NATURAL HISTORY. 



When a bird or a wild animal is killed, that is the end of it. It photographed, it may still live and its education 



and scientific value is multiplied indefinitely. 



WHAT CAUSED THE TAPPING SOUND. 



T. F. Covert, in March Recreation asks. 

 "What is it?" and the same question I have 

 asked myself several times of late years 

 while on fishing expeditions, but about 2 

 years ago I got my first clue to the prob- 

 lem, which came to me just as it came to 

 Mr. Covert; the conditions being always as 

 he states them in his inquiry. It is noth- 

 ing more nor less than a poor, old, skinny, 

 bony, dried-up, demented carp, or white 

 sucker, the abomination of a true angler. 

 I do not like the name fish hog, but I 

 should be willing to acquire it if I could 

 kill all the suckers and carp in existence, 

 and I should be willing to be roasted by 

 Coquina as thoroughly as he roasted my 

 friend and neighbor, B. I. Jones, the duck 

 shooter. 



In the spring of '99 I was visiting in 

 the vicinity of Buckeye lake, on the banks 

 of Lake run. At that place the run has 

 been washed out in 2 or 3 pools to the 

 depth of 8 or 10 feet. There one spring 

 morning I found myself before sunrise, and 

 heard that tapping, or rather smacking, 

 sound as it was on that occasion. These 

 pools were shaded by several large Ameri- 

 can elm trees and the blossoms, falling 

 into the water and being blown by the wind 

 or carried by the waves, had gathered in 

 large patches on the surface. These patches 

 were surrounded by great, big, rawboned, 

 slab-sided, dun-colored, flabby, bottle- 

 nosed carp, weighing 3 to 15 pounds, their 

 bodies half out of the water, sucking in 

 those elm blossoms by the quart. In one 

 patch I counted 13 of these abominable 

 fish and I was frantic in my appeal for 

 something with which to exterminate them. 

 I would have given my kingdom and 

 thrown in my best fishing rod as induce- 

 ment, which, in fact, is worth more than 

 my kingdom. 



I ran to the house, about a quarter of a 

 mile away, got one of Paddy Marlin's 30- 

 something rifles and rushed back to wreak 

 vengeance on those abominations. They 

 were still at work when I returned. With 

 care I aimed the gun at the biggest, raw- 

 bonedest, slab-sidedest, dun-coloredest, and 

 let go. When the smoke cleared away the 

 water was full of the red bellied whelks, 

 but before I could get a stick and get any 

 out in order to tramp them into the mud 

 with my feet, they all came to life and 

 disappeared. But then you know a Marlin 

 is of no account anyway. 



Some time afterward, when sitting on the 



bank of a creek, I heard that same tapping 

 sound, and grabbing a rock I peered over 

 the bank. That time I saw a poor, old, 

 skinny, white sucker, belly up, on the un- 

 der side of a root, sucking away for dear 

 life and squirting the dirt and sediment 

 through his gills as if it was good. 

 A number of times since I have seen the 

 same performance repeated. Of course I 

 threw that rock at the sucker. What did 

 you think I picked it up for? 



, Tnos. H. Jones, Newark, Ohio. 



About 5 years ago a number of us were 

 camping out in the Eastern part of Iowa, 

 along the Maquoketa river. One day while 

 strolling along the bank of the river I 

 heard just such a noise as Mr. Covert de- 

 scribes. There was a sandbar about 30 

 feet from the bank, running parallel with 

 it, and at the lower end was a large pile 

 of drift, connecting the bar with the bank. 

 I examined the pool closely and failed to 

 find a living thing in sight in the neighbor- 

 hood .of the noise, but, like Mr. Covert, I 

 noticed that bits of drift bobbed up when- 

 ever I heard the noise. I. waited some 

 time, but finally went back to camp, wonder- 

 ing. The next day I visited the pool at a 

 different hour and I saw at least a dozen 

 turtles out on the logs, sunning themselves. 

 They were what are commonly called snap- 

 ping turtles. I visited the place many times, 

 going up quietly, in order not to frighten 

 the turtles, and watching them closely, but 

 I was never able to determine whether or 

 not it was the turtles that made the noise. 

 I do not remember seeing a turtle out of the 

 water when I heard the noise. I decfded 

 that it was one of their modes of feeding, 

 probably gathering the snails or other ani- 

 mals that were on the under side of the 

 drift. Now I, like 'Mr. Covert, would like 

 to know positively what made the noise. I 

 have never seen so many turtles in one 

 place before or since and never heard the 

 noise at any other place. 



J. D. B., Colorado Springs, Colo. 



From Mr. T. F. Covert's description of 

 the tapping he heard, I have no hesitation 

 in saying that it was caused by a fish of 

 the sucker variety. When a boy, I was once 

 fishing in the Sequachee river, at the foot 

 of Cumberland mountain, in Tennessee. I 

 had chosen a quiet, shady nook, an ideal 

 place for fishing, but a poor place for fish, 

 as I soon found. After a time I heard 

 this same tapping, or sucking, sound de- 

 scribed by Mr. Covert and determined to 



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