38 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



K 



tjttnral ^jnstorg. 



The Sprat and the Whitebait. — Among the smaller 

 kinds of the herring tribe found on the coast of Europe, 

 there are two much valued hy epicures, and known in the 

 English markets as bait, as the sprat and the whitebait. The 

 first of these bears among naturalists the specific name of 

 clupea sprattus, given to it by Linnceus, from its English cog- 

 nomen. It is found along the coasts of Northern Europe, 

 later in the season than the common herring, and during 

 the winter, keeping in shoals of such a size that a ton has 

 been taken from one of them in a few casts of the net. 



They spawn in the early summer months, and pass the 

 rest of the season in deep water, where they are pursued by 

 larger fish. In November they approach the coast, and are 

 caught in fine meshed drift nets, and large bag nets. The 

 sprat is six inches long when full grown, and is much es- 

 teemed by all classes. It is generally eaten fresh and may be 

 preserved also. 



"We have several small species of herring on our coast, 

 whose specific distinctions have not yet been definitely set- 

 tled, but fishermen need not wait until that has been done. 

 Let them try to furnish our market with small herrings and 

 call them sprats until more is known about them At present 

 all small herring are here called aleioives, a word of Danish 

 origin, but they are not systematically pursued, and no 

 regular supply is furnished to the fish stands. 



Another small herring species is the whitebait, which fre- 

 quents the English Channel and the Thames ; and which is 

 caught from April to September, though it is best in mid- 

 summer. This little fish varies from two to six inches in 

 length, but they average about three inches or a little more. 

 They are captured in peculiar bag nets of very fine mesli, 

 whose mouth is kept open by a frame, the boat being an- 

 chored in a tide-way and the net hanging over the side, 

 not four feet from the surface. The tail of the bag is hand- 

 ed into the boat at intervals to be empted of its contents. 



We cannot here enlarge upon the delicacy of this little 

 herring as an epicurean delight, but if any gourmand on this 

 side of the Atlantic wishes to partake of it he can easily 

 do so, for a nearly similar fish frecpients our bays. Some 

 years since Elwell, an English fisherman, who at that time 

 lived at the tip of Red Hook point, brought me in April or 

 May, a basket full of small fish and asked me to pronounce 

 on the species. As before said our species of herring are not 

 satisfactorily determined, but I told him that I believed his 

 ftsh to be full grown herring of a kind closely resembling 

 the London whitebait. "I thought so too, sir," was his 

 answer. Dekay and Storer both describe several small her- 

 ring, and perhaps Dekay 's clupea minima comes nearest to 

 the fish brought to me by Elwell, who procured his fish 

 near the Staten Island shore of the narrows. 



If our fish dealers would stimulate the fishermen of our 

 harbor to look out for this American whitebait, large quan- 

 tities of them could no doubt be furnished. It appears that 

 in Washington some small fish have for some time been sold 

 as whitebait, but Professor Agassiz on examining them pro- 

 nounced them to be a mixture of the fry of perch and other 

 fishep. This may be true in the latitude of Washington, 

 but that a small summer herring which is not the young of 

 the shad, runs up the ri^er here, is certain. Let our Fyke- 

 men procure the proper nets and try to capture this mark- 

 etable and delicate food. .1. Carson Brevoort. 

 + , 



Facts have quite recently been brought to light in New 

 Zealand, that may be of some little interest to those of our 

 readers who are on the qui vive for all that is new and in- 

 teresting to their beloved art. 



Sometime ago large quantities of salmon-eggs from Eng- 

 lish waters were shipped to New Zealand. They reached 

 their destination in twelve days. It was at first deemed 

 doubtful that they would survive this protracted voyage in 

 good and healthy condition, although packed in ice. 

 Four boxes of ova, packed alike, were received, and when 

 these boxes were opened, the temperature was just 38 Q 

 Fah. The report of Mr. Buckland who made the observa- 

 tion says: "In one of the boxes, the eggs nearly all con- 

 tained living fish; in another they were 'blind,' or in 

 other words, no embryo could be seen in them. In all the 

 boxes there was a certain percentage of eggs which had 

 turned quite white. Some of these white eggs had a con- 

 cave appearance, a spot, exactly the color of a strawberry, 

 which covered a third part of the egg." 



This experiment so carefully made, amply repaid for all 

 the care bestowed upon it, and promises in a most satis- 

 factory manner that salmon-eggs may be kept in a healthy 

 condition this length of time, and perhaps longer. 



The fact of this experiment will go far to prove the 

 value of making repeated and careful experiments in sal- 

 mon culture. 



♦ 



— Prof. Hayden, in charge of the Colorado Exploring 

 Expedition, has already collected and forwarded to Wash- 

 ington 227 different varieties of North American grasshop- 

 pers. _ 



— Prof. Pulman, Salem, has been making investigations 

 on a curious fish— the Liparis— which has for a long tiem 



time been a subject of special interest among zoologists. 



— . — s> 



— Mr. Poppe of Sonoma, has introduced the German carp 

 to California. The Napa Beporter reports thousands of little 

 fish of this species in his pond. They are so tame that they 



suck milk from his milkman's fingers. 



♦ 

 — A fine specimen of the Hawkesbill turtle (oaretta vm 

 bricata,) the species which furnishes tortoise shell, has been 

 presented to the Central Park Zoological Garden, 



3 



— A man at a picnic in Massabesic, N. H., discovered a 

 fish on its back in the water showing extraordinary activity. 

 He caught it and found within another fish which had 

 proved too large for its oral capacity. While he was ex- 

 amining it, it was proposed to pull the smaller fish out of 

 the other's mouth. There then appeared within the form- 

 er's mouth a still smaller one. They were not dead when 

 found, but would have died shortly. They were all perches 

 and measured respectively thirteen inches, seven and a 

 quarter, and three and a half in length. 



-ji- 

 lt is possible that the same story exists in the United 



States as in England as to Hedgehogs sucking cows? Mr. 



Frank Buckland wants more evidence about it. Here is a 



correspondence on the subject. 



"A dispute has arisen consequent on my defending the 

 hedgehog from the charge of sucking from the teats of 

 cows, an idea. I thought, long since exploded. It was 

 finally arranged that the matter should be considered as 

 finally settled by your decision. I may say that one indi- 

 vidual, who backed his opinion with a w T ager, sw T ears most 

 positively that he has seen the cow rise from the ground 

 and walk away two yards with the hedgehogs still cling- 

 ing to the teat.'— A. B. 



[It is a curious thing how these old fancies crop up from 

 time to lime. If a hedgehog's mouth be examined, it will 

 e seen that it is much, too small to take in a cow's teat. 

 Hedgehogs are very fond of milk, and I think it is very 

 likely that they wilt lick up from the teat any milk, that 

 is exuding — hence the origin of hedgehogs sucking cows, 

 I should be glad to receive more evidence on this point. 



Frank Buckland." 



*• Longevity ok An j. vials. — Highlanders believe that the 

 deer is the longest lived of all creatures, save the eagle. 

 They have an old Gaelic proverb which is worth recording: 



" Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse; 

 Thrice the age of a horse is that of a man; 

 Thrice the age of a man is that of an eagle; 

 Thrice the age ofjjan eagle is that, of an oakl" 



The exact longevity of animals, has never been properly 

 determined, and is a subject worthy of special attention. 

 We have seen an English horse in Canada thirty-three years 

 old. We would like to have some authentic data on these 

 subjects. 



-♦ 



Legacies in Aid oi-: Science.— The will of tire late Ellas 

 Durand directs his son to H present all my botanical works 

 to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, to be 

 placed in the botanical room for the use of workers and lo 

 save them the trouble of running to the library," and also "to 

 have my collection of botanical specimens securely packed 

 and sent by express to the treasurer of the Jardin des 

 Pkwtfes, of Paris, France, to be added to a larger collection 

 which 1 presented to that institution in 1868." 



—I* Cairo, Egypt, is an artificial egg-hatching apparatus 

 which has been in use for generations. The Country peo- 

 ple bring their eggs from long distances to be hatched out 

 tltM-e, thus relieving the hens ofa great deal of wear and 



tMff, 



Frank Buckland's Museum.— There is a vrery curious es- 

 tablishment at South Kensington, where Frank Buckland, the 

 enthusiastic naturalist, has a small water farm, which he has 

 mads most attractive to all who delight in the finny tribe 

 and what else resides in the waters. The small bathing 

 troughs first attract notice. 



The troughs swarm with shoals of infant trout and salmon 

 an inch or so long, and there is no reason, beyond the ills to 

 which fish is naturally heir, why any one of these young- 

 sters should not grow into such a giant as the seventy pound 

 swimmer of the Tay — the biggest British salmon ever net- 

 ted. 



The Museum contains casts of almost every fish that 

 swims in British waters, fresh or salt; also several sorts of 

 fish brought from other countries, and which Mr. Buck- 

 land hopes to acclimatize in England waters. One glass 

 tank is full of Norway trout, robust and beautifully marked, 

 who made their journey across the German Ocean in the 

 egg and packed in ice. Another tank is peopled with inch- 

 long Thames trout. These swim sluggishly and are a more 

 languid brood. Thames trout are rare, and the angler who 

 has caught one is allowed to boast of it as long as he lives. 

 A third tank abounds with "Great Lake trout," 'a swarm of 

 strong swimmers, whose parents are passing a cooler sum- 

 mer in the deeps of Neuchatel. These fish have thriven in 

 the Obelisk Lake at Windsor, and have attained to the honor 

 of the Queen's table. Other tanks are inhabited by Cum- 

 berland charr, salmon-trout hybrids from the Alsace breed- 

 ing establishment, and in a cabinet in the centre of .the room 

 there are older fish— two year-old hike trout and salmon of 

 ten i laches and a half a pound. When food is thrown in they 

 rush forth and dart back to their shelter, and not a crumb 

 is left. Their food is the very best rumpsteak and biscuit 

 pounded together in a morter. Some of them are so tame 

 that they will feed out of Mr. Buckland's hand. There is a 

 case of Geneva trout in their third year, healthy, handsome 

 speckled fellows, and one of the treasures of the Museum 

 is a tiny brood of sakaon fonMnalis, or American brook 

 trout, sent over in ice in the egg by Seth Green, our famous 

 pisciculturist. These eggs bring in England £100 a thou- 

 sand. Mr. Buckland has three yearlings of this brook trout, 

 eager, thorough-bred-looking fish, of beautiful markings, 

 swooping down upon a crumb with inconceivable quickness. 

 Still older and larger are some American brook trout in the 

 larger wooden tank seen through the window on the wjest 

 side of the museum-room, and also in another tank through 

 the door on the east side. Here swim beauties of four years 

 of age and five pounds or so in weight, who take their food 

 with a splash and turn in the water that thrills the heart of 

 an angler. 



Among the casts on the walls visitors notice a salmon 

 with the horn which grows from the under-jaw of the male 

 at the spawning season, and. which — witness the cast of a 

 fish scored across his side with an ugly gash — is used chiefly 

 for f'htlng. The. room contains many piscatorial trophies. 



In the appendix to the twentieth report of the Science and 

 Art Department just issued, will be found an interestin 

 account by Dr. E. G. Dobson, staff surgeon, Calcutta of til 

 climbing perch of India, two specimens of which he fo 

 warded to the gardens of the Royal Zoological Societv of 

 Ireland, being the first fish of the kind which ever reached 

 Europe alive. These fish, it seems, have large cavities in t.h 

 skull on each side, above the branchial chambers, which 

 contain the greatly expanded, foliated, pharyngeal bones 

 These bones serve as air receptacles, and from them air k 

 supplied to the branchial fringes: and when all the contained 

 air has been de-oxygenated, the whole is rejected through 

 the gill opening. The manner in which this is done is as fol 

 lows: The fish rises rapidly to the surface, and at the same 

 instant the mouth is opened to take in fresh air the used im 

 air is forced backwards through the gill openings ana 

 rises in largehubbles to the surface. The fish descends im- 

 mediately, one or two small bubbles usually passing upward 

 when it lias reached the bottom, from the gill openings' 

 The whole thing is done so rapidly that it is impossible to 

 say whether the air taken in by the mouth displaces the 

 used-up air in the supra-branchial cavities, or if the used-up 

 air be first displaced, the vacuum being filled by fresh air 

 entering through the mouth. Almost all the fresh water 

 fish of India are air-breathers, though not provided with 

 such curious expanded pharyngeal bones. The muddy 

 rivers of India necessitates such a provision of nature, for 

 pure water breathers could not pass through the gills water 

 filled with gritty particles. The" climbing perch " have 

 obtained their name from the circumstance of their havino- 

 been frequently found on the trunks of palm-trees on the 

 margin of rivers, which by means of their highly erectile 

 scales, they wriggle on to as a temporary resting place 

 where to escape for a time the tremendous impetus of a tor- 

 rent swollen by tropical rains. 



Interestin a Georgia Antiquities. — The Washington 

 Clironidc gives publication to the subjoined letter: 



Middlegevllle, Ga., August 8th, 1878. 

 Joseph Henry, Esq.., /Secretary Siuiihuonian Institute, Washing. 



£m, D. C: 



Dear Sie : By express I send you a precious box, con- 

 taining one simple pitcher, Oconee; tw r o thrice-perforated 

 augur-bored stone implements, ancient stone-work, show 

 ing these ancients had the spiral augur hard enough to 

 bore the hardest flint. 



The spiral thread is as perfect and regular as any screw, 

 The augur, even used to bore wood, is one of the highest 

 evidences of civilization. What shall we say of the augur 

 to bore flint V Above all, I send you my Oconee funeral 

 urn, about which I before wrote to you. I held it back to 

 gratify public curiosity here, and to get the missing frag- 

 ments of the broken lid. When plowed up it still con- 

 tained human relics, distinguishable pigeons' feet and toes, 

 which soon perished, by exposure to air, showing air had 

 never had any access before, and that it was hermetically 

 sealed and both air and watertight. 



I call your special notice to the structure of the uni; 

 First its graceful form, equal to any pottery; second, its 

 composition, very thin, and yet consisting "of three very 

 distinct layers; inside, while, hard, thin enamel, perfectly 

 air and water tight; a foundation for the inner and outer 

 coatings consisting of black sandy matter, hard; the outer 

 coat, graphic clay; kept in condition for writing on during 

 the whole process of the writer's elaborate work, until he 

 could write the whole record. 



This written surface if translated, would be as large as 

 the page of an ordinary newspaper. These three layers, 

 trata and coatings, are united by the highest science. 



r he Menml 



Bo man)- gentlemen of this city and Brooklyn are leav- 

 ing with their dogs and guns for a shot at the Pinnated 

 Grouse in the West, that it will not be out of place to say 

 a word about the pointer and setter. 



The pointer, as a rule, is not so much in fashion in 

 America as the setter, by reason of his excessive delicate 

 and nervous system, and his liability to take cold when 

 hunting in wet land. The pointer originally is a cross of 

 the Spanish dog with the gray -hound" or fox-hound, by 

 which the delicacy of the nerves of the nose, to some ex- 

 tent, is diminished, and the body rendered more light and 

 elegant. No dog has a higher sense of smell or shows 

 greater intelligence and docility. The principal reason 

 that he becomes rigid, or points, by the scent of game is 

 from the extraordinary condition of his nervous system, 

 acquired hundreds of years ago and handed down to him in a 

 fair unbroken line by his ancestors. A thoroughly broken 

 pair of highbred pointers are so obedient to the voice and 

 gesture of their master and so well trained to act with each 

 other, that a wave of the hand will separate them one 

 going to the right, and the other to the left, so that they hunt 

 the entire ground, crossing each other regularly in front 

 of the sportsman as he walks forward. There is one mat- 

 ter that is generally overlooked in ranging with the pointer. 

 If in early life you have taught him to retrieve, and a case 

 occurs in the field where he has to cross a stream, as t he- 

 dog returns with the bird, never tell him " down charge. " 

 His coat is so thin, and as we said before his organization 

 so delicate, that he is sure to catch cold; therefore by all 

 means allow him to run round a little, taking care not to 

 disturb other game. The color size, &c, of the pointer 

 have so often been described, we will leave that to the dis- 

 cretion of the sportsman, and remark that they ought, if 

 possible, to be light, colored, so that the animal maybe 

 readily distinguished from the grass, herbage, &c, as no 

 doubt" the dark-colored dog is very attractive to the eye in th 

 house, bnt cannot be seen so easily in the field, thereby 

 causing much annoyance to the sportsman. 



The setter is invaluable for the sportsman who only cares 

 to keep one bird-dog. There are several crosses, such as 

 the Gordon, the red Irish, and the American, the latter 

 having resided long enough in the country to entitle him 

 to that distinction. The Gordon is peculiarly handsome, 



