July 28, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



surety have bitten him, but the chief Wolf said, "Hold! 

 We will let him go this time, for he is young and not yet 

 of good sense." So they let him go. 



When night had come, they heard one who shouted for 

 a feast, saying "Wo'-ku-hi-i-'i! Wo'-ka-hi-i-i! Malv'kwe-T 

 Ke'tiim-ok'-ah-wah-hl Ke'-tfik-kS piik-si-pim." (Listen! 

 Listen! Wolf you are to feast, enter with your friend). 

 "We are asked," said the chief Wolf to his new friend, 

 and they went to the lodge where the feast was given. 

 It belonged to the chief of the Ravens. [Here the narra- 

 tor is a, little obscure, but from questioning him and 

 others I learn that these ravens, wolves, foxes and others 

 were supposed to take the shape of men at will.] 



Within the tire burned brightly, and in the seats of 

 honor sat the aged and wise of the Raven gens. Hanging 

 behind the seats were the writing of many deeds, [mean- 

 ing the painting on oowskin of the various battles and 

 adventures in which the owner of the lodge had partici- 

 pated]. Then was food placed before the ui, pemmican 

 of berries, and the thick white fat. And when they had 

 eaten, the pipe was smoked around the circle. Then 

 spoke the Raven chief : "Now Wolf, I am going to give 

 om' new friend a present. What say you?" 



" 'Tis as you say," replied the Wolf. "Our new friend 

 will be glad." 



Then the Raven chief took from a long parfleche sack a 

 wand beautifully dressed with many colored feathers, and 

 on the far end of it was fastened the skin of a raven-head, 

 wings, feet and all. "We," he said, "are the Raven- 

 packers [those who carry the Raven]. Of all the above 

 animals, of all the flyers, where one so smart ? None ! 

 Sharp the Raven's eyes, strong his wings. Hungry he is 

 never. A great hunter he, far, far off on the prairie he 

 sees his food, and deep hidden in the pines it escapes not 

 his eye. Now the song. [Here the Raven carriers' song 

 is given.] Then he handed him the medicine [the deco- 

 rated wand] and said, "Take it with you, and when you 

 have returned to the lodge of your people you will say : 

 "Now there is the Bull's, and he who is the Raven chief 

 thus says : ' There shall be more ; there shall be the 

 E-kun-uh'-kah-tse, that the people may survive, and of them 

 shall be the Raven carriers.' " In-the-middle-talk house 

 you shall call the chiefs and the old wise men, and they 

 shall select the persons and teach them the song, and the 

 medicine shall be theirs forever. Now again the song. 

 [Here the song is repeated]. 



Then soon again they heard him who shouted for the 

 feast, and going, they entered the lodge of the SIn-o-pah 

 chief. Here, too, were the old men assembled. Now, 

 after they had eaten of that set before them, the chief 

 said, "Those among whom you are new arrived are gen- 

 erous. They look not at their possessions, but give to the 

 stranger, and they take pity on the poor. A little animal 

 the Kit-fox. What smarter than he? None! His hair is 

 like the dead prairie grass. Sharp his eyes, noiseless his 

 feet, cunning his brain; his ears receive the far-off sound. 

 Here now our medicine. Take it." And he gave the 

 wand. It was a long stick, crooked at one end. It was 

 wound the entire length with fox skins and decorated at 

 intervals with eagle tail feathers. Now again he said, 

 "Hear the song. Hear and forget not. And the dance, 

 too, you shall remember, and you shall teach it to the 

 people; and the E-kfm-uh'-kah-tse shall have the Kit- 

 foxes too." 



Again they heard the feast shout, and he who called 

 was the Bear chief. Now when they had eaten, the. chief 

 said, "What say you, friend Wolf? Shall we give our new 

 friend something?" 



"As you say," replied the Wolf . "It is yours to give." 



Then said the chief Bear, "There are many animals; 

 i;hose who fly, and those who walk, and those who live 

 under the water. They are of no force. The bear is the 

 strongest one. Strong his teeth, long and sharp his claws, 

 and his heart is brave. He fears nothing. That which 

 lie seizes he lets not go." Then he put on a necklace of 

 bear claws, a belt of bear fur, and around his head a band 

 of bear fur. "This," he said, "is the medicine. Now the 

 song and the dance." When he had finished he gave the 

 medicine to the new come one, and said, ' 'Lose them not, 

 nor forget the song and dance, for the Bears too shall be of 

 ,the E-kun-uh'-kah-tse." 



It was now far into the night, yet again, from the far 

 •end of the camp they heard the feast shout. In this lodge 

 the men were painted with streaks of red, and their scalp 

 locks were long and carefully braided. After the feast 

 the chief said, "We are no animal gens. We are the 

 Mut-si" [this word means as nearly as it can be expressed 

 in English, rashly brave.] "We are death. If our 

 enemies are like the grass [in number] we turn not away. 

 Bows are good, spears better, but our weapon is the knife." 

 Then the chief sung and danced and when he was through 

 he gave the Wolf's friend the medicine. It was a long 

 stone knife and scalps were tied on the handle. "For the 

 E-kun-uh'-kah-tse," he said, "is this." 



Once more they were called to the feast and entered the 

 lodge of the chief of Badgers. He, also, taught the 

 Badger song and dance, and gave the medicine. It was 

 a rattle, ornamented with beaver claws and bright 

 feathers; and after they had smoked two pipes the Wolf 

 and his new friend went to their lodges and slept. 



Not yet had risen the sun, but the food was cooked; 

 and when light they took down their lodge and prepared 

 to return to the people. Then came many women and 

 they brought meat and pemmican, and berries dried, for 

 presents, and they were given so much that they could 

 not pack it all away. The people, too, had moved away 

 in seai'ch of buffalo, and many days were passed before 

 they met. Then he who had been to the animals' homes 

 told what he had seen; and, as they said, he taught those 

 who were chosen the songs and dances. Thus was the 

 beginning of the E-kun-uh'-kah-tse. It was long ago. 



The main object of this society, so far as I can learn, 

 was to protect the village or camps from enemies and 

 from internal strifes and quarrels. Without permission, 

 no lodge of people could leave the main camp. If they 

 did members of this society quickly overtook them, and 

 not only destroyed the lodge, but also all the personal 

 property of the owners. A like punishment was inflicted 

 on those who stole out to hunt by themselves, thereby 

 scaring the game away. Certain days were set for hunt- 

 ing, so all would have an opportunity to secure food. 

 Another and by far the most important duty of this society 

 was to protect th e camp from surprise by enemies. Whether 

 traveling or not, scouts were always out in all directions 

 watching for war parties, and so ceaseless was their vigi- 

 lance that, so far as tradition goes, it is said that a Black- 



foot camp was never surprised. Of the fighting qualities 

 of these people more will be said in another chapter. 



At intervals the different bands of this society held a 

 dance, when they appeared in full costume. At the 

 medicine lodge they all took part. J. W. Schttltz. 



■iititiiiil distort). 



THE WHIP-TAILED SCORPION. 



DOWN along the Rio Grande, there is a great deal to 

 interest the lover of nature, the naturalist, even if 

 the true sportsman does not find the country a paradise 

 in his own eyes. Through the region where this grand 

 old stream finds its way in Texas, occurs an interesting 

 representative of the armadillos (Tahma novem-cinctus), 

 numerous forms of indigenous squirrels, and others of the 

 Rodentia. rare types of bats, and several of the rarer 

 Mustelida?, all among the mammals; while as we know it 

 is the land of the coppery-tailed trogon (T. amlngum), 

 the lovely Texan kingfisher, the curious parauque (N. 

 albicoUis), some of the most beautiful of the humming- 

 birds, and the famous chachalaoa (Ortalis vetnla mac- 

 fiiH:. among the birds. And when we come to the rep- 

 tiles, fish, and insects, there is no end to the novelties and 

 intensely interesting forms for study. 



Among the last-named occurs the much-dreaded whip- 

 tailed scorpion, as the writer pleases to call it, the "vin- 

 egaroon," as most of the people thereabouts designate the 

 insect, which is the Thclyphonus giganteus of science. A 

 few days ago I received" a very fine adult specimen of 

 this creature, from Steward Henry Bunger of the Hos- 

 pital Corps of the Array, who collected it at his station, 

 Fort Seldon, New Mexico, and forwarded it to me. 



Upon receiving it, I immediately made a life-size draw- 

 ing of the insect, the figure which illustrates the present 

 article. Manv reports have come to me about this scor- 



Upper view of a specimen of tlie Whip-tailed Scorpion (The 

 " Vinegaroon") Tlichifihri-iim (jiganteus; life size, 

 from nature, by the author. 



pion, and those who have seen it in its native haunts are 

 curious to know how it is regarded and classified by 

 naturalists. Personally, I have never known of a case that 

 proved fatal from its bite, though Professor Packard, the 

 eminent entomologist, tells us that its bite is poisonous, 

 yet seldom causes the death of the person who sus- 

 tains it. 



Scorpions, it will be remembered, are somewhat closely 

 allied to the true spiders (Arachnida) and are character- 

 ized in possessing a liver, which organ is absent in the 

 winged insects. They are likewise without antennas, 

 and have but one pair of jaws, and four pairs of legs. 

 Usually the abdomen is of considerable size, while the 

 head and thorax are more intimately united together than 

 we find these two divisions in the bodies of most other 

 insects to be. 



We are all more or less familiar with the form of the 

 true scorpion, with its pair of claws something like those 

 of a crab, its segmented body, its elongated tail-like 

 appendage which is also segmented, and is terminated by 

 its sting, though the poison gland which supplies the 

 latter is located at the base of the tail, the venom when 

 called into use passing through a pair of ducts to it. 

 Other investigators tell us, however, that the poison is 

 contained in the bulbous enlargement at its extremity. 

 At the present writing, it has never been my fortune to 

 have carefully dissected one of these interesting insects, 

 so I cannot personally decide this matter for you here. 



Young scorpions are brought forth alive, and are known 

 to travel about riding on the back of their mother. They 

 possess, in common with their parents, the power of run- 

 ning backwaxds and sideways, as we have seen some 

 species of crabs do. 



Now our whip-tailed scorpion is structurally nearer the 

 spiders than are the true scorpions, and the lash which 

 gives it its name is but a feeble, segmented appendage to 

 the abdomen, which does not harbor the sting at its ex- 

 tremity. It also has, as will be seen by the figure, four 



pahs of legs, but the anterior pah are considerably modi- 

 fied, being far longer and more slender than the others. 



They each consist of four principal joints, and then 

 distally are terminated by another section which is made 

 up of eight more diminutive joints. The other legs also 

 possess four principal joints but terminate by sort of a 

 hand which has three minor segments and is finished off 

 by a delicate claw. Anteriorly, the clawed-arms remind 

 us very much, being exceedingly hard and firm, of the 

 limbs of certain of the smaller species of crabs. Head 

 and thorax have really coalesced in this insect, and no 

 doubt exists as to the segmentation of its large abdomen , 

 there being nine divisions in it, while a small protruding- 

 part behind, also segmented, supports from its extremity 

 the lash. 



This is one of the largest representatives of our insect 

 fauna in the United States, and I trust the brief account 

 of it which is presented here will prove of interest to 

 those who desire to be informed in regard to the curious 

 animals they may chance to met with in their rambles, 

 and who can admire nature all the more for being in pos- 

 session of such information. R. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Winqate, N. M., Jnne 26. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY CONGRESS. 



THE sixth annual meeting of the American Forestry Congress 

 will he held in Springfield, 111., Sept. U to 10, in rcsponsetq 

 air invitation tendered by the Legislature ot that State: A simi- 

 lar resolution was passed also by the Legislature of the State of 

 Nebraska, but inasmuch as the last meeting of the Congress was 

 held in the far West, the Executive Committee have preferred to 

 locate this year's meeting more cent rally, and to accept the cordial 

 invitation of the Stale, of Illinois. 



A full attendance of members is urged to justify, and appropri- 

 ately respond to the courtesy of the Sta te of Illinois. Papers upon 

 topics of interest are solicited from members and friends. 



Those expecting to participate; in t he sessions are requested to 

 announce their intention to the secretary before Sept. 1, and to 

 transmit the titles of papers they wish to read. 



Among others, the following topics arc suggested as specially 

 •fitted for discussion at this meeting: a. Necessity of a change of 

 policy on the. part of the General Government in regard to its 

 timber domain, b. E (Fects and results of forest legislation in the 

 different Stales, c. Suggestions in regard to desirable forest legis- 

 lation. (I. Status of artilicial forest planting in the Prairie States 

 and suggestions in regard to the same. c. Methods of enlarging 

 the effectiveness of the work of the Forestry Congress. 



It is a gratifying sign of progress, that the Legislatures of two 

 great States have recognized the value and given expression to 

 their appreciation of the work of the Forestry Congress, by desir- 

 ing it to hold its next meeting in their capitals. 



Such recognition may inspire to renewed effort those who are 

 laboring unselfishly in this work of reform, and fill them with the 

 hope that at last their object will be attained; that progress, 

 though slow, is assured. 



It may be fitting on this occasion once more to state the reason 

 of the existence and the object of the Forestry Congress, for in 

 spite of the active propagandise which it has maintained orinsti- 

 gated in papers and periodicals, and by the publication of discus- 

 sions and proceedings, the full scope of the work in hand seems 

 not yet generally understood. 



Although there are still large districts of our country densely 

 wooded; although most of our forest areas possess such vigorous 

 power of recuperation as to lend countenance to the belief that 

 nature's efforts alone might suffice to repair the inroads made by 

 man upon the forest growth; althotigh substitutes for wood are 

 possible in many cases and are already employed in some; yet we 

 claim: That the present reported forest area of the country (less 

 than 500,000,000 acres) cannot, in its present condition, and under 

 present methods of utilization, furnish a continuous supply of 

 wood of all kinds even to our present population of 150,000,000, the 

 annual consumption being over 20 billion cubic feet; that the sup- 

 ply of building material, if slaughtered in the same manner as 

 heretofore, without regard to recuperation, will be practically ex- 

 hausted before any new crop now started can be ready for use: 

 that our supplies will be inferior in quality and inferior in amount 

 per acre, if left to nature's methods of re-forestation after the 

 forcible interference by man, Avhile an increased population will 

 make larger demands on these resources; that in spite of the em- 

 ployment of substitutes, the consumption of wood is increasing 

 with the increase of population all over the world, (in Germany 

 the consumption of coal has increased 265 per cent, within 24 

 years, and yet the wood production has increased in a similar 

 ratio). 



We claim, that considered merely as regards material supply, 

 the question of forest preservation Jias reached a stage where the 

 earnest attention of the economist is called for. 



We claim, tbat the equilibrium of the forces regulating water 

 supplv and soil conditions is beginning to be disturbed, to the 

 detriment of agriculture, by a needlessly wasteful and improvi- 

 dent management of our forest areas. 



We claim that every patriotic citizen, every thinking man or 

 woman is concerned in the maintenance of a properly managed 

 forest cover, sufficient both for material supplies and for the 

 comforts of civilized life. 



Our objects, then, are to eradicate the existing feeling of un- 

 concern in regard to one of the most important factors of eco- 

 nomic progress; to demonstrate the direct and indirect value of 

 our forest cover in relation to the agricultural conditions and the 

 civilization of our country; to convince our people that forestry is 

 as much needed by a civilized and rapidly developing nation as 

 agriculture; to show that immediate activity is called for in view 

 of the present status of our forests and still more in view of the 

 indifferent manner with which they have been and still are re- 

 garded and used; to prove that economy in the use of wood, care- 

 ful protection and careful working of the natural forests, plant- 

 ing of new forests on waste places and in the prairie regions, have 

 become a national necessity. 



This is not a question that concerns only to-day or to-morrow; 

 the consequences of to-day's action or inaction are visible only 

 after the lapse of many years; they are not easily foreseen nor 

 their time and extent foretold. The fool and squanderer marches 

 along, heedless of the coming disaster; the wise man acts in time 

 to prevent it. We appeal, therefore, to every good citizen to give 

 thought to these warnings and to aid us in the endeavor to im- 

 press upon our people the need of caution, economy and a con- 

 servative management of our forest resources, the need of a 

 timely beginning for future emergencies, the need of systematic 

 planting tor immediate effects in the treeless plains, the need of 

 forest preservation on our hills and mountains. 



Our work is the woric of advocating and establishing principles. 

 We meet once a year and by our discussions incite or enlarge local 

 interest in the question of forestry; we encourage and assist in 

 the formation of local forestry associations which will translate 

 our teachings into practical results; we try to create a sentiment 

 favorable to our objects by publishing our proceedings and ap- 

 peals; we try to induce and support legislation looking toward 

 forest preservation and the encouragement of forest planting; and 

 incidentally we endeavor to give information for practical ap- 

 plication. We are few in number, poor in funds, without a per- 

 sonal object, without paid officers, but we work faithfully, with 

 the conviction that we forward the interests of our country. As 

 there is no personal advantage in becoming a member of this 

 congress we must rely for support upon the best impulses of an 

 elevated citizenship, which prompts self-imposed duties and 

 taxes for the advancement and welfare of the country. 



We appel to those who can raise themselves a bove the level of 

 selfish motives in solving this national problem, to aid our work 

 by joining us, lending their moral support and financial aid to a 

 worthy object. 



Applications for membership are received by the undersigned 

 or any of the officers. B. E. Fernow, Secretary. 



Washington, D. C, June, 1887. 



Recent Arrivals at Philadelphia Zoological Garden. 

 Purchased— Three American badgers (Tax-idea amcricaua), one 

 Malbrouck monkey (Cercopitluxm eyaomvus), one green monkey 

 (GcrcopitJieeus caUUriiims), two llliger's macaws (Ara maracana), 

 one purple galimule (Porphyria marLimca), one mealy Amazon 

 (GhrysoUs farinosa), two blue-bonnet parrakeets (Psepllotua fta-ma- 

 togasler), two white-eared conures {Cuaurus leucotw), two pine 

 snakes (PityopMs menanoleucm) and two horned lizards (Phryno- 

 aomaeornutum). Presented— Two jumping mice (Jactiim huilson- 

 ius), one raccoon (Procyon labor), two flying squirrels {Pteromys 

 volucella), one red fox ( Pulpes /ulcus), three screech owls (Scops 

 08to), two pigeon hawks (Accipitcr fimuit), two alligators (Alligator 

 mwsmippierisis), six water snakes (Tropidcmolm fasciatus) and 

 three box tortoises (Cistudo clama). Born— One fallow deer (Oer- 

 rus dttmal. 



