FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Febbttahy 26, 1880, 



or calm (Ortyx), a genus of birds of the family Tetro- 

 amdae, closely allied to the quails and partridges, but 

 differing from both. * * * The best known species is 

 the Virginia colin (0. Virginia mis), etc. Why this old 

 and appropriate name has been dropped is an enigma, 

 but the propriety of reviving its use is clear. 



Grows, — Washington, D. C, Feb. 2lst.— I read with 

 much interest the article on " Ravens and Crows,"' by 

 Mr. Buckley, in Forest and Stream of this week, as I 

 do all your articles on subjects of natural history, and 

 was reminded of some traits oiOorvusami rietMi its In this 

 section of the country. Vast number of crows may be 

 seen morning and evening flying over Washington, on 

 their journey to and from Chesapeake Bay and the 

 pineries of Virginia, where they roost. Dead fish, defunct 

 quadrupeds and a thousand and one delectable reminis- 

 cences of Baltimore sewers, east up from the deep, are 

 the attractions. What I wanted particularly to mention, 

 however, is the fact that in the early spring these ugly 

 birds liave a bad habit of finding unprotected lambs on 

 the loosely managed farms in Maryland and Virginia, and 

 pecking the eyes out of them. In this matter the 

 crows are great epicures. An experienced occulist 

 could hardly remove an eye with more ease 

 and facility than these merciless crows. They 

 are also death on young chickens, and are as bad 

 as hawks on the prairies in finding and destroying 

 new broods. In some of the pineries large quantities of 

 guano are obtained and used in fertilizing the thin soil of 

 these States, which is about, all the benefit the crows are, 

 and that is small recompense for the damage they inflict. 



J, C, B. 



Otteks Under the Ice. — Houliim, Me.., leb. 14th. — 

 My experience coincides with that of "Fred.," as stated 

 in the last issue of FOEEST akd Stream, and I will add 

 further, that it takes a smart hunter to run down one of 

 these animals swimming under the ice. Otter, mink, 

 and muskrats are taken by spearing through the first- 

 formed ice when clear and thin, just strong enough to 

 hold a man while in rapid motion. The hunter strikes 

 them as they rise to breathe. The breath is oxygenized 

 by contact with the water almost as soon as expelled, 

 but when hard pressed more or less is wasted and the 

 quarry noon weakens for want of it. Jack. 



What Martin Bother Thought op the Sparrow.— 

 Chicago, HI.— A large tree i n front of my library windows 

 is the perch nearly all dav of innumerable sparrows, to 

 my cheerful entertainment, and an alley at the side of 

 my house is their principal feeding ground, where I ob- 

 serve their food is grain. 



Yet I remember picking up, some five or six months 

 ago, a helpless callow bird, unmistakably sparrow, with 

 a fresh angle worm in its bill. Is it yet settled what is 

 their- chief food ? and has the sparrow war ceased, or only 

 subsided for a time ? 



Among the miscellanies of Luther's "Table Talk" 

 (Bonn's edition, page 368), are the following lines, which 

 I cite for the benefit of Mr. Ooues, to show the opinion 

 that Luther had of them three and a half centuries ago : 

 — "The sparrow is a most voracious animal and does 

 great harm to the crops. The Hebrews call it tsohirp, 

 It should be destroyed whenever found." T, D. L. 



FISH CULTURE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE Massachusetts Commissioners are from year to 

 year perfecting the system of fishways in the va- 

 rious rivers of the State, and in this way providing free 

 passage for the fish to and from their spawning grounds. 

 The large fishway built at East Taunton, over what is 

 known as Squaw Betty Dam, has given general satisfac- 

 tion, and the conflict which has existed for half a cen- 

 tury between the mill-owners and the fishermen has fin- 

 ally been settled, or at least transferred to other battle- 

 fields. The inspection of the passage of fishes up the 

 Lawrence fishway was continued through the year from 

 May 5th to Nov. 1st, and a record kept of two observa- 

 tions daily. The number of salmon thus noted was 

 twenty-eight, the other (ish being alewives, suckers, chubs, 

 bass, shad and eels. 



Serious depredations were committed at the South Had- 

 ley fishway. Thousands of fish were taken from it, and 

 the services of a Superintendent were found necessary 

 here to protect the State's in I crests. The efforts to obtain 

 shad spawn here were rendered futile by the exorbitant, 

 prices insisted upon by the owners of the seining pound: 

 there, and the Commissioners of both Massachusetts an< 

 Connecticut felt warranted in resisting their demand; 

 even with the loss of the spawn. It is suggested that 

 another pound might be provided lower down tl 

 where the Commissior 

 private establishments. 



The breeding of trout, though not strictly within the 

 province of the Commissioners' work, has been prosecuted 

 to utilize the breeders acquired by the State in tho lc 

 of the hatching ponds at Plymouth, N. H.; over 100,000 

 spawn have here been produced, of which one-fourth be- 

 long to Massachusetts, and it is proposed to distrffc 

 these to parties who will keep a record and furnish sta- 

 tistics regarding them. They will be ready for delivery 



Massachusetts received as her share of the land-locked 

 salmon (Salmo sebago) from the works at Brand Lake 

 Stream. Maine— 2-lu.OUO eggs— of which 224,Tf» were suc- 

 cessfully hatched and the fly distributed to some twenty- 

 eight ponds throughout the* Slate. 



The returns from most of those who received these fish 

 are sufficiently encouraging to warrant a further distri- 

 bution of them. All parties must make application in 

 writing giving a, careful description of the pond in which 

 they desire to place them, The plan is to furnish them 

 at the State hatching-house m Winchester, free of charge, 

 to all applicants having under their control any of the 



g would be independent of the 



great pondq of the State. For transportation, parties 

 should bring with them good clean half-barrels or milk- 

 cans, holding ten or twelve gallons, a thermometer, and 

 a dipper for aerating the water. The half-barrels will 

 carry from 4,000 to 5,000, and the milk-cans about 3.000. 

 The introduction of these fish into ponds having neither in- 

 let nor outlet will for the present be discontinued. There 

 will probably be about 200,000 for distribution next 

 spring. No orders will be received after the 20th of 

 April. 



None of the spawn of the California salmon, although 

 freely offered by the United States Commissioners to the 

 States, has been acccepted by any of the New England 

 Commissioners this year. 



There seems to have been a general feeling, without 

 preconcerted action, that it was best not to incur any 

 further expense in trying to introduce them in our waters 

 until something more was known about them. The oft- 

 repeated assertion that these fish all die after spawning 

 has been pretty thoroughly exploded. But although rapid 

 in their growth, and apparently very healthy, they have, 

 from some unknown cause, Tailed to report themselves. 

 Of the hundreds of thousands that have been put into our 

 rivers, not one adult fish has been seen or taken, and, so 

 far as we know, not a single smolt has been caught in 

 any of our streams. It is to be hoped that the cause of 

 this apparent failure will be discovered, and that the en- 

 ergetic and praiseworthy efforts of the United States 

 Commissioner to introduce them into Eastern waters will 

 yet be. successful. 



There was an increased run of salmon in the Merrimack 

 the past season over that of the preceding one. They 

 came in schools during the month of June ; but very few 

 made their appearance after that month. During the 

 greater part of June there was scarcely a day that they 

 were not seen either in the fishway or around the mouth 

 of it. 



Another noticeable fact was that some of the fish were 

 unusually large for this river : one which passed the nets 

 at Plymouth during a heavy rise of water was killed in 

 attempting to scale Livermore Falls. It weighed over 23 

 pounds. Doubtless it was of the first year's plant. 



The season has been an unfortunate one for sei urna < 

 these fish for breeding purposes. Either th e water would 

 be so high that the nets could not be maintained, or so 

 low that the salmon were deterred from making any 

 effort to reach their breeding-grounds. A few hours' 

 rain in the mountains will raise the river at Plymouth 

 very rapidly from four to six feet. During the low stage 

 of water many salmon could be seen in deep pools below 

 Plymouth, .At New Hampton, late in the season, no less 

 than eight large ones were seen in one pool, The 

 drought has been severe this fall, and it is probable that 

 many salmon have spawned in the rapids below Liver- 

 more Falls, instead of going above, as they otherwise 

 would have done. 



The exact number of young salmon deposited alive in 

 the river in 1875 is not known. They were intrustei 1 to the 

 care of Mr. Wadleigh, then Commissioner of New Hamp- 

 shire, whose inexperience caused considerable loss ; and in 

 one instance the fish were disposed of in a direction not 

 contemplated by the Commissioners of this State. These 

 things have had their effect in lessening the number of 

 adult fish taken at the hatching-house. The planting of 

 1876, under the care of John McNeil, was by far the 

 largest and probably the most successful effort that has 

 been made in any oue year toward re-stocking the. river. 

 The result of this planting will be due the coming season. 

 A good many salmon have been taken along the coast 

 ipounds, weirs, and gill-nets. One man near Newbury- 

 port took twelve, and many were taken near New Bed- 

 ford, and sold in that market. Yet, of all the statements 

 received from the fishermen giving the number of edible 

 fish taken by them, only two report any salmon. 



There were many parrs and Smelts found in the Pemi- 

 gewassett the past summer, which must have come from 

 spawn naturally deposited by the salmon that reached 

 the head waters during the last two years. 



Below will be found extracts from the report of M?. A. 

 H. Powers, Commissioner of New Hampshire, and super- 

 intendent of the hatching-house, in the joint interest of 

 the two States : — 



, "The 367,500 California salmon mentioned in my re- 

 port one year ago were distributed in the month of Janu- 

 ary ae follows ; 25,000 were put in the Contocook River. 

 28*000 in the Salmon Palls River, and the remainder in 

 the Pemigewasset. At any time till the last of August 

 these salmon (parrs) could be seen in large numbers any- 

 where in the river near the hatching-house, from three 

 to five inches long, very lively, and apparently healthy, 

 " From our breeding trout 160,000 eggs have been taken. 

 Twenty-two Atlantic salmon have been taken this sea- 

 son, weighing from eight to twenty pounds each. The 

 first was caught June 13th, and the last Oct. 29th. All 

 were caught at night, or before 6.30 a.m. Thirteen were 

 females, and from them we have secured over 100,000 

 eggs. For over thirty years not a salmon passed Op the 

 Pemigewasset. This is the first time, in this country a* 

 least, that any considerable quantity of eggs has been 

 taken from mature salmon caught from a depleted river 

 artificially re-stocked. The result cannot fail to be 

 highly gratifying to those who have, or have had, the 

 matter in charge, and has, to a certainty, demonstrated 

 that the- faith of the few, who argued that the rivers 

 could be re-stocked to advantage, was well founded. 

 Those who have believed it impossible must now be 

 convinced that it is not only possible, but quite prac- 

 ticable." 



That the California salmon, put into this river in 1878, 

 survived the winter and summer up to the last: of August, 

 making a much more rapid growth than the Atlantic sal- 

 mon, is certain ; but whether they will be found next 

 summer as smolts. or whether their- sudden departure last 

 summer was final, remains to be seen. Of the large num- 

 ber that have been turned into the Merrimack during the 

 last five years, this is the only instance in which any 

 trace of tliem has been detected so late in the season. 



The Bucksport establishment for taking Penobscot 

 salmon spawn was reopened this season, and the money 

 heretofore used to pay for the transportation and ex- 

 penses of California salmon was used to secure spawn 

 from this place. 



The 100,000 eggs taken at Plymouth, with what may 

 be obtained from Bucksport, together with the natural 

 deposit in the river, will make a fair planting for the 

 coming season, 



The State of New Hampshire has passed a law extend- 

 ing the time for taking salmon to 1882, in order to carry 

 out what has been so successfully begun ; a similar law 

 should be passed by Massachusetts, 



Seth Perkins"' Hybrids.— Elk Lick, Some 

 Pa,, Feb, lith.—Editui- Forest and Si ream r— Mr. Seth 

 Perkins, in the last issue, says he has crossed the cattish 

 with the "muscle." Will he please giv, us the details-! 

 He is respectfully requested to stand up in meeting and 

 tell what he knows about the matter. H. M. 



The number of animalcului in a single drop of an aler is 

 past rinding out, but it has been estimated by careful 

 students that this host of living creatures is doubled and 

 trebled when the drop of water is dyed with pigment and 

 flows from the tip of an ordinary Gil lot t pen. Let our 

 correspondent first read and comprehend the facts de- 

 tailed in the paper published elsewhere with the title 

 1 ' New Discoveries in Natu ral History . " Then he may be 

 prepared for the next sfp in the mysteries of ink-bottle 

 fish culture. ^ 



Fish for Lare Ontabio.— Rochester, Feb, 

 1 2r7j — I think there will be an effort made to stock Lake 

 Ontario with while fish, and any parties knowing where 

 they are taken in large numbers during their spawning 

 season, will confer a favor by letting me know by letter. 

 Seth Green. 



gm mid §hci[ <gi siting. 



— » — 



FISH IN SEASON IN FEBRUARY. 



SOUTHEBN WATERS. 



Pompano, TrachiruituxMrnliiiii-*. I (trouper, Epinophdpus nigrlttu. 

 " in (two species). Family i Trout (lilaelc bass), CentrorprU- 



Kflsh, Ifentieiirus nrhuhisuf. I Stripe,! P.ass'or Uockflah, R<>c- 



Kod Snapper, Lutlanus blackfordii. 

 GAME AND FISH DIRECTORY. 



Tn sending reports for the FOBBST ash St 



Gamoand Fifih Resorts, our correaptmdezi , - 



the following parttcUlRTS, wltll such other It 

 may deem of value: State, Town, County ; means of acc< 

 and other accommodations; Game and its -•• t 

 Season : Boats, Guides, etc.; Name of person to address. 



Directory of 

 KBteatoeiYb 

 itlon as they 

 access Hotel 



nil 



Dr. Rollin's Tent.— The dimensions of the segments • 

 of the tent described in our issue of Feb. 1.2th, are: 10 i 

 centimeters wide at top : 91 centimeters wide at bottom 

 and 240 centimeters in length. 



Connecticut.— A land-locked salmon weighing four 

 pounds has been taken from Simpsic pond, Roekville, this 



winter. _ 



Michigan— Alpena. Feb. 2d.— Long Lake is six miles 

 from Alpena, which is situated on Thunder Bay. Lake Hu- 

 ron, bleached by dailv boars in summer from Bay City, 

 four boats per week from Detroit. Look' Lake is a beautiful 

 sheet Of water nine miles long by one and one-half miles 

 wide j plentv of black bass, perch and pike and partridges. I 

 Over 1.500 d'eer killed in this county last season; goodc 

 accommodation at Long Lake House ; charges reason"! 

 alile. 



Fine Black. Bass Fishing^— .Oswego, 17, v.. Feb. 2i*f.— 

 As the February sun casts bolder and yet bolder glances 

 over our shoulders : as he climbs the southern heavens, 

 and the spring-time crow begins to examine the half- 

 naked fields with critical eve and noisy cawing, the iisn- 

 ennan's blood gurgles in his veins with freshened ?igcs 

 and rods, lines, flies and creel are taken from the shelf 

 and overhauled with a business-like air which discounts 

 that vet intervene between the mud and slush 

 of to-dav and the rustling leaves and purling riffles of 

 June, and while the time yet serves and a decision is still 

 to be made as to " where shall we. go this year." let me 

 call the attention of my brethren of rod and reel to what 

 this location can offer. 



We have here a summer city delightful beyond com- 

 parison, a temperature of from CO deg. to 78 de 

 the grand Ontario before it, the, blue Uhonrrguerl in its 

 midst, and as charming a country upon either hand as 

 the Indians ever gazed upon. From our breakwater and 

 piers in season we take pike, ciscoi ' shad, all 



with the fly, and all to be caught within thirty minutes' 

 walk of any of our hotels. Our river, now civilized 

 under the name of the Oswego, swarms with bin 

 pike and shad, and for several miles above the city it is 

 mallow, wilit numerous rifts and fall.-,, render- 

 ing it a paradise for the fly caster. 



Within a dozen miles we number as many good trout 

 brooks and ponds, and from this point one may with equal 

 ease go down the St. Lawrence, up to the Pali I 



the Adirondacks. Our air is clear and bracing, our nights 

 cool, our scenery beautiful. OUX citizens friend!} and hos- 

 pitable. Fine accommodations may be had at < 

 hotels at reasonable rates, and the expenses of the fisher- 

 man in his journeying?, either upon lake, river-, or into' 

 the country, are ridiculously small. A boat with oars- 

 man can be had at any time for twenty-fire cents per 

 hour or two dollars per day. and board and camping, the 

 opportunities for which arc many, will not exceed one 

 dollar a dav. 



Prom New York, Oswego may be reached by theO. & 

 W, R. B., the K. Y. C. and D. L. and W., via Rome or 

 Syracuse : from the west by the N. Y. C, the 

 the h. O. S.; from the east by the R. W. & 0., and by 

 rg, Charlotte or any of the upper 

 lake, ports, by a daily line of propellers. The expense 

 from New Vi.Yk is seven dollars, and proportionate rates 

 from other points. 



We raise the finest strawberries in the month < if July 

 Of any State in the Union, and our black bass are then 

 the most gamy. With a welcome for all, I remain, 

 J.L. EL 



