FOREST AND STREAM. 



building for hatching purposes through the filters and con- 

 duits into the hatching troughs. G represents the gold 

 fish pond, where these much esteemed pets are multiplied 

 and sold to fanciers, who vend them. M is work shop and 

 and mill for cutting meats for the fish, the machinery 

 being driven by water at E, which subsequently discharges 

 into the bass pond No. 4. D is the house of the Superin- 

 tendent. The dimensions of ordinary ponds run from 50 

 to 200 feet in length and narrow enough to easilv admit of 

 the removal of dead fish. Pond No. 1, for the smallest 

 fish, maybe from one to two feet deep; No. 2, two to 

 four feet; No. 3, three to five. 



(To be continued.) 



-♦**- 



TO RAISE BROOK TROUT. 



Mr. A. Palmer, of Boscobel, Wis., gives the following in- 

 structions in trout culture: — 



"They are easily bred, and grow rapidly, although they 

 don't produce as much spawn as some fish, yet a sufficient 

 amount to. trouble the breeder to find water to raise the fish 

 in, each female producing from five to eight hundred 

 spawn at two years old, and about double that amount at 

 three years old; but they cannot be raised to advantage in 

 any other than spring or brook water. This may be either 

 hard or soft, but not largely impregnated with minerals. 

 Trout, in their natural state, prefer active water of even 

 temperature, but still they do well in pond water if there 

 is a continual supply of fresh water running into them, 

 and will stand a temperature of sixty five or seventy de- 

 grees; but water which runs up to a high temperature will 

 not raise as many trout as that of more even temperature. 

 The same applies to still water. They are great consumers 

 of oxygen, and cold water contains more than warm watei, 

 and running water more than pond water. In building 

 ponds we try to have a fall from one pond to another to 

 carjy this property into the water. We find in transport- 

 ing trout that, as long as the cars are moving they need 

 little attention, but if they stop for a short time the water 

 must be agitated. They are cheaply raised. Being cold 

 blooded, they waste no food in keeping up the heat of the 

 body, and ponds which have been built a few years, as well 

 as brooks, produce a large amount of insects and Crustacea, 

 and nearly enough to feed what trout the water will bear. 

 I am feeding about fifty thousand, ranging from two to 

 eighteen inches in length, the larger proportion small, and 

 they will not eat a beef liver a day. Milk curds, any Jean 

 meat that is fresh, or other kinds of fish, make good food 

 for them." 



The subjoined letter from Fred Mather, Esq., which 

 originally appeared in the Chicago Field, answers many of 

 the questions which are so frequently pressed upon our 

 attention: — 



V\ "Inquiries, as amle, do not give particulars enough to 

 base an opinion upon as to the probable result of an ex- 

 periment in trout raising. It is something like saying to 

 your physician, 'I'm sick; what's,good for me?' To judge 

 if a particular pond is suitable for trout culture one should 

 know its highest temperature in Summer, its source of sup- 

 ply and quantity of flow, as compared to the size of the 

 pond, as its capacity to contain trout depends more on the 

 frequency with which the entire body of water is changed 

 than upon the size of the pond. 



The character of the water is also important, us upon 

 this depends the kinds of vegetation suitable for the pro- 

 duction of the natural food of the fish, as Crustacea, insect 

 larvae, etc. Again, the locality is to be considered before 

 it can be decided whether it will pay as a business venture 

 or not; for upon the cheapness of food depends the profits, 

 and if near a place where many animals are slaughtered, 

 and the refuse, such as lights, liver, spleens, and heads can 

 be readily obtained, then it is evident that the slaughter- 

 house being in the neighborhood of the ponds is an ele- 

 ment that must not be omitted from the calculations; for 

 while the pond will sustain a few fish on its production of 

 natural food, when we overstock it we must supply the de- 

 ficiency from the slaughter-house or the dairy. 



Curd has been fed in some places with good results, but 

 in my experience it has not done well as a steady diet; it 

 has seemed to produce a fatty generation of the vitals 

 that often caused death; hence, if the pond was well sup- 

 plied" with water-breeding insects which live either on veg- 

 etation or upon each other, it might possibly correct this 

 evil. Experiments in this direction are sadly wanted. I 

 believe, however, that a few insects and larvae, shrimp, 

 (gam ro arm) and such forms of life as comprise the food of 

 the trout in a state of nature, are very beneficial from a 

 sanitary point of view, to the trout kept on what is called 

 "artificial food." 



Your correspondent's idea of having a spring brook en- 

 ter his pond is good; this wiil bring in much food that he 

 will never see, and will prove superior to a pond supplied 

 by springs rising within itself. Now he asks, 'Can 1 raise 

 trout in my pond?' My dear Sir, no man can tell you 

 that. Try it, moderately of course, so that a failure 

 would not be financial ruin. But the raising of any kind 

 of stock requires not only natural facilities, but that atten- 

 tion from the owner that only comes from his personal in- 

 terest in it. The day has gone by when it was supposed 

 you could buy a thousand fish eggs, put them in your 

 pond, and three years after take out a thousand fish weigh- 

 ing a pound each. As it is said, 'planting a tree involves 

 a promise to take care of it,' so does making a fish pond, 

 and each man must decide for himself the question, 'Can I 

 take care of it?'— that is, after the novelty has worn oil 

 and it becomes a auestion of business routine, like feeding 

 the other stock and fixing the fences, with this exception, 

 that the fish can be put off a day or two without apparent 

 suffering, but the pigs can't; therefore, the 'day or two 1 

 might possibly, with a negligent man, extend to a month. 



The next question, as to the price of trout, is easily an- 

 swered—yearlings, $10 to $12; two-year olds, $20 to $25 

 per 1U0, 'larger fish in proportion, and fry according to 

 season. The cheapest way, if you have the conveniences, 

 is to buy spawn. This can be safely shipped in cold 

 weather anywhere, and hatched without difficulty. As to 

 the width of 'pickets,' it depends on the size of the fish. 

 For fry he wants wire-cloth of ten wires to the inch for the 

 first two months, which can gradually be increased in size 

 as the fish grow. Trout will run down stream or up 

 stream, or anywhere else that they can get. In my ponds, 

 wuich are fifty feet long by ten wide, and from three to 

 five deep, with a deep pool in the middle, they are often 

 all over it; but on the approach of any person they gather 



in the deepest water. I often see them lying near the out- 

 let screen, and know of several cases where they went 

 through a broken slat. I use telegraph wire screens, as 

 muskrats gnaw wooded ones. " 



-*"»*- 



— The Maine Commissioners of Fisheries have lately been 

 distributing black bass caught in Phillips' (or Fitz) Pond 

 in Dedham, which was attacked in 1869 by the introduc- 

 tion of 60 small specimens from West Winsted, Conn. 

 Several hundred have been caught there this year. Black 

 bass are also making their appearance in various other lo- 

 calities, which were also stocked in 1869, by the introduc- 

 tion of still smaller numbers offish; in one case 13 fish 

 (proportions of sexes unknown), proved sufficient to stock 

 a large pond nine miles long. 



iuml tHJiistarg. 



TAME SNIPE. 



A CORRESPONDENT of Land and Water writes that 

 when visiting the Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam, 

 in the year 1869, he saw a tame woodcock confined in a 

 small cage, with a turf and some finely chopped meat. It 

 looked quite healthy. He believes that the sandpipers in 

 the Regent's Park collection have been fed in the same way. 

 During hard frosts he has thus kept the green plover alive, 

 removing it from the garden to the greenhouse. 



We once tried the experiment of keeping English snipe 

 alive, but met with only partial success, arising from the 

 difficulty experienced by the birds in finding their food in 

 the natural way. It has been accomplished successfully, 

 however, in England. The Field, some years since, printed 

 an instance, which is reproduced by the Rev. Mr. Wood in 

 his work on natural history, published in London in 1869. 

 In this instance, a gentleman named Upham, of Starcross, 

 Devon, had a common snipe, which had been caught by 

 some boys in a warren in a starving state, which after- 

 wards became very tame and would follow Mr. Upham 

 around a room for a worm. Her bath was a good sized 

 pie dish, her dining-room an abandoned flower pot, and 

 her amusement probing in a large damp sod of rushes 

 placed fresh for her every day on a piece of brown paper. 

 The quantity of worms consumed by this bird was enor- 

 mous, nearly double her own weight in twelve hours. Mr. 

 Upham kept a diary, noting down "Jenny's" habits and 

 peculiarities, but her fate or length of life is not given. 



Our experiments in this direction were made at Hankow 

 in China, more than six hundred miles west of the coast, 

 in the year 1863-4. It is a matter of surprise to all ''bar- 

 barians" on their arrival in China that live game, particu- 

 larly pheasants, can be bought in such large numbers, and 

 in no portion of China, perhaps, was this peculiarity more 

 marked than at Hankow. In the city of Wuchang, the 

 residence of the Viceroy of the Hupeh and Ho nam Pro- 

 vinces, and a place supposed to be tabooed to foreigners, 

 the market contained almost every variety of game bird 

 known in China, the list of which, by-the-bye, corresponds 

 very closely to that of Great Britain. The pheasants are, 

 of course, the same, the bird having been introduced into 

 England from China; the quail is the same small variety, 

 and woodcock equal in size to the English bird, largely 

 exceeding ours in weight. The Chinese are poor shots, but 

 exceedingly expert netters and trappers, and it was fre- 

 quently a source of great amusement to follow a party of 

 snipe catchers in their peregrinations through the low-ly- 

 ing wheat and bean fields. The indignation that would oth- 

 erwise be felt at witnessing this mode of capturing game 

 is repressed by the . uselessness of opposition, and a 

 knowledge of the great abundance of the birds. The 

 mode of netting was as follows: A large and very light 

 net, square, or nearly so, in shape, was borne lightly over 

 the tops of the wheat by four men, one at each corner, the 

 operation being always conducted at twilight. Behind 

 these walked another man, carrying a long bamboo, which 

 he waved gently in the tall grain. The birds being startled, 

 rose to fly, when their heads became entangled in the 

 meshes of the net, from whence they were withdrawn and 

 placed alive in wicker baskets. These could always be 

 bought in Wuchang, in the Spring and Fall, for about 

 twenty-five cents, each containing a dozen snipe. Adjoin- 

 ing our residence was a garden fitted up in the native style, 

 with much rock work and miniature ponds. Numbers of 

 snipe were placed within an enclosure in the garden, where 

 they had access to an abundance of water and some moist 

 ground, but one after another they died, one occasionally 

 surviving several weeks, and in one instance, several 

 months. They showed but little wildness or inclination to 

 flv, but appeared generally to be dazed and in a state of 

 stupor, although the ground showed where their long bills 

 had been at work probing the earth for worms. The 

 other birds confined at the same time, golden and silver 

 pheasants, mandarin ducks, etc., did very well. The quan- 

 tities of English snipe in some localities in China is almost 

 incredible. Deserted lotus ponds, where the water has 

 been allowed to drain off and nothing remains but the soft, 

 black mud and slimy oogf of great and dangerous depth, 

 with a deceitful mantle of half decayed leaves, are their 

 favorite resorts, the attraction, no doubt, being the excess 

 of insect life and worms to be found. At the report of a 

 gun they rise from the ponds in myriads. In the Fall of 

 the year snipe are sometimes found on very high ground; 

 every spot available for agricultural purposes being ter- 

 raced, sometimes to the very summit of the hills, where 

 irrigation is practicable, the snipe seeking the little detached 

 wheat and bean fields, where the rich black loamy soil 



furnishes them with food. They are also abundant ir 

 Spring of the year on the marshes and meadows, where 

 the grass affords good cover and capital walking. Among 

 the birds always to be seen exposed for sale alive in Chi- 

 nese markets are different varieties of the heron or crane 

 families. These invariably have the lids of their eyes 

 sewed together, the object being to prevent their pecking 

 out the eyes of the passers by. 



, ■»•».. — - 



Dropsy Extraordinary. — An extraordinary event oc- 

 curred the other day to a dweller in the Rue Andrae in 

 Paris. For the last fourteen years a woman living in that 

 street has been believed to be a sufferer from dropsy. She 

 has had all the symptoms of that disease, besides the ex- 

 traordinary swelling or inflation of the body. A few 

 weeks since she went to Burgundy to make a visit, and 

 while there she felt indisposed. At the end of a few days 

 she experienced the pangs of child birth and gave birth to 

 a dead child. The child was of ordinary size, but its 

 teeth and nails were full grown. The body has been sent 

 to the Academy of Sciences. This birth, after a fourteen 

 years' period of gestation, is unparelleled in France. In 

 1832 a lady died at Pas de Calais, who believed herself to 

 be affected with dropsy for seven years. An inquest was 

 held, and the body of a child, completely ossified, was dis- 

 cevered . — Exchange. 



A Flying Snake. — Yesterday we were met by a friend, 

 who inquired, in an excited manner, if we had ever seen 

 a snake that had wings, and "flew through the air with 

 the greatest of ease?" From his statements we learn that 

 while two boys, named Remington and Jenkins, the former 

 from this city, and the latter a Platte Countain, were hunt- 

 ing in the woods, a serpent was seen approaching them, 

 about four feet above the earth. Jenkins took off his hat, 

 and throwing it over the snake, succeeded in capturing it. 

 It is over one foot long, spotted, and has wings about the 

 size of a man's head. The boys have the serpent pre- 

 served in alcohol . — Leavenworth Times. 



THE BOSTON AQUARIUM. 



Danversport, Mass., September 6th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



In company with a friend I recently paid a visit to the Aquarial Gar- 

 dens, 13' West street, Boston. These gardens are owned and carried on 

 by Wm. E. Baker, of the firm of Grover & Baker, sewing machine man- 

 ufacturers. Collected in the fresh water tanks were a variety of fish, 

 among which we noticed bream, dace, suckers, shiners, pickerel, cat- 

 fish, lake trout, eels, sticklebacks, goldfish, etc. Eich of these tanks 

 were appropriately marked by neatly printed cards bearing the scientific 

 and common names, with notes upon the objects contained in them. 

 There were several large tanks, one of which contained a family of frogs, 

 another a lot of torioise, embracing the speckled, painted, sculptured, 

 and snapping varieties; two large wooden tanks contained seven seals 

 from the coast of Maine; another contained an alligator seven feet in 

 length, while another contained one four feet long. Besides these there 

 were several tanks containing fresh water crawfish or lobsters, English 

 lizards, American water newts, a leatherback turtle from Nebraska, and 

 a small sea turtle. In another room were arranged a number of salt 

 water tanks, most of which have not been filled yet. A few contained 

 several varieties of British anemones, which exhibited a variety of col- 

 ors; another was filled with American anemones, mollusks, etc., while 

 still another had a couple of sea-horses from the coast of France, 

 which were very curious. I believe it is the intention of Mr. Baker to 

 charge an admission fee and give the proceeds to the poor as soon as he 

 gets it well arranged. As it is it is well worth a visit, and one maj speed 

 an hour advantageously in looking over and studying the specimens 

 which he has brought together. Yours, A. F. Gray. 



CONFIDENCES OF WOODCOCK. 



Muirkirk Furnace, Md., Sept. 1st, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



A lew weeks ago I noticed an article in your paper on the courage of 

 birds. I am informed by Mr. George W. Mitchell, Jr., (a farmer of this 

 county, and reliable) that some years ago he found a woodcock's nest 

 and made up his mind to watch the nest and see if he could see the 

 young when hatched. He used to visit the nest every day, but the old 

 bird would not leave it after he began to set, striking at him with her 

 long bill if he attempted te touch her. One evening at dusk he left her 

 sitting on the nest; the next niorning early she was gone, and only the 

 broken shells were left in the nest. Chas. B. Coffin. 

 ~*»«> 



WHITE SQUIRRELS. 



Wetauweoa, Waupaca County, Wis., September 3d, 1375. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Being a reader of your valuable paper I would inquire through its col- 

 umns if any one has ever seen a white squirrel? I saw one yesterday 

 that was killed near this place by a boy, and is now in the possession of 

 Prof. H. T. Boreham, taxidermist, of this place. It is a male of the 

 size of the gray or black squirrel, perfectly white, with eyes as white as 

 two glass beads. Yours truly. Geo. W. Teal. 



[Albino squirrels are not uncommon. — Ed.] 



Hannibal, Mo., Sept. 2d, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Allow me, in behalf of the Hannibal Shooting Club, to thank you for 

 the fine specimen of South American teal, just received by the hand o 

 M. M. Barker, Esq. Truly, etc., G. M. Hewith, 



Vice President Hannibal Shooting Club. 



CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 



DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PAS£ S »' \ 



New York, Sept. 5, 1875. J 

 Animals received at Central Park Menagerie for the week ending 



Sept. 4th. 1875:— p 



One Virginia Deer, Oariacus V'irginianus. Presented by Masie 



B. B. Champan. , -j* T 



One white-haired Porcupine, EretUzon dofsatus. Presented oy 



A. P. Bansom. M • _ 



One South down Bam, Ovis aries. Presented by Mr. L. G. Morr 

 One Bhea, Rhea Americana. w „ avi( j 



One Bed Coatimundi, Nama narica. Presented by Master 



Rode. W. A, Oonklin, Director. 



—Old Tiger Tail, the Seminole, is endeavoring to c °" c< ?£ 

 trate his people upon the Big Cypress, in Florida, anu 

 duce them to more thoroughly occupy themselves 

 agricultural pursuits. 



