FOREST AND STREAM 
827 
f o -without food for days, had to inhale the sandy air of 
he desert, and were frequently drenched by terrible 
rains. 
There is at the Jardin des Plantes a -wolf from the Ar¬ 
dennes. He was caught when about six years old. He 
was suffering from cough, and at one time we thought he 
was dying. He hawked and spat, and was always sullen 
and morose. Often he abstained from food for several 
days. At last we chloroformed him and examined his 
throat, He was found to be suffering from nasal catarrh 
in its most aggravated form. Under proper medical treat¬ 
ment he recovered rapidly. Nine wolves born at the Jar- 
din never showed the slightest sign of disease. 
M. Jacquemart, the famous Indian hunter, often told 
me that he had seen tigers spitting blood, which ex¬ 
hausted them so that they could be approached within a 
few feet with impunity. 
All monkeys are very delicate animals, They are not 
gluttonous ; and having so much exercise, they are rarely 
afflicted with diseases of the bowels. But they- have weak 
lungs, and the reason why so many of the most interest¬ 
ing among them die when brought to Europe is the too 
sudden change of air, diet, and water. There is no more 
intelligent monkey than the chimpanzee, a truly wonder¬ 
ful animal. While in Berlin I dined at the Zoological 
Gardens by the side of a pet chimpanzee. He partook of 
every dish like a human being, put sugar into liis teacup, 
stirred it with the spoon, and drank the beverage with 
evident relish. But his eyes looked supernaturally bright. 
I felt his pulse. It was 135. “ He will not live long,” I 
said to his keeper. 
“Why not ?" he asked with a sorrowful mien. 
“ He is consumptive,” I replied. 
“ Indeod ! He often coughs.’’ 
The chimpanzee died a month later. His left lung was 
entirely gone, 
Carnivorous animals suffer from digestive disorders 
only when fed upon poor meat. I dissected three hyenas : 
two in Paris, one in London, Their bowels presented an 
entirely healthy appearance, and so did their stomachs. 
But the reverse was the case of an old Abyssinian hyena 
belonging to a Greek menagerie-keeper, who had caught 
the animal himself in Africa. He managed to keep it 
alive for two years, but told me: 11 The beast always 
vomited, and often lay on the ground, moaning piteously. 
What was the cause?” I dissected the hyena. The stom¬ 
ach was in a terrible condition. It was dotted with the 
scars of boils. 
Dogs are gluttons. Wild dogs are worse. We have at 
the Jardin one of these able to devour meat enough to 
gorge a tiger or a lion ; but the animal has to pay dearly 
for its voracity ; it is always suffering from aggravated 
constipation, and will not live long. 
Foxes are shrewd about everything, and so they are 
about their food. What hunter has ever found a fox that 
died from disease ? Zoologists admire the dissected body 
of a fox because there is never anything unhealthy to be 
found in its organs. Hence, foxes are long-lived. 
Six months ago we received at the Jardin four buffa¬ 
loes from the North American plains. Two of them died 
three days after their arrival. They were found to be 
suffering from a multiplicity of diseases—dyspepsia, im¬ 
perfect action of the kidneys, and fatty degeneration of 
the heart. The other two have been ailing ever since 
and yet the young buffalo born at the Zoological Gardens 
of Cologne is the embodiment of health. 
The elephant is one of the most temperate and abstem¬ 
ious of animals. He eats for his size so little food that it 
is a wonder how he is able to exist upon it. True he 
dies in captivity before his time, but not from physical 
causes. There is no doubt that he is one of the most sen¬ 
sitive of animals. A slight or a disappointment mortifies 
him deeply. The elephants of South Africa, which are 
rough animals when compared with those raised in cap¬ 
tivity, die from diarrhoea or constipation, as Le Vaillant 
has stated. Their tamer brethren are free from disease ■ 
and, if they die before their time, thev generally do so 
from the above-mentioned causes. Sultan, the pride of 
the Jardin, the most amiable elephant I ever knew, was 
unable to survive the death of his companion, the pet 
dog Jean, _ 1 
DRUMMING OF THE CANADA GROUSE. 
I SAW in a back number of the Forest and Stream 
I think about three weeks ago, some discussion about 
the drumming of the Canada or spruce grouse. Having 
had a fine opportunity of observing the act in one of these 
bu-ds, if your space will admit I will explain it as nearly 
as I can. Some time ago a male specimen of this hand¬ 
some bird came to the house of a friend of mine not far 
from here, and took up his quarters along with the domes¬ 
tic towl. He was a pugnacious little fellow, and it was 
not long before he waged war upon the large barn-yard 
cock that accompanied the hens about the place The 
battle was long and hot, but it ended in the discomfiture 
of the old cock, as ho was no match for his small rival in 
activity and spirit. After gaining his point, he used to 
make up to the hens much after the fashion of a turkey 
cock, by spreading his tail and lowering his wings until 
then; outer edges touched the ground, at the same time 
making a noise like the sound of compressed air escaping 
by a small vent, or rather like the word “pit,” expressed 
forcibly with the teeth closed. This he would keep up at 
interv»ls ail day, jealously guarding his charge from all 
intruders in the towl line. The hens used to eye him sus¬ 
piciously, and fight rather shy at first, but they soon be- 
came accustomed to his antics, and then took no notice 
of them whatever. He would come up with the hens 
close to the back kitchen door without showing any fear 
tl ! e door t0 s° ia or out, and then 
he would fly to the branches of a large spruce near by, 
and watch until the coast was clear again when he would 
fly swiftly down with acircular flight dfCminglongy 
during the passage. He would at times start from fhe 
ground, and drum strongly while mounting upwards, with 
distinct and regular booms like the ruffed grouse His 
usual fight was rapid and noiseless, so that the booming 
must not be attributed to the flight, like the whirr of th? 
ruffed grouse, as he seemed to produce it at pleasure 
Frequently he started without any noise whatever and 
onlv commenced.to dram during the latter part of the 
flight; or occasionally when he started off with it to 
commence with, he stopped it before the flight was over. 
He was a very handsome bird in full plumage, and it was 
n sight worth watching for half an hour, to sit and ob¬ 
serve all his antics and gestures. At night, when the 
hens went to roost, he would betake himself to his spruce, 
and there stay until the following morning, when he 
would immediately join them on their appearance. He 
staid about the house for some days, but one morning 
turned up missing, having, I snppose, returned to his 
native haunts. I have frequently seen them, but never 
before or since have I had as good an opportunity of 
studying their habits, and I must,say that I never expect 
to get another chance like this one. J. W. D. 
Cap Rouge, Canada. _ 
Rah. in Wisconsin. — I have always supposed the rail 
(Ortolan) to be mostly a Southern bird, and nowhere to 
be found in great abundance except at the South, among 
the wild rice fields and marshes pertaining to the coast, 
bays and inlets of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vir¬ 
ginia, and thence southerly along the coast. 
But, greatly to my surprise, I find the rail quite as 
numerous at Stud Lake (an enlargement of Fox River, 
twenty-five miles southwest of Milwaukie) as at the best 
hunting of Delaware Bay, The rail found here is identi¬ 
cally the same bird I found there. It is of a dark brown 
color, short bill, long body, short tail and long, greenish 
legs, which in flying stretch back, and ac: as a very long 
rudder to a clumsy and rather slow flyer. The gizzard is 
disproportionately large, sets far in the chest, and seems 
to serve as ballast when on the wing. They usually fly 
straight and but a few yards, then drop down into the 
thick grass, and either hide away or run off like frightened 
rats in a hay-field. Being stupid of action and slow to 
rise, the boatmen not infrequently knock them down 
with their oars while pushing their boats through the 
marsh for the hunter. No one can mistake them. 
The sportsmen of Delaware Bay with whom I con¬ 
versed about this bird could give me no definite informa¬ 
tion as to where it breeds or comes from, but that they 
always found it in abundance in the marshes after about 
Sept. 1st, and that it remains there until frost and cold¬ 
ish weather set in, when it suddenly leaves, as is pre¬ 
sumed, for the South ; that they never'see it come or go, 
or in Hooks, and believe it migrates at night. 
How such a clumsy and apparently weak flyer can 
travel such long distances as it must, seems quite as¬ 
tonishing. I am inclined to believe it breeds all along 
the coast and wherever it is found in the fall, though I 
could get no assurance of this from the bay hunters. 
Be this as it may, I am fully satisfied that the rail of 
Mucl Lake, and other places at hand,breedhere, and hence 
are eminently a Northern bird. Many of them I find to 
be quite young here in September, and are evidently late 
from their nests. The valley of Fox River, above the 
lake, is thickly covered witli tall marsh grass, which the 
farmers cut for hay in July and August. They tell me 
the grass is “full of these birds ” when they are mowing 
it, and that they breed in it by thousands, but no one 
molests or cares anything about them, They do not even 
know their names, but always see them. 
While they could be killed by the sportsman by hun¬ 
dreds per day, no one enters into this kind of sport. 
The bird is looked upon as too small for general shooting, 
though the duck-hunters sometimes kill them for want of 
something larger to fire at. They disappear at the ap¬ 
proach of cold weather. 
What is strange, I have never seen a rail on the large 
wild rice and marshy bottom lands and lakes which fie 
on the Illinois River about 150 miles south of here. From 
this fact I iufer the rail migrates southeasterly to the 
coast, instead of south, else it should be very abundant 
in the fall on these similar grounds twenty-five miles be¬ 
low Peoria. I have never visited these until Oct. 10th, at 
which time I find them here, and numerous. 
Among the rail 1 find the king rail, as on the Delaware 
River, and in about the same proportion—say as one to a 
hundred, perhaps more. The names of either of these 
birds are not generally known here. The king rail looks 
very much like the one mentioned, but is about four 
times as large,- and neck quite long. 
To find this rail so numerous—not scattering—and so 
far north, is new to me, and hence I note the fact, which 
may be of interest to your readers, if deemed worthy of 
record in your columns. 
Most unfortunately, this hasty article is written with¬ 
out the aid of your “ Sportsman’s Gazetteer ” as a refer¬ 
ence, else I could render it more interesting and far more 
instructive. Please pardon my limited knowledge on this 
subject. 
The fall has been hot and dry up to date. Game is gen¬ 
erally abundant here, except that the large ducks have 
not yet come south. A change of weather has now set 
in, and they are expected daily, For variety of small 
game Wisconsin is hard to excel, and I find no difficulty 
in bringing in a full bag in a few hours’ hunt, with game 
near at hand. 
I add a list of the game animals found here :— 
Rabbits—Abundant. 
Squirrels (large, fox)—Abund¬ 
ant. 
Squirrels (large, gray)—Abund¬ 
ant. 
Squirrels (small, gray)—Abund¬ 
ant. 
Squirrels (small, red)—A few. 
Squirrels (black)—Rare. 
Ducks—ilauy varieties ; quite 
pie. ty. 
(Itouse—Some. 
Grouse (ruffed)—Quite plenty. 5 
Snipe—Quite plenty. 
Woodcock—Qui e plenty. 
Rail—Abundant. 
Rail-king—Sotue. 
Quail—Frozen out; very scarce. 
Pigeons (wild)—Some. 
All to be found in their proper places, and of such is the 
fill of the game-bag. H, W. Merrill, 
Waukesha, Wis., Oct, 20th. 
The bird to which Major Merrill refers as being so com¬ 
mon in Wisconsin is undoubtedly the Carolina rail 
(Porzana Carolina), and the king- rail, so-called, is prob¬ 
ably the Florida gallinule (Qallinula galeata), and not 
the true king rail (Rallus elegans). The Carolina rail is 
distributed over the whole of temperate North America. 
We have killed them ill considerable numbers in the 
Rocky Mountains. _ 
The Capercaillie in Scotland.— Something over a 
century ago this superb grouse became extinct in the 
United Kingdom; but it has happily been successfully 
reintroduced into Scotland, where it is now doing well. 
Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown has recently given the history of 
this bird's extermination careful investigation, and has 
also put on record the facts connected with its reintro¬ 
duction by the Marquis of Breadalbaae. The capercaillie, 
as it seems the name is now to be spelt, unites to the 
wildness and strength of wing of our ruffed grouse the 
size of the turkey, and we can well fancy that the sight 
of one of these great birds darting down ont of a 
tree-top would tty the steadiness of the coolest sports¬ 
man. Unfortunately this species, during the nesting 
season, while at his “play ” or lek, is easily approached, 
and those who pursue him take advantage of this circum¬ 
stance to pot him as he sits on his perch. 
According to the best evidence the capercaillie became 
finally extinct in Scotland between 1745 and 1760, al¬ 
though occasional instances of its capture were recorded 
as late as the year 1800. In 1837 and 1838, however, the 
Marquis of Breadalbane,after several unavailing attempts 
succeeded, through the aid of Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, 
and Mr. Lloyd of Sweden, in obtaining a number of liv¬ 
ing birds which were delivered at Taymouth in good con¬ 
dition. Of the forty-eight thus obtained, some were 
turned out to shift for themselves ; while others were re¬ 
tained in captivity for breeding purposes. The eggs of 
the latter were either hatched under domestic hens, or 
introduced into the nests of the black game. So succes- 
ful were these efforts that the number of birds on the 
estate in 1863 was estimated at from one to two thou¬ 
sand. From Taymouth as a starting point, the birds 
have spread over a considerable district of Central Scot¬ 
land, and with reasonable protection in the future they 
promise to do well, and may be considered as firmly es¬ 
tablished. As suggested in these columns when writing 
on this subject three years since, the practice of planting 
large districts of the' Highlands with firs, will doubtless 
prove an efficient aid to the establishment of this grouse 
in Scotland. 
Slightly Enlarged.—A correspondent sends us the 
following description, taken from Temple’s “Travels in 
Peru,” as an instance of travellers’ imagination :— 
In the course of the day I had an opportunity of shoot¬ 
ing a condor; it was so satiated with its repast on the 
carcass of a dead horse as to suffer me to approach within 
pistol shot before it extended its wings to take flight, 
which to me was the signal to fire ; and having loaded 
with an ample charge of pellets, my aim proved effectual 
and fatal. What a formidable monster did I behold in 
the ravine beneath me, screaming and flapping in the last 
convulsive struggles of life ! It may be difficult to be¬ 
lieve that the most gigantic animal that inhabits- the 
earth or'the ocean can be equaled by a tenant of air ; and 
those persons who have never seen a larger bird than our 
mountain eagle will probably read with astonishment of 
a species of that same bird ia the southern hemisphere, 
being so large and strong as to seize an ox with its talons 
and to lift it into the air, whence it lets it fall to the 
ground in order to kill and prey upon the carcass. But 
this astonishment must in a great measure subside when, 
the dimensions of the bird are taken into consideration, 
and which, incredible as they may appear, I now insert 
verbatim from a note taken "down with my own hand : 
“When the wings were spread they measured sixteen 
paces (forty feet) in extent, from point to point; the 
feathers are eight paces (twenty feet) in length ; and the 
quill part two palms (eight inches) in circumference. It 
is said to have power sufficient to carry off a live rhinoc¬ 
eros. 
This bird has always been a favorite theme for the pen 
of adventurers, possibly because it really is a mammoth 
among the feathered members of creation. True meas¬ 
urements of the expanse of a condor's wings rarely ex¬ 
ceed eleven feet, and the average is from eight to nine 
feet. But why should nbt a man who has the enterprise 
to shoot a condor on his native heights be allowed the 
privilege of magnifying his feat? Does any one suppose 
that when Othello told Desdemona’s father of the autres 
vast, and anthropophagi, he made a tame story of it ? 
A Sensible Step. —As is well known to most of our 
readers, there has been much grumbling of late years 
among British sportsmen over the scarcity of grouse on 
the Scottish moors, a scarcity which Dr. Cabbold, the 
eminent English helminthologist, attributes to a worm 
allied to that which causes the “ gapes” in the common 
fowl. 
From the advertising columns of the London Nature, 
we learn that the Council of the Entomological Society, 
of London, has been authorized by Lord Walsingha’m 
and others interested in the preservation of British game 
birds, to offer the following prizes, which are open to all 
naturalists of whatever nations : A prize of £50 for the 
best and most complete life history of Sclerostoma syn- 
gamus —Dies—winch is supposed to cause the “gapeB” 
in poultry, game, etc,, ana one of the same amount for 
the best and most complete life history of Strongihis 
pergrucilis —Cob—supposed to cause the grouse disease. 
Essays may be in English, French or German, and must 
be handed in before Oct. 15th, 1883, to the secretary of 
the Society, 11 Chandos street, Cavendish Square, w., 
London. 
The Potato Bog Bird —Coralville, Iowa .—When the 
Colorado beetle created suoh sad havoc among the po¬ 
tato vines here in the West, the potatoes were uninjured 
in this vicinity for several seasons, owing to the kind 
offices of some beautiful birds, familiarily termed as 
above. Though they had previously visited and “bugged" 
the potatoes ou some farms located in the timber five 
miles distant, for four or five successive seasons, it was 
not until the summer of 1877 that they turned their at¬ 
tention to this place. In the summer referred to, the 
bugs appeared as usual in great numbers and began 
working on the vines, and would, if unmolested, have 
destroyed them in a little while. One morning my at¬ 
tention was drawn to some strange, handsome birds 
that were Bitting on the garden fence, surveying our po¬ 
tato grounds. I watched them closely for some time. 
There appeared to be but a single family of them ; the 
two parent birds, and some half a dozen young ones. 
The latter were arranged in a row on the topmost board, 
awaiting their turns to be fed ; and it kept the old ones 
very busy to attend to them. They would flit down 
in among the vines and seize an unlucky bug, and carry 
it to a little open mouth, again, and again, till I wearied 
of watohing tliem. I knew at once that this must be She 
