
NATURAL 
_way in front of him, where no other track 
of man or animal appeared, the footprints 
of a rabbit evidently traveling at a high rate 
of speed. Not far ahead he presently saw 
_in the road a crow in the act of devouring 
the freshly killed carcass of a full-grown 
rabbit. As he approached, the crow seized 
the rabbit, dragged it several feet to one 
side of the road, and flew away. Examina- 
tion showed that the tracks of the rabbit 
ended just where the crow was first seen 
with it. From the appearance of the blood 
and the body of the animal, the rabbit had 
been but lately killed. Circumstantial evi- 
dence would seem to convict the crow. Is 
this an unusual experience? | 
H. W. Carter, Norfolk, Conn. 

PROBABLY A BULL SNAKE. 
A friend describes a snake which he 
found in the mountains near here, a kind 
that I have never seen in this country. It 
was much like the Idaho rattlesnake ex- 
cept that it was longer, slimmer and had a 
black, sharp pointed spike about 1%4 inches 
long at the end of its tail. It was found 
among rocks, coiled up, with the spike or 
tail pointing upward, and was spotted gray 
in color. Killed and stretched out it meas- 
ured 52 inches in length. Can you tell me 
what snake this is and what is its range? 
Martin Erickson, Grand Valley, Ida. 
ANSWER. 
You have given a fairly good description 
of the bull snake. It has a horn on top of 
the tail and is known to inhabit Idaho.— 
EpITor. 

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
You ask in RECREATION if anyone knows. 
of another instance where’ moose have 
locked horns in fight and consequently 
diediipa' 2 
On the shores of the Madawaska river, 
about 3 miles from here, a grand battle 
took place 8 years ago between 2 moose. 
The battleground was on the top of a 
steep bank, overlooking the river, and 
when the fight was finished the 2 warriors 
‘lay drowned in the water beneath with 
locked horns. They were found by some 
of the park rangers who brought the heads” 
and horns in just as they were and had 
them shipped to Toronto, where they are 
at present mounted in the Parliament 
building. R. C. W. Lett, Mowat, Ont. 
According to H. P. Gillette, no human 
eyes have ever seen a bald eagle on Puget 
sound, an eagle’s nest in a fir tree, a tyee 
or steelhead salmon in an eddy or a king- 
fisher nesting in banks, like bank swallows. 
The tyee and the steelhead salmon are dif- 
ferent fishes, Onchorhynchus chonicha and 
HISTORY. 381 
Salmo gairdnerti. All the ‘other things 
you have probably seen yourself; so why 
do you let such palpable truths be contra- 
dicted? C. M. J., Portland, Ore. 
As I have before stated, I like to give a 
man a chance occasionally to put his foot 
in a trap in order to give some other man 
an opportunity to lambast him as he may 
deserve.— EpitTor. 

I read in Recreation that permanganate 
of potash, when used in a _ hypodermic 
syringe, was a cure for snake bites. Please 
tell me what strength to make solution. 
C. E. Arnold, Lewisburg, Pa. 
ANSWER. 
The dose of permanganate of potash is 
one or 2 grains and it is soluble in 20 parts 
of cold water or 3 parts of hot water. How- 
ever, if bitten do not wait for hot water. 
Inject a cold water solution near the wound. 
Then dissolve a second grain and inject 
that. Hypodermic syringes only hold, as 
a rule, 20 or 30 drops. Thirty drops equals 
about ¥% teaspoonful.—EpIrTor. 

Can you help me identify a species of 
bird which I often see here? It is not quite 
so large as a robin, is plump, has a small 
head, a short beak, a long forked tail and 
small, well formed feet. Its back is a dirty 
gray color, which gets browner near the 
head, which is a sort of reddish brown. Its 
breast is buff. It stays around the apple 
trees and bushes and has a nervous way of 
shaking itself. J. A. A., Jackson, Mich. 
ANSWER. . 
The bird you describe is probably: a fe- 
male pine grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator 
leucurva.—EnItTor. 

Regarding locked moose horns: In the 
fall of 1877 I saw 2 monster pairs locked. 
The trophy was owned by Colonel Dewitt, 
a lumberman, of Maine. He told us that 
one of his men had found them in that 
position. The horns showed signs of hav- 
ing been in the woods a long time before 
they were found. 
A taxidermist named Miller told me that 
Mr. Cornell, of St. Johns, who is also a 
taxidermist, had one or 2 such specimens. 
W. S. Crooker, Brookfield, N. S. 
RECREATION is the most interesting 
sportsmen’s journal published. 
A. H. Mason, Murray Hill, N. J. 

RECREATION is a splendid magazine. 
C. A. Tubbs, Waukesha, Wis. 
