AcnjusT 19, 1880.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



47 



fataral ^istorg. 



— Axldress all communications to " Forest and Stream 

 Publijihing Company, Neio York." 



BITEES BIT. 



IT happened to us one day some yeara ago to find swim- 

 ming in a small fresh water pond a carp dnck or 

 broadhill (Faligula marila), wliioh was unable to fly, 

 although apparently sound in all its members, and which 

 we succeeded finally in capturing in a landing net. It 

 was observed during the pursuit that the bird was 

 apparently unable to close its bill, and as soon as it was 

 taken in hand the cftuae of this became evident. In the 

 back of the mouth was the shell of a large mvKsel. p.^Ttly 

 opened, the hinge being toward the bird's body. The 

 valves were still united, and their planes were at right 

 angles to those of the bill. Between the imited valves 

 the poi^terior upper surface of the thick fleshy tongue was 

 wedged in so that it was impossilile for the bird to expel 

 the shell from its mouth. The mussel was a large one. 

 so large that there was ho possibility of the duck's swal- 

 lowing it. It was evident that the duck had attempted 

 to swallow the nmssel while it was open, and that after 

 it had been taken mto the mouth, hinge first, the latter 

 had partially closed, grasping the tongue, and thus seal- 

 ing both its fate and that of its captor. The mussel had 

 been dead some time, for it had altogether disappe.ired 

 from the shell, and the poor bird was woefully ematMated 

 and died the night of its capture. This incident, rather 

 unusual and interesting as it is by itself, becomes more 

 so when compared with a number of similar occurrences 

 which have from time to time been placed on record. 



Most of us have heard the story of the raccoon which 

 went oystering at low water, and in trj-ing to puU one 

 of the bivalves out of. his shell got caught by the foot 

 and was drowned by the rismg tide ; and there is a 

 I egend about a darkey who was captured in the same 

 manner, though his adventure did not have any serious 

 termination. In the columns of Land and Water there 

 have at different times within the paat few years been 

 published some instances of the capture and death of 

 birds and fish by their supposefl prey, which will, we 

 think, be of interest to our readers in this connection. 

 One of these relates to the capture of a small fish called 

 a shanny, by a mussel, and i.s told in the following lan- 

 guage :— 



A correspondent, Mr. Stephen Clogg, lately kuidly 

 forwarded us a box containing a shanny and mussel, 

 which he describes as having been taken in the bailor 

 at Looe, Cornwall, in exactly the position represented in 

 the accompanyiug illustration. The shanny and mussel, 

 oux correspondent writes, were taken by a fisherman who 

 was gathering mussels for bait at Looe. Mussels are 

 found in great numbers at the bottom of the harbor 

 there, and the fishprmen usf a long-handled, four-pronged 

 fork for catching them. A boat is moored over the 

 spot on whicli the mussels are ti:i be found, and the 

 fork is employed to bring them from below into tlie boat. 

 In the case in question our correspondent assui-es us the 

 shanny and mussel was brought up as shown in our 

 illustration. The fish was alive when taken, ami its bead 

 firmly fixed in the mussel. This certainly may I'e eun- 

 sidered a curious capture, and from the evidence it niay 

 be fairly assumed that the shanny seeing ;i tempting 

 mussel with its mouth open was induced to pop his head 

 in — an operation which JIaster ^Mussel doubtles.s re.sented 

 by immediately closing its valves, retaining the fish in 

 its deadly grasp. A case in point of tish bein;; taken in 

 this way is mentioned by t^'iicli. in wbicli l.aeepede 

 records an instance wiiere, as lie iLtcepede' supposes, a 

 shatmy had made an attempt to feed on an oyster that 

 lay with its valves open, in consequence of wliich it 

 became shut up a prisoner by the closing of tlie sh.ell. 

 In this case, however, the shanny was more fortunqte 

 than the one taken the other day. for it is stated thr.t in 

 this condition of confinement the fi.sli liad conciuned so 

 long that the oyster had been dredged and carried to a 

 consideralile distance. Upon opening it, the captive was 

 again set free alive, and wiiiLout injury, Shanny are 

 very reveuti\ c of life, aud \Touid be found nice additions 

 to salt water aquaria. 



Another case bearing more directly on the one which 

 came under our own observation, was spoken of by Mr. 

 Buckland some yea.r3 previously. In this instance a rail 

 was caught by an oyster and drowned. Mr, Buckland 

 says : — 



Some tiine since, when examining the famous oyster 

 bed at Helston, near Falmouth, Mr. Fred Hill, of Helston, 

 was kind enough to accompany me and my friend, Sir. 

 Howard Fox, of Falmouth, in our expedition. Mr. Hill 

 mentioned to me at the time that he had a curious speci- 

 men of a bird that had been caught by an oyster. The 

 bird and oyster had been mounted in a case by Mr. Vin- 

 gar, of Penzance. The history is, tliat a woman who seUs 

 oysters, went one mornhig to the Helfor:! Riier and found 

 the bird^-a common tail — quite dead, with its beak held 

 quite firmly by the oyster, which was still alive. 



The bird' in all pr^obabiUty was wandering along the 

 foreshore looking tor his dinner, and Mr. Oyster — possibly 

 left longer by the tide than usual — was opening his shells 

 waiting the incoming water. The himgry rail, seeing 

 something that looked like a white and dainty bit of 

 food, pecked at the body of the oyster, and probably 

 pricked him sharply with his beak. The oyster then snap- 

 ped his sheUg togteher as quick as a rat trap, and the 

 poor bird instantly became a prisoner, to die (or possibly 

 get drowned as the tide rose) in his prison. 



Mr. Buclilaod's paper seems to get more than its share 

 of such instances, ior in a recent number we hear the story 



of the choking of a grebe by a fish called a mDler's thumb, 

 which is provided with sharp spines on each gill cover, 

 somewhat as are our own catfish. These spines caught 

 in the throat of the bird and rendered the swallowing or 

 disgorging of the fish impossible. We have never, by tlie 

 way, been able to understand just how it is that birds and 

 fishes can prey upon the catfish. Their rigid spines, one 

 would think, might protect them from any enemy, tmd 

 yet we constantly find catfish in the stomachs of fish, 

 and not infrequently in those of birds. It is but a short 

 time since a Florida correspondent sent us an account of 

 a hirge catfish attacked by a heron, and mentioned find- 

 ing the spine of one of these fish in the throat of another. 

 We have foimd small cats in the stomach of a loon, and 

 they arc no doubt devoured by other birds. It may pos- 

 sibly be that after death the spines relax and lie flat by 

 the side, but we do not remember to have seen anything 

 that would bear out this conjecture. Of com-se as soon 

 as the live fish is grasped he sets all his spines and holds 

 them so stiff that they may be broken before they will 

 yield to direct pressure, though they yield readilj' enough 

 if the side just back of the pectoi-al fin be properly manip- 

 ulated. The case of the grebe choked by the fish is de- 

 scribed by Mr. Buckland as follows :— 



By the kindness of Lord Radnor, Longford Castle, Sal- 

 isbury, I have received a grebe (Podtcep.9?n!'nor) choked 

 by a fish. The fish is fixed so finuly in the bird's moutli 

 that I find it will go neither backw-ards nor forwards, so I 

 can neither pressit down the i esophagus nor pvill it out 

 altogether. The fish in question is a miller's tliumb. Mr. 

 Grebe evidently was not awai'e that the miller's thumb 

 was armed with two very sharp spikes on eacli side of 

 the gill cover, and when the fish found liimself in trouble 

 he simply expanded these spines, vdnich fixed him so 

 firmly in the liird's ui.iutti that lie died from sufl'ocation. 

 An exactly similar case occurred some few j'ears since, 

 which I described in the columns of Land and Water as 

 follows :— 



Mr. Arthur Crichton has been good enough to pre- 

 sent me with an interesting specimen of grebe (dabchick) 

 which was formd dead witli a fish in its mouth. It was 

 found by Mr. Clutterbuck. of Loul; ^.Mttingham. ne^r 

 Abingdon, who writes as follows : ■ The grebe was found 

 in the River Isis, in an eddy. dead. Iioth bird and fish. I 

 f aw a fellow gi-ebe to-day. lisliiiit; in the overflow, which 

 is more or less shallow. 1 do not know if the miller's 

 thumb would leave the river for the overflow — mo.st fish 

 do. The river at the spot is deep. The bird was found 

 at the mouth of a ditch in which the water would be 

 shallow, and dry when the river is low.' 



"The first tlung I did was to make a cast of the speci- 

 men. Mr. .Searle has painted it so life-like that it now 

 looks like the bird itself. It is very diflicult to cast a 

 bh-d. Init if the cast is successful, it is far better than 

 anv stuffing by the most skillful taxidermist. On dis- 

 secting thetliroat of the bird I discovered that the little 

 spine-like processes on the sides of the head of the fish— 

 which was a luiders thumb (Cottiut gobio) — had stuck 

 tightly in the tli ruat of the bird. The position of the fish 

 was headfor-'iii •. t'_, In,;!,: to the lower bealv : the liard 

 casing of th' •■ fish had ]iressed so tigluiy 



down on the ■. : i : n i; it was completelv closed up. 

 Had the fish b-r. r; - a.iv .ed the reverse way. probably 

 the bird woulrl ha-.e escaped uninjured. I have had two or 

 three specimens sent me of kinglishers destroyed by fi.sh 

 sticking in their throats. There is a ease on record where 

 a poor fisherman was killed by a father-iasher (Cottu^ 

 Scorpio), a sea-fish alfied to the fresh" water miller's thumb. 

 The fishermau was annoyed at finding the father-lasher 

 among his shrimps, and seizing hiiu, put his head in his 

 mouth, aud attempted to bite it off. The fish, however, 

 gave a struggle, slipped down his throat, .and expanding his 

 spines at tlie side of its head, managed to immovably fix 

 itself in the larynx, thus killing the man by sulfoca- 

 tion." 



THiT Rat Catchmb.— Boston, Aug. 1th.— Editor Fo7-- 

 est and Stream : — I don't think that rat was drowned. 

 The snake must have swallowed it then and there, or it 

 would liave gone home to digest liis meal. It is most 

 likel}' that he surprised the rat and sprang on it un- 

 aware, and once with its teeth fast on the rat's head, he 

 would suffocate it in no time, without its having the 

 gh St of a chance : besides, his prey was probably nearly 

 paralyzed with fright. No matter how ••game" it may- 

 be, there are but very few animals on two legs or four 

 that are uot pianic struck at the sight of a snake. 



As to not finding wounds, that is not singular. The 

 snake's teeth are sharp as needles, but equally fine, and 

 while arranged for 1 he purpo.se of holding— a'dozen rows 

 or so across the root of his mouth, aud a.ll ji.iinting back- 

 ward — are useless for chewing purposes, and tlieir very 

 fineness would prevent their leaving marks. The rat 

 could not have lived long enough to struggle much any 

 way. for a snake is one of the strongest tlungs that Uve. 

 and with its nose pointing inward and its head half 

 swallowed from the outset, it must have smothered 

 speeilily. 



If the snake is what I have been accustomed to term 

 "water snake." it could not h.ave crushed him. Con- 

 striction is only used with efTect by tree snakes, while 

 the striped snake and his cousin, the present incumbent 

 — if indeed they are not the same— are never foimd there ; 

 although I did "once capture a minster in a very scrubby 

 yellow locust, fifteen feet from ihe ground, but that wsis 

 hardly a tree, as it was so tliickset that he imdulated 

 from twig to twdg. not coiled around. 



In conclusion, I would say that I ought to know where- 

 of I speak, having had, as a boy, a mania for snakes, hav- 

 ing kept them by the ttibful to watch their habits. At 

 that time and afterward, 1 was accustomed to carry home 

 every one I met to turn loose among my squash bugs. 

 They are excellent buggers. But it take's a swift hand 

 and a qiuck eye to get a grip in the back of their neck 

 without a bite. JoHS Preston True. 



We are rather inclined to doubt the constricting 

 powers of the water snake, and for that reason suggested 

 the drowning of the rat. 



#'4 §Mtre. 



— Address all communications to" Forest and Strsam 

 Publishing Company, Nno York." 



CARP APPRECIATED IN TEXAS. 



THAT the carp are rapidly growing in favor in the 

 Southern States is a well-known fact. The follow- 

 ing letter shows what they think of them in Texas : — 

 KossE, LniESTO-F. Cou>-TT, Texas, June 2Sth. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, United States Commissioner 



Fish and Fisheries: — 



Dear Sir : The German carp, sent Sam Bell and me last 

 fall, are doing as finely as any one could possibly ask. 

 When they arrived there was very little water in our 

 pond, so we put them in a well with about four feet of 

 water in it. and connected the well with the tank by 

 means of a small ditch, letting the tank water fill it up: 

 the ditcli was left open so that the water woidd not stag- 

 nate. We put five of them in the tank (or pond) and fed 

 all of them on com bread and vegetables that had seed, 

 such as tomatoes, squashes, etc., all of which they ate. 

 They seemed to fike the sejuash best and prefer'red it 

 baked. Several of them seemed to be sick when they 

 reached us. and died soon afterward ; the remainder are 

 now about four inches wide and a foot long. Corn bread 

 is their favorite diet, and by feeding them at the same 

 place every day they become accustomed to look for it, 

 and now all we' have to do when we wish to look at them 

 is to tie a piece of stale bread to a string and float it on 

 the water, when they^ come up all around it and scramble 

 for it as hogs do for corn. There are numerous parties 

 in this neighborhood with good ponds who want to know 

 whether they can get any this summer or fall. Please 

 let me know at once, as fish in this section are scarce and 

 high, and the carp seems to be tlie fish. Yours truly, 

 VoLNEY Metcalfe. 



SHAD IX THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 



Astoria. Oregon, July22d. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Washington, D. C. : — 



Dear Sir : Your letter of the 3d inst., asking for fuller 

 information in rega.rd to the presence of sliad in the 

 Colun\bia Kiver, came duly to hand : and. in iv|.Iy. 1 will 

 sav that the first fish of this kind was taken eail\- in the 

 fls'lung season of last year (1879), in a stationary fish- trap 

 in Baker's Bay. a few miles— one or two— above Fort 

 Canby. W. T. I did not see this fish, but it was shown 

 by the owner of the trap, Cspt. .lames Williams. Tanzy 

 Point cannery, Oregon, to George Hune. a well-known 

 salmon canne'r of the Columbia, who pronounced it a 

 shad. A few days later Capt. Wihiahis brought two 

 more to Astoria a'nd gave them to Hon. D. C. Ireland, 

 editor of the Daily Astorian, who ijivited me into his 

 office to see them.' I had never seen a shad, but thought 

 t'ney agreed sufliciently with the best description I was 

 able to obtain. I took their measure and_ made the best 

 description I cotdd, and sent it to Col, AVelitier. Commis- 

 sioner for New Hampsliixe. who wrote back that they 

 certainly were not shad : basing his opinion upon the 

 fact that they had six or eight small, round, dark spots 

 along the lateral line, and a projection ofjthescLiles along 

 thebellv which I described as a ■■sickl.- edge." Col. 

 Webber sent my letter to you. and you expressed the 

 opinion that the fish in question was some unknown 

 species of herring, and asked me to save and forward a 

 specimen. Shortly after taking the two last mentioned. 

 the traps were swept away, and no more were taken that - 

 year. This year Capt. "Willianis built a traii on the 

 "Oregon side, just above Fort Stevens, and about May loth 

 he In-ought nie the first taken. Except tliat it wa.s larger 

 — fourteen inches to eleven — it was e.^actly like those 

 taken last year. It had been cut m catching, aud was 

 otherwise in poor condition, but he told me that his trap 

 had been injured and he might not get another. I sealed 

 the specimen in a tin case and was on the point of send- 

 ing it to you when Prof. Jordan arrived liere on his first 

 visit. Thinking it amounted to the same thing, I gave 

 the fish to bira, and he. on inspection, pronounced it a 

 shad. I caUed his attention to the spots and "sickle 

 edge," and he said those points were ch,■^racteristic of 

 yoane shail and disappeared at maturity, I have found 

 Prof." Jon lan's knowledge of the salmonido'. to be ex- 

 ceedingly accurate, and so I have full confidence in his 

 assertions in regard to this fish. The fish-trap was re- 

 paired about the middle of June, and on the 17th Capt. 

 Wil'liams brought four specimeus to Astoria. The.se were 

 bought at a large price by Mr. A. J. Jlegler. of the Occi- 

 dental hotel, who, knowing that I wished to obtain a 

 specimen, brought the best one and presented it to me. 

 It is now in Prof. Jordan's alcohol tank. Immediately 

 after tiie capture of these four, the trap was again swep't 

 away, and will not be again rebuilt^^ It is Capt. Wil- 

 liams' opinion — ^in which I coincide — that there are 

 hundreds and perhaps thousands of these fish in the 

 river, they being too small to be caught in the gill nets, 

 that being the only method of fishing practiced here : 

 the small amount of seming being hardly worthy of^ 

 mention. 



Whether shad will become acclimated so far as to 

 propagate here is. I think, extremely doubtful. I am 

 informed that in Jime, when they spawn, it is necessary 

 that the water should have a minimum tem])erature of 

 70". I did not test the river water at that time, but the 

 mountain streams were as follows : Young's River, June 

 6th, 53" : Klaakani, June 13th, .50" ; Klaskaui, June 37th. 

 .58"; while the Cohmibia. to-day, in t'ue ships' channel, is 

 65°. I think the attempt now being made to introduce 

 carp into lakes on Clatsop Plains will fail for the same 

 reason. In Eastern and Southern Or>egon they may . 

 succeed. 



In closing I will sav that I would like to know what 

 food fishes "other than the salmonidce will thrive in a 

 country where the temperature of the wat«r is as above, 

 I suppose it is well known that our winters are mild. 

 Respectfully yours, C. J. Smith. 



AatEEiCA's Exhibit at Berlin.— The following letter 

 shows how our exhibit appeared to the representative 



