128 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[September 18, 1880. 



till 



little oy 



from l.er 



its contents wpro i 



flew- olT the nest, v. 



1 tin 



il.i 



id ( 



:i seen 

 itnpre 



i"\ I.O I.H: 



of th.- 



i-ing i)eealiar s 



.St vie 



ABOUT THE EUROPEAN CUCKOO. 



THE method by which the female cuckoo {Cuculus 

 canorux) managed to introduce her egg into the 

 nest of the araall birds, to which the duty of rearing the 

 nUTjling is entrusted, was for a long time very doubt- 

 ful, and thequeation was debated at great length among 

 naturnhats. The first hint as to the solution of tlie prob- 

 lem was accidentiy made by L,e Vaillant, who discovered 

 on opening the mouth of a female cuckoo, whicli he 

 had killed, an egg lying within the throat. A corres- 

 Xwndent of the Leisure Horn', in a recent contribution to 

 that magazine, gives the details of some observations 

 inade some years ago, which confirm the conclusions 

 drawn from Le Vaillant's discover}-, and which are in 

 themselves very interesting, He says : — 



Tlie following occurrence, wliioli 1 witnessed, will ex- 

 plain how at l>;ust one cuckoo's ct;g was conveyed to the 

 nest. : In the mouth of June, 1867. I spent a few weeks at 

 FaiTiham Royal, Buckinghamshire. Farnhani rtuyai, 

 which lies about four miles from Windsor, at that ('iniH 

 consisted of a few sciittered cottH^es, in the near vicinily 

 of the well-known Bunili,-un Hpeches, and l«etween tli'e 

 Beeches and the pirtn)-e:=(|ue harnlet (liy the wav a favor- 

 ite haunt of landsciipe painiers) lies a stretch of scrubby, 

 heathy oonunon, through which several paths lead in dif- 

 ferent directions. 



Sauntering along the edge of the common one bi-ight 

 sunny morning I stepped aside to h.ave a look at a stone- 

 chat's nest which I had disyovered tliree days previously, 

 when it contfdned but one egg. This nest 'was placed 'in 

 a thick plant of heath. al.Hiut ten or twelve inches Irora 

 the groiind. well coiietaltd by the heather, except one 

 " " wlnoh the bird passed to and 



gh (his open space the n.-st and 

 isible. On niv aiiproach tin 

 id I observed" that four egg> 

 poisited. T- 

 culiar mai] 

 Both of th. 



aidmyfirst impression was that tln'v iniirldd 

 bird in some neat near by and that dauber threatened it 

 in the shape of astoal, weasel or prowling cat, but cau- 

 tiously approaching nearer them, 1 found that they were 

 being mobbed by the two little stonechats. SometimeiJ 

 boOi cuckoos would skim rapidly clo.so by the nest, the 

 stonechats darting at them open-beaked, and uttering 

 piteous cries the while; again they would lly oil' rapidly 

 t.3 the edge of a wood at a little distance, pursued by the 

 male stonechat, the female always hovering near her nest 

 and occasionally alighling on a liush close to it. *■ 



Could it be possible that the cuckoo had deposited her 

 egg in the stoneohat's nest, and was this the manner in 

 which the owners expressed their resentment at the in- 

 trusion? Taking advantage of a longer ilight than had 

 yet been made, Iran toward the nest and saw at a glance 

 that it contained the four stonechat eggs and no more. 

 Presently back came the cuckoos, the one which 1 took to 

 be tlie niale (on account of the slightly richer color ol 

 the plumage) "cuckooing" in a wonderful manner, ut- 

 tering the note much more rapidly than is usual, and the 

 female swooped down very close "to the nest, paused foi 

 a moxnent in her flight, and being vigorously attacked by 

 the stonechats, glided past, but I saw that her biU was 

 partially open, as though she carried something within 

 her gape. Evidently her object was to reach the nest, 

 and it was truly marvelous to behold the determination 

 and courage of the two little mites of birds in their ejforts 

 to prevent her reaching it. It would be difficult to de- 

 scribe in mere words the wonderfully graceful action of 

 both malebirdsduring their aerial encounters, and indeed 

 the flight of the cuckoo at times much resembled that of 

 a small falcon. 



It was about half past 10 o'clock when 1 liad first come 

 on the scene of action, and I watched till the forenoon 

 was well nigh past. I was meditating on the exiiediency 

 of scaring the cuckoo away, when the f' i 

 quietly and came down on the ground vpvy 

 but oii the farther side of the heather el uni)jii 

 placed. At the same time the male cuckoo 

 swoop toward the nest, was driven olf l.iy ft 

 and while they were thus eng^iged the fi 



,ale 



U|; 



nr the nest, 

 -hichitwEis 

 ade a hasty 

 stonechats, 

 le cuckoo, 



with rapid action, darted forward, alighted on the 

 heather, thrust her head ainl neck througli the smaU 

 opening into the nest, in an instant withdrew and soared 

 aloft, uttering for the linsr time a crv— not ''Cuckoo I 

 cuckoo!" but a gurgling, water-bubble kind of note. 

 Her mate immediately joined her, and the two .soared 

 away to the wood, he joining in the shout of triumph 

 with fond " Cuckoo." In a few nionients 1 had run for- 

 ward to the nest, and behold 1 Iving beside the four 

 pretty little stonechats' eggs was a beautifully marked 

 cuckoo's egg, still wot with the saliva of the mother 

 bird. 



The stonechats reared their young in peace and safety, 

 but that cuckoo's egg lies before me as I write, and the 

 sight of it recalls one of the most interesting episodes 

 I ever met in bird life. 



f Iowa. Lakes. — Capt. J. K. Powers, Register of the 

 State Land Office, gives the size of the Iowa lakes as 

 taken from the office plats :— 



Briirir t.nke o.oier.s 5,591 acres 



EastOk.itKiji t.Hkeeovers.- J.m lUres 



■We.st I ikiiiioji Fjalse covers 4,01111 iuM-tt« 



Clear I.Mke covers ;i,(ii:! acres 



Spirit bake baa a shore line nf ,.,, Jai miles 



Marked Salmon.— There are many instances of 

 marked fishes, and especially of salmon, being caught, 

 but for singularity in marking we think the following, 



which has been going the rounds of the 1 > i • - is 



fully equal to anything wdiicli we rem. : i,e 



seen. It is headed " Marked salmon at B. n n . s;, b-, 1 1 uh- 

 ness," and relates that recently the Babn.m iisliers at Ber- 

 riedale found in one of the bag nets, among other fish, a 

 fourteen pound salmon bearing the following marks : On 

 the flat, smooth part of the head, behind the eye, and 

 immediately over the gills, a branded mark eoniprising 

 the letters Bli.FLL' (the last markappearing like an apos- 

 trophe). Aline was drawn around these letters in the, 

 form of a square border. Immediately vmder this was a 

 mark which rudely resembled the outline .of a sahaon's 

 head, filled with dots and streakfl, J 



DOCTOR GARLICK'S BOOK. 



WE have just received the second edition of Dr. 

 Garlick's work on fish culture and angling*. A 

 handsome octavo of 128 pages, illustrated with cuts of 

 manipulating a spawning (ish, ponds and a serifs repre- 

 senting the development of the embryo from impregna- 

 tion to hatching, printed in clear type on excellent paper. 



Our fish cultural readers who are conversant with the 

 art from its infancy know the venerable Doctor as the 

 original American fish culturist, now in his seventy-fifth 

 year, who has been infirm in all but his mind for years, 

 and will welcome his new edition as an addition to our 

 fish cultural literature, the first ed ition (published in l.So7 ) 

 being now out of the market. It is very interesting to 

 read ( if the early trials of the Doctor-and his friend. Prof. 

 H. A. Ackley in IS.IS, twenty-seven years ago, stimulated 

 by the giiecess of Reiny and Gehin in France, and by the 

 translation of \V. Jl. Pry, of what h.ad been done in the 

 Vo.sges. The first attempt was naturally made with the 

 brook trout, happiening on the 21st of November, and 

 was a success, and the delight of the experimenters may 

 bo imagined when they placed some of the eggs under a 

 microscope on the 9th of January and found them to 

 contain embryos far advanced. 



Figures of different modes of hatching on a small scale 

 fij e gi\'i>n, and one (page 3S) of an arrangement whereby 

 a (heap experimental hatchery can bearrangedtnahouse 

 or olTiee. Being mainly a reprint of his older work, the 

 Docfoi- cites instances of hatching and transporting eggs 

 and fry, as done in l-'rance in that elder day before the 

 rrreat work was begun here by the Government and State 

 (Jonimis.^ious, as well as our private (ish culturists. but in 

 tlie new chajitcrs which have been added he has a good 

 word to say for the jilebeian catfish, and also for the Ger- 

 man carp, introduced by the United States Fish Com- 

 mi.ssion, devoting a cliaptor to tiie latter, which he con- 

 cludes by saying : ''I will close this cliapter on the carp 

 by saying that from a careful perusal of Prof. Baird's 

 Fishery Reports, I am entirely satisfied that I may say of 

 this fish as Horace Greeley said of Concord grapes — it is 

 the fish for the million." 



The angling portion of the book gives no notice of the 

 black bass, white bass, and other fresh water favorites, 

 and in conclusion he says under date of Bedford, Ohio, 

 Aug. lOtli, 1877 : ''In concluding the second edition, I 

 will only add, that since pubUshing tiie first edition of 

 this work, I h.ave lived to see my hopes in relation to fish 

 cuUme nearly, if not quite, reiilized. I am now over 

 seventy-two years of age, and probably this is the last 

 that I shall ever have to say to the public on this subject. 

 T have spent much valuable time, and some thousands of 

 dollars to promote this branch of industi-ies. If I have in 

 any way promoted the object, I am satisfied, as I never 

 wished nor hoped for any pecuniary reward." 



*A treatise I (III ibe I Arllfieial Propn<fatie 

 acriptlon and lial/its [ of 5ueh kinds as ai^e ^ 

 eulture. | - I By Thendaliis Garnek, M. Ii. 

 land Soeloly of Nal.irnI Sunaees: ineiiiber , 

 eroscoplcal Soeiet\- ,_ii :' . 1 ', i ::, -- \". i:, 

 cbe Western HeMTv- I , :.. i. ,•! ' 



of Fish I with I de- 



<»el 



ted. 1-1 PiiUi- 



HOW THE FIRST SHAD WERE HATCHED. 



'i'l Rochester, Sept. Uh. 



Editor Forest and Stream : — 



In your issue of Aug. 26th I notice a communication 

 from a correspondent on "Shad llatchinK and Sh.ad 

 Laws." There are a few points on which he has been 

 misinformed in connection with my early experience in 

 shad hatching which I wish to correct. lie slates as fol- 

 I'^ws •. '■ Mr. Seth Green was employed, I believe, by both 

 Isaiional and Slate authority to make the experiment. 

 After exhausting his fund of experience and other knowl- 

 edge in eonneclion with the experiment, Mr. Green made 

 a failuieof the attempt, and packea his boxes, intending 

 to return home next day. In the meantime an old shad 

 fisherman, well known at the falls, besought Mr. Green 

 to let iiim make a trial. The boxes were unpacked, and 

 the fisherman placed them in a tributary of the river and 

 the esiierinieiit was an immediate success. I beheve Mr. 

 Gieen reoei ved the credit. The locally accepted reasons 

 for Mr. Green's failure and the fisherman's success were 

 that Jl r. Green's exjieriment was made in the warm water 

 of the river, which was very low at the time, while the 

 fisherman's experiment was made in the cooler water of 

 the tributary." 



The faints of the case are that I went to South Hadley 

 Falls at (be solicitation of the New England Fish Com- 

 missionei's and at my own expense, with the understand- 

 ing that I should be remunerated if Imadea success, and 

 if I did not they were to hear no more from me. As is 

 well l.:uo«'n 1 did make a success, but the New England 

 States never paid nie within $154.54 of my actual ex- 

 penses, to say nothing of my loss of lime, and it is ad- 

 mitted that my discoveries have been and are worth 

 many thousands to them annually. 



In legard to llie old fisherman, of whom I have never 

 before neard, making the success, your correspondent is 

 mistaken. All anj- of the fishermen ever did for me 

 while 1 was experimenting was to destroy my experi- 

 ments, break my boxes, hoot at me, and, in fact, did 

 e\'eiyihiii;j: tliey could to discourage and drive me away, 

 and "when 1 hit upon a plan which I felt sure would, and 

 which did prove a success, I was obliged to watch it day 

 and night to protect it firom the ravages of the fisher- 

 men, I 



In regard to the stream mentioned, I tried the experi- 

 ment of hatching shad in it. but was unsuccessful, the 

 change of temperat-ure being too great from the liver 

 water, and the only shad that were hatched successfully 

 wore hatclied in the river and not: in the stream. I should 

 be pleased to learn the name and address of the old fl^h- 

 eriuan, and hope 1 may be favored with it. 



Tour coircspondent is right in regard to the place for 

 hatchuig shad. It should be done in' the upper waters. 1 

 do not think that any attemiits to hatch them at the 

 mouths of rivers will e\'er prove aauccess. There should 

 be a close time of two days in each week to allow the ' 

 shad to get up to their spawning grounds. 

 _ The fisfiing could not be equabzed ui the way men- 

 tioned, as the lower river fishermen are about through 

 when the upper river lishermen commence. The fisher- 

 men at the mouth will always catch the most, because 

 they have the first chance, and the upper river fisher- 

 men can only expect to catcli those which escape their 

 nets. Seth Green. 



MR. THOMPSON'S TROUT PONDS ON LONa ISLAND. 



THE Brooklyn Eaijle gives the following account of 

 the trout preserves and ponds on the Island :— 



On the 1st of September the trout season ol 1880 on 

 Long Island ended, and until Marcli. IS8I, the siieedjled 

 beauties of the lake and stream are to be left undisturbed 

 in their cool rel leais, while the anglers will enjoy relat- 

 ing their experiences ol' the past season, and ih'e t •out- 

 breeders will bpujii to prepare for their approaching 

 hatching season of the year. And just here comes in the 

 query, •• Have you ever vi.sited a trout-brredor's fish 

 farm ': " If you have not, ilo .so before the cold weather 

 sets in, and you will see soinelhine; worlh a day's jouiney 

 to witness. Of all fresh water fiah, trout are liie g.aniitst, 

 pluckiest .and finest fish that swim. They are the de- 

 light of the angler, as they give him the greiK est sport 

 he has with his rod and line. Then, too, they make the 

 daintiest dish of fish that can be set upori the table. 

 Hence, trout are in great demand, alike by the angler 

 and the epicure. 



Long Island abounds in trout. The Island lakelets, 

 ponds and running streams have been the resort and 

 the home of trout since time unknown. Of late years 

 trout breeding litis become quite an important occu- 

 pation on Lemg Island, and now the culture of trout, 

 from the ovum to the lull grown fish, is carried on to 

 quite a considerable extent, from one end of the Island 

 to the otiier, beginning with Fin'man's Trout Breeding 

 Establishment, at Newtown, and emliiij; witli Thomp- 



son's model trout farm at Nova 

 The business is carried on vei-y sui e, ssfi 

 result is the growth of thouFands of H 

 suited to repleni.sh exhausted streams or t 

 vate irout ponds, but to answer the great 

 mand for Long Island irout, which now h 

 erence over the product of every otlu 



Say; Harbor. 

 illy, and the 

 >li not only 

 i> supply pri- 

 luarket de- 

 a\e the pref- 

 fish-lireeding 



suc- 



stalilishineut in the oounlry. Probably the 

 cesaful eultivator of the speckled beau lies on the is- 

 land is Mr. Furman, of Newtown ; but he bids fair to 

 be rivalled by his friend, Mr. George Thompson, whose 

 most pictures(jue trout farm, located at the head of 

 Eldricige's mill pond, in the old Indian village of No- 

 yac, L. I., about four niiles from Sag Harbor, is beyond 

 question the most beautiful locality of the kind in the 

 State. Mr. Thompson iit an old (Jalitornia pioneer, one ' 

 of those choice spirits of the gold-lined coast who know 

 no such word as tail in anything they undertake to 

 accomplish. 



From slow, sluggish streamlets passing through an al- 

 most impenetrable undergrowth of wild shrubs and tough 

 brush has come a series of pretty little lakelets and clear, 

 running streams, in the midst of which stands his cottage 

 homestead, aronud whiehare beautifully laid out flower 

 gardens. Beyond these are located the" hatching houses 

 and rearing boxes of Ins trout farm, the whole forming a 

 place for the cultivation of trout from the germ of l^he 

 fish to the lively two pound troul, ready either for tiie 

 angler's rod or for the epicure's feast at the table. The 

 front view, looking from the garden lawn near the cot- 

 tage, presents a very pictm-esque landscape, the pretty 

 sheet of water forming the mill pond being ended by 

 a background of the waters of Noyao Bay. The whole 

 farm is shaded by the familiar "taU oaJcs from little 

 acorns grow," and brightened by the "music of the 

 water" from the constantly running sti-eama in which the 

 trout revel and delight. In fact, Mr. Thompson, with 

 rare taste for gardening, has made the place a peri'ecc 

 picture* 



Let us examine a little into the details of the various 

 processes employed in raising young trout, from the 

 germ, to the fuU grown fish. We wiij suppose the trout 

 spawn to he placed in the nest assigned for it in the 

 hatching house, and that the embryo fish have been de- 

 veloped from the egg to the young fish swimming about 

 with its sac of food attached to it, on which it lives for a 

 time, looking somewhat like a ycung tadpole, though 

 not so fully developed, in each nest at the long row in 

 the trough of the hatching houses at the farm 

 there are from two to three thousand trout, all 

 afive and swimming about in a running stream of cold 

 spring water, one inch in depth, which rippleti over a 

 white sandy Jbottom. From tha time the trout spiwns 

 to the period the ta-out begins to look out for itself forty- 

 five days elapse. In the interim the young fish is fed 

 from its yolk sac, which is, during this time, a part of 

 itself. When this is removed by its falling from the 

 body of the fish — at this time not more than half an 

 inch in length — the young trout begin to work for 

 their fivelihood, and to earn it from the water. By 

 this time they have grown to about three-quarters of 

 an inch in length. These youngsters are very tena- 

 cious of life. They have been known to have survived 

 in a deep well for over a year without other food 

 than the well water alone supplied. Trout are a very 

 voracious fish, and even in early trouthood develop can- 

 nibalistic propensities, large trout living upon small 

 trout, while parent fish will frequently devour their 

 offspring, the male trout having quite a fancy for the 

 young tish when very hungry. From the hatching 

 troughs the young trout are transferred to the rearing 

 boxes, and it is in these that their artificial framing 

 begins. One would imagine that the j'oung trout under 

 the lacentive_of the process of regular feeding on a fish 



