—— 
Suny 31, 1884,] FOREST AND STREAM. 
dissimilar habits. It would be just as proper to callit a 
flying mouse, but flying squirrel if will be called to the end 
of time, I suppose. 
This little animal seems quite contented in confinement, if 
well fed, sleeping the day through, but very lively during 
many eager markets, or salted for the island towns, cr dried 
for winter use, or packed in barrels to be forwarded to the 
-2reat hungry stores of London, but nowadays the pilchard 
may be found in all lands, lurking im a tinned case in a sea of 
| oil with a few brothers and bay leayes for company. An 
| all-pickling age respects not his native choice, and it is whis- 
pered—though this I, as a partial enthusiast, and the pil- 
chards as ‘‘aboye such things,” are loath to believe—it is 
whispered, I say, that not a few of the sardines a Phuale, 
Which purport to come from France, in reality looked their 
last-on life as pilchards in the meshes of a Cornwall net, — 
Kunance Haven, Cornwall, England, June 28. B. A. 
Satuyal History. 
THE HUMMING BIRD. 
(Trochilus Colubris). 
FINE shrill lisp of the crickets and the piping of the 
myriad insect voices, that have made the woods throb 
with their music during the night, is hushed; and all these 
little imps of darkness are tucking themselves snugly away 
among the “weeds and grasses, and under the sticks and 
‘stones, ther& to snooze until the cool of the next twilight. 
The sky is beautifully clear, and it seems as though the 
stars were burning with more than their wonted brilliancy. 
Venus is flashing splendor from the heavens, and now aad 
Again a thrill of admiration at her wondrous beauty runs 
through the groye, and reaches us ina faint murmur from 
‘the tréetops. A heavy mist, that all night long has slept in 
the lowlands, is ‘‘folding its tents like the Arabs, and as 
Ailently stealing away” in long, white streamers, that vanish 
in the still air as we watch them. 
The east is bright with the coming day, and shafts of 
‘pearl-colored light are already pointing toward the zenith. 
here are the birds? the little ‘‘bright-eyed woodfolk?” 
Listen! And from out the shadows conies the plaintive voice 
of little Phoebe, with afew soft notes of welcome to the 
morning. The swamp robins, awakened hy the sweet voice, 
are soon heard, and their rich sympathetic song is full of 
the secret charm of the woods. Voice after voice is now 
joining with its little mite of praise, until, from field and 
‘crest, is rising the matin chant of the birds, Af last the 
sunbeams are clancing through the leaves, chasing the 
shadows that lurk there, and lighting up the dew drops that 
tremble and glisten from every twig. All nature is music! 
Another day is begun! 
Cosily sitting in the very tiniest little nest, so soft and 
elastic that even her delicate phimage is unrufiled by contact 
With iis moss-covered sides, we find our humming bird. 
High on the guarled and twisted branch of a dogwood, she 
has built this fairy home, and therein, with the overhanging 
leaves for a canopy, the little syIph is brooding. How shall 
I describe the cunning little structure? A few weeks ago, 
the building it was commenced, but on such a small scale 
that the foundation was laid ere the site was discovered by 
us. Soft pufis from the blossoms of oak and chestnut, 
bits of the softest brown fungus, and scraps of gray 
‘mosses, that grow in secret places known only to these little 
| fairies, were worked into the walls, and gradually the little 
‘cuj-lke house approached completion, Little flakes of 
lichen and bark, veritable diminutive clapboards, were next 
added, and the task was finished. There it rests, tis mossy 
covering harmonizing so well with the tree bark, as to con- 
céal it from all but the closest observer, and often, though 
knowing its location so well, [ haye missed it for an instant, 
so cunningly isit placed. A dead twig projects from the 
branch a few inches to one side, and here the little wood 
sprites frequently perch. There is the male now, his ruby 
throat all ablaze as a Sunbeam covers him for an instant with 
‘gold. See him edge up to bis little darling! And now as 
‘he snuggles close beside her, he is evidently telling her where 
§ her breakfast is waiting in the trumpet flower be tapped for 
her last night, and which is half filled with nectar this 
morning, accumulated drop by drop during the cool hours 
of darkness, Like a flash she is off, and he takes her place, 
to keep the chill from the tiny eggs. 
These frail little creatures have gradually become accus- 
tomed to my presence. At first they were nervous and would 
‘cease work, while one or the other would dart down to 
within five or six feet of me, and there, poised on its whirring 
wings, closely inspect the intruder, uttering the while sundry 
peeps and curions little cries. Now that they are convinced 
that no harm is intended, they do not even leave the nest at 
} my approach. 
What a dream life is theirs! Gliding in zigzag lines over 
the-flower beds, now suspended almost motionless over a lily 
bloom, now racing with the humble bees for « honeyed 
prize, or dashing at the sparrows and robins, and speedily 
putting them to flight with the fury of their onset. What 
they do or where they go when it storms I do not know; but 
at the first returning sleam of sunshine they are back again, 
With the rapidity of thought, sipping the rain drops from 
‘the flowers. And when bed time comes, what wonderful 
Stories of the sunlight the little things must. tell each other, 
as cuddling Glose up there in the dark, they listen to the 
croon! croon! croon! croon! of the insects, and watch the 
fireflies guiding tle moths among the trees by the light of 
their torches. WiLMor. 
“NOTES ON THE FLYING SQUIRREL. 
HE very interesting article ou the flying squirrel, in 
a late issue, by Dr. Gibbs of Michigan, is very good, so 
far as it goes, but is, in some respects, liable to mislead the 
student, This little rodent, Pleromys volucellu, is very 
abundant in this part of Illinois, though being a strictly 
night or twilight animal, itis not often scen unless disturbed. 
We boys, when out ‘coon hunting of a.warm night in early 
futumn, bad a good chance to observe how plentifnl it was 
When we built a bright fire so as to be able to ‘see the coon 
mp the tree.” When we did this, the air would at times 
seem alive with Pleromys, flitting from tree to tree, and 
uttering their querulous squeaks. I found some years ago 
the tails of twenty-eight of these little animals under one 
“stub” of a tree, that had been there killed and eaten by 
some enemy, probably an owl. ' They do not always nest 
and rear their young in boles in tree stubs, as the Doctor's 
article would lead us to believe, fori have found several 
rearing their young in nests built by birds on bushes, I do 
pot say forsaken birds’ nests, for 1 do not Know but Pieo- 
mys droye the birds from their nests and oceupied them 
olens volens. 
| The so-called flying squirrel is not a squirrel proper any 
more thanitis a trator a mouse, It belongs to the genus 
8, the squirrel proper to the genus Se’wrus, with very 
oe 7 ; 
taw flesh; when in confinement, it seems necessary to their 
health. In fact nearly all the rodents eat more animal mat- 
ter than is generally thought, The common little striped 
eround squirrels, both the timber chipmunk and the prairie 
gopher, genus Spermophilus, seem very fond of snails, at 
least I have often shot them with snails (univalves) in their 
pockets. When in confinement, the squirrels will dissect and 
eat a fresh-killed bird about as quickly as any animal of their 
size. : BYRNE. 
Lacon, Il, July 21. 
YOUNG LIONS ON THE BOTTLE. 
pa interested in lions may like to hear something of 
how the young ones are brought up in cases where 
from some cause the mother lacks the power to suckle them, 
or dies soon after their birth. I have had several cuses of 
the kind under my own care and haye also witnessed the 
experimenuts—sometimes successful, sometimes the reverse— 
of others, and will therefore give a chapter out of my own 
personal history. 
At the Zoological Gardens at Leipzig (Germany) we once 
had four cubs brought into the world by a young lioness, 
and as is sometimes the case, she had not sufficient milk for 
her babies and we were obliged to lose them entirely or try 
what bottle nursing would do. It was with considerable 
trouble that the young things were gotten out of the cage, 
for the mother made furious resistance and gave me several 
tastes of her claws in spite of the assistance of two of the 
keepers whom J had stationed on the outside, each armed 
with one of the long iron forks used for feeding, with which 
to keep the beast away from me during the remoyal. At 
last I suéceeded in getting all four out of the cage, and after 
placing them carefully in a basket, I took them home to my 
own rooms. 
The next step was to get. a large box in which I put some 
straw, covering it well with an old, soft rug, and after de- 
positing my strange pets in their new nursery, stood it near 
the stove so that they could enjoy the warmth, 
Then came up the feeding question. I took an empty 
wine bottle, bought several India rubber nipples—such as 
are used for human babies—and made arangements with the 
milkman for the increased size of my family. 
At feeding time I filled the bottle with milk slightly 
warmed, to which I added as muck sulphur as could be 
taken upon the point of a penknife, and tried my experiment. 
To my delight the little beasts took lovingly to their new 
way of feeding and evinced a decided love ‘‘for the bottle.” 
At first I used to feed them every four hours, keeping this 
up until they were six -weeks old, after which time every 
five hours was often enough as long as they were on their 
milk diet. 
Knowing the importance of regularity in meal hours I 
bought an alarm clock, and every night set it to awaken me 
at the proper intervals, and if any observer had been at hand 
he would have smiled to see me engaged in my novel mater- 
nal experiment. Often have I sleepily turned out of bed at 
the sound of the alarm, douned my dressing’ gown, and 
seated myself on a low box, holding a bottle in each hand, 
while the cubs tugged at the ends, my own head nodding the 
while on my breast. As they grew older they became some- 
what expensive, as they bit through oyer two dozens of the 
rubber nipples before they left off the bottle. 
When first I took them in charge (immediately after their 
birth) they were about the size of Newfoundland pups, but 
in the course of six weeks they had nearly doubled in weight, 
They also began at this age to be very amusing in their 
antics, ond used to fight so vigorously for their first turn at 
the bottle that I used to be obliged to take them singly out 
of their box in order to feed them comfortably. 
As soon as their teeth were strong enough I gave them 
young chickens and pigeons to eat, which change of diet 
seemed to meet with their entire approvel, Of course the 
birds were given in a raw state. At the Zoological Gardens 
of Dresden, where a similar attempt was made, the entire 
litter was lost through feeding upon cooked meats instead of 
raw, Naturally, in the matter of dict, one must adhere as 
closely as possible to the food they would haye had in their 
native Jand and wild condition. 
By the tine the cubs were three months old I used to let 
them run round the room, and one cannot imagine anything 
funnier than the way they played together. They would 
roll over each other and tumble about as though there was 
not a bone in their whole little soft bodies, Sometimes one 
would manage to climb up on a chair, which was a signal 
for the others to rush and try to dislodge him froto his 
stronghold, but he would frequently hold the situation for 
several minutes before they could rout him, and then, when 
he did come down, the “grand and lofty tumbling” would 
begin afresh. 
When they had reached the age of four mouths, [returned 
| them to the gardens, where they were put in a cage and 
amused and delighted many visitors by their playfulness. 
They were subsequently sold to another garden, where they 
are doing very well. My labors were often very arduous, 
and my anxiety great; for I loved my pets and had their 
welfare greatly at heart, but the abundant suecess that 
crowned my efforts more than repaid me for the trouble they 
had given, 
Tne experiment has been tried of putting young cubs to a 
cat, but this has very seldom succeeded, as there is rarely 
milk enough for their wants, nor does it seem to agree with 
them. After a few weeks of such uursing they die from a 
softening of the bones, which is a very frequent and deadly 
disease among the young of all wild animals, 
Ti would naturally be imagined that lions “‘brought up by 
hand” would be much tamer than those captured in their 
native homes, but such is nof the case, and the most fierce 
and vicious that haye passed through niy hands have been 
those born in captivity. J. 8. W. 
: 
Toar Frorma “‘Orcur.’—A Jacksonville, Fla., corre- 
spondent says: ‘‘Your correspondent who seeks to identify 
a Floridian orchid hy comparing it to the passion flower can 
hardly haye enough of botanic knowledge to warrant him in 
saying that the plant referred to is an orchid. The two are 
about as dissimilar as planig can be. In remembrance the 
wide-spreading flowers of the Hpidendrum venosum mizht 
have become sufficiently amplified to suggesi the comparison, 
but he would haye described that asa plant with bulbous 
roots growing upon trees. Its popular name is ‘wild 
shallot.’”” 
toost of the night. I haye found all the rodents very fond of } 
3 
A Sea Lion on a Rampace—Thousands of persons. 
yesterday visited the sea lions in Druid Hill Park. The 
margin of the extensive pond in which they are kept was 
crowded several persons deep the whole afternoon, and the 
stretch of road overlooking the pond was packed with 
vehicles. The mother sea lion was belligerent, and tried to 
get out. Her keepers had reneatedly to thrust her with 
whips back into the water. She did get out Saturday 
morning and made it very livety in the park. About sunrise 
Mr. Fisher, the gatekeeper of the Green Spring Valley 
entrance to the park, notified Captain Cassell of the appear- 
ance of the sea lion in that vicinity, Captain Oassell, with 
assistants, hastened to the locality and found the animal 
trying to force an entrance through a flogd-gate into the 
premises of Poole & Hunt, Spanish mackerel is a favorite 
dish with sea lions, and Captain Cassell used a quantity of 
the food in Juring her up from the woods, She was very 
wicked and spiteful, She followed to eat the fish which 
were thrown down at intervals of about ten feet. The effort 
was to keep her from intermediate ponds, and get her baclk 
into her old quarters, but when she got near the first carp 
pond she dashed in. Before her body was all in the pond 
she caught a 16-inch carp, and in as many minutes had 
seven more of about the same size. She was yery hungry, 
und it is thought she caught all the carp in that pond large 
enough to breed. As eyen Spanish mackerel would not lure 
her from such good fishing grounds, her maternal instincts 
Were appealed to. Her cub was brought up and laid on an 
adjacent hill, He was made to bellow by tickling, She 
answered and followed across country as the cub was moved. 
On reaching No. 4 carp pond in this way she went into it, 
and would pay no further attention to the cub’s bellowing. 
She grew even more ugly, and would rush at any one who 
came near the edge of the pond. She was very quick in 
her movements, and the snap of her jaws could be heard 
some distance. Captain Cassell at this stage went for Buck 
Taylor, the lasso man of the Buffalo Bill troupe. Mr. 
Taylor did some beautiful throwing of the rope, and lassoed 
‘the animal repeatedly, but whether at one or the other 
extremity, the rope slipped from her smooth surface, She 
was finally gotten out of the pond and went back toward 
Poole & Hunt’s. The prescription of Captain Eastman. 
who brought her from the Pacific coast, was now given her 
by thrusting the straw end of brooms in her face. She was 
forced back into No. 4. pond and the lassoing repeated, On 
being forced from this retreat she followed her bawling cub 
to the pond from which she had escaped. She passed by a 
gap that had been made for her entrance and stood up on 
her tail flukes to the frail fence five feet high. She put her 
left front fluke on top of the fence, as an athlete would use 
his hand in jumping a bar, and then sprang over the fence 
into the water, The fence, made of three eighth inch stuff 
and put together with sixpenny nails, shook badly, but there 
was no break. She immediately took her cub in her arms 
and rolled over and over in the water with if and soon 
coming ashore gave it a good meal, The animal ate about 
sixty pounds of Spanish mackerel Saturday while being 
tolled, in addition to all the carp she caught in the ponds. 
Yesterday morning she ate sixteen pounds of Spanish 
mackerel, and in the evening a large crowd enjoyed seeing 
her consume sixteen pounds more of the same food.’ She 
caught many of the fish as cleverly asa “fielder” catches a 
ball. She seemed in excellent health, though possibly a 
little heavy from the big feeding of Saturday.—Ballimore 
Sun. 
A Lunar Rarsow.—Utica, N. Y., July 24—Haditor 
Forest and Stream; The other night a party of us were on 
our way up West Canada Creek in this State. I was walk- 
ing at, the time for a change, as it was an all night’s ride, by 
the light of a full moon, now and then coming in sight of 
the creek, with its water hurrying as fast as, we to a destina- 
tion. There was a thick fog filling the valley, and as we 
passed along through it I discovered a bow like a rainbow, 
not as distinct as by sunlight, but plain enough to discern 
the arch and some of its beautiful colors, Our course at the 
time was about northeast, wilh the moon at our back, I 
neyer saw the like before, Perhaps the lay of the land and 
yalley would have something to do with it. I have read in 
Forrest AND STREAM of fog rainbows from the sunlight. 
I would like to know if any of the craft have ever witnessed 
the moonlight rainbow.—C. M. H. [ln 1855 we saw ..a lunar 
rainbow in Iowa during a snow storm, and again in 1879 we 
saw one in mid-ocean. } 
Swans ty Intiors.—T wo fine adult swans were killed in 
this neighborhood last spring. One of them alighted with a 
flock of domestic geese within our city limits, and was 
sneaked up to and potted. It proved to be anaged individual 
of Cygnus americana, the whistling swan, It had great 
spread of wings, seven feet eight inches, and was seven feet 
two inches in length from tip to tip. The other alighted in 
a little pond right in the city of Peoria and was shot wilh a 
revolver. This was a fine specimen of (. buccrnator, the 
trumpeter swan. The first 1 think had dropped out of a 
migrating flock from the weakness of old age, the other had 
probably been wounded, Swans now seldom alight in the 
Lilinois River, but in “‘ye olden time” they painted it white 
each spring and autumn.—BYRNE, 
Allow me to answer 
the query of “‘M. M, 5,” in your issue of the 10th inst., as to 
how turtles dig the hole in hard ground in which to lay their 
eges. My observation has been that on hard, clayey sround 
they dig it with their hind claws, stern foremost, wetting the 
hard clay with their urine to soften it. as they proceed. This 
was the habit of many if not all species along White River, 
in Arkansas, where there are no beds of sand above over- 
flow. Here, along the INimois River, where beds and banks ' 
of sand are common, | have not noticed this moistening 
process. Here the mother will often travel for miles to find 
a suitable sandbed for a nidus. —ByRNnw (Lacon, U1.) 
How Tortiums Lay THem Hees. 
ALBino BARN SwaLLow.—Hydeville, Vt., July 12.—On 
July 2, [saw ai bird that, when flying, looked to be pure white, 
and it was being constantly harrassed by some other 
swallows. It took a turn around near me, and I improved 
the opportunity to shoot it. Upon examination it proved to 
be a young barn swallow (Airundo erythrogastra herreorum), 
and evidently not long out of the nest, but was in yery fine 
plumage, a creamy white on belly, and upon the back more 
of a chalk white, but to the contrary of most albinoes, did 
not have pink eyes,—A. J. JomNson. 
A Waitt Buacksrrp,—l received for mounting, July 21, 
a purple grackle in pure white plumage, feet and legs flesh 
color, eye of the regulation color. Taken twenty miles east 
of this city.—A. M, Turts (Lynn, Mass., July 21). 
