Junk 2, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



347 



LEAVES FBOM THE NOTE BOOK OF A SCHOOL 

 GIBL. 



May 18. The fly-catchers seem to be made of springs. 

 Their motions are the most angular of any of the feathered 

 tribe. They al ways cliooso some conspicuous place on which 

 to alight, as the top of a tree, a fence post or a dead limb 

 The iTote of the least fly-catcher or ■' ehebee" is as when one 

 snaps a string— a quick jerk of the head and the " ehebee " 

 comes like the click of the. spring. 



Tlie chimney-swallows have homes rather difficult to reach, 

 though it may not 8. em so. When they wish to descend the 

 chimney, they circle round and round till they think they 

 are directly oyer the opening, then, lifting their wings till 

 these are nearly vertical, flutter down. They sometimes miss 

 the, mark, and dart off to try again. 



The summer yellow-bird catches insec's with more grace 

 than the fly-catchers._ Every motion of the yellow-bird" is a 

 curve. It takes its time, yet it is always sure of the mark. 



May 14 Saw a robin liy some distance to catch an insect 

 in the air. 



May 16. The wren is a perfect model among birds of the 

 passionate lover. He is in perfect ecstashs over his mate. 

 11 is song is short because he is so eager that he kuows not 

 •what to say, and the notes nearly trip one another up, they 

 come so fast. While he is singing his wings quiver with ex- 

 citement 



May 17. In flight the bobolinks hold their wings down, 

 not horizontal or up as with most other birds. They sing 

 most commonly during flight, and bring their song to a close 

 just as they reach the ground. If they light on a post or a 

 tree 'he song is continued 



The crows do not seem to be very much afraid of the poles 

 and strings put around a corn-field. Two were sitting on a. 

 tree near a field, deliberating. ''Caw, caw, caw, caw," says 

 one. "Caw, caw, caw," replies the other. Then they 

 slowly flap over and settle down in the midst of the poles 

 and strings. Warning !— Farmers, always put si ring around 

 your corn-fields. It is a first-rate thing for fly-catchers to 

 alight on. 



May 19. Saw a chestnut-sided warbler in our apple-tree. 

 It caught insects like a fly-catcher. 



The nut-hach seems a very humorous little body. He 

 runs around the trunk, his head ofiener down than up, and 

 squints under the bark with a most quizzical expression. 

 There almost seems to be a twiukle in his eye as he pulls out 

 t ae unlucky bug. 



May 22. The woodpecker never runs down a tree-trunk. 

 When he wishes to be lower down he flies or drops down. 

 Authority— Prof. Scott, of Westneld. The nut-hatch goes 

 oftener down than up. 



Very many birds accompany their short notes, especially 

 those of excitement by some motion of the body. The robin 

 jerks out his chirp of excitement with his tail. It seems as 

 if the chattering of the swallows was marie by the wings, as 

 the swift fluttering of the wings always comes with the twit- 

 ering. 



May 13. The cuckoo is a shy bi-d, keeping i'self hidden in 

 the foliage, turning its head from side to side on the look-out 

 for d inger. 



Above the trees a crow is seen pursuing its heavy flight, 

 with laborious flapping wings. On a sudden the enemy, in 

 the form of a king-bird, or perhaps two of them, is upon 

 him They dart down upon him with all their force, fly up 

 in a short circuit, poise themselves and come down again, 

 their swift movements contrasting with the crow's steady 

 flapping Perhaps th' <row is frightened, but his motions 

 do not show it, though he does seem to be getting out of the 

 way as fast as is consistent with the dignity of his character. 

 When his pursuers have chased the enemy from their do- 

 mains, (hey leave him to the tender mercies of the next 

 kit .g-birds who may happen to spy him, and return for more 

 crows, hawks or insects, just which comes handiest. 



Mr. B. was troubled bj a colony of swallows which took 

 possession of his large, okMashioncri chimney, one spring. 

 sending the smoke down and causing great inconvenience. 

 One day, while the birds were all away, he went up and put 

 a wire network across the ocening of the, chimney. About 

 sunset the birds returned. Imagine their feelings when they 

 discover their doors barred against them I They rush wildly 

 back and forth, they dash against the branches of the elmtree 

 in the yard, they dart here and there in their frenzy till long 

 after dark. At last they are obliged, in despair, to seek 

 other homes. Poor swallows '. 



Ha 1 field, Mass., Margaret Miller. 



Battlksnakes Climbing Tubes— New Orleans, May 25,— 

 Editor Foreal and Stream.' In answer to the question, Do 

 rattlesnakes ever climb trees, I will relate what I once saw. 



In the spring of 1869, about Ihe middle of April, 1 was 

 behind the plantation hunting wildcats. The dogs had 

 started one. and were leading him a lively race, and I was 

 sitting on my hurse listening to the musb of the chase, when 

 my attention was drawn to some object up a large water oak 

 that was standing in an opening by itself, and leaning at an 

 angle of about 15 degrees. There was water all around the 

 tree, as there bad been in the morning a heavy rain, but the 

 land being high the water did not remain long after, the 

 rain stopped, but went to the swamp, leaving the land dry. 

 The object that I saw was about thirty feet from the ground, 

 and lying on a limb about ten feet from the trunk of the 

 tree that made out at about right angles, and forked where 

 the object lay. 



1 role up to the tree but could not make out what it was, 

 and having my rifle with me I sent a ball up, when down 

 came one of those large d amond rattlesnakes (Crotalux 

 adamanteus) ahout six feet long. 



On a former occasion I shot one out of the top of a tree 

 that had fallen down, having some large limbs lying about 

 ten feet from the ground. 



Those are the only two that I ever saw on trees, but I 

 have seen thousands on rocks that looked as hard to climb as 

 trees.— T. P. Lovejoy. 



A Wki.l-makked Turtle,— A box tun le was found m a 

 field at Baiting Hollow, Long Island, a few days since with 

 the following marked on is bottom shell:— "B. F. Y,, 1836; 

 B. F. Y., 1841; B. F. Y.. 1851." B. F. Youngs, of Biver- 

 head, marked the turtle first forty-five years ago, and also 

 the second and third times. After marking it for the fourth 

 time " B. F. Y., 1881," he let it go again. 



The above item from the Sun reminds us of a snapper once 

 found by a friend of ours, which was probably the oldest 

 turtle ever found. It was marked, 1 "In the year of our 

 Lord 1." 



BIBDS THAT EAT FISH. 



MB B. BOWLDEB SHABPE, the eminent British 

 ornithologist, recently delivered, under the auspices 

 of theNa'ional Fisheries Exhibition, a most interesting lec- 

 ture on fish-eating birds. A novel and attractive feature of 

 the discourse was the exhibition, by means of an oxy-hyriro- 

 gen, of a number of excellent, paintings of fish-earing birds. 

 Mr. Rharpe's lecture is reported in the Lite Slock Journal, 

 and we give below an epitome of it. 



Mi-. Sharpe said, fish-eating birds were chiefly swimming 

 birds— cormorants, ducks, gulls, etc.; but there were many 

 birds of prey that were distinctly fish-eating birds. The 

 white-tailed eagle was very fond of fish, though it did not 

 catch them for itself. It was renowned for the way in which 

 h followed l )-e osprey or seafishing eagle, and robbed it of 

 itspiey. While the golden eagle was "feathered to its toes, 

 the tarsus of the white-tailed eagle was bare. The majority 

 of birds of prey had a tibia or thigh-bone only just a- little 

 longer than the tarsus, but in the osprey the tibia was twice 

 as long as the tarsus. While some birds had three toes in 

 front and 0! e behind, oihcrs two in front and two behind, the 

 ospr y had an outer or reversible toe, which he hatl 

 the power of turning backwards or forwards, so that in catch- 

 ing hold of a fish his toes were at right angles to each other, 

 which gave him a circular grasp, a great help to him in seizing 

 such slippery prey as fish. But the osprey was now pretty 

 nearly extinct in Englaud. Owls were fish-eating birds. 

 Waterton once saw a barn owl dive into a pond for a fish. 

 In Africa there were some regular fish-eating owls which had 

 the bare tarsus, so that they could wet their feet without fear 

 of catching cold from damp feathers. Coming to the perch- 

 ing birds, there was a certain group which' was separated 

 from them by the osteological structure of the sternum or 

 breastbone; and amongst thes- was the kingfisher. This 

 bird, which would soon make a good meal of the contents 

 of an open trout fray, did not do much damage in the river, 

 where he caught small minnows, etc. People would be 

 sorry to miss the kingfisher from our rivers ; and, luckily, 

 his habits were so shy that he was able to take care of 

 himself. Ladies had much to answer for in the destruction 

 of the kingfisher. When there was a demand for his 

 plumage, for ladies' hats, there was an immense slaughter of 

 these birds on the Thames. Foreign kingfishers, though of 

 the same shape as ours, lived in forests, and not on the banks 

 of rivers, and had only three toes instead of four. The form 

 of the kingfisher was such as to adapt him exactly to catch 

 fish, lie had no long tail to retard his motion when he plunged 

 into the water ; but he had a long bill with which to cleave the 

 water, while his short tail served as a rudder. Then the robin 

 had been seen to eat fish— a bird one would not h'ava expected 

 to take such food. Among the waders, or long-legged birds, 

 tho greatest culprit as a fish-eater was the heron. Though an 

 arrant fish-eater, it was doubtful whether the heron did 

 the damage attributed to him, as he lived principally on 

 eels. He was not, however, averse to frogs and small 

 animals ; and the lecturer told the story of a heron in cap- 

 tivity which seized a rat that had been stealing his fish, held 

 him under water in his bill, and then swallowed him at one 

 gulp. He also mentioned an instance of an eel strausriing a 

 heron, an illustration of which is shown in the exhibition. 

 The bitterns were rare visitors. Like the heron it ate small 

 iish mid frogs; bur, unlike the heron it was solitary, not 

 sociable in its habits. The spoonbill, which ate small fish 

 and aquatic insects, used to be found in Norfolk; and some 

 of the large family of storks, much protected in Germany, 

 were formerly residents in England Cranes did not domuch 

 damage to fish. The knot wasan interesting swimming bird, 

 from the mystery which surrounded its breeding haunts : but 

 it was a credit to English naturalists that they had reduced 

 the number of unknown haunts of European birds during the 

 last few years from six to one. Another bird which Was ma- 

 ligned because it, was said to devour small fish and ova was 

 the moorhen ; but he had never found any evidence of its 

 being a fish-eater. The same might be said of its cousin, the 

 coot. These birds sh ' 

 tame disposition. Mi 



ed i 



miug birds, 

 ducks at the 



the golden e 



absoluteflsh 



ander from the like accusation, 



scarcely anything else but fish, 



<u)d be protected for 1 heir extremely 

 orhens could be tamed so as lo go 

 mimon fowls. Coming to the swim- 

 te said that there was 'no doubt that 

 rivers ate a good number of fish ; but. 

 vas under the accusation of being an 

 Id be difficult to defend the goos- 

 he probably lived on 



AbootLooxs— Pocasset, Mass., May 12.— In your issue of 

 April 28, "B. D. B.," of West Milford, W. Pa., asks for 

 some information about loons. His bird was not very large 

 The last one 'hat I shot is before rue now; it, measures thirty- 

 six and one-halt inches in length and four feet five inches in 

 extent. Weighs nine pounds, and is light for the dimen- 

 sions. Here litis is not called a large one. I am told that, 

 one was killed at Ca'aumet Beach which weighed twenty 

 pounds. " Beach" weight, I guess, with the shooter's amis 

 for balances. I once knew one to weigh by scales sixteen 

 pounds; that was a white one — a female; thev are said to 

 grow to the largest size. 1 have seen them in" Chesapeake 

 Bay. where they are often caught in the fish pounds. 



Both species — lyinbusginrialis — and (.', septentrumalh are 

 found at Buzzards' Bay in abundance. The last is locally 

 known as "Pegging awl," " Peppershin " or " Tuehmuuk." 

 It is much smaller than the former species, and weighs about 

 four pounds. It is spotted like its larger brother on the back. 

 The male has a slate or drabcolored head, with a red spot on 

 the throat, « hence its name— red-tbroated diver. The fe- 

 male is like the larger white loon in colors. 



Loons have been known to breed in Plymouth, Mass. A 

 few years ago Mr. Warren Douglass found a nest on the 

 shore of " Oliver's Neck." He was wading along the shore 

 fishing for pickerel, and saw the loon on her nest. She flut- 

 tered off into the pond at his approach ; there were two 

 white eggs in the nest. Can any one tell if thev lay more 

 than two? "Oliver's Neck" is a point in White Island 

 pond, and is owned by the White Island Club. Some of the 

 members found the nest soon after, and took the eggs, my 

 informant said. I am also told that liny have bred on the 

 island on Half-wav Pond, I have seen loons therein the 

 summer, but could not find any nest. In a former article I 

 spoke of ihe loon as a tough bird— how tough you may judge 

 by the following, which I had verbatim from the shooter. 

 He had been on Hog Island Point and shot at a loon, which, 

 he said, was thirty yards high; the bird fell at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees, struck on a big flat rock and rebounded off 

 into the wafer twenty-five feet, looked about him, then dove 

 and went his way. One would think that a ninety-foot fall 

 —though broken by a rock— might disjoint the framework of 



any bird. "B. D. B.'s'Moon was about the average size ; 

 eight such loons slung on a pole, aud the ends of th 

 the shoulders of a brother shooter and ihe writer, made a 

 heavy load to tote up from the shore. A live loon can pick 

 hard, and a dead one is hard to pick, nevertheless some of 

 the softest beds in these parts have loon's feathers in them. 



The information given by our correspondent relative to 

 the breeding of the loon in Massachusetts is interesting, but 

 are the eggs Of either species of loon mentioned white? Wo 

 think not, 



The Ibex in the Ai.es. — The ibex, it would appear, prom- 

 ises to be agaiu naturalized on the Alps. A herd which was 

 turned out on the Orisons are reported to have survived the 

 Winter without damage and to be making themselves at 

 home in the vicinity of the glaciers. This cannot fall to be 

 a source of gratification to the thousands who make Switzer- 

 land their Autumn play-ground. For some time past the 

 Alps were each year getting barer and barer of life. The 

 chamois had almost disappeared from some of the more ac- 

 cessible parts, and even the marmot could scarcely have long 

 survived the edelweiss, which the Government of the differ- 

 ent Cantons have also put under their protection. The ibex, 

 or, as it is more familiarly called, the Donquetin, is a species 

 of -goat which shares with the chamois the upper reaches of 

 the mountains. But it climbs even higher than that animal, 

 and can rarely be seen fat below the limits of perpetual snow. 

 In Set-mat! Switzerland, where if. is known as the steinbock, 

 the ibex was atone time comparatively eommOU- But, the 

 persecution of tourists and the multiplication of cheap rifles 

 have all but exterminated it on the higher alps, and oF late 

 years it could rarely be seen except on those of Valoia and 

 Piedmont, where, thanks to the enlightened efforts of ihe late 

 King Victor Emmanuel, it was carefully protected.— London 

 Te'egraph. 



A Hist for the Smitusonian. — We are permitted to pub- 

 lish the. following from a letter of a well-known Canadian 

 ornithologist, Mr. John Neilson : "I read with much atten- 

 tion all such notes as appear in the Forest and StpbaJi 

 respecting the migrations of birds. Coming as they do from 

 all Quarters qf (he country, thev afford the student a means 

 to study the migratory habits of our fauna, sdmysteriously 

 erratic in many species. Stations of observation should be 

 established at all points where the service of competent, per- 

 sons could be obtained, such persons to send in monthly and 

 semi-annual reports to a centre, some one of your large insti- 

 tutes. The material thus collected and properly collated 

 would present matter possessing very high ornithological 

 value. The migratory course of each species could be" ac- 

 curately determined, and other information of paramount 

 importance secured tending to perfect our knowledge in this 

 most interesting science." 



A Florida Gallintjie— Hornellsville, N. Y., May 23 .— 

 1 shot a bird here yesterday and want to know what it is, 

 that is if you can tell from my poor description. General 

 appearance like an over-grown rail; length 13 inches from 

 end of bill to eud of tail ; bill about 1 inch long, the end of 

 bill cream color, the base bright red ; wings and back black; 

 neck and breast blue-black;" under taif coverts white; sonic 

 white or gray on belly; legs about 5 inches long, three long 

 toes and a short one; eok.'r of legs pea-grten, and some bright 

 red on thigh just below the feathers. 



Nothing like it ever seen here before by the oldest inhabi- 

 tant. I should like to know what it is, f.nd in what position 

 to mount it.— J. Otis Fellows. 



Your bird is a Florida gallinule (GalUnula galenta), a near 

 ally of the rails and coots. It should be mounted in the 

 position of a rail, as in habits it closely resembles those 

 birds. 



Insectivorous Plants.— The generally accepted belh-f 

 that the insectivorous plants are nourished by the animals 



' ch they capture, is not believed by the veteran florist, 



That gentlei 



s point, and c 



l ha 



ent from 

 . desi toy 



J. 



test, and 



■re that those pla 



Mr. Peter Henderson, of Jersey City 

 been making some experiments on th 

 that these plants do not derive any n 

 their victims than do the pines and h< 

 such great numbers of insects by flu 

 In the summer of 1878, Mr. Hen 

 Tait made experiments, using 100 pi 

 the conclusions which they reached 

 which had received no "animal food" were quite 

 as those which had been fully supplied with insects. The 

 plants used in the experiments were the well-known "Venus 

 fly-Pap." Further experiments on this point are required to 

 settle this point definitely, hut Ihose which have been made 

 are ceriainly extremely interesting. 



TheEsglish Sparrow Nuisance — Dedbam, Mass. , May 1 &• 

 -I had, a week ago, a fine row of peas about, a huudred feet 

 in length, but now they are ruined by the English sparrows 

 having cut off the tops of the largest portion, and they are 

 still at i'. I have three lots more yet to come up, which I 

 wish to save if possible. Can you suggest so.ne means of 

 poisoning them? Something that, if they leave any, will not 

 he dangerous for rny defga or hens, which will have the run 

 of the ground after my crops are off in the autumn ? — 



F. A. T. 



Shoot, the birds. That has been fonnd effective in other 

 instances. It will take some time and ammunition, but it is 

 the only thing to be done. 



Note on the Scarlet Ta«ager— "Westneld, Mas*., May 

 21.— During the cold rain of this week, which lasted ttl 

 tour clays, a large number of scarlet, tanagers were noticed 

 hopping about* the dooryards and sidewalks unable to fly- 

 Between men, boys and cats many were caught. The bud is 

 seldom seen in this vicinity, and a greet many thought it a 

 new species. Other birds are as lively as ever. Why isn't 

 the tanager ? — S. 



An Old Eagle— Wilkesbarre, Pa,, May 23.— In the 

 middle of April an eagle was shot at, Nakskco, Denmark. It 

 measured 78 inches 1rom tip to tip of wings. Bound its neck 

 it carried, a chain with a small sealed vial attached. In the 

 vial was found a | aper with the following inscription: — 

 "This eagle was caught and again liberated snno 1T92 by 

 N. and 0. Anderson, Boto, on the island of Falster, Den- 

 mark."— P. P. 



Spring Notes. — Frainingham, Mass., May 14, 1881. — 

 Though the season may fairly be called a little " backward " 

 here, I have noted the an ivaf of two of our warblers rather 

 earlier than usual, viz., the black poll (/>. striata) and the 

 black and yellow (D. maculosa) on May 11.— F. 0. Bkowkb. 



