222 



RECREATION. 



splashed when the pan was filled. As long 

 as they were kept they were not seen to 

 drink in any other way. 



E. H. Cahoon, Akron, O. 



Of course the grouse drinks water; 

 otherwise it would be an exception to all 

 physiological law. Just how it does so is 

 another question. I am inclined to think 

 it drinks like the domestic hen ; though 

 •doubtless in seasons of drouth, or when far 

 from any other source of supply, it can 

 obtain sufficient water by picking dewdrops 

 from leaves and grass. Mr. Rice's letter is 

 exceedingly interesting and should incite 

 every true sportsman to a closer study of 

 bird and animal life. 



Dr. W. D. Sigler, E. Palestine, O. 



FACTS ABOUT THE EEL. 



The method of reproduction of the eel 

 has long been a mystery to the popular 

 mind, and all sorts of absurd views have 

 been held by the unscientific. It has been 

 claimed that eels are generated from the 

 mud or slime in the bottom of streams or 

 bays. Even as late as last year a well 

 known paper published with apparent ap- 

 proval a stupid article by a writer who 

 claimed to have demonstrated beyond the 

 possibility of a doubt that all so-called 

 "common eels" are males, and that the 

 lamprey eel is the female. 



The article by Mr. Haskins in June, 1901, 

 Recreation stated clearly a number of im- 

 portant facts in the life history of the eel. 

 On the other hand, the article by Mr. Wix- 

 son in November Recreation, and the let- 

 ter of a more recent correspondent, would 

 indicate that the respective writers are not 

 familiar with what is really known regard- 

 ing the eel. 



The spawning .habits of the eel have been 

 well understood by naturalists for many 

 years. The essential facts were demon- 

 strated by Sancassini as early as the 18th 

 century. Since then various investigators, 

 including Mordini, Syrnski, Jacoby, Grassi, 

 Calandruc, and others have verified or 

 added to those experiments, until we now 

 know as much about the method of repro- 

 duction of the eel as we do regarding that 

 nf the majority of our fishes. There is a 

 vast amount of literature on the subject, 

 readily available for anyone who cares to 

 go into the matter. The essential facts 

 can be stated briefly. 



Eels, like all other fishes, are of 2 sexes. 

 The females are usually larger than the 

 males, paler in color, with smaller eyes 

 and higher fins. Both are found in fresh- 

 water streams, and both run down stream 

 to salt water when the spawning season 

 approaches, which is in the fall. The eggs 

 of the female eel are almost microscopically 

 small and exceedingly numerous. They 

 are usually deposited in salt-water bays 



and inlets, though they may, under unusual 

 circumstances, be laid in fresh water. 

 After extrusion from the body of the 

 female the eggs are fertilized by the male. 



After the eggs hatch, the young eels re- 

 main some time in salt water, and then 

 ascend fresh-water streams, in many cases 

 for long distances, where .'they remain until 

 mature and ready to spawn. It is believed 

 that both sexes, like the West coast salmon, 

 die after once spawning, but this has not 

 been proved. 



The mystery regarding the spawning 

 habits of the eel was due chiefly to the 

 difficulty of distinguishing the eggs, owing 

 to their extreme smallness and to a failure 

 to find young eels in fresh waters, where 

 adults could be found at all times. Eels 

 often move considerable distances on land 

 in wet weeds or grass, often passing around 

 waterfalls, dams and other obstructions in 

 this way. 



They are among the most voracious of 

 fishes. "On their hunting excursions they 

 overturn alike huge and small stones, be- 

 neath which they find shrimps and craw- 

 fish, of which they are fond. Their noses 

 are poked into every imaginable hole in 

 their search for food, to the terror of in- 

 numerable small fishes." 



B. W. Evermann. 



In November Recreation Mr. Wixson 

 denies that eels migrate. I think they go 

 to salt water if they can get there. That 

 they go to breed, I am not so sure, for 

 young eels can be found here at any time. 

 The machinery of a factory in which I am 

 interested is driven by a turbine wheel of 

 18 horse power. The fall is 18 feet from 

 top of dam to wheel. Between the first 

 and the middle of November eels begin 

 to run down the pipe that feeds the wheel. 

 If there comes a cold rain they run in such 

 numbers, as to stop the wheel, and we have 

 to go into the wheel pit and pull them out 

 2 or 3 times a day. The run continues 2 

 or 3 days, and then is over for the season. 



Our dam is 125 feet wide; the wall is 

 10 feet high and perpendicular. In the 

 spring I have seen the entire face of the 

 dam fairly alive with eels trying to get 

 back to the pond. I have watched them 

 struggling to get up when there was barely 

 enough water running over to keep the 

 face of the dam wet, and have seen them 

 succeed in reaching the top. 



Eels will go in the night from one pond 

 to another, crawling in damp grass. If 

 Mr. Wixson doubts this let him some night 

 put some living eels in the grass 20 rods 

 or so from the pond where they were 

 caught. He will be surprised to see how 

 quickly they will reach the water, and how 

 direct a course they will take. When eels 

 are observed gathering in bunches they are, 

 I think, getting ready to go down stream, 



