April SSj isso.j 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



225 



sauie parasite. The duck was shot near here about four 



weeks a^i, ami had the same appearance precisely as 

 described by. "Mic Mac; " DODQ! 



Kavf.n Nuak. .Kingston, Ont.— Our correspondent 

 " Al." who writes fironi Kingston, Out., notifies us of the 



in, ; 1 1 1 1 nre of a raven, nea C that city, He says :— 

 A. Wend of mini 1 , Mr \V. i Iraig, living a short distance 

 from the city, not long since shot, and secured, on or near 

 his rarrn. a splendid specimen of the raven, He has had 

 it mounted hy Mr, Stratford, our city taxidermist, at 

 whose shop it i3 on exhibition. 



Note ON the Breeding- oe the Black Beak,— Bos- 

 ton, Fab. tlh.— The black 'Dear (Ursns americnnnn) brings 

 forth ber young in the Northern States and Canada in 

 February. The period of gestation is eight months. At; 

 two ye&rs of age the female usually produces one at a 

 birth' breeding every other vear. The second lifter con- 

 sists of two, and when of mature growth sometimes t hree, 

 and in one instance — well authenticated by the writer— 

 foar at a birth. When born the cubs are naked and very 

 diminutive. About the tenth week their fur is grown 

 and their eyes open, ft, is not unusual for the dam to 

 , 3 oung for a brief time when the weather is very 

 mild. On the approach of warm weather, in May, they 

 leave the den in search of food, the dam placing her cubs 

 on her back, where they cling and nestle in the long, 

 tuick fur. After this the cubs develop more rapidly iu 

 si/,3 and soon ramble by the side of the dam. When 

 pressed by the hunter, or in danger site keeps her young 

 in front, herself between them and danger, and when 

 suddenly started sends them to tree and takes herself oil' 

 at a distance, especially if the hunter is on their trail, 

 Coepl. Lor Warfield. 



AViiite .Jaok-Kahbits.— Carson, Nev., M&rcli Will.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream .•— Your cqrrespon 

 Lakes, writing from Como, Vfy., who is certainly an in- 

 telligent observer, makes a grave error, and one which is 

 apt to mislead Eastern sportsmen, when he sneaks of 

 snow-white jack-rabbits, Now a white jaok-rabbifc does 

 not exist, the jacks retaining the same color winter and 

 summer. There is a species of rabbi: . , 



country, however, much larger than the jack, which 

 does become white during the winter months. This rab- 

 bit weighs from eight to ten pounds when full grown, 

 aud in this section is known as the mountain hare, from 

 the fact that it is to be found only on the mountain sides, 

 or now and then in the foot-hills, There is as much dis- 

 tinction between this rabbit and the jack as there is be- 

 tween the cotton-tail and the jack ; and I repeat, thero is 

 no white jack-rabbit at an v season of the vear in any 

 Western State or Territory," and such statements as Mr. 

 L, makes, appearing in. a reliable paper like the Forest 

 and Stkeam, are calculated to lead many into grievous 

 error, . especially so when they originate 'from one who 

 can use all the scientific names so readily. Sivad. 



We regret to be forced to differ with a correspondent 

 who make such positive assertions as the above. Never- 

 theless we are obliged to take issue with him on the facts. 

 The so-called jack-rabbit of the plains and the Pocky 

 Mountains (Lepus oamjo'estrts) does certainly turn white 

 in winter, " Sivad's " statement to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. See Couos & Allen, Monograph of North 

 American Rodentia. 



The large hare referred to by our correspondent is very 

 probably the pine or snow-shoe rabbit (L, Americanm, 

 viae, BainU), 



■» 



A Tame Ruffed GtetrosE. — Woriestyr, Mass., March 

 XStll.—As it is generally conceded that the ruffed grouse 

 cannot be fame,], I will give some facts concerning a 

 bird of this kind. Near the village of Coldbrook Springs, 

 Mass., are the mills and box factory of Mr. D. M. Parker, 

 aud near the mills is a tract of sprout land extending al- 

 most to the mill-yard. In the fall of 1878 Mr. Parker 

 first, noticed a partridge (or ruffed grouse) about the prem- 

 ises. The bird appeared remarkably tame and thereforo 

 attracted his attention. Ha began feeding it, and it grew 

 more familiar, until it would eat from his hand, and 

 finally grew so tame as to perch on his shoulder. He can 

 call it as readily as any farmer can call his chickens ; in 

 fact, calls it in the same manner, Mr. Parker has never 

 deprived the bird of its liberty, except on one occasion, 

 when he kept it in the basement of his house for a short 

 time, but it did not relish confinement, and he let it go. 

 It has, however, continued to stay about the mill. Many 

 persons have visited his place to see this remarkable 

 bird, and Mr. Parker is always ready to leave his busi- 

 ness to show off his pet. Any one who is at all skeptical 

 as to the truth of the above statement can call at the 

 mills and see the bird take a piece of apple from between 

 Mr. Parker's teeth. 



Sportsmen generally pronounce it a female bird. It is, 

 and always has been so far as known, a perfectly strong, 

 sound and healthy bird. Can it not he fairly claimed 

 that this comes very near being a tame ruffed grouse ? 



I. S. K. 



A very interesting case. 



y — -* — 



^ Snake Bating Fish.— For a number of years past it 

 has been my custom, because unable to find any better 



way to dispose of my summer leisure, to do a good deal 

 of lishiug in the Potomac River, sometimes in the imme- 

 diate front of the city, sometimes at the Little and Big 

 Falls above, and sometimes at the Four Mile Run below. 

 I have generally used live-bait, there being minnows in 

 nti l y a long the edges of the river. Three sum- 

 mers ago I went to catch minnows at the mouth of a 

 small run called Gravelly Creek, situated on the west 

 bank of the. river, just at the foot of the Arlington es- 

 tate. A short distance north of the run is the once quite 

 celebrated Arlington'Springs, whic.h is still a place of re- 

 sort for large numbers ol Sunday visitors from the city, 

 To reach the springs, except by boat, it is a& BBSS to 

 cross Gravelly Creek near its mouth, or go waits a 

 : ! i , ,, around the creek. To 



to cross the creek at the mouth, a passage-way lias 

 bejMi made by a kind of loose dam of stones. Al- 

 low water the creek here is some forty feet wide, hot 

 at full tide it is lully sixty feet and four or five feet 

 deep, Tho loose stones form quite an irapedhauut 



to the tide, so that, when the tide is rising, the water on 

 the river side of the dam is several inches higher than 

 the water on the other side, and Hows through and over 

 tones quite rapidly, and the reverse is tho-case" 

 when the tide is falling. Vast numbers of minnows are 

 i I times in the marsh along the river 

 banks, and as the tide rises they seek the runs to be 

 found hern and there to avoid the white and yellow 

 perch which prey upon them, and it is while they are 

 making up the creek that I catch the quantity 1 want. 



ne day, while catching minnows as usual. I noticed a 

 number of snakes, the common water-moccasin, ap- 

 proaching the dam or footway of stones. The water yet 

 lacked several inches of reaelling the top of the stoiie- 

 way, although it was rushing in quite rapidly and carry- 

 ing with it manv bull-minnows and small 'white perch 

 that were unable to resist it. Watching the snakes. 

 I saw one after another reach the dam and take their sta- 

 tion upon it. submerging themselves all but their heads. 

 -,i,i h were raised about an inch above the water and 

 pointed in the direction of the incoming tide. In this 

 position I counted seventeen snakes, arranged at uneven 

 intervals, iu a space Of less than sixty feet. T came to the 

 conclusion at once they were fishing, and watched them 

 with a good deal of interest. Pretty soon I saw one head 

 strike forward, going under the water, reappearing in a 

 moment with a very large bull-minnow in its mouth. 

 The snake immediately loosened its hold upon the rocks 

 and swam Cor the shore, reaching winch it disappeared 

 in the bushes ; and this was repeated at intervals by each 

 of the seventeen snakes. When they returned from the 

 bushes, having made short work of their " catch," each 

 snake sought; his own particular location on the rocks, 

 there being no clashing of interests there. 



Mow, how is this for reason or instinct? How do these 

 snakes know where to locate themselves, and the partic- 

 ular stage of the tide at which to start on their lishing 

 excursion? How do they know that a number of min- 

 nows will be swept over tho miniature falls made by the 

 rocks ? These are questions that go beyond my compre- 

 hension, and I leave them for others to answer. But the 

 facts remain, and any one who will take the trouble may 

 verify them at any time during the summer by a visit to 

 Gravelly Creek. ' IlAirt-TRlGGER. 



gislf §ulfurq. 



— » — 



THE BERLIN EXPOSITION. 



ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, 

 [from our Staff Correspondent,.] 



AS school-boys we learn that three-fourths of this 

 globe which we inhabit is water ; the fact is stored 

 away in memory's garret with other waste bits of intel- 

 lectual lumber without a reference being made to it, or 

 anything to recall it in a manner to bring it to the sur- 

 face as an actual fact, until one sails for days and weeks 

 without seeing anything else. An ocean trip has been 

 written up so often and so well that any attempt to add 

 much to it or to depict its vastness must result in failure ; 

 still, the experiences of each one show that there are 

 many things which cause trips to be remembered as dis- 

 tinct from each other— the ship, the fellow-voyagers, tho 

 cuisine, and, above all, the weather. 



It. was the writer's fortune to cross to England recently 

 in the North German Lloyd steamer N$ckar, whicU lef t 

 New York on March SOth, with part of the goods to be 

 exhibited by the United States at the International Fish- 

 ery Exhibition, to be held in Berlin, and also with the 

 delegation which was selected to represent our country 

 at that Ichthyic congress, and from whom much infor- 

 mation was derived by inquiring passengers concerning 

 the importance of our fisheries, the extent of their opera- 

 tions, value, the culturo of the food fishes, methods of 

 capture, and much other valuable knowledge which, to 

 one who had only considered fishes from the angler's 

 point of view, was a series of suiprises as to the vastness 

 of the Hold and the thoroughness with which it has been 

 ■worked by Prof. Baird and his assistants. The catalogue 

 of exhibits, proofs of which were to be seen, will be a 

 large one, and covers what appears to the visitor every- 

 thing which could by any possibility be made from a fish 

 or could in any way be connected with it— from the boats 

 and implements of the angler and the fisherman to the 

 literature of fishes and their culture — an exhibit which 

 cannot fail to be both a credit aud an advantage to our 

 country. 



The other passengers were an exceptionally good lot, 

 as passengers go, in both cabins, not a man being seen 

 drunk on the voyage, a thing which old sea travelers will 

 icgard as a strange occurrence ; it being the rule that a 

 party of several men wili get drunk when, the ship leaves 

 the wharf and remain so until they go on shore, making 

 the smoking-room a place to bo avoided by decent people. 

 The differences in the cabins as to rooms is not great, the 

 location of the second cabin being amidships, making it 

 more desirable and more than compensating for the dif- 

 ference in the upholstering, while the cuisine is good, but 

 not so varied and elaborate as in the first ; the differences 

 between them which the old traveler cares most about 

 being in the passengers and their manners, especially at 

 table, there always being many iu the second who per- 

 form feats of knife-swallowing only equaled by the jug- 

 glers, and who not being used to be waited upon will re- 

 quest service of their neighbors while the waiters are 

 sfca ud i ag idle, Having crossed in both cabins and studied 

 the habits Of theardmal man, I have developed the fol- 

 lowing theory ; The reason why i.he second-cabin passen- 

 ger can reach so far across your plate to reach tho pepper 



without dipping more than a small portion of 

 sleeve iu your soup is, without doubt, an inherited pecu- 

 liarity to be accounted for by the fact that the ' 

 armed second-el m\ at i agerintheArkgpt themostp^p- 

 per, and his d .eid far of 



reach, crowding out and displacing th ir. shorter-armed 

 fellows, and so have developed a race which when in 

 want of pepper are capable of entirely depending upon 

 their own resources. 



The monotony of the trip was broken on the third day 

 out by the discovery of the cabin of a vessel, wll b fci '■■ 

 of a wreck, and two hours later we picked up a small 

 boat containing eleven men and a dog, who were the 

 entire crew of the -wrecked bark OpMr, of Mirimachi, 

 N. B., with grain, from Philadelphia to Belfast, which 

 went down in a gale on the 31st. Two nights in an 

 open boat, with the spray soaking their clothing, had 

 chilled them until they had not strength sufficient to en- 

 able them to clilUb the ladder without the assistance of a 

 rope under their arms ; aud on gaining the deck but; few 

 could walk, while on reaching Southampton a week 

 later tho colored cook and another were left i/i the 

 hospital. 



The weather was very pleasant throughout the voyage, 

 and for the five days before reaching Southampton the 

 great ship moved as steadily as a river steamer, so evenly 

 that the water in a tank belonging to the -Fish Commis- 

 sion, which was designed to bo a sort oT self-aerating 

 arrangement, by means of the rolling of the ship causing 

 certain sponges to bo first under and then out of water, 

 declined to act at all, and a mere trembling of the surface 

 of the water in it was the only sigu of its being in mo- 

 tion. This tank contained some curious creatures, be- 

 sides niany fish, which although our own countrymen ft) 

 we passengers are not at all familiar with, nor is their 

 appearance such as to make one desirous of further ac- 

 quaintance. The Professors have names for thern, which 

 may be correct for all that I can say to the contrary, but 

 such names I There is no need to try and give them, for 

 a slip of the pen would betray my ignorance of scientific 

 nomenclature, always supposing that my memory had 

 firmly grasped them. These beasts are to be shOWnin the 

 class of "Enemies of Fish and Fish Culture"— a fact 

 which serves to illustrate the assertion made before, that 

 there was a complete collection of everything relating to 

 piscine life, growth and development, whether it may re 

 beneficial or hurtful; ihe Neelcar having thirty tons of 

 material on board for tho exhibition, with more to follow 

 from Now York, which, was only a shipping point for a 

 small portion of the goods, the most of them having been 

 taken by ships of this line from Baltimore. These so. 

 called tons are computed by measurement, however, 

 much of the exhibit being in tho form of large and light 

 articles, which are boxed, the boats being especially largo 

 in proportion to their weight. 



This exhibit seems to thoroughly awaken the interest, of 

 every one who hears of its ox leu t and character ; it is the 

 most novel of all exhibitions, that of the fishery in- 

 dustries of the world — certainly one that is of the great, 

 est importance to our people, but which has been ignored 

 or slighted for so long a time that Tew persons have an 

 idea of its value beyond the fact that we paid five and a 

 half million dollars last year for tho privilege of fishing 

 on a small portion of the North American Coast. 



gm and §ives[ <girfmi& 



ITSH IN SEASON IN APKTT,. 



Speckled Trout, SalMiipu fmtMutiis ; Lund-looked Salmon 

 Saimo tjlovcri; Smelts. 



GAME AND FISH DIRECTORY. 



In sonfljng revolts for tho Forest AJjn Sl<RBAM Directory of 



(Same and Fish Iiesorls, ran correspondents ,„.,, requested to give 

 the following particulars, wit I, such other information as they 

 may deem Of value : State, Town, County ■ Means of ftcoess; Hotel 

 and other accommodations; Game ami itsSeasoaj i 

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



Jf "THE NIPISIGUIT AND METAPEDLi,'' 



Editor Forest and Stream :— 



In the issue of April 8th of the Forest and Stream h 

 criticism appears upon an article of mom under date of 

 March 11th, 



.Having been there, and also having seen the woods 

 several tunes m the last twenty years, :,;„! having invari- 

 ably kenta_diary and a. record of every penny of expense, 

 I thought I knew wbereol 1 wrote, I can, at all events 

 ^WMWD of my faith and regarding the question of 



"Manhattan" si,;,.., I: ,., ;,„,,,, ., Ml 



the residue is open to "a great crowd of anglers <-ood 

 and bad, and no sport nor pleasure to anyone " 



My article did not. refer to sections of' rivers "open to 

 all," but otherwise, as I wrote. "Permit* ,,, , .' ,,. - 



charges usually one dollar per day per rod." Free fishing 



is usually not worth the waste of time, While all eoo3 



fishing is under leas I n , i the 11 li ,,,,, i„- Division 



to which I referred is under leu- , , equality 



with all salmon lis hi,; g , ,,,, !.,, an( ] .„ g00(1 , is , ( - 

 and better than many, and is not more er.ovded than 

 Other good streams, nor so much crowded that good fish- 

 ing may not be had. 



nunier of 1ST? ] bad die pleasure of conductine 

 a small party to the Kestigoucho, Wo arrived . 



