408 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



tint! that lordly crest -ami how they coiirtesey 

 ■ ■■■whik- Uttering their harsh cry. Harsh nearby, 

 lint dream; and pleasing a( n little distance. I now cptneto 

 fi piece ol heavy timber; the urns ■.„•■ still green and bea»ti- 

 fiil, timl how handsome are the mosses and lichens on the 

 lronk& How pcrfcurly still everything flccmB. the summer 

 leaves lay thick on the ground, damp and moist. Ou a dis- 

 tant tree top T distinguish a yellow-bellied woodpecker, 

 common bird in our neighborhood. It is one or 

 OUV haiidsoine-t woodpeckers, lias a brilliant scarlet throat 

 and crown, yellowish breast, and black and -white back and 

 shoulders, li is eery noisy in Hie bleeding Season. 



What distant pulsations is that I hear? Ah! it is two 

 ! have beard voli before! The drumming of the 

 ruffed gioust'. 9 sound delightful to the sportsman 'sear, and 

 strange and mysterious to others. I stop and listen again, il 

 Is repeated, you cannot tell where it comes from, whether 

 near hy or atar off, L wander od. thinking and dreaming, 

 until startled hy a whirr of wings close by 'my side, and' I 

 see .Mr. Grouse making for a thicket ahead'. 1 bring up my 

 breech-loader in position for a snap shot, but remembering 



•ii rendition, continue on sadly until I meet a pair 

 Of nuthatch)* in llieiri|uakercosltnne, limning up and down 

 an old oak. Wllflt laucy little fellow?, they ale, looking at 



ynu-vritii tiirfi' heads down! What pleasing recollections 

 they ,-eeall of childhood— the little sap-sucker as we called 

 them. How often in midwinter, when the ground was 



. ,. i , i 1 1 1 -cow. have \.. l; li-tened to their peculiar call.. 

 1 niiu come lo another open spot beyond the timber, cedar 

 I ree» with bine berries being thickly scattered about, and 

 feeding here and there I notice a small Bock ol waxwihgs 

 (cedar birds). What can be more beautiful than one of these 

 birds in full plumage — how soft and blended are the colors, 

 with 'he lips of the tail and wings linished with scarlet — 

 with a band of bright yellow on the tail, and a black velvet 

 band about the lead, and v, hat a iine crest, It has no sons:, 

 bill simply . i twittering whistle. Just at'tci leaving the wood- 

 Ian. ! i notices ssmall birds flying about on the bushes. 



keeping together more than birds generally do. 1 soon see 

 their heads glistening with crimson, and,* know them in a 

 moment to he the redpoll linnet, ami as usual. I see the gold- 

 finch with them— not in his splendid summer plumage of 

 yellow and black, bul in more sombre gray witli white- 

 handed wings. Cheerful little fellows, they have the same 

 note as in summer, and generally sing as they fly. 



A.S 1 approached nearer habitations 1 hear our sweet blue 

 bird, the American bird, dressed in our national colors, red, 

 white and blue: and what beauty is that flashing red in the 

 sunlight of about the same size?' It is feeding on the Seeds 

 of some tall weed. I creep up softly, and there I And a male 

 of the purple finch in full plumage— •'crimson finch' would 



I. been a better name. 



1 am homeward hound across Ihe meadows, ami the shoit 

 day is coming to a close. Ahead of me, skimming over the 

 field, is a large hawk of a bluish slate color, whitish under- 

 neath, lb sails quite close, darts on the ground and imme- 

 diately raises with a mouse in kis claws. It is the marsh 

 hawk, one of the few birds of prey that, breed on the ground. 

 There goes a meadow lark over the meadows. How bright. 

 is his golden breast, and black crescent. Now and then one 

 or two will remain with us all winter, but most of our sum- 

 mer birds migrate. Up start,- a single Bob "White from a 

 bunch of wild grass, and with a whirr of wings drops in the 

 bushes beyond, Poor bird, have all your companions been 

 slaughtered? Take care of yourself until the New Year. 

 when your season of rest is at hand. 



1 hear a loud clear note high up on that ash in the fence 

 row — (dear and bell-toned — there it is again. 1 stand per- 

 fectly quiet, It is again repeated near, f walk carefully to 

 ihe fence, and there up in that slender oak. I see a small 

 leaden colored bird with a very prominent pointed crest, 

 There, he sings again— how clear and loud. It is a tufted 

 titmouse— not a common bird with us, but a few remaiu ail 

 winter , and in the spiiug their beautiful clear whistle is 

 heard for a long time. It is of the same family as the chick- 

 adee, bui very dissimilar. 



It has now "become dusky, one of our old familiar friends, 

 the song sparrow, starts up w lib a chirp from Ihe fence comer 

 10 welcome me home, and just before 1 reach the lionise] 

 can di-iinguish in the gloaming a little mottled owl silently 

 flying past. I put up my gnu, "sit up to the fire, and think of 

 the beautiful world we live in. Old Tuhkky. 



Long Hill, N. J. 



NOTES BY A LION TRAINER. 

 fld&or Fbrest and Stream; 



In your issue of Oct. IS. I saw an account, signed "Eye 

 Witness," of the way in which I have tamed and trained 

 lions, tigers, etc. The account is interesting enough, but 

 fails in detail, and really gives no accurate information as to 

 how the training is accomplished. Not every man can suc- 

 ceed in this work, for it not only requires a quick eye and 

 steady nerve, but also a peculiar sympathy with animals, 

 which is inborn and not to be acquired. I began as a boy 

 in teaching tricks lo small animals, then tried my hand upon 

 a bear which, as a cub of six months, was procured in Can- 

 ada, and succeeded very well. •■Jack" was the wonder and 

 delight of the neighborhood. 



My firs! experience in lion training was in Hamburg, Ger- 

 many, where I became intimate with a professional man, 

 tier of a -'Handels Menagerie," where all the animals are 

 for sale. He had a group of five lions and a bengal Tiger 

 which be was training for a circus. The animals were all 

 young, varying from eleven to eighteen months. Yielding 

 one day to my urgent entreaties, but with the warning to 

 keep close to him, he let, me enter the cage with him, and 

 from that hour dales my personal experience with ihe "king 

 of the forest." After my first trial, I went in several times 

 with -Mr. H., and began' to understand the art. and when, 

 soon after, lie was called away to Berlin on business, I un- 

 dertook to keep the beasts in working order for him, and 

 brought them on well. Since then I have put together two 

 ,,i, ,i,i Of six lions and a leopardess, and the other con- 

 sisting of four lions, one tiger, and one jaguar. 



It is less dangerous to train lions bred in freedom than 

 bred to menageries or zoological gardens. This may 



i, it first very improbable, but when one remembers that, 

 the animal in his wild state is utterly unacquainted with 

 man. whereas his captive brother from his birth has been 

 stared at. teased and tormented by him. one can well under- 

 stand how "familarity" has bred "contempt" in this ease as 

 well as in many others. Lions born in captivity learn their 

 tri ksrnore easily, as they are more accustomed to I heir 

 and to being- looked at, and their attention is not so 

 easih diverted from the trainer. 



The cage in which one tames lions is from fourteen to 



sixteen feet long, nine and a half to lb feel in width ami 

 eighl to ten feet in height. 11 is a mistake to have the cage, 



too large, as it sensibly increases the danger io the trainer. 

 The great danger ami theoiicmo-l to be avoided is letting 

 the animals get a chance to spring at you, and to prevent 

 this, one must keep as close to them as possihl". (I, course; 

 being so near, the trainer is often clawed, thai is. hit at 

 with the paw, but ibis makes only a flesh wound, whereas, 

 if the lions have room to make their spring, the man receives 

 their weigh! as well as the blow, which being nearly always 

 directed at Ihe h-ad, is generally fatal, 



There is very little truth in the popular idea lhat the 

 human eye has great power over lions. It certainly makes 

 him uncoiu tollable to he looked at steadily, ami be will turn 

 away his head, hut this is only for the reason thai his eyes 

 being further apart than ours, the concentrated elVorl at sight 

 makes him squint, which, as we all know, is strained and 

 unnatural. Slow is it possible for a trainer to keep his eyes 

 upon six to eight animals al once? If we depended only 

 upon the power of our eye WE should soon make food for 

 the lions, a chance they would not be slow- lo avail them- 

 selves uf. No, thi' whip is the trainer's chief reliance; and 

 it cannot be used too freely. Il is made of plaited leather, 

 without lash, and is from two lo I wo and a hair feet long. I 

 have tried the effect of elceWoily upon animals as a means 

 of training, carrying a small battery in my pocket and run- 

 ning the wire down through the middle of the whip so that 

 when the whip touched one of them he received a shock; 

 but this did not succeed, il excites them so much and thcy 

 are so afraid of il thai ihev cannot steady down to their 

 work. 



Before entering the cage I generally throw in a few hands- 

 fid of sawdust to prevent slipping. It is important to eater 

 as quickly as possible and to have a man ready to open and 

 shut the door. The most dangerous part of the whole per- 

 formance is in making one's exit, which must he done very 

 quickly. To prevent the lions trying In gel out with you 

 when they see the door open, they must first be driven to 

 the far end of the cage, and this gives ihem the opportunity 

 to make a, spring, a chance which Ihey are not slow to im- 

 prove, and many a life has been lost at this final moment, 

 when to outside eyes all dangers h rye been overcome. 



To make a successful exit, after driving the animals lo 

 the further corner of the cage, the trainer gradually backs 

 toward the door, cracking l|j« whip and keeping his eye 

 fixed upon I be animals. As be touches Ihe door, the at- 

 tendant, who is waiting outside quickly throws it up; in one 

 backward .step he has passed through, and it drops again, 

 and only .just in time to clear the advancing foe who comes 

 with wild spring to take his revenge. It. is difficult to 

 make Ihe spectator believe that in this, apparently the easi- 

 est part of the entire performance, really lies lli'e greatest 

 danger of all. 



In performing a "group," it is better to put the animals 

 together while still voting so that thev may grow up together. 

 The first, trick taught is io jump over a hurdle at the word 

 of command, then to spring through paper-covered hoops, 

 Are hoops (covered with cottonwool, soaked in spirits and 

 ignited), to lie down together, forming a couch, upon which 

 the trainer stretches himself at lull length, opening theit 

 mouths while he puis his head in, and other acts. Of these 

 tricks those of the lire hoops are the hardest lo leach and in- 

 volve the most danger lo the trainer, for if a drop of the 

 burning fluid falls upon an animal he is wild with pain and 

 rage and turns upon hU tormentor. My three most, serious 

 accidents have happened in this way. 



Lions need very careful handling, and il may also be of 

 interest to some of your readers to know some of the details. 

 The temperature i'u their houses should be always within 

 1-1 to 17 Reaumur. .Straw should be put in the cage at 

 night, and taken out again in the morning, and replaced by a 

 few haridfuls of sawdust,. Great care must be taken lo keep 

 the cage clean and perfectly dry. It is better to I'ced Ihe 

 animals twice a day, giving them at each meal about seven 

 pounds of meat anil bone, horse flesh is generally used for 

 the purpose. They should also get from three to lourqnarts 

 of lukewarm milk every tiny. 



Lions have generally two litters a year, and from two to 

 five cubs in a litter. Two or three days before Ihe cubs are 

 .born it is belter to put the lioness by herself, and to (dose 

 up the front, or the cage with planks, or by simply covering 

 it with a rug. SO lhat she may be as little disturbed as possi- 

 ble. The young lions will already, at six weeks, begin liv- 

 ing to chew at the meal given to the mother, and at two 

 inonths can eat Ihe softer parts of il, ' 



There is little risk of death to the young lions until they 

 have reached their ninth month, when they begin to shed 

 their teeth, which is the most trying time for them. In 

 some cases the first teeth need lo be removed, but by giving 

 them hard bonis al this lime they generally can bite them 

 Oftt by themselves. They reach their full growth at about 

 two years, although the inane of Ihe male lakes four to five 

 years to come to perfection. J. B. W. 



osage orange is somewkai tiller and tiol less strong tpatt 

 that obtained from specimens fed wholly Upon null 

 leaves. Three beautiful [dates adorn the iinlleliu; two of 

 them being devoted to figures of different species if • 

 and the third lo photographs of the silk fibre. 



lth.ii.nouo>, r-LA'i'i!VRni.M s snuBH is Soui'irEas \i.,» 

 Yotiic— On Oct. 8, 1883, I was fishing for black bass witll 

 .Mr. Geo. Aylesin Oiotou fake. Westchester county, N. 1. 



Some two miles north of Pine's bridge, where Ihe lake is 

 aboul one hundred and fifty yards wide, we saw 8 snake 

 swimming toward the east shore. At tirsl I thought it was 

 the common water snake (Tr<i)>!>hii)ni><*), but its appearance 

 was somewhat strange, so we rowed after, and succeeded in 

 catching itwitb aid of our lauding net. It was a huge 

 specimen of the black variety of the Hat-headed ad-!, 

 color was of a uniform black, resembling closely thai of ih, 

 black snake f />W„,„',/„, >. -A. K. Fisheii. M. I). (Sing sting. 

 New Vork.) 



LaHK-ATWR No-IKs.— The last Signature Of the Proceed 

 togs Of the United Stabs National Museum contains a paper 

 emitted "Notes on the Natural History of Labrador. ' by \\ 

 A. Steams. The notes consist of verv .-light Iv imno'aled 

 lists of the mammals, birds, fishes and plants of the region 

 referred to, and represent the observations of a year's rrsi 

 deuce inn! • «■,, summer trips along the coast. Of Ihe mam- 

 mals forty-lour species and vanities are noted, with brief 

 comments as to their abundance or scarcity. Thepolai bear 

 is given -is "rare, occasionally seen on block-, of floating 

 ice in the extreme northern portions," Two reported in- 

 stances of the capture of the walrus are given. The barren 

 ground and woodland caribou are both Conjectured I 

 though it is perhaps doubtful if the former does so Om- 

 hundred and eleven species of birds are reported, -Ollii Of 

 them, like the wood thrush, on what is apparently insufficient 

 evidence. The nest of the king eider duck i-'said to have 

 been seen by an acquaintance of the author. 



Noxious IhbECts. — Bulletin X>>. '•'•. issued by the Division 



of Entomology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, is 

 at hand. The very excellent work done by this Department 

 under Ihe charge* of Prof. C. Y. Riley, entomologist, has 

 commended it to agriculturists throughout ihe United States. 

 and il cannot be doubted that, the publication and dissemina- 

 tion, of papers like the present mjc is of the greatest benefit 

 to the country at largo. The first article in this number of 

 the Bulletin treats of the adaptability of the anny worm to 

 diverse conditions, and of the damage done by the species 

 to cranberry vines in New Jersey:' Ihe results of a .series ot 

 experiments with I'j/rct/itnin (inseel powder) on n number of 

 different species show that while certain insects are speedily 

 killed by the application of the drug, otK rs survive tor con- 

 siderable periods of time, and others still are not, in the 

 slightest degree affected by it. Dr. A. S. Packard has a 



'valuable article in the present number treating of certain 

 insects which are injurious to forest trees, and gives some 

 inien siiug information in regard to Ihe spruce bud worm, 

 the ravages of which have been so seveiely felt in certain 

 lumbering districts. To the cotton worm two articles are 

 devoted, one bv Dr B II. Anderson on the Cotton \\ orm 

 in South Texas, the other on Experimental Tests of .Machin- 

 ery designed lor the Destruction of this Species by Dr, W, 

 8 Barnard. The observations of both these gentlemen were 

 mainly devoted to the discovery or the cheapest and most 

 effective meth»d of destroying the worm. The article on 

 the tree borers of the family I'mniihf is an unfinished report 

 of the late Dr. .lames S, Bailey of Albany, in Dr. William 

 MeMurtrie's Tests of Silk fibre from Cocoons raised at the 

 Department (of Agriculture) the interesting fact is brought 

 out that the fibre taken from the larva; fed exclusively ou 



fditie $<iq m\d (Butf. 



THE "OLD CLUB." 



r I "MIK last thing I did before sitting down at Ihe desk was 

 1 to take my gnu out of its ease for the first lime this 

 season, in order to oil it for the morrow's sport. It's such a 

 gun! You ought to sec it'. The mi re sight of the ungainly 

 thing would probably make a modern, aesthetic gun ronnois 

 -ieur very seasick', i call il a club, some of my fib nils dub 

 it a blunderbuss. Ten years since, when new. it wns a sym- 

 metrical, Ul-gauge. !l- ! {-ih. piece, with if.Mn. barrels; il shoi 

 well, better than any other gun il has been uiy luck 10 own. 

 Nine yeais ago I .misted it near ihe muzzle, necessitating Ihe 

 cutting off of Sis inches, making the barrels twenty -i>. inches 

 long. Some one advised me to have this doneas'l wa-ahoui 

 selling the apparently mined arm. for a ten dollar note: tin 

 barrels were cut off iind choked by an expert, and the un- 

 gainly, clumsy-looking, big-little, 'ill balanced w< npot 

 as hard, nay hauler, than ever, 1 am and have been lishami d 

 of it for years; have abused il always; have ridiculed it. hut, 

 notwithstanding, have all along had a sneaking regard ba- 

 the honest old, ncvei -failing, sawed off gun. It is as tight 

 to-day as it was ten years since; there is not a harder -hoot- 

 ing piece in town, but 1 suppose the old friend will have lo 

 go, for I had hold of a Harrington and Richardson hau.na i 

 less the other day that fitted me perfectly. The old gun 

 don't fit at all. Sow could it lit anything with such a shape 

 as it isV Still it throws shot wickedly and has faithfully 

 served me. It was no fault, of materia' or make t hat it burst. 

 It was my own fault primarily in allowing others to load 



shells for me, mainly, however, it was Ihe fault of ' 



gun concern who were extremely ur lather culpably careless. 



Possibly my experience may benefit -ome young spoils- 

 men, so allow me to .give that important episode of the "old 

 club'-" history. Nine years ago this last fall an enthusiastic 

 friend of mine induced another enthusiast and rnvsell lo 

 join) him on a deer hunt. Neither of us had ever shot, at, a 

 (leer, hut each was anxious 10 try it. Many wei-e the ar- 

 rangements we made; every suggestion, whether reasonable 

 or not, was acted upon: libraries were ransacked and nil 

 books pertaining to deer hunting devoured with avidity, 

 each of us kept memorandum book- in our pockets in Older 

 to. add to the long list of articles we imagined would be 

 needed, any particular thing *e might chance to think of, 

 After due deliberation, we decided to place our reliance upon 

 shotguns rather than rifles, although the lattcrarms were also 

 to he taken with us. The subject of ammunition 

 vassed thoroughly, thread-wound cartridges inquired for in 

 town, also wire ones, but neither were to be obtained, and 

 our disgust was great, as in our innocence we imagined that 

 unless our guns would carry from 150 to '.'00 yards wc could 

 kill no deer. Finally the gun dealer came to our relief, pro- 

 posing to load our shells with concentrators thai he claimed 

 would hold the buckshot together for a go at distance, Ili- 

 plau was to take the regular 10-aauge shell load 

 powder, then place ihe bueksjot in a Kj-gauge shell, or 

 rather pari of one, and slip the section BO filled with buck- 

 shot inside the lb-gauge, the idea being to shoot tic I 

 section bodily out of the gnu, expecting it to break or scatter 

 some distance oil. Thi.- style of loading looked lo res Col 

 reel, so we sent, our guns io the store and the shells wire 

 loaded to tit them. 



When the time at length came for the start the ideal deer 

 hunter would have laughed long in his silent fashion to see 

 the amount of dunnage three euergeti.j young fellow,- had 

 gathered together for a ten 'lays' hunt. But how much more 

 amused would la- have been when, having secured a guide 

 (he proved to be a nature's nobleman), those three young fel- 

 lows Stepped out of the tavern in a certain Northern Michi- 

 gan town equipped to go into the woods. Rifles, revolvers, 

 guns, harchels. knives, wen- all fully displayed. As one of 

 The spectators afterward told me he "actually tried to find tt 

 place on one of us where something else could have hung, 

 hut failed." t hie oi our patty was very small in stature, and 

 a- he stepped forth shadowed' under an immense sombrero 

 thai he had KOt, no one knows where, with a heavy, large 

 shirt worn outside his pants as a blouse and belted liglilly 

 around, large top boots on his slender feet, an immense re- 

 volver thrii-l in his bell, and hatchet and knife hanging from 

 it, carrying his gun Over his shoulder, with a small rifle 

 slung across his "back, the applause was great. One red 

 Bllirted gianl lumberman inspected him closely, finally turn- 

 ing to another with the remark as he pointed to our friend. 

 "i say. Hank, what is that? Step on it and see if it's alive/ 



