of shovelfuls is allotted to 

 each camp. Here in one camp the old cock is still on the 

 nest. The hen conies bounding over to the gate and helps 

 herself, but her lord, though no doubt feeling the pangs of 

 hunger, denies himself, lying with neck at first outstretched 

 on the ground, but head now lifted to see what is going on. 

 Piece after piece she takes in until a foot of her long neck is 

 swelled out like a snake. Then she lifts it and the food 

 slides down, apparently by the force of gravitation: not 

 Straight down, but by a spiral course down the passage. As 

 the farmer informs us that tins couple. Will shortly change 

 places in sittine:. we will wait, to see the operation. 



Here and there in this camp there are small clumpybushes 

 not of sufficient size to hide the whereabouts of the sitter, 

 yet we are told that although the cock might have sense 

 enough to know that he is already seen, he will take as much 

 precaution as if his whereabouts were totally unknown. 

 After a watch of half an hour we are rewarded. The cock 

 raises his head from the ground, and after a moment's reflec- 

 tion begins to rise. Slowly his spindly legs are lifted from 

 out the cluster of tremendously large eggs which fail together 

 as he rises ; then wlule his body is yet scarcely erect he steps 

 out, darts a yard or two in one direction, then sidles with a 

 sweiving movement of his wings in another, and finally at 

 auother angle again bolts off into the camp, fancying no 

 doubt by these erratic manoeuvres that no one would be able 

 to know the exact locality of his nest. While he comes up 

 to get the remainder of the food, to which the donkey-cart 

 boy has now added to mealies, the female walks about in the 

 deliberate style which they adopt when gazing about, with 

 her head still for a moment and then moved forward with 

 the motion of the body, as a stalk might be swayed by the 

 wind After a quarter of an hour at this she finds herself 

 near the nest with no apparent intention of going to it, when 

 suddenly she shoots down and is settled over it. Here, she 

 insinuates her legs among the eggs and makes a great deal of 

 fussing and primping before she gets settled. During this 

 time she has something to do with each egg, turning them 

 over and shifting them about with her beak, which by means 

 of her long snake-like neck she can put under her on all sides 

 and behind. Settled at last, she lays her head out on tin- 

 ground and reflects. Some birds take even greater pains to 

 conceal their nests, yet others go on and off as if their nest 

 were no mystery at all. 



During the day, when the sun is strongest, the hen will be 

 found sitting as it were upon her elbows, with her body lift- 

 ed three or four inches above the eggs, and some leave the 

 nest altogether for an hour or more during the hottest part 

 of the day. Various in these respects are their habits and, so 

 great is the divenreuce of disposition in individual birds, that 

 one would almost Fancy them to be of a different species. 

 "Some," says the farmer on this subject, "are savage whe- 

 ther thev are breeding or not, and will attack you as furious- 

 ly as a tiger-, others will never give trouble, and even in the 

 breeding season can be approached in the camps. Now 

 there is" a bird that seems to hate me as an enemy at almost 

 all times, and yet one of my neighbors could go into his 

 camp without any danger." On our approaching the molo- 

 sure the bird in question was not long in making an exhibi- 

 tion of his feelings, for he approached with hisses like an 

 engine letting off surplus steam, his wings spread out and 

 feathers ruffled, until he appeared a monster in size. Then 

 he knelt down and swinging his head from side to side, rat- 



"* challenge. 



Where there are no pin-poles in the shell it never hutches a 



chicken." 



"And will a wild ostrich fight for its nest?" 



"They will fight anything but a human heing, I am told." 



" And how do they make their attack?" 



"By kicking. They throw their leg forward and if that 

 big hooked toe-nail coines down your back there is fearful 

 havoc. 1 1 is not al ways that. he. succeeds in making a scratch, 

 but tli e force of his foot, is as terrible. They often kill each 

 other in a fight and have been known to kill men. No matter 

 how tame they become, thev we always liable to attack you 

 in the breeding season. It is this uncertainty about them 

 that, makes me like the business." 



So we bid adieu to the ostriches and the hospitable Eng- 

 lishman who has " cast himself away in Africa." 



Cape Town, South Africa. 



tied it against his sides alternately by way of challcngi 

 "That is the way thev dare you," observed the farmer, "hi 

 they seldom or never "get over a fence at you. They appear 

 to he afraid to jump. They are savage to intruders and very 

 consisient.lv keep out of the camps of others." 



" Are the wild ones savage ?" we ask. I have never seen 

 any wild ostriches so far down as this, but I am told that 

 they are not. There are wild birds still, but further inland, 

 in the Victoria West district and toward the Kalihari plains. 

 I had an old Hottentot man lately who used to tell about 

 catching wild ostriches and their chickens in this very dis- 

 trict Hunters tell how the old birds can trace the slightest 

 touch of the human hand upon the eggs, and how that the 

 bushmen, when they rob a nest, have to lift the eggs out 

 with sticks, but Jantje, the Hottentot I speak of, says this is 

 a mistake. He says he has removed and handled eggs with- 

 out the old birds ever observing it and that the wild birds' 

 eggs can be freely handled, and as long as too many are not 

 taken out the old bird is none the wiser. 



The way Jantje robbed nests was this : In some bush-cov- 

 ered plain where he had reason to think ostriches might be 

 found he went about midnight, walking cautiously, and 

 When reasonably near, sitting under some bush. Here he re- 

 mained till about three o'clock in the morning. About this 

 time he expects to hear them " bromming." "And what is 

 1 bromming?' " we interrupt. " It is a kind of roar, or short 

 bellow, which travellers, as you have read, have often mistak- 

 en for the roaring of the lion. This noise they repeat sev- 

 eral times and that gives Jantje a chance to tell at least the 

 direction in which the birds are, for the female will not he 

 far off. Then he steals as near as he can with safety and sits 

 a°-ain, till early daylight. About this lime the ostrich broms 

 again and then, if possible, Jantje steals along still closer 

 and waits till a third bromming, about eight o'clock, shortly 

 after which the cock leaves the nest. While he is away and be- 

 fore the hen has been warned to assume her duties, Jantji 

 has taken an egg or two out of the nest and now knows pret- 

 ty nearly where to come when he wants another." "And 

 what does he do with the egg ?" " I am told they cook them 

 in the shell itself and also by putting hot stones into them. I 

 suppose they cook them with hot stones when they wish to 

 preserve the shell, which makes a very convenient bowl, and 

 a pretty strong one, too. Those eggs," he continues, "con- 

 tain as much meat as two dozen hen's eggs and it is of as fine 

 a flavor nearly. My wife frequently uses them in baking 

 cakes and it is a common practice among other fanners. 

 Whenever we find an egg with the shell perfectly smooth, or 

 nearly so, we set that down as a wind-egg and cook it. 



AHoenedDoe— Akron, ()., Jim. 21 . -Among the most suc- 

 cessful of our local sportsmen who spent their autumn vaca- 

 tion in pursuit of the pleasures of field and flood was Mr. J. 

 K. diss who was with a small party in northern Michigan. 

 His most valuable trophy was a fine doe with one horn. It 

 was on the left side of the head about four inches long, palm- 

 ate, its width at the tip being about two inches. Although 

 late in theseason it was in the velvet with a heavy coat of 

 hair the whole length. It was mounted by Reichstag, the vet- 

 eran taxidermist bf Saginaw, who has probably set up more 

 deer heads than any other man in the country, and who says 

 that in an. experience of twenty-five years he never saw any- 

 thing like it. He has furnished many rare specimens to 

 Michigan University, Smithsonian and other museums in 

 this country and Europe, but says he never handled so valu- 

 able a head as this before. Mr. Criss has received the head, 

 and is being congratulated on his good fortune by our local 

 naturalists. Cork. 



Horns of the Moose Ann Debe.— Bmtg<ff, Me., January. 

 —I have hitherto supposed and believed that both of the 

 above-named animals and all others of their species annually 

 shed their horns. This Winter for the first time I have heard 

 it denied, and positively asserted by those whose judgments 

 and opinions are entitled to consideration that such is not 

 the fact. Do moose and deer shed their horns annually and 

 what is the opinion of Forest and Stbbam? From recent 

 inquiries among the hunters and lumbermen of this vicinity 

 I am much inclined to chauge my views and adopt the belief 

 that they do not shed their horns annually. I shall, however, 

 before doing so make further investigation and will give you 

 the result of my researches. J. 0. 



It is a well-established fact that all the Qervidm shed their 

 horns annually. 



Swiftness of Birds on Tn» Wing.— Professor Newton 

 considered that were sea-fowls satellites revolving around the 

 earth their arrival could hardly be more surely calculated by 

 an astronomer- Foul weather or fair, hot or cold, the puf- 

 fins repair to some of their stations punctually on a given 

 day, as if their movements were regulated by clock-work. 

 The swiftness of flight which characterizes most birds en- 

 ables them to cover a vast space in a brief space of time. 

 The common black swift can fly 376 miles an horn-, a speed 

 which, if it could bo maintained for less than half a day, 

 would carry the bird from its winter to its summer quarters. 

 The large purple swiFt of America is capable of even greater 

 feats on the wiug. The chimney swallow is slower — ninety 

 miles per hour being about the limit, of its power ; but the 

 passenger pigeon of the United States can accomplish a 

 journey of 1, ((00 miles between sunrise and sunset. It is al- 

 so true, as the ingenious Herr Palmeu has attempted to show, 

 that migrants during long (lights may be directed by an ex- 

 perience partly inherited and partly acquired by the individ- 

 ual bird. They often follow the coast lines of the continent, 

 and invariablv'take, on their passage over the Mediterranean, 

 one of the three routes. But this theory will not explain 

 how they pilot themselves across broad oceans and is in- 

 validated by the fact, familiar to every ornithologist, that the 

 old and young birds do not journey in company. In- 

 variably, the young broods travel together, then come, after 

 imothe.r interval, the parents -, and finally the rear is brought, 

 up by the weakly, infirm, molting and broken-winged. This 

 is the rule in aulumn. The return journey is accomplished 

 in the reversed order. The distance traveled seems, more- 

 over, to have no relation to the traveler. The Swedish blue 

 throat performs its matei nal functions among the Laps, and 

 enjoys its winter holidays among the negroes of the Soudan, 

 while the tiny, ruby-throated humming-bird proceeds an- 

 nually from Mexico to New Foundland and back again, 

 though one would imagine that so delicate a little fairy 

 would be more at home among the cacti and agaves of the 

 Tierre Caliente than among the firs and fogs of the north — 

 London Standard. 



Curious So.l'irrrls — Charleston, JU., Jan. 16. — Editor 

 Forest and Stream: I have Bunted squirrels occasionally for 

 the last twenty years, and I never have seen one like that 

 which Daniel Mitchell killed the 14lh of May, 1875, four 

 miles southeast of here by the Embarrass River. It was the 

 same size as the large-tailed fox squirrel, but the top of the 

 head, the back of the neck, the back, the upper part of the 

 tail, the front and back part of the fore and hind legs were 

 the same color as the fox squirrel, while the throat, the bel- 

 ly, the under part of the tail, the inside of the fore and hind 

 legs were jet. black. There are not any black squirrels in 

 this part of the country. Dennis F. Hanks killed an albino 

 fox squirrel a few years ago. He says he has hunted squir- 

 rels fifty years, and that is the only white one he has ever 

 seen. Are not such squirrels very uncommon ? 



Fox Squirrel. 



A Curious Belief — Dedham, Mass., Jan. 19.— Last sum- 

 mer the daughter of an old farmer residing here told me that 

 for the last three years, when their cows have been turned 

 into a certain pasture where the feed is of the best, one of 

 them has suddenly fallen off to about half the quantity of 

 milk, and when removed to a distant pasture the milk re- 

 turned again. One day last summer her father (whose sight 

 is vciy poor) saw an animal close by the cow, which upon 

 his approach made off to a swamp near by. I told her that 

 I had the impression that I had read of cows being sucked by 

 an otter. She wished me to investigate it, but as I was about 

 leaving for the West I had no time. While I was away a 

 young man shot an otter within half a mile of their place, 

 which is the first one that I ever heard of being seen or killed 

 in this vicinity, only ten miles out of Boston. Have you 

 ever heard of a case of this kind? T. 



Compare this with the belief still existing in some parts of 

 Europe, that the hedge-hog sucks the cows, and that birds of 

 the family Cariinvlr/idm perform the same office for goats — 

 whence the common name " goat-sucker"— for the nighthawk 

 and other birds of the group. 



Winter Birds— IlornettmiUe, N. T., Jan. 23. — The king 

 fisher I reported the 10th is still here; was observed the 20th 

 in a snow-storm. I also saw several crows flying same day, 

 and have seen fhem here all the winter. A boy brought me 

 on the 19th a bird nine inches long, black feet and legs, slate 

 color, golden brown on bead and rump, was eating sumach 

 boVis, andmadea noiselike a rat, only very loud. What kind' of 

 bird is it ? Saw a meadow lark the 12th, golden wing wood- 

 pecker 19th inst. Red headed woodpeckers and blue jays 

 here all winter; a great many ruffed grouse frozen. 



J. Otis Fellows . 



The bird was probably a pine grosbeak (Piniwla enucle.- 

 atcrr). 



Elknmlle, UUttr Co., N. T.— Yesterday Mr. Newton 

 Rockwell, a genuine sportsmen and well-known resident of 

 the village, saw in the vicinity a meadow lark. Mr. Rock- 

 well was driving in a sleigh at the time. The bird flew up 

 from a tree near the road, apparently vigorous, and alighted 

 within a short distance ; he had no companions; Is not this 

 very rcmnrkable considering the lateness of the season and 

 the recent, cold weather ? 1 remmember no similar incident 

 in all my experience as a sportsman and close observer. 

 Heaven help the poor quail this winter. I have induced 

 several of my former friends to coax them about, their barns 

 where they can get food and seelter. W. H. Hasbrottok. 



It is not unusual to find the meadow lark in New York 

 throughout the winter. 



§><w(e §ag and (§tm. 



THE FLIGHT OF A RIFLE BALL. 



A CORRESPONDENT in Forest and Stream, apparently 

 a young practitioner, asks : "What is meant by point 

 blank and point blank range in rifle shooting ?" These are 

 very apt and important questions, I must confess ; none are 

 more so. I propose to answer them, using the plainest terms 

 at my command. But to do so directly and without expla- 

 nation woifid, I fear, leave the reader quite in the dark. Be- 

 sides, the very interest of this subject, lies in the lurking facts 

 connected with it. Hence I will first define certain terms re- 

 lating thereto, then make the necessary explanations, and 

 lastly answer his two questions. 



To experiment with, I select the common and best practi- 

 cal sporting rifle with crotch and bead sights, and sighted for 

 150 yards. 



First. — What is meant by the "line of sight " of a rifle ? 

 It is the straight line from the eye, passing through the bot- 

 tom of the crotch sight, taking in the tip of the bead sight, 

 and thence straight, on, piercing the target at its very centre. 

 Mark, it is a straight line, and pierces the centre of the tar- 

 get. 



Second. — The line of sight being understood, I ask what is 

 meant by the axis of the piece, or barrel? It is the straight 

 line runuing from the muzzle to the breach, along the centre 

 of the bore throughout. It corresponds to the centre, of the 

 tiall when the piece is loaded, and its prolongation is the 

 "line of fire." Mark, the axis of the rifle and the line of 

 sight are both straight lines, and if parallel, it follows they 

 would never cut each other, If produced. 



The above being well understood, we next proceed to mako 

 three experiments with our rifle, and under three different 

 circumstances. 



Cask 1, No Point Blank.— Let us first suppose that the 

 rear and front sights are of the same heierht — that is, that 

 both are equally distant from the axis of the barrel— then will 

 incline of sight and the axisof the barrel be parallel lines; so also 

 will their prolongations. Wow place the ri tie thus sighted, 

 horizontally, aim it at the exact centre of the target, at say 

 one hundred yards distance, and fire. There will be no point 

 blank or point, blank range in this case. Why? Because 

 the ball starting in its course on a lino parallel with the line 

 of sight will not rise above its level to cut it, which, as will 

 hereafter appear, is a necessary condition in the premises. 

 On the contrary, the ball will describe a downward curve of 

 about twenty inches in 150 yards. The same is true if the 

 piece be fired under an ordinary elevation. Rifles thus sight- 

 ed always shoot a little too low, and the remedy, in part to 

 this, will appear in the next case. This illustration has been 

 introduced mainly to correct erroneous impression, and to 

 show the effect of changing the sights so as to get a point 

 blank range. 



Cask 2, One Point Blank Onlt.— Let us now suppose the 

 rear sight to he a little the highest, but only enough so as to 

 cause the ball in its flight to rise barely to the line of sight 

 and to cut it, and after this to describe a curve to the 

 ground. It will be seen that in this case the trajectory of the 

 ball cuts the line of sight in but one point. At this point, 

 then, we have a point blank, and also a point blank range. 

 But in practice this point blank will be found near the piece, 

 say about twenty yards distant ,• hence this is not the recog- 

 nized point blank, nor does it give the necessary range in- 

 volved in this question. They are longer. Rifles thussight- 

 ed are good for squirrels and other small game ; they are 

 close shooters within about thirty-five yards, but at about 100 

 yards they shoot too low by about, six inches. The next ease 

 will give a longer and better range, and furnish a solution to 

 the questions. 



Case 8, Two Points Blank.— We will now elevate the 

 rear sight a little more, say just enough so that when the 

 piece is aimed true at the centre of the object, the ball will 

 strike it there, at 150 yards. This particular distance is se- 

 lected, because I wish hereafter to trace the curve of the ball 

 in this case of elevation. Being well aimed, now fire. What 

 is the result ? We see this elevation of the rear sight causes 

 the ball to go entirely above the line of sight, in its ascending 

 curve (very little, it is true), and after reaching its highest 

 point, that it gradually falls to the line of sight, where it cuts it 

 again at the very centre of the target. In other words, the 

 curve of the ball cuts the line of sight in two points, the one at. 

 about six yards from the piece, and the other at the target, 

 150 yards off. This case presents two point blanks and two 

 point blank ranges. But (as in Case 2) the first one is near 

 the piece and is not recognized in long range practice, but 

 the second one is recognized. It is the true point blank known 



