Sr,n, 18, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



123 



his base and bloody instincts. How many delusions ol this 

 i jtj|] M ml a lurking plate in the popular bosom, all uur 

 turcd there by Ignorance and traditional misrepresentation. 

 To combat, and dissipate these erroneous views should be 

 bile of i]n- main olrjecLsof Hie science of zoology, and iu no 

 manner ean this desiralde end be more effectually gained 

 than by fostering and maintaining well arranged living eOt- 

 loetious. 



These are- a lew of the many instances which prove the 

 importance of zoological collections as a means of obtaining 

 a correct knowledge of the babila and characteristics of ani- 

 mals as it shows that among the herbivora therein less at- 

 tachment and mure brutality than among the camivora. 

 The writer has had personal experience strongly terming To 

 support this view. A camel which he cared lor and nursed 

 when sick, forgetting the duties of all mild-eyed and patL ii 

 looking beasts nurtured oh the fragrant product of the 

 meadow, returned the kindness shown him by a fierce attack 

 that resulted iu u broken limb. 

 * This comparison betweeuthe nature of the herbivora and 

 catrnivora indicates as a rule that gratitude, affection and 

 gentleness accompany a higher intelligence among animals 

 fed on more highly organized substances. 



Then again it was for a long time supposed, and is so yet; 

 by many." that the intellectual powers of animals were in 

 proportion to thfl perfection of their organs. Thus, hs n : 



the most delicate senses and mosl mnsoular Hmbs beingcon- 

 sidcred as endowed With a clearer intelligence than Ihost! 



Whose ph.s-^.^syv : : ■:■■:■"-■■'■<■■■;'-;"<'■ '■ " ; ' 



firm lids '"opinion. ( )u 'examining the seal, however, the 

 hypothesis is proved to be without foundation. This animal 

 of' all the mammalia was, from its structure, supposed to be 

 least gifted with intelligence. It lias no external ears, it 

 caunot see perfectly in the air as its eyes are adapted for 

 vision in the water, the thick blubber winch covers its body 

 deprives it of the sense of touch, except where, the whiskers 

 are found, the nostrils are open only in the act of breathing, 

 while its limbs are like oars or tins. In spite of all this the 

 seal equals the clog in docility, instinct and power of attach- 

 ment. 



As another instance of the importance of the study of 

 animals iu captivity, 1 would mention the fact that, whereas 

 it was generally supposed that the lower animals, while en- 

 joying the untrannneled freedom of their natural state, 

 matured intellectually as they advanced in years, the con- 

 trary was found to be the case; for we now know that they 

 arrive at the highest state of mental development in early 

 years and are. at that period of their lives, much more intel- 

 ligent than their aged parents. Here we have before our 

 Ttew one very Important difference between man and those 

 of a lower type of organization, the former being capable of 

 indefinite improvement from youth upward, his mind im- 

 pelling him to aspire to a gradual perfectibility, the limits 

 of which are commensurate only with the hopes or the race, 

 while t he dumb denizen of the field is destined to work within 

 the limits of a naturally circumscribed activity. 



The establishment of zoological gardens has always 

 helped to throw a flood of most welcome light on the instinc- 

 tive characters, habits and actions of those animals that have 

 been kept under observation. It was once generally believed 

 that beavers built their dams only when living in the gre- 

 garious state, solitary individuals being supposed to sock 

 habitation in natural cavities ou river banks, etc-. Here 

 again Hiiti'i in errs when he says that these animals are not 

 urged to -work and to build by that impelling instinct, or 

 physical necessity which guide's the ant or the bee to take' 

 precautions again-l the vicissitudes of lime, but that they act 

 par ehoti, that is from understanding the design and utility 

 of their work, and that their industry ceases when the pres- 

 ence of man in-pircs them with a dread of his power. Now 

 What happens when the animal is placed in an artificial habi- 

 tation? If material be at hand be will build, not because the 

 necessity exists, but because bis instinct urges him to do so. 



BTom these hastily collected facts and reflections, imper- 

 fectly presented as they are, 1 would that the members of 

 this learned convocation might infer the necessity of our 

 great commonwealth's being alive to the necessity of holding 

 aloft the torch of scientific light in this, as she has done in 

 other departments of human inquiry, and that as history, 

 philosophy, literature and art have SOUSUl and found shelter 

 beneath the ;egis of her intellectual men, so the almost 

 nascent organization of the zoological collections will be the 

 recipient of her munificent protection. A reference to the 

 work accomplished in the countries of Europe and iu some. 

 of our own States will not, I feel confident, fail to give point 

 and cogency to this expression of a long anil deeply enter- 

 tained hope. 



Collections of animals were made in very ancient times. 

 At, first their aid was sought in agricultural labor and in 

 waging war. They weie venerated in the temples and sac- 

 rificed on the altars. In the amphitheaters they were actors 

 in sanguinary fights, and their claws and fangs were often 

 Stained by ihe blood of martyrs. Alexander, amid the 

 fatigues and excitement of conquest, never losing an Oppq 

 tunny to further intellectual progress, sent to Aristotle all 

 the rare animals he found in foreign countries. This was 

 the origin of thefirst collection of animals, the source whence 

 Aristotle obtained the material for his greatwork on zoology, 

 • 'History of Animals." 



Ancient Rome, notwithstanding the high scientific culture 

 of her citizens, made Luge colled ions of wild animals only 

 to whet the brutal appetites of the populace by the bloodv 

 fights of the arena, and thought not that the Nubian lion anil 

 tile tiger of the East were deStfntdtO pla; BH important role. 

 in the intellectual improvement of our race 



In the time of the late Ctesars a ten- private collections 

 were made, and to bis observations of them Pliny owes the 

 in, pi ration which gave the world his celebrated work on 

 natural history. Although lull of errors it served as a text 

 book to naturalists up to and dining the middle ages, So 

 far no properly organized collection "existed. The best was 

 made in 1640 by Louis XIII. at Versailles, known as "Jar- 

 din du Hoi" from -Which was organized later the ".lanlin 

 des Plantes." BruTon was appointed director, lie had re- 

 solved previously lo devote himself to the pursuit of science, 

 This appointment called, his attention more pointedly to 

 natural history, and hit determined to continue the work 

 of Aristotle and Pliny by describing the organic forms of 

 nature on our globe, and was the first since fheii time to de- 

 vote intelligent attention lo the subject. Pis example was 

 fallowed f.,'ravi::' and -M. Ilill.-ure who laid lb: r.srinl aion 

 of true science in these hues of investigation. The former 

 owes his determination to make natural "history a life study 

 to an attentive perusal of Button's work- Thus all the great 

 results achieved in this ;ield had their origin in the zoologi- 

 cal garden of Louis XHI. 



Pred< nek Cuvier, brother of the great natural; 



while in charge of that depavimenr in the 9 a rdi 



ral History of Mammals, describing in a charming and ele- 

 gant style more than live hundred animals, ami illustrated 

 their habits and intelligence by many and most interesting 

 anecdotes. 



Who would not to-day. iu the light which 0U1 88 & 



facilities for observation, all'ord, smile at. the puerility o1 :■ 

 Descartes and a Billion in denying all intelligence to the 



lower order of animals, while thati largelight brings 



into clearer prominence the absurdity of Coudillae and 

 George Leroy who accorded to them even the highest i t< 



leetual capacity. nnil thus confounded instinct with reason. 

 E. Olivier drew the tine between the intelligence of different 

 orders, tracing it from the lowest rodents through ruminants, 

 pachyderms and earnivora to the quadruina'iiii. He first 

 showed that domesticity in animals depends on their socia- 

 bility, being not a change but a development of their natu- 

 ral condition. Man found animals living in society ami In- 

 made them domestic. We may tame the solitary and fierce 

 bear. Hon and tiger but, we caunot domesticate 'them. 



Thoroughly imbued with the value of living collections 

 and their unbounded influence on the education of the peo- 

 ple, the London Zoological Society and the Acclimatization 

 Society of Paris bent their best energies to form a complete 

 and systematic organization of zoological groups, wherein 



all specimens might be represented. The latter, established 

 iu Le54,not Only fcsues publications hut gives prizes iu the 



shape of medals and money tor the best works relating lo 

 zoology, and the best methods of breeding, alimentation, 

 etc. The former, organized by royal charier in 1829, origi- 

 nated in a collection made by Henry 1. at Woodstock, it 

 contains one of the finest zoological libraries in Europe. All 

 the foreign English representatives, princes and travelers 

 take interest in the gardeu, sending to it, or aiding others to 

 do so, many rare specimens from ihe different countries of 

 the world. They issue yearly volumes of transactions and 

 proceedings, wherein are contained exhaustive accounts of 

 the actual condition of the collections and I hi' most recent 

 researches that have been made. To these volumes such 

 illustrious naturalists as Huxley, Mivart, Sclater and Flower 

 are frequent and free contributors. 



in addition to the gardens already mentioned there are 

 twenty-two others in different parts of the world. The 

 Antwerp Garden is noted tor the breeding of foreign birds, 

 parrokeets, etc. The Berlin. Erankloil and Cologne gardens 

 have an immense collection boused in magnificent buildings, 

 while in this country I lie cities of Philadelphia, Cincinnati. 

 St. Louis, Detroit and Toronto have already established fine 

 zoological gardens, 



Why Should not the Empire State, so marvelous in 

 growth, so rich in resources, emulate, I will not say the old 

 capitals of Europe, bib her smaller sister Slates at home, in 

 a laudable effort to found a well organized and scientific 

 collection of 'living specimens whereby her citizens may he 

 trained and educated iu a most interesting- and instructive 

 branch of knowledge, and her reputation for culture may 

 be strengthened and diffused. 



Qur present collections at the Central P.-uk are meagre, ill 

 equipped and badly provided for. We need a strong and 

 widespread sentiment to support what we have, and to in- 

 sure to it a swift, increment and sturdy growth. Even if a 

 theoretical knowledge of nalural history entered into the cur- 

 riculum of our public schools, this want. would make itself 

 more surely and more speedily Fell t I aoi onfj would a 

 demand be made for increased facilities lor practical knowl- 

 edge and observation, but public-spirited citizens would 

 willingly open their purses to the demand. But for one rea- 

 son or another the chief and most instructive feature of 

 zoology now languishes, and living collections iu our midst 

 are almost a fiction and a myth. ' So far has apathy in this 

 direction gone, that the very handbooks of zoology that 

 circulate in our schools are replete with errors ami compla- 

 cently repeat the polished fallacies of Goldsmith. 



On the Legislature of this State the important work devolves 

 of lifting this branch of natural history out of the nils, and 1 

 feel contideut that the members of a body so conspicuous for 

 their zeal in the interests of higher education, will not hesitate 

 to lend their noble efforts to the promotion of this much 

 needed purpose; for on considering the subject from all poss- 

 ible points of view, we must necessarily conclude that the ex- 

 amination of animals iu zoological collections is the best 

 method for studying and acquiring a correct knowledge of 

 them, aud that the zoological garden is the place iu which 

 the lover of nature can best pursue his investigations of the 

 different members of the animal kingdom. 



BREEDING QUAIL IN CONFINEMENT. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



In December. 1*76, I shot a female quail, breaking its 

 wing. Capturing it. I brought it home and caged it.' 1 a 

 the summer of 187? it laid twenty-four eggs, and about one- 

 third of them were hatched out. This bird was a lowland 

 quail, and in the spring of that year I was presented with a 

 highland male quail. Through 'bad luck only one lived to 

 the size of an English sparrow, and negligence hi feeding 

 was the cause of its death. During thfl summer of ISM I 

 visited the West. In 1879 I agaiu got the quail to nest. She 

 laid twelve eggs and died on the nest after setting ten days, 

 during which lime the male bird sat with her pari of the 

 time. After her death I took her fiom the nest, the male 

 bird then taking charge of it. and batching out six young 

 quails August: 111, raising them all. The cage was -1 ft,.' hiVlm 

 4ft. wide and Oft. long. Of that lro.il four were females 

 and two males. In the spring of 1880 I enlarged the cage, 

 making it 6ft. square. 1 would go in that cage to lis. ! , m-m. 

 they b, ing about as tame as chickens. May Hi I went into 

 their cage aud made their nests; after v. Inch I he birds them- 

 selves arranged them. Have taken eggs ftoui th 

 and permitted visitors to handle them also. The ill ' BOB 

 tiuued to lay in them to the number of about 860 eggs, from 

 which 1 had over thirty birds at a time. 



Again finding my cage too small I made it cover twemy- 

 four feet of ground, as I was losing bird-. , ■ , .■ , , ut of 1 heir 

 beilig overcrowded. The winter of 18s.o-.si > n ■ •_ cxtiemelv 

 cold." my birds were till frozen to death e\e ■■■■.i.i a o, - o, 

 female, which I had taken in the bouse, the female l pr< 

 seutingthe second and the male the third generation. I 

 made a nest, for this female bird, in which she laid eighteen 

 eggs. The rats burrowed under the nest an. I ci 

 with dirt. I picked out the eggs aud taking uiue into the 

 house made a new nest, in which i put tin 

 continued to lay iu this some dozen more. She lived to the 

 age of two veal's, lacking nineteen days, iu close ifi] 



i hich she was seized with chicken cholera and 



died with,,, th Ne weeks. The mule bird also died of the 

 ami i li'T'ase. 



I put part of these eggs under a bantam. The eggs were 

 kept rather too long waitine for the bantam to get "ready to 

 sit. She hatched "out Only three of them the mother 

 being disturbed in the night the little one.-, goi away from 

 her and were (hilled, which caused their death. They Were 

 about two weeks old. Photographs of these domesticated 

 nuail are hanging in my room. 



Sly nephew, Robert jrloneymajl, of Larger Crossroads, 

 Bomi et county. M. J., presented rncwilh thirteen wild 

 youngi nails July 7. 1881. Thevwere just hatched, and were 

 about liie si;/.- of bumble bees, I took one of the thirteen to 

 a sitting hen for her to mother it, The little bird gave a 

 dart, when the hen pecked and killed it. I then made an 

 artificial mother for the remaining twelve, Until July 33, 

 they were all doing well, when one of them suddenly died, 

 and the 23d. another. Holding one in my hand to warm it, 

 on closer observation 1 discovered a dozen large ben lice, f 

 soon foniid the birds had taken them from the feathers in 

 which they were brought when presented me. T lost four 

 before I could get rid of ihe lice. The remaining eight I 

 put into a. basket, took them out of town into a meadow, 

 and set them free. They would slay around me as chickens 

 around a hen. When thev had wandered some distance off 

 they would call, and on my answering they Would come to 

 me. After running at lame a little while I caught them, 

 put them in the basket aud brought them to their" cage. A 

 few days after they were attacked with cholera, which was 

 caused from keeping them iu the old cage, and Ihev dropped 

 oil' one after another until the H'Hh of August, I have a 

 photograph of one of the eight when alive sitting on mv 

 hand. 



If any one in ihe United States has succeeded in rearing 

 domesticated quail in close confinement, I would be pleased 

 to bear from him. Those who wish the first description of 

 the doiu tical a quail can find it in the Forest amm 

 Stkeam of Mai 3 1881. Hekrv Bunhrook. 



[It appears that some one called in question the accuracy 

 ol Mr. Benbrook's account published iu our issue of May 5, 

 1881, and he has therefore thought it worth while to send 

 us a number of Statements by other persons corroborating 

 the letter printed above. A. P. Hunt, M. D., says that "the 

 history is substantially true iu detail." Mr. D.' N. Messber 

 writes, "in the capacity of a newspaper reporter," that Mr. 

 lle'ilirook "is an honest, truthful, upright citizen." Will. 

 S. Potter, late Surrogate of Somerset county, certifies of Mr. 

 Benbrook that "with all his fondness for following wild 

 game with a good gun, behind a good dog, his word is 

 always relied upon. He is uot a man to misstate facts upou 

 domestication of quails or any other subject." There are 

 numerous other certificates of like nature.] 



fag m\A gntf. 



GAME PE.SOET.S.—We arc alimys glad to reeewe fur pub- 

 lication seen notes of desirable game resorts as until 1,'e of loin 

 to the readers of Forest axd Stream. Will not 'our "corre- 

 spondents fai-or us with such advice? 



To insure pro; 



entiori, communications should be ad- 

 n:l Stream Publishing Co., and not lo 

 -'.'■seuce from the office matters of im*- 



OPEN SEASONS. 

 The digest of ppfen seasons, printed iu our issue of Aug. IB, has 

 been published in convenient pamphlet form, and will tie seut co any 

 address, posl paid.ou receipt of 10 cents. 



IN THE MOOSE RIVER COUNTRY. 



IT was early afternoon, last August, when Dick Biirch, the 

 well known Blue Mountain Lake guide, and I reached 

 the pathless mountain shores of an Adirondack lake. I:; 

 was Little Indian, where scarce a dozen men, perhaps, have. 

 ever been. We had left the home camp, where the rest of 

 the party quartered on the wild banks of the narrow Moose. 

 six miles away, at ten in the morning, and it was now three. 

 Six miles in live hours? yes! But we had to follow ablaze— 

 which we lost eventually — and fag over the roughest country 

 with never a track, except a deer run, and back our pack 

 basket and carry paddle, shotgun and rifle. 



Thanks to Dick's skill, we struck Ihe outlet, upon the 

 bank of which, drawn well into the bushes, was the old 

 moss-grown dugout, which Bureh expected to find, having 

 seen it there two years before. Putting this into the water, 

 and satisfying ourselves that it did not leak seriously, we 

 were soon paddling along the near shore watching the forest 

 bank carefully for signs of a little camp, occupied occasion- 

 ally in the winter by the eccentric trapper Goudray. 



Little Indian is a couuterpait of a hundred other beautiful, 

 wild, irregularly framed sheets of water in the Adirondack 

 region; and its shore lined with lily pads and half-eaten 

 tops of water grasses augured well for that night's jack 

 hunting. 



We were sadly in need of meat in the home camp, having 

 only lulled a yearling before our hounds, I hough I make not 

 that an excuse for night shooting, which 1 consider a pecu- 

 liarly weird and fascinating sport, requiring more skill than 

 is generally supposed, both iu paddling and in shooting, as 

 many a man's miss, with a shotgun and buckshot, will tell. 



Half way up the west shore we could see a little clearing 

 among the tree tops, and closer scrutiny revealed the little 

 barked-over camp upon the hillside. Boon the place was 

 carpeted with the soft, fragrant tips of balsam and made 

 quite comfortable for the night, when we should come in 

 from •■floating." A huge tire under the baker was dispel- 

 ling the dampness of the interior, .which was ornamented 

 now by guns supported against the w ; ,ll by a natural rack 

 of forked sapling. After dolling leggings and shooting 

 boots I rested, reclining on my li.ml.i -, ■ ■■■: .: on the hem", 

 lock tips, watching the steam 'issuing from the coffee pot 

 hanging from the crosspieceof the baker; while looking 

 down the path to the lake could be seen ihe cumbersome 

 : picturesque dUgOUt, and beyond the blue lake, 

 backed by the encircling files t hills, lay stilt iii golden sun- 

 shine. Though it was only Angus!,, a peculiar autumn 

 cooluess filled the air: the ring of Dick's ax came from a 

 ■lump, aud. tired with my tramp, I fell asleep, 



"The coffee will spoil if I let you sleep my longer," said 

 Dick, when my eves had been closed scarcely five miuules; 

 and a very simple dialler we made on a few' things we had 

 brought with us. But we trusted to have venison steak for 

 Ihe morrow's breakfast. The inevitable I i in did 



