Nov. 3, 1887.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



288 



191bs. more than the day I arrived. I have been there 

 three years, and my smallest gain has been lOlbs. in three 

 weeks. This may sound like a very pretty fairy tale to 

 those who have not been there, but I have resisted the 

 temptation to tuck on a pound or so, and have stuck to 

 the bare truth. 



Every season you hear from the guides that the deer 

 are thicker than they have been for fifteen years; but this 

 is all bosh, as they are slowly but surely on the decrease. 

 I do not mean to say they are scarce, as there are yet 

 many places where good sport may be had, and also an 

 abundance of trout, when you have a thoroughly good 

 guide. My advice to all those who go to the shore year 

 after year without deriving the slightest benefit is, try the 

 Adirondacks. C. N. B. 



Bl?OOKLY.V, K. Y. 



THE GILA MONSTER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



At the military post where I spent a short time collect- 

 ing in southern Arizona I heard many accounts of the 

 monster from the soldiers. It was thought by them to be 

 very dangerous, and several went so far as to say that 

 they had known of men and mules killed by having the 

 breath of the animals breathed on to them. This was said 

 occurred near the Gila River, where the men were en- 

 camped and where the monsters are known to be very 

 numerous. I questioned many scouts, hunters, cowboys 

 and settlers, and could learn of but one case that proved 

 fatal, and that one was described by your correspondent 

 ■"G. H. K." in your issue of Aug. 25. The Gila monster 

 . is common in the State of Sonora, northern Mexico, and 

 is very much feared by the Mexicans. From what I 

 could see and hear it is seldom found to measure over 

 Slin. in length, although some have been found 26in. 

 Several that I saw did not measure over 18in., and one 

 only went Sin. Men in Tombstone, Arizona, near which 

 place they are often found, have offered as high as $1 per 

 inch for every inch over 21. A very large Gila monster 

 preserved is on exhibition with numerous other Arizona 

 curiosities in the Occidental Hotel, in Tombstone. 



The tarantula I did not ses in Cochise county, Arizona, 

 nor in Sonora. I found many scorpions in the Sierra 

 Madra Mountains, and in the towns below, but I did not 

 see any answering to the description of the whip-tailed. 

 Those found in the towns were small and light-colored, 

 and those in the mountains larger and dark-colored. 

 They are called by the Mexicans allecrants. Doctor M., 

 with whom I was stopping in one of the Mexican towns, 

 informed me that many children die from the bite of the 

 scorpion, which in nearly every case proves fatal. They 

 are very numerous in the houses after the rainy season 

 commences. The scorpions I took in the mountains were 

 got by displacing rocks and old logs; and sometimes 

 under one rock scorpions and centipedes were found in 

 company, 



Mexico is very rich in its varied insect and reptile life, 

 and at some future time I may write about some of the 

 beautiful and curious lizards that I saw on the mountains. 



John C. Oahoon. 



REASON AND INSTINCT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I hear it sometimes remarked by friends or associates 

 that it seems to them that animals (such as dogs and cats) 

 are able to reason. The very form of the assertion, how- 

 ever, indicates a doubt and a consciousness that the 

 opinion runs counter to a theory and popular belief. 

 Now it appears to me passing strange that any intelli- 

 gent man should have a doubt in this matter, for a little 

 observation of the lower animals, coupled with appropri- 

 ate reflection, will convince him that they reason as 

 sharply as man, although not always so well nor in so 

 wide a range. I venture to offer a few rough examples 

 and observations on the general subject. 



Seasoning consists in drawing a conclusion or deduc- 

 tion from two or more facts or premises. Thus, if I per- 

 ceive a man fire a pistol at another who at once falls to 

 the ground there are two facts from which I am justified 

 in concluding that the one man has killed or seriously 

 wounded the other. If then the one who fired the shot 

 should fire a second at the prostrate man I should be fur- 

 ther justified in the opinion that the first shot was not 

 accidental, but intentional. The first deduction is mainly 

 from two facts or premises, namely, the tiring and the 

 fall; and the second deduction is from three facts, namely, 

 the firing, the fall and the renewed firing. Again, I get 

 in a perspiration from physical exertion and then sit in a 

 cool draught. A severe cold results. I readily deduce 

 from the two premises involved that it is not safe to sit 

 in a draught when perspiring, or that a sudden cooling 

 of the body is not conducive to health. 



If 1 see a strange track in the woods, and following up 

 the trail come upon a lynx, the conclusion will follow 

 that that animal made it: but this conclusion would be 

 negatived and another substituted, if I should discover a 

 panther in a tree near by, and upon shooting both the 

 panther and the lynx find that tne feet of the former ex- 

 actly fit the track, while those of the lynx do not. Here 

 opinion changes by adding to the facts constituting the 

 premises. 



If a dog follows a certain track and comes upon a 

 rabbit, and by following a certain other track comes upon 



I a panther; and if on another occasion we observe him 

 ■show not only interest but pleasure and zeal when follow- 



| ing another rabbit track, but exhibit hesitation and fear 

 when following another panther track, we readily per- 

 ceive that from the two premises in the one case he has 

 drawn a very different conclusion from that drawn from 

 the two premises of the second case, 



If we note that a certain dog fears and hates pedlars 

 carrying packs, and find by inquiry that the first pack- 

 pedlar the dog ever saw had struck or kicked him, we 

 should perceive that the one brute, had drawn a too broad 

 conclusion from the appearance and act of the other. If, 

 later, we should find that the same dog had lost both fear 

 and hate of pack-pedlars in general, and by inquiry dis- 

 cover that he had been fed and generally well treated by 

 some pack-pedlars, it would be clear that the dog had 

 reasoned himself into a modification of his first deduc- 

 tion, 



If a horse trembles when his owner approaches, but ex- 

 hibits confidence and pleasure upon meeting his groom, 

 we know that the animal has reasoned from a very dif- 

 ferent set of facts in the one case from what he did in the 

 other. In the one case the horse said to himself, "Here 

 comes that man who beats me so often, I am afraid he 

 will beat me now, because he has done it so often before 

 under like circumstances." In the other case he says, 

 "Here comes the man who feeds me good things every 

 morning; it is morning now, so I think he is going to 

 feed me again and I am glad." 



A cow burns her mouth in attempting to eat hot mush 

 from which steam is escaping. Thereafter she will re- 

 fuse to eat mush which is steaming, thus drawing a 

 sound conclusion from her first and only experience" hi 

 mush eating. 



Poultry comes flying to be fed when they see a dish set 

 down in a particular place. They reason thus: "Pre- 

 viously when a dish has been set there we have found 

 food in it. From those two faGts we are sure in our opin- 

 ion that there is food in it now." 



It is needless to multiply examples, even if space permit- 

 ted. These suffice to demonstrate that the lower animals 

 form opinions from facts, and that those opinions vary 

 as the facts do, within certain limits, and that they 

 therefore reason precisely as men do. The difference ob- 

 viously lies in the scope and range of mental action, not 

 in its essential character. Potomac. 



HINTS ON SPARROW DESTRUCTION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



American fruit growers, and agriculturists generally, 

 are beginning to discover how great an error has been 

 committed in the introduction of the English sparrow, 

 under the impression that its insectivorous habits would 

 render it valuable to the farmer and gardener, and now 

 a general cry is raised for its extermination, to which 

 end various modes of destruction have been proposed. 

 Poison, the shotgun in the hands of boys, netting and 

 trapping have been proposed, but the two former means, 

 while far from adequate to the end proposed, would in- 

 volve in unmerited annihilation many of our most beau- 

 tiful and useful native birds. Netting and trapping 

 would not pay unless a high bounty were offered for their 

 capture. 



The protection of hawks, owls, butcher birds, weasels, 

 and other birds and beasts of prey has also been advo- 

 cated and might be advantageous if they could be per- 

 suaded to feed exclusively on the sparrow, but unfortu- 

 nately these carnivora will dine quite as readily on a 

 goldfinch or a woodthrush as upon a sparrow. From my 

 knowledge of the habits and fecundity of the bird, and I 

 had forty years' experience with them in England, I am 

 fisatised that any or all of the above methods will be quite 

 inefficient in securing their extermination, or even in 

 materially reducing their numbers. The only effectual 

 way of preventing their increase and confining their dep- 

 redations within endurable bounds is to pull out their 

 nests during the breeding season and destroy the eggs and 

 young. This, if carried out over the whole of the infested 

 area, will limit their increase, while the host of those 

 which have reached maturity will be diminished by the 

 attacks of then furred and feathered enemies and by the 

 shotgun of the ubiquitous boy. In my native county, 

 Northumberland, when the sparrows became too numer- 

 ous in any locality the farmers of the neighborhood would 

 form a "sparrow club" and offer a bounty of three cents a 

 dozen for the eggs or callow young, and six cents (3d. 

 sterling) for the heads of the old birds; this policy would, 

 in the course of a single season, effect a very appreciable 

 reduction in the number of the birds and in the extent of 

 their depredations. 



A very good way to bring the shotgun into play is this: 

 On a piece of level ground in front of a bam door or 

 window or other cover, sprinkle a narrow train of small 

 grain and seeds from the cleaner of the thrashing ma- 

 chine or fanning mill, beginning about twenty paces 

 from the cover and carrying it on for forty or fifty paces, 

 when the birds assemble, as they will do, to enjoy the 

 feast, a light charge of powder and half an ounce of No. 8 

 shot aimed at the ground about one-third of the length 

 of the train will sweep it from end to end, when the dead 

 birds can be picked up and and the cripples caught and 

 killed. I have myself got twenty-six from one discharge 

 and I know others who have made even better shots than 

 this. This should be done occasionally duiingthe winter, 

 the snow being swept or shovelled from the track pre- 

 vious to laying down the seeds. Besides the sport it 

 might afford a source of revenue to the farmers' boys, as 

 the birds would bring at least a cent a piece at the res- 

 taurants, where "sparrows on toast" is becoming a fash- 

 ionable dish; and believe me, for I have tried it, that a 

 well-made sparrow pie is a dish by no means to be lightly 

 esteemed. James T. Bell. 



Albert College, Belleville, Ontario. 



MUD WASP AND HOUSE SPIDER. 



AMONG the singular things that came under my ob- 

 servation during the past summer was a fight be- 

 tween a mud wasp and a house spider. 



I was in the barn one morning in July standing near a 

 broken window, when I heard a buzzing sound against 

 the glass. This led me to look down, and there, almost 

 under my nose, was a mud wasp in a spider's web. I was 

 not surprised to see the wasp in the barn, for they are 

 very fond of sticking their nests around any outbuilding, 

 nor would I have been surprised had I seen' a wasp carry- 

 ing a spider to store away in his mud tunnel for his young 

 grub to feed upon. The spider, however, that as a general 

 thing they use for this purpose is what is called the wolf 

 spider, the one that spreads its net in the crevices of stone 

 walls, or where he has a hole to retreat to. But what sur- 

 prised me most was to see a wasp caught this time, and 

 that by a mqderately-sized spider. 



When I first discovered them the spider was working 

 away for dear life to prevent the wasp's escape. He had 

 fastened the wasp's wings so securely over his back that 

 he could scarcely move them, and two of the captive's 

 legs were entangled. The spider was working at one of 

 these legs when I looked down. As fast as it was bound 

 the wasp would bite off the web. But, of course, I could 

 not see the web as plainly as I could see the insects. Had 

 the wasp been able to turn his head he might have freed 

 his wings in the same way that he freed this leg. But 

 here was the difficulty. The spider had him suspended 



by his wings, his body hanging clown and all the legs on 

 one side free. 



Of course I was interested at once, and I must say my 

 sympathies were with the plucky spider. As I said, the 

 spider was at Avork on one of the wasp's legs when I dis- 

 covered them. I had only watched them for a minute or 

 more when I Baw a quick movement on the part of the 

 wasp, and in an instant the spider was on the wasp's head 

 — or so it seemed to me — and appeared to be biting him. 

 But in this I was wrong. I only had to wait half a 

 minute, when the spider drew back, and to my astonish- 

 ment the wasp had one of his front legs in his mouth. 

 On this the spider crawled slowly away to the upper 

 corner of his web. Ho acted as though lie had been in- 

 jured, and yet he ascended quite lively considering that 

 one of his climbing legs was gone. 



Meanwhile the wasp seemed to take particular pleasure 

 in biting this leg. I could see it move. He appeared to 

 be passing it backward and forward through his mouth, 

 much as a cuckoo does a tent caterpillar before he swal- 

 lows it, or a robin an angle worm before it disappears. 



But now more efforts were made by the wasp to free 

 himself. I thought for certain he would get away. It 

 did not seem possible that a spider's web could stand such 

 struggles. This went on for two minutes or more, when 

 all at once the wasp was still. Tired out, thought I, and 

 so no doubt thought the spider, for down he came and 

 commenced to weave again the cords that had been 

 broken. He was near the wasp's head now, and appeared 

 to be throwing his net over that portion of his victim's 

 body. 



The wasp's rage meanwhile was seemingly tremendous, 

 He had waked up. He kicked and squirmed, and drew 

 his body up and threw it back again, and exhibited every 

 passion of which we can imagine a wasp capable, when 

 quick as thought I noticed him make an unusually des- 

 perate effort, and again the spider was on the wasp's head; 

 or so it looked to me. He appeared to have jumped upon 

 him, just as when a small fly is entangled in a web and 

 does not require to be bound, the spider bounces upon 

 him. And now all was still for half a minute. The 

 spider appeared to be on the wasp's head and sucking his 

 blood. I thought for certain he was doing so and was 

 about to congratulate myself on the spider's victory, and 

 thinking, "I never knew before that the bite of a spider 

 would kill a wasp" (for wasp and spicier were perfectly 

 still), when the wasp drew up his hinder parts, which 

 were free, and three different times I saw his stinger 

 pierce upward in rapid succession into the spider's body. 

 And now said I, "it is all up with the spider," for I know 

 the paralyzing influences of a wasp's sting on any insect. 

 But no, the spider drew back slowly again and this time 

 the wasp had one of the larger weaving or hind legs of 

 the spider in his mouth. It now seemed hard work for 

 the spider to retreat. He did so though and again seated 

 himself in the corner of his web. The wasp gradually 

 worked himself free, scraped the net off from his wings, 

 and went away. 



For several days after the battle I saw the spider minus 

 two of his legs, crawling slowly over his web or sitting 

 in the corner of it. He did not die from the effects of the 

 fight, though, so far as I could discover. A. H. G. 



Sing Sing, N. Y. 



Grouse and Lawn Tennis Court.— Sing Sing, Oct. 26. 

 — While crossing the lawn tennis court of Mr. Archibald 

 Rogers, at Hyde Park, N. Y., one morning last week, we 

 were surprised to find a ruff eel grouse lying on the ground 

 dead. It was hardly cold and the feathers were perfectly 

 dry, although it had rained during the night and the 

 ground was damp. What had caused the death of the 

 bird was the question. But it was a question very easily 

 answered. At each end of the tennis court is a piece of 

 wire netting, tacked up to stakes that stand about 4ft. 

 high, thus forming a light fence that prevents the balls 

 from going very far out of bounds. The grouse had 

 struck one of these fences and broken its neck. There 

 was a dent in the netting some Sin. deep where the slack 

 of it was driven out as though a heavy stone had been 

 thrown against the wire. Only three or four feathers lay 

 on the ground. The bird's neck was bent aside and 

 turned somewdiat under the breast. Death must have 

 been instantaneous. We have heard of partridges flying 

 against houses and telegraph wires, but never before 

 against wire nettings on a lawn. Will some of the read- 

 ers of Forest and Stream tell us what they have observed? 

 -A. H. G. 



"That reminds me." 

 223. 



IN the fall of 1868 when I was visiting professionally 

 the reduction works of the Cook Mine in the ninth 

 concession of the township of Marmora, in the county of 

 Hastings, Ontario, a bear one night killed a fat hog on a 

 farm about two miles down the river, and took the car- 

 cass to a neighboring piece of woods, where he made his 

 supper. The next night two men, artned with gains, 

 went to watch what was left of it, but the listeners in the 

 farmhouse heard no report up to the time when they 

 went to sleep. In the morning, when the watchers were 

 asked as to whether they had seen the bear, they an- 

 swered no; the only thing they saw was that about 10 

 o'clock two black calves came and smelled around piggy 

 for awhile and then went away into the woods. But 

 when the farmer went to see whether any of the slam 

 hog might be convertible into salt pork lie 'found that the 

 "black calves" had taken the remains with them. 

 Belleville, Ontario. J. T. B. 



Schultze Powder.— Centralia, Pa., Oct. 25 —Editor 

 Forest and Stream: Can not some of the readers of 

 your paper who have used the Schultze gunpowder give 

 then experience with it whether good or bad ? If facts 

 bear out the eight recommendation given in your issue of 

 the 20th, it is what eveiy sportsman needs. My experi- 

 ence with some of these "new f angles" has been far from 

 a satisfactory one, and I am a little suspicious.— Spice- 



WOOD. 



"Sporting Topics" is the new name of our Boston con- 

 temporary formerly known as Judge and Jury. The 

 change of title is greatly for the better, and there ought 

 to be room in Boston for Topics to flourish. 



