284 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
—Seth Green has two men at New Hamburg, on the 
Hudson River, engaged in shad and sturgeon hatching j 
they are turning quantities of young shad into the river 
every night. 
Land Locked Salmon in Virginia. —Dr. Ellzey, of 
Blacksburg, Va., sends the following account of a trip to 
“Mountain Lake,” with some fry of the land-locked salmon. 
We trust the efforts of the Virginia Commissioners to in¬ 
troduce these fish into the Old Dominion will be successful. 
We quote:— 
“The fish were sent to me from Lexington, where they 
were hatched, by Col. McDonald, in charge of Mr. William 
F. Page, who studied the practical part of fish culture 
under Fred. Mather, last fall and winter. Mr. Page has a 
large Bhare of that natural good sense for which Mr. 
Maiher is so distinguished. The fish arrived here on the 
mail-coach last Thursday evening about 04 o'clock. Mr. 
Page gave them a sheeps kidney for supper and some fresh 
water every hour during the night. Early uext morning, 
taking with me Mr. Page and Costin, one of my students, 
and accompanied by my friend Dr. Ellet, we set out for 
the-Lake in a two horse jersey. The lake iB from hence 
sixteen miles distant, and above us some two thousand 
feet. We must ascend Smith Mountain, Gap Mountain 
and Salt Pond Mountain, near the summit of which last is 
“Salt Pond,” formerly so-called, now called Mountain 
Lake. 
In good lime for dinner we arrived at the door of the 
hospitable mansion of Mrs. General Haupt, mistress of 
Mountain Lake. Mr. Page quickly placed his fry in their 
new home, not one of them having been lost or apparently 
made unhappy by their long overland trip. 
THE FRESH WATER FISH OF VIRGINIA. 
T HE gamest and the most aristocratic of all our fish is 
trout, found in our mountain streams. The Southern 
chub is the most abundant fish iu mill ponds, and also fre¬ 
quents eauals and quiet stretches of water in rivers. It 
was brought from the South, where it greatly abounds in 
the lakes, and is called the lake trout—a gross misnomer, 
even greater than the Dame here given of chub. It is a 
bass and very closely allied to the black bass of the Ohio, 
which has been introduced into the Potomac. There are 
some slight but very distinct organic differences, which, 
while showing that both are of tlie same genus, they differ 
in species. They bile and watch their young alike; but 
the chub likes still water, and is not averse to mud, while 
the black bass prefers running water and rocky bottoms. 
There is a great variety of the perch, the silver or speckled 
perch, called at the North strawberry bass and calico bass; 
the sun perch and yellow-belly, lound both in ponds and 
rivers; the black perch, sometimes called tobacco-boxes, 
found in ponds; the bachelor or saDd perch, a very fine 
fish, which has the appearance of being a cro-s between 
the yellow belly and the silver. It is almost round as a 
plate, and only found in the elear ponds in tide-water dis¬ 
trict, in deep water and on sandy bottoms. The red-eye and 
red belly, both fine and game, not found in any stream as 
far north as the AppomaltuXj and mostly abound in the 
tributaries of the Chowan and Roanoke. The red-belly, or 
someiimes culled red-breast, is famous ia the Nottoway. 
The wltite perch, which attends the shad in the spring, and 
with which tide-water is crowded at that time. One of the 
finest pan fishes. 
The cat-fish, mud, channel and New River—the latter so 
important in ihal part of Virginia in which it abounds as 
to umonut almost to a ruling influence in politics. It some¬ 
times reaches the weight of fifty Or sixLy pounds, and is 
highly valued. The mud cal is detestable and disgusting. 
The channel cat is of a finer drain, With a glistening dark 
gray back, a white belly and fins that seem made of the 
finest steel. He is the fellow for chowder. 
Of all the loathsome fish that swim in our fresh waters 
that variety of the'mullet may be pronounced tUe most re¬ 
pulsive that frequents muddy streams and bodies of water 
like our basin here in Richmond. There are varieties of 
this fish that are by no means so offensive as the kind we 
speak of. There is one that the boys call the stone-toater, 
fouud in running streams with pebbly bottoms. There is 
aaother kind caught in James River that is very respect¬ 
able. It is a nice, clean-looking fish. There is a variety 
called “the red horse,” caught in Dan River and perhaps 
other waters. The Danville people esteem it highly, for it 
is oue of the few fist; they have. Ail the varieties of the 
mullet are bony. The roach or mill-dace has the merit, 
like the tuiunow (abundant in all our streams and ponds), 
of being good bait for larger fish. The rock fish hi one of 
our most esteemed fish. Il varies greatly iu size. At some 
seasons it biles freely at the hook, aud is worthy to be 
classed among the game fish. Generally it is caught in 
seines, and lrequently auains very large proportions. The 
ring-perch (not mentioned above; is long, slim, active and 
slroug. .It is red about the gills, amt bites wilh great 
vigor. But a dryer and more tasteless fish does not swim 
jnour waters, unless we accept the gar. The pike or jack- 
fish, is the fresh-water shaik. it is the scouruge of mill¬ 
ponds and streams, destroying right aud left. The carp is 
a very line fish, aud known unuer different names in dif¬ 
ferent portions of the SLaic. In soiueit is called the while 
fish, in others the sucker, in others the round fish, etc. By 
whatever name called, and wherevei found, it is greatly 
esteemed for Us quiet virtues and its excellent table 
qualities. 
The eel and the skilpot are the dread of mill pond fisher¬ 
men, The sturgeou is a fish that oue eiiher loves very 
much or bates very much. The choice parts of a young 
jack sturgeon are delicious, either baked or stuffed "wilh 
yeros,” or served up in slakes. They are good lor break¬ 
fast, dinner or supper, and either w arm or cold. The 
people on James River brag of their Bturgeon, but those 
living on the Rappahannock claim that there are no stur¬ 
geon comparable with theirs. The Potomac sturgeon is 
rather too coarse, aud farther North it is coarser still. 
Besides, they don’t seem to have acquired the art of cook¬ 
ing il properly at the North. Iu fish regious the stur¬ 
geou is called the poor man s beef, 
We iuclude among the varieties mentioned, several that 
come from the sea to tile fresh water, as also the herring, 
shad and alewife.— Richmond. Whig. 
IS FISH CULTURE PROFITABLE? 
We will say that you have a spring of water on your farm, 
or a brook from which you can draw into your ponds the 
water that will run through an inch pipe; you have con¬ 
structed your ponds thirty feet long by ten feet wide, capa¬ 
ble of holding two aud one half feet of water, and have 
determined to experiment a little as an amateur piscicultur¬ 
ist. These ponds suitably divided is to compartments are 
amply sufficient to hold four thousand trout. You have 
purchased each year for four years 1000 spawn at the aver¬ 
age price of $8 per thousand, and have hatched and reared 
them successfully. In addition to the bits from your table, 
curds, sour milk, and a large occasional supply of food for 
them fromthe animals you have killed, you have purchased 
$35 worth of refuse meat. This is a large estimate, but let 
us make this aide of the account as large as it will possibly 
bear. The labor and time you have expended iu taking 
care of your trout, and in fitting up your pouds has been 
trifling, aud you have been amply repaid for all this iu the 
pleasure you have experienced iu seeing them thrive under 
your treatment. Your total cash outlay for the four years 
has been fifty seven dollars. Now what ought you to have 
in your ponds to offset this? You will have 1,000 three 
years olds, weighing at least one and a half pounds each; 
I, 000 two years olds weighing at least three quarters of a 
pound each; you have 3,350 pounds of trout, which at 
present prices is worth in the market aud will sell for six 
hundred and seventy five dollars. In the summer time it 
is worth as much as fresh salmon, and that is worth from 
40 to 50 cents per pound. Reckoning it at 40 cents, it is 
worth $900. Then^you have in addition to this 1,000 year¬ 
lings, which are worth at least $80, and 1,000 small fry 
which are worth twenty dollars more. 
Calling your trout worth only 30 cents per pound your 
fifty seven dollars has proved an investment which has 
brought' you propett.y worth five hundred and thirty dollars. 
Supposing from some cause or other one half of you r fishes 
die, or are stolen by somebody’s neighbor’s boys, or that 
they do not grow to more than one half the size you ex¬ 
pected they would: Even then your $57 has yielded you a 
return of more than 400 per cent . So looking at the mat¬ 
ter from which ever way you will you must, f think, see 
that the statement which some one has made, that fish cul¬ 
ture pays a profit of 1,000 per cent., or that fish can be 
raised and sold in our markets at two cents per pound, are 
not altogether wild and fanciful statements. The net prof¬ 
its of trout propagation at the establishment of Mr. Green, 
in Livingston county, New York, were $1,000 in I860, 
$5,000 iu 1867, and $1,000 in 1868. The properly where 
his ponds are located was purchased a few years ago for 
two thousand dollars, and wiieu his operations Imd fairly 
commenced he accepted a proposition for six thousand dol¬ 
lars for a half interest in the works. Stephen C. Ains¬ 
worth, t.he pioneer pisciculturist of this country says, wilh 
a good spring of one half inch of water, one may raise all 
the trout he needs for his table wilh tritlng expense. Dr. 
J. N. Slack, of New Jersey, regards pisciculture as uo 
longer an experiment, but as a pursuit quite as certain as 
agriculture, and at present much more profitable.— V.roman 
address before the Vermont Fish Guitarists Convention. 
Natural j§istorg. 
('{his Department is under the charge of a competent Naturalist, 
indorsed by ths Smithsonian Institution, and wiU henceforth be made a 
special feature of this paper. All communications, notes, queries, re¬ 
marks, and seasonal observations will receive careful attention .] 
—The letter from Mr. J. Allen in rd adjoining column 
calls for particular attention. We are all too much in- 
clined’to looseuess in our nomenclature, and it is much 
more easy, in general, to speak properly, if we only know 
how. In this case Mr. Allen is good enough to tell us, 
and no one is better qualified than he. 
—A large number of snakes, monkeys, sun-bears and 
other animals arrived in a ship from Borneo lids week, 
and were distributed to owner’s menageries, 
—The large number of living animals which the Prince 
of Wales brought home from India with him have been 
housed at the Zoological Gardens in London, and are ex¬ 
citing the attention of all British naturalists. It is an ex¬ 
traordinary colle ction. _ 
BIRDS OF CENTRAL NEW YORK. 
(Continued from. Page 333.) 
Pyranga rubra. Scarlet lanager. A common summer 
resident; breeds. Arrives the second week in May and 
departs in September. 
Hirundo horreorum. Barn swallow. An abundant sum¬ 
mer resident, arriving the first week iu May and departing 
in September. 
Petrochelidon lunifrons. Eave swallow, Abundant, com¬ 
ing wilh the barn swallow, but leaving in August. 
Cotyte riparia. Bank swallow or sand marlin. Abund¬ 
ant from the second week in May until the latter part of 
August. 
Prague purpurea. Purple martin. Abundant from the 
first week in May until late in August. Nests in gar¬ 
den boxeB. 
Ampelis rxdrorv.ni. Cherry-bird, cedar-bird. Resident 
throughout the year, but not very plenty in winter, it 
breeds in June, nesting in apple trees. 
Vino gilvus. Warbling vireo. A summer resident, 
breeding, it arrives Ibe second week in May. 
Vireo noveboraeensis. White-eyed vireo. A summer resi¬ 
dent, but not very plenty. It breeds. 
Collyrio borealis. Great northern shrike or butcher-bird. 
Resident and breeds. Frauk Wright, of Auburn, N. Y., 
found three nests in one hedge-row last summer. 
H. G. Fowler. 
THE FAUNA OF NEBRASKA. 
Gilmore, Sarpy county. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Undoubtedly Nebraska la one of tile finest States in thejjnlon for 
(uniting purposes, A sportsman cau have his choice as to what kind of 
game to hunt, from a 'Wilson snips to a hisou Or a mountain lion. The I 
Union Pacific Railroad runs through the heart of the hunting grounds; 4 
which makes it very convenient for parties who wish to onjny a glorious 1 
hunt. Every accommodation may be obtained at reasonable rates. Pan- 
tics from abroad wishing to take a hunt can obtain all of the necessary I 
information on their arrival at Omaha. The following are the different 1 
kinds of game that may be hunted successfully in their season:— 
Geese.— 1 The Canada.goose, wild goose, Amer canadensis, Hutchins’ 4 
goose, Anser Hutchimii; white-fronted goose, speckled braut, Anser at - I 
bifrons; brant gooBe, gray brant, Armr bernicla; snow goose, white ■ 
braut, Anser hyperboreus. 
Swans.— The trumpeter, Cycnue buccinator; American, Oycms amer-H 
icanus. 
Ducks.— The canvas-back duck, J rultgula valisneria; mallard ;dnck,4 
green head, Anas boschas; red-headed duck, red-head, Fuligula marina ,* 1 
gadwall, Anas etreper'ia; buifie-headed duck, Ivligula rubeola; ruddy V 
duck, Fuligula rubida; dusky duck, black duck, Anas obscura; widgeon, — 
bald pate, Anas arnericana; wood duck, summer duck, Anas sponsa; 1 
pin-tail duck, Anas acuta; scaup dock, Fuligula marila; groen-wmged I 
leal, Anas carotinensis; blue-winged teal, Anas discors; shoveller, Altai ■ 
clypeata. 
Mergansers.— The Red-breasted merganser, Mergus senator; hooded I 
merganser, Mergus cucullatus. 
Quail.—' The Common American quail, Orlyx Virginian us. 
Grouse.—The pinnated grouse, prairie chicken, Tetrao eupido. We ■ 
also have a very few stiaro-tailed grouse, Tetrao phaslanetlus. These, 
also the rock ptarmigan, Tetrao rupee-tries, are fouud in large numbers I 
at the base of the Rocky Mountains. But as long as the pinnated H 
grouse continue to be as plentiful as they are now they will afford much-4 
better sport than their western relatives. 
Snipe. —Woodcock, Scolopux minor; Wilson snipe, jack snipe. English 1 
snipe. Scolopax novsboracensis. Too two latter are very plentiful, and | 
afford splendid sport. Woodcock are to be found among the willows on 
the banks of the Missouri River. 1 wilt not recommend it its pleasant I 
shooting. The willows are very thick, and it Is almost impossible to ■ 
force a passage through them. 
Plovers.—We have several varieties of this class, but principally the 
golden plover, frost bird, Charatlrius marmoratus. 
Curlews.— The Esquimaux curlew, Numenius borealis; sickle-bill cur¬ 
lew, Numeniut tmgerostns; Hudsouiun curlew, Numenius hurimnicus. H 
The Esquimaux cnrlew, like the golden plover, visits us in large nnm- . 
born, and afford splendid shooting. 
Sandpipers.— I will not give the names of the different kinds, but will M 
simply say that we have an endless vanoty. 
Turkeys.-Wo have a few of these king birds, but it being winter ■ 
shooting, the sportsmen hardly ever attempt to hunt thura. Also the I 
hare—we have three ktuds—are not molested to any greut extent. We J 
havo two kinds of rails, the sortt aud Virginia, and sometimes we bag a 
clapper, but not often. 
Quadrupeds.— The bison, buffalo, Bos americanm; elk, Cervus carta- f 
densis; black-tailed deer, Cenus maemtis; common deer, Cervus virgin- I 
ianus. and the antelope. 
Piscatorial.— Nebraska la not a very good place for fishing, but there I 
is splendid trout fishing further west, on the line of the Union Pacific J 
Railroad. C. H. Pbilups, Agt. U. P. B. H. ■ 
“HARE" AND “RABBIT.” 
Cambridge, Mass., June 1st, 187(1, 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
In your iSBue of May 25tn the question of what is a tabblt as distin¬ 
guished from a hare ia once more raised. Tub answer is short and sim¬ 
ple. Hare is a general term applicable to every spectea of the Lcporldt o 
or hare family, while rabbit is a specific appellation, strictly applicable 
only to tbe single species Lepus cuniculusot the old world, which is the 
well-known original of our domestic stock of rabbits. Iu other words, the 
term hare is comparable with the term thrush, and rabbit to the term 
robin (the latter as used in this country), the one being applicable to any 
species of the Tvrdrdee, or tbruslt family, while the other is the name 
of the single species Tardus mlgralonus. Or, agaiu: Hare has the 
same general applicability aa squirrel, while rabbit has the samo restrict¬ 
ed limitation as chickaree ( Sciurus hudsontue) or chipmunk (Tamlas 
striatus), mtrneB distinctive of particular species of squirrel. It heuce 
follows that we have no indigenous Bpedes of hare to which the name 
rabbit is strictly appltcable. 
Waterhouse, in his great work On the Rodentia, used the term hare 
wilh some appropriate distinctive prefix for evory species of the hare 
family, except the Lepus cunhmlus, lor which he alone used the name 
rabbit, and most European authors have recognized the -mue distinction. 
The correlative of hare is found in other languages, ns the Anns of the 
Dutch, the Aae« of the Germans, hara of the Dunes nnd Swedes, etc,, 
which terms are used also In a geueral sense, and applied with proper 
distinctive expletives to all Che spocies of the hare rauuly, except to Le- 
pus sunxciiltts, which species, aa in English, has its distinctive appella¬ 
tion iu other languages. It ia thus the Cuninckeu of the Gormans, the 
R jbbeken of the Dutch, the Running of tne Danes aud Swedes, the Cou- 
ejo of the Spaniards, the Conlglio of the Italians, the Ooelho of ills Por¬ 
tuguese, etc. The early English name of the rabbit was Cony, which, 
with most, of the names given above, Jb traced by eatymologlsts to the 
Latin specific name of this species, namely, Ountculus. The term rab¬ 
bit is in like manner traced to the Dutch word Robbekon. 
By most American writers the names rabbit and hare have been nsed 
interchangeably,;the same writer, often using both terms on different oc¬ 
casions for tbe same species, while few, ir any, have ever followed any 
ttxed rule in the use of these namos. For many years the early English 
explorers and settlers Ol America very commonly applied the term cony 
to our common little wood hare ( Lepus sylvaticus), which was gradually 
supplanted by the name rabbit. The enstom of applying the term rab¬ 
bit indifferently to some or all of onr American hares is so fixed that It 
will probuoly never he wholly eradicated from our veruaculur, imd Its 
restriction to one or more species rather than to others will be purely a 
inaiter of conventional agreement. Tbe true rabbit (Lepus cunicuhte) 
dtffera not only greatly in habit from any or the other harts, hut so much 
in structural features that several or the highest recent authorities agree 
in placing it by itself iu a distinct genus, for which the general term 
CunlaUus was adopted by Dr. J. E. Gray. This name, however, proves 
to be preoccupied for another genus of mammals, in view of which fact 
LIUjeborg has proposed for it the generic term Oryctotagus. 
J. A. Allen. 
SAGACITY OF A SEAL. 
> Pobtland, Me., May 18th, 1678- 
Editor Forest and Stiuum:— 
Some weeks ago 1 was witness to a remarkable display of sagacity and 
ingenuily In one of our common seals. I was shooting upon one of two 
small islands “broad off at sea," when my companion called my atten¬ 
tion to a seal in the channel between the two islands. Upon lookingl 
saw a common seal with an old squaw ( Harelda glacialis) in its mouth. 
The duck was alive and lively, but whether or not it had been a cripple 
previous to its capture I could not tell. The seal hold the duck by the 
wing when first seen, and kept playing with It much as a cat plays with 
a moaae. Woeu he would let it go the duck would immediately dive, 
bat invariably come up again in the seal’s mouth. Finally this rough 
play killed the duck. Meanwhile several herring guile, whose curiosiiy 
bod been exciled by this performance, began circling aroqnd the seal 
and alighting in the water near him. ThcD began the fun for na. Tbe 
seal would “tread water," shaking the duck abont iu bis mouth until the 
gulls were darting close to his head, or alighting on the water close to 
him; then Mr. Beal would sink quietly oat of sight, sometimes leaving 
the duck on the surface of the water, and again taking it with him. In 
a moment yon would see one of the gulls spring hastily into the air as 
the seat’s head broke the surface where said gall had been sitting. All 
