54 
FOREST AND STREAM 
grew, and flourished, and since that time he has received 
several orders. The most thrifty hut smallest plants are 
selected, and put up in packages of one hundred, weighing 
four pounds, the postage on each bundle being one dollar. 
They are placed root to root, imbedded in a little earth, 
moistened with water, then covered with moss, and finally 
wrapped in oil cloth. A small hole is made in the end of 
each package to admit air, thus preventing moulding. 
In a letter from Greenville Portage, La Prairie, Manitoba, 
Mr. Alfred J. Green, formerly of Kings county, writes to 
Mr. Stockton in substance as follows“We have not any 
evergreens within a hundred miles of this place. The for¬ 
est trees here are oak, elm, ash, and Balm of Gilead, or, as 
we call it, bass wood, cherry, plum, hazel, and thorn; flow¬ 
ers flourish in endless variety, but we miss the garden rose, 
the currant, and other New Brunswick favorites.” Mr. 
Green also says that the last lot of evergreens received are 
growing rapidly, thus proving their adaptability to the soil 
and climate of the section of Manitoba where he resides. 
This experiment and its successful results we consider of 
the utmost importance. The transplanting of trees from 
one section of the country to another may serve more than 
to simply beautify the landscape. When this subject of 
American forest culture is more fully understood we may 
be able to discover that certain trees thrive better when 
away from the places of their origin, and somehow we may 
master the problem of quickly replacing whole families of 
trees which have died out in sections of country once well 
wooded. 
hhttal 
VARIETY IN PLUMAGE OF BIR'DS PRO¬ 
DUCED BY DOMESTICATION. 
Philadelphia, February 20. 
Editoh Forest and Stream:— 
I would like through the medium of your columns 
to open for discussion a subject on which I have at 
times indulged in much quiet speculation. Let me ask 
if there is even a theory for the variety of colors we find in 
horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, (the rabbit proper, the burrow¬ 
ing animal,) chickens, and pigeons, and why do the colors 
of our turkeys, which in the wild bird from which they 
came are almost invariable, now present such variety ? 
Some maintain that our tame turkey does not come from 
the wild species found in the United States, that it is a de¬ 
scendant of a species found at one time, and perhaps even 
now, in Mexico. However this may be, why have we such 
a diversity of tints in the domesticated bird. We are some¬ 
times told that it is by promiscuous and inter-breeding 
that we get the mottled and parti-colored, and by following 
closely a certain strain and excluding communication with 
those just named, that we get the white, the slate colored, 
the buff, and the bronze. And that we. so also establish 
permanently certain colors or combinations of colors in 
chickens. 
After the crafty Jacob had made a compact with his 
father-in-law, Laban, as we read in the Book of Books, that 
all the he goats and those to be born that should be “ring- 
straked and spotted, and all the she goats that should be 
speckled and spotted” should be his property, the cunning 
man “took him rods of green poplar and of the hazel and 
chestnut tree, and piled white strakes in them,” “and set 
the rods which he had piled in the gutters in the troughs, 
when the flocks came to drink,” “and the flocks brought 
forth cattle ring-straked, speckled and spotted.” 
I have asked profound zoologists if they had ever given 
the matter thought as to the variety of color produced 
in animals by domestication. None had a theory or even 
hypothesis. And this trick of Jacob’s as just related is the 
only theory that suggests itself to my mind. That the vari¬ 
ety of colors, of light and shade, of active life in and 
around the farmer’s homestead, so much at variance with 
the dark silence of the forests and open lands, attracting 
their attention and fixing it in their minds (if animals may 
be said to have minds—and I believe they have) at times 
of gestation, has had the effect we see in their offspring. 
Another thought which has occurred to me, is that where 
the male of the oriental pheasant, 'the peacock, and hun¬ 
dreds of other birds are all of gay plumage, the females 
are clad in sombre hues, while in the genus Homo the re¬ 
verse is the case, for the men wear the sedate hues and 
women and fools the gaudy colors. 
Although this may appear an uninteresting matter to 
some of your readers, I have no doubt the same thoughts 
here noted down have occurred to many others, and if any 
of them .can throw any light on the subject it would be 
time and ink well appropriated. Perhaps some of your 
readers who are chicken fanciers may have something to 
say. 
As to the difference of colors between male and female 
in two species of s&lmo at spawning time, I refei to oui 
ordinary brook trout and the salmon, there are no tints so 
entirely at variance. Every trout culturist has admired 
the vermilion, white-edged fins of the male, and deep 
orange below the lateral line contrasting so entirely with 
the sober, silver gray in which the body of the female is 
robed. The difference in the colors of the two. sexes is 
even more distinct in the trout of the Maine waters. J he 
entire broad sides of the males,. (I am afraid you can even 
now find a few of them on the stands of some of your res¬ 
taurants.,) are all of a crimson. But the difference between 
the male and female salmon at breeding, season I had no 
conception of until I saw the colored plaster casts of the 
two at the Smithsonian Institution. The fish were sent 
from Bucksport, Maine, by 'Mr. Atkins, just after the 
spawning. The male as brilliant, (though rather in 
splotches than over the whole body,) as the Maine cockfish, 
while the female was a poor, depleted looking mother of 
perhaps ten or fifteen thousand embryos—shrunken likely 
to one half or even a third of the weight she was on her 
arrival in June from her marine feeding ground. I sug¬ 
gested to Professor Baird, who was with me, that the cast 
of the cockfish was too highly colored. He assured me on 
the contrary that it was rather under colored. 
Won’t some of your readers try to throw some light on 
the variety of colors produced in the domestication of ani¬ 
mals? Tiiaddeus Nobbis. 
THE HERONS AND THEIR LANTERNS. 
Is it really a scientific fact that all the speciies of 
heron have the faculty of emitting a light from their 
breasts, as a glow-worm does from his body, and that this 
light is employed in some measure to enable these birds to 
pursue their nocturnal fishing with success? This is a 
wonderful gift of nature, and shows the adaptiveness and 
fitness of all things in the creation, for fish are attracted by 
light, and without his lantern the night heron might he 
often compelled to go supperless. If any of our scientific 
friends will describe this lantern and tell us how this lumin¬ 
osity is evolved, such information will prove most interest¬ 
ing and instructive to our readers. 
Washington, D. C., February 26,1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Some years ago in working for snipe and curlew along a marsh near 
Swatow, in China, I shot a heron. I believe it was a blue one. On his 
breast there was a peculiar tuft of filaments, more like coarse hairs than 
feathers—more like the tuft on a gobbler than anything else-of a pale 
yellow; this was under the feathers. An old sailor told me X must cut 
this out as* it would spoil the flesh as an edible—that at night this tuft 
gave out a light, and by this light the bird attracted and saw its prey— 
small fish. I have mentioned this since to several persons, whose knowl¬ 
edge of Natural History I had great confidence in and have been assured 
I was mistaken;' that no bird of the heron family possessed such powers, 
and I gave the matter up. But to-day, in looking over your index, I re¬ 
ferred back to the items, and find that in No. 5, page 75, your corres¬ 
pondent S. W. Hammond distinctly describes this peculiarity, and on 
page 105 an article on the habits of the heron, speaks also of it. 
As I know that there is doubt upon this subject, will you kindly open 
your columns to communications from any who may be able to settle it. 
Piseco. 
-— 4 *^-- 
DO QUAIL WITHHOLD THEIR SCENT? 
Carson City, Nevada, February 27,1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
“G.II. M.” of Baltimore, is of the opinion they do, and I see by issue 
February 5, page 406, that you hold the same opinion. I never had the 
pleasure of hunting quail in ihe Atlantic States, hut have had over 
twenty years’experience on the Pacific Coast, from the mouth of the 
Columbia River to Cape St. Lucas, and have paid particular attention to 
this subject. I have come to the conclusion that the quail of this coun¬ 
try do not withhold their scent either Voluntarily or involuntarily. I 
have had dogs with first-class nose walk over them, it is true, time and 
again, hut it was invariably in the heat of the day when everything is 
dry. I never have any trouble when there is any dew, or if it is a damp 
day, nor after a bevy is flushed, if they alight on damp ground, let them 
be ever so frightened or nervous. I believe the scent is always the same 
as far as the quail is concerned, and that it all depends upon the conduc¬ 
tor. If one could have quail on snipe ground he would find no fault with 
the do is not pointing quickly enough. 
If Mr. Cr. H. M. will take two dead quail—let one be perfectly dry, the 
other a little damp—and hide them in the grass and send his retriever 
for them the dog will walk over the dry one and fetch the wet one every 
time. Yours truly, H* Cr- P- 
[We are not of the opinion that ‘‘quail have the power to withhold 
their scent.” On the contrary, we have stated the scent is so slight, at 
certain times and seasons, owing to the atmosphere and dry herbage, 
that the odor is not perceptible to the keenest nose dog, but that the 
birds have the power to retain or emit scent as a natural instinct, we 
have no positive means of determining.] 
-- 
HYBRID DUCKS. 
Smithsonian Institution. i 
Washington, D. C., February 27, 1874. j 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Since I last wrote to you of a Mallard-museovy hybrid, the Smithson¬ 
ian has received another example of cross fertilization in the case of a 
mallard with a pintail (l)ofila acuta). The specimen was received from 
Dr. Yelie of Chicago, where it was obtained and very beautifully mount¬ 
ed. The parentage of the individual is unquestionable, so nicely are the 
characters of the mallard and pintail balanced. The head and upper 
neck are intermediate in color between the glossy grass green of the mal¬ 
lard and the peculiar purplish-violet-gray of the pintail, with indication 
of the black, white-bordered stripe that in the pintail runs up the back 
of the neck. There is a white collar incomplete behind (mallard and 
pintail). The breast is strongly washed with chestnut (mallard). The 
speculum on the wing is grass green, bordered in front with rich cinna¬ 
mon (pintail). The general coloration of the hack and sides is interme¬ 
diate between the very fine waving of the mallard and the coarser verrni- 
cnlation of the pintail, with an attempt at llic scapular stripes of the lat¬ 
ter. The sides of the flanks are snow white; the under tail coverts jet- 
black. The lateral tail feathers are gray,.white bordered (chiefly mal¬ 
lard). The hybrid is finished off most completely in the two middle tail 
feathers. These, in the mallard, are, as is well known, short and curled 
into a complete circle; in the pintail they are very long, slender and ar- 
r0W y_here they are both long and curled, reaching an inch beyond the 
rest, and gently curved upward in the arc of the quadrant of a circle. 
This bird corresponds exactly with one described by Prof. Alfred 
Newton of Cambridge, the eminent English ornithologist, in the proceed¬ 
ings of the London Zoological Society for June 26, 1860. It is almost a 
fac simile of the upper right-hand figure of plate clxviii, op cit. It is the 
first instance of the particular hybrid noted in this country, I believe— 
certainly.the first that has come under my own observation. Prof. New¬ 
ton’s specimens were of special interest, being hybrid’s of the second gen¬ 
eration, that is to say, offspring of the interbreeding of a pair of birds 
which were themselves hybrids between a pintail drake and a farm-yard 
duck. A case like this refutes the prevalent impression that hybrids 
between distinct species are infertile. Such may indeed be the rule, 
but the exceptions are very numerous. Prof. Newton found that his hy¬ 
brids of the second generation, however, were probably sterile, and adds 
that though the hybrid offspring of the two animals clearly distinct may 
of themselves be perfectly fertile, it is not proved that this fertilty ex¬ 
tends to a second generation. 
The prevalence of hybridity in some groups of birds is not generally 
known—at least not fully recognized. On this subject Prof. Newton’s re¬ 
marks, in the article just quoted, may he quoted: ‘"The tendency,under 
certain circumstances, to polygamy which obtains among many of the 
ducks, combined with their natural salacity, is such as to render that 
family perhaps the one of all others in which experiments on hybridh 
can be the most easily tried. The frequent occurrence of hybrids am > 
the Anatidae has already attracted the notice of ornithologists,and a ni ^ 
them one of the most distinguished European naturalists, M. <Je Selv- 8 
Longchamps, who in 1845 enumerated no less than twenty-five differ l 
crosses produced between various members of this family, and wh 
eleven years later, was enabled to raise the number to forty-four Other' 
have also been recorded. Although by far the greater proportion of th J S 
crosses take place in a state of partial domestication, there can be I 
think, no doubt that some occur among birds in a wild state.” ’ 
Yours truly, _ Elliott Coubs. 
CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 
Department or Public P\rk« j 
New York, February 28, 1874 .” [ 
Animals-received at Central Park Menagerie for the week endinty v 
ruary 27, 1874: **' eb ' 
Two Elands, Oreascanna. Ilab. South Africa. 
One spotted Hyaena, Hyaena crocuta. Hah. South Africa. 
Ten Macaque Monkeys. Ilab. East Indies. \y. a Conklin 
Editor Forest and Stream :— 
New York, February 21, 1874 . 
Being a great lover of birds, I was much interested in the notes on A1 
bionism, published in your last issue. Yesterday I happened to cro* 
the City Hall Park, and noticed a specimen of Albionism among the spa^ 
rows. It was a male, almost entirely white, the only markings being o' 
back and two middle feathers of the tail. The bird remained quiet on tl ^ 
walk for nearly a minute, so that I had an excellent opportunity to ven/ 
the fact that he was a genuine Albino. O. P yr y 
X -A curiosity is to be seen at Charleston, S. 0. It i s 
a milk white deer a year old, which has been killed in a 
herd of six on Dewees’ Island. It Is to be placed in the 
museum at Charleston College. 
PURENESS IN SETTERS. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I have read the Forest and Stream, of February 19, and notice you 
have published a part of my letter to yourself, with the reply I received 
and haye given the two the heading, “Pureness in Setters.” Would it 
not have been more appropriate in view of the nature of the controversy 
between us to have styled the article “Pureness in Setters of Philadel¬ 
phia,” and given my letter entire for perusal? more so for the reason 
that thef argument began in a comparison of a particular dog to animals 
of my own immediate neighborhood. Not for one moment could I le 
expected to give such pedigrees as you refer to; nor can it ever be done 
in this country, unless our sportsmen are more particular in breeding 
their dogs, and it was in this wise you and I disagreed on the good points 
and setter characteristics of the pup. All I wished to know of his pedi¬ 
gree was a straight line of only three generations, (two would have guff, 
ced, provided sire and dam, grand sire and grand dam had been good per. 
formers.) It is strange to me that we Philadelphians heretofore, in a 
measure, only careful to know of the good performances and general 
good name of sire and dam, grand sire and grand dam have had so many 
fine acting dogs, but I must say we have been very particular that setters 
we own or choose as pups shoulcLpossess certain characteristics which in 
a good dog are never wanting. 
I am positive had you tarried long in our Quaker city during the seven¬ 
teen years experience in regard to dogs you speak of, yon would not have 
named fifty as the number that could boast of ancestral blood, among the 
thousand you have met; nor can I see how any of our American setters 
could he of German blood, unless such German dogs were first taken to 
England and palmed off on us as British animals; certainly England is 
of easier communication, and the class of Germans coming to this country 
never brjng sporting dogs with them. 
In writing yon that all setters in America come from the parent stock/ 
English or Irish dogs, I spoke in a broad sense, and will furthermore say 
all setters in the world came originally from the English dogs, and I 
only repeat the opinion of Herbert, Youatt, Dinks, Maykew, ancl Hutch¬ 
inson. 
I have assurance from many of the Pniladelphia Sportsmens’ Club 
that we can enumerate more than fifty setters having English and Irish 
blood in their veins. Messrs. Sinnickson, Johnson, Abbott, Sartori, 
Sharpe, Smith, Logan, Twaddell, Crooks, and Seitzsinger, all have dogs 
whose pedigrees can he traced directly to imported stock. 
I add the pedigree of the once famous dog “Hark,” of De la Cuesta, 
whose exploits jn his time were wonderful, and the wagers were numer¬ 
ous, and give it as his owner handed it to me. “Hark,” the well known 
setter dog of Philadelphia, was pupped on the 35th of May, 1841, out of 
the celebrated bitch “White Rose,” of Washington, Delaware, and at 
that time her stock dated back twenty-three years; he whs by a red and 
white setter, (the property of Mr. Wm. Robinson,) gotten by a large Irish 
setter, belonging ro Sheriff John Cork, imported from Europe and 
brought over by Captain Smith expressly for the Sheriff of New Castle, 
Delaware, landed and delivered to him there. 
The pedigree of “White Rose” Leonid readily have obtained from 
Mr. Gilpin, the gentleman we were speaking about, hut unfortunately he 
is no more; still, it can be gotten by going to Delaware for it, if neces¬ 
sary. 
I will add that some of “Hark’s” descendants are stiff living, and de¬ 
porting, themselves admirably. 
Mr. De la Cuesta states to me in getting his dog “Hark” into condition 
for a trial of merit, he never thought of feeding him on raw beef, nor 
would he dream of giving such food to a hunting dog during the shooting 
season, for he is convinced it impairs the nose of a dog; in lieu of flesh 
he provided a preparation of oat-meal with the extract of beef, or such as 
greyhounds are fed on in England, when they are being gotten into shap« 
for running. “Homo.” 
-- 
TRAINING PUPPIES. 
New Haven, Coijm 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I have read with interest, numerous articles in your paper upon the 
subject of training sportsmens’ dogs, and tlie ease and grace with which 
some young dogs take to their work over others has been noticed, with¬ 
out giving any apparent reason for the difference. That there is a wide 
difference between dogs of equally good strains of blood in this 
particular, all sportsmen readily concede, while but few can give a rea¬ 
son for the distinction even satisfactory to themselves. To me the reason 
is obvious, and it lies in the marking process, by which pups are born, 
good, reliable, staunch hunters, and take to their work with a natural¬ 
ness and pleasure from the first. The owner of a slut should always be 
very careful in-crossing with a dog of good blood and reputation, and at 
a proper time let him exercise her frequently in the field, upon sue 
game as may be in season, giving her proper enjoyment in the hunt, an 
she will mark every pup so that they will be born good hunters, and 110 
breaking process will he required. I have seen pups only four or fi' e 
months old exhibit as much caution and sagacity in the presence o 
game as dogs of half a dozen years of practice with sharp training vu 
do, and this entirely attributed to the marking process which, inniy 
judgment, is the cause of the wonderful precocity of some young dogs 
mentioned from time to time in the columns of your paper. I am 
thorough believer in the marking process, and throw out these sugges¬ 
tions in hopes that some of your readers will-, give us the result of their 
observations, and if there is anything in this theory, muchpractic 
good may result from a general diffusion of information upon thesu jee 
