144 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



]Sept. 20, 1883. 



two tfiet of the ground. Yet it lias never been known to 

 Ileal on the ground, and young lir. hemlock or spruce 

 frees are its favorite nesting resorts here. 



The chestnut-sided warbler "breeds on trees," but never 

 on (he ground. Its nest is usually, if not always, placed in 

 a C ,-ot eh between two branches or twigs of young trees, bushes 



or s i.viit 



Wesson's bl 

 through Main 

 with having w 



I purposely 

 because 1 f.'iile 



ick-capped warbler was noted as ' 

 e." The critic, however, credits tin 

 ril.teu. 'Only a migrant through Main 

 ivoided stal'in»: that this bird breeds ii 

 J to find in my notes suffioientlyi 



evidence to support such a statement 

 seen here certainly pass by and bree 

 It is the general belief that some ot 

 and it is to be hoped that the evidei 

 rate thi s belief will soon be fori heomi 



The critic prefaces his citations of 

 "blundering," bv commenting upon t 

 tations of the land birds, adds that 

 unwise, if we may judge the author' 

 this department by' some of his pre: 



The gre 

 east or n 

 the spec 



am pies of 



close 



i to be, to 1 

 ■sume to eo 



rait his 



per the 



mgs to a few species, and "no! 

 general field." 



The readers of the "catalogue will perceive that apart from 

 occasional biographical field notes the, average annotations 

 of the land birds really exceed those of the water birds. 



Except as a list of the species known to occur in Maine, 

 no attempt was made to cover the general field, and I trust 

 that no portion of this field that may have been mentally re- 

 served by other writers has been encroached upon by the 

 catalogue of "The Birds of Maine." Everett Smith. 



Portland, Me. 



THE CACTUS OF SONORA. 



SONORA is the most northwesterly State of the Mexican 

 Union. Lower California, to be sure, is further west 

 across the Gulf, but Lower California is ranked not as a 

 State but as a territory, and has a governor unpointed by the 

 central authority, if l" remember right. Those who do not 

 like Sonora say that there is not a tree or shrub in the State 

 without thorns, This is not quite true, for there are at 

 least two kinds of palm, the palma real, and the ilatil, be- 

 sides oak and other temperate zone woods in the mountain 

 ranges; still, taken all through, the number of thorny plants 

 is very large and conspicuous". Among them are the cactus. 

 Already in the south of New Mexico and Arizona the 

 strange', stiff forms begin to appear, but only when you have 

 crossed the Mexican line does the growth reach its full luxu- 

 riance. Some of the species are useful for food or industrial 

 purposes, and some seem only to cumber the earth, torturing 

 the unwary traveler with their barbed spikes. 



The most common and most important of the cactus in 

 Sonora are set down here, with their popular names. The 

 names sometimes vary in different, districts, and the list is 

 by no means exhaustive. 



BIS.NAGA. 



The bUnaya looks, at a little distance, like a hitching 

 post on a canal. It is a stubby growth, having but the one 

 branchless stump, which is never more than three feet tall. 

 The thorns are two or three inches long and very strong; 

 they are remarkable in being the onlv cactus thorns that are 

 crooked. These curve up at the tip like a fish-hook, but. do 

 not come back so far. if the barb were cut off a fish-hook, 

 it would be just about the shape of the thorn. The body of 

 the plant is fluted, but the fiutings are not round like a pipe, 

 but angular, like the side of an aecordeon half-drawn out, 

 and on I he crest of each fluting is a row of thorns. On the 

 very top of the triswgq., in their season, cornea few tfdor? 

 less flowers, which later develop into a kind of fruit, with 

 thorny cover and pulpy, seed-bearing inside. 



In some boy's book of adventure— I think it was "The' 

 Boy Hunters"— there is a graphic account of how the heroes, 

 when out on a barren plain far from water and perishing 

 with thirst, opened the cactus plants with their long knives 

 and relieved their suffeiing with the succulent pulp. This 

 is mainly fiction. I once had a piece of butatgu hacked 

 out with an axe, to see what it was like. The inside was a 

 white, rather elastic mass, with an uuplea.sa.nl. taste and not 

 so much juice as a raw turnip; very much like a raw turnip, 

 in fact, but without the fibrous structure. 



& 



Nearly as useless as the Umagu is the cluiUi 



word should be pronounced choya, as the Mexii 

 give to double 1 the sound of y.) Unlike 

 which is a solitary unsocial plan!, I he ejiolhi often 

 its plantations for miles over the arid plains. Iu such 

 the plant grows as hish as ten feet, but usually the h 

 not more than three "feet, often less. Bulbs like \ 

 thorn-covered sausages grow on the branches in p 

 leaves, and the stems and branches, too, have pric 

 The plant bears a small, sour, pulpy fruit, 

 ■at, but which men, even Indians, avoid. The 

 ;ed known. They have an almos 



(Thii 

 always 



them. 



birds ( 

 are the 

 barb, 



1(1 win: 



of the burrs gets stuck 



ace of 

 cers on 

 which 

 thorns 

 visible 

 imal it 



needs a powerful pry with a stick to get it off. Even when \pilaya are distinguished by the fact that the species in the 



3 forced off several point 

 ing to the pain the thorns give, and the 

 3 the burr will be thrown, the open 



lly left behind; and 

 uncertainty about. 



> strong enough to 

 y of these shrubs 

 ' the Front of the 

 5 called armas. 

 rse-lamer. But 

 plant is eagerly 

 custom to f:u; I ■ 



plains has very few thorns 'on the pod of the fruit, while the 



OOAHLTiO. 



covered with cTiolla burrs. One other use of the clialla 

 should be put down, as it is quite at variance with our 

 notions. There is a religious body among the Mexicans 

 known as the hermmoa fieniimtw, or penitent brothers. 

 These devotees have an annual procession and undergo cer- 

 tain labors — one is to drag a cross, and if those I saw were 

 fair samples, the crosses would weigh three or four hundred 

 pounds. The foot of the cross is on the ground, the trans- 

 verse piece coming down over the right shoulder, and either 

 to spur on their zeal or as a separate diversion, the penitents 

 are lashed and torn with c/iollu burrs — one of the most 

 disagreeable ways of gaining the kinsdom of heaven that 

 could well be invented'; 



The oeatiUo has uses. A number of poles from six to 

 ten feet long on the average grow from a common center 

 like a bunch of grass. The poles stand drv and thorny (ill 

 the rains begin. Then, in July it usually happens, the whole 

 stalk is quickly covered with little dark-green leaves and an 

 occasional scarlet flower. The poles are full of pith, and 

 are not very strong, but as in the fable of JEsop, force is 

 gained by' union, and by using plenty of ootimha, roofs 

 and walls are made which answer the requirements of a 

 Mexican pretty well. The poles, however, only serve for 

 walls in temporary huts, but permanent adobe houses have 

 QoaUllo.s in the roof. First a row of rafters is laid from 

 the ridge pole to the walls. These rafters have hardly any 

 pitch at all, just enough to let the water run off if it vanl.s to. 

 Then at right angles to the rafters beatitto poles are laid 

 closely. On top of these again a layer of hay is put, the 

 stems parallel to the rafters, and dirt is thrown on over the 

 whole. This kind of roof often sags in spots, and pools are 

 formed when it rains which at last leak through, but the 

 roofs have at least, the virtue of being far better than they 

 look. 



Sometimes for miles through the low mesquite timber the 

 ground will be covered with "species of the I una, or Indian 

 fig. The broad, flat leaves look like the common pricklv 

 pear of Colorado. The wild tuna does not often grow 

 more than four or five feet high. The leaves, of course, are 

 thorny, and on the ends grows a spiked fruit about the size 

 of a 'seckle pear and similar in character to the pitaya 

 fruit, which I will describe later. Tuna* under cultiva- 

 tion reach the height of ten or twelve feet, 1 do not know 

 whether the nopal of .Jalisco and other more southern 

 States is tlie same as the tuna, but there is certainly much 

 resemblance between them. Those who are familiar with 

 the Mexican dollar, the so-called "adobe dollar" of the 

 West, will recognize the <//na as the plant which the eagle 

 on that coin uses as a support tor one claw, while with flic 

 other he strangles the rattlesnake. 



FITAYA. 



If you should disregard the fact that the hand has but five 

 fingers, the pitaya iii the distance would seem like a 

 giant's hand. I'L'areare two mam variati's of Hi-.; pikj/r.. 

 only distinguished by a difference in the envelope of the 

 fruit. The stalks rise to the height of fifteen or even twenty 

 feet,' with rounded flntings. On the very top of the Angers 

 grow the burrs that contain the fruit. From the middle of 

 May to the middle of July the main harvest of the pitaya 

 is gathered, though scattering fruit can be found as late as 

 October. Often In the Indian villages the inhabitants have 

 nothing else to eat than this cactus. The two kinds of 



linla 



whh 



When the season' 

 crack open a lit tit 

 kind of wood peck 

 once. For gallic] 

 is cut. This is 

 of Lc 



pod which is covered with tin 

 loosen and fall olf as the fruit ripens. 

 l rives for the harvest the burrs begin to 

 and birds, particularly parroquets, and a 

 r called the enrpivk.fi>, fall on them at, 

 ng pi/aj/a.i, a wild cane called carrka 

 the same plant that forms the canebrakes 



iana. At the end of this cane ( 

 a sharp, thin stick of hard wood is lashi 

 point, is poked into the fruit and the pre 

 you break off a segment of the thorny c 

 posed which tastes something lik.- n \va 

 flavored with strawberry, and the men 

 seeds about, as big as fig seeds 

 gathered when the weather is hot, 

 unknown, the meat is always tepi 

 decently cool it would be a' very t 



A stranger's eye can scarcely tell* tit . 

 the pitaya and the echo. The latter i: 

 in structure, and the fruit is not eaten, 

 fruit are as strong as those on a ehestni 

 longer. The Mexican women get these bt; 

 thorns on one side and use the other side t 

 They say they prefer them to combs. 



:/„,/,,. 



A: 



d in pi 



it the bes 



pting disl 



"life: 



haps ten feet long) 

 This bard wood 

 s captured. When 

 :, a red pulp is ex- 

 ■nielon just a little 

 filled with black 



always 

 vliere ice is 

 If it were 



irr and much 

 knock oft the 

 mb their hair. 



SAG UAHRO. 



The xayuuin, is chiefly noted for its great size. They 

 call it the giant cactus in Arizona. The great fingers rise 

 sometimes even twenty feet, and stand like isolated monu- 

 ments on the barren hills. 



The minimi is a rarer and even larger plant. The 

 separate stems are no longer, perhaps not usually so long, as 

 those of the miyuarro, but a great many stems spring from 

 a single root. i\ ear the town" of Juarez I saw a sabiiexo 

 whose trunk was three I'eet in diameter and its highest point 

 must have been over thi rly, and perhaps near to forty feel 

 from the ground. The word eabueso means, according 

 to the dictionary, blood-hound. How it came to be given 1o 

 this cactus I do not see. 



These species bear fruit similar, but inferior, to the 

 pitaya. When either of the three dry up so that the 

 stems lose their jjreen envelope, the body of the stem is seen 

 to be formed of a circle of lough, hollow or pithy poles, 

 which are applied to the same uses as the OCtttilk poles, 

 but are preferred because they are straighter and stronger 

 than the ocatilfaz. H. G. Dct.oc. 



A Bear Will FiaHT. —Detroit, Mich., Sept. 16.— The 

 body of a man has been found iu the woods eight miles from 

 Cheboygan, and identified as that of Frank Devereaux, a 

 homesteader who lived near bv. The surround rags showed 



that he had been killed in a light with a. bear, which resulted 

 fatally for both— the body of the animal being found near 

 that of the man. Devere'aux's body was found in a sitting 

 posture, braced against a log, where" he had evidently placid 

 himself after his contest with the bear. Evidences'.. f a ter- 

 rible struggle, were plain. 



Westchester. — A wildcat l.l very large size, with two 

 young kittens, was captured a few weeks since on Butter 1 

 milk' Hill, a wild tract of land adjoining the Westchester 

 almshouse. The mother is extremely ferocious and Is kepi 

 caged. Mr. Van Tassel, who made the capture, intends to 

 make an attempt to domesticate the kittens, which are twice 

 the size of the ordinary cat species. 



An Umitjokt Sportsman.— ''.No bobcats for me." said 

 another of the group. "I've been clawed myself ; one dose is 

 enoyii to last all the year mound. I guided it up here four or 

 five years ago. and one season I hafj : rung R Her eome clean 

 over from Liverpool, but makin' ids stay at Rasps'— one 

 0' these 'ere fa.nev sportin' fellers. lie was poworcfnl sot. 

 on shootin' a bobeal. and from the way he talked I reckon la- 

 kind o' thought ye had to fire al '■■ Iraw •■' ■■■' ■'■■ 

 kuife. and rush iu. Anyway, we was on ; 

 cats, and one afternoon we. come to a bin hollow pine the.: 

 the trail, and I see in a minute 



Iii ■ 



■ he 



Of v 



he 



■ape 



.ml I off intew the b'ushe 

 As I come back I easi mj 

 an' I see a big bobcat go: 

 h. r. and I. made a jump, 



probably liavuf n.ei hi.... 

 began tew pull, o' course 



swan then was a oircu 

 couldn'd hang on. >o I k 

 And, Lord bless ye, n v •'. 

 come aout ye'd a laughej 

 head lew toot, but he had 

 hull thing', and it' 1 hadn't 

 sure. When wetrtniek i 



try towards exellill'. and 



aiid let on that he had a i 



gatt and net, he a-re.hu' 



he had a whale. Pull.' Gtasai naowit. < 



aout in aba. ail fifteen minutes and too] 



again, and if it wasn't that I see the lu 



he had a 1"-: but at (ast lie got it clos 



■twasi (VaS, ye'd nevergness, and dun 



—a eussed old bnli loon— and the way i 



the night was terrible. He was dret.fr 



lav it on me. but 1 reckon I'd 8 ha 



enough. He was an unfortunate kin, 



always got mixed; always would gtt skunks confused wrtu 



minks and -■ -h: ■ .n-.-pe m!\ I, 



smelt, so't I was obliged to throw up the job alter all 1 he 



last I see of him he was sil tin' on the -rave of his last pair o' 



trousers, weerin' a pail' o' mine, and Wlltiu aout an order tor 



inoiv 1 took the order, and have never showed up since."— 



Maine Logger 1 * I''"'" >» fJie-Sm 



ed "to back aout, 

 r by the tail and 

 h. He though* ii 



ouic bobcat, which explained the 



tl kiiewhe veiled like a Piute, 

 rer bile. Willi. I lav bv frith the 

 .ui.l r-clm' aout! ye'd a-thought 



haow i; did pull. He got played 

 -and look ;: rest, then tackled it 



s.e lb- line a-crom' I'd a thought 

 ?otit clost, and what d'ye spose 



cried lo 



ell. like 



