July 14, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



* 



473 



SKUNKS AND HYDROPHOBIA. 



tPOB Scmjikk KE-inivi; buy a copy of Van Dyke's " Bine, Kod and 

 nun in California," price f l.so, postpaid. For sal-3 at tills oiiiee. 



Locust Grovk, Lewis Co, N. Y.. July 2. 



171 VER since the Keverend Horace 0. llovey, M. A., took 

 li it upon himself to uotity l lie civilized world (through 

 tlie modium of Ike American Journal, of Science and Arts for 

 May 18?4, pp. 477-83) of the terrible, consequences nt; ending 

 the bite^of our common skunk (Mephitis mephitica) the 

 columns of your valuable paper, together with those of 

 various other publications, have been much of the time preg- 

 nant -with more or less extended remarks upon the subject. 



The Rev. Mr. Hovey announced that the bite ot the skunk 

 as usually fatal and produces in the human subject a peculiar 

 kind of hydrophobia, which he namcdKabies mephitica. In 

 the New York Medical Record for March 13, 1875, Dr. John 

 S. Janeway, U. S. A., proves that the disease is no'hing 

 more nor less than ordinary hydrophobia as derived from the 

 dog, cat or other rabid animal. 



Dr. Elliott Ooues deems the subject of sufficient importance 

 to reproduce both articles (Rev. hovey's and Dr. Janeway 's\ 

 but unfortunately without comment, in tills most admirable 

 and valuable monograph of our " Fur-bearing Animals" (pp. 

 223-350. 



Dr. Janeway states that Ihe disease " is evidently epidem- 

 ical, no cases of it having been reported previous to 1870 in 

 this region," which is unquestionably the fact. 



Now it, strikes mc that there is a good deal of first-class 

 11 poppycork" in the Rev. Mr. Hovey's article and in most 

 of the contributions that have appeared since. 



Let us take a rational view of the case, and glance, for a 

 moment, i t the history of an average outbreak of hydro- 

 phobia. Here is a rabid dog. Before succumbing to the 

 disease, or to the hand of man, he has probably bitten at 

 least one or two o'her dogs or cats, which in their turn bite 

 others, and so on, till the community becomes aroused ; and 

 scarcely enough of these animals are left to propagate their 

 kind. 



Nt'W, suppose a "mad dog" should, in his wild delirium, 

 chance to run across and bite a skunk, and in a region where 

 skunks happened to abound, would not the natural result 

 he that this skunk would bite others and so communicate the 

 disease to them, and they others still, and so on till most of 

 the skunks of that neighborhood had been iuftcled 1 During 

 a certain stage of the disease, should any of these hydro- 

 phobic skunks, by any accident, fall in with a man sleeping 

 on the ground, lhat man would certainly be very liable to be 

 bitten, aDd if bitten to die of this terrible malady. Exactly 

 such a slate of things, apparently, came to the notice of Mr. 

 Hovey, who published the facts in the American Journal of 

 Science and Arts, as above stated. But instead of confining 

 his remarks to a simple, truthful narralion of fac s, he in- 

 dulges in the wildest speculations and tmjtty theories con- 

 cerning the fatal nature of skunk bites in the abstract. 



To suggest, as does the Rev. Hovey, that the bite of a 

 healthy skunk as followed by hydrophobia is, to sjjeak 

 uiildly, the height of irrational nonsense. Equally insane is 

 his idea that skunks, in the normal s'ate, are aggressive 

 animals and habitually bite those persons whom they find 

 sleeping upon the ground. Indeed nothing could be more 

 contrary to the known habits and disposition of Ihosc beauti- 

 ful and u-eful little animals. 



As to the effect of skunk bites in general I will only state 

 my experience. Twelve or fifteen years ago, when hunting 

 and trapping skunks, I was twice bitten by adult animals and 

 never suffered therefrom more than from equally severe biles 

 from auy of our common mammals. About, the same time, 

 Dr. O. L. Bagg was also bitten, but nevertheless be still 

 lives and is practicing medicine in New York City. Last 

 summer I was again bitten by a skunk — this time by a half- 

 grown one that I had alive for several months— and have as 

 yet experienced no evil consequences from the bile. Our 

 dogs have many times been bitten by skunks and were never 

 seriously injured thereby. 



These remarks are called forth at this lime by a card of in- 

 quiry published by Dr. Howard Jones in your last issue 

 (June 3D, '81). In the same number a correspondent (signa- 

 ture " F. U. R.") expresses surprise at finding the remains 

 of a skunk that had been killed by a fox. Now it is a well- 

 known fact that foxes and treat-horned owls are the com- 

 mon enemies of skunks, and devour them annually in large 

 numbers. I once had two tame skunks killed in one night 

 by a tame fox. C. Ham Mhkmam, M. D. 



THE STROKE OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 



TBE fact that poisonous serpents strike with the fangs, 

 which are only found in the upper jaw, into the objects 

 of their attack instead of biting them is not generally known 

 by the public unfamiliar with their structure and habits. The 

 lower jaw is used in seizing food only, and plays no part in 

 defence. The curved fangs are strongly thrown forward in 

 the scgement of a circle of which the portion of the animal 

 resting on the ground is the centre. The force of this stroke 

 i^ given with all the power of the muscular system of an ex- 

 c cdingly muscular organization ; its force is realized only 

 by those who have felt it. We once placed a foot on the 

 head of a small prairie rattlesnake, in Kansas, and a friend 

 to. k hold of its tail and cut its head off with his pocket 

 knife. The body was n i sooner released from the head 

 than, with a quickness only equalled by the traditional 

 ' flash," it struck lib hand with the stump hard enough to 

 bruise it so as to be useless for a week or more. 



This has been called to mind by the following letter to 

 Prof. Baird Irom Mr. Stone, of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, in charge of the Department of the Pacific Coast. 

 He writes from Baird, Cal., June 23 : 



" One of my young men had a narrow escape from a terrible 

 death last week. He was walking down the trout pond ditch 

 (flume), when he was suddenly struck by a rattlesnake on 

 the side of the leg, about half way between the hip and the 

 knee. Fortunately, he had on long rubber boots, fitting 

 rather loosely. The snake's fangs pierced the rubber en- 

 tirely through, and one of them tore a, slit half an inch long 

 in the boot leg ; but the fangs did not reach the flesh, and the 

 man escaped unhurt. The snake hung a moment by his 

 fangs, and the man had to shake him off. He says the blow 

 was so hard that he thought some one had struck him with a 

 rock. The man was Mr. Loren Green, who works at the 

 trout ponds. It was such an extraordinary escape that 1 

 thought you would perhaps like to have me write yon about 

 it. '• Livingston Stoke," 



TWO TAMED COOTS. 



Bahdstown, Kv., July 3, 1881. 



LAST fall I recorded in Fokkst and Stream, p. 307, Vol. 

 XV., the capture of two coots (l'"ulica a,mriico.T,v,s) l and 

 seeing in your last issue (No. 22) the letter of G. R. llarden- 

 berg in regard to two captive sora rails, it suggested to roe 

 that a few facts about my pels might not prove uninteresting. 



They spent the whole of the winter in a basement room, 

 subsisting almost entirely upon corn-bread, and became so 

 tame that when the person who fed them entered the room 

 they would run eagerly to him, and one of them would feed 

 from his hand. About the middle of April they were put in 

 a large cage, which was placed in the yard. There they re 

 mained perfectly contented in their confined quartets for 

 about a week, when the door was carelessly left open and 

 they escaped. They made no attempt to fly or run off, but 

 wandered around the yard feeding all day, and at night re- 

 turned of their own accord to the cage. 



Ever since then they have had unlimited freedom and arc 

 as tame as chickens, coming when called and being on the 

 best terms with all of the other domestic animals, except, a 

 riotous Chesapeake Bay puppy and a pair of quarrelsome 

 Pekin ducks. The former, with youthful precipitation, sup- 

 posed that the birds were legitimate objects of pursuit and 

 retrieved oue of them in fine style shortly after they were 

 liberated, and came very near killing it. Since then Judy— 

 the puppy — has been made to understand better and never 

 molests them now; but they still eye her with suspicion and 

 always give her a Wide berth, while" they are utterly indiffer- 

 ent to the near presence of the other dogs. Every day they 

 have two or three difliculties with the ducks over the pan of 

 wa'er in which they bathe, the ducks generally, but not 

 always, getting the best of it, in which case the coots march 

 off to a spring branch about 300 yards distant, where they 

 perform their ablutions undi-turbed and then return. 



They have thus far evinced no desire to breed, lieucc I in- 

 fer that they are both of the same sex, whither male or 

 female I caunot tell. C. W. Bbokuam. 



Giskat Caiwlina Wbkn.— I have the plea-ure of recording 

 the eapture of a pair of great Carolina wrens (thryoUiorm 

 il(s), on June 11, 1881, at Greenville, Hudson 

 county, New Jersey, within four miles of the City of New 

 York. While collecting that cUy in an old woods in 

 which was considerable undergrowth, I noticed what was to 

 me a new voice in the woods — loud, clear and continued. 

 For the purpose of becoming better acfroalntetl with the 

 stranger, I turned my footst' ps toward him but found a 

 canal between us. To find a bridge 1 had to make a detour 

 of some distance, but during all the time I had the same 

 loud, clear voice to guide me to the little rocky glade in which 

 I had the pleasure of meeting my first "great Carolina 

 WTen." Carefully approaching* the found I saw the liltle 

 brown songster in a small sapling. He allowed me to view 

 him but a moment when he flew to the opposite side of ihe 

 glade and, alighting on the trunk of a small tree, begin to 

 inspect it after the manner of the brown creeper (GerWa 

 familiaris). Wishing to have "a bird in the hand" I shot, 

 but only wounded, and while killiug it, it uttered a few ones 

 which brought the female near me, when she also was se- 

 cured. The ova in the female were about the size of dust 

 shot, showing, I think, that the pair had not commenced 

 nesting yet, but were only prospecting for a suitable summer 

 home. Wm. Dltchkh, New York City. 



Thbb-Ci.imring Ssakes. — Bingham's Corners, N. Y. — 



Mr. Morton Butles, 

 a tree in which a neighl 

 bees early in the spring 

 On approaching the trer 

 it closel 



the woods hunting near by 

 ft of his had found a '■warm of wild 

 thought Ue would take a look ar it. 

 which was a large oak, and scrutin- 

 if auy bees remained/he observed 

 something on a large branch, some thirty at forty feet from the 

 ground, that had life, but it did not look much like bees. 

 Waiting a few moments, he saw it move quite distinctly, 

 and he took deliberate aim at the branch and fired, when 

 down came a monster black snake, ten feet m length, crip- 

 pled by the shot. It was quickly dispatched with a 'club. 

 Whether the snake climbed the oak direct, or went up a 

 small sapling and thence to the branches of the ouk, is a 

 matter of conjecture. 



It is well known that black snakes are extremely expert at 

 climbing trees. 



Chimney Swallows— Stanley, N. J., July 4. — The other 

 day while out collecting birds, I noticed some, chimney 

 swallows flying through a decayed elm tree. Every little 

 while one of them would strike a branch as though they w T ere 

 gathering material for their nests. As I have never seen 

 them light, on the ground or on a tree, I think they gather 

 the twigs which compose the nest while flying. Tliis habit 

 may be known to many but I have never read or heard of it. 



1 seemed a nest in a chimney. It was built in the follow- 

 ing manner: A small platform of twigs stuck together with 

 a "glutinous substance, was built out from the chimney. 

 Around the edge of the platform the twigs were built so as to 

 form a small hollow. In this there were four white eggs. 

 The nest was very strongly attached to the chimney with the 

 same substance that held the twigs together. This material 

 resembled glue. The gunning bids fair to be very good this 

 season. I have seen a brood of about thirteen young par- 

 tridges. Quail are whistling in the fields, and rabbits are 

 very abundant. Haeet Do B. Paus. 



[The "glue used in the construction of the chimney swal- 

 lows's nest is secreted in glands, situated one on each side of 

 the bird's head, and exuded with the saliva.— Ed] 



An Old Albino Robin.— For eight years a,n albmo robin 

 has annually reared its young in a nest just under the eaves 

 of the piazza attached to the residence of Dr. James L. 

 Tyson, Penllyn, Montgomery County. It is believed that for 

 several years it hatchet! its eggs in the same nest, but this 

 season it selected another position and raised a brood of four. 

 It is not often that a robin has an opportunity to locate for 

 so long a period in the same position, as it is hunted quite as 

 much iu the South, where it usually remains in winter, as it 

 is in the North, and it is remarkable that this spec 1 men has 

 eo long escaped the gnu, as its white feathers make it a more 

 conspicuous object than the less attractive plumage of its 

 companions. In Germantown and the surrounding country, 

 robins are quite as numerous this season as they usually are, 

 and at evening and in the early morning their melodious 

 song is heard on all sides. — Oeriaantown Telegraph. 



When the brain is wearied, ihe nerves unstrung, the muscles weak, 

 use Hop Bitter§. 



%m\\t j§ag and (jgun. 



NEW YORK OPKN f EASONs?. 



Quail.— torcan Nov. i to Jan. 1. 

 nevuciv, Saraioga ana Albans eo\ 



ti'ooi t, ,\ng\ t 10, Jan. 1. Tli 



sen], 1 i,!J:uj. 1. 



ornery, Sehe- 

 ier counties, 

 i May 1. In 



Jl ibbit (liim-i.- 

 Dtw.— Aug. 1 

 lutawtul a,tau 



Mwsc-KIUIn; 



naming with flogs, iug, 10 to Nov, i; 



t. Lawrence county, 

 edat all rimes. 



THE QUEER CUSTOMS OF DARE. 



TOE SHORE DWELLEBS OK KOllTU 0AKOLINA. 



WE have a letter from Dare county, North Carolina, 

 which we shall soon put into type. Meanwhile here 

 are some pen-pictures of the Dare folks and their ways from 

 a letter in the Raleigh, N C., _AVm.«. Many of the readers of 

 the FenosT and Stub am will recognize the trulhfuluess of 

 the sketch : 



The p ople of this region are of au amphibious nature, and 

 live so much on and in the water that most of them, lam 

 sure, are web-footed. They live mainly on fish, clams, 

 oysters, crabs, i enapins and wild fowl. When they leave 

 home they go in a boat, and whether they go to court or go 

 courting, or to trade, or to mill, or to a funeral, they always 

 go by sail. Their corn mills are run by sails, and some of 

 them pump their water with windmills. They don't go up 

 stairs, bill "go aloft," and when they go to bed they " turn 

 in ;" when they are ill they are "under the weather," aud 

 when in robust health they say they are "bung up 

 and bilge free." They speak of a trim built sweetheart as 

 "clipper built." If she i3 a little stout they say she is 

 " broad in the beam," or she is " wide across the transom." 

 Many of I hem have ships' cabin doors in their houses that 

 slide on grooves, aud to tbelr buildings they give a coaling of 

 tar instead of painting them. The "old woman" blow s a, conch 

 shell when dinner is ready, and they measure lime by "bells." 

 Their babies are not rocked in cradles, but swung in ham- 

 mock". Tiiey chew black pig-tail tobacco, and drink a wild 

 tea called "Yeopou." They manure their land with sea 

 grass, and bury their yam potatoes in the sand bills. When 

 they want tho doctor they hang a red flag against a bill side. 

 as a signal of distress. If ho don't come, because the "wind 

 ain't fair," they lake a dram of whisky and coppt ras, soak 

 i heir (web) feet in sea water, "turn in" and trust to luck. 

 If they die they will be buried on the top of a sand ridge, and 

 when you see several fail boats on the water in procession, 

 wilh a flag at half-mast, you are looking at a funeral. 



They ornament their houses with whales' ribs aud jaws, 

 sharks' teeth, swordtish snouts, devilfish arms, sawfish swords 

 (six feet long), miniature ships, camphor wood chests, Hon- 

 duras gourds, spy-glasses, South American lariats war clubs 

 from the Mozambique Islands, Turkish pipes, West Iudia 

 shells, sandal-wood boxes, Chinese chessmen, Japanese faces, 

 Madagascar idoU, Australian boomerangs, and oilier s range, 

 outlandish things, instead cf having iu their parlor a few 

 Boston chroinos, a family tree, a cenifjeatcof membership in 

 some lodge, a photograph or poetry allium, bound volume of 

 God'-y's Lady's Book, bust of Henry Ward Beecher, or soma 

 other great and good man, like Christian people have "where 

 1 was raised." Outside of tlieir houses and about the yard 

 you wbl find ships' blocks, dead-eyes, anchors, chain cables, 

 ships' fkureheads and names on gilded scrolls, ten- foot turtle 

 shells, harpoons, chain grabs, oyster tongs, seines, i ets. blue- 

 fish tackling, duck batteries, stool-geese hexes, wooden decoy 

 ducks, imitation brant and pans for fire-light ing game-, live 

 deeoy geese will honk at you, if you are a stranger, and tame 

 swans will take a nip out of the fleshy pa.' t of your leg in a 

 playful way, while a pet fawn is chewing your handker- 

 chief. 



Their hogs are raised on clams, mussels, offal of fish smd 

 garbage, aud their cattle wade tftlt on Ihe shoals for miles, 

 where the water covers thiir backs, to feed on sea grass, and 

 if they are carried up country and fed on corn aud fodder 

 they will not live. Eveiy man is captain of some kind of a 

 boat, and "she" is always better than any o'her boat in some 

 way. " She is hard to D9H£in a gale, of wind," or "before the 

 wind" or "beating to windward," or "wilh the wind on the 

 beam," or "she can sail closer to Ihe wind," or "will carry 

 sail long< st," or is "hard to beat in a light wind, ' or "totes 

 nrore sock," rr is "stronger," or "dryer," or "bigger," (1 

 "she is a big little boat," or "draws the least water," or 

 "net da less ballast," or "she is the newest," or "has the best 

 timbers," or "steers the best," or "she is a lucky boat," or 

 "stands up better," or "needs less sail than any other boat." 

 or "she is best for fishing," etc. Perhaps' "she comes about 

 bet'er than any other boat." She is bound to have some- 

 thing abou' her better than anybody else's boat. One ' cap- 

 tain" will claim that "she" has the best set of sails in Dare, 

 and ano' her that "she rows easiest." The other day I h rel 

 a "captain" to put me os the s earner "Wave," out in the 

 Sound His "coonah" was a very old, patched un concern — 

 the worst I had ever seen. She leaked like a basket, and he 

 had to keep the bailing gourd busy to keep her from filling. 

 I was curious to know wliat claims he could put in for his 

 craft. As we drifted slowly over tho sound, with all sails 

 set, and before a f.irwind, he informed ine that she "was 

 not overly fast, though 'twasnt every one. could beat her;" but 

 ''she was the- best onamitn-toat in Dare," and could "near 

 about sail hersrlf." The crew of a "coona'i" usually consists 

 of a man at the helm (the "captain'') and boy befor. t 1 e 

 mast. We reached the "Wave" andlelt the "one man boat" 

 and went aboard with my trsps. aud the "captain" called out 

 to "turn her loose," and with the parting remark, "Here we 

 go, as the bny said when the bull was alter ton ," ', 

 for Nftg'S Head pier. But a Haw struck him jus ' hi 

 swung eiear, his sail jibed, and knocked him overboard, end 

 Ihe next moment "she" was "Sailing herself,'' and her cap- 

 tion was towing behind, wilh a tight'grip on the. m .in siicei. 

 1 called to Ihe crew of Ihe "Wave" to go fo his assistance. 

 but they laughed and said, "Uncle Bil y was all right," and 

 nre enough he presently pulled himself up to the boat, 

 limbed in, shook himself, waved his hand and went oil' 

 drif ing to windward. 



The "Wave " is what is called a "wheelbarrow." She has 

 a wheel at Ibe stern as big as a mountain inillwloe out 

 the is built for goiug in shallow water. In Currituck Sound 

 aud Kitty Hawk Bay the grass that the wild fowl teei is 

 Bp thick that a propeller caunot be used anaecoujit oJ its 

 choiring the wheel. The "Wave" only droves atfoijl eighteoij 



