Feb. 18, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



65 



Old Sanch stood between two bunches of long grass on 

 the border of a bit of swampy ground, looking very intently 

 first at one bunch and then at the other. It was evidently 

 the old story of tbe ass equally distant between two equally 

 tempting bundles of hay. Dogs generally solve this prob- 

 lem as speedily as an ass does tbe Lay question ; but old 

 Sancbo with body and tail motionless turned his head from 

 one bunch to the other several times as if undecided which 

 was the finer flavored bird. 



A kick into one of the bunches etas ted nothing but Sancbo, 

 who moved up a foot or two closer and looked wild with ex- 

 citement. Another kick, and still nothing moved but 

 Sancho, who ran around to the other side of the bunch of 

 grass and crouched low to tbe ground, with head bent at 

 right angles and the tip of his nose only an iuch or two from 

 the grass. Another kick, and the dog, unable to contain 

 himself any longer, pounced upon the grass, running his 

 nose half way through it. Out from the other side went a 

 quail, curling upward among the treetops, with one barrel 

 of my friend's gun roaring harmlessly in its rear. But just 

 as it went wizzing away on a straight course the dead leaves 

 flew from a white oak sapling in tbe line with its course and 

 down came the bird with a broken leg and wing, falling 

 directly in front of Don. He cast a wistful glance at it as it 

 hobbled away, but still kept his point. 



Sancho quickly transferred his attention to the other clump 

 of grass, over which he stood looking down into it with an 

 air of intense curiosity. At the first kick into this out 

 darted a bird, and in a twinkling vanished in a thicket near 



by, with a charge of shot scattering the blackhaws in line 



with it; and a faint thump in that direction made my friend 



look at me and smile with satisfaction as he pulled out his 

 flask to reload. 

 Meantime the other gentleman flushed the bird upon 



Which Don was pointing. Swiftly upward and away went 



the dim line of whizzing brown 



that marked its course among 



the yellow leaves of a little 



grove of hickory saplings, but 



turned as quickly eastward at 



the report of his gun. 



When ordered to retrieve it, 



Don refuses and disappears in 



the brush in the direction pre- 

 viously taken by the wounded 



bird. He remains so long that 



we have to go to look for him, 



and a few moments' search re- 

 veals him in a clump of cat 



briers some fifty yards from his 



former point still as a statue. 



In his mouth is a live bird ap- 

 parently as contented as if on 



its nest, its neck projecting 



from one side of the dog's 



mouth with head erect and 



bright black eyes calmly sur- 

 veying us. It is evidently the 



wouuded bird that fell near 



him, and having picked it up 



he has evidently met the scent 



of a well one on his way back 



with it. 

 That performance struck me 



then as wonderful, but since 



then I have seen enough to sat- 

 isfy me that a dog could point 



a new bird with one perfectly 



unharmed in his mouth. It is 



marvelous enough how quickly 



a dog distinguishes between a 



well bird, a wounded one and 



a well one. But still we can 



understand this. But can you 



understand how a dog can 



stand in the midst of half a 



dozen closely-lying pinnated 



grouse or even lie down among 



them and do nothing but turn 



the direction of his nose from 



one to another when told to go on after the guns are loaded ? 

 Or can you understand such a trick as I saw old Sancho do 

 two or three years later, stand immovable when a bevy of 

 quail had risen before him and three or four had fallen 

 before the guns, and refuse to stir when told to retrieve 

 them because another quail remained hidden there— a thing 

 that very rarely happens? There are dogs enough that 

 would point the remaining; bird, but how many would do it 

 without breaking the first point and making a new one? 

 And how does a dog know how many have risen? 



As we came up to Don three quail rose from the briers in 

 front of him. But at the report of one gun one of them 

 came down bouncing on the ground, and at the report of the 

 second another rose towering fifty feet in air, folded his 

 wings and sank stone dead, while my gun belched innoc- 

 uous thunders at the third, giving me intense satisfaction to 

 think I had mustered sufficient courage to shoot at him at 

 all. 



The rest of the flock were soon found. Some spun away 

 in safety through the brush, while others, whizzing through 

 dense tbickets or among the treetops, came plunging down 

 before some well directed charge of shot. 



On we then went through a mile or more of the autumn 

 scenery that has furnished such everlasting grist for the 

 American doggerel mill, when on a hillside covered with 

 saplings Don suddenly came to a point among some crimson 

 maples. Before we were quite up to him a dark brown bird 

 with twittering wing and twisting flight whirled upward 

 from thedead leaves in front of the dog, and came in a mo- 

 ment whirling down again, stopped in its swift career among 

 the treetops. No game ever made such an impression on 

 me as that, the first woodcock I had ever seen dead. The rose- 

 wood colors of its back, the large, lustrous, black eye set far 

 back in the head and wearing even in death such a look of 

 tranquil dignity, its long odd looking bill, buff vest aud 

 delicate pink stockings, all made me feel that I was in the 

 presence of nature's nobility. 



Down among the alders that fringed a little brook Don 

 was soon found crawling along with great caution, and as 

 we went toward him there rose some twenty yards ahead 

 with roaring wing a large brown bird, vanishing like a 

 rocket among the distant tree trunks. Bang, whang, bang 

 went three barrels almost at once, but dimly we saw the 

 bird, with tail outspread and unruffled wing, fade in the 

 outer circle of brush. We followed in its course, and 

 Sancho soon began to creep and in a moment more brought 

 in a dead ruffed grouse. As I surveyed its crested head, its 



swelling breast, black glossy ruffs, aud the banded fan that 

 formed its tail, I felt my young soul swell with pride at the 

 thought that I had shot at it. From this delightful stand- 

 point it was quite easy to jump to the conclusion that I had 

 killed it. Though it went into the netted game bag of one 

 of ray companions, the item 



Pheasants one 



formed for the next year the leading item on tbe best- 

 thumbed page of the only game record I have ever kept. 



On we went for another half mile, I reflecting on the fate 

 of merit in this unjust world, and wondering whether 1 

 would receive an invitation to assist at the dissection of that 

 pheasant, when the vigorous tail of Sancho began to flag. 

 But for the bright look he gave us as he turned his head 

 about to see if we were coming, one would have thought he 

 had suddenly become tired out and was about to quit hunt- 

 ing for the day. He dawdled about for a while with legs as 

 draggy as though each foot were a sack of shot. But the 

 tendency of hi3 movements was all in one direction, and in a 

 few moments his pace became a wary tread with Don stiff- 

 legged and solemn close in the rear. On he went winding 

 around tree tops, crawling through cat briers with ever 

 slower step and more slowly waving tail. On he went one 

 hundred, one hundred and fifty yards, until his pace became 

 suitable for that of chief mourner at a snail's funeral; but 

 still he did not stop, A hare scampered awuy from almost 

 under his nose, but with a contemptuous glance at it he went 

 on for another fifty yards or more. Then he suddenly 

 stopped, and crouching low, raised one forefoot. 



' 'Now we've got" 



My friend was interrupted by the obstreporous Bbbbbbb 

 of another ruffed grouse. It rbse some fifteen yards ahead 

 of the dog and went booming through the timber like a 

 brown- feathered shaft from a giant's bow Vainly my com- 



imm wkStq-e> 



SKATES AND THEIR EGGS. 



Skate Egg Attached. 



Mother Skate Carrying Egg. 



panions' guns spattered fierce destruction among the dead 

 leaves along its path, and I could not resist a chuckle of satis- 

 faction when it faded darkling into the back ground of tree 

 trunks and brush. It was evident enough that grouse were 

 not going to drop much that day without my aid. Harbor- 

 ing no hard feelings toward the dog because his master took 

 my "pheasant," I remarked that he "did that mighty well." 

 But Sancho, quite insensible to flattery, went on, passed 

 right over the place where the grouse rose and went on as 

 cautiously as before, while Don stopped there but a second, 

 gave a transient and dubious sniff at the ground and sur- 

 rounding air, and resumed his march in the procession with 

 an air of wisdom that plainly showed that meeting the 

 grouse was quite accidental, and that other game was on 

 foot. Some sixty yards further on Sancho stopped again 

 with a faint tremor of anxiety in his knees. But in a 

 moment his tail began to waver, he raised his nose and 

 sniffed the air with great caution, then crept a few steps 

 with stealthy tread, and stopped again on the side of a little 

 knoll beside the brook, where the wild stare of his eyes and 

 the trembling of his tail with his efforts to hold it still showed 

 that the trail was ended at last. 



Rarely in the Eastern States can one see quail upon the 

 ground, especially at this time of year; but upon a little 

 sand bar on the side of the brook, some twenty yards ahead, 

 was a medley of little blue tails, speckled breasts, white and 

 yellow collars and brown coats, from which came the soft, 

 musical tee, lee, tee, tee, tee, tee. 



Young as I was, I had already heard that the "true sports- 

 man" never shoots game on the ground. Imagine then my 

 surprise to see the man who had pocketed the grouse raise 

 his gun at the quail. Imagine next his surprise when my 

 gun went off first. If there is anything I ever was good at 

 it was a "pot shot/' and a marvellous aptitude for quick and 

 comprehensive work in this line was developed in advance 

 of most of my other faculties. Only two or three birds flew 

 away, and these he missed in his wrath with both barrels, 

 while nine or ten lay dead in a heap upon the sandy bar. It 

 is almost needless to remark that that was my last hunt with 

 those two gentlemen. T. S. Van Dyke. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co, 



SKATES AND THEIR EGGS. 



THE electric ray, saw fish, sting ray, cow-nosed ray, 

 butterfly ray, and the immense devil fish of the Florida 

 and North Carolina coasts, the barn-door skate, little skate 

 big skate, prickly skate, and starry skate, all belong to the 

 great order of Earn. Then comes the angel fish, or angel 

 shark, which seems to be a sort of stepping stone, or taper- 

 ing off, variety, from the great shark family into that of the 

 rays. In fact the sharks blend into the rays so gradually as 

 regards their structure, and often their ovo-viviparous e°g 

 cases, that it is hard for one not high up in fish science to 

 determine where the blending of these two great families of 

 fishes takes place. 



In the largest tank in the Aquarium (100 feet long) I de- 

 termined to place all tbe varieties of the ray or skate family 

 that I could procure, particularly those comical little fellows 

 the cow-nosed stinging rays, which I was never tired of 

 watching, as they constantly swam the entire length of the 

 tank forward and backward all day long in Indian file, one 

 close behind another, moving their large pectoral fins, or 

 wings, with all the grace of a bird. At one end of this tank 

 I had caused to be laid a flooring of Coney Island sand, in 

 which the skates delighted to bury themselves. For, unlike 

 the stinging rays, they rarely took an extended swim as long 

 as they were bountifully fed. One day when admiring my 

 cow-nosed pets, I noticed a large female "big skate" (ocel- 

 lated ray) rapidly moving about on the bottom as if in search 

 of food. Knowing that this could not be what she was 

 seeking, as all had just been 

 bountifully fed on bull-nosed 

 hard clams, I became interest- 

 ed in her movements. At last, 

 when reaching the upper end 

 of the tank, she had to turn, 

 and in so doing exposed her 

 under side, when 1 discovered 

 that in her mouth was firmly 

 held a newly laid egg ease, 

 from which Bowed the long, 

 silken tangles that are so abun- 

 dantly provided by nature to 

 this particular variety of skate. 

 Constantly and anxiously she 

 moved from one part of the 

 tank to another, carrying the 

 egg case about with her. Close- 

 ly observing her every motion, 

 I saw her at last settle on a lot 

 of old oyster shells, on which 

 were masses of acorn barnacles 

 and that beautiful, crimson- 

 colored and treedike sponge 

 which goes by the name of 

 "oyster beard" with the oys- 

 termen of Long Island Sound 

 and Prince's Bay. Over the 

 mass of shells she pressed 

 down her wings, all the time 

 moving about in small circles 

 and half circles. At the end 

 of half an hour she swam away 

 to the sanded end of the tank 

 and buried herself. But the 

 egg case was firmly anchored, 

 as shown in the illustration. 



Every few days some of the 

 skates were depositing their 

 egg cases, but none took such 

 great pains to securely anchor 

 tbem as did the ocellated rays. 

 In the illustration is shown 

 one of these curious looking 

 egg cases which is attached to 

 an oyster shell by the four silken tangles that start from the 

 sides of the egg case. It will be noticed that the four hook- 

 like terminations of the egg case are also intended by nature 

 to aid in more securely anchoring the egg to any marine 

 plant that they may come in contact with. Neither the 

 male nor female pays the slightest attention to the egg cases 

 after they are once securely fastened. To enable the young 

 skate contained in the egg case to breathe, there is an opening 

 at the end nearest the head of the young skate. Through 

 this opening passes a sufficient quantity of water to supply 

 the young with oxygen with which to aerate its blood. After 

 the expiration of a few days, the time being longer or shorter, 

 according to the temperature of the water, the young becomes 

 strong enough to push his way out of the ingeniously con- 

 structed opening at the end of the egg case, through which 

 he has received his supply of well oxygenated water. After 

 the young skate has left its egg case, it is several days before 

 the umbilical sac is absorbed, and during this time a rare 

 chance is offered to study the circulation of the blood and 

 the action of the heart, as the body of the young skate is 

 nearly transparent. 

 In England the skate eggs are called "pixy purses" and 



Ya^tkee Notions prom Boston.— What is a bear cup- 

 board?— The entire forest. Too much for the lawyers— The 

 finishing claws of a grizzly's will. What to do with your 

 grizzlies— Give a dinner to your friends upon their carcasses 

 and say, like a certain ancient Roman, Et tu, Brute. — Reig- 

 nolps. 



"hand barrows," but the egg cases of the spotted shark with 

 its curious curling tendrils (see illustration), are called 

 "mermaids' purses," "sailors' purses" and "sea purses." I 



