Mat 12, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



285 



holder, who o (serves an unwonted commotion in the branches 

 of his favorite Fearmain, what time apples be cuddy and 

 small boys do most abound. But when I spied the marauder, 

 I was as much astonished, as would be the aforesaid house- 

 holder should he discover his trusted Maltese Cat in the act 

 of plucking and devouring his cherished fruit. Ou account 

 slant of the hill-side, the upper branches of the 

 iiii-i. Injng - - aa to touch the ground, aud there, perched 

 enicnl stone, Bat a little mountain-weasel cram- 

 ming his maw with the delicious berries. The small rascal 

 had donned his winter suit of snowy ermine, in contrast to 

 which the black tip of ids tail shone blacker than ever. In 

 eating he held I ha berry upon the rock, between his fore-paws, 

 and nibbled at it aa daintily aa Miss Whyte.-Kyddes would 

 With Id in cleanliness" was one of 

 Bbi cardi lie sinned against etiquette by care- 



fully making his toilette after evcry"course, washing first his 

 hands and, i hen his face, next combing his hair, and lastly 

 brushing th i bs on bis fur suit, of which he was very 

 proud, "From the care taken to keep it. from being soiled, 1 

 Judge it was the first one he had ever owned, and that, being 

 too poor to afford another one till next winter, he felt that it 

 behooved him to keep it as immaculate as possible. 



Having eaten five or six berries, he happened to turn his 

 head, and caught me in the impoliteness of spying upon him. 

 Paralyzed for a moment at my lack of breeding, he soon re- 

 covered, resolved himself into a flash of white light, and, in 

 the felicitous phrase of a Western editor, "betook himself to 

 the solitude of his own privacy." His departure was so sudden 

 1 li.it nothing shdrl of the Yankee comparison of " quicker 'n 

 a streak o' greased lightning" would describe it. Telling Ig- 

 notus about it afterward, he said they had been known to run 

 so fasti When badly scared, bb to set their fur on Are : at least, 

 so he had heard; but, as he didn't seem to more than 

 half believe the story, J, too, felt justified in receiving it with 

 a modicum of doubt. 



After we had gone to bed, we found we were not the only 

 i I mtaot the cabin. A large family of mountain rats 

 had taken possession, and the blowing out of the candle, was 

 the signal for the commencement of a nocturnal "jamboree." 

 (By the right of pre-emption that word belongs to Ignotus ; 

 but I am forced to "jump his claim," as no other expression 

 will describe the performance.) We had put our bread in a 

 tin pan, turned another one over that, set the heavy iron 

 cover of the. hake-oven on top of all, and fondly imagined 

 our improvised safe was burglar proof ; but the tumbling of 

 the lid to the ground and the rattling fall of the covering tin 

 pan soon showed us our mistake. 



With a muttered anathema, Ignotus, who slept in the lower 

 buuk, arose aud replaced tlicm. Another tumble aud rattle, 

 another starry of the retreating enemy up the cabin walls, 

 another midnight procession over the cold dirt floor, and Ig- 

 notus again sought hia blankets. After two more repetitions 

 his patience was exhausted, and I heard him in the darkness 

 engaged in some mysterious performance, after which he 

 agaiu lay down. We had just dozed off, when there came a 

 mighty clatter of tinware, and Ignotus, jumping up and 

 lighting a caudle, showed us hia ratship' caught in an in- 

 : u i oi ■ ap. Tomatoes had formed part of our supper, and 

 the can which held them had been opened by two cuts in the 

 top in the shape of a Greek cross, leaving four projectiug 

 points of tin These Iguotus had bent down inside the can, 

 and at the bottom had put a little butter, of which these rats 

 are very fond. When, the thief had secured the tempting 

 booty, and attempted to withdraw his head, the sharp points 

 hud caught him under the jaws, and he was a prisoner. 

 Having " caught our hare," Ignotus proceeded to "cook" 

 him with a billet of wood, and we again lay dowu. Whether 

 he oris cbii;f commissary, or whether his terrible fate de- 

 terred the rest, is uncertain, but we were not annoytd any 

 more during the night. 



Intuml gfatorg. 



THE GATEWAY TO THE PLAINS. 



Detboit, Minn , Feb. 14, 1881. 



ALTHOUGH the world is predicted to close its career 

 during Iheyear, and become, as it were, an incident of 

 the past, we beg leave once more to call the attention of your 

 readers to this laud away to the North, where but a short 

 time ago nobody but the red-man roamed over the vast 

 prairies between here and the Rocky Mountaina, and the an- 

 telope and elk bounded over hill aud knoll as free as the 

 wind that swept its unbroken face, while the buffalo grazed 

 in vast herds where now their white and bleached bones 

 checker the wheat-fields of the sturdy farmer, grim emblems 

 of the. past. To a person who has never been in the West 

 and scon these vast stretches of land, without even a shrub or 

 tree to mar then surface for hundreds upon hundreds of 

 miles, the realization of their magnitude can be but feebly 

 portrayed in the mind. 



Detroit is, in one sense of the word, the gateway to these 

 vast plains ou the. line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, for 

 to the east of it. extend those mighty forests which cover the 

 northern parts of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, while 

 to the west die prairie begins and continues in an unbroken 

 stretch to the Rocky Mountains. The prairie is rolling with 

 alternate highlands and marshes, in which the wild fowl con- 

 gregate thickly in the spring and fall, until it reaches the Red 

 River, a. level, unbroken field with scarcely any lowlands or 

 marshes. A faint idea of the nature of these prairies can be 

 obtained when the method of plowing pursued on some of the 

 great farms there is mentioned. The plowman in his day's 

 work takes a straight course and keeps his single furrow until 

 noon, when he turns around and occupies the remainder of 

 the day on the return trip, thus making but two furrows in a 

 Whole day. This may sound a little "fishy " to some East- 

 ern people, but it is a fact, nevertheless, well known out here. 

 . Duck, goose and chicken shooting occupied the attention 

 of our sportsmen here during the fall months, and rich har- 

 vests were reaped by them. Then came winter and with it 

 the sport of deer shooting, and many a proud old buck stained 

 the white mantle of mother earth the morning after the first 

 snow with his life-blood. The deer were never known to 

 have been as thick in this county as they were this season, 

 and thousands of them were killed about here alone. The 

 extreme cold soon put a stop to the exciting sport of deer 

 shooting, and as an occasional warm day presented itself our 

 sportsmen started out and had a rabbit hunt or tried their 

 luck at angling through holes in the ice. Some of them have 

 pretty good luck aud obtain fine strings not uncomfortable to 

 carry in a few hours. Hiawatha. 



Tub attehtioh of tourists is called to the advertisements 

 of Chas. J. Greenough, Saranac Lake, ' New York, and of 

 Kennedy Smith, Eustis, Maine, 



WALLACE'S ISLAND LIFE.* 



FEW works on science have attracted more general 

 attention and admiration than those of Mr. Wallace, 

 and few have met with more general appreciation aud accep- 

 tance among naturalists. Well known in the scientific 

 world as having independently worked out the law of Na- 

 tural Selection, which ho announced at the same time with 

 Darwin, and the author of numerous works of imporlauce, 

 he stands in the. very front ranks of England's scientific 

 men. 



His Geographical Distribution of Animals, published iu 

 1870 by the-Harperaj is justly regarded its one of his greatest 

 works, and lo that the present volume i=, iu some sort, a 

 supplement and completion. 



id flora of islands, as distinguished 

 arked by many and serious dilli- 

 iaseS the knowledge that we requite can 

 ,ving to the settlement of the country 

 estruction of the forests and iut.roduc- 

 of plants aud animals, which must soon 

 if indigenous forms of life. A true and 

 ol plants and animals is required for the 

 this study, aud though this is now De- 

 late in many instances for us to benefit 

 of evolution, or to use a term as expres- 



The, study of the fauna : 

 from continental life, is I 



never be obtained, owing 

 and the consequent destru 

 turn of exotic species of p! 

 cause the extinction of ine 

 natural classification of olt 

 iuteUigeut pursuit of this 

 iug reached, it is 

 by it. The doctr 



aive and more generally understood, " descent with r 

 cation," is the key to the problems which wc have to work 

 out, and it is only since 183!) that thia doctrine has been set 

 before us in its full clearness, aud has received general accep- 

 tance. So long as the various forms of life could be ac- 

 counted for on the theory of a special creation for each one, 

 there was manifestly no further explanation required of tho 

 phenomena of the distribution of plants and auimals. If 

 each form of life was created and placed in its special habitat, 

 everything was said, we could not go back of that. 



The conditions which serve to influence the distribution of 

 life are many and various, and the facts requiring elucida- 

 tion so intricate, that, until the present time, the problems 

 presented to us have never been satisfactorily explained. The 

 traveler iu Northern Japan will rind there birds which he has 

 been accustomed to see in Great Britain, some species being 

 the same, others closely similar, though he is separated from 

 that island by the whole breadth of a great continent. But 

 let one who is familiar with the fauna of Australia proceed 

 to New Zealand, only thirteen hundred miles distant, and he 

 will find almost ever)' form of life, whether animal or vege- 

 table, wholly unlike "what he has been accustomed to in the 

 neighboring continent. Iu the Malay Archipelago is a still 

 more striking instance. The islands Of Bali and Lorubok, 

 each about as large as Corsica, are separated by a strait only 

 1!fV'o:i lvu'.'js a'-ross, yet these two islands differ more widely 

 in their bints and quadrupeds than do England and Japan, 

 t we have a similar case. The flora and 

 item Stales, as one passes southward from 

 England, changes somewhat, becoming more 

 ih the Gulf, but not altering its es- 



lira Rent! wirri *>A-t rtm-iit-w nf T<M.-ii*!rlo 



i E( 



On this ( 

 fauna of 



Northern New Eng 

 luxuriant 



sential character, e\ 

 But just across lit 

 sula from the Bi 

 with it a bird and insert. 

 Cuba. Paleontology gi 

 out the genetic connect! 



t the Southern extremity of Florida. 

 .to- Strait which divides that penin- 

 , is a vegetation truly tropical, and 

 , fauna almost identical with that of 

 ives us much assistance in working 

 of the various forms of life now 



existing upon the earth. Iu some cases, the ancestors of 

 living forms have been traced back through their various 

 i M ■■:■ and modifications to the beginning of Tertiary time, 

 while, too, many evidences of the migrations of certain 

 groups are furnished by their fossil remains, aud the proofs 

 of such migrations shed a flood of light on the present dis- 

 tribution of many existing animals. The knowledge derived 

 from stratigraphlcal geology is also very important, for from 

 it we learn what portions of the earth have been long sub- 

 merged beneath the surface of the ocean, and thus what por- 

 tions have long been isolated and allowed the time for the 

 development of a special flora and fauna of their own. 



Other and even more important classes of evidence are the 

 great changes of climate which hive taken place both in the 

 polar and temperate zones — which are shown by the evi- 

 dences of a luxuriant vegetation in the former, aud of glacial 

 action in the latter- -and the theory of the permanence of ex- 

 isting oceans and continents. It is now generally believed 

 that mild climates near the poles aud periods of intense cold 

 in temperate regions have several times in the course of the 

 world's history alternated with climatic conditions not 

 markedly different from those now existing, aud the influ- 

 ences of "such changes upon life as regards the migration, the 

 modification and the extinction of species can scarcely be 

 over estimated. The theory of the substantial permanence of 

 continental and oceanic areas is a new one, aud is as yet very 

 imperfectly understood. It is, however, thoroughly believed 

 in by Mr. "Wallace, and there seems to bo good evidence in 

 support of it. 



After presenting us with a vast amount of _ information on 

 the distribution of different forms of life on islandB and con- 

 tinent. Mr. Wallace summarizes the facts which he has 

 brought together, and in the concluding chapter of his work 

 gives the results of his study of the most difficult subject. 

 Ho says, in brief, 



of the various species aud groups of living 

 s surface, and their aggregation in definite 

 a i s ii -. are the direct result and outcome of 

 i, which may he grouped an ''biological" and 

 .igical causes are mainly ot two kinds — first- 

 acy of all organisms to increase in numbers 

 d thoir various powers of dispursii 



that the distrihut: 

 things over the at 

 assemblages in cert 

 a complex set of ca 

 '■physical." The 

 ly, the constant te 

 and to occupy a wji 



and migrations through which, when unchecked, they arc enabled 

 to spread widely over the globe ; and, secondly, those laws of evo- 

 lution and extinction which determine the manner in which groups 

 of organisms arise and grow, reach their maximum, and then 

 dwindle away often breaking up into separate portions which 

 long survive' iu very remote regions. The physical causes are 

 also mainly ot two' kinds. Wo have, first, the geographical 

 changes widen at one time isolate a whole fauna and flora, at 

 another time lead to then- dispersal and intermixture with 

 other faunas and floras— and it was hero important to ascertain 

 and define the exact nature aud extent of these changes, and to 

 determine t Le iiuebtion of the general stability or instability of 

 continents and oceans ; in the second place it waH neoessary to de- 

 termine the exact nature, extent and frequency ot the changes of 

 of climate which have occurred in various parts of the earth, be- 

 cause such changes are among tho most powerful agents in oaua- 



■ » island Life, or the Phenomena and Causes ot Insular Faunas aud 



Flora-.; tne imliuu' a Tievis.iein anil a r l.eujiireil Solution 01 [lie Problem 

 ot QetJlOglcal Climates,' 1 by Alfred Russel Wallace. New York: 

 Harper & Brothers, 1381, 



hug the dispersal and extinction of plants aud animals. Hence tin* 

 importance attached to tho question ot geological climates and 

 their causes which have beon here investigated at some length with 

 the aid of the most recent researches of geologists, physicists and 

 explorers. These various inquiries lead us on to an investigation 

 of stratified deposits with a view tu fix within some limits their 

 probable age ; and also to an estimate of the probable rate of de- 

 velopment of the organic world ; and both these processes aro 

 ahown to involve, in all probability, periods of time much loss vast 

 than have generally bean thought necessary. 



Having doue so'niuch iu the First Part of his work, Mr. 

 Wallace then proceeds to apply the facts and theories already 

 established to the explanation of the phenomena exhibited by 

 the fauuas and floras of the principal islands of the globe, 

 which he classifies in three groups in accordance with their 

 physical origin, each of which exhibits certain well-marked 

 biological features. 



Of all the conclusions which the author draws, perhaps the 

 most important is that with regard to the age of the earth 

 which we inhabit, or more properly, that which treats of 

 geological time as bearing on the development of life, and 

 with an abstract of his remarks on thia subject we must close 

 our review of this most interesting work. The periods of 

 time usually demanded by the geologist, for the development 

 of the organic world have been very great, but we find in the 

 earliest fossiliferous rocks evidences of the existence of many 

 forms which require vast periods of time for their develop- 

 ment. The physicist, however, denies that any such enor- 

 mous periods of time are available. The sun is losing heat 

 more rapidly than it could acquire it from any conceivable 

 source, aud the earth is cooling and must once have been too 

 hot lo admit of the existence of life upon its surface; the 

 friction of the tides is constantly checking its rotation, and 

 this cannot have gone on indefinitely without making our 

 day much longer than it is. By menus of various estimates, 

 which need not here be gone into, it is shown that the rate of 

 modification iu the organic world, in remote geological time, 

 was probably much greater than it now is, and that at the 

 present epoch the earth is iu a "phase of exceptional stability 

 both physical and organic, aud it is from this period of excep- 

 tional stability that our notions of the very slow rate of 

 change have been derived." 



Mr. Wallace's work is replete with-new facts, and gives us 

 the views of the most advanced thinkers of Europe. It is of 

 the utmost value to science. Besides this it comprises a fund 

 of interesting information ou natural history that will recom- 

 mend it to a very large class of readers who have no special 

 scientific knowledge. 



MIGRATORY BIRDS AT QUEBEC. 



WHILE New York and adjacent States lay buried 

 under a deep coating of snow, swept by Boreas in 

 no gentle humor, we, of the province of Quebec, have stood 

 bo-uche Beant, at the bare idea that for once the old tyrant, 

 in a moment of hilarity, should have vaulted over us to 

 wreak his malignity beyond the line 45 deg. We record an 

 exceptionally mild winter, followed by a precocious spring. 

 Isothermal freak notwithstanding, migratory birds do not 

 appear to have been much influenced by this abnormal stale 

 of weather. The following extracts from my note-book show 

 no very marked deviation from their ordinary time of arrival 

 here the last five years: — 



March. 

 3. Pine Grosbeak, returning North. Mr. J. M. Lemoine 

 informed me that he noticed a few up to 15th inst. Suow 

 Bunting at Lyster. 



6. Bald Eagle at Cape Sante. 



8. Shore-Lark. Never abundant. 



15. Crows 15 days late. Building, April 28d. 



16. Canada Geese. Flying N. E. 



April. 

 1. Wilson's snow bird, or "Nun" (Junco Ivyemalis we 

 presume). Eight to ten days late. 



11. Song-Sparrow (liossignol). Five clays early. Herring 

 Gulls. 



14. Robins. Five days late ; very abundant 30th. Rough- 

 Legged Buzzard on one occasion noticed February 28th. I 

 have never seen tho Var. mneU-johamm. Wood-cock (see 

 Quebec Morning Chronicle), rather early. 



22. Snow-Geese. Rare; irregular. Shrike (C. barealis), 

 ordinary time. 



23. Black Duck, flushed in pasture field ponds. Swallows 

 (city) reported by H. C. A. early. 



23. Free Sparrow (S. monticola), irregular. 



24. Savannah Sparrow, not common. 



25. Wilson's Snipe (Za Beeasnne), ordinary time. 



2(5. Hermit Thrush. A warbler not identified. Wood- 

 cock—flushed C 'rescent Cove— late. Buftie head (B. albeola). 



2T. Purple Finch, occasionally noticed the year round. 

 Blackbirds, ordinary time. Bluebird, first observed to breed 

 here last season. Golden-wing Wood Pecker, ordinary time. 

 White-throated Sparrow, ordinary time. South-southerly, of 

 Cape Rouge. Mallard, very rare in this section. 



28. Grass Finch, usual time. 



29. Fish Hawk {P. Carnlinensis) shot ou day previous at 

 Grouc'ines by a gunner, who offered it for sale onboard 

 steamer BEtoile. 



30. House Wren, rare iu this locality. Yellow Rump 

 Warbler, in scattered bands. The first Butterfly of the sea- 

 sou was observed to flutter about merrily on the 9th. Frogs 

 held a weak rehearsal on the 23d (.now treat us to a full 

 choral). A Ribbon Snake was noticed quite lively on the 

 25th, and these busy bodies, the bumble bees, put in a first 

 appearance on the 30th. 



Gardening iu sheltered localities commenced on the 13th. 

 Potato planting (Roberts & Copeman), on a large scale, be- 

 gau on the 23d. Since then, farming operation progressing 

 without interruption. J. N. 



BormiM, Onp Range Ruatl, St. Foye 

 (near Quebec), ApiilSOtfl, 1881. 



Curious Habit of a Woodpecker. — The following uote is 

 taken from the Now York Sun, and calls attention to a habit 

 that we have never noticed in a woodpecker. It is true that 

 one often sees the common and widely distributed red headed 

 woodpecker rattle ou the dry shingles of a barn, or against a 

 loose board on the side of a house, where his ouly object, so 

 far as could be divined, was to make a noise, but we have 

 never known of this being done regularly as appears to have 

 been the case in the instance noticed below. 



We presume that the species referred to is the California 

 woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorems. The note is as fol- 



