Feb. 16, 1882.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



47 



the. heart ; and a day after that organ contracted when 

 touched by the operator. 



The writer has the winter nest ol a family of ants. A 

 pieee of fence rail was found beneath an old pile of boards 

 and brought into a warm room for the sake, of a rich fungus 

 growing upon it, and several hour's after the table and chairs 

 were found to be covered with ants. Where they came from 

 was a mystery, until the old rail was aecidently jarred and 

 a number fell from it. A section was cut down through it, 

 and the winter home of the tribe destroyed. Probably the 

 work of weeks, perhaps months. The interior of the wood 

 was completely riddled by tunnels and passages, some! being 

 large and holding several hundred ants, while others con- 

 tajnd only a few. In some of the interior passages the ants 

 had not ' been affected by the heat and were packed in 

 grrat masses and evidently fast asleep; they soon recovered, 

 however, and walked off slowly in different directions, as if 

 wondering if an earthquake or spring had come. 



A greatriiumber of insects go through a period of hiberna- 

 tion, especially spiders. The young of the latter are often 

 covered by the parent; first by coarse strings of silk, as if to 

 hold them in place, and then "by a white, silvery Aveb worked 

 over them, which forms probably a sure protection from 

 wind and weather. 



The writer has a cherry-stone in which is coiled up an 

 insect, best known as the'sowbng. A squirrel had probably 

 eaten out the meat and opened "the way, and in this snug 

 retreat we found the little hibernater snugly rolled up, as is 

 also its habit when alarmed. The mouth of the hole was 

 stopped by black soil, but whether from accident or by the 

 animal itself we could not tell. 



Some fishes and reptiles are hibernaters. Frogs and toads 

 sleep out the winter at the bottom of ponds or in holes in the 

 ground. Tree toads, if kept in a cage in the winter and pro- 

 vided with soil, will endeavor to cover themselves with it, 

 showing how strong the instinct or habit is. Some fishes are 

 so insensible to heat or cold that when in this condition they 

 can be frozen and carried for a number of days and then be 

 brought back to an active condition. The pond snail passes 

 into a winter sleep as soon as the temperature of the water is 

 below 14 degreos Cent., that is, they will not digest food or 

 grow until the temperature, of the water is at least up to 15 

 degrees Gent. Those who have watched the llarlem River 

 from McComb's Dam Bridge cannot have failed to notice the 

 curious appearance of the" muddy shores of the river and 

 creeks at low tide. If the sun shines brightly, the dismal 

 beach seems to quiver and scintillate in a. most beautiful 

 manner, reflecting the light like so many diamonds. If we 

 draw nearer, this shore is seen to be entirely covered in 

 places with little snails, that, left by the tide, are forging 

 through the mud to regain the water, and the. sunlight strik- 

 ing bu them is reflected by the glass-like secretion with 

 winch they are covered, producing the curious effect noticed. 

 This could be seen in the warm months, but now, not a snail 

 of the countless millions can be seen. The}" have gone down 

 in search of "hard pan," there to hibernate until nest April. 

 The land snail (Helix pomaivx) sleeps four months during the 

 vuar, and does not throw off the calcareous lid that protects 

 it during this time uutil the day temperature has reached 12 

 degrees Cent. Prairie dogs feel the effect of temperature as 

 low as this. 



In Cuba reptiles hibernate between 7 degrees and 2-4 de- 

 grees Cent, , according to the species. In warmer countries, 

 snakes, lizards, frogs, etc. , fall into a state called chill coma 

 that precisely resembles winter sleep, hut their temperature 

 is far above*! hat at v; hich hibernating animals of the North 

 are still active. The state of hibernation is not the direct 

 re«ilt of an extreme of heat or cold, but rather is caused hy 

 a departure from the optimum. In the snail its normal tem- 

 perature is about the same as the water, and being a poor 

 heat producer it is not surprising that when the water grows 

 colder the animal is forced to succumb; but it is a remark- 

 able fact that warm-blooded animals like many of the above 

 mentioned, whose bodies are maintained by internal pro- 

 cesses at a high temperature of 2:1 degrees to 38 degrees, are 

 incapable of resisting the lowering influence of cold. The 

 fall in temperature in some is wonderful; as an example, the 

 high body temperature of -warm-blooded animals may be 

 said to oscillate between 36 degrees and 43 degrees Cent, (this 

 includes man). Experiments made with the zizel show that 

 during hibernation this animal's temperature is only 2 degrees 

 Cent., the lowest known; and a thermometer introduced into 

 the animal indicated the same, showing! hat warm-blooded ani- 

 mals in hibernating become truly cold-blooded animals. If 

 a rabbit's tempera! tire reaches 15 degrees Cent., it will die. 

 The germs of bryozoa or of the freshwater sponges resist 

 any amount of cold, hut the full grown forms die at the first 

 cold turn. Insects are destroyed, but their eggs live, though 

 of the greatest possible delicacy. Snlmou eggs have been 

 carried from this State to Australia, and there hatched. In 

 fact, some animals live in the ice, as the glacier flea and sev- 

 eral others. 



As it is not the direct result of extremes of heat or cold 

 that produces sleep, neither is the awakening from hiberna- 

 tion directly caused by a rise of temperature. In experiments 

 made upon weasels, which are sometimes caught, asleep, one 

 came to life in about, three hours, during which the tempera- 

 ture of the room remained the same as it bad been during the 

 entire hibernation, viz., 10° Cent. In another weasel, dur- 

 ing the awakening, the body temperature rose very rapidly — 

 and more so iu the second par), of the period than in the first. 

 In the firs! horn- and 55 minutes of the above awakening the 

 body temperature rose 6, 6°, Cent,, and in the following 50 

 minutes it rose 17" Cent. This remarkable increase took 

 place without any vigorous movements on the part of the 

 weasel. Even its breathing showed no iucreasein proportion 

 to the rise. These cases shew that, though, at certain seasons, 

 animals relax as it were and lie dormant, and recover, seem- 

 ingly at the will of the weather, yet, in point of fad, the rise 

 ana fall of temperature has no direct effect upon them. The 

 cause is an internal one, awaiting discovery. C. F. Holdei;. 



Loxo Island Notus.— A tame crow at the ship-yard of 

 Thomas Clapham, the yacht builder at Roslyn, talks. It sa- 

 lutes a stranger with * "hello!" and says ''old crow,'' and 

 01 her words. "Bluebirds have been seep at Roslyn all through 

 this mouth; and a kingfisher has wintered near Mr. Clap- 

 ham's ponds. A robin was observed last week. Sparrows 

 are plenty about the villages, and even in the country the 

 farmers are complaining of their depredations on llieir grain 

 iu summer. Bushels of soft clams six inches in length and 

 weighing nearly a pound apiece were dug in Roslyu 'harbor 

 during the recent low tides. 



Chicago, III., Feb. 11. — Telegrams from the Kankakee, 

 Illinois and Calumet rivers say: "Ducks curning in by thous- 

 ands;" all the boys are off for the marshes.— Ten-Boke. 



$mt(e §itg m\d §ut\. 



THE PURPOSE OF FIELD SPORTS. 



[From Dougall's "Shooting: Its Appliances. Practice, and Purpose.''] 



(Continued from Page e: 

 A\7"L may therefore lay it down as absolute, lhat true field 

 T T spoils maybe invariably distinguished from the falsely 

 SO called by the latter being carried out vicariously. In 

 these the "sportsmen," Heaven save the mark! are mere 

 spectators, generally gratifying, more or less, brutal propen- 

 sities, and in all probability staking sums of money on cer- 

 tain contingencies. The active agents are the men or dogs, 

 that within a confined space are lighting fiercely with each 

 other, as in dog-fighting or pugilism, or are killing or 

 torturing the rat. the eat, the bull, or the bear. It is this 

 vicariousness that causes, notwithstanding all their pic- 

 turesquencss, Spanish bullfights to lie so deplored. In the 

 much dwelt upon cat-worrying, there is no parallel, even 

 should it not occur in such confined space, for a cat does not 

 run any distance before a dog. but either stands at bay or 

 takes refuge in the nearest coigu of vantage, while a fox, to 

 which the cat is likened, puts his trust iu cunning and speed 

 of foot, in the greater number of instances baffling his pur- 

 suers. It is astonishing to me, who have long studied this 

 question carefully, conscientiously and impartially, and who 

 will yield to none in detestation of all forms of cruelly, to 

 find 'how systematically the above distinction has been 

 ignored by those who take the opposite side. They have but 

 to consider any branch of field sports, whether involving or 

 not the pursuit or death of any of the lower animals, to see 

 this distinction staring them in the face. Whether in the 

 properly so-called field sports, or in the quasi, as foot-ball, 

 cricket." the Scottish game of "shinty," rowing, skating, and 

 so on, Action, Action, Action, as Demosthenes said of ora- 

 tory, is the life and essence. Are we to believe that this sys- 

 tematic ignoring of distinctive principles is purely uninten- 

 tional, and that there is no desire to take every advantage, 

 probably enough from the warmth of supposed humanity, 

 by classing the false and the true under one head of " Popu- 

 lar amusements?" We may honor the intention, but not the 

 conduct of the argument. * I repudiate entirely the applica- 

 tion of one term to things so widely differing,, and am 

 astounded at the daring which came to apply it. The first 

 step in such a discussion, from either side, should be to hon- 

 estly describe and discriminate, between the things discussed. 

 This beiug done, let these be fairly treated on their several 

 merits. I f field sports, properly so-called, are wrong, let it 

 lie shown how and why. but do not condemn them on false 

 grounds. Do not condemn fox-hunting, bull-baiting and 

 gladiatorial fights as being " all equally acts of cruelty," dif- 

 fering only in degree (although 1 must acknowledge this is 

 too finely casuistical for my discriminative faculties, I can 

 admit no stretch of conscience in discussing pure abstract 

 morality), without, honestly and impartially inquiring whether 

 or not there may be some good and genuine reasons why fox- 

 hunting should not be brought for one moment into parallel- 

 ism with bull-baiting or the fights of gladiators. The proof 

 of the identity of all three must precede the general con- 

 demnation, and I assert that the identification is impossible. 

 It is with a view to this unjustly desired identification that 

 the term "amusement" is unwarrantably used, and must be 

 repudiated by every impartial controversialist. 



And since the word "cruelty" occurs here, let me state 

 that there is nothing more easy than to raise the cry of cruelty 

 without consideration. I only write in a general sense, but 

 desire that the reader should view the subject with clear 

 comprehension. I offer an illustration, not an argument. 

 Cruelty is often asserted to be inflicted through sheer senti- 

 mentalism. Pure benevolence is an impossibility in morals. 

 Even of the Divinity, in matters as high above this question 

 as light is superior to darkness, it has been said. "A God all 

 mercy is a God unjust." But, without soaring into regions be- 

 yond the scope of this discussion, it rnaybe briefly stated that 

 the mere maintenance of just rights is often stigmatized as 

 cruelty. The cases of landlord and tenant, of creditor and 

 debtor, may be instanced, as beiug most familiar. We often 

 hear of the cruel landlord, rarely of the cruel tenant, on 

 whose due payment of rent may depend the food of the land- 

 lord's children. The debtor is." with sentimentalists, always 

 the virtuous victim; the creditor the cruel oppressor; yet 

 there can be nothing more clear than that, unless the in- 

 curring of debt involve the supposed ability, and the un- 

 doubted willingness to pay, there must be. a going back to a 

 ruder state of general society, and an end to all extended 

 commerce and consequent civilizing of the world, through 

 the destruction of credit, -which is the life and soul of com- 

 merce. Credit would cease to he given as soon as the just 

 right to enforce payment should cease, yet this enforcement 

 sentimentalists call cruelty. 



In like manner every case of the destruction of the life of 

 lower animals, save and except for food or clothing, is 

 branded as cruelty, without regard to contingencies, ltmat- 

 tcrs not to most sentimentalists whether or not the food and 

 clothing may be demanded in unnecessary quantities or 

 qualities, with the couequent unnecessarily increased destruc- 

 tion of animal life ; for these purposes all is right and proper. 

 But let the life of an inferior animal be taken under circum- 

 stances highly conducive to the welfare of man, although not 

 in the tangible and materia] forms of food and clothing, and 

 an outcry is at once raised on the score of inhumanity^ It 

 may startle those who raise such an outcry to be asked if it 

 can be proved that the Creator purposes that any one indi- 

 vidual of the lower animals is intended for a natural death 

 through old age.* All facts point to the contrary, and there 

 is nothing more painful, in the whole range of annual nature, 

 than the happily rare and exceptional death-scenes of 

 worn-out brutes. Moribund lions and bisons have ere 

 now melted the hearts of travellers and sportsmen, and 

 the descriptions of such scenes are painfully affecting to 



* In the whole range of observations on natural history there is 

 nothing more remarkable than that made bv a recent .traveler of un- 

 doubted truthfulness, The author has mislaid the verbatim extract 

 made for his present purpose, so that lie cannot, do the traveler the 

 justice of naming him and the title of his book, but the facts are here 

 correctly given. In the northern countries of Europe, when the 

 storks, after the breeding season, prepare to migrate southwards as 

 winter approaches, they make flights to test the capabilities - the 

 young birds to accomplish the eomiug jonraey. When . i.v 

 found not. to possess the requisite strength, it is detiberateh put to 

 death by the oiuers'. As storks prinCipaUj 'feed on frogs, which are 

 not to be found in winter through retreating to inaccessible places, 

 these weak birds, if left behind, would Inevitably the of hunger. 

 What an admirable instinct is ibis which commands the older birds to 

 save the weaklings from future suffering , by a.n instantane iusdeatl; 

 Theproof of Divinei rang Isilearlyinadeni ■;:■■■ 



reflective mind can consider the above, fact without admiration of 

 that All-governing Power which thus endows even stocks with pres- 

 cience, and makes them " cruel only to be kind." 



readers of even average sensibility, The fact seems to be, 

 that as the Scriptures put it, man has "domain over the 

 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 

 living thing that movcth upon the earth." The wondrous 

 wisdom of this arrangement is at once, apparent when we 

 consider that, without ft, it would be impossible to define the 

 limits of man's absolute right to utilize in any form the brute 

 creation. If endless discussion arise even now, what would 

 be the state of matters had this arrangi imenl hoi been made? 

 As it is, cruelty can only be charged when there is wrrnton 

 torture, and this cannot 'lie fairly charged against the prac- 

 tice of any legitimate field sport. Besides it would, as I say, 

 be so Impossible to define man's prerogative, that the use of 

 domestic animals for any recreation whatever would be an 

 endless question of morality. In such a position the re- 



sea relies Of naturalists, the 

 innocent amusement of coi 

 Is the pain inflicted by t! 

 terminating in escape or in 

 to be compared to the. prol 

 less carnivora confined 

 menageries? Is the horse 



recreation of the multitude, the 

 itless invalids, must be foregone. 

 rapid pursuit of a hare or a fox, 

 antaueous death, for one moment 

 lged feverish torture of the rest- 

 in zoological collections and 

 ilways willing to be saddled? Is 

 there any mode of learning the present state of his internal 

 economy when he is being harnessed, or* of his fitness for ex- 

 ertion there and then? Must I send my parrot back to Africa, 

 and return my bullfinch to his native groves? Until these 

 questions are satisfactorily answered we are entitled to as- 

 sume that, while abstract benevolence must necessarily con- 

 demn all use of the lower animals to which, had they the 

 power, they would refuse consent, the present condition of 

 things ami the arrangements of Providence' entitle us to treat 

 the whole question as one to be governed by reason and 

 utility rather than by a useless and sentimental humanitari- 

 anism. It was diseased activity of conscientiousness — mor- 

 bidly weighing things, not as they are, but as they might be, 

 in a state of pure benevolence — that drove Shelly to vege- 

 tarianism and atheism. In this question the hard Bentham- 

 ite doctrine of the greatest amount of good beiug the rule for 

 guidance may be fairly urged. I dislike the word " expedi- 

 ency," but bearing in mind that 1 am now offering illustra- 

 tions on the general question of cruelty, not specific argu- 

 ments in favor of field sports, I think that Paley's doctrine of 

 expediency is also singularly applicable. In the debtor and 

 creditor argument, the question is not to what purpose the 

 latter intends to devote the money recovered. It may be for 

 the purposes of food and clothing — it may be for the ex- 

 penses of a pleasurable journey; it may be for a questionable 

 gratification. ISo Sentimentalist assails the right of recovery 

 solely under ihe plea of possible misapplication of the sum 

 recovered. Yet sportsmen are assailed on the score of cruelty 

 if the object of their pursuit do no! furnish food or clothing, 

 although that pursuit most undeniably affords higienic bene- 

 fits as valuable as either to the physical frame, and still more 

 valuable to the intellectual well-being. 



The abuse of terms, the confounding of things lawful and 

 things unlawful, are not merely negatively wrong; they are 

 positively mischievous, and may do more' harm" to morals 

 in one year than field sports, even when they are carried to 

 a blameworthy excess, can in ten. There is nothing more 

 certain than "that everything done or promulgated by the 

 upper or authoritative classes is keenly scrutinized by 

 the inferior either in years or position — keenly for 

 good, still more keenly for evil. The latter is un- 

 fortunately the more easily followed or imitated. That 

 moralist must indeed have had little association with those 

 whom it is the fashion to call the "working classes" who is 

 not cognizant of the wondrous acuteness of their reasoning 

 faculties on all things personal or comparative. The young 

 of all classes possess this acuteness in a somewhat less degree, 

 but with still greater imittitiveness. Neither of these may 

 reason correctly on the essence of a question, but' on its 

 accidents they arc intuitively sharp. Thus, they will quickly 

 catch at the alleged identity", or parallelism, of fot-hunting 

 and cat-worrying, without* going further into the inquiry. 

 What grave responsibility, then, do?s not a public writer in- 

 ctu' who lends the weight of his great general reputation to 

 assert this parallelism? Does he reflect upon the plain result 

 of bis argumentation, that, if he condemns fox-hunting (the 

 lawfulness of which may be honestly defended) by the light 

 of cat-worrying, he raises to the same degree of lawfulness, 

 as being a question at least to be argued, cat-worrying, which 

 in reality cannot be argued at all, but is a thing to be loathed 

 and execrated? There is something catching, to the young 

 especially, in the word "sportsman;" but how is a youth to 

 distinguish between what is genuine and what is spurious, if 

 older and wiser men class these together? 



Not only are those immediately concerned unduly tmd 

 mischievously influenced by the abuse of terms, but this also 

 operates indirectly upon society generally. Parents, guar- 

 dians, friends, neighbors, so influenced, look askance upon 

 the genuine youthful sportsman as one following evil courses. 

 It is clear to his own conscience that the chase has never 

 prompted an unclean thought or pampered an evil predilec- 

 tion, never given any offence to his neighbor; with all this, 

 the inevitable consequences arising from being suspected of 

 evil must follow. The social bond cannot be broken from 

 either side without mischief. If a man is scowled at, he will 

 be more than man if he scowl not in return. If the good 

 avoid him, he will avoid the good. Let the good, then, well 

 assure themselves that they are in the right, lest they do a 

 grievous wrong, and place tbCmselve nil', : -'ion of those 

 originators of sin who are more to be reprobated than sinners. 

 Journalists are. peculiarly liable to be influenced by this con- 

 fusion of terms— I mean "those journalists, WemteWi'S, who 

 are called upon by the exigencies of their profession to write 

 upon all maimer of subjects, and treat these subjects in ac- 

 cordance with the views of their organ, honestly enough pro- 

 fessionally, but without much concern as to the actual merits 

 of a question when viewed dispassionately, and freed from 

 the inevitable bias of the journal written for. There was a 

 class of journals where in juxta-columns were to be rend 1he 

 records of pugilism and idylls upon angling pure as from the 

 pen of Izaak "Walton. There is another class of journals, to 

 whom all field sports are Anathema. Maranatha"! I have 

 seen, within a recent period, an able and laudable article 



I upon pugilism, published in a first-class American maga- 

 zine, in which, wilh the best intentions, the writer states 

 that his purpose is to give the history of "the rise, de- 

 cline, and fall of this branch of Field Sports in the 

 United Slates!" Still more recently, I have read a leading 

 article in a London weekly paper of large circulation, 



| denouncing in unmeasured Krms ihe loss of hundreds of 



i thousands "of acres of valuable 'wheat land'' i fact) now 

 devoted to the brutal sport of— grouse shootingl! Does any 

 rational man believe that the writer nf that article drew his 

 inspiration from personal belief through t ustiug to the general 



| denunciation of field sports by certain leaders of public 



