306 



FOEEST AND STREAM. 



2d of the month, off the coast of ^Sicily at 5 o'clock p. m., the 

 sea serpent turned up once more. "The sea was unexcep. 

 tionally smooth, and the officers were provided with good 

 telescopes. The monster had a smooth skin, devoid of scales, 

 a hullet-shaped head, and a face like an alligator. It was of 

 immense, length, and alorig the back was a ridge of fins about 

 fifteen feet in length and six feet apart. It moved slowly, and 

 was seen by all the ship's officers." This account is supple- 

 mented by an article written by a lieutenant on board the 

 Osborne, who made a sketch of the sea serpent, who says • 

 " From the top of the head to the part of the back where it 

 became immersed, I should consider about fifty feet, and that 

 seemed about a third of the whole length. All this part was 

 smooth, resembling a seal." 



In the month of May of this year, in latitude 2° north, and 

 longitude 90° 53' east, the crew of the barque Georgina, 

 bound from Rangoon to Falmouth, saw the sea serpent. This 

 time it was not so large, being only fifty feet long, "gray 

 and yellow in color, and ten or eleven inches thick.. It was in 

 view for twenty minutes. Another account of this snake, 

 emanating from the same source, states that "for some days 

 previously the crew had seen several smaller serpents, of from 

 six to seven feet in length, playing about the vessel." "We 

 may remark, parenthetically, that Rangoon arrack is a very 

 powerful stimulant. 



In the last number of Land and Water, a correspondent 

 takes up this sighting of the sea serpent by the officers of Her 

 Majesty's yacht Osborne, and believes that all which was seen 

 was a turtle, either the Chehnia oaouana or the C. cariacea, 

 pursued by a shark or sharks. Undoubtedly a shoal of bask- 

 • ing sharks, one following close after another, might be taken 

 for a single creature. Though we may have only lately ac- 

 cepted the huge size of the cuttle fish it by no means follows 

 that we should credit the stories told about sea serpents. 

 That largely developed individuals of certain species of ani- 

 mals may exist is not to be denied ; though it is not probable 

 by analogy, since huge reptiles once existed on the earth 

 and are no longer present, that there should be exceptions in 

 regard to the inhabitants of the sea. We are right to sup- 

 pose that the elephant on the land and the whale in the sea 

 represent these two limits. 



We have no inclination to discredit marine stories, nor to 

 even suspect that the toilers of the sea are given to amplifi- 

 cations. We bear in mind some curious facts in regard to a 

 sea serpent. Some two years ago there was great excitement at 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and various telegraphs were inter- 

 changed between Washington and New Y ork in regard to a 

 huge sea serpent which was obstructing the East River. 

 The wonder grew as it was talked about. Not only was there 

 a sea serpent, but it had been captured. The Forest and 

 Stream was at fever heat. We sent out reporters to look up 

 the horrid thing. At last we thought we had it. Partu- 

 riant montes,etc. That snake turned out to b ea little boa, which 

 having died on board of some ship coming into port, the 

 cadaver had been pitched iguominously overboard into the 

 river. This monster, said to be of indescribable size (half as 

 long as from the Battery to the Post Office), was really not 

 more than five feet in length j and the wonder now graces the 

 collection of Mr. Eugene G. Blackford. Let us take all sea 

 serpents, then, cum grano salis. 



HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO. 



AS the early accounts of the buffalo are quaint and inter- 

 esting, as well as worthy of preservation, I have collect- 

 ed some of them as forming part of the history of the huge 

 denizen of the plains, now so rapidly disappearing. 



The chroniclers of De Soto's expedition say nothing of the 

 buffalo. Guzman saw them in Cuialoa (Mexico) in 1532. In 

 1539 Father Marco De Nica, in exploring Northern New 

 Spain, says that in the kingdom of Totonteac they showed 

 him a hide " half as big again as the hide of an ox, which 

 they said belonged to a beast with one horn. The color of 

 the skin was like that of a goat, and the hair was a finger 

 thick." 



In 1540 Coronado, in his celebrated expedition, first heard 

 of buffalo at Cibola (Zuni), and says the people " (ravel 

 eight days' journey into certain plains, lying toward the North 

 Sea. In this country are certain skins well dressed, and they 

 dress them and paint them where they kill their oxen, for so 

 they say themselves." He also saw an Indian there from an- 

 other province who had a buffalo painted on his breast, and 

 his chronicler, Castaneda, speaking of the hides, says they 

 are "covered with a frizzled hair which resembles wool." 

 After leaving Cicutc (Tecas) he says t " All that way and the 

 plains are as full of crooked-backed oxen as the mountain 

 Serena in Spain is of sheep, but there is no people but such as 

 kejp those cattle." ...„«„ ,, , ,,.*, 



In a work published at Amsterdam m 1637, called "New 

 English Cunaun," by Thomas Morion, he says: "The In- 

 dians have also made description of great herds of well-grown 

 beasts, that live about the parts of this lake (Erocoise), now 

 Lake Champlain, such as the Christian world (until this dis- 

 covery) hath not bin made acquainted with. These beasts 

 are ot the bigness of a cowe, their flesh being very good footle, 

 their hides good leather ; their fleeces very useful, being a 

 kind of woole, as hue almost as the woole of the beaver, and 

 the salvages do make garments thereof. It is tenne yeares 

 since first the relation of these things came to the cares of the 



f n gj r Humphrey Gilbert's voyages, which commenced in 

 1583 (Hakluyt), he says there are in Newfoundland "but- 

 tolfes, or a beast it seemetk by the tract and foot very large 

 in maner of an oxe." „„„ . 



In a description of New 1 ork, written about 1660, it, s iys : 



'Traders who came from a great distance make mention of 

 'ion's skins which will not be bartered because they are used 

 J or clothing, being much warmer than others." 



In a work published by Hakluyt, in London (1589), it is 

 stated that in the Island of Newfound land were found 

 "mightie beastes like to camels iu greatness and their feete 

 weredoven. I did see them farre off, not able, to discerne 

 them perfectly, but their steps shewed that their feete were 

 cloven, and bigger than the feete of camels. 1 suppose them 

 to be a kind of buffes, wliich I read to be tn the countrey3 

 adjacent, and very many in the forine land." 



Gomara gives the following description of the buffalo as 

 seen by Coronado and his army in 1540 : " These oxen are of 

 the bigness and color of our bulls, but their horns are not so 

 great. They have a great bunch upon their fore-shoulders, 

 and more bair upon their forepart than on their hinderpart, 

 and it is like wool. They have, as it were, a horse mane upon 

 their back-bone, and much hair, and very long from the knees 

 downward. They have great tufts of hair hanging down 

 their foreheads, and it seemeth they have beards, because of 

 the great Btore of hair hanging down at their chins and 

 throats. The males have very long tails, and a great knob or 

 flock at the end, so that iu some respects the3 r resemble the 

 lion, and in some others the camel. They push with their 

 horns, they run, they overtake and kill a horse when they are 

 in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a fierce beast of counte- 

 nance and form of body. The horses fled from them, either 

 because of their deformed shape or else because they had 

 never seen them. Their masters have no other riches nor 

 substance ; of tbem they eat, they drink, they apparel, they 

 shoe themselves; and of their hides they make many things, 

 as houses, shoes, apparel and ropes ; of their bones they make 

 bodkins ; of their sinews and hair, thread ; of their horns, 

 maws and bladders, vessels; of their dung, fire, and of their 

 calf-skins, budgets, wherein they draw and keep water. To 

 be short, they make so many things of them as they have 

 need of, or as may suffice them in the use of this life." 



Another author, Purchas, says that as early as 1613 the ad- 

 venturers in Virginia discovered a " slow kinde of cattel as 

 bigge as kine, which were good meate." 



Joliet and Marquette in descending the Mississippi in 1673 

 saw the buffalo, and the latter says of them : " We call them 

 wild cattle, because they are like our domestic cattle ; they 

 are not longer, but almost as big again and more corpulent ; 

 our men having killed one, three of us had considerable trouble 

 in moving it. The head is very large, the forehead flat, and a 

 foot and a half broad between the horns, which are exactly 

 like our cattle, except that they are black and much larger. 

 Under the neck there is a kind of large crop hanging down, 

 and on 1he back a pretty high hump. The whole, head, the 

 neck and a part of the shoulders are covered with a great mane 

 like a horse's ; it is at least, a foot long, which renders them 

 hideous, and falling over their eyes prevents their seeing be- 

 fore them. The rest of the body is covered with a coarse curly 

 hair like the wool of our sheep, but much stronger and thicker. 

 It falls in summer, and the skin is then as soft as velvet. At 

 this time the Indiansemploy the skin s to make beautiful robes, 

 which they paint of various colors." 



The first engraving of the buffalo was in the- first edition of 

 "Hennepin's Travels." Alvar Nunez in 1535 saw buffalo 

 near the Gulf, and JonteL, one hundred and fifty years after- 

 ward, saw them at Bay St. Bernard. Father Venegus does 

 not include them in the animals of California, and neither Har- 

 mon nor Mackenzie speak of them in New Caledonia. Du 

 Pratz, in 1758, Bays they do not exist in Louisiana. In 1756 

 some of those who settled in the Abbeville district of South 

 Carolina found buffalo there, and in 1774 Bernard Romans 

 speaks of them as a "benelitof nature bestowed on Florida." 



We find the trade in buffalo wool a considerable one in the 

 last century, and numerous factories were established for its 

 manufacture. The slaughter of the buffalo has been the great- 

 est in the past thirty years, and since the settlements and rail- 

 roads have extended into the buffalo range the buffalo has fre- 

 quently been domesticated, and the Bois Brtiies put them to 

 use as'work cattle.— -Dr. Wm. E. Doyle, in Washington Sun- 

 day Herald. 



[How easy it is under the light of history to trace the gradual 

 extinction of this race of noble animals. The remnants are 

 now comprised in two inconsiderable bands, which are con- 

 fined to circumscribed localities— one in northwestern Texas, 

 and the other to southern Dacotah. Over five millions of buf- 

 faloes have been killed within the past six years, chiefly for 

 their hides!— Ed. F & S.] 



CAN THE PARTRIDGE WITHHOLD 

 HIS SCENT? 



Mr. Editor :— This is a question which is often propound- 

 ed, and" as frequently answered in the negative as affirmative- 

 ly. I remember my illustrious kinsman, Frank Forester, in 

 his admirable work, which is just now out of my library, was 

 of opinion that the bird in question was possessed of that 

 faculty, but whether it was voluntary or involuntary, the 

 effect of the will, I am not informed that lie determined. Nor 

 have I ever seen advanced any theory or supposition tending to 

 explain this wonderful quality. Before submitting my own 

 ideas upon this subject, which I believe are plausible at least, 

 I would remind you of the marked distinction in the quail of 

 your Northern States and the Canadas and the Perdix vvrgini- 

 anw (accepting Forester's nomenclature) of this section. The 

 Virginia partridge, which I contend is no quail, is smaller 

 than his cousin ortyx, and more vigorous and rapid on the 

 wing. He is, moreover, the bravest of allgame birds that long 

 and vailed experience has given me any knowledge of ; in- 

 variably dying hard or remaining upon the wing until life is 

 wholly" extinct. In fact, 1 have always observed that when 

 struck fatally he is certain to fall dead. 



Perhaps all this is a little irrelevant, but I merely mention 

 this lest some of your northern sportsmen who have had much 

 quail shooting should confound this king of all game fowls 

 with his larger brother. 



In support of my theory allow me to cite two occurrences 

 which came under'my own observation, and one of them quite 

 recently - : 



The first that I will record took place last season. In a 

 thick cover of grass my English setter Basil pointed lour 

 'birds, full fledged and rigorous^ in January, when t bey had 

 attained to the standard of old and knowing fellows. I had 

 reason to judge they had been flushed by the hawk, that 

 terrible pirate Of the upper seas, and upon flushing, I con- 

 trived to bag a couple of cocks, leaving only two birds re- 

 maining. , 



Their flight was not a very long one, and I watched closely 



the spot where they went down, beside a small pine which had 

 been felled, being then in fuil leaf, but russet and completely 

 wi thesed. In a few moments Dash and I were on the ground, 

 and he is the most knowing hunter you ever saw. Vain were 

 his efforts to wind or trail them. After several minutes of 

 close hunting, and after I had thoroughly beaten cover, I call- 

 ed him off, thinking possibly they had again taken to wing 

 (which is unusual) while I was loading. 



After an interval of an hour or two I again visited the fallen 

 pine, and Dash had scarcely drawn to within ten feet of th» 

 very cover he had lately hunted when he came to a dead 

 point, and I started the hiders. Was his nose at fault ? I be- 

 lieve no dog has a better. 



On the evening of the 6th inst, I went out for a little sport, 

 reaching the fields at half past one, in company with a friend 

 — Dash our only dog. The wind was from the southwest, 

 blowing a perfect g;de, and cold — the day before warm and 

 rainy. Altogether a bad day for game, as we found nearly all 

 of it near woods and under thick cover. Yet despite all this 

 we got a bag of thirty-five, as plump and pretty as you ever 

 saw. 



Upon the rise of one covey we brought down five with our 

 four barrels, w r oundiug the sixth, who grounded in a patch of 

 tall reeds. 



Out of these he was again sprung, flying directly to me and 

 alighting within a few feet of where I was standing. I re- 

 frained from shooting to watch him. The cover this time was 

 of reeds, but lower and sparser. I saw to the very inch where 

 he went down ; I could Dot be mistaken. The closest search 

 with my dog was unavailing, my friend was on the look-out 

 for his rise. He never rose, and we never saw hirn again. I 

 prefer prefacing my explanations of thi3 faculty with these 

 recitals of facts— absolute facts. 



The most casual observer, if he has ever seen a bird while 

 his dog was reading, must have noticed that the bird appeared 

 much smaller when undisturbed, and really smaller than he 

 was. 



Why ? Because in his fright he has shut his feathers close 

 — he has the power of doing this. 



This same tight-fitting coat of his, chemistry tells us, is one 

 of the best non-conductors that we have. If Ibis be so, then is 

 it unreasonable to suppose that it may answer at least the 

 doublepurpose of shutting out cold and shutting in scent? 



Some sportsmen acknowledging the partridge's ability to 

 elude the dog in this manner, contend that he is only able to 

 do this on account of remaining quiet and not moving so as to 

 leave scent. I attribute it to something more flattering to his 

 birdship than this— to the will purely, voluntary and instinc- 

 tive, and knowledge taught him through that instinct that 

 never errs, for it is but the unadulterated philosophy of nature 

 which she is ever leaching her dumb children. 



Norfolk, Va.,No-v. 12; 1877. Harry Harrington. 



QUAIL AT SEA. 



HAVE WE A NEW VARIETY OP QUAIL ? 



THE following two quite interesting letters, by a remark- 

 able coincidence, reached us at the same time. The 

 question of the migratory habits of the quail has before at- 

 tracted our attention. The fact of quail going sometimes to 

 sea may be accidental, caused by stress of weather. But the 

 facts conveyed to us by our correspondent from Norfolk seem 

 to indicate that 0ev variety of quail is possible. Now, the 

 difference between the Virginia quail (Ortyx viryininnux) and 

 the European quail is not very great. Coues (page 236) in 

 his "Key to American Birds says : " The differences between 

 the European and American birds are hardly appreciable. " 1 1 is 

 generally conceded, though exact weights have never been 

 taken, that the American quail is slightly heavier than the 

 European variety. The European quail is decidedly migra- 

 tory. At certain seasons of the year it inhabits Europe, some 

 few T coming to England, but it migrates in the fall of the year 

 o more southern climes. Four years ago there was an extra- 

 ordinary migration of quail from Norway into England, the 

 birds coming in myriads. The islands and shores of the Medi- 

 terranean swarm with them. As many as a hundred thousand 

 quail have been killed within a limited space off the coast near 

 Naples. At certain periods quail appear in Africa, and later 

 they traverse the Mediterranean. The appearance of a new 

 quail in the United States, if substantiated by further evi- 

 dence, would be a curious ornithological fact and well worthy 

 of study. We believe, that efforts have been made to breed 

 quail on the islands of Jamaica and St. Croix. There may be 

 the least chance that, true to their migratory instincts, these 

 birds may have crossed the ocean. Of course, this is only a 

 supposition on our part. 



The general behavior of the birds, as described by our cor- 

 respondent when shooting in North Carolina, was at least pe- 

 culiar ; and, as the writer is a sportsman and familiar with 

 the form and general appearance of our own bird, the belief 

 may be entertained that some difference may exist between 

 our native birds and the new-comers-. Of course we will do 

 our best to throw further light on this subject : 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Baltimore, Nov. 13, 1S77, 



Will you kindly mform one of yonr new readeas through your oo'- 

 umns it there are, so far as you know, any recorded instauces'nf onr 

 American quail making excursions to seaward? Or if there are any 

 varieties of Hie quail faraiiy which are accustomed to "go to sea," 

 either for plasure, profit or pure enssedness? 



I am indnced to make these inrjuuies for the reason that some days 

 since a reputable gentleman of my acquaintance recently arriving in 

 this city from KlodeJaneiro.made to me a statement which leads me to 

 believe that such a species does exist. This gentleman stateg that one 

 day, on the voyage up, while ijiug ''hove to," some hundred miles or 

 more to the southward and eastward of Cape Hatteras, there came on 

 board Ine barque, no less thau thirty or forty quail ! It had been blow- 

 ing very heavily from the SB, for the previous thirty-eix hours, and my 

 informant slates the birds in question, before seeking a r-d'uge in the 

 rigging of the vessel, had been observed apparently endeavoring to hold 

 tneir way, directly into the teeth of the gale. After coming on board 

 i them weje bo exhausted they were readily captured. Others 

 tied in escaping from the clutches of "Jack," and left the ship, 

 it is feared, to peiiau; while others maintained an existence too far 

 aloft for Jack to trouble litem in such heavy weather, and were seen, ad 

 fairer weather came on, and the barque was enabled to resume her 

 course, to also resume their night to the eastward, or, perhaps, a liuia 

 to the SGUtLW.ird of it. Iu reply to the laerednloas remarks wliictj 



