injKUST AINU * &1J1.UA1V1. 



•wr 



greeted hia statement, Uie gentleman said tie was positive Uie birds 

 were quail, hut thought they were a heavier winged and smaller bodied 

 bird than those generally seen Hereabouts. At all events, he Bweara 

 they tasted like partridges, for a right royal feast they had on (hem 

 when the sea got down, and the cook was able to keep his broiling Irons 

 on the galley fire. 1 regret that, if eat them tlie.y must, at least the skin 

 of one of them eouid not have been saved, to be put in as documentary 

 evidence of the truth of this remarkable "yarn." 



Yours J. 6. W. 



EDITOR Forest and Stream : Nortolk, Va., Nov. 10, 18TT. 



Sir— My attention was recently attracted to the appearance in Car- 

 teret Co., N .0., where 1 have recently been shooting, of a, to me, new 

 game bird. For the sake of Information, I append a short descrip- 

 tion: 



In size, it is about one-fourth smaller than our qua ; l ; In color and 

 marks it strikingly resembles that bird. The wings, however, are some- 

 what longer, and the tail shorter. The marks about the head are simi- 

 lar, but not so distinct. On the throat of the male, or what I assume to 

 be the male, there Is a curious cross-shaped mark of darker feathers. 



They are found in bunches of from six to twenty, and when flushel 

 near the coast, they "tower" like the snipe ; and when at an altitude 

 of five or six hundred feet, gtrike straight out to sea. I shot several, 

 although they puzzle the dogs sadly by running and skulking closer 

 than any bird I ever hunted. The flesh is equally good with that of the 

 quail. I showed them to several persons, nono of whom had ever seen 

 such birds before. The general impres-'ion is that they belong to the 

 quail family, but whence they come or whither they go (except to sea) 

 none of us know. Can any of your readers inform us ? 



yours, Virqiniak. 



Cufidonia Ctjptdo. — How the Prairik Chickens "Woo. — 

 The. following interesting bit of natural history was received 

 at this office during the absence of the managing editor, and 

 set aside, for what reason we know not. However, it lias not 

 spoiled by keeping. We have searched the standard hooks 

 through without success in the endeavor to discover minute 

 mention made of the manner in which the prairie fowl "toot." 

 The peculiar stages of courtship— the precise character and 

 method of the amours which have given the suggestive name 

 of Cupidmia cvpido to the pinnated grouse, see m not to have 

 been described by any author. This fact, therefore, renders 

 the subjoined sketch all the more interesting and valuable. 

 While we are quite ready to publish the secrets of the prairie 

 harem (now that they are divulged), to gratify the curious, 

 we feel bound in duty to say that no natural inquisitiveness 

 would induce any gentleman of honor to pry into those pri- 

 vate affairs of domestic life whicb should ever be considered 

 sacred from intrusion; and the only excuse the writer of the 

 following letter can have to offer in extenuation of his offense 

 is that he acted in the interest of science. Oh, Science ! 

 how many sins have been committed in thy name 1 

 Editor Forest and Stream : Monroe, Indiana, Sept. 9th. 



I have been living for more than twenty years where chickens were 

 as plenty as blackbirds are in most places, and have seen them so 

 plenty that they were a nuisance, and farmers generally were glad to 

 see some " city chap from town" come a'ong wtth a shot gun and thin 

 them out. Generally, on the warm days in the last of March the 

 chickens collect on the bare knolls where the sun shines warm and the 

 grass is short, to do their love-making, and go through allege prelimi- 

 naries before nest-building. At such times they are very noisy, and al- 

 most without fear. I have lain behind an old feed sack within twenty 

 yards of them, watching through a most excellent glass their motions 

 f,ir hours at a time. I could see their eyes and every motion as plain 

 as though the birds were only ten feet off, and this is what I saw: The 

 cock would stand perfectly still for a moment and stamp his feet very 

 rapidly, and go through a kind of pumping motion with his head and 

 neck, until the wattles on each side of his neck were inflated to about 

 the size of a small orange (and they resembled an orange in co lor) 

 After he had got himself "mad," as my b ..'ys used to say, he would 

 droop his wings so that they would rub on the ground almost enough 

 to bear his weight, and make a straight shoot for the best looking hen 

 In the - pack. Just as Mr. Cock would start he would draw his head 

 down on his wattles and stretch them so tight that they would shine as 

 though they were varnished, and make a noise that sounded as if 

 itcanie through his nose— just three notes, " Boo, hoo, hooo 1" His 

 dragging wings seemed to help him, as they were so stiff. Instantly, 

 on stopping, his wattleB would collapse, and he would look as though 

 he had done something he was ashamed of. 



You have often seen turkey cocks do the same thing in a small way, 

 only the i ui key don't stop so suddenly. Generally he has a particular 

 liking for some one of the hens, and she gets most of his " boo hoos." 

 I have seen one cock make half a dozen dives at one particular hen be- 

 fore she was captivated, and then not till after lots of running and 

 cackling. It looked and sounded just this way. The hen would see 

 him coming, and wou id cackle out, "Take care, take care !" and then 

 get out of his way. The cock wou d come up and Had her gone, and 

 would say, "You old fool, yeu 1" 



Now, it would be just as impossible for a prairie chicken to make 

 that booming or tooting without that pouch of wind on his neck as it 

 would be tor him to sing Oid Hundred with it. Yours, Monon, 

 ■ »—••■>—« 



Singing Mice.— When you want a pure tenor, a soaring 

 soprano, or a liquid contralto, anything like a "sniffle" is 

 destructive of these vocal qualities. Pauline Lucca with a 

 cold, Miss Kellogg with laryngitis, or Brignoli with a frog in 

 his throat, would none of them be acceptable to the imprets- 

 sarios. Now your mouse, as a sweet singer, is quite an excep- 

 tion to the rules which govern the larger musical bipeds. If 

 you could manage to procure a perfectly sound mouse, and 

 give it asthma, or disturb somehow its respiratory organs, 

 you would develop in that mouse all the qualities of a prima 

 donna. You might even get an engagement for that mouse 

 at the Academy of Music, with a salary of $1,000 a night, 

 besides a carriage, hotel expenses, and cheese ad libitum. The 

 music the sick mouse makes may be described as a faint qua- 

 vering whistle, with harmonious cadence, a kind of minute 

 piccolo sound. Now it behooves people of a musfcal but phil- 

 anthropic turn of mind, should they catch a Malibran mouse, 

 to try and cure it of consumption, and at once they will find 

 that their Biren is an abnormal Mm Musculus, for no sooner 

 well, than the "wee beastie" will be noiseless, save for a com- 

 mon-place squeak. The poetry of the thing is not exactly de- 



troyad, for it seems that it is not only swans who sing before 



they die, but also mice. It is quite a problem, however, 

 whether a dulcet mouse has ever worked sufficiently on the 

 susceptibilities of the cynical cat as to have escaped the gen- 

 eral fate of mice. 



A New Monkey.— The newest claimant to be classed among 

 the Quadrumana comes from Abyssinia. He is said to live 

 high up in the mountains, some 7,000 to 8,500 feet above the 

 level of the sea. This monkey inclines to be troglodytic, for 

 he goes to his little bed hi caves. Dr. Ruppell first noticed 

 this monkey as early as 1835, and having brought his skin to 

 Europe, called him the Macacus Oelada, Gelada being the 

 native name. The first live specimens have just reached 

 Europe, and six of them are now in the Alexandria Palace. 



"The large male," says the London Times, "has a consid- 

 erable mane, as Ruppell describes, and is hairy over the whole 

 of the body, though Ruppell gives the front legs free from 

 hair. On the chest is a somewhat heart-shaped pink patch, 

 free from hair, and a space round the throat of the same color. 

 When the animal becomes angry or excited these become a 

 bright-red color. The nostrils are high up from the upper 

 jaw, and the upper lip is so mobile that it is often turned up 

 80 as to show the whole of the tipper teeth and gums. The 

 tail is lone; and large, and ends in a tuft resembling roughly 

 a lion's tail. The color of the hair is brown, except around 

 the breast, where it is gray. The bare part of the chest shows 

 two male indications of teats, and the suture seems to open 

 into a pouch, which, however, it has not been possible to ex- 

 amine, as the animal is still somewhat savage after its journey. 

 The female has not such long hair as the male, and on the 

 bare spot in front are two well-developed teats. The young 

 takes one iu each hand and sucks from both at once. While 

 these animals have rejected all fruits, etc., they have eaten 

 Indian corn and grass, taking the grass, pulling it apart and 

 making it into little balls. As Ruppell says, they sleep in 

 caves : a large box was introduced into the cage and the whole 

 of thein soon went into it, the old male remaining near the 

 entiance on guard. The group is especially interesting to 

 naturalists from the fact that these are the first ever brought 

 to Europe. 



i — .♦»— « 



Birds at Sea.— The Washington Union, says: "Capt- 

 Fitzgerald, of the schooner Altoona,- which recently arrived 

 from Bangor, Me. , reports that while on his way to this port, 

 his ship was boarded by a flock of birds, which he numbers at 

 above a thousand. They were of different species, and com- 

 menced lighting on the vessel at 7 o'clock on the morning of 

 the 30th iilt.,and continued coming during the day,he being at 

 the time about 60 miles south of Long Island,N. Y., the nearest 

 land. At night they took refuge in the rigging aud in the in- 

 terstices between the bundles of laths. Although fed regular- 

 ly by the captain's wife, the majority of them lived but a few 

 days after their unexpected arrival on board ; a small num- 

 ber, however, surviving until the mouth of the Potomac River 

 was reached. "When unloading the laths at Wheatley's wharf 

 here a large number of them were found dead in between the 

 bundles. The supposition is that the birds were migrating, 

 when a squall caught them and carried then out to sea." 



Arrivals at Philadelphia Zoological Gardens for Week End 

 ing Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1S77.— One gray squirrel.Sfeiur-us carolimmis, 

 presented ; one water snake, Tropidonotus sipedon, presented ; two 

 opossums, Didelphus virginiana, presented; one bald eagle, Haliaetus bu- 

 cocephalus, presented. A. E. Brown, Qen'l Supt. 



Animals Received at Central Park Menagerie for Week Ending 

 Nov. 19.— Three Virginia deer, Oariseus virginianu.% presenteTby W. 

 A. Booth, Esq., N. Y. City ; three English pheasants, Phasianus col- 

 am, presented by John Sutherland, Esq., N. Y. City ; one Virginia 

 deer, Caruicus nirginhinus, presented by Louis F. Sass, M. D., N. Y. 

 City; one T 'que monkey, Maeaeus eynomolyus, presented by August 

 Belmont. Esq , N. Y. City ; one horned owl, Uubo virginianus, present- 

 ed by Mr. David White, N. Y. City. All of Mr. Barnum's animals have 

 been placed on exhibition during the whiter. 



W. A Conklin, Director. 



faadhnd, <gmnn rntd §wdm. 



THIS DEPARTMENT 18 EDITED BT W. J. DAVIDSON, SEO. N. X. 

 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



For Forest and Stream and Bod anfcGun. 

 WAX FLOWERS. 



WHAT numberless attempts have been and are being 

 made every day to learn the art of wax flower mak- 

 ing, and how often they have been given up in despair, or, 

 urged on by well meant praises from friends (who themselves 

 scarcely know a rosebud from a fuchsia) they produce an imi- 

 tation so entirely different from the original, that the modeler 

 is often greatly mortified to be obliged to explain what it is 

 intended to represent. This pleasing art, nevertheless, is com- 

 paratively easy, and very little instruction is needed to give 

 an appearance of reality to these lovely models. It is also a 

 useful and highly interesting pastime, affording many oppor- 

 tunities for the study of nature in her most beautiful handi- 

 work, and is extremely effective, when neatly modelled and 

 arranged in home decorations, giving a refined and tastelul 

 appearance to the rooms, and is also an excellent aid to those 

 studying sculpture or painting— indeed it is a combination of 

 both on a small scale, as in the moulding of fruit for instance. 

 But the modeler must be perfectly true to nature or the beauty 

 of the object desired is lost ; even though it be but the petal 

 of a flower it requires the perfect form and tinting to make it 

 truthful. Forming wax flowers needs time, patience and a 

 correct eye as to color, and last, though not least, materials. 

 It would be best for the beginner not to purchase any quantity 

 of these at first as they would likely be tempted to too many 

 experiments and so weary themselves at the outset. A few 

 of the more simple designs, some sheets of thin white wax, 

 and a few of the thicker quality j some of the green in two 

 shades, half a dozen bottles of the principal colors in powder, 

 and a small quantity of fine-powdered arrowroot, which gives 

 a crisp, frosty appearance to white flowers, such as Camellias, 

 Tuberoses, etc., with the necessary tools, consisting of scis- 

 sors, modeling-pins, one or two smooth brushes, a sable pen- 



cil, moulds for bell-shaped flowers, two or three sizes of wire, 

 the finest of which may be covered with silk and the others 

 with cotton, and a palette will be sufficient for some time. 

 Leaf moulds may be bought, but the impression can be as 

 readily taken from the natural leaf by pressing the wax firmly 

 upon it. With the exception of those which are finely ser- 

 rated, such as rose leaves, etc., and for these as well as the 

 others, if desired, moulds can be made by simply dipping 

 them into melted wax two or three times and cooling, pouring- 

 it several times over the face of the leaf, so that a thick coat- 

 ing is formed on that side only ; place it in cold water to 

 harden for some minutes, then, with a knife, cut around the 

 edge of the under part, removing both it and the leaf. Trim 

 off any rDugh edges remaining on the thick portion and the 

 mould will be ready. For the flowers, two as nearly alike as 

 possible should be selected — one to be picked to pieces for the 

 various sizes of petals, and the other for reference as to form 

 and color. In cutting out the shape of the petals, use stiff, 

 white paper, keeping true to the outline, except at the base, 

 where it may be cut longer. It will be well to mark the pat- 

 terns with the name of the flower used, and keep them sepa- 

 rate to avoid confusion. Only the purest wax should be used, 

 and in coloring be careful that the exact tint is obtained ; and 

 do not be content with one or two trials, but be satisfied only 

 when the copy is perfect. For the rest, practice in making 

 and good taste in grouping and arranging, will make as pretty 

 and durable an ornament as any one need wish for who 

 chooses to study with patience this beautiful art. 



Mrs. W. J. Davidson. 

 1- .&. « 



FLORICULTURE AS A SCIENCE. 



FLORICULTURE has one advantage which many other 

 sciences have not. The most ignorant may follow it, 

 and that, too, on equal terms with the most learned ; all can 

 understand the beauty of flowers, nature's best and brightest 

 gift to man. They derive not their value or importance from 

 the distance they come ; the place of their nativity has nothing 

 to do with the estimation in which they are held. The new 

 variety raised by the merest tyro is worth as much and will 

 bring as good a price as any equally good flower raised by the 

 veteran hybridiser ; and the man who does not know A from 

 V may be just as good a judge as a professor of botany. 

 There is as much perseverance too among the lowly cultiva 

 tors of fancy flowers as among those whose means are un- 

 limited — yes, and frequently much more. Where the laborer 

 or mechanic once takes to his garden that is the place to find 

 him in all seasons of relaxation ; his leisure horns if he were 

 not there could not be spent better, and might not be spent so 

 well. 



The exhibition of flowers for premiums is one of the means 

 by which the perseverance of the grower is encouraged, and 

 success on such occasions is one of the means by which his 

 labor is sweetened and his love of plants increased. There is 

 nothing like emulation ; to create this is the grand secret of 

 making labor sweet. The man who, m his ordinary occupa- 

 tion, would feel miserable with a wet foot, has been known to 

 stand half way up in water to catch a trout, or walk for boms 

 in wet grass to shoot a few quail or woodcock. In the one 

 case, inconvenience is uppermost because there is no exercise 

 of the mind, and a man has nothing to do but feel ; in the 

 other, the body is completely subservient to the grand object 

 in view — heat, cold, wet and fatigue are alike unimportant 

 while an objeflt which engrosses the attention directs the 

 steps. 



How many will be found who will labor like slaves for their 

 own pleasure, but who would think a quarter of the exertion 

 a trouble in the absence of a motive, or if enforced by others 

 Boating, hunting, base ball, shooting, angling, etc., would be 

 only so many modes of annoying men if they were enforced 

 by a superior power instead of led by their own fancy to 

 voluntary toil ; and as man looks for relaxation in some sport 

 or fancy or occupation unlike his usual labor or pursuit, hap- 

 py must it be for the family of that man who finds all he re- 

 quires in the garden. Well may clergymen take an interest 

 iu floriculture, for they can forward their own missions by 

 encouraging it among their neighbors. He who cultivates 

 flowers has the wonders of creation perpetually before his 

 eyes or under his notice ; his avocation is sweetened by the 

 variety and beauty of the production he delights in. 



Benevolence itself approves the fancy which tortures no 

 iving thing, which improves the health, calms the passions, 

 sweetens labor, and forms an inexhaustible store of pleasure 

 without injuring a human being or harming an animal. It is 

 this which places floriculture above all other sources of pleas- 

 ure ; it is this which makes it a favorite science with clergy- 

 men and philanthropists ; it is this which, when the wealthy 

 of our land once sees its importance, will make them volun- 

 tarily support societies for its encouragement from Massachu- 

 setts to Nebraska, from Maine to* Florida. 



ENGLISH NAMES OF WILD FLOWERS 

 AND PLANTS. 



(CONTINUED.) 

 TRENCH NAMES. 



I CAN find comparatively few names of plants or fruits 

 which we have borrowed from the French. Dandelion 

 is, of course, the lion's tooth. Mignonette is applied by us to 

 a very different plant from that which bears the name in 

 France. Woodruffe, known to travelers in Germany as fla- 

 voring the pleasant drink called maitrank, takes its last sylla- 

 ble from roue, a wheel, its verticillate leaves being set like a 

 wheel or rowell on the stone. Pansy is pensee, thought, from 

 its significance in the language of flowers: "There's Pansy," 

 says Ophelia, "that's for thoughts." Gilliflower is giroflte, 

 from caryopldllum, a Clove, a name originally given to the 



