I used a box, the sides of 

 •which were made bad conductors of heat by means of sheets 

 of felt, and which was large enough to contain, in addition to 

 the dishes, a vessel with ice. It m of advantage to place the 

 glass plates in the dishes, bo that the eggs are on the under 

 side without touching the bottom oE the dishes, as they are 

 kept cleaner. Care must be taken to keep the temperature in 

 the box as even as possible, although the cover may be lifted 

 daily to introduce fresh ice and water. While changing the 

 water the eggs may be taken out for some minutes without 

 injury. It will certainly behest to keep the eggs in such 

 water as 13 most similar to that at the spawning-places. I 

 have, however, ascertained from experiments that even a 

 great difference in the percentage of salt is without injurious 

 influence upon the herring eggs. The experiments with ale- 

 wife eggs (for which we ask in our interest), will, in all prob- 

 ability, require no other apparatus than such as are every- 

 where in use, and we hope they will give no especial trouble. 

 In order to learn the limits of temperature I would propose 

 the trial with first, 50 deg.,F.; second, 45 deg. F.; third, 35 

 deg. F. For the sea transportation an apparatus will have to be 

 constructed especially adopted to resist the rocking of the 

 ship and to contaiu the greatest number of eggs without in- 

 jury. I would like to know whether any spawning grounds 

 of the alewives occur in brackish water, and whether such 

 water should be used in transportation, as it can be easily 

 mixed at sea and better kept fresh. A fourth experiment 

 with brackish water of 1,014 spec, gravity and 45 deg. F. 

 would therefore tie very desirable. If not too laborious, it 

 would at least be of interest to science. Dr. N. A. Meter. 

 Heil, March, 1876. 



—Mr. Geo. H. Diekerman, a wealthy gentleman of New 

 Hampton, State of New Hampshire, has succeeded in secur- 

 ing the riparian title to a large number of ponds and streams 

 in his section, and if encouraged by experimental efforts, pro- 

 poses to engage in trout culture on a large scale. We have 

 tasted some of the fish from his preserves, and found the flesh 

 very firm and of fine flavor. The enterprise ought to succeed 

 in New Hampshire if anywhere. Granite formation is es- 

 pecially favorable to trout ; on the contrary, trout are com- 

 paratively scarce in limestone countries. This fact trout 

 breeders will do well always to bear in mind. 



Maihb.— The Marine Farmer gives this plan of operations 

 for the present year i The commissioners have purchased of 

 the Dobsis Club 105,000 land-locked salmon eggs, 52,500 of 

 which have been sent to the Rangeley Lake to be hatched and 

 distributed, and the remaining 52,5u0 has been sent to the 

 hatching house at Bucksport. Prof. Baird has also presented 

 them with 50,000 land-locked salmon eggs, to be forwarded 

 to Bucksport. As soon as hatched the young salmon will be 

 distributed as follows: Cobosseecontee, Belgrade, Welds, 

 Auburn, Hartland, Unify, Brownville, Moosehead, Enfield, 

 Pushaw, Phillips and Waterville. Besides those fish there 

 are 30,000 Rangeley Lake trout and 10,000 blue back*trout at 

 Bucksport for distribution this season. The eggs received at 

 Bucksport from Grand Lake have been very healthy and in 

 good condition, and out of one lot of 50,000 there were but 

 750 bad eggs. The difference in the temperature of the water 

 between Dobsis and Grand Lake Stream is so great that eggs 

 have been received from Dobsis and hatched this season, 

 •while at the latter place the eggs are only sufficiently de- 

 veloped to be delivered at Bucksport. The eggs are moved 

 in boxes, being carefully placed in moss. 



New ILuirsiiiBE.— Editor Forest and Stream : Accept my 

 thanks for your labors in getting up the admirable list of fish 

 commissioners in your number of the 17th. It will greatly 

 aid me in the preparation of my report the 1st of May. Com- 

 missioner Powers, in charge of the hatchery, informs me of 

 the safe arrival of the second installment of 63,000 land-locked 

 salmon eggs from Mr. Atkins, and of the successful hatching 

 of our Rangeley, blue-backed, and ordinary brook trout. We 

 shall now have 118,000 land-locked salmon to distribute in 

 May and June in our trout lakes, which will give us a chance 

 to try them pretty thorough^, and as we shall only put them 

 into waters now inhabited by trout, wc hope to bo success- 

 ful, and have some fine fishing to boast of when the five years 

 prohibition expires. Samuel Webber. 



Office of the Fif' I, nil 20. 

 •»■ 



Michigan.— The Forester Club, of Cadillac, expect 18,000 

 salmon trout at once, whieh will be deposited in the Clam 

 Lakes at this place. They also propose to import a large 

 amount of lake and black bass from the northern lakes. 



—Mr. A. F. Young, of Escatmba, Delta County, Michigan, 

 has a trout jfarrn with 25,000 fry, of which 3,000 are now 

 feeding. The Escanaba region is a most excellent one for fish. 



^tuml ^intorg. 



A HTERrf Dook.— Mr. C. Teller, of Monroe, Mich., sends 

 us a trophy of the hunt, which is quite a curiosity in its way, 

 being nothing else than an apparent hybrid between the 

 wood-duck and the red-head. The specimen was shot in the 

 Monroe marshes. It has the hooked claw and the mottled 

 plumage of the wood-duck, with the head and breast and 

 other markings of the red-head. The skin has been sent to 

 the taxidermist for preservation. 



Hebmaphboditk Fishes.— Prof. Spencer F. Baird has 

 transmitted to us the following interesting paper on hermaph- 

 rodite flsh, recently translated from a foreign journal : 



It is well known that the combination of two sexes in the 

 same individual is not rare among the lower animals, although 

 far less common than was supposed before the careful and ac- 

 curate use of the microscope, as, for instance, in the case of 

 many mollusca and echinoderms, which, formerly thought to 

 be hermaphrodite, are now known to be so. 



Aristotle announced that the fishes of the genus Serranus, 

 a family of percoids. were always hermaphrodite, and this 

 fact has been established by more recent investigations of 

 Cavolini in 1787, and Dufosse in 1850. In a paper published 



by Dr. J. Brock in Gcgenbaur's Morpholog inches Jahrbuch, it is 

 Bhown that in each, of the several species of Serranus, occur- 

 ring in the Mediterranean, there are certain modifications in 

 the differentiation of the sexual organs with testicles and 

 ovaries, as also the occurrence or a special oviduct in the one 

 and the want of it in the two other species. More recently, 

 in 1876, Syrski has shown that the gilt-head (Ohrysopkrys au- 

 ral<i) is also hermaphrodite. And here, according to Brock, 

 the respective organization of the two organs is again distinct. 

 In general, both in the Ohrysophrys and the Serranus, the tes- 

 ticle lies in the walis of the ovary ; but while in the latter the 

 testicle appears only as an appendage of the ovary projecting 

 inward, in the Ufirysophrys it is much more highly developed, 

 so that, on the other hand, the ovary is to be considered as 

 an attachment introduced in the duct of the testicle. Thus 

 in the one genus it is the ovary and in the other the testicle 

 that is iv ore highly developed. 



In addition to this, Brock states that in a very young speci- 

 men of Serranus no trace of testicle could be found at all. 

 Continued and repeated investigations on a large number of 

 specimens are desirable. 



Dr. E. V. Martens, in referring to these facts, is of opinion 

 that the predominance of the male or of the female organs, 

 hitherto considered as a generic characteristic, may, after all, 

 be only an individual feature, and vary in the same genus and 

 species, according to the age or condition of the fish under 

 examination, and that the first stage in the separation of the 

 sexes occurs in a manner similar to what has been observed 

 in many mollusca. 



A periodic separation of the function, at least in the Ser- 

 ranus, has been established by Brock, two specimens investi- 

 gated by him in September having numerous ripe sperma- 

 zoids in the testicle, and vas deferens. But one has no 

 eggs at all in the ovary, and the other only very young, un- 

 ripe ones. The fertilization of one individual by another, on 

 account of the unequal functions of the two organs, ap- 

 peared to be the rule, as is the case with many hermaphrodite 

 flowers from the some cause. 



Some fishes are only occasionally hermaphroditic ; that is 

 to say, among distinctly bi-sexual fishes hermaphrodites are 

 occasionally observed. Among these belong the mackerel 

 and the carp— Der Xaturforscher, March 22, 116—7. 



THE "MUD HEN" OF THE WEST. 



Editor Forest and Stream : Lacon, His. 



While confined to the house this winter, I whlled away the Hours by 

 adding to my knowledge of ornithology by reading carefully "Coues' 

 Key to North American Birds," and then ufterward looking up and 

 finding the proper classical names of our more curious birds of this 

 reg'.on. The one which gave me the most trouble was the one known 

 everywhere in the West an "mud hen," which swarms in such count- 

 less numbers In the autumn around our shallow ponds, along our 

 rivers, and especially along onr swamp-margined Illinois Blver. I 

 could not at Bret And it in ilie key, and for a time gave It up ; but the 

 reading of "G.A.B.'s" most enjoyable "Sketches from a Miner's 

 Camp," in Forest and Stream of Dec. 19, started my inquiry again- 

 " O. A. B." gives la this sketch what he supposes to be the proper 

 names (classical) of the water fowl of the lakes and rivers of the 

 Rocky Mountain region, and the "mud hen" of that region is the 

 same bird we know here by this name ; and as he mentions Prof, Uay- 

 den In connection, I thought Rallus crepitans must be the right name, 

 but on looking over the key I could not ilud It. crepitans. As a last re- 

 sort I took down "Webster's Unabridged," and, turning to "mud 

 hen," I had the definition— " Ornith. ; (a), a bluish-black wading bird 

 {Fulica americana), common In the United States ; (6), the Rallus 

 crepitans of the South." In this I had another Btart ; but our "mud 

 hen " a close observer would never think of calling a wading bird ; it is 

 more strictly natatorial in habit than any bird we have, with perhaps 

 one exception, to wit: the pled billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), 

 '• Dab-chick, dipper," generally known on the Illinois Elver as hell- 

 diver (another very queer bird), for it never wades nor hies when it can 

 swim. But Fulica passed me out of the rails into the sub-family Oalli- 

 nulinte, and it Into the snb-famlly Fulicinw. and that into genus Fulica, 

 cootB, and there I found onr bird, Fulica amerkana, the only species of 

 the sub-Jamlly and genns in the States. 



Well, what of it ? Simply this : It shows how little reliance can be 

 placed on the common names of things. '* Mud hen •' of the coast and 

 Eastern States means dapper rail (llallus longirostrie). They are de- 

 sirable game, and when the man of the West writes of the great num- 

 bers of " mud hens " on "Western waters, the EaBtern sportsman is led 

 astray, and wishes, perhap?, to be among them with his gun. vv e see, 

 too, how scientific names, when not used correctly, lead to mistakes. 

 We And by the key that the proper TCngllsh name for our bird la coot, 

 and this leads me to ask what fowl is it that you call coot on the coast 7 

 Onr bird, the coot proper of the key, is a very curious animal. Though 

 placed by naturalists in the great family of waders, it may be said, so 

 far as my observation goes, to seldom or never wade ; and though not 

 placed among the Satatores or swimmers, no bird in this sub-class 

 swims more continuously than it does ; In fact, It Is very seldom seen 

 except swimming or flying. But Its favorite place is In water shallow 

 enough for it to reach the mud with its strong lobed feet, which termi- 

 nate its rather long, very muscular legs. Although it is a strong flyer, 

 making long migrations, it la very loth to take wing, and can usually 

 be approached openly within shot-gun range before it will take wing. 

 It rises from the water with great difficulty at all times, and can 

 hardly do so at all, except agatmst the wind. Its peculiarity in this 

 gives the sportsman the best of practice for fowl shooting and fine 

 aport. It la had in this way : Two sportemeu wishing practice for duck 

 shooting, take a light hunting boat, with a pair of sculls, to a pond 

 much frequented by coots, on a bright dsy when quite a breeze is 

 blowing, and charge down the pond (with the wind) after the coots at 

 full speed, one rowing and the other In the boat's stern ready to shoot. 

 The birds first try to keep out of the way by swimming, but are now 

 forced towing, and as they will not rise when there Is a wind except 

 against it, they are forced to turn tail and fly toward, bat diagonally 

 from, the boat, but generally within shot gun range. Each one, how- 

 ever, lias a different range, and so gives the sportsman very compli- 

 cate* Bhooting, and an expert wing shot will generally be greatly sur- 

 prised at the results of his first shots at the coots under these condi- 

 tions, At easy range Mb bird as a rule doesn't tumble ; but If there 

 happens to be another coot about six feet directly behind the one in- 

 tended to be killed, he Is very likely to get badly hurt. The trouble is 

 that the swift movement of the boat Is not taken Into account, and the 

 charge passes harmlessly several feet bhind the bird. In company 

 with another self-conceited "pard " 1 emptied a great many sheila in 

 this way one day last fall without a feather, until a shot at a low Oyer 

 at fifty yards showed my shot striking the water eight feet behind the 

 coot. After that I could " drap" them overy time, sometimes. 1 found 

 that to kill a coot flying directly by at forty yards I had to shoot four 

 feet ahead when the boat was at rest ; but with the boat at Its highest 

 speed, twelve feet, or apparently twelve Jeet, was none too much 

 allowance. 



As before remarked, our coot is a very strange animal. It Is a bird of 

 strictly gallinaceous bill, gizzard and habits of food, with the bristle- 



like feathers and shin of the grebeB, and a coraWnatlc-n :.r the structure 

 of these and the rails, ducks and gtes 



must he skinned as a hare (its reatherB appear to pass tnrongh the skin 

 and be riveted on the inner Bide). It Is continually In the mud and 

 wuter, but Its flesh has no muddy taste or smell. Ask a river sports- 

 man or pot-hunter what it feedB upon, and he will unhesitatingly 

 answer, fish and other animal food, yet a careful examlnai 

 contents of a great many of their gizzards (though in the fall of the 

 year only) has nsver shown the least particle of animal substances m 

 any of them I And generally nothing but water grasses, sedges, 

 mosses and algos. Ask the same river man If our bird 1b good to eat. 

 He will undoubtedly say, "Ses, about as good an a crow or a buz. 

 zard ;■' yet If properly dressed and cooked, it would be hard for one to 

 decide, who did not know what he was eating, which was best, it or 

 blue-wing teal in like condition. In fact, I know of one Instance 

 where this hird passed muster In a hotel at a game resort for weeks as 

 broiled teal ! It is generally very fat In autumn, and this fat should be 

 carefully removed when dressing if. This fat or oil is as peculiar as 

 the bird, and very different from thatof any bird I know of. It Is very 

 white, and when •' tried out " or separated from Ha cells by h«at and 

 cooled, it separates Into two distinct fats— one remaining translucent 

 and liquid at quite a low temperature, and floating on top of the other, 

 which Is buttery and opaque. The lighter of the two appears to be one 

 of the finest of animal oils, without smell, taste or color. I am told by 

 our river men that our ooots breed In great numbers In the vast Bedge 

 swamps of the upper Illinois Elver, nesting on a rude pile of dry sedge. 

 It is such a queer abnormal thing that it would not be safe to say that 

 it lays eggs like other birds, unless one had actually caught It In 

 the act. 



I write thlBof onr coot hi thelntereBt of our market duck ahooteTB. 

 I know from experience that when they are camped for weeks in The 

 swamps that they get tired of eating ducks and " sow belly." Let 

 them try coots, If they are not relished at first, then let them confine 

 themselves strictly for a week to a diet of crow. After thitt the coot 

 will be relished, and many a fat duck saved for market and parse. 



Byrhe. 



The bird called coot in the Eastern States is a duck. The 

 term is applied indiscriminately to the species included in[the 

 genus CEdemia. 



—.«, . 



Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden for the Week 

 Ending April 19.— One whistling swan, Cygnus amerteana; one pair 

 of ostriches, Struthio camelus; one oryx, Oryx teucoryx, purchased; 

 one Pataa monkey, Cereopithecus ruber; one green monkey, C caUitri- 

 ahus; one weeper capuchin, Cebvs cajmrtnus; two garter snakes, Bu- 

 tozhia girtalis ; one snake, Coluber mdpinus, all presented. 



\ Report Continued from Last Issue.] 

 THE NEW YORK DOG SHOW. 



OTJE space last week did not permit us to review the dis- 

 play of non-sporting dogs at the above show. It is 

 somewhat remarkable that, notwithstanding the greatly in- 

 creased number of entries, the list of non-sporting dogs 

 should have been smaller than on previous years. Yet 

 of large dogs there was no lack, the falling off being confined 

 to the toys. Of the twenty mastiffs exhibited, Mr. Morgan's 

 King Olaf was undoubtedly the best specimen. This dog 

 was placed second to Mr. Brown's Vandal in 1877, and last 

 year, although not entered for competition, was taken into 

 the ring and awarded first prize before the mistake was dis- 

 covered. We regretted to see so few puppies, as it is an in- 

 dication that mastiffs are not bred in this country to the ex- 

 tent they should be. The St. Bernards outnumbered the mas- 

 tiffs, Mr. LeRoy Z. Collins winning in the rough-coated dogs 

 with Alp, a magnificent specimen of the breed, who has been 

 overlooked at previous shows on account of his lack of dew 

 claws. " Btonehenge's " "points," which were closely ad- 

 hered to, allowing only five points for dew claws, with a cor- 

 responding negative for the Jack of them, he was enabled to 

 beat his nearest competitor, Turk. Alp was bred by Mr. 

 Macdona. In the smooth-coated class Mr. Johu P. Haines 

 made a splendid exhibit of (including puppies) six animals, 

 and was awarded all the prizes but third in this class, 

 the latter going to Bernard, a very handsome son of Mr. 

 Peai-sall's Fido, a dog whose absence was regretted, he hav- 

 ing been much admired at previous shows. Newfoundlands 

 were only a fair class, but it was noticeable that the standard 

 required was much more closely adhered to than usual, there 

 being few or none of the mongrel breed exhibited in this 

 class. Major Gilson, of the Westminster Hotel, had a very fine 

 dog entered, which was unfortunately stolen before the shotv 

 opened and recovered only after the judging was over. 

 Eleven Siberian bloodhounds competed, but beyond the bitch 

 Lily with her litter of puppies there was nothing worthy of 

 remark about them. The greyhound class filled well and 

 brought out one animal of a character not often seen on this 

 side of the water. We allude to the 1st prize winner. Mr. 

 Luyties' Prince, whose pedigree was not given. One glance 

 at Prince was sufficient to show his superiority ; his clean 

 cut head, long, fine jaw and racing build stamping him at 

 once as possessing unusual merit. Of deerhounds there were, 

 as usual, but few specimens, and Mr. P. T. Barlow's Thor 

 aud Maids bad almost a walk-over. This finished the Jargs 

 dogs, and we might here remark that they were placed first 

 on the catalogue among the competing dogs for the sake of 

 convenience, that all the large stalls might come together and 

 not be Bcatlered about. 



As we predicted they would, fox-terriers made a veiy large 

 class, there being 46 entered. In dogs, Gamester, last yeai's 

 winner, although very much out of condition, was placed first, 

 Battler II. beiDg a close second. There were.a cu 

 fine dogs in this class, the whole being a marked improvement 

 on previous years. In the bitch class both first and second prize 

 winners were very fair specimens, although to us nearly all 

 appeared to lack length of jaw, such as is seen in ihe best 

 types in England. A very good bitch, but only H. O. , was 

 Mr. Parson's Kate, possibly a relative of Gamester, as both 

 were sired by Tyke, if the same dog, a celebrated English 

 champion. The Messrs. Laurence, of Groton, showed some 

 very fine dogs, and won in ihe dog puppy class with one of the 

 progeny of their Nettle. Mr.'Fred Goodiidge showed a very 

 Handsome litter of puppies out of hia Daisy and sired by one 

 of Mr. Griswold's dogs. In collies we were disappointed, not 

 but that there were some very fine specimens exhibited, but 



