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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 10, 1867- 



Address all communications to the Forest and St/ream Pub. Co. 



TREE-CLIMBING RATTLESNAKES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Some years ago I sent you an article for publication in 

 your paper, enumerating a few instances coming under 

 my personal observation, in which rattlesnakes had been 

 found by me in trees and bushes during my ramblings 

 on the western frontier. I wrote that article in reply to 

 a note from one of your correspondents, who, as nearly 

 as I can remember now, ridiculed Audubon's statement, 

 I think, to that effect, and stated or implied that it was 

 physically impossible for rattlesnakes to climb at all. 



From what I have learned since I am inclined to the 

 belief that the habit of our western species of rattle- 

 snakes of climbing rough-barked trees, especially if these 

 lean a little to one side, in pursuit of small manvmals, 

 birds and their eggs and young, is much more common 

 than is ordinarily supposed to be the case. 



A friend of mine, a young cavalry officer, recently 

 stationed at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona, an en- 

 thusiastic naturalist and a close observer, with whom I 

 had been corresponding on this subject, writes me as 

 follows: 



"I have known of three cases of rattlesnakes being in 

 trees. 



"1. Once I was climbing a tree for a humming bird I 

 had shot that had lodged in the top of this tree, and in a 

 crotch of a limb I found a small male rattlesnake, and 

 came nearly putting my hand on him. 



"2. A small rattlesnake was found in a very large tree 

 near our camp. A large peg had been driven into the 

 tree, on which to hang nosebags. While the sergeant 

 was handing them up one day, he was struck at by a 

 rattlesnake hidden above the nosebags. I killed and 

 skinned the snakes in both cases. These two instances 

 happened in September, 1885. 



"3. The third case occurred about April 30, 1887. I found 

 the snake, a rattler, as I was climbing the tree to examine 

 a hawk's nest. The tree was about 2-Af t. in circumfer- 

 ence, the first limb 2ft, from the ground. Two trees 

 came from the same root, and half twisted together for a 

 foor or loin. The limbs were about a foot apart for the 

 first 5ft. , then the whole tree was a mass of fine limbs. 

 The nest was placed in the top about 15ft. from the 

 ground. The snake was a fair-sized one, about 3£ft. long. 

 He was wound about the nest and coiled in a position to 

 strike." 



This tree-climbing habit seems, so far as my own 

 knowledge goes, to be confined to our western species, 

 but I have not the least doubt that the eastern and south- 

 ern representees of this family are guilty of it as well, 

 and as Forest and Stream is "so widely circulated in all 

 parts of Uncle Sam's domain, I hope some of your read- 

 ers who can throw further light on this habit of the rattle- 

 snake will do so through ymu- columns, especially as 

 there is so much to be learned yet about the life history 

 of these interesting reptiles. Chas. E. Bendire. 



Washington, D. C, Oct. 27. 



WHAT IS INSTINCT? 



IT is the popular and almost universl impression that 

 instinct is a special gift of the creator, and not merely 

 an inheritance from an ancestor. It requires but little 

 investigation to prove the fallacy of this opinion. A fox 

 is said to instinctively fear a man or a dog. Why? Be- 

 cause his ancestry had very good reason to do so, and he 

 has inherited the feeling. To illustrate how a new in- 

 stinct may be created, let us take a suppositious case. A 

 fox is clearly not afraid of nor disposed to flee from one 

 of his own kind. Let us imagine some foxes transported 

 to a country where there are none of their kind, but in- 

 stead in animal closely resembling a fox, only larger, 

 much stronger, and very savage. Upon first seeing this 

 new animal the fox might well be deceived, and would 

 approach him with no other fear nor caution than they 

 would exhibit at sight of any large specimen of their 

 kind. But if the fiercer animal should turn upon the 

 foxes and devour one or many, the sweet confidence born 

 of ignorance would be quickly dispelled and the founda- 

 tion of an instinct would be laid. That is to say, all those 

 foxes which witnessed the deed would thenceforth give 

 a wide berth to the counterfeit foxes. In other words, 

 fear would then dictate flight from the stranger as the 

 only means of safety. After one or two generations the 

 young would impart the fear, and resort to flight at 

 once upon catching sight of the devourer of then ances- 

 tors. Thus a new instinct, having a very sound utilita- 

 rian basis, would be developed. On the other hand, this 

 new-born and inherited fear, the instinct, could be de- 

 stroyed if the savage animal could somehow be divested 

 of his savageness, and induced to treat the foxes like 

 friends and brothers. 



Ducks take to water by instinct — which means simply 

 that their ancestors found water a very pleasant, health- 

 ful, and even necessary thing. They are watchful and 

 afraid of hawks and large game fish, for the opposite ex- 

 perience of the same ancestors. Men and monkeys in- 

 stinctively fear snakes, which is only saying that snakes 

 have not been gentle and loving companions of other men 

 and monkeys, back in the history of the respective races, 

 and that the experience was transmitted as a strong 

 mental impression. A woman is frightened by some 

 object— say a dog or cat— and her babe may show 

 instinctive dislike or even fear of all dogs and cats. 

 If the babe arrives at mature age, and has on the 

 way several unpleasant experiences with dogs and 

 cats, the inherited dislike is intensified, and the descend- 

 ants of such person would be likely to possess the 

 original dislike in the form of a positive fear or hatred. 

 If. however, there be no unpleasant experiences, but 

 pleasant ones, the inherited dislike would probably dis- 

 appear in the posterity. 



"Young wild turkeys, hatched under a hen, t^ke to the 

 woods because the inherited love of a wild, free life is 

 superior to their liking for their second mother and for 

 the restraints and comforts (?) of civilized fife. Young 

 grouse and quail hide under leaves and brush upon sight 



of the hunter, for the reason that he embodies to them a 

 terror born of the decimating acquaintance of many 

 generations of ancestors with other hunters. So the 

 young birds shrink from the dog — their ancestral enemy 

 — but have no fear of cattle, which never injured any of 

 then* kind — so too, dogs and other animals will not eat 

 certain things that the experience of their ancestors would 

 show to be hurtful. 



The wonderful constructive capacity of the bee is often 

 cited in evidence of the direct gift theory of the origin of 

 instinct; but we have not to look far to find reason for 

 the conclusion that it is only another case of heredity. 



Old birds compared with younger ones become in- 

 structors in nest building; and so bees that have lived 

 and worked through one season probably serve as guides 

 and tutors to their younger brethren in the succeeding 

 one. And then bees are born in a comb, and their 

 ''earliest recollections" must be of the peculiar form of 

 its cells. What more natural than to imitate their an- 

 cestors when building a new home or an addition to the 

 old home? What coidd be more unnatural and strange 

 than not to do so? 



But even if the above did not account for the comb- 

 building capacity of bees, the law of inheritance does, 

 for it applies to every organic structure. In fact the rule 

 is that the lower the animal or insect in the scale of 

 general intelligence, the greater his ability to follow the 

 practices of his ancestors. Man, the most highly devel- 

 oped animal, has less "instinct" and greater power of 

 abstract reasoning than any other. He is an apt illustra- 

 tion of the inverse relation of "instinct," i. e., inherited 

 capacity and tendency, to the degree of general intelli- 

 gence or mental development. 



Space will not permit me, and it is needless to multiply 

 examples. Enough has been given to prove that instinct 

 is merely an inheritance bom of and embodying the ex- 

 perience of ancestors. It is inherited habit of thought or 

 action. Potomac. 



THE JACK SNIPE AS A RUSTLER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have to-day (Oct. 23) for the first time seen in your 

 journal of March 24, 1887, my letter giving an account of 

 a few jack snipe wintering in a very high altitude, pass- 

 ing unscathed through many cold snaps, one having the 

 low temperature of 35° Fahr. Otherwise I should have 

 long since recorded in Forest and Stream the outcome 

 of this erratic conduct of Jack. 



The last record given was as to his being seen on Feb. 

 28, 1887. Afterward he was seen only one time during 

 March, when on being flushed he rose high and took a 

 flight to the north, doubtless to some spring that had by 

 this time become "open." He was not seen afterward, 

 but on April 1 three snipe were flushed at a spring about 

 one mile below my ranch that had become "open" or free 

 from ice. I take it that these were the snipe that had 

 wintered in my meadows, as no open water was known 

 for miles around. I felt curious to know on what food 

 these snipe subsisted during the winter. I had no good 

 reason to believe that they had eaten the bread and scraps 

 of meat placed in their way, and think they must have 

 lived on water plants, as" it appears improbable that 

 worms, their favorite food, could have been obtained at 

 that season. I was at one time tempted to kill one of 

 these birds in order to examine his crop to find "On what 

 meat doth this our Caesar feed" that he should pass un- 

 scathed through such a winter. From motives of human- 

 ity this thought was at once discarded. Birds that had 

 proved themselves such "rustlers" had earned a right to 

 rive. 



As was told in my first communication, at the time, 

 Feb. 2, with temperature at — 35°, the snipe was keeping 

 himself from perishing by keeping his exposed legs in 

 warm water, two of the genus homo perished from cold 

 by disregarding the ordinary rules dictated by prudence 

 under the circumstances. This is a well-stocked cattle 

 range, yet during the winter about one-half of the cattle 

 died from a combination of cold and starvation. Have 

 not these snipe well earned the reputation of being "good 

 rustlers?" 



Apropos to the subject, a few days since, on Oct. 18, a 

 jack snipe was flushed in the meadow. Can it be that 

 this is one of the same snipe that wintered here last 

 winter, that has become so enamored with the "bracing 

 air" of this high latitude that he is desirous of trying the 

 experiment a second winter? We shall see, and if he 

 does, I shall report progress. The ground is not yet 

 frozen, and he may yet pass south. This morning the 

 temperature was — 3°, and a search was made for him, 

 but without success. Still he may be at some of the 

 neighboring marshes. P. 



"WYOMING. 



A Japanese Salmonoid. — A relative of our correspond- 

 ent "Petr a," residing in Japan, writes as follows: "The 

 Japanese tell me that, as a rule, all fish are caught with 

 nets, though occasionally the fly, with rod, is used. The 

 'ai is what we call smelt. The new Japanese dictionary 

 says, 'Ai, the name of a fresh- water fish, a species of trout 

 (Salmo altivalis).' Fish here is cheap, and we eat a great 

 deal of it, but there is no fish in Japan equal to our shad, 

 and the oysters are small and dark." We referred this 

 note to Mr. K. Ito, the Japanese Fish Commissioner who 

 recently visited us, who says: "The Japanese fish re- 

 ferred, to is Plecoglossus altivelis, Schlegel, and its Jap- 

 anese name is more properly 'ay tt.'" The genus Pleco- 

 glossus, which seems to contain'only this one species, is 

 one of the Sahnonidae, and, according to Gunther, is 

 found in Formosa and Japan. It differs from the smelt 

 in having feeble dentition, in having smaller scales, and 

 in several other ways not exteriorly perceptible. 



Recent Arrivals at Philadelphia Zoological Garden.— 

 Received by purchase— Two African porcupines (Uystrta- erktata), 

 one sandhilll crane (Qrxa Canadensis), and one whooping crane 

 (&rus americanu). Received by presentation— One common ma- 

 caque (MaaacHS eynomolgus), two opossums (Jjiddnha* virginianu), 

 two gray squirrels (ftciurus earolinemis), one reel-tailed hawk 

 (Buteo horealis), two screech owls (.Scops asio), one Ducorp's cocka- 

 too (Cacatuu duenrpxi), one coot (Fulica, amerieana), two barred 

 <,wIb (Sijriiivm nrhuiomm), one golden-crowned kinglet (Regtilw 

 mtriipn). one great-horned owl (Bubo virginianus), two golden 

 eagles (Aqv.Un Ghf}/8fflS6b8)i one English blackbird (Turdus morula), 

 one black coot ((Edewiia ame.ricuna), one lesser sulphur-crested 

 cockatoo (Cacat.ua. mlphurea), one garter snake (Eutccnia sirtalis), 

 and one alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Born in the Garden 

 —One common macaque (Macacm eynomolgus), and seven Egyptian 

 geese (Chclanop.cs; mwptvicu). 



"That reminds me." 

 224. 



AN exciting, but rather foolhardy incident that de- 

 serves a place in the columns of Flickerings, oc- 

 curred a few years since at Rockport, a small town on 

 the Gulf coast between this place and Corpus Christi. I 

 give the story in the words (as nearly as I can recall 

 them) of one of the principal actors in the event, as related 

 by him in the presence of a witness to the transaction. 

 The question whether an alligator would attack a man 

 under any circumstances had often been the subject of 

 animated discussion among the members of the village, 

 the affirmative and negative sides being about equally 

 represented in point of numbers. P., one of the most 

 ardent of the opponents of the affirmative side, was a 

 young man of undoubted nerve, and although rather 

 under medium size, he was possessed of more than ordi- 

 nary strength and agility. He pooh-poohed the idea of 

 the cowardly and ungainly saurian ever voluntarily at- 

 tacking a human being or even defending himself from 

 the attack of a man if there was a possibility of escape. 

 P. frequently remarked during these discussions that 

 should the opportunity ever present itself he would ride 

 one in the presence of the whole community to prove the 

 correctness of his side of the argument. The town is 

 at the mouth of a small river. One night during a freshet 

 an immense alligator came down the river, and reaching 

 quiter water in the bay, swam along the shore and into a 

 small basin near the wharf, where he was discovered 

 early in t he morning. The rest of the tale shall be in P.'s 

 own words: 



"Soon after T I opened my store in the morning the boys 

 began to drop in, one or two at a time, until six or eight 

 were present. The conversation, at first on general 

 topics, was gradually brought around to alligators. I 

 took a hand in the discussion, and when some one pres- 

 ently remarked that 'they was mighty dangerous ani- 

 mals to fool with,' I shot off my bazoo to the effect that 

 nothing would delight me more than an opportunity to 

 show my utter contempt for the alleged ferocity of the 

 'gator by tackling him in his native element and riding 

 him without saddle or bridle. 'That kind of talk's aS 

 right when th' aint no 'gators 'round,' remarked one indi- 

 vidual, 'but I reckon if they was plenty of 'em out here 

 in the ereek you'd change yer tune.' 'Not much I 

 wouldn't,' said I. 'Show me your alligator and I'll 

 show you how to ride him.' Just then a small boy, 

 breathless with excitement, rushed into the store with the 

 information that there was a 'great big 'gator' in the 

 basin near the wharf. About this time I began to smell 

 a large-sized mouse, which savored strongly of a put up 

 job. Here, however, was the longed-for opportunity, 

 the chance to make good my boastful assertions, and 

 there was no backing out without everlasting disgrace. 

 So I announced my intention to ride the reptile forthwith. 

 I buckled on my six-shooter, to be used, however, as I ex- 

 plained to the crowd, only in case of emergency, and 

 sallied forth. Arriving at the wharf, I found about half 

 of the population of the town present, the report having 

 gotten abroad, in apparently annoying short time, that 

 P. was going to ride the alligator. 



"The tide had gone out and left the alligator landlocked 

 in the basin, the water being from 2ft. to 2pt, deep. I 

 wasted no time in contemplating the scene or preparing 

 a plan of attack, but started immediately for the brute, 

 intending to get as close as possible without alarming 

 him, and then, by a sudden rush, straddle him just behind 

 his forelegs, and catching hold of them, pull them up 

 over his back and await further developments, as I had 

 no idea what he would do when he found himself in that 

 predicament. I soon learned, however, that I had mis- 

 calculated either my own agility or that of the alligator, 

 for he avoided my rush very cleverly, and got out of the 

 way with surprising celerity. Again and again did I 

 charge him, only to be baffled each time by the rapidity 

 of his movements. . I was in high glee, for although I had 

 not yet succeeded in riding the animal, I was satisfied 

 that I would do so eventually. I had entirely lost what- 

 ever of fear I might have felt on entering the water, and 

 as I fondly imagined, had proved to the entire satisfac- 

 tion of the crowd the cowardly and unresisting nature of 

 the alligator. Our thrashing around in the water had 

 stirred up the mud so that when the alligator lay quietly 

 on the bottom only the dim outlines of his form could be 

 distinguished. Approaching him cautiously during a 

 brief resting spell, I succeeded in getting within a few 

 feet of him, and with a sudden bound landed squarely 

 astride his back and grabbed what I supposed were his 

 forefeet, but which proved to be his hind ones. 



"Then the interesting part of the performance began. 

 Reaching his head around and bending his body like a cow's 

 the reptile grabbed me by the thigh with his ponderous 

 jaws, and, giving me a flirt, much as a terrier shakes a 

 rat, threw me into the air to a height, as variously esti- 

 mated by the spectators, at from ten to twenty feet. It 

 seemed a hundred to me. When I first discovered my 

 mistake in getting hold of the wrong end of the alligator, 

 1 involuntarily grabbed for my pistol, and had it in my 

 hand when he threw me into the air. By some means it 

 was discharged, and this gave rise to the report which 

 was afterward circulated by some of the bystanders that 

 I shot at the alligator as I was coming down. As soon as 

 I struck the water on my return from my aerial trip, the 

 alligator hit me with his tail and sent me spinning end 

 over end for twenty feet, knocking the pistol out of my 

 hand. 



"When the melee first began some one had told a lad of 

 fifteen, a warm friend of mine, that I was in trouble 

 down at the wharf. Without stopping to inquire into 

 the nature of the difficulty the boy rushed home for his 

 gun. and reached the scene just as I rose blinded and 

 bleeding from a dozen wounds after the alligator had 

 struck me with his tail. The boy ran into the water and 

 thrust the gun into my hands, and not a moment too 

 soon, for the beast, now thoroughly aroused and angered, 

 was rushing savagely upon me with his horrible jaws 

 wide open, and would undoubtedly have crushed me into 

 a jelly. I shoved the muzzle of the gun into his mouth, 

 pulled the triggers, and then my strength and senses both 

 forsook me, and I knew no more until I awoke several 

 hours afterward in my bed, which I kept for three weeks. 



"It must not be supposed that my friends among the 



