August 3, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Bee any reason for it, and now I feci sure it was the Ontalus 

 hoiridus or some other bud snake that caused it. 



Am reminded here of a black dog whom I well know in 

 Bandera county, Texas, BOme years ago. He dwelt at the 

 in. u«e that T did, and he was with me coi stantly. He 

 w»s a very bad fellow to fight, He seemed to regard fight- 

 ing as hiS Chief business in this world, and took- great delight 

 in it. He wovdd not hesitate to tackle a bear. woif. or a 

 roaring bull on eight, Yet whenever he saw a rattlesnake lie 

 would immediately hang out the white flag, utter a low growl, 

 then tuck his tail between his legs and "git up and git." I 

 have often seen him do this. He wan so much afraid of a 

 rattlesnake that be would be run clean out of the country by 

 shaking at him the rattles of a dead snake. I have often i mi 

 him entirely off the premises hy doing this. And yet he 

 never was bitten by a rattlesnake to ray knowledge, for I 

 raised him from a puppy. How did he learn that Orotolus 

 IwrridtfS was so dangerous? How did he conceive the idea 

 that even the snake's tail, detached and dried up as it was, 

 wm still loaded with danger? 



This dog was a curious dog anyhow. Then; was another 

 thing that lie hated very greatly, besides rattlesnakes. I had ft 

 fool neighbor who was much .given to playing on the accordeo i i . 

 He would sometimes come over to my house to treat me to 

 his music. Just as soon as my black' dog heard that accord- 

 eon he would clear the fence around my house and take his 

 departure for the deep woods, and there* he would stay until 

 the accordeon man had left. I used to envy the dog for his 

 absence on such occasions, and wish that 1 were with him in 

 the deep woods. It used to amuse me, to see what an air of 

 inexpressible and sick disgust the dog put on as he took his 

 departure when the accordeon commenced, N. A. T. 



Botdqeport, Wise County, Texas, June 84, 1882. 



SOME NEW NAMES. 



HPHE constant, changes which scientific nomenclature is 

 JL undergoing are remarkable, and nowhere more notice- 

 able than in the department of ornithology. Within about 

 a. year three new catalogues of birds have appeared, two of 

 them referring to the avifauna of North America and the 

 other to that of Europe. These lists are not from the pens 

 of tyros, new workers in the field of science, but bear the 

 names of the very foremost ornithologists of either continent. 

 They are Mr. Robert Ridgway's • 'Nomenclature of North 

 American Birds" (Washington. 1881). Mr. H. E. Dresser's 

 "History of European. Birds" (London, 1881). and Dr. Elliott 

 Coues's "Check last of North American Birds," second 

 edition (Boston, 1882). These lists, bearing the stamp of 

 the highest ornithological authority, may be supposed to 

 have been correct up to the date of their publication, to have 

 represented the state of our knowledge at that time, and the 

 names given in them mtty be expected to hold until further 

 research shall have revealed the untenabilily of some of 

 them. But how long will this be? The. answer comes to us 

 after no long delay, "for, in the advance sheets of the "Pro- 

 ceedings of the United States National Museum" we find a 

 paper by Mr. Leonhard Stejneger, in which a number of our 

 most familiar names are spoken of as untenable, and to be 

 replaced by other older ones, most of which are entirely 

 unfamiliar to the eye or ear of the student. Whether or no 

 these substitutes will meet with acceptance among orni- 

 thologists is a question only to be answered after a careful 

 investigation of their claims to priority, and a thoughtful 

 weighing of all the facts in the case. It is true that certain 

 rules of nomenclature have been laid down by scientific 

 authorities, but still there are wide differences of opinion 

 among naturalists as to what constitutes a valid name. It is 

 thought by some that no name should be employed which is 

 not grammatically correct, properly spelled, whose deriva- 

 tion is not according to rules established in such eases, etc.. 



nply the old- 

 nters so 

 rent that 



that students 



while others believe that the propi 

 est name, unchanged. The personal equa 

 largely into decisions on such points that it i 

 until Some laird ami fast rule IS laid down, w 

 with th. ! general approval of workers in si 

 more or less frequent will continue to be 

 ornithology and in other departments the li; 

 has been unduly swelled, and it is with regie 

 note constant additions to the list, 



The view taken by Mr. Stejneger of this subject may be 

 quoted here. He says : "The only rule which can be ear- 

 ned out with safety is the use of the oldest name, without 

 regard to its appearance, derivation or signification. If this 

 lie-adopted, most, differences would disappear from the no- 

 menclature, and it is in fact the only rule which is able to 

 establish a passable uniformity in place of the present vari- 

 ety. Once universally accepted and put in practice, it 

 would save much time, labor and dispute; disputes concern- 

 ing year and date may easily be settled, while all philological 

 and linguistic disagreements may be thereby avoided. 

 question as to which species one or another 

 referred has nothing to do with the rules of 

 and are [is] therefore liable to come up at any l 



The 

 I to be. 

 ueneiaturc, 



Passing on to th? changes which the autl 





ii i isaary, we see that they will affect sowe i 



f our most Fa- 



miliar names. They are as folio.- ;:.., , ■. 





Via ,/..■■/;■■'/,- Forsr. ; CVe.''.e!.ee'e(//n/-:. B.,eu:,l,. 





Schiiff; Begulus mrapu Lichi., to li. erisfatm 



V lln nn-'o 



Linn, and anthprs generally to OfotifiOij 67 



,'U<bm, Boie to 



Jfirunib; CoUkBow. to Cliwoh Forst... (]n,i 



■op/nines Kaup. 



• Oalctiriiui Bcchst. ; Pisrtroph&Tm Kaup. (1 



~S'29) to Pkcti'n- 



pJumaa, Stejneger; Fremopliifa. Boie, to Otoeo 



vis, Bp, , Arrhi- 



Iruteu %oj«(sGm, to A. norw/icus Gunn.; £ 



irepwfas in. to 



Vorinelki, Mey. and Wolf; Yanellm aHatatu 



8, M and W., 



to V. capelli, Sehaff; Aeoialtiis mnUa/ws, La 



th.. to A. aim- 



andrinus, Linn.; Qtflmago media, to 0. ea 



testis, Freuzel ; 



Tataaa* (/latfis, (Linn.) Bechst,, to T. neha 



lariat, Gunn.; 



Maehet-es, Cuv., to PawncelM, Leach; Ta, 



luritn cdvwuta, 



Gruel., to T. ihimiatkn , Hasselq. ; ILirtbla </!.a 



r.ialix, Linn., to 



11, TiymeaMa. Linn.; PolusticU, Eyt., to En 



koiwtta. Gray; 



PugophUa ebw-rm, (Puipps), to Uaaa.dba, 



Gunn.); Lotus 



qlftiwm, (Brtinn.) to L. Tq/peiioreua, (Gunn.); 



lakformto, (Linn.); to H. nigra, (ibid); Stereor 



ll'idr, ,:■!,, man 



vriu* crepidtma 



A Falcon's Fi'rv.- San Francisco, UaL, July 18.— While 

 collecting eggs last March I found a set of five prairie falcons, 

 in a small cave near the top of a cliff eighty feet high. By 

 climbing up the back of the cliff and descending by means 

 of a rope I secured the eggs. The. birds by this time were 

 furious, swooping past and screaming, but. never approach' 

 ing neater then ten or fifteen feet. As I was returning to 

 the top of the cliff a piece of sandstone loosened and rattled 

 down, frightening a para owl from some crevice. She had 

 flown twenty feet before one of the falcons with wings half 

 closed darted swiftly downward; there was an audible thud 

 and the unfortunate owl fell stunned to the chaparral on the 

 hillside below. Afterward, on skinning her, I found a dent 

 iu the skull against which a clot of blood had settled, 1 

 have since witnessed a similar attack upon a barn owl under 

 t'ue same, circumstances. In this instance the owl was struck 

 down three times, each blow being followed by a little puff 

 of feathers; the chase carried the birds behind* a hill so [ do 

 not know whether the. falcon eventually killed the owl or 

 not,— W. E. B. 



What is It? — While reading the article in the last Forest 

 and Stream on the hoop snake, that wonderful unseen 

 curiosity which seizes its t'other end in its mouth and goes 

 "bihn' " (as Uncle Remus would but it), I fell to thinking of 

 the many snakes I bad seen and read of, among which is a 

 Curiosity peculiar, so far as I know, to Florida. It is a huge 

 worm or small snake, liyesentirely under ground, is of a light 

 pinkish color, and rarely over eight inches in length and a 

 quarter or live-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. Its head 

 has a flattened snout, with which it burrows in the sand, 

 getting out of sight with remarkable rapidity. No percept- 

 ible eyes. What is its name? And have others observed it 

 elsewhere?— S. 



V 



%mt\t «§?## m\d 



Open Seasons. — Bee table of open seasons for game and jink 

 in Usue of July 20. 



GAME IN SEASON IN AUGUST. 



shibits the game noiv in season. (Also, 

 I which opeii during the month.): 



New Brunswick— Woodcock, wild- 

 fowl, snipe. 

 New Hampshire— Woodcock, plo- 

 ver, wildfowl, rail. 

 New Jersey— (Aug. 25, reed birds). 

 New York— Woodcock (except 

 Dutchess. Herkimer and Oneida. 



Ohio— Woodcock, 

 ild- Oregon — Grouse, wildfowl. 

 Ontario— Woodcock; (Aug. 



Rhode Island— Woodcock, pl( 



Man-land Woodcock: (Aug. 15. Tesas— Deer, pinnated gi-misi 

 fled grouse)._ ' Utah— Elk, deer, antelope, 



Alalia 







I'alil'o 



iii.i I leer, doves. 





Dales, 

 snip 



1— (Aug. 15, grOUE 



, .airleiv. plovers. 

 ire-Woodcock. 



e, quail 



] .rl.'i v, 





Dist.riL 



1, of f'oluiohia-W 



.odcoek 



ruffe 

















' V' lh " 



and 



,-,,,. .| ,-,., 



i-. ill 1 1 ' ' 



Hiirn.i 



Wi.iide.n-k: Ann 



1 3, wild 



fowl 



I 



pinnated jeron.se 



.- -Woodcock, 





To iv a 

 fowl 



Y\ oodeoek; (Aug. 

 pinnated grouse'. 



IB, wild 



Renin 



■kv- -Woodcock. 

 ma— Deer. 







-Plover. 





. . . J— Woodcock, doves. 

 Michigan -Woodcock. 



; inn .-me - '.VuGdeMek. 



Missouri— Woodcock, plover, mea- 

 dow lark, dove; (Aug. 15, pin- 

 nated grouse). 



Montana— Fool 1 

 aiigan; (Aug. 



(Aug. 14, 



tdff" Ken 



tain sheep; (Aug. 15, grouse, 

 quail, wUdfowl), 



'. i.Q-inia--i;u.7ee ji .;,' ise. n, in e,e: in'-: 

 Washington Territory— (Aug. 15, 

 deer, elk. antelope, mountain 

 sheep, grouse). 

 i, grouse, ptar- Wisconsin— Woodcock; (Aug. 15, 

 , buffalo, eik, grouse, quail), 

 ain sheep and Wyoming— Buffalo, elk, antelope, 

 Ifowl). mountain .sheep and goat, deer, 



>, grousei. ptarmigan; pinnated, sa^o an.) 



lop.:-, mountain sharp tail grouse (Aug-, l.^rnffed 

 sage, grouse; grouse, wildfowl, plover, curlew, 



in, Jie i. 



T and Stkium Sehed- 



THE PHANTOM POND. 



IN November, not having had a good duck hunt since 1 

 had beeu in business. I decided to take the first favor- 

 able opportunity and get myself off to some new haunt of 

 which I had heard glowing accounts from the very few men 

 who had been lncky enough to find it. The haunt which 1 

 speak ot was 'nothing more than that of a splendid duck 

 pond, which was supposed to be situated on an immense 

 marsh island near the head of Suisun Bay, which is the ex- 

 treme north end of San Francisco Bay. the pond, though 

 being within fifty miles of this city, had not beeu shot on, I 

 am positive, by more than half a dozen men. A great many 

 knew of tin- existence of the pond, but could not find it, as 

 1 may state that the island was some fifteen miles long, by 

 from one to five miles wide. This hunt was the fourth time 

 that I had tried to find the place, and I was successful both 

 in finding the pond and in the size of my bag. I had received 

 positive instructions how to find the pond this time, and 



i Caving taken advantage of Thanksgiving day, and started 

 on that always welcome day of the year, one companion and 

 myself took the morning train for" a two hours' ride up the 

 bay li:> a small town where we were to join the yacht. In 

 due time wc were aboard our comfortable schooner, speeding 

 along with a moderate breeze. We had to tack all the way, 

 and after various calms and squalls, arrived off the mouth of 

 the. slough which separated our island from another. About 

 two o'clock Friday afternoon we came to anchor off a cer- 

 tain point. After letting go our anchor we immediately com- 

 menced operations. We landed with tlu'ee boats — one fo 



the 



ild find it, one f< 



one to jily bet.w 



island slough, v 



tin- die 



and parnxitisris to be respectively. ,S. ■/iiir'isitir.us. Linn., an 

 8. longicaudu*, V. ; Cob/mbus, Linn,, to Urinator, Cuv. , 0. fo, 



'.a-unn, to TT. iinmcr, (ibid), and 

 Linn., to IT. luimne, BrilDn. 



The radical changes above indicated are certainly of inter- 

 est in themse'ves, and it is besides rather curious that 

 they should all have been brought out together. If the 

 points attempted to be made are valid, it is aomewbal 

 remarkable that they should have so long escaped the keen 

 eyes of the ornithologists, which are always on the watch 

 for cases of this kind. 



We shall look with interest for any replies to or criticisms 

 of the present paper. 



long in accomplishing, and were 

 slough with our bi ' 



My instructions 

 half 'a mile, and Ii 

 Iwi 



:l..l.lgl,s 



i the yacht and the. 

 l boats over a narrow 

 strip of laud to the island slough, which feat we were not 

 and were soon rowing along the 

 ... iaded with decoys, ammunition, etc. 

 iere to row south along this slough about. 

 n to land and strike put directly east, and 

 uld find the pond. Now, the next question, how to 

 ml . , ,, d li mile on this narrow rounding slough, which 

 hii moral -nitherly direction. We kept on rowinguutil 

 we. came to an almost impassable obstacle in the shape of an 

 immense pile of drift tule, wood, etc., which completely 

 blocked the slough from bank to bank, so we decided that 

 we had rowed a'mile; at least, we did not intend to cany 

 oyer or around the mass of drift stuff before us, So landing 

 on the east bank we tied both boats and after walking out of 

 the very high rushes which bordered the slough, we shoved 

 an oar into the ground and tied a handkerchief to it to mark 

 the place where we had left the boats. This was a very 

 necessary operation, as we could otherwise never find out 



boats again on account of the similarity of the rushes. 

 Separating about fifty yards apart, we started to look for 

 what I was inclined to think was a phantom pond. We 

 walked, and we walked; the sun was hot; the ground was 

 mushy and the tules high; but no signs of a pond Soon 

 after we had left, the boats we had come to another slough, 

 and had followed it to the right. After walking along the 

 o miles, I should judge, and meeting other 

 •.raced our steps, tired and disgusted, and we 

 to rest just at the point where, we had first 

 sirucn tne siough we had been following. 



Wc had hardly been lying there more than a minute or 

 two when one of us noticed two swans flying toward us. 

 Nothing very extraordinary, as we had seen a great number 

 of swans, also plenty of ducks and geese flying around us 

 all day. But these 'two swans passed us about three hundred 

 yards to the right, and then set their wings and soon after 

 lit about five hundred yards away. We had seen a great 

 many birds alighting in this same spot, but there always 

 seemed to be a slough separating us from the place, and our 

 instructions were not to cross any slough after rowing on the 

 first one. We jumped to our feet and both seemed struck 

 with the same idea, at the same instant, and sure enough, 

 we had not walked more than two hundred yards when we 

 commenced to hear the peculiar noise which a large flock of 

 wildfowl make while feeding in a pond, that is, a continued 

 splash from their unceasing diving Our excitement wassuch 

 that we both hurried along, and soon a beautiful pond 

 stretched out before us, just completely covered with wild- 

 fowl ot every description. Instead of crawling up cautiously 

 as we should have clone, wc advunced in too much of a 

 hurry, and let go our four barrels at the nearest of the im- 

 mense flock. And then for a moment what a noise, a rush, 

 splash, and whirr of wings. I never saw its like, in my life, 

 and hardly ever expect to see again. 



We had disturbed a wildfowls' sanctum. It was a sight 

 to make a sportsman — well I was going to say crazy, as we. 

 were so excited we hardly knew which way "to start. The 

 ducks after their first fright commenced to come back, some 

 even wheeled after flying not more than fifty or a hundred 

 yards, and we shot and shot till most of our cartridges had 

 gone, as we had left all but a few with our traps and decoys 

 with the boats. We then stood up and took a survey of our 

 situation. We found the pond to be nearly circular, aud 150 

 yards in diameter, and the slough which we had been follow- 

 ing ran into the pond, so if we had followed it to the Left 

 instead of to the right, we would have soon come to tha 

 pond. 



Our flag and boats were in a direct line about 350 or 400 

 yards from us, so talcing off our coats and leaving our guns 

 at the pond we started for the boats to drag the pondboat 

 full of decoys to the pond. We were not long In doing this 

 as we were in a hurry to get back to the po»d, and as the 

 sun was approaching the Western horizon we were all fixed 

 in our separate blinds with the decoys out and shooting as 

 fast as we could wish. 



It being a moonlight night we stayed at the pond till about 

 half past seven, and then started back to the yacht, having 

 first hauled the pond boat out of sight in the tule. Then 

 after getting our game together we looked at it and then at 

 each other, and then came the question, how were we ever 

 to get that load of game to the yacht. Among the pile were 

 five immense Canadian geese (honkers), three of which are 

 all one man wishes to carry. We also had about one dozen 

 white geese, a swan, and ducks I was going to say innumer- 

 able. Well, we compromised. We first drew all the birds, 

 which considerably lightened the load, and then each took a 

 sack which the decoys had been in and filled it with the best 

 ducks, the rest, with all our traps, except our guns and 

 empty cartridge bags, we stowed in the boat and covered 

 with 'rushes for the next day. We each then shouldered his 

 sack and started for our white flag, which we soon reached, 

 and then after a short row arrived at the narrow strip of 

 land which separated us from the yacht. We were soon 

 aboard, and after a supper, to which we did ample justice, 

 we wasted no time getting to bed so as to be up and off long 

 before daylight. 



It seemed to me. that, I had hardly been asleep more than 

 ten minutes when the whirr of the alarm clock told us 

 that it was time to turn out. We had to go home during 

 the next night so we decided to make one long hunt from 

 early dawn to late at night. Just before flitting down to 

 breakfast I went on deck; and found it very cold. A heavy 

 thick fog had settled down on everything, dampening all but 

 our spirits. After breakfast we 'took every cartridge we 

 could get hold of, aud started for the grounds with instruc- 

 tions to one of the men to join us, about four in the after- 

 noon and help us out with some of the game. The boat was 

 found in the slough as we had left it the night before; and 

 after rowing along till we came to our landing we tied our 

 boat , and started for the pond. The fog was so thick that we 

 could get no bearings, and having no compass, the first 

 thing we knew we were lost. W T e walked first north and 

 then south aud then east, and found no pond. There was 

 in idling hut high rushes and mud-holes and sloughs. Wo 

 tried to retrace our steps, but got more bewildered than be- 

 fore; and at about eleven o'clock we sat down and waited 

 for the fog to lift. At twelve o'clock the fog rolled away, 

 and we found that we had been completely turned round 

 and evidently been wandering in a circle, as we found our- 

 selves within two hundred yards of our flag. We imme- 

 diately struck out for the pond which we soon reached, very 

 tired from carrying so many cartridges, but nevertheless 

 full of spirits and ready for the rest of the day's hunt. We 

 scared quite a goodly lot of ducks off the pond on our ap- 

 proach; and were soon ensconced in our blinds banging 

 away at a great rate, as the ducks and geese came in very 

 lively. 



We, shot all the afternoon and then, it being moonlight, 

 though very cloudy, we shot till late at night, nearly ten 

 o'clock. The Canada geese did not come in till late, but 

 when they did come, they came with a vengeance. You 

 could jump up and nearly hit them with the gun. Our man 

 iomed us about dusk and stayed to help us out with our 

 gome. We stopped shooting as soon as our cartridges, gave 

 out, and then proceeded to get things together. We Rath- 

 ered in the decoys, had the game drawn and packed in the 

 pond boat with the rest of the traps, which filled the boat to 

 more than overflowing. And I wondered when we looked 

 at that load how we were ever going to get it to the yacht. 

 Two of us took hold of the rope at the bow and the other 

 shoved; and by dint of pulling and shoving we finally, after 

 nearly two hours' work got the loaded boat to the- slough, 

 where we transferred some of the birds to the other boat, and 

 after launching it w ere (after another hour's work) aboard 

 our yacht, with everything stowed away. We wers not 

 long iu getting asleep, and the orders were that we were 



