266 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 5, 18S1 



It was very discouraging. Duck hunting by steam seemed 

 at first glance to be a fraud. With our magnificent skiff and 

 two pair of oars which had been dragged after this creeping 

 steamer, we could have made the trip in half the time. It 

 was too late, to row up to the tow-head in time to get any 

 shooting before dark, so we made ourselves wet going across 

 the narrow strip of land separating us from a chute of the. 

 main river, around Paw Paw Island, aud there saw no ducks. 

 Rain set in hard about dark and the wiud blew a gale. The 

 leaks in the roof increased aud theside curtains flapped and blew 

 in and conducted their water upon the seat running around 

 the sides of the hull. Water fell upon us or spattered upon 

 us in any place we took. After sitting up and dodging about. 

 as long as we could endure it we tuado down our bed. We 

 hung up buckets under the main leaks over the bed, put our 

 oilcloth and rubber coats over the bedding, and turned in. 

 For a long time sleep was out of the question — spatter here, 

 drop throe, while we lay there wailing for it to come through, 

 and in mortal fear the buckets would get full, break the nails 

 they were swung upon, and, falling, beak our heads. One 

 stream came down directly upon the pilot's head. lie put n 

 large comforter, in the shape of a ball, under the drop. It 

 acted like a sponge for a while, and held the water, and the 

 pilot dropped into an uneasy slumber. Directly he awoke 

 with his uppermost car full of water aud his head soaking 

 wet. The engineer fared no better. He was treated to sev- 

 eral leaks, the chief one also in his face, but he slept through 

 most of it. His double duty that day had about worn him 

 out, and 1 think he would have slept some out in a hail 

 storm. 



But it can't rain always. This lime it ceased some hour 

 during the uight — we never knew — and in the morniug when 

 we awoko at six it was only cold, damp and foggy. We 

 were on a royal disgust, aud at first dec ded to raise steam 

 and go home, but after eating a hearty breakfast we changed 

 our minds and pulloj up to the tow-head, carrying wilh us a 

 dozen and a half of our decoys. Reaching there, and walk- 

 ing across the tow-head, we fouud a shallow lake abom half 

 a mile long and three hundred yards wide, surrounded by 

 quite a stretch of marshy, boggy lands, wilh grass, but not, a 

 tree or shrub for cover within range of our guns in any direc- 

 tion. 'I he lake was not '• literally black" with ducks, but 

 there were u great many flocks of teal aud mallard upon it, 

 and these were not wild. After making many wild shots out 

 upon the open ground, and driving most of the ducks away, 

 we carried our decoys across the low-head totie lower end of 

 the hike, from which anarrow stream of water flowed through 

 the flat into the river, and cut and dragged down willows 

 upon which the leaves were still green, and made a rude 

 bliud. From this we got some shots, and killed some ducks, 

 being able to retrieve nineteen and losing others that fell 

 Where we could not wade to them on account of bogging* or 

 that were only wounded aud swam out of reach. In addi- 

 tion to this We bagged about twenty snipe and plover, mak- 

 ing what we considered a good job for the work of an hour 

 and a half. We were due at home that afternoon, and re- 

 membering the speed of our vessel the day before, thought 

 best to start in time. 



We reached the launch at 1 o'clock, and after eating a big 

 lunch started a lire under the boiler. From the start the 

 thing wouldn't draw. We nursed the fire, we coaxed it, may 

 be swore at it once in a while, but all to no purpose. The 

 best we could do was to get up a terrific: smoke, the smallest 

 part of which came out the chimney. We took the pow*der 

 from a few cartridges and tried to blow her out, but it 

 wouldn't blow worth a cent. At last we concluded to clean 

 out the flues. How was it to be done ? They were inaccessible 

 from the top, but in the end we fell upon the idea to clean 

 them from the fire-box. Going ashore we got a lot. of long, 

 green twigs, which enabled us to do the work. We had to 

 haul out tho fire, but couldn't spare the time to wait till it 

 cooled off, so the fireman took a pair of wet socks for gloves 

 and began the work. The engine was an upright one, aud 

 the job of crooking the stick Si the fire-box and inserting it. 

 into the flues was tedious and, oh! so dirty. But tt.e first 

 twist inside of the first flue loid the talo of low steam. It. 

 was literally choked up with soot. When he had cleaned 

 about forty flues it was late and he quit and fired up. She 

 drew as if she knew how to do it, and we soon had her under 

 way, homewa' d bound. Night came on before we got, into 

 the Mississippi, and the raw pilot could barely distinguish 

 the outline of the trees on shore. Just before reaching the 

 mouth of Old River we met a Yazoo packet coming up in 

 the narrow and swift part of the river. A heavy fog had 

 come on and the boat looked as big as a mountain. In trying 

 to give her a wide berth the pilot of the Gentle Savage ran 

 his vessel upon abump near shore, while under full headway, 

 and stuck fast. The skill broke her chain, but swung around 

 against the side of the launch, and the engineer caught her 

 The steamboat passed so close to us that her waves came near 

 rolling the little launch over. When she gave her biggest 

 lurch the engineer cried, "By George, she is gone!" and 

 sprang like a leapfrog into the skiff. The pilot stood upon 

 the edge of the launch, hold of a stanchion, also ready to 

 leap. But the little fellow stood the tossing and Boon righted 

 herself. Our lantern, however— the only light we had— had 

 gone overboard and left us in utter darkness. This we 

 remedied, in a measure, by using some pine slicks we had 

 for small torches, aud splitting up our broom handle when 

 these were gone. It was essential that we watch the water 

 in the gauge and keep an eye on the state of the steam. It 

 kept the combined fireman and engineer busy poking his 

 stick in the fire and then running backward and forward to 

 look at these. Svphoning out once more the steam and the 

 current together carried us off the bump into deep water, but 

 just as this was done we heard the chain with which our 

 skiff was fastened to the launch dragging over the side of 

 the vessel, and we knew the skiff had broken loose. The 

 engineer sprang back there, but barely in time to see the dim 

 outline or the skiff before it disappeared in the darkness, 

 hurrying with the current down stream, with all our game, 

 the decoys, the engineer's auxiliary rifle, the ammunition aud 

 sundry other valuable articles. There was no use hunting 

 for the skiff. It could not have been seen ten feet away, so 

 wo put the g wernment light on the point behind us and 

 struck out for what the pilot thought was Vicksburg. Get- 

 ting down there after a while and vainly trying to find our 

 landing, we at last discovered we Wfre only down to the 

 Town of Delta, in Louisiana, and still three miles from 

 home. Wo got at home at last, but in trying to run up to 

 the fish dock, where the Gentle Savage rested when not in 

 use, we grounded, tght aud fast, on a miserable bar, and 

 had to yell to the fisherman to bring his skiff and take us off. 

 The next morning a tug pulled our launch ofT the bar. And 

 we found that during the night our skiff had drifted down 

 the river aud blown into the harbor alongside a steamboat, 

 whoso watchman had taken care of everything, and such 

 good care of the game we never saw anything of it. But, as 



he claimed no salvage, we were glad to call it even. Since 

 then we have never failed to securely fasten our skiff and to 

 see that the flues of the launch were clean. On a subsequent 

 trip we made the run from the tow head to Vicksburg iu an 

 hour and a quarter. Burr H. Polk 



Yich,burg, Miss, 



Natural W^ or U 



DOMESTICATED QUAIL. 



rTrTtLi, N. J., April 20, 1881. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



I believe that I am the only person in the United States 

 thai. has succeeded iu domesticating the quail; the only one 

 who has raised these birds in close confinement. There is a 

 wide difference between a wild bird finding its own food, 

 and its being fed in close confinement by a person who is' 

 caring for it My quail get nothing but what I give them. 

 When the birds began to nest, last "spring, I went into their 

 case and made their nest. The birds were about as tame as 

 chickens would be. The four females laid a little over two 

 hundred eggs. 



The attempts to domesticate qua'l remind me 3omewbat of 

 the efforts of a person 1o invent a piece of machinjry; after 

 the first machine is ma ie it. is easy to make another. But it 

 has been hard work to domeslh ate quail. 



In the month of December. 1S~G, I shot a female quail, 

 breaking its wing ; and capturing it, brought it home. In the 

 spring of 1879 I procured a male bird from Morris County 

 and mated the two. After the female had laid twelve eggs 

 she commenced to sit, and ten days later died on the nest. 

 The male bird had sat wilh her on the nest for a part of the 

 time, and after her death he remained oil the nest, and August 

 19 brought, off six young. These birds he cared for from 

 that time until they were fully grown, as carefully and atten- 

 tively and wilh as much affection as the female could have 

 done had she lived. Of the six quails hatched at this time 

 two were males and four females 



I have raised quail as far as the third generation, and be- 

 lieve that if I resided in the country I could breed them as 

 easily as turkevs, but as 1 live in town, I have but little room 

 for them, only about twenty -four feet square, aud conse- 

 quently labor under great disadvantages. 



Anv one who attempts to domesticate quail will find it up- 

 hill work, for a while at least, but with patience and persever- 

 ance I believe that it can be done. A number of my friends 

 have tried their hands at this, but their birds have all died. 

 I think that in lime the domesticated quail would change 

 their color as some of mine have c anineuced to show white 

 feathers in their wings. 



I have had bad luck with my quail this winter, all but two 

 having been frozen to death during the extreme cold weather. 

 The two that 1 now have I saved by keeping them in the 

 house. 



I think the importance of domesticating quail is not suffi- 

 ciently appreciated, but, if the game continues to grow 

 scarce, every one must recognize the necessity of some such 

 step. I should be glad to show my birds to any one who 

 cares to see them. Henry Benbeooic. 



Accompanying the above letter was a photograph of four 

 of the quail raised by Mr. Benbrook in confinement. 



A New House.— A pamphlet recently published by the St. 

 Petersburg Geographical Society contains an account of a 

 new species of Equus described by M. Poliakoff. The speci- 

 men from which the description was laken, was killed by 

 hunters near the post of Zaisan iu Central Asia, and its skull 

 and skin sent to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. 

 The describer of Equux Pijevahki compares it with the mod- 

 ern horse, and illustrates his memoir with drawings of the 

 new species, and of its anatomy. 



An Abtropitston From the NoRtHW^Bt Coast— New 

 Westminster, British Columbia, March 4,. 1881.— Editor 

 Forest and Stre m: A fisherman of my acquaintance, by 

 name Thomas Kinkade, while fishing for dogfish in Howe 

 Sound, caught two strange marine animals, which, so far as 

 1 can ascertain, are new, at least in H is patt of the world; 

 and 1 am unable to find any mention or desoripiou of them 

 in any work to which 1 have access here; and, therefore, 

 send on to you by to-day's mail for the purpose of having 

 them identified, if they should be known to scientists please 

 let me know their name aud give a short description of them, 

 or mention where a description of them may be obtained ; if 

 unknown species, 1 will then take pleasure in furnishing all 

 information possible to be obtained concerning them, which, 

 of course, would only be of any value in the latter case. 

 Howe Sound, I may sta'e, is an arm or outlet of the Straits 

 of Georgia, which said straits are the waters lying between 

 Vancouver Islaud and the mainland of British Columbia.— 

 Mowricu. 



Your specimen is an AstropJiyton, a marine animal be- 

 longing to the ttadiata, the group which contains the Echin- 

 odennata, the Jelly fishes aud the Polyps. AstropJiyton, b8- 

 longs in the class Mchinodsrmata, with the Holothurians, or 

 Sea Cucumbers, the Echinoids, or Sea Urchins, the Asteri- 

 oids, or Star fishes, and the Crinoids, or Sea Lilies. Al- 

 though regarded as belonging to the order Ophiuridw. the 

 Astropliyton bears considerable superficial resemblance to 

 some of the free crinoids. 



Tub Beginnings of a Frsn.— Flowing down from the 

 southwest slope of Mount Rainier is a cold, clear river, fed 

 by the melting snows of the mountain. Madly it hastens 

 down over white cascades and beds of shi dug sands, through 

 birch-wbods and belts of dark fits to mingle its waters at 

 last with those of the great Columbia 



This river is the Cowlitz, and on its bottom, not many 

 years ago, there lay half-buied in the sand a number of 

 little orange-colored globules, each about as large, as a pea. 

 These were not much in themselves, but, like the philoso- 

 pher's nomads, each one had in it the promise and potency 

 of an active life Iu the water above them little suckers 

 and chubs and prickly sculpins were straiuing their mouths 

 to draw these globules from the sand, and vicious-looking 

 crawfishes picked them up with their blundering hands and 

 examined them with their telescopic eyes. But one, at least, 

 of the globules escaped their scientific curiosity, else this 

 story would not be worth telling. 



The sun shone down on it through the clear water, and the 

 ripples of the Cowlits said over it their incantations, and in 

 it at last awoke a living being. It was a fish, a curious little 

 fellow, only half an inch long, with great, starirg eyes which 

 made almost half his length, and a body so transparent 

 that he could not cast a shadow. Ho was a little sa [ mon, a 

 very little salmon, but the water was good, and there were 

 flies and worms aud little living creatures in abundance for 

 him to eat, and he soon became a larger salmon. And there 

 were many more little salmon wilh him, some larger and 

 some smaller, and they all had a merry time. Those who 

 had been born soonest and had grown largest used to chase 

 the others around and bite off their tails, or, still better, take 

 them by the heads and swallow them whole, for, said they, 

 "Even young salmon are good eating." "Heads I win, 

 tails you lose" was their motto. Thus, what was once two 

 small salmon became united into one larger one, and the 

 process of " addition, division and silence" still went on. 



By and by, when all the salmon were too small to swallow 

 the others, and too large to be swallowed, they began to grow 

 restless and to sigh for a change. They saw that the water 

 rushing by seemed to be in a great hurry to get somewhere, 

 aud one of them suggested that its hurry was caused by 

 something good to eat at the other end of its course — Peof. 

 David S. Jordan in. Popular Scltiwe Monthly, 



Peooeedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 

 Part III. of the proceeding for 1880 (October to December), 

 contains a number of very interesting biological papers. 

 Among these are two papers by Dr. Harris on Allen, one on 

 The Phalanges of Bats, the other On tho Temporal and 

 Masseter Muscles; botanical notes by Mr. Thomas Meehan 

 on Sexual Variation iu Plants, ou Rain Trees and on Dice- 

 cism in Androimda CaUxbm, Mr. Edward Potts contributes 

 a nolo On Fresh-water Sponges. Rev. H. C. Mc.Cook ha.H 

 two very interesting notes on Ants, aud Mr. Angelo Heilprin 

 describes some New Lower Eocene Mollusca from Clark 

 County, Alabama, and gives some information as to the 

 stratigVuphical position of he beds containing them. Mr. 1. 

 C. Martindale's paper on Sexual Variations iu Cagtanea Amer- 

 ican- 1 is concluded from Part II. of the Proceedings. 



The reports of the officers of the academy for the year end- 

 ing November 80, 1880, indicate that this, one of the fore- 

 most our American scientific associations, is in a flourishing 

 condition. 



Copies of the proceedings of the academy can he furnished 

 to those desiring to obtain them at $2.25 per volume. 



Tame Squirrels — Cortland, N.Y.— As many articles have 

 been written of late for the Forest and £tream as to the 

 mode of hunting, habits, the variety of color, etc., of squir- 

 rels. I would like to bring to notice two white squirrels, 

 albinoes of the black or gray, that 1 have owned at different 

 times; 



It would seem they were both of ore li'ter, a9 also were 

 two others ihat were shot, taken to a taxidermist, preserved 

 and mounted. The four were all caught or shot in the same 

 vicinity. The first one t :keu alive was caught in a box trap, 

 I be second one by being run down in the snow, and I ecuid 

 not ascertain that any other B bad ever been sighted before or 

 siuce that time, sol infer they all came from iho same nest. 

 Oiek, the first one 1 owned, was perfectly tame when ho 

 came into my possession. 1 bai, at ih*t time, a hl-.ck and 

 mn puppy that became so friendly with Dick that I would at 

 any time allow them to play a spell together, without tear of 

 barm to the squirrel. He would come at my bidding from 

 the trcesi where I often permitted him to go. of course hi ep- 

 imi walch that he did not get out of hearing of my voice. 

 After losing Dick I heard of the second one being caught, 

 which I so m bargained for. When 1 brought him home he 

 mvi onl, been ea^ed a few days and W&S very wild. I hud 

 great difficulty in making friends Wilh him, but finally bad 

 the satisfaction of swing him so he would leave his cage, i un 

 up my arm, and sit. upon my shoulder. But he would always, 

 if I went too far with his squirrelthip, give that warning 

 chipper that I knew meant mischief. Fred was finally sold 

 to Mr. Geo. Chidsey, of Eimira, to mate one that be bad. 

 They were bargained for, and were to be sent to a gentleman 

 in Kngland. for q lite a sum of money. Unluckily, Fred v,as 

 found dead in his cage a few days before the date for shipping. 



Mig. 



Young Bubo Virginianus — Eimira, N. 7., April 29. — 

 While trout fishing two weeks ago I came across a young 

 owl on the ground directly under a tree iu which was the 

 nest. The young bird is covered wilh down, and is about 

 the size of a common foot-ball. That is, the lea hers aud 

 down make it look nearly round. I am feeding it on raw 

 meat. Can you inform me if that is a suitable food for so 

 young a bird, and also how often to feed ; am pretty sure 

 this is a horned owl as the feathers commence to grow out 

 on the side of the head and look like horns.— A. H. W. 



Feed meat three times a day, but do not give it too much. 



Intestinal Parasites in a Woodpecker— Boston, April 

 29.— A day or two since when stuffing a woodpecker (yellow 

 hammer or flicker) while examining The inside of the body I 

 came upon two worms— one about four and one-four b inches 

 and the olher a trifle over two inches. The larger of the two 

 was enlirely white wilh the exception of a dark streak through 

 part of the body which I took to be the food of its intestines 

 CO, the other white and apparently mottled by grayish black 

 spots or rings. Never have seen anything of the kind be- 

 fore. Do you think they might be tape worms, or do birds 

 have that sort of parasite ? The bird had been shot about 

 twenty-four hours, but could not see any trace of life in either 

 of the worms. They were found in the belly of the bird and 

 close to the back— not. in the intestines. Would you kindly 

 answer what you think, if not too much trouble ?— H. J. T. 



The intestinal parasites which you found were not tape 

 worms if they were not in the intestines. If yon Btill have 

 the specimens better send them to Dr. A. S. Packard, of 

 Brown University, Providence, R. L, the authority on such 

 matters in this country. 



Cat Nursing Squirrels— Oskaloosa, Iowa, April 18.— At 

 Auburn Post Office in this. Mahaska, County Mr. Stephen 

 Foster has a common house cat of the female persuasion, 

 that has a litter of kit ens. There is nothing remarkable 

 about that, of course, but there has been an addition to this 

 family that is rather strange to me. Mr. Foster's boys re- 

 cently caught some young squirrels, and took them to the 

 house and placed them on the floor near where the old cat 

 kept her family. No sooner was this done than old tabby 

 claimed them as her own. She carried each one into her 



