NATURE'S REALM. 
more become a part of some great reservoir of 
the life essence : who knows ? 
Albert Bigelow Paine. 
A REMARKABLE FIG TREE. 
At the drug store of Mr. J. M. Sprague in St. 
Paul, Minn., there 1s a thrifty fig tree four 
years old and perhaps five feet high, which 
came up spontaneousty in a tub which con- 
tained an oleander. The only way in which 
its voluntary appearance is accounted for is 
that it grew from seeds of figs which had been 
fed to a canary whose cage hung over the tub. 
But the most perplexing part of the problem 
rests on the fact that the figs were preserved. 
Will seeds of preserved figs retain their germi- 
nating properties ? Sometimes, perhaps. 
THE ARISTOCRATIC MALAMAUK. 
Referring to a quotation from Mr. R. H. 
Strother’s ‘Fishing Adventures on the New- 
foundland Banks,” published in Harger’s 
Magazine in 1861, wherein several kinds of 
sea birds are mentioned, including “roaches” 
and ‘the aristocratic-looking malamauk,” we 
have Prof. Elliot Cones’ authority for saying 
that ‘‘roaches” are ‘‘rotchies” misspelled. 
The bird is the least auk (Ad/e alle or Alle 
nigricans). ‘‘Malamauk” is the fulmar petrel 
(Fulmarus glacialis) misspelled. Proper spell- 
ing is ‘‘mallemuck.” Hagdens are the petrels 
or shearwaters of the genus Pufinus, as the 
common hagden (P. major), the greater shear- 
water, and the black hagden (P. fuleginosus), 
the sooty shearwater. What are “noodles” I 
don’t exactly know, unless they are fellows who 
can't spell. Very likely he means murres or 
foolish guillemots (Lomvia troile). 
The publishers of NATURE’S REALM desire 
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NATURE’S REALM, Io Warren St., New York. 
199 
FROM FRY TO YEARLINGS. 
We had an inquiry some time ago as to the 
best method of keeping trout fry until they be- 
came yearlings, and being anxious to supple- 
ment our own experience with that of Monroe 
A. Green, superintendent of the New York 
hatchery, we wrote him on the subject and 
now give his response : 
“| think the fry will do better if you could 
screen some place where there is plenty of veg- 
etable matter. They would get more natural 
food and do better than you can do for them in 
troughs. It is a pretty nice thing to raise fish 
up to yearlings. They have to be fed six or 
eight times a day, and the troughs cleaned out 
every day or the water will get foul. Westart 
our fry in troughs fifteen feet long, seven inches 
deep, fourteen and a half inches wide, with 
gravelly bottom, until they are about two 
months old. Then we transfer them to a pond 
thirty feet long, three feet wide, with gravelly 
bottom, covered over with trap doors, which 
we close up nights to keep the rats and minks 
out; and it takes constant care to raise them. 
I keep one man that takes care of them, and 
he is busy all the time.” 
SUNDRY NOTEs. 
Many natural history writers talk very elo- 
quently in defence of the hawks, and assert 
that these birds of flesh-eating habits are of 
more benefit to farmeis than they have the 
credit of being. It is true that most all kinds 
of hawks do eat worthless vermin, but this is 
small recomprise to the mischief these pirates 
do in destroying all kinds of useful and beauti- 
ful birds. This subject has been pretty thor- 
oughly discussed, and the moral is substantially 
against the raffores. For yearsI have beena 
pretty close observer of the nature and habits 
of wild animals and birds, and I have never 
been able to discover any evidence why we 
should protect the hawks. What every sports- 
man should do is to keep up an incessant war- 
fare against all enemies of our game birds and 
birds of sweet song and beautiful plumage. 
Hawks of all kinds, the house sparrow, skunks, 
minks, weasels and coons should receive no 
mercy. 
I think there is a great over estimation in 
