444 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fjtfjre 20, 1989. 



would I blame those who have the enforcement of the 

 gioae laws in tlWr power. Bat I hear soinetning of the 

 sa'ue story from other parts of the State. In the case of 

 the two deer that t sa v, I a n assured by guides and 

 others that they both will be killed before the beginning 

 of August; that j ick shooting in close time is regularly 

 practiced on the pond in question. If any one in author- 

 ity, and desiring to look after that pond, will write the 

 Forest and Stream, the letter will be forwarded to me 

 and I wdl give the needed information. Special. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have just returned from a fishing trip to the Maine 

 woods, having visited the Moosehead and Nicatous 

 region. In Moosehead Lake and at its west outlet the 

 fish ng was all a sportsman should desire. Fly-fishing 

 was not as good as I have seen it there, but large trout 

 could always be gotten trolling with flies. The fishing 

 in Nicatous Lake and Passadumkeag stream, its outlet, 

 was decidedly poor, there being too much water from the 

 recently heavy rains. 



What I especially wi«h to call attention to is the law- 

 less spirit of the inhabitants of both Moosehead and Nic 

 atous. While fishing at the dam at the west outlet of 

 Moosehead ( Wilson's) I saw a river driver deliberately 

 jigger a large trout which was lying in water a foot deep 

 on the ap on of the dam. Upon being asked if he knew 

 he was breaking the law be said, (> Yes, but there is no 

 law in the woods." This fellow was a Canadian French- 

 man, and a hard-looking specimen. I told several people 

 around the dam about it, but they seemed to think it was 

 all right. 



In the Nicatous region a large part of the inhabitants 

 gain a living by assisting self-termed sportsmen in club- 

 bing deer to death in canoes. From the time one gets out 

 of the train at Olamon station on the Maine Central Rail- 

 way till the lake is reached, a unanimous and loudly ex- 

 pressed contempt for the law against hounding deer is 

 expressed. They openly declare that they will hound 

 deer, and defy the authorities to st op them. Preparations 

 for next fall's shooting were already in progress, and men 

 boasting of the ability of their dogs to drive deer to water 

 or pull them down. The only way the game commis- 

 sioners can stop this Nicatous poaching is to send several 

 game wardens to establish a camp on the lake the first of 

 September and keep them there till the lake freezes, or 

 the poachers are all arrested. An efficient fish warden 

 should be kept at the west outlet dam, Moosehead Lake, 

 from June 1 to Dec. L, and one not connected with the 

 lumbering or hotel interests. Winter huntiug and fishing 

 should be prohibited in future, for incalculable harm is 

 done both interests by permitting such latitude. 



PlSCATAQUA. 



LONG ISLAND BIRDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Wdl you be good enough to ask your readers to inform 

 me whether they know of any specimens of the follow- 

 ing species of birds that have been taken on Long island, 

 New York, within the last twenty years; if so, are they 

 now extant and where? The numbers and names are 

 from the American Ornithologist's Union Check List. 



Wm. Dutcher, 51 Liberty street, New York city. 



No. Name. No. Name. 



9. Black-throated Loon. 3:;?. Rwallow-tailed Kite. 



13. Puffin. 319. Golden Eagle. 



27. Blaoit Guillemot. 



30. Murre. 



38. Long- ail°d Jaeger. 



62. Sabine's Gull. 



65. Royal Tern. 



71. Arctic Tern. 



80 Black Skimmer. 



90. Manx Shearwater. 



98. Blar-k-capued Petrel. 



lOi. Sonny Petrel. 



126. Brown Pelican. 



136. Widgeon (Eui^ pean). 



138. European Teal. 



150. Riim-necked Duck. 



354. Gray Gyrfalcon. 

 8Hx. Black Gyrfalcon. 

 377 A. American Hawk Owl. 

 415 GraV Kingbird. 

 468a. Tram's Flycatcher. 

 4X6. American Raven. 

 Sllu. Bronzed Grackle. 



514. Evening Grosbeak. 



515. Pine Grosbeak. 

 547. Henslaw s Sparrow. 

 593. Cardinal. 



597. Blue Grosbeak. 

 601. Painled Bunting. 

 618. Bohemian Waxwing. 



171a. Am. Wuite-fron.ed Goose. 642. Golden-winged Wuibler. 



174. Black Brant. 645. Nashville Warbler. 



184. White ibis. 616. Orange-crowned Warbler. 



186. Glossy Ibis. 650. Cape Mav Warbler. 



19'. Louisiana Heron. 679. Mourning Warbler. 



203. Yellow-cro'.i Night Heron. 721. Short-billed Marsh Wren. 



219. Florida Gallinule. 73i. Tuf'ed Titmouse. 



225. American Avocet. 736. Carolina Cbickadee. 



226. BlacK-neeked Stilt. 163. Varied Thrush. 

 260. Ruff. 765. Whtaiear. 



THE LOST RIVER SUCKER. 



nPHTS is the local term, applied to a good-sized fish, 

 JL fir't described by Prof. E. D. Cope in the American 

 Naturalist Vol. XIII., 1879, p. 784, under the name of 

 Chasmistes luxatus. He tersely describes it as follows: 

 "Elong .te in form, head long, flat above and with a large 

 fontanel. Mouth term nal, the spines of the premaxil- 

 lary bones projecting, so as to form a hump on the top of 

 the snout. Lower lip very thin, dermal fold extending 

 entirely around the chin. Scales 12-80-9. Radii : D. 11; 

 A. 9. 



"Color, clouded above with black punctm t ons, below 

 paler, with red shades in some specimens, fins uncolored. 

 It attains a length of nearly 3ft. It ascends the streams 

 in thousands in the spring, and is taken and dried in 

 great numbers by the Klamath and Modoc Indians. The 

 former call it Tswam. Its habitat is given as Klamath 

 Lake, Or." 



This is all there is on record regarding this species, and 

 as it has never been fully described nor figured, I make 

 this the principal excuse for this article at this late date, 

 believing that a short description of the mode employed 

 in catching the fish will be of interest to some of the 

 readers of Forest &nd Stream. 



While stationed at Fort Klamath, Oregon, during parts 

 of the years of 1882 83, I learned from the settlers and 

 Indians living in the vicinity of the post that early in 

 March each \ ear countless thousands of a large species of 

 sucker ascended L st River out of Tule Lake, for the pur- 

 pi se of spawning about the headwaters of this stream, 

 and that it was a sight well worth seeing. From the 

 descriptions given me I believed that this fish was then 

 still unknown to science, and I therefore at the time 

 caused drawings to be made of freth specimens, both 

 colored and uncolored, which are inclosed herewith. 

 These were made by Sergt. C. Gloster, Troop K, 1st Cav., 



LOST RIVER SUCKER, MALE. Oke-Fifth Natural Length. (From Alcohol Specimen.) 



and are good likenesses. A pair, male and female, were 

 skinned by me on account of their large size, and for- 

 warded to the National Museum at Washington, D. C, 

 where they are still the only representatives of this 

 species. The only other specimen in the hands of a 

 naturalist, so far as known to me, is the type in the pos- 

 session of Prof. E. D. Cope, at Philadelphia. The follow- 

 ing detailed description was kindly made for me from 

 the skins above referred to, by Dr. T. H. Bean, the ichthy- 

 ologist of the U. S. Fish Commission: 



Chasmistes luxatus Cope.— The two skins in the TT. S. National 

 Museum are about thirty inches long and represent two sexes. 

 The dorsal has eleven developed rays and the anal nine; there are 

 twelve rows of scales between the lateral line and the beginning 

 of the dorsal fin, nine row s hetween the lateial line and thebesin- 

 ning of the anal fin, and from eighty to eighty-two scales in the 

 lateral line. The eye is one-fifth as long as the snout, and is con- 

 tained hetween ten and eleven times in the length of the head. 

 The head is about one-fourth of the total length to the end of the 

 scales. The distance between tbe eves is nearly four times the 

 length of the eye. The length of the dorsal base is about one-half 

 the length of the head and Is Somewhat greater than the longest 

 ray of this fin. The anal base is about equal to the dist.-mce from 

 the tip of tbe snout to the anterior nostril, in the male I he longest 

 ray of the anal equals the length of the pectoral fin, which is a 

 little more than one-seventh of the total length to the end of the 

 scales. The male is profusely covered wit h miaiite spiny tubercles 

 most abundant on the snout, top of head, the fins aud the posterior 

 half of the body. The ta^le of measurements given below will 

 enable authors to compare this species with others of the same 

 genus. 



Female. Male. 

 Inches. Indies. 



Total length 30.00 29.75 



Length to end of scales 20.50 26 75 



Head, length of 7.00 6.40 



greatest depth 3 20 3.80 



width of mouth l.?0 1.30 



length of lower jaw 2.30 . . 



upper jaw 1.50 1.80 



snout 3 40 3.30 



snout to nostril 2.?0 2.50 



nostril to eye 50 .50 



width of interorbital space 2.50 2.30 



length of eye 70 .60 



Dorsal, length of base 3.25 3.50 



longest ray 3 20 2.90 



Anal, length of base 2.40 2.40 



longest ray 4.00 



Pectoral, length of ionarest ray 4.20 4.00 



Ventral, length of longest ray 2 80 3.10 



Caudal, length of middle rays 2.00 1.80 



external rays 4.00 LOO 



The maps examined by me show no Tule Lake on them; 

 but according to these Lost River flows into Rhett Lake, 



small fry. As I was making a general collection of the 

 fishes found in that region for the U. S. National Museum, 

 I am certain that such a conspicuous fish as the latter 

 would not have been overlooked by me. 



In order to obtain some of these fish I made a special 

 trip to the fishery on Lost River, some forty miles south 

 of the post, and secured several specimens, which I 

 packed in ice, and after having drawings made of a pair, 

 male and female, I skinned and forwarded them with a 

 general collection for the National Museum. 



I arrived at the fishery on Lost River early on the 

 morning of March 6, 1883. The surrounding country is 

 flat and uninteresting and for the greater portion cov- 

 ered with sage brush. Looking westward, Tule Lake 

 could be seen probably about ten miles distant, and 

 beyond it the outskirts of the Modoc stronghold, the 

 lava beds, appeared in plain view. A few scrubhy wil- 

 lows fringe the banks of the/stream, which at the fishery 

 is probably 30ft. wide. There the river flows over a 

 rocky ledge, forming shallow riffles with perhaps 2 or 

 3ft. of water on them. The riffles are about 100yds. in 

 length and the banks on each side some 3ft. high. Above 

 and below these the stream widens out and the water in 

 most places seems to be sluggish and deep. At the time 

 of my visit it was quite muddy from the melting of the 

 snow in the mountains, and the run of these fish was not 

 at its height yet. However, it appeared to me that they 

 were caught quite abundantly even then, and both sides 

 of the streams were lined with whites and half-breeds 

 as well as Indians, the last camped in the immediate 

 vicinity with their families and a full complement of 

 papooses and dogs. The squaws were busy splitting 

 the fish up along the back, removing the heads and 

 backbones and spreading the split fish upon the numerous 

 sage bushes, in the immediate vicinity to dry. The 

 stench from the mass of decaying offal, which was scat- 

 tered about everywhere, was anything but pleasant, but 

 one can get u-ed to most anything in time, and after 

 having been there a little while I forgot all about the 

 odoriferous condition of the atmosphere and enjoyed the 

 scene almost as much as the Indians. 



The bucks, encumbered with b it little clothing, al- 

 though the air was still anything but spring-like, did the 

 fishing proper. The only implement I saw in use was a 

 long slender pine pole about 20ft. long, to one end of 

 which a piece of iron rod about half an inch thick wag 



LOST RIVER. SUCKER. About One-Third Natural Size. (From Life.) 



which is evidently the same body of water universally 

 known in that region under the former name. This lake 

 is located about forty miles from Fort Klamath in a 

 south-southeasterly direction, and is not quite so large as 

 either of the Klamath lakes. As near as I have been able 

 to ascertain, the so called Lost River sucker is indigenous 

 to Tule Lake, and is not found in either the Upper or 

 Lower Klamaih lakes, as stated by Prof. Cope in his 

 original description. In a conversation I have had with 

 him recently on this subject, he told me that he obtained 

 his specimen from an Indian, and understood that it was 

 caught in Klamath Lake. During the eighteen months 

 I was stationed at Fort Klamath, I never heard of nor 

 saw a fish of this kind caught in the Klamath Lakes or 

 their tributaries, but am aware that a smaller and le?s 

 important species of the same genus, the Chasmistes bre- 

 virostris Cope, is found in these waters, and may be seen 

 in considerable numbers along the shores of the upper 

 lake from the wagon road running along Modoc Point 

 almost any day in the spring of the year. This species is 

 much smaller, and one of the large Lost River suckers 

 would be noticed at once among such comparatively 



attached. This rod was bent in the shape of a hook with 

 the point well sharpened. The operator would reach out 

 into the stream with his pole, as far as practicable, the 

 curve of his rod dragging on the bottom, the point up- 

 ward, and when coming in contact with a fish, a sharp 

 jerk would be given, which usually impaled the poor 

 brute in some part of the body, and after considerable 

 struggling on its part to break away, it would be landed 

 and at once removed from the hook by one of the squaws 

 in waiting. As the majority of the fish will average 

 from O^lbs. to 71bs. it took quite a skillful band and no 

 little labor to raise them up the steep bank without allow- 

 ing the slender and pliable pole to tu-n and let the fish 

 drop off before being properly landed. It all seemed 

 simple enough looking on, so I concluded to try my hand 

 also, but found it everything else but easy work to land 

 mv fish after hooking one. Th°y make things especially 

 lively when hooked near the tail", and mv vain efforts to 

 get control of one so hooked by me afforded considerable 

 amusement to the entire Indian population then at the 

 fishery. I never worked so hard to get a fish, and after 

 all my endeavors it managed to wriggle off, just at the 



