ArrouBT 18, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



47 



I have seen tliem go up on leaning trees and crawl into the 

 foliage of bushes, however. M. G. E. 



Washington, D. O. 



It is well known to residents of vicinities where black 

 snakes abound that they do climb trees, and that they climb 

 prge trees perpendicularly try clinging to I he bark; in fact 

 they can even climb the smooth, birkless trunk of a tree, 

 rapidly and readily, in almost a straight liue upward. As for 

 descending, 1 once saw a large black snake attached to the 

 hark of a huge oak, perpendicularly and in almost a straight, 

 liue, and lying there motionless, head upward, and on throw- 

 ing a, stone at its snakesldp it took the shortest possible mode 

 of descent by letting go all holds and dropping in a heap a 

 the base Of the tree, from whence it glided rapidly away. 



t'Jolumbm, Ohio. Orange Fuazeb. 



A BHOB'I time »go I walked into a stable, and leaning 

 against a post which supported a girder overhead, I proceed- 

 ed calmly to consider the "points "of a horse haltered in 

 an adjacent stall. A slight sound caused me to glance up- 

 wards when I beheld a large blaeksnake, which instantly 

 glided with great rapidity down the post, thence over my 

 shoulder and dowu my back to the ground, and disappeared 

 through a errviee iu the wall. I make no professions of 

 bravery or cowardice, but I freely confess I was nearly dis- 

 solved with terror. Had I been duly informed of the snake's 

 presence, and that it would adopt this novel and unexpected 

 method of descent the effect might have been different.— M. 



Nftrthxide, Ya. 



THE MOCKING BIRD'S TRIUMPH. 



S PEA KING of singing reminds me that before the summer 

 litis left us I wish to lift up my voice in behalf of the 

 mockiog bird. No bird on earth ever had a more unfortun- 

 ate name, and no genius was ever more misunderstood than 

 this artist of the woodbinds. lie is not a mocking bird at all. 

 He takes no lessons from any creature under the blue vault. 

 He imitates no sound in nature, and never mocks anything. 

 This is a broad statement, and these are strong words. Now 

 for the proof : Having watched these feathered singers for 

 many years and in many longitudes, both in captivity and in 

 their own wildwood hiuiuts, I suspected that the versatil- 

 ity of the bird was not appreciated, and that his talent and 

 genius were not fully known. We took a young mocking 

 bird out of bis nest before he had feathers sufficient to cover 

 him, or sense enough to understand anything, with the ex- 

 ception of a chirp from his parent, which he interpreted to be 

 a signal for opening his mouth, which he always obeyed to 

 the extent of almost turning himself iuside out for fear he 

 slmuld miss a niorsrl. It, was late in the seasoD, and it should 

 be noted that the martins had gone away, and few birds 

 sing after July in the latitude of St. Louis. We shut the 

 bird up in the dining room, and he neither saw nor heard a 

 chirp or song from any of that innumerable company which 

 he so perfectly ' ' imitated " the next year. It was in Septem- 

 ber that we shut him up. During the latter part of the fol- 

 lowing February he one day perched himself on a wire and, 

 twisting his head in a very thoughtful way tried to ''imitate" 

 the liquid note of martins in springtime. It was a miserable 

 failure of course. We laughed at him, aud he hopped down ; 

 but soon tried it again. After three days of steady practice 

 he succeeded ; then he undertook the cry of the jay bird, and 

 after many patient attempts and numerous failures he suc- 

 ceeded After that he begau on the very difficult and other- 

 wise inimitable "ch-r-r-r-u-u-p" of the blue bird. In two 

 days lie mastered it, but he had never seen or heard a blue 

 bird, and this rare genius evolved from his inner life the mar- 

 velous power that he had inherited. What has usually been 

 set down as the " mocking " of this bird is only the exercise 

 by way of suggestion of the talent he possesses, but a first- 

 class singer of this species invariably excels that wbich he is 

 popularly supposed to bo imitating, and other birds recognize 

 and acquiesce in this without any exception. 



It is a well-known fact that the brown-thrush, the cardinal- 

 bird and some others are also " mocking birds " in a limited 

 way. One day I stole quietly under a tree to listen to the 

 varied and exquisite rendering of a difficult piece of bird- 

 music, classic indeed, by a red-bird, Conscious of his suc- 

 cess he paused aud struck attitudes as though admiring him- 

 self in a mirror, and as he poured out his song other birds 

 thereabout were hushed into silence. All at once a regular 

 " mocking bird" took a position on a tree near by, auU in a 

 very ill-mannered but eminently successful way, struck the 

 note on the first effort exactly where the red-bird was dohig 

 his very best, but the song of the "mocker" was so much 

 sweeter tlmu his own that the red-bird merely glanced in the 

 direction of the great star performer and closed his beak in 

 an instant. Aware of his triumph, and unafraid of iuterrup- 

 lion, the wonderful mocking-bird ran over all the notes ea ily 

 and then towering in his matchless song, charged over the 

 great field of music, known only to himself, weaving into 

 harmony and melting into symmetry all the bird-notes ever 

 beard or imagined. He had a great audience that day and 

 knew himself equal to their highest expectations. The red- 

 bird merely hopped to a lower branch and with mute rev- 

 erence listened. An old fussy, cawing crow Btopped and was 

 silent. The little wrens spoke never a word to each other, 

 while the doves forgot to whisper love; and a squirrel, poking 

 his head half-way out of a knot-hole far up in a great oak, 

 rested his chin on his hands aud closing his eyes eDjoyed it 

 in his own meditative way. Not one of the audiance moved 

 or shifted an opera-glass, or commented on the dress of the 

 Sinter. Criticism was disarmed and we were all together 

 caught up into the third heaven— Robekt West in i/ie Ad- 

 vance. 



An Iowa Mastodon's Remains. — The bones of what is 

 known as a behemoth were found on the farm of Jerry Hop- 

 ping, in Washington County, Iowa, a few days ago. Mr. 

 flopping'sboys were bathingiu a small creek on their father's 

 farm, when they rasped their knees over something they 

 supposed was the ragged edge of an old stump. They threw 

 the chunk out upon the bank, and, upon striking it a few 

 blows with a hatchet, found it was bone and not wood. It, 

 is said to be the shoulder bone of a behemoth. The piece 

 was two feet long and the joint thirteen inches wide by six 

 inches thick. When Jerry detected its true cbarneter he 

 began exploration^. He got out several ribs 5 to 6 feet long, 

 3i inches wide, and 1£ inches thick ; two molar teeth, the 

 largest weighing 26i pounds, 13£ inches long ou the grinding 

 surface, 4f Inches wide and (tt inches deep, with portions of 

 the socket or jaw attached ; several joints of vertebra? in the 

 neck 17 inches long, 9 wide and 4 thick ; an axis joint, 6i 

 by li inches ; parts of the horn or tusk 8 to 10 inches in 



diameter and 6 feel 2 inches long, and very brittle, the inner 

 substance crumbling like lime. The lower part under ground 

 was smooth as a cow's horn, and tapered in the same way. 

 It. was broken off, and was 23 inches around at the base. 

 He has the Ihigh bone, 3 feet long and 18 inches thick. From 

 the order in which the bones were found Hopping says the 

 annul] must have mired down and died with head up stream. 

 He has traced the relics for a distance of fifteeu to twenty 

 feet, apparently lying as they fell apart, the horn being Under 

 a spur of a bank ten feet, high, which he shaved down. The 

 neck bones were under the roots of an elm Of good size that 

 was undermined by the late freshets; the shoulder blade was 

 in water about 3i feet &eep.— Dubuque (Iowa) Times, 



Habits of the Hebmit Cbab — Glen Island, Aug. 11. — 

 Imagine my surprise this morning on finding a lot of small 

 periwinkle shells occupied by young lobsters ! I have often 

 wondered how the young lobster protected itself from the 

 festive bass and blackflsh, but my discovery certainly ex- 

 plains l he problem. The little lobster first eats the periwinkle 

 and then steals his shed, occupying it for his own protection. 



Pull one of them out of the shell and place both back into 

 the water and you will see him back into the shell again. 

 Now, I wish to ask you if my observations are correct, 

 and, if bo, is it generally known that the young lobster ap- 

 propriates small shells for a home until his own shell is hard 

 enough to protect it from being food for larger fish ? 



You have mistaken the hermit crab, sometimes called 

 soldier crab, for the young lobster. The hermit crab never 

 has a shell on its abdomen, and all through life protects it in 

 the manner you mention. There are several species of them, 

 some growing larger than our American species. They do 

 not always eat the inhabitant of the shells, if they ever do, 

 but as they grow they find a larger empty shell and exchange. 

 There is a land species found in Bermuda. 



Co Crows Eat Fish ?— Paddling down the stream one day 

 I saw a crow hopping along on the stoues at the river's 

 edge, and looking earnestly into the water as though it had 

 lost something. Surprised at the strange actions of the bird, 

 I drew my canoe to one side and patiently observed the 

 menagerie. The bird hopped along for perhaps two minutes, 

 looking sharply into the shallow water the while, and then 

 suddenly splashed in and quickly emerged with a good-sized 

 minnow in its beak, which it swallowed with evident relish 

 and then began to look for more. I watched it until it 

 caught and swallowed two fish, when it liewaway. A few 

 days afterward I saw another crow perform the same opera- 

 tion of catching a minnow and swallowing it. The only 

 parts of the bird which entered the water were the legs and 

 head. And now, if any one asks you "Do crows eat fish ?" 

 answer yes.— Obangb Fbazkr. 



Columbus, 0. 



Wno Can Answer Tms'r— South Keene, N. H., June 14. 

 —As I was fishing with a party in Kobb's Reservoir a short 

 time ago I saw what seemed to me to be a youug duck on 

 the water some three rods from the boat and twenty-five 

 rods from land. Some of the boys proposed that we give 

 chase and, after some puffing and blowing, we captured the 

 duck, which turned out to be a white mouse. After he had 

 been interviewed he was released, and running out on the 

 top of one of the oars he dove into the water like a school 

 hoy and swam away perfectly at home. Now, 1 have 

 hunted and fished in the wilds of Maine, New Hampshire 

 and Vermont and never seen anything like it before. Will 

 some one tell me what species of the mouse tribe it belonged 

 to, and oblige Mabt. 



%nn\t §xg and 0w«. 



AN ARKANSAS TURKEY HUNT. 



THE communications that appear from time to time in 

 the columns of Fobbst and Stbeam on the subject of 

 turkey hunting remind me of the hours that I have spent 

 in the pursuit of that king of game birds. In the month 

 of February, 1880, B. and I organized a night attack upon 

 the turkeys that we had been told roosted in great num- 

 bers in the timber that grows in the overflow aud swamps 

 of Cache River. 



Cache is a very sluggish stream in many places, having 

 no channel ; its waters creep slowly through thick brakes 

 of cypress timber. In the summer during the dry season 

 one can almost step across it, while during the overflow in 

 the winter or spring it spreads out in places to the width 

 of a mile. It rises in Missouri and flows southward into 

 the White River near Clarendon, Ark., passing in its course 

 through the eastern portion of this county. 



It is a fact known to hunters thai wild turkeys that live 

 in a low swampy country nearly always roost in the cypress 

 or other timber that grows in the sloughs and along tire 

 edges of shallow lakes or sluggish streams. They seem to 

 love to roost over water. In mountainous or hilly coun- 

 tries it iB said that they generally roost in the timber on 

 the sides of the steepest hills. Safety is perhaps the ruling 

 motive in both cases. 



A full moon was necessary for the success of our hunt, 

 but, after watching it impatiently for several nights, we de- 

 cided that it would do, and started with but little more 

 than a half moon. We. rode that afternoon to the house 

 of a settler who lived on the west bank of the river. The 

 settler's dwelling-house consisted of a one-room log cabin. 

 As we rode up we noticed a number of coonskius stretched 

 on sticks hanging from the walls of the house, telling that 

 the settler was waging vigorous war against the " varmints " 

 that surrounded him. The settler and the hire! man ex- 

 pressed a, desire " to see them britch-loaders shoot," and, as 

 it lacked an hour to sundown, we took a walk around the 

 cornfield, bagging several squirrels on the round. When we 

 returned we found that the settler's wife had supper ready. 

 That being soon dispensed with we hastily iuspected our 

 shell sacks to see that our "turkey" shells were in proper 

 order. We had loaded them with five drams of Dupont's 

 No. 1 ducking powder and one and one-fourthounces of BB 

 shot. The settler and hired man had fired off their muzzle- 

 loaders, and were now busy reloading for the turkeys. I no- 

 ticed the hired man pour about a handful of fine rifle pow- 

 der down each barrel of his gun, and, after ramming down 

 upon it heavy wads of newspaper, he put in about the same 



quantity of 00 shot. Everything being ready B. and I 

 stepped out into 



" Toe evening air, 

 Clad to ttio beauty or a tnxmsand stars." 



We noticed, too, that the moon was promptly on hand to 

 fulfill her part of the programme. We were soon tramping 

 along up the edge of the overflow, The settler aud hired 

 man were to follow us in the dugout. We had gone per- 

 haps a mile aud a half up the river when we halted for a 

 moment. So far we had not seen or heard a turkey. Though 

 neither of us spoke a doubting word, aud both expressed (he 

 opinion that the turkeys had only roosted further up the 

 stream than they usually did and that we would be certain to 

 find them further tip, yet I knew intuitively that our thoughts 

 were the same, and that we were both beginning to doubt 

 some of those turkey stories that, had induced us to take 

 this hunt. Moving on again, we. harl not gone, twenty steps, 

 when suddenly we hoard the well-known, sharply-uttered 

 quit! quit! quit! from the tree-tops overhead. Then came 

 the heavy flapping of wings and shaking of branches, as the 

 frightened turkeys flew from one tree to ttnother. 



"Just listen !" said I. 



"My goodness, there must be a hundred of them, from 

 the fuss they make I" said B. 



With finger upon the trigger, we peered intently into the 

 tree tops, endeavorin? to distinguish a turkey from the im- 

 mense number of knots aud crooked limbs of every con- 

 ceivable shape. 



"I wish," said B., "that the moon was just a little fuller." 



"It would be better, but I think we shall get them yet," 

 said I. 



B. did not respond, but 1 saw him suddenly bring his gun 

 to his shoulder— a blinding flash shot up into the air, fol- 

 lowed by a crash and a roar that echoed and resounded far 

 away up the river and through the forest. My heart gave a 

 thump, and I listened to hew the turkey fall, but no turkey 

 came, only a quantity of leaves and twigs pattered on the 

 ground. 



" Did you kill him ?" 



" Kill I Thunder ! I'll be switched if I din't shoot at a 

 squirrel's nest '. It looked exactly like a turkey." 



We concluded, as most of the turkeys seemed to be over 

 the water, to wait for the dug-out, and when it came one of 

 us would go after the twkeys in the timber over the water, 

 while the other remained on the bank to shoot any turkey 

 that might fly in that direction. The settler and his hired 

 man soon came up in the dug-out, picking their way care- 

 fully through the timber in the overflow. 



The dug-out was just large enough to carry two men. 

 Being long and narrow aud round under the bottom, it threat- 

 ened with the least motion to turn over. Persons skUled in 

 the use of these dug-outs suffer no fear of turning them over. 

 Standing erect iu the stern of the dug-out and using a long 

 paddle, with a regular, sweeping stroke, they send them over 

 the water at a fearful speed. Neither the settler nor the 

 hired man was a skillful canoeist, neither having lived long 

 on the river. As for B. and I, we could hardly sit in a dug- 

 out without turning it over. It was decided that the hired 

 man and I should have the privilege of going out on the 

 water first, I took my seat in the bow with my gun in hand, 

 while the hired man sat in the stern holding the paddle. 



As we moved out into the overflow the quit ! quit ! quit ! 

 and the flapping of wings was heard on all sides, but I could 

 not see a turkey. Still moving onward, we heard what 

 seemed to be the cracking of a dead limb, then a splash as 

 of Bomethins heavy droppiug into the water. Steering in that 

 direction we soon came upon an old gobbler quietly floating 

 ou the water, seeming to be utterly astounded at the unex- 

 pected situation in which he found himself. As he saw us 

 approaching he struck off to swim at quite a lively rate. We 

 easily overhauled him. I was in favor of taking Mm alive, 

 and so proposed, but the only answer I received from the 

 hired man was : " Shoot! shoot! shoot! He'll fly ! he'll fly ! 

 he'll fly /" 



Such lungs as that hired man had! For fear- of being 

 deafened I leveled my gun anil fired. I tried to shoot the 

 turkey in the head, but found afterward that the charge had 

 struck him full in the body. I knew then that so far as I 

 was concerned shooting by moonlight was only guess work. 

 He proved to be an unusually fine bird. He was so heavy 

 that we had to be very careful in lifting him into the dug-out 

 to prevent capsizing. We were now in high glee, and push- 

 ing out nearer to the channel of the river where the timber 

 was not so heavy, we obtained several shots at turkeys sitting 

 in the tops of the straggling cypress trees that grew in the 

 river. But I did not bag another iurkey. I think I missed 

 them, but the hired man assured me that he heard several fall 

 into the water after being shot. We.did not find them, and I 

 am of opinion that the hired man good-naturedly told this to 

 prevent me from being chagrined by the repeated misses. 



When I brought the gun to my should' r I could not not see 

 the end of the barrel, and could'not tell whether I held on the 

 turkey or not I several times requested the hired man to 

 pull round till he placed the turkey in a line between me and 

 the moon, telling him I could then easily hold on them. But 

 the hired man was excitable, aud though when not in sight 

 of a turkey he would promise to obey the request, yet so 

 soon as he came in sight of a turkey you could get nothing 

 out of him but " Shoot 1 shoot! shoot! he'll fly! he'll fly! 

 he'll lly ! 



Whenever he opened up fully I threw up my gun and fired, 

 more to stop the hired man's mouth than with any hope of 

 harming the turkey. I soon grew weary of that hired man's 

 voice, and suggested to him that we pull to the shore and al- 

 low the others to use the dug-out awhile. Turning the bow 

 of our bout shoreward we soon came in sight of the fire that 

 B and the settler had kindled as a beacon to guide us on our 

 return. When we lauded I lifted the gobbler from the dug- 

 out and hung him by his spurs from the limb of a sapling. 

 There were various guesses as to his weight, but none below 

 twenty-five pounds. On our return to the house we found 

 that he weighed only twenty-one pounds. (Mem.— When 

 you kill a gobbler of twenty-five or thirty pounds do not 

 weigh him ; they generally resent such a proceeding by falling 

 off from five to ten pounds.) 



The sight of that gobbler put B. in a fever to get in the 

 boat and go out ou the water after them. So far in the hunt 

 he had not bagged a bird. lie and the settler soon faded 

 like shadows into the night, while the receding splash of the 

 paddle told that they were moving far out into the overflow. 

 While they were out on the water I determined to try a little 

 hunt of my own on land. Striking off into the forest I en- 

 deavored to find a sleeping turkey by looking into the tree 

 tops upon which the moon, which was now in the west, 

 shone. 1 ,'soon found that this was tedious work. Every 

 crooked limb, knot, bunch of leaves, squirrel's nest, assumed 

 the shape of a turkey, and only by placing the object between 

 myself and the moon eoidd I discover the cheat. 



