308 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Those "Needle Points."— Our very attentive corre- 

 spondent, Seth Green, Esq., whom his intimate friends 

 have learned to call "Uncle Seth," though he may deferen 

 tially be called the father of fish culture in the United 

 States, has sent us the following characteristic letter:— 



Rochester, NY., Dec. 16th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 

 I see that there are some unbelievers still living. Well, there is nothing 

 strange in that. I expected there would be when I wrote you my expe- 

 rience in using a fish hook made of a needle. I do not charge anything 

 for it. I published it for the benefit of my brother anglers, and I would 

 like to have those who are possessed of some skill try it. I see my old 

 friend Phil Freas, of the Germantown Telegraph, is one of the unbe- 

 lievers. He says he has not tried it. Phil, try it, and if you get the 

 right bend and point and temper, your success will be so great that you 

 will wish you had an india rubber arm that could reach from Philadel- 

 phia to Rochester to shake hands with me. If you could invest that 

 arm with the power of the electric telegraph, yeu would send a message 

 to me that would read : "Bless you, old fellow, I took one-third more 

 fish to-day with the needle trout hook than I ever caught in any one day 

 before with the same number of bites." Yours, Seth Green. 



Onr celebrated tackle dealers, Messrs. Abbey and Im- 

 brie, are large importers of Warrin's needles; we do not 

 know that they can do better, pecuniarily, than to turn 

 their needles into fish hooks, just as the nations are in- 

 structed to beat their spears into pruning hooks, so that 

 there shall be no more warrin' among them. 



•—Mr. D. H. Fitzhugh, of Bay City, Mich., thinks that 

 the grayling are fated to run out, like other varieties of 

 game fish. In a cordial invitation to us to fish the Manis- 

 tee next year, he says: — "We shall have only'afew years 

 at the gaayling, as they are fast being used up, and there 

 are only a few localities where they thrive." 



Truckee River Trout.— A correspondent tells the fol- 

 lowing big fish story : — 



"Certain officers connected with an Eastern railway, commonly known 

 as the "Pan Handle' 1 route, lately visited California, traveling in their 

 own private commissary car. While e?i route westward, hearing of the 

 superior quality of Truckee Kiver trout, one of the gentlemen, with the 

 intention of agreeably surprising the party with a rare fish breakfast, 

 telegraphed for two dozen brook trout to be in readiness on the arrival 

 of the train at Truckee Station, for the use of tha occupants of the car. 

 When the train drew up to the depot two Indians approached the car 

 with a huge package. At first they were directed to the baggage ear, as 

 the private car was not suitable for freight; but insisting that the pack- 

 age was intended for said car, judge of the feelings of the gentleman 

 whose wish was to surprise his traveling companions, to find his order 

 for brook trout consisted of twenty-four magnificent fish, weighing 

 from three to five pounds each, with the bill for the same, amounting to 

 $12.75 coin, which was promptly paid to the Indians under a charge of 

 gecresy. Two or three of the trout were ample for the breakfast of the 

 party, and the remainder were distributed gratuitously among the train 

 men. Moral: Truckee Kiver brook trout are not sardinee." 



— A California correspondent, referring to one of his 

 vacation excursions in that State, says: 



"The country around the McCloud and Sacramento Rivers, at their 

 head waters, is the finest game and fish country in the United States. 

 We killed only for food as we needed them seventeen deer in five days, 

 while without exaggeration we could have killed fifty. The fact that 

 during that time we caught alive six little fawns, will show how numer- 

 ous the deer are. Our largest catch of salmon amounted to 296 pounds 

 for three of us in two hours. We also caught the Dolly Varden trout, 

 so called on account of the large red spots peculiar to the trout of the 

 McCloud River only, and the gamest trout in the country." 



Our Fisheries. — Occasionally our fishermen return 

 with a full catch and finding a bare market realize remark- 

 ably handsome amount for the time occupied and capital 

 invested. Among the best fares made by Gloucester 

 smacks during the past season may be mentioned that of 

 the sch. E. C. Dolliver. She weighed off on her last trip 

 92,154 pounds halibut, her stock amounting to $4,678.72. 

 Time absent, four weeks. Crew shared $185.87 each. 

 Her entire stock for the year is $20,100. 



Sch . Alfred Walen, made her trip in eighteen days, the 

 shortest but one on record . She weighed off 94,000 pounds 

 of halibut, 4,000 pounds of codfish, her stock amounting 

 to $3,320. 



Sch. Gertie E. Foster, Capt. Edward Morris, has landed 

 the past year, 668,517 pounds of halibut and 19,220 of 

 cod, stocking $26,071.56 net. 



Sch. Chester R. Lawrence, Capt. Thomas Hodgdon, has 

 landed the past year, 401,612 pounds of halibut, and 304,517 

 pounds of codfish, stocking $22,800.16 net. 



Sch. John S. Presson, Capt. William H. Greenleaf, has 

 landed the past year, 319,917 pounds of halibut and 331,- 

 815 pounds of coddsh, stocking $20,913.22 net. 



Sch. Lizzie K. Clark, Capt Edward Morris, made the 

 shortest Bank trip of which we have any record, in March, 

 1874. She was absent seventeen days and landed 85,810 

 pounds of halibut, stocking $4,676. 



Capt. Thomas Hodgdon, of sch. Chester R. Lawrence, 

 has the honor of landing the largest fare of halibut ever 

 brought into Gloucester on a single trip, 126,526 pounds. 

 His stock was $4,708. 



Sch. S. R. Lane, Capt. Solomon Jacobs, arrived from 

 Georges with 123,115 pounds of codfish, and 862 pounds 

 of halibut, and stocked $2,544. Cook's share, $156.62; 

 average share, $90.01. Time absent, thirty days.— Cape 

 Ann Advertiser. 



Doings of the Fishing Fleet.— It is quiet about the 

 wharves, and the fishermen, as a general thing, are taking 

 a rest. Some little activity prevails in rigging the new ves- 

 sels and in fitting away the balance of the Newfoundland 

 fleet. But one misses the bustle and activity which pre- 

 vails' when the trips of halibut and cod aie being unladen 

 from the vessels. There have been 13 arrivals of the fleet 

 the past week, five from the Grand Banks, seven from 

 Georges, and one from Newfoundland. The receipts of 

 fish are 60,000 pounds Bank halibut, 210,000 pounds Georges 

 cod and one fare of herring. The shore fleet have not had 

 a very successful week. Prices are $2.50 per hundred 

 weight for cod and haddock. — Gape Ann Advertiser, De- 

 cember 17th. 



Bass Fishery.— The bass fishermen of the Northwest 

 Miramichi have made some very large catches this season 

 through the ice. The largest was made on Friday night 

 26th of November, when an aggregate quantity, estimated 

 • at three tons, was taken. Nets of mesh under regulation 

 size are being used and the overseer has more work than 

 he can do in^ preventing illegal fishing. The number of 

 men engaged in catching bass is as great as two hundred 

 some nights. Within three weeks, overseer Hogan has 

 made three seizures of illegal nets,— Chatham {Canada) 

 Advance, 



— Mr. Wilkins, Fishery Inspector, Belleville, Canada, 

 reports the capture of one of the largest whitefish ever 

 caught in the bay of Quinte, which was taken by the fish- 

 ermen at Lawrence's Point, about three miles west of the 

 town, last week. The fish weighed ten pounds one ounce. 



Intuml !§wtorQ. 



_ ♦ 



[2 his Department is now under the eharge of a competent Naturalist, 

 indorsed by the Smithsonian Institution, and will henceforth be made a 

 special feature oj this paper. All communications, notes, queries, re- 

 marks, and seasonal observations will receive careful attention. ,] 

 1 



THE NESTING OF AMERICAN BIRDS. 



v\ 



II.— The Varied Thrush— (Turdus naevius, Gmelin, Au- 

 dubon, Cooper, Coues; T. migratoriwy&\. naevius, Baird, 



Br. and Ridg. 



« — _— 



THIS is an essentially west coast species, and is known 

 in many places as the Oregon robin . Its range ex- 

 tends from the Rio Colorado to the Yukon, and eastward 

 through the Rocky Mountains. In the Spring it retires to 

 the extreme north to breed, and to Mr. W. H. Dall we are 

 mainly indebted for what we know of its nest, several of 

 which he discovered in Alaska. One, found May 22d, 

 was built about 2i feet from the ground, upon a pile of 

 rubbish which had been drifted into a clump of willow 

 bushes. The situation— as in all other cases— was a se- 

 cluded one, close to the river bank. 



The nest was 6 inches in diameter, and 2£ thick, but the 

 depression of the cavity was slight. It was composed of 

 dry mosses and lichens well compacted, and fragments of 

 dry stalks of grasses. Another nest, found by Dr. Minor 

 in Alaska, was a more finished structure. The outside 

 consisted of a basket of slender twigs, within which was 

 an inner nest of interwoven fine dry grasses and long gray 

 lichens. The eggs, in number, size, shape and ground- 

 color, are closely similar to those of the eastern robin, but 

 are very distinctly spotted with a dark umber brown, 

 nearly black, which make them indistinguishable from the 

 egg of the mavis, or song thrush (Tardus musicus) of 

 Europe. 



— The difficulties in the way of obtaining the precise 

 knowledge asked for in the letter from "C. S. W.," pub- 

 lished in Forest and Stream last week, are illustrated 

 by the correspondence now going on in the English out- 

 door papers over the question whether their common star- 

 ling raises more than one brood. It is quite as common 

 and domestic a bird as the sparrow, and nests in holes 

 about the houses; yet not one person in ten who has writ- 

 ten letters, is able to say that two broods are raised, or that 

 they are not. It is to be hoped that habits of more careful 

 scrutiny into the ways of familiar birds will be promoted 

 by this controversy. 



Abnormal Plumage of the California Quail. — 

 Mr. John Lucas, of San Raphael, lately shot and sent to 

 me at Nicasio, Cal., for mounting, a singularly marked 

 specimen of the California quail (Lojjhortyx Calif amicus). 

 It was a female, and the following is a description: Head, 

 neck and throat light ash ; neck dotted with small, round 

 white spots; breast dark ash; abdomen white, each feather 

 bordered with -ark slate; plume at base light ash, chang- 

 into a deeper shade at the apex; sides or flanks having each 

 feather with a central, lance-shaped white stripe bordered 

 with light rufous; primaries and secondaries very light 

 ash fading into white; back wings and upper tail-coverts, 

 a soft rufous tint; under tail coverts with a dark slate- 

 colored stripe bordered with a rich rufous; tail light bluish- 

 ash; feet and legs horn-color. There is a white individual 

 in the same covey, and Mr. Lucas is very anxious to secure 

 it, but I consider the one described above as more of a cu- 

 riosity, as I have seen several pure white. C. A. Allen. 



Work of the Challenger. — Dr. Wyville Thompson's 

 summary of the latest work on board the Challenger, 

 during its cruise from Yokohama to Honolulu, is as fol- 

 lows:— 



"We were particularly successful during this cruise in 

 getting good samples of the fauna from great depths; and 

 we found the fauna of the North Pacific at depths of from 

 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms, although not very abundant in 

 species, by no means meagre. For each of six dredg- 

 ings and trawlings, at depths greater than 2,000 fathoms, 

 we found, along with a few fishes, a fair representation of 

 all the larger invertebrate groups; and in one dredging, 

 No. 253, at a depth of 2,125 fathoms, we took a small 

 sponge, a species of Cornularia, an Actinia [sea-anemone], an 

 annelid in a tube, and a bryozoon. We are again struck 

 with the wonderful uniformity of the fauna at these great 

 depths; if not exactly the same species, very similar re- 

 presentations of the same genera in all parts of the world." 



From fourteen to twenty albatrosses followed the ship 

 from the coast of Japan to within two daj 's sail of Hono- 

 lulu, when they suddenly disappeared. The distance was 

 about 4,000 miles. 



— The ages of domestic animals, which are from time to 

 time reported as remarkable, are more frequently esti- 

 mated than ascertained. In the present instance, that of a 

 cat, a writer in Ihe Field is able to furnish dates of birth 

 and of death, showing that he survived his twenty-first 

 birthday by eight months — a length of life to which few 

 cats attain. 



— Sea-gulls are said to be caught alive in a unique way 

 at Mount Desert. A stick is put through the tail of a 

 small fish, and then it is left upon the sea shore where it 

 can be seen by the birds. They then seize and attempt to 

 swallow it head first, and succeed remarkably well until 

 they come to the stick, when a stop is made. They can- 

 not swallow it further, and it is equally impossible to raise 

 it, and so they choke, strangle and fall over, when they 

 ■ere captured. 



— At Airsaig House, near Glasgow, Scotland, bees are to 

 be found every Spring, although the nearest hives are four 

 miles away, and seperated from it by two broad arms of 

 the sea. It is a good instance of how far bees sometimes 

 go to pasture* 



WHAT DO SALMON EAT? 



* 



November, 1875. 

 Editor Forest akd Stream:— 



I have read the editorial in your paper of Dec, 9th. referring to the 

 communication of E. J. Hooper, of San Francisco, about the habits of 

 the salmon on the Pacific coast, and as I have lived thtre all my life and 

 fished a good deal, and especially spent last Summer fishing for salmon 

 on the McCloud and Sacramento Rivers, I know something of tbe hab- 

 its of the fish. 



When the salmon first arrives from the sea and enters the Sacramento 

 River it is a bright silver fish, lively and fat, and is then in season as an 

 article of food. After a short time it commences to inn up the river to 

 spawn . From that time until it returns from spawning it does not eat 

 anything. I arrive at this positive conclusion, first, from personal ob- 

 servation, as not a single fish we caught in the two rivers mentioned had 

 a morsel of food in its stomach; also, the old hunters and Indians say 

 the same thing, while the assertion of a proprietor of one of the Oregon 

 fish canneries, whom I met on the stage, that out of ninety-five thou- 

 sand fish which he had cut up and canned that season, only three had 

 anything in their stomachs, ought certainly to prove what I say. It 

 would be impossible, out of the thousands of fish caught in the seines 

 used for the purpose, that there should not be at least a large percentage 

 of fish who had just eaten— if they did eat. I never saw or heard of a 

 salmon vornring, either on being hooked or landed. I spoke of catch- 

 ing these salmon, and of course the question will naturally arise: l, If 

 they will not bite, how is it possible to catch them? 1 ' This is just where 

 a curious anomaly makes its appearance. When a female is caught, she 

 is opened and the roe taken out; it is quite large and moderately firm. 

 This is used for bait, and at this and this only will a salmon bite. The' 

 hunters and Indians say that just as a bull runs at a red flag, there is a 

 kind of irresistible fascination which causes them to swallow the eggs^ 

 of their own kind; and moreover, while the salmon are in the river the 

 trout will not bite at anything but salmon eggs. By the time the fish 

 arrive at the head waters of the rivers they have changed from a smooth,, 

 lively fish, to a tired, battered, sometimes finless creature, of no acconnt 

 whatever for food, and eaten only by the Indians. At this lime theyr 

 develop huge dog-like teeth in tneir jaws, and the males fight savagely 

 with each other. I have often seen them shaking each other like ball- 

 dogs. The labor of preparing a spawning place still further reduces- 

 them, tiil at last a great many die of the wounds they have received' 

 from fighting and turning over the rooks to spawn. I have seen them 

 collected in pools in hundreds and thousands, waiting to get strength 

 enough to run the rapids, while their very backbones were protruding 

 through the e kin, a ghastly white color. The men who have lived long 

 in the region say that they never get back to the sea, but die, just as a 

 butterfly does in the chrysalis; that, in fact, the spawning is a final act 

 of the fish, and it is certain that multitudes do die, so as to make the 

 very stream polluted and. raise a stench to be smelled for some 

 distance . 



Livingston Stone was asked his opinion on the matter when he first 

 went up there, and replied at once that they did not return. A little 

 while afterwards he "did'nt know," and so the matter rests. lama 

 native of California, and shall be happy to give you any information re- 

 specting the Pacific Slope. R. Tallant, Harvard College. 



\)( Philadelphia, December, 1875. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Your enterprisng correspondent, Mr. E. J. Hooper, who is doing so 

 much to enlighten your Eastern readers as to the fisli and fishing of the 

 Pacific Slope, is at a loss, as meny old anglers are, to know what salmon 

 feed on. But a more pertinent question suggested to Mr. Hooper's 

 mind is, "where they went to feed?" and the answer is a solution 

 of the supposed mystery of the empty stomachs of all salmon taken by 

 the angler. 



Anadromons fishps, such as Ihe salmon, shad, and river herring, ac- 

 quire all their growth, fat and flavor not far beyond soundings, where 

 the sea fairly teems with the lower orders of life. Dr. Knox, an angler 

 as well as a scientist, mentions the eggs of various ecJiinodermata and 

 Crustacea. Amongst the latter, Prof. Baird includes the Mysis, to 

 which order shrimp belong; and there is no doubt that on their marine 

 feeding grounds a salmon's stomach would be found pretty well dis- 

 tended wilh either or all of these. Canoemen who have attended me in 

 my salmon fishing have assured me that they have speared salmon in 

 bays and estuaries at the mouths of rivers, where the water was strongly 

 brackish, which had been feeding voraciously on smelts, and on their 

 congeners, the sparlings, which are about half their size, and that they 

 have taken a score or more of the latter from the throat and pouch of a 

 single fish. But as far as my search has extended— and I have exam- 

 ined them until I was convinced of tbe fact— I have never, in the fluvial 

 portions of rivers where salmon rise to a fly, found anything but a stom- 

 ach shrivelled to the size of my little finger, and filled only with hard, 

 curdy substance. 



It is conceded by all who have investigated and given thought, to tha 

 subject, that anadromons fishes ascend rivers to breed, not to feed; thit 

 it is only the reproductive instinct that impels them thitherward; audit 

 is not unlikely that this gradual depletion of body from the time they 

 leave the salt water is necessary to maturing the ova and milt. As we 

 all know, shad and salmon are unfit for food after spawning, and many 

 die from their long fast and the exhaustion caused by breeding. Why, 

 then, it may be asked, does a salmon, shad, or herring rise to an artifi- 

 cial or occasionally to a natural fly, or the salmon of California take a 

 spinning bait, or even a minnow? Sir Ilumphery Davy, I think, answers 

 this query conclusively, that it is a remnant of its old predatory instinct; 

 for a young salmon, before it goes to sea, is in no respect different from 

 a trout in its habits and manner of feeding. . A young shad has teeth 

 which the mature shad has not, and feeds on flies like a trout or young 

 salmon. So also do our river herring, or alewives, as they are called in 

 New England. And yet all of these fish have shrivelled, empty stom- 

 achs while in our rivers, the occasional natural fl es they may rise to 

 never distending or being detected in them. Thaddeus Norbis. 



CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 



Department op Ptjbtjo Parks, I 

 New York, Dec. 19th, 1875. I 



Animals received at Central Park Menagerie for the week ending 

 December 18th. 1875:— 



One Brown Pelican, Pelecanus fascus . Presented by Mrs. S. G- East- 

 man, of Poughkeepsie . 



One Red-billed Grebe, Fodilymbus podiceps . Presented by Mr. Wm< 

 H. Kirby, New York City. 



Two pairs of Wood Ducks, Aix sponsa. Received in exchange. 



One Prince Albert Curassow, Crax alberti. Received in exchange, 



One King Vulture, Gyparchus papa. 



One Cape Buffalo, Bubalus coffer. Bred in the Menagerie. 



W. A. Conklik, Director. 



Utica Park Association, 

 Utica, n. Y.. December 11th, 1875. 



f 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



At the regular annual meeting of- above date of the TJtica Park Asso- 

 ciation for officers for 1876, the following gentlemen were unanimously 



Hon." Charles W. Hutchinson, President; Hon. Miles C. Corn- 

 stock, 1st Vice-President; Thomas R. Proctor, 2d Vice-President : - 

 Charles R. Weed, Secretary, and Alexander Buell, Treasurer. 



Very tiply, yours, Chas, R, Weed, Secretary. 



