FOREST AND STREAM. 



will fall upon the platform, and as this can more easily be 

 cleaned than the bottom of the pond, there is less liability 

 of fouling the water; the fish wiil also take food better 

 from a clean bottom than when the food lodges in the mud 

 ox weeds. 



There will be a great difference in the growth of the 

 fish noticeable after the first few weeks of their existence. 

 Some, of course, will be larger and more vigorous than 

 others from their birth; but of those apparently of the 

 game size and health when one month old, some at six 

 months will be four times the size of others; this, too, 

 when grown in the same pond and under the same circum- 

 stances. They will begin to eat each other when very 

 young. A trout only a few weeks old begins to show 

 symptoms of fight, and will kill his weaker brethren when 

 they get in his way by biting a piece out of their tails. In 

 two or three months, when some of them get to be double 

 the size of others, they will swallow each other whole. 

 "We have taken a trout one inch long out of another only 

 two inches long. It would seem to be advantageous, 

 therefore, to sort them out every little while, and put the 

 same size by themselves; but in practice this is very dif- 

 ficult, and the less a trout of any size is handled, the bet- 

 ter; besides, if they are fed well, they lose their disposition 

 to eat each other. Therefore the trout of each year may 

 be left by themselves with very little probability of losing 

 more by cannibalism than would be killed in sorting out 

 and removing. 



1 he covers should be kept on the first pond at night, and 

 in dark, cloudy weaiher until September, at least, when the 

 trout will be from two to five inches long and able to take 

 care of themselves. Even then it is as well to have the 

 covers at hand and put them on in case of a rain storm, 

 since we often find after a storm numbers of young fish 

 dead in an exposed pond; therefore, we conclude, although 

 we do not know the philosophy of the thing, that they 

 need a cover in rainy weather. After September there is 

 no difficulty in raising the fish— they all appear hardy and 

 strong; pernaps it is because all the weak ones have died 

 off, and none are left but those "able to stand the pressure." 



Seth Green. 



frtntnl j§i8targ. 



THE ARCTIC FOX— Vulpes lagopus. 



THE term lagopus— "hare-footed"— has been given to 

 the Arctic fox from the fact that the soles of the 

 feet are densely covered with woolly hair, causing a re- 

 semblance to the foot of the hare. Cuvier remarks that 

 other foxes acquire this hair on the pads of the feet when 

 taken to northern lands. The Arctic fox inhabits the coun- 

 tries bordering on the Frozen Sea: Kamsehatka, the isles 

 between it and America, Alaska and northern British 

 America, Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Novaja Zemla 

 and Lapland, and rarely specimens are found as far south as 

 Newfoundland. Those of Asia and Lapland are very mi- 

 gratory, owing to their pursuit of the lemming which is 

 very unstable in its habitat, and furnishes their principal 

 food. Sometimes these foxes will desert a country for 

 three or lour years for this reason. 



The fur of this iuoffensive and pretty creature is peculiar- 

 ly fine and thick, and as in wimer it is closer, longer and 

 more mixed with wool than in summer, the intense cold of 

 these regions inhabited is easily resisted. When sleeping 

 it is rolled up like a bail, with its little black muzzle buried 

 in the long hair of the tail, so that there is no portion of 

 the body but is protected from the cold, the shaggy hairs 

 of the breast acting as a respirator or boa lor the mouth 

 and a muff for the paws. All Arctic travelers remark that 

 this fox is a peculiarly cleanly animal, and that its vigi- 

 lance is extreme. It is almost impossible to come upon it 

 unawares, for even when appearing to be soundly asleep 

 it opens its eyes on the occasion of the slightest noise. 

 During the day it appears to be listless, but no sooner has 

 night set in than it is in motion and continues extremely 

 active until early dawn. The young migrate to the south 

 in the autumn, and frequently collect in vast numbers on 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are met with in like 

 numbers at this season on the banks of the Obi, arriving in 

 November and leaving in April. The Arctic fox lives in 

 underground burrows, forming holes many feet in length, 

 the bottoms of which are strewed with moss. In Green- 

 land and Spitzbergen it lives in the clefts of rocks, not be- 

 ing able to burrow by reason of the frost; two or three 

 pairs inhabit the same hole. Sir James Ross found one of 

 these burrows on the sandy margin of a lake in the latter 

 part of July, and took pains to examine it. He described 

 it as having several passages, each opening into a common 

 cell, beyond which was an inner nest in which the young, 

 six in number, were found. These had the dusky lead-col- 

 ored livery worn by the adults in summer, and though four 

 of them were kept alive until the following winter they 

 never acquired the pure white coat of the old fox, but re- 

 tained the dusky color on the face and sides of the body. 

 The parents had kept a good larder for their progeny, as 

 the outer cell and the several passages leading to it con- 

 tained many lemmings, ermines, and the bones of fish, 

 ducks, ana hares in great quantities. Sir John Richardson 

 observed them to live in villages, twenty or thirty bur- 

 rows being constructed close to each other. A pair were 

 kept by Sir. James Ross for the express purpose of watch- 

 ing the changes which take place in the color of the fur. 

 He informs us that they throw off their winter dress dur- 

 ing the first week in June, and that the change takes place 

 a lew days earlier in the female than jn the male. About 

 the end of Sepiembvr the brown fur of summer gradually 

 became of an a*fr color, and by the middle of October was 

 pe<iecily white. It continued to increase in thickness until 

 the end of November. A blackish- brown variety is occa 

 sionally met with, but this is rare; such specimens, Ross 

 remarks, must have extreme difficulty in surprising their 



prey in a country whose surface is of an unvaried white, 

 and must also be much more exposed to the attacks of 

 their enemies. Some have thought this variety to be a 

 cross between the Arctic fox and the black fox. 



The food of the fox is various, but seems to consist 

 principally of lemmings, and of birds and their eggs. He 

 eats, too, the berries of the Empetuna nigrum or black 

 crowberry — a plant common to the hills of New York and 

 New England as well as Arctic lands— and goes to the sea 

 shore for mussels and other shell fish. Otho Fabricus, in 

 his "Fauna Greenlandica," says that the fox catches the 

 Arctic salmon as that fish approaches the shore to spawn, 

 and also seizes the haddock, having enticed it within reach 

 by beating the water. Crautz, in his "History of Green- 

 land," evidently alludes to this example of cunning when 

 he observes: "They plash with their feet in the water to 

 excite the curiosity of some kinds of fishes to come and 

 see what is going forward, and then they snap them up; 

 and the Greenland women have learned this piece of art 

 from them. Capt. Lyon noticed a fox prowling on a hill 

 side, and heard him some hours afterwards in the neigh- 

 borhood imitating the cry of the brant goose. In another 

 part of his "Journal" he mentions that the fox is a ven- 

 triloquist, for he has heard the bark so modulated as to 

 give an idea that it proceeded from a distance, though at 

 the time the fox laid at his feet. It struck him that the 

 creature was thus gifted that it might deceive its prey as 

 to his remoteness. It sometimes catches the ptarmigan, 

 and though it does not swim manages occasionally to pro- 

 cure oceanic birds — in fact nothing alive which it can mas- 

 ter seems to come amiss, and failing to make a meal from 

 that which it has caught and killed, the Arctic fox, like 

 foxes of more favored lands, is fain to satisfy his appetite 

 with carrion. Martens sajs in his "Spitzbergen" that some 

 of the ship's crew informed him that the fox, when hun- 

 gry, lies down as if he was dead until the birds fly to him 

 to eat him, by which trick he catches and eats them. 

 This author believed it a fable, but it may nevertheless be 

 one of the many expedients used by a species of a group 

 whose name is proverbial for craftiness and cunning. 



The flesh of the fox is occasionally used as food by the 

 Esquimaux. Capt. Lyon writes in his "Private Journal" 

 that at first all of his party were horrified at the idea of 

 eating foxes, "but very soon many got the better of* their 

 fastidiousness, and found them good eating. Not being 

 myself very nice, I soon made the experiment, and found 

 the flesh mueh resembling that of kid, and afterwards fre- 

 quently had a supper of it." Sir James Clarke Ross, dur- 

 ing his five years' imprisonment in Boothia Felix and the 

 adjoining seas, had ample means of judging of its flavor. 

 He tells us that some of his party, who were the first to 

 taste them, named them "lambs" from their fancied re- 

 semblance in flavor to the young of sheep when only a few 

 daya old. But he adds that the flesh of the old fox is by 

 no means so palatable. During that disastrous expedition 

 the flesh of this animal formed one of the principal luxu- 

 ries of their table, and it was always "reserved for holi- 

 days and great occasions. We ate them boiled, or more 

 frequently after being parboiled, roasted in a pitch kettle." 

 Yv hen the Arctic expedition in search of Sir John Frank- 

 lin wintered in Leopold Harbor, in 1848 and 1849, the com- 

 mander, Sir J. C. Ross, made use of the Arctic fox as a 

 messenger, as the fox is known to travel great distances in 

 seeking food. Having caught a number of these animals 

 by means of traps, a collar with information for the miss- 

 ing parties was put around the neck of each before libera- 

 tion. On Capt. Austin's subsequent expedition, in 1850 

 and 1851, the same plan was earned out, but equally with- 

 out result. Commauder Osborne thus facetiously describes 

 the circumstance in his "Stray Leaves from an Arctic 

 Journal:" "Several animals thus intrusted with dispatches 

 or records were liberated by different ships; but as the 

 truth must be told, 1 fear in many cases the next night saw 

 the poor 'footman,' as Jack termed him, in another trap, 

 out of which he would be taken killed, and the skin taken 

 off and packed away to ornament, at some future day, the 

 neck of some fair dulcina. As a 'cub' 1 was admitted into 

 this secret mystery; or otherwise, I, with others, might 

 have accounted for the disappearance of the coliared lox- 

 es by ueheving them on their honored mission. In order 

 that the crime of killing the postman may be recognized 

 in its true light, it is but fair to say that the brutes, having 

 partaken once of the good cheer on board or around the 

 ships, seldom seemed satisfied with the mere empty honor 

 of a copper collar, and returned to be caught over and 

 over again. Strict laws were laid down for their safety, 

 such as, that no fox taken alive in a trap was to be killed; 

 of course no fox was alter this taken alive; they were all 

 unaccountably dead, unless it was some fortunate wight 

 whose brush and coat were worthless. In such case he 

 lived either to drag about a quantity of information in a 

 copper collar, for the rest of his days, or else to die a slow 

 death, as being intended for Lord Derby's menagerie. The 

 departure of a "postman" was a scene of no small merri 

 ment. All hands, from the captain to the cook, were out 

 to chase the fox, who, half frightened out of his wits,-' 

 seemed to doubt which way to run, whilst loud shouts and 

 roars of laughter, breaking the cold frosty air, were heard 

 from ship to ship, as the fox hunters swelled in numbers 

 from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some 

 neighboring hummock of ice and gave a loud halloa, 

 which said far more for robust health than tuneful mel- 

 ody." 



The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused Arctic 

 voyagers, and accounts of it are to be met with in most of 

 their narratives. Capt. Lyon made a pet of one he cap- 

 tured, and confined it on deck in a small kennel with a 

 piece of chain. The little creature astonished all hands 

 very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for on the very 

 first day, having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, 

 he at length drew it in after him whenever he retreated to 

 his hut, and took it within his mouth so completely that 

 no one who valued his fingers would venture afterwards 

 to take hold of the end attached to the staple. Sir J. 0. 

 Ross, in Boothia Felix, observed a good deal of difference 

 in the disposition of individuals, some being easily tamed, 

 while others would continue savage and untractable under 

 the kindest of treatment. He believes the females were 

 generally much more vicious than the males. One of the 

 latter sex captured by his party lived with them several 

 months, and became so tame in a short time that he regu- 

 larly attended the dinner table like a dog, and was always 

 allowed to go at large about the cabin. When newly 

 caught their rage is quite ungovernable, and yet when two 



are put together they seldom quarrel, and soon become rec- 

 onciled to confinement. 



Capt. Lyon, in his "Journal," notices that their first im- 

 pulse on getting food is to hide it as soon as possible, and 

 this, he observed, they did even when hungry and by 

 themselves; when there was snow on the ground they 

 piled it over their stores, and pressed it down forcibly 

 with their nose. When no snow was to be obtained he 

 noticed his pet fox gather the chain in his mouth, and then 

 carefully coil it so as to cover the meat. Having gone 

 through this process ancf drawn his chain after him on 

 moving away, he frequently repeated his useless labor five 

 or six times until disgusted, apparently, at making the 

 morsel a greater luxury by previous concealment, he has 

 been forced to eat it. Snow is used as a substitute for wa- 

 ter by these little quadrupeds, they breaking the large 

 lumps with their feet and rolling on the pieces with evident 

 delight. When the snow lay lightly on the decks they did 

 not lick it up as the dogs do, but by pressing it repeatedly 

 with their nose, collecting a small lump which they drew 

 into their mouth. 



They are in heat about the middle of March, and during 

 that time they continue in the open air; but after the tea- 

 son is over betake themselves to their burrows. The pe- 

 riod of gestation is nine weeks; the number of young vary 

 from five to nine, and are cared for in the same manner as 

 those of foxes of other species. 



As a marketable product the skins bearing the fall coat 

 are much more esteemed than those of the winter or 



spring. 



+++, . 



ADDITIONAL BIRDS OF CENTRAL NEW 

 YORK. 



A 



THE following is furnished by the author as an appen- 

 dix of species overlooked in his List of the Birds 

 of Central New York which had been published serially in 

 these columns: — 



Turdus pallasi, Hermit thrush. Abundant as a spring 

 and autumn migrant, arriving from the south as early as 

 the first week in April and returning from the north the 

 first week in October. 



Anorthura troglodytes. Winter wren. Common spring 

 and autumn migrant. 



Helminthophaga rujicapilla. Nashville Warbler. Not a 

 common migrant, but perhaps breeds. 



Dendrceca carulea. Cceruiean warbler. I have a female 

 in my cabinet taKen May 27th, 1870, the only instance on 

 record oi its capture in this locality. 



Dtndraca castanea. Bay-breasted warbler. Not an un- 

 common spring and autumn migrant, arriving the second 

 week in May and returns from the north the second week 

 in September. 



Dendmca pennsylvanica. Chestnut-sided warbler. Not 

 an uncommon summer resident, and breeds. It arrives the 

 second week in May and departs in September. 



Dendrmca pa'marum. Yellow red-poll warbler. Not a 

 common spiing and autumn migrant. 



Sciurus aurocapikus. Golden-crowned thrush. A com- 

 mon summer resident from the second week in May to the 

 middle of September. 



Geothlypis philadetpMa. Mourning warbler. A some- 

 what raie summer resident, but breeds. Mr. T. F. Wil- 

 son of Auburn, found them breeding on Rowland's Island, 

 Seneca river, June 27th, 187U. It arrives the second week 

 in Aluy and departs in bepiember. 



Mywdtoctes pusiUbus. Green black-capped flycatcher. 

 Spring aud autumn migrant, but not common. 



Mytodioeles canadensis. Canadian flycatcher, Common 

 spring and autumn migrant, arriving tne second week in 

 May. 



Tacliycineia bicolor. White-bellied swallow. Abundant 

 summer resident. 



Vireo olivaceus. Red-eyed vireo. Abundant in summer. 

 Vino fiavtfrom. Yellow- throated vireo. Common sum- 

 mer resident. 



Vireo sotdarius. Blue-headed vireo. Not an uncom- 

 mon migrant, passing through the first w<g:k in May. 



t'other lacuiuis parser iuus Yellow -winged sparrow, 

 summer resident but not common. 



Zouotnc/ua atbicoUis. W hite-i hroated sparrow . An abund- 

 ant spiing and auiumn migrant. 



Zonotnchia ieucophrys. Vvhite-crowned sparrow. Abund- 

 ant in spring and autumn. 



Passereiia iliaea. Fox sparrow. Common during the 



migrations. 



.. -*.+- 



California Quail.— A number of efforts have been 

 made at various times to introduce the Calilornia quail 

 into the Slates east of the Rocky Mountains. As a rule 

 these efforts have failed, the birds usually disappearing, 

 killed, it is supposed, by our severe winters. The Hon. 

 J. A. J. Cress well, however, has been more successful in 

 Maryland. The Elkton Whig suys that some years ago he 

 received from the Pacific coast quite a number of Caliior- 

 nia quail. They at once disappeared when liberated, and 

 for three or four years had not been seen. Everyone sup- 

 posed that the cold winter had annihilated them, until a 

 few days ago quite a large covey of them was discovered 

 by a gentleman not far from town. 



Last Week's S*ow Stokm and the Binrs.— "Saw- 

 bones," a Boston correspondent, noticing that the snow 

 storm of Sunday, ihe loth inst., had the effect to greatly 

 frighten certain birds, appends the following memoranda: 



"A full-grown water lail was taken in ihe haud unbarmed on Everett 

 street, four adult quail on the Common, the same da.y and in the same 

 manner, a yellow wren, or willow waruler, in my office. They all. after 

 a rest aud quiet, strongly flew away, showing no si»n of actual in jury. 

 As I have always studied birds and other natural objects with ereat in- 

 terest, tbi- incident emsed a doubt in my mind as to the cause. Can 

 you explain it? in practice I suggest for the common cempiamt or 

 vis inertia your paper every week, with very satisfactoiy results. 



[It would appear that the sudden change of temperature 

 produced a chill, numbness and torpidity, such as most 

 men would suffer in like case, if caught with scanty, mid- 

 summer clothing.— Ed.] 



— — -*-•♦" — — 



Eagles Fighting fokam Eel.— A fight between two 

 eagles occurred at Masonboro Sound a short time ago, says 

 the Wilmington Star. A large number of persons were at 

 the different landings along the sound at the time, when 

 their attention was attracted to the combatants by a pierc« 



