144 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 18, 3886. 



passing: to the westward it undergoes a variety of modifica- 

 tions in form in the various tribes, until below the peninsula 

 of Alaska near Sitka it becomes an elaborate piece of carv- 

 ing inlaid with shell fragments, and ceases to be of use except 

 as an ornament. 



Prof. G. Brown Goode lectured before the Biological 

 Society on "The Beginnings of American Natural His- 

 tory," the occasion being the address of the retiring presi- 

 dent. Brief mention was made of the earlier English, 

 French, Dutch and Spanish naturalists who visited the 

 country, or whose writings treated of its natural history. 

 The early Spaniards in the capital of Montezuma found 

 large and well-conducted zoological gardens for the instruc- 

 tion and amusement of the people. How humiliating it is 

 that such an extensive zoological garden should have existed 

 in America in the sixteenth century, at the capital of a half- 

 civilized nation, and that no such thing as yet exists at our 

 national capital. 



Thomas Jefferson was spoken of in the highest terms as a 

 naturalist. Had he not been so much absorbed in matters 

 pertaining to the State, he undoubtedly would have been a 

 master of science. It is probable no two men have done so 

 much for science in America as Jefferson and the elder 

 Agassiz, not so much by their direct contributions to knowl- 

 edge as by the encouragement they gave to science by their 

 advocacy.' 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam has presented several valuable papers 

 at various meetings of the Biological Society, entitled, "Con- 

 tributions to North American Mammalogy. 



He separates the eastern chipmunk into two races, giving 

 the name of Tamias striaius lysieri to the animal which oc- 

 curs in the Adirondack region of New York, Northern New 

 England and portions of Canada, the habitat of the typical 

 Tamias striaius being Southern New York, New Jersey, 

 southward to Georgia. In a following paper he described a 

 new and very marked species of the chipmunk, from the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains of Central California, ten speci- 

 mens of which were exhibited. On account of its long 

 striped ears the appropriate name of Tamias macrorhabdotes 

 was given it. The most important paper from his pen was 

 the description of a new species of Shoio'tl or mountain 

 beaver (Aplodontia), from the mountains of California. The 

 species is much larger and heavier than the Washington 

 Territory species (A. rufa), and the hair is of a different 

 texture and color. It was named A. major. There are a 

 number of good characters which distinguish the skull of A. 

 major from that of A. rufa. 



At the last meeting of the Biological Society Dr. George 

 Vasey read a paper entitled "New and Recent Species of 

 North American Grasses," and Mr. Charles Hallock pre- 

 sented a paper on "Hyper Instinct of Animals." If space 

 permitted a number of other interesting papers on various 

 subjects might be mentioned. 



Tbe initial lecture of the course of the "Saturday Lec- 

 tures" (which are under the auspices of the Anthropological 

 Society and the Biological Society), was delivered in the 

 lecture room of the National Museum on March 6, by Mr. 

 William Hallock, the subject being "The Geysers of the 

 Yellowstone." 



The following names and subjects have been announced 

 for future lectures : Prof. Wm. Harkness, "How the Solar 

 System is Measured." Prof. T. C. Mendenhall, "The Nature 

 of Sound." Prof. F. W. Clarke, "The Chemistry of Coal." 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, "The Migration of Birds." 



The Cosmos Club, a club composed of the scientific men 

 of Washington, recently came into possession of the large 

 and desirable premises on the corner of Lafaj r ette place and 

 H street. The building will undergo many changes, and a 

 large assembly hall orlecture room will be added, which 

 will be used by the various scientific societies as a place of 

 meeting. 



- Early in the season a fine snowy owl was secured at 

 Arlington Heights, Va., and purchased by the National 

 Museum. Ornithologists hoped this owl was a forerunner, 

 and that others would soon appear, but their expectations 

 were not realized. 



The large harpy eagle which had been so long in the eagle 

 cage at Central Park, N. Y., and was so much admired, re- 

 cently died. It was presented to the Smithsonian Institute, 

 and was mounted by Mr. Marshall the taxidermist. 



A considerable number of pileated woodpeckers have been 

 observed in the market stalls during the winter. As many 

 as five or six have been seen at one time, all were reported as 

 coming from Virginia. It is strange that crows which are 

 considered as one of the birds possessing the greatest amount 

 of intelligence, should not profit by this intelligence as well 

 as by bitter experience. In the fall and winter they congre- 

 gate in immense numbers in this vicinity, roosting in or near 

 the National cemetery, at Arlington. During the colder 

 weather when the ground is covered with snow, the food 

 supply is limited in the area over which they make daily ex- 

 cursions, so that many are unable to procure sufficient food, 

 become enfeebled, and eventually |die of starvation. This 

 mortality would be greatly lessened if they should roost in 

 smaller colonies at some distance apart. 



Mr. Wm. Hornaday proposes to found in the National 

 Museum a small collection of bird skins, one or two skins 

 to be prepared by each of the more noted ornithologists of 

 this country. Mr. Hornaday mounted a zebra, which has 

 lately been placed on exhibition in the Museum. The general 

 expression of the head and face, together with the position 

 of the animal, seem perfect, and plainly show what can be 

 done. 



Dr. TrybOro, who was sent by the Swedish Government 

 to this country to examine and study into the practical work- 

 ings of the IT. S. Fish Commission, expresses himself highly 

 pleased with what he has already seen. During the coming 

 season he will study carefully the different steps essential to 

 the hatching and' subsequent care of each species of fish 

 with w T hich the commission has to do. He will shortly start 

 on a visit to several of the hatcheries on the Great Lakes, 

 and later will make a trip to California. 



THE PASSING OF THE BUFFALO. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The positive assurance contained in the letter of Mr. 

 Arnold Hague of the U. S. Geological Survey as to the ex- 

 istence of a few small herds of buffalo in tbe Yellowstone 

 Park, is exceedingly gratifying to me, and doubtless to 

 thousands of your readers, and you deserve all thanks for 

 your efforts to secure the needed legislative action to secure 

 this noble game from utter extinction. The need of 

 immediate and vigorous action is most urgent. The de- 

 struction of the vast herds which so recently roamed 

 over the northwestern prairies has been so sudden that 

 sportsmen and naturalists have hardly yet awakened to it 



The summer before last, during a visit to Winnipeg, I asked 

 the agent of the Hudson's Bay Fur Co. for statistics about 

 the buffalo and was told that the year before he received 

 from the Winnipeg district twelve thousand skins and that 

 year only four! During the same summer I saw in the 

 neighborhood of Lake Minnewakan, Dakota, hundreds of 

 buffalo skeletons bleaching upon the prairie where the ani- 

 mals had been slaughtered only three or four years before, 

 chiefly for their hides as I was told. The pioneer farmers 

 were beginning to gather up the bones and sell them at the 

 railway station for about $8 per ton, to be shipped to Mis- 

 souri to be converted into fertilizer — a strange product of the 

 soil and one that will never be gathered again. At Winni- 

 peg I was gratified to learn that there was about twelve 

 miles from the city a gentleman who had about fifty head of 

 buffalo in a large inclosed preserve of some eight hundred 

 acres, but that many individuals of the herd were not of pure 

 blood but the result of crossing with domestic cattle. It 

 would be interesting to know if similar efforts are being 

 niade elsewhere for the preservation of the buffalo, and in 

 this connection I should like to ask if any one can inform 

 the readers of the Forest and Stream what has become 

 of the two or three fine specimens which were recently ex- 

 hibited about the country by William Cody (Buffalo Bill), 

 in his "Wild West" show, and where they were obtained. 

 Could Mr. Cody himself do a more graceful thing than to 

 give to the Forest and Stream what information he can 

 as to the present existe nee of the race in the destruction of 

 which he gained his peculiar fame, and such suggestions as 

 he can offer as to its preservation from entire extinction? 



C. H. Ames. 



Boston, Mass. 



THE AUDUBON SOCIETY. 



Ediior Forest and Stream: 



I wish you good speed in the work which you have so 

 ably espoused,, of preventing the wanton slaughter of birds. 

 The press of the country generally needs to be awakened to 

 the importance of this "subject. Usually questions of this 

 kind are largely discussed only when made popular by ener- 

 getic writers or popular journals. I am glad to note "that it 

 is becoming fashionable for the leading journals to discuss 

 this topic. I will give a few recent thoughts on the bird 

 question : 



Fruit growers and farmers do not appreciate the import- 

 ance of the birds that nest in their fields and orchards, or 

 follow the paths of their plows and harrows. 



There is great need of protection for birds, yet the average 

 ruralist is not familiar with the name of one bird in ten that 

 inhabits his fields, thus is not able to distinguish the most 

 delightful songster or the most effective insect destroyer. 



Each living creature has its use in the economy of nature, 

 and no species can be annihilated without disturbance of 

 equilibrium. The flies are useful scavengers. Mosquitoes, 

 worms, snakes, toads and all forms of life were designed for 

 a good purpose. One race may do service in keeping the 

 other in check. 



The increase of insects is marvelous. One insect may in 

 one year become the progenitor of six billion descendants. 

 Three hundred and twenty-five actual species of insects are 

 known, and it is thought that there are as many more species 

 unknown. If undisturbed, insects would destroy every 

 green thing upon the earth's surface, and men would perish ; 

 but nature has provided enemies, and prominent among 

 them are the birds, which keep the insects in check without 

 cost to the horticulturist. 



A swallow as it skims through the air on a summer day, 

 will destroy more insects than a farmer in the same length 

 of time sweating over a heavy bucket of Paris green mix- 

 ture. 



As the country became cleared of timber and more thickly 

 inhabited, the birds have been destroyed in large numbers 

 and insects have gained the ascendancy. 



There are birds worn by our city belles that alive would 

 accomplish more good work for mankind than the average 

 fashionable belle, although she lived for a century. The eyes 

 and beaks of these dead birds cry out in shame against the 

 cruel fashion that causes their slaughter. 



I once heard an intelligent fruit grower exclaim : "Shoot 

 the birds, they are eating my cherries." Why not as well 

 say: "Shoot the horses, they are eating my oats; shoot the 

 cows, they are eating my hay; shoot the chickens, they are 

 eating my corn; shoot the children, they are eating my 

 bread." If the horses, cows, chickens, and children are use- 

 ful and desirable features of our homes we must not destroy 

 them; neither must we destroy the birds if useful and de- 

 sirable. 



Five thousand miles is not a long distance for birds to 

 migrate. They often breed in one locality and feast in 

 another. But wherever they go. wherever they alight for a 

 mouthful of food, the gun, trap, cat or robbers await them. 

 How long will the race survive such treatment? Is not this 

 a question worthy of consideration? Charles A. Green, 

 Chairman Com. on Ornithology W.N.Y.H. Society. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



The lady leaders of the Audubon movement should not 

 forget that a prime essential of success is the creation of a 

 new channel for the diversion of the current of prevalent 

 fashion. No old fashion in dress is ever discarded until a 

 new rival establishes its claims to popular favor. Ethical, 

 economic and aesthetic forces hurl themselves against estab- 

 lished fashion in vain. Even the keen shafts of ridicule 

 glance off harmless. Fashion can be successfully assailed 

 by fashion only. The old by the new. Before feathers can 

 be driven out, flowers, or artistically arranged ribbons, or 

 other method of ornamention must come in. Ethical, econ- 

 omical and aesthetic forces are valuable auxiliaries, but the 

 practical business of the campaign is to inaugurate a new 

 fashion which can successfully compete with feathers for 

 popular favor. The Audubon Society must resolve itself 

 into a committee of taste, or take counsel with the milliners. 



The feather-decked hats reach their highest development 

 at the great gambling resort of Monte Carlo, where according 

 to the London World, "the ladies' hats are as high as the play. 

 Three girls, presumably sisters, and undoubtedly Ameri- 

 cans not in society, attract an immense attention by reason 

 of their showy garments. They wear very high conical 

 hats, ornamented in front with large green and yellow par- 

 rots with glaring glass eyes. Each bird is perched on a little 

 bough, and it is impossible to imagine anything more ludic- 

 rous or in worse taste. The girls are incessant talkers, and 

 my correspondent tells me they are known by the nickname 

 of the 'Prattling Pollies.'" 



It is proposed to kill off, with poisoned crumbs, the 



English sparrows which have bravely weathered the intense 

 cold and deep snows of this unusually bitter winter. Why? 

 Because these pugnacious little scavengers are said to be 

 driving away our native birds. Yesterday an observer 

 counted the remains of over twenty of our most attractive 

 New England birds sewed to the' headgear of the women 

 who were riding into town in a horse-car. Five pairs of 

 woodpeckers' wings and their accompanying tails graced, 

 or rather disgraced, the hat of one of these persons. We 

 venture to say that not one among ten thousand pretended 

 friends of our birds ever saw an English sparrow kill or maim 

 a native songster. On the other hand, how many women 

 are there in the State of Massachusetts who can say that 

 they have never worn the plumage of one of the birds they 

 profess to love? If poisoned bread is to be fed to the worst 

 enemies of our birds, milliners and their customers would 

 better live on crackers. — Boston Advertiser. 



The humorous writers are poking fun at the feathered 

 hats. "E. R." writes in the Rochester Post-Express: 



Ah the appeals that have been made to the sentimental 

 side of woman's nature, in behalf of the song birds, having 

 failed to induce her to abandon the practice of wearing their 

 dead bodies to deck her garments, I wish to suggest a way that 

 may be more effective toward protecting the feathered tribe 

 from sacrifice on the altar of fashion. The plan is to simply 

 enforce the laws now in existence for the punishment of 

 those who kill, or have in their possession, song or insectiv- 

 orous birds, except for scientific purposes. The state prisons 

 and penitentiaries are occupied by thousands of prisoners who 

 broke laws that are not at all more binding, in a legal sense, 

 than the law for the protection of birds. Every one of the 

 ten thousand women in Rochester who has a stuffed song 

 bird on her hat is liable to imprisonment for a year or a fine 

 of $25. Some of them wear more than one bird, and they 

 are subject to a double or triple fine or term in prison, for 

 each one of them is guilty of a misdemeanor by the act of 

 having in her possession "after the same is killed," the bird 

 with which she seeks to increase her own attractions. If 

 any wife, daughter, or sweetheart of a lawyer reads this and 

 has any doubt of its truth, let her consult him, even if she 

 has to pay a fee, and be convinced that 1 speak words of 

 truth and soberness. When they realize the danger they are 

 in by appearing before witnesses with the proof of their guilt, 

 they may thank me for this warning, and hasten to destroy 

 the poor dumb remains of the beautiful creatures they caused 

 to be killed and resolve not to incur such consequences again. 

 Think seriously of it, ye fair and gentle dames who have 

 broken your country's laws. Picture yourselves under arrest , 

 then indicted, next on trial in the Oyer and Terminer or not 

 less terrible Court of Sessions, wherein case of conviction ( of 

 which there can be no doubt), you will be solemnly sworn to 

 tell your age, whether you are married or single, did you 

 have religious instruction, can you read and write, and were 

 you ever before convicted. After your answers to these in- 

 teresting questions have been recorded in black ink, the 

 judge will ask you if you have anything to say why sentence 

 should not be pronounced, and whether you have or not, he 

 will proceed to say that you, Maud, Minnie, or Laura so and 



so, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for the term of 



six, eight, ten or twelve months, just as the court feels in- 

 clined. Then an officer will place heavy steel hand-cuffs on 

 your beautiful wrists, or at least one of them, and you will 

 be taken in company with other sinners to the prison to 

 which the judgment of the court consigned you. In the 

 house of woe you will have to work hard several hours a day. 

 You will not be allowed to talk to your neighbor, nor read 

 the papers, nor go to concerts, nor do anything except what 

 the keeper of the prison directs. If the satisfaction you de- 

 rive from wearing a glass-eyed bird perched in an unnatural 

 position on your hat, is equal to the pain you vould undergo 

 in the hands of the law, as I have mildly drawn it, then, 

 according to one of the maxims of an ancient philosopher, 

 you may take the risk. In conclusion, I will offer you a 

 word of advice, for really I am not your enemy, it is, that 

 henceforth, on going out with the mummified bird in your 

 bonnet, you make arrangements for the orderly management 

 of affairs at home in case of your prolonged absence. State 

 Game Constable George M. Schwartz is about to prosecute a 

 vigorous spring campaign, and John McDermot has been 

 elected city game constable. This new broom may sweep 

 you off the street and into a cell at the police station any 

 day. Beware ! 



At a recent meeting of the South Bristol Farmers' Club, 

 the following total abstinence pledge was circulated by Daniel 

 Ricketson, Esq. : "We hereby agree neither to buy nor use, 

 for any purpose whatever, the plumage of birds which have 

 been killed solely for decoration. And we promise to exer- 

 cise all our influence to further the object of this pledge, 

 which is the preservation of song birds. " 



SOME QUAIL NOTES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Yesterday Mr. Arthur L. Smith, of Toledo, took his de- 

 parture for his new home in Washington Territory, where he 

 has purchased six hundred acres of very desirable land near 

 Spokane Falls and purposes stock farming. As a part of 

 his family he takes with him a dozen live specimens of our 

 own Bob White {Oriyx v.) and expects to turn them down on 

 his new domain. I know they are in fine condition, for I 

 fed them all winter, and Mr. S. believes from a previous 

 knowledge of the climate of that portion of the Territory 

 that the birds can be acclimated there without difficulty, a 

 belief in which some of the rest of us share. 



Speaking of acclimation, my pair of Arizona quail sent me 

 in October, 1884, "come up smiling" after their second 

 winter in the open air of Northern Ohio, and have already 

 begun mating, and will probably nest in April. Perhaps 

 Mr. Brown will kindly tell us whether they are ever known 

 to be polygamous in their breeding habits. 



This winter I have carried through some fifty head of 

 Virginia quail and other game birds, with a moderate per 

 cent, of loss among the wild stock, and none at all among 

 those previously on hand. Shall turn out birds intended for 

 stocking purposes within the next two weeks if the weather 

 is not unfavorable. 



Among the birds on hand at the beginning of the past 

 winter was a male Virginia quail hatched in the summer of 

 1884, and now some eighteen months old. All the wild 

 quail were placed in the same coop with him, and he ap- 

 peared from the first to view their restlessness and alarm with 

 a great deal of good-natured contempt. But among the new 

 corners was one large, fine looking hen, and with her he was 

 deeply smitten from the first. It was evidently a case of 

 mutual admiration, since the hen at once placed herself 



