1024 
«s 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Denison, and grows -visibly more fleshy continually. I 
loro to meet with these old tellows to whom Fortune has 
been extraordinarily kind. They appear to loro others 
almost as much as themselves; are filled with a very 
pleasing and sweet bon-liommie. It might hare been dif¬ 
ferent witlr those who have incurred groat fortune after 
living a hard life : such it might puff up to great pride 
and general beastliness. But when Fortune strikes an 
unsophisticated old farmer in this war it makes him all 
loveliness and sweetness. It makes the old fellow feel 
good all over. His smiles are sweeter than those of a 
cape jessamine. 
The residences here please me very much. None of 
them are ambitious or costly, yet they are constructed 
with so much neatness that they have a very pleasing 
effect. To look at the houses in which these people 
dwell makes me think that they are prosperous and well 
raised. The finest st ructure in the city — it cost $40,000— 
is the school-house. Commend me to a people who make 
education their chiefest ornament. The business part 
of the town is not so striking: nice two-story bricks 
sandwiched between wooden shanties. But it is always 
thus in new towns that spring up along railroads. After 
a while some good conflagration will take away these old 
shanties and then Denison null be pretty all over. 
The point that strikes mo very strongly here is this : It 
is the best point in Texas for the establishment of manu¬ 
factures. Oak wood is only $3 a cord at retail, and in 
large litis might doubtless be had at much less. Coal is 
delivered Cl •'?!. 15 per ton, and by the hundred tons it 
doubtless could be had at $2. The McAllister coal fields 
are only ninety miles away, and I am told that it is put 
on the cars there with a handsome profit at $1.35 per ton. 
There is no other place in Texas where fuel is so cheap. 
There is no running stream, but then Red River is only 
four miles away, whose water might be utilized, and ar¬ 
tesian wells might easily bo had. It is a very fine cotton 
country about here. They never fail in that crop ; the 
caterpillar never comos here. And also on the “Black 
Waxy ” prairies it is fine for wheat. Thirty to thirty-five 
bushels to the acre is by no means an uncommon crop 
hereabout. This year however, their wheat was cut 
short ‘by the [great drought—the first they have had in 
fifteen years. They have no manufactures here now 
except one flouring mill , and a huge cotton compress, if 
that may be called a factory. Here is a fine chance for 
the profitable investment of Yankee capital, 
j; Sunday, instead of going to church, Mr. T. V, Munson 
and myself walked all day on the hills and along the 
creeks ’in this vicinity, studying the geology. The lowest 
beds t find here are filled with ammonites, corals, sea 
urchins, pietens, costatos, and an immense oyster which 
did not seem to be gregarious. These fossils are imbedded 
in a good limestone. Great masses of this stone seem to 
be composed almost entirely of ammonites, some of 
them from two to three feet in diameter. I never saw a 
region where ammonites wero so superabundant. The 
old seas here were literally crowded with them. Next 
above the ammonite bed comes a deposit of dark clay, 
filled with crystals of sulphate of lime, and containing 
many nodule’s, enclosing what appears to be the fruit of 
nut-bearing trees. This deposit also contains a few mi¬ 
nute shells, which as far as I could judge are fresh-water. 
Above this comes a thickness of a few feet composed of 
grvpheas, ostna lava and a few small ammonites. With 
jliis deposit the ammonites disappeared from the world, 
and the few that then existed were small and feeble in¬ 
deed, compared with the monsters that preceded them. 
These grypliea beds are not well consolidated and you 
can rake up the shells by the car load in a very little 
altered condition. Above the grypheas comes a bed 
wholly composed of little ostna whose name I do not 
know. This bed is not at all consolidated and is only a 
foot or two in thickness. It closed the Cretacious epoch. 
Above tills comes a hard stone of the Tertiary age—a 
limestone, very hard and malting an excellent building 
stone. It has few fossils, and these so hard to get at that 
I am not able to identify them. I found in the gryphea 
beds a beautiful piece of fossil siggillaria. It was im¬ 
bedded with the grypheas. Tins seemed to me strange, 
but I could not well be mistaken. This and some other 
things that I have noticed in Texas geology makes me 
think that the cretacious and carboniferous deposits of 
Texas are much closer of kin than those elsewhere—in 
fact, that the carboniferous projected many of its forms 
and characteristics into the cretacious. But it is possible 
that this piece of siggillaria, might have been drifted in a 
fossil state into the gryphea beds ; for the carboniferous 
is distinct only about 40 miles above here. 
Mr. Munson, who accompanied me on this tramp, is a 
nurseryman of Denison, and a Michigander. He says 
there is no country like this for fruits and grapes, and 
blesses his stars that ever he came to Texas. If any 
Northern man would like to get the honest convictions of 
a Northern man in regard to this country and its capaci¬ 
ties I would recommend him to write to Mr. Munson. 
There is game in great abundance here, particularly 
just across the river in the “ beautiful Indian Territory,” 
where there iB probably not one human being to ten 
square miles of territory. The game is deer, turkeys, 
geese, ducks, swans, squirrels, quail and almost every¬ 
thing else you can tlrnk of. The sportsman can get liis 
fill here. Hence I “ go West young, man;” and if these 
presents be good there will be more coming. 
Denison, Texas, Jan., 1880, N. A. T. 
Cat Bird Eating a Snake. —A correspondent who 
writes to us from Germantown, Pa., over the signature 
L. D. S., sends us the following curious note of his per¬ 
sonal observation. He says :— 
I send you an account of a young cat bird swallowing 
a snake, or rather trying to clo so. Back of our house 
there is a clump of blackberry bushes, and in these bushes 
a cat bird bad been in the habit of building her nest for 
several years past. One day in June, 1877. 1 heard the 
cat bird making a great row, and saw her flying about 
her nest in great distress over something. I went up to 
the nest and discovered that one of the little cat birds, 
which hardly had its eyes open, had swallowed a garter 
snake about ten inches long. Fully six inches of the 
snake protruded from the birds mouth, and the poor bird 
was una ble to get it up or down. It was almost dead, 
and it seemed very glad to be relieved of its dinner, This 
is the first time I ever knew cat birds to eat snakes. 
§istorg. 
Minnesota Birds. —We acknowledge with thanks the 
receipt of a copy of Messrs. Roberts and Benner’s inter¬ 
esting list of the summer birds of Grant and Traverse 
Coimties, Minn., to which we recently referred in our 
notice of the January Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithologi¬ 
cal Club. 
Taking Plaster Casts op Specimens.—No description 
of the process* of making plaster casts has ever been 
published. The general method, which of course is 
varied by the ingenuity of the workman in almost every 
case in which it is applied, is as follows :—The fish, or 
other object, is placed upon a smooth table, a surface of 
glass or stone being preferred ; and is propped up in a 
natural position with masses of modeler’s clay. If the 
object is smooth and with regular outlines the mold may 
usually be made in a single piece ; but if it be irregular in 
shape like a snake, it is necessary to arrange for a sectional 
mold, which is made by means known to every modeler. 
To make the mold, whether it be a single mold or piece 
mold, the object is covered with a thick solution of plas¬ 
ter of paris in water, a small proportion of glue being 
sometimes added to cause the plaster to set with greater 
firmness. The plaster being set, the object is withdrawn, 
leaving a mold. This mold is then coated with shellac 
dissolved in alcohol; and into the cavity of the mold a 
solution of plaster is poured in such a way as to form a 
coating over the whole interior of the mold from, an 
eighth to a fourth of an inch. As soon as this is dried, 
other layers are made until a. deposit of an inch or more 
is placed over the entire inner surface of the mold. After 
the plaster has become sufficiently hard the mold is chis¬ 
eled away, leaving an exact fac-simile of the object. To 
facilitate this process of chiseling, the first layer of plas¬ 
ter poured into the mold is often tinted, so that the chis- 
eler runs no risk of cutting into the cast. The cast is now 
complete and ready for mounting and painting, It may 
be mounted upon a board by means of screws, or may be 
set into a bed of plaster which is tinted to any color 
which may be desired for a background, and framed in 
wood. The object itself (i. e.,the cast), is sized with a 
solution of glue and is then ready for painting. This is 
done in oil colors, either frotn a sketch prepared from the 
fresh specimen, or from the specimen itself if this retains 
its color sufficiently to be serviceable. Glass eyes are 
often inserted, since it is difficult to obtain 'the desired 
brilliancy by paint. To make the plaster casts is quite as 
much an art as to paint or embroider well, and cab only 
be properly learned through the instruction of an expert. 
The Pileated Woodpecker In Canada.— The pilea- 
ted woodpecker, perhaps better known as the “ black 
cock,” and by some the “wood cock," is by no means 
a rare bird in' Canada, although it is never seen very close 
to towns or cities. It is a tolerably common species in 
the heavily timbered sections along the rivers Made- 
waska, Bonnechere, and upper portion of the Ottawa 
River in Ontario, and is abundant throughout the Gate- 
man and du Lievres River districts in Ottawa County, 
Quebec. In each of these regions the birds are resident 
and nest, but are more observed and met with during the 
winter months, as they do not'sojmuch confine themselves 
to the denser forests. They are often metjboth at'Montreal 
and Quebec in winter and are exposed for sale in the mar¬ 
kets. I have obtained a number of fine specimens thus 
exposed for sale. In skinning these woodpeckers, con¬ 
siderable difficulty is experienced in passing the skin of 
the neck over the skull, as this last is unusually large, and 
most taxidermists are obliged to make an Incision in the 
neck ere the skull can be bored and the brain extracted. 
This woodpecker possesses great power in neck muscle, 
and on a still day its rappings and chopping may be heard 
a very long way off ; but tlus, of course, depends very 
much upon the nature of the tree it is working at, and 
whether this is hollow or solid. Henry G. Vennor. 
Montreal, Jan. 3d. 
Food op Alligators. — Houston, Texas, Dee. 8th.— 
In volume XIII, No. 18, of Forest and Stream, “Wan¬ 
derer” sayB in his alligator notes:—“jThey will eat any¬ 
thing that haB life and flesh, except a snake.” Now my 
my experience based on frequent observation is: they 
will eat anything that is flesh, snakes not excepted. 
Roaming along the coast of Texas, along the Red River. 
Sabine, Trinity and other streams full of alligators, and 
last year during a three months’ stay in the marsh lands 
on Vermilion Bay of Louisiana, I saw them swallow re¬ 
peatedly, with the same appetite, fishes, fowls, pieces of 
raw and cooked meat, crabs, bivalves, gray water snakes 
(Hydra), and the poisonous mocassin IToxieqphis piseiv- 
orus), etc., etc. Further, Sir. E.F. Schmidt, in Houston, 
Texas, has an aquarium and vivarium in one of the show 
windows of his drug store, in which, besides fishes, tur¬ 
tles and homed frogs, were thriving a numerous and 
lively set of lizards and snakes of aLl descriptions. Last 
spring to this gentleman were sent some young alliga¬ 
tors (about ten inches long), which also were set in the 
window, and, though regularly and abundantly fed with 
raw meat and minnows, after about two weeks had 
cleared out all the lizards and snakes (some of the latter 
being over two feet long), but never touched a turtle as 
long as it was alive. And as often as snakes of various 
kinds, poisonous and non-poisonons, afterwards were set 
in the window, the young alligators immediately com¬ 
menced hunting after them, and generally half an hour 
afterwards one of them had swallowed the snake, head 
foremost, the tail hanging out of the alligator’s month, 
wriggling still; after about fifteen to twenty minutes 
the whole snake had disappeared, W. H, St- z. 
N. 
The Electric Eel. —M. Marcy, who has been for some", 
years engaged in the study of these very singular aquatic 
animals, has announced to the Academy of Sciences that 
he has received a J iving specimen of the gymnotus or elec¬ 
trical eel from Peru, and that it is lodged in his labora¬ 
tory at the College de Francej where by-the-bye, any 
visitor is admitted to inspect it. Thi gymnotus is that 
peculiar fish which at its pleasure gives electrical dis¬ 
charges, and thereby stuns the animal it desires to make 
its prey. Its principal home is in the rivers and lagoons 
of South America, where it is the terror of all other ani¬ 
mals, not even excepting the cayman, the American 
crocodile. One of these eels, two metres in length, can 
give a shock which will reduce to powerlessness the oxen 
and horses that come down to the stream to drink at the 
points it frequents, and thus render them an easy prey to 
their aquatic enemies. Man himself, although not so 
sensitive to the shock as other animals, is still liable to 
very serious inconvenience from its effects. M. Marcy 
has found, during his investigations, that a gymnotus of 
a metre in length has an electrical surface of about 600 
square feet, equal to a very powerful battery. The ani¬ 
mal, owing to its length and the suppleness of its body, 
can produce different electrical effects according as it is 
in a straight line, convex, or concave, as regards it prey. 
Its general mode of procedure is to forma semi-circle and 
place the fish it is intent on in the diameter of the circuit. 
When the discharge is delivered, the prey, as if struck by 
a thunderbolt, is rendered powerless ; the gymnotus swims 
round it, as if to be assured of the efficacy of the shock, 
and then swallows its victim. These are not the only 
fish which possess this singular power of launching elec¬ 
trical discharges on their prey or on their enemies. Many 
others are known, but far inferior in force to the terrible 
gymnotus. Among them are the torpedo fish, and some 
species of skate which inhabit the coasts of Great Britain 
and France, and some other species found in the Nile and 
Senegal.—[ Qalignani. _ 
Black-snakes, Ancient and Modern .—Cleveland, 0., 
Jan. 26th .—I left out one paragraph relative to Father 
Hennepin’s blacksnalce. The Father’s black-snake story 
was written over two hundred years before mine, and 
this accounts for the difference in the length of our black- 
snakes. Dr. E. Sterling. 
Cob-web Showers. —A Bethel, Me.,correspondent, says: 
—“ In your last a query was propounded, where the cob¬ 
webs came from ? There is a very small spider that is in 
the habit of spinning a long thread, and buoyed up by it, 
of taking long sails through the air. They have been met 
with, floating over the Rocky Mountains, by United 
States Survey officials, although I cannot state for certain 
which one ; it might have been Marcy. I should suppose 
the vast numbers spoken of possibly arose from it being 
their mating season._ 
THE BIRDS OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 
BY B. HARRY WARREN. 
The technical names employed in the following list ara those 
used in the Smithsonian Catalogue cf North American Birds. 
An asterisk prefixed to the name of any speoies shows that It 
has Been recorded by Vincent Barnard in A Catalogue of the Birds 
of Chester County, Pa., published’ jn a Smithsonian Report for 
tlio year I860. 
Names marked with a + indicate that they have been compiled 
from a paper prepared by Dr. E. Miohenor, Avondale, Pa., and 
published in an Agricultural Report of 1863. 
I have been Informed through several sources that the great 
grey owl (S. einsream), hawk owl (S. ulwlo), Philadelphia; Vireo 
(V. pMladdphteUs), yellow rail (P. noce.hnrace.nsw), and least bit¬ 
tern. (Ardctta exilic, have occurred in Chester County: hut Jack¬ 
ing as I do material evidence, have not Incorporated them :— 
1 . Catharles awn. Xilig—Turkey buzzard; casual winter resident. 
I. Hoopes Matlnck, of Westchester, found one nest near Parkes- 
burg, Pa. By the writer two nests have been taken within a few 
miles of West Chester, Pa. 
2 . Fatal anatum, Bonaparte—Dnek hawk; very rare. Two 
specimens takon in Chester County are now In the cabinet of 
Harry Ganett, WiUistowu, Pa. 
3. Hirpolrioi'ehUt calumbarius, Or.—Pigeon hawk; Is a winter- 
resident, and one of the rare raptores. 
■i. Fatal islandicus, Sabine—Jer. falcon. The occurrence of this 
bird in the county is unique. The capture of this beautiful fal- 
, eon ocourred some winters ago when the sportsmen of West Ches¬ 
ter and vicinity offered a premium of 25 cents ahead for all large 
hawks. 
■»5. TlnnujiMtlitJ sparvervus, VioiU—Sparrow hawk; abundant res- 
' blunt; two broods reared. 
w 6. AaLur atricapillus, Bonap.—Goshawk; winter visitant; rare. 
.~ > 1. Acctpttereeopertt, Bonap.—Cooper's hawk.; abundant winter 
i resident. 
S. Aceiptterfuseus, Bonap.—Sharp-sbiDiied hawk; resident but 
not plentiful; most abundant in spring and fall. 
1). Bntco borwflfs, Vieill—Red-tailed hawk; abundant resident. 
10. ButeoUneatxts, Jardine—Red-shouldered hawk; winter resi¬ 
dent. The following is an extinct from a letter received by my¬ 
self from W. E. Hughes, of PkcenixviUe, Fa.: “ The red-shoul¬ 
dered hawk eggs, two in number, were takon in East Pikeland 
Township, Chester County. Pa., but io what year 1 am wholly un¬ 
able to say. The female was shot and identified.” As I am now 
informed, t his is the only occurrence of lincatus breeding within 
the confines oC Chester County. 
11. Buteo pcrmsylvanicus, Bonap.—Broad-winged hawk: rare 
resident. 
IS. Arch Unlit 0 taBopus.Var. Sancti-Johaanw, Ridgway.—Rough- 
iegged hawk; very irregular winter resident. 
13 . * mania misaCsaippiensis, Gray—Mississippi kite; “very 
14. Ofmts totdjoniiis, Yieillot—Marsh hawk; appears In spring 
and autumn as a migrant in limited numbers. 
15. Mquito canadensis, Cassin—Golden eagle; rare; migrant. 
"16. IMicctus Icucacephalw, Savigny—Bald eagle; not uncommon 
In spring, fall and winter. About the year 1S39 Mr. B. M. Ever¬ 
hart, nfUYest Chester. Pa., found within the present boro, limits 
of West Chester a nest with one eaglet therein, which he took and 
kept, some years. 
If. PaHilion caroUnensis, Bonap.—Fish-hawk; rather numerous 
along the Brandywine Creek. Arrives in April and departs in 
October. For several years post a pair of these birds have taken 
Bummer residence along the stream above mentioned. I have 
been told by a collector that twice he has found fl3h-Uawks' nests 
containing young. 
18. SbiccpmUncola, Bonap.—Barn owl; rare. Occurs wly In 
spring and in fall and winter. 
