NATURAL HISTORY. 



221 



generality of Eastern people. One of the 

 first tasks that will be undertaken in the 

 New York Zoological Park will be to bring 

 together and exhibit living representatives 

 of as many of these little-known species as 

 it is possible to procure. 



W. T. Hornaday, New York City. 



WHAT DID HE WANT IT FOR? 



One evening after a hard shower I 

 walked into the garden, and found numer- 

 ous night creepers working out of the earth. 

 I became interested in watching a large 

 one, push his head out, and gradually elon- 

 gate until he lay stretched fully 10 inches, 

 with his tail still in the ground. He worked 

 his head around until it came in contact 

 with a leaf about 2^4 inches long that had 

 dropped from a honeysuckle bush. The 

 worm took hold of this leaf at the junction 

 of the stem and lamina and dragged it into 

 his hole. It was drawn in about Y\ its 

 length when it stuck and remained standing 

 up straight. I presume the worm lost his 

 hold for after a few seconds the leaf again 

 moved and was drawn out of sight. It im- 

 pressed me as a curious bit of natural his- 

 tory. Had I happened along just at the 

 moment when the leaf was standing up 

 straight, and had I then seen it disappear, 

 I should have been greatly puzzled. 



S. P. Lazarus, New York City. 



ONCE A YEAR. 



How often do deer shed their horns, and 

 in what season. Let me know just bow 

 they shed their horns, and if they drop them 

 entirely so that the bucks resemble the 

 does. E. L. Husting, Milwaukee, Wis. 



Deer drop their antlers in January or 

 February, and in some of the Southern 

 states as late as March. The old antler 

 breaks off at the skull, just as you would 

 break the stem off a pumpkin. A small 

 convex cavity is left in the skull when the 

 horn comes off. The new horn starts to 

 grow from this same cavity within a few 

 days after the old horn drops, and usu- 

 ally matures by the ist of August. During 

 the growing period it is covered with a 

 short hair, which is usually called velvet. 

 During August and September the horns 

 harden and the deer rubs this velvet off by 

 raking the horns up and down the trunks of 

 small trees or bushes. — Editor. 



INDIGO FOR SNAKEBITE. 



Here is a remedy for rattlesnake bite 

 which I never knew to fail. It is not orig- 

 inal with me. I first learned it in Kansas 

 while herding cattle in 1876. That is a rat- 

 tlesnake country, and there I saw the rem- 

 edy used on men, horses, cattle and dogs. 

 Bind one teaspoonful of dry, powdered in- 

 digo on the wound made by the fangs and 

 let it remain 24 hours. I once used it on a 



steer that was bitten on the nose. It cured 

 him. I saw it used on a boy who was bit- 

 ten on the leg. The remedy was applied 5 

 hours after the boy was bitten, yet in 12 

 hours the swelling was almost gone. I 

 would rather be bitten by a healthy rattler 

 than by a dog, if where I could get indigo. 

 If sportsmen who frequent the haunts of 

 the rattler will carry a small quantity of 

 indigo, they need fear no snakes unless 

 they find them in bottles. 



E. S. Davis, Denver, Col. 



MORE SMALL HORNS. 



In October Recreation Lieutenant 

 Gardner, of Ft. Washakie, describes some 

 small deer horns. Last summer I was with 

 a surveying party on the head of Wind 

 river. One evening on my way to camp I 

 ran across the skeleton of an extremely 

 small deer. The horns showed 4 points and 

 were almost perfect in shape. I had no 

 way of measuring them, and as we had to 

 pack our outfit, did not take the horns. 

 This skeleton was a little larger than the 

 one described by Lieutenant Gardner, be- 

 ing almost as large as that of a sheep. I 

 had never heard of a race of dwarf deer, 

 and thought this one a freak. Have seen 

 many deer horns, but never any to compare 

 with these. 



A HAWK OR CROW. 



Vernon, B. C 

 V.r. D. I. Arnold says it is a mystery how 

 tfefc male ruffed grouse drums. Let him go 

 in any farm yard where turkeys are kept, 

 and if an old gobbler happens to be strut- 

 ting, watch his tail and listen for a drum- 

 ming sound. Turkeys make a distinct 

 drumming noise, not so audible as that 

 made by the grouse but exactly like it. This 

 sound is produced by the tail, as in the 

 grouse. F. Williams, M. D., Vernon, B. C. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



On the 5th of September I shot a mourn- 

 ing dove. In cleaning it I found a small 

 bunch of eggs, one of which was about the 

 size of a pea. Would these eggs have been 

 deposited in the South this winter, or here 

 on the return of the bird next spring? 



Charles C. Camp, Portage, Wis. 



ANSWER. 



So far as I am aware the mourning dove 

 does not nest in the winter in any portion 

 of the United States. In the Southern 

 states it sometimes nests as late as the mid- 

 dle of September, and as early as March, 

 and rears 2 broods. It is reasonably certain 

 the eggs referred to would not have been 

 deposited anywhere before the spring of 

 1899. — Editor. 



In a recent Recreation I notice a query 

 on the advisability or otherwise of introduc- 

 ing the starling. If the writer means 



