528 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 18, 1889. 



off-hand way to our envious fellow clerks. But we never 

 mentioned the bear incident only in mutual whispers in 

 the sacred cloister of our own room. Then Mark said 

 that on our next bear hunt we would bait a trap with 

 fresh-baked sweet cake, and when bruin had gotten 

 safely into it we would finish him with our indomitable 

 Winchesters. George E. Newell. 



"AN EPISODE OF THE WAR." 



POST MILLS. Vt., July W.- Editor Forest and Stream: Will Mr. 

 Edward Manning, of Montelrtir. N. J., please give the name 

 of the Confederate cruiser, who captured the Flora, and whose 

 prize crew "the mate and colored cook" made food for the 

 sharks'? Confederate cruisers were few, and their custom of 

 manning prizes from their owu too scanty crew, to run the gaunt- 

 let of Federal gunboats that cruised and blockaded every port in 

 the Confederacy, was not a rule laid down in our logbook, Ran- 

 som or bonding, scuttle or the torch (but few of the former, haw- 

 ever), were the common and general ways of disposing of prizes. 

 Of course we don't question the truthfulness of the •"Episode of 

 the War," still it reads a little like a story to the marines.— Ex- 



OON FEDERATE NAVY. 



Mr. Manning brought us the "Episode" as a substantially true 

 relation, the name of the schooner beiug changed; and in response 

 to "Ex-Confederate Navy's" request he has sent us the text of the 

 petition in the case, presented to the Court of Commissioners of 

 Alabama Claims. It was on the showing of the facts as in this 

 petition that the firm alluded to by the writer of the "Episode" 

 was awarded the sum which it had paid as salvage to Tillman 

 and Skeddiug for recapturing the schooner and bunging her back 

 to New York. We quote from the petition certain paragraphs 

 which appear to us to demonstrate that Mr. Manning's account 

 mav be accepted as a bit of history: 



"Fourth— That on the fourth day of July, 18(51, as your petitioner 

 is informed and verily believes, the said schooner S.J. Waring 

 with the aforesaid boxes of merchandise and other goods on board 

 for the ports of Huena Ayres and Montevideo, in South America, 

 and thereafter and on or about the seventh day of July, 1861, as 

 your petitioner ic informed and verily believes, the said schooner, 

 while prosecuting her said voyage with the aforesaid boxes of 

 merchandise and other goods laden on board of her, was attacked, 

 seized, and captured on the high seas by the Confederate cruiser 

 Jeff Davis. 



"Fifth— That as your petitioner is informed and verily believ es 

 those in command of the said cruiser carried away the captain 

 and chief officers of the said schooner and all of her crew, except- 

 ing a negro named Tillman, who was her steward; a sailor named 

 Skeddiug, and two passengers named McLeod and McKinnon, 

 and placed on hoard of said schooner a prize crew, which prize 

 crew changed the course of the said schooner with the declared 

 intention of making the port of Charleston, in the State of 

 South Carolina, or some other port in the so-called Confederate 

 States, and of there disposing of the said boxes of merchandise, 

 the paid schooner and other goods laden on board of her. 



"Sixth— That as your petitioner is informed and verily believes, 

 at about half-past eleven o'clock in the night of the 16th day of 

 July of the said year, and while the said schooner, with the said 

 boxes of merchandise and other goods laden on board of her, was 

 proceeding under the command of said prize crow, the said negro 

 steward Tillman rose upon the said prize crew, and with the as- 

 sistance of the said Skedding killed, the captain and the two 

 officers thereof, and taking command of said schooner himself 

 brought her and the aforesaid boxes of merchandise and other 

 goods laden on board of her into the port of New York, where she 

 arrived on the 21st day of July in the said year." 



The petition further sits forth that for their salvage services the 

 two sailors and the two passengers were paid SI 5,1)00; all of which 

 is a matter of court record. It is also recalled by the attorney, 

 who conducted the firm's case for the recovery of their share of 

 the. salvage, that the negro steward Tillman, and the sailor Sked- 

 ding were arrested by the U. S. Marshall at the instigation of 

 some parties not known, for the murder of the captain and officers 

 of the prize crew, but were afterward released. The full account 

 of the proceedings in this case is a matter of record in the U. S. 

 Circuit Court for this district. 



OUTDOOR NOTES FROM LOUISIANA. 



YEARS ago I spent a summer vacation in Missouri, 

 chasing the "hoopsnake," but, like the ague in 

 Indiana, he was always in the next county. I am now 

 after the "hornsnake," and expect to obtain the same 

 result. This, to me, latest contribution to ophiology, is 

 devoutly believed in by the natives here, and their ac- 

 counts of him agree marvelously well. He is from 3 to 

 5ft. long, slender, of a dull bluish-black color, striped 

 longitudinally with yellow, and the last two or three 

 inches of his tail is a slender, sharp bone, carrying a 

 deadly poison. He stings instead of biting, and his 

 sting is instant death— not even immediate amputation, 

 if the bite is in an amputable part, being quick enough to 

 stop the lightning-like action of the poison. One old 

 Acadian, the Nestor of the neighborhood, told me how 

 some twenty years ago his cousin was found, lying dead 

 in the rice field, and a large hornsnake coiled up beside 

 him. One of the party, bolder than the rest, killed the 

 snake, cut off bis horn, and gave it to 'Sieur Tolyte. who 

 showed it to me. Unfortunately, it was so exactly like 

 the horn in a stingaree's, or stingray's tail, that even the 

 old man's honest belief could not convince me that it was 

 anything else. I have offered a reward of $5 for a full- 

 blown specimen of the "critter," but so far without re- 

 sult. I suspect he's but an avatar of the hoopsnake. 



1 fear I have lost my credit as a man of science among 

 my Acadian neighbors forever. I spent the day, not long 

 since, at the house of one of them, and, during the fore- 

 noon, one of the tribe of small boys killed a joint snake 

 in front of the veranda on which we were sitting. This 

 led, of course, to the remark from one of the company 

 that the pieces would re-unite before sundown, and the 

 snake be whole again. I ought to have held my tongue; 

 but no; I must needs demur to the statement, and the 

 controversy was finally settled by both parties agreeing 

 to the crucial test of letting the remains lie undisturbed 

 and allowing facts to decide. The subject was forgotten 

 by all of us, until we broke up to go home after supper, 

 when some one remembered it, and we all went to see 

 which disputant was right. Alas for me ! every joint 

 but one had disappeared, and there, but a few feet from 

 where they had been, lay coiled— a jointed snake ! On 

 my attempting feebly to hold my own by evidence of the 

 one joint that was left, arguing that this was conse- 

 quently another snake, and not the "original Jacobs" at 

 all, I was met with the triumphant statement that this 

 snake was just that one joint shorter, and that, in the 

 hurry and agitation of his reconstruction movement, he 

 had overlooked this one member, and thus failed to incor- 

 porate it into the new body politic. ' 'Logic is logic," and 

 I retired defeated from the field. 



I saw something lately that I am almost afraid to 

 record in Forest and Stream, for fear that some "bird 

 sharp" will say I was blind, or blind drunk, or "don't 

 know a hawk from a hern-shaw," or that "the books" 

 make no mention of such a fact. However, here goes 

 and if they prod me too sharply, perhaps Forest and 

 Stream will allow me to kick back. Imprimis, then, the 



white egret is a common bird here— ditto the blue. I 

 have often seen the white and the blue in the same flock, 

 but some, three weeks ago I saw a flock in which were 

 not only whites and blues but white-and- blues and blue- 

 and-whites; in fact they were as variegated and parti- 

 colored as a flock of barn-pigeons. Of course, 1 had left 

 my gun at home ("what things a fellow do see when he 

 ain't got a gun"), and when I next went that way, armed, 

 the flock had left the pond. They were go tame that T 

 drove within twenty yards of them, and when they flew 

 they simply circled around me, within easy gunshot, and 

 lit again in the same place as I passed, so I had ample 

 opportunity for observing them closely. May be this 

 thing of parti- coloration is not so rare in wild birds as I 

 thought, but I have never seen nor heard of such a thing 

 before. 



Can any of your readers tell me something about the 

 specific and generic affinities of a bird called down here 

 the "water turkey?" In structure and habits he is the 

 most contradictory bird I ever came across. Web-footed 

 and short-legged like a duck, I have never seen him in 

 the water, but when at rest always perched in trees. 

 With a long neck and spear-shaped head and bill, like a 

 crane or heron, and so, one would suppose, feeding as 

 they do on frogs and small fish, the stomach of the only 

 two specimens I was able to secure contained nothing 

 but the shell cases of insects and green vegetable matter. 



Lake Chabms, Louisiana. H. P. U. 



[H. P. U, is sound in his observations on the pied 

 heron. It is Ardea cairulea, the little blue heron. The 

 adult is usually slaty blue with maroon-colored neck, 

 while the young is pure white, and between these two 

 colors there are all grades. The water turkey, known 

 also as snake bird, is allied to the gannets, cormorants, 

 pelicans, etc., the tolipalmate swimming birds. Its name 

 is AnJiinga anJimga.] 



THE SPARROW PEST. 



DOME time ago you had quite an interesting discussion 



on the English sparrow. If I remember right there 

 were few pros, but many cons brought out. If % not too 

 late let me in with a most decided con. fori know whereof 



1 speak. 



The blizzard of a year ago almost obliterated Bob 

 White from all the northern counties of New Jersey; yet 

 this same terrible cyclone spotted our parks, streets and 

 byways with the dead bodies of thousands of these Eng- 

 lish sparrow pests. This was in March. In April a few 

 robins appeared around our homes, then came bluebirds 

 and wrens and other feathered reminders of other days. 

 The enemy seemed to have departed and they prepared 

 to tarry with us as of old. Years ago in front of our 

 house, in order to keep this English pest from building in 

 our porch and soiling the walls, we had hung up a num- 

 ber of empty powder kegs and cans, which houses these 

 creatures immediately availed themselves of; and we 

 have had our shade trees loaded down with a chattering, 

 fighting, thieving set of feathered scoundrels without one 

 trait of commendation, for they won't touch the worms 

 now — the very object for which they were brought across 

 the water — but they insist upon the best of seeds, grain 

 and even cake— confound 'em. Eat worms! not much, 

 except in the following way: In our back yard we have 

 a couple of pear trees that used to bear well year after 

 year. Our next door neighbor has some peach trees that 

 produced fruit large and delicious in flavor. Do we get 

 them now? Not much. Where we used to get bushels 

 now we can find but a few. Why? I can see from my 

 back window day after day scores of these sparrows 

 pecking at the buds. Naturalists may say they are after 

 the worms or larva? in the buds, but they take buds and 

 all, and I don't believe the yarn that there is an incipient 

 destroyer in every bud for the delectation of these 

 tyrants. They have an educated palate, and a tender 

 peach bud is ice cream to them, larva?, or no larvae. 



In our back yard we have a grape arbor, on one end of 

 which I had hung a tin powder can several years ago. 

 This being rather in the shade, the sparrows did not take 

 to it, in fact I do not remember that any paid any atten- 

 tion to it for housekeeping purposes. Along in April 

 there came a pair of wee yellow wrens ; and the coast 

 being clear, after due prospecting and delicate delibera- 

 tion, they moved in and commenced housekeeping or 

 preparing for it. All went well for several days. I con- 

 gratulated myself. "The country was safe." Most of 

 the pirates were nan est and what were left were so de- 

 moralized that our little darlings would be left in pence. 

 But alas ! they were one day discovered in their cosy 

 retreat; and soon one brown-coated scoundrel com- 

 menced, his annoyance of the female wren when alone. 

 She fought manfully back and he had to retreat. He 

 soon returned with another; and they were driven off. 

 Again he returned with four brown villains besides him- 

 self. These, with the help of her lord, our little darling- 

 put to ignominious flight. Did these insatiable, vindic- 

 tive rascals remain flighted ? Not much. They returned 

 with a dozen and I believe more, and they pestered and 

 pecked and annoyed these little yellow wrens in a home 

 that they did not want (and have not used since) until 

 they were compelled to leave. This is a positive fact as 

 witnessed by myself and different members of my 

 family. The robins too, and the bluebirds, and the 

 oriole — he of the intelligent pendent cradle just started 

 on a willow across the street — all went; and we have in 

 their places these pestiferous vermin. 



If only the sparrows could be exterminated, our parks 

 and groves would once more echo with the melodious 

 notes of our own songsters, and the summer foliage 

 would again be beautiful with the red of the robin, the 

 indigo of the bluebird and the gold and black of the gor- 

 geous oriole. What good is the English sparrow? He 

 is not large enough to be used as food; and even if he 

 were I believe he is too mean to taste good anyway. 



Jacobstaff. 



Dr. M. G. Ellzey, of Woodstock, Md., a frequent con- 

 tributor to the Forest and Stream, has assumed the 

 editorship of an agricultural science department in the 

 Natural Economist of Washington; and good work may 

 be expected from him there. 



More About Otters.— Indian Rock, Me.— While trav- 

 eling their beats otters frequently have what trappers 

 call slides. Sometimes they have a place to leave the 

 water to go on to some knoll (to scratch and dig the 



moss), and when they get ready to start for the water 

 they slide on their bellies. Any person will readily see 

 that in going from the water an otter would place his 

 hindfeet close to the edge of the bank. There is where I 

 set tbe trap. Anywhere from three to eight inches under 

 water and I never had an otter pass the trap without put- 

 ting his foot in it, and if the trap is smart I always find 

 the otter. They never twist their foot off, as m st other 

 animals do, but fight tbe trap and everything within 

 their reach until they become exhausted, when they lie 

 down and die, probably within twenty-four hours after 

 being caught. If your correspondent is not satisfied with 

 this explanation I can give liim two other modes. Iwish 

 all correspondents to criticise all I may have to say in 

 your valuable paper, as I do not intend to write one word 

 1 cannot substantiate. I am neither sensitive nor nervous 

 and do not object to difference of opinion, so ..as to get 

 at the facts.— C. J. Richardson. 



Ruffed Grouse Eggs.— Coral ville, la., June 20.— 

 Noticing tbe clipping from the Worcester Spy, relative 

 to the finding of a nest of the ruffed grouse containing 

 fifteen eggs, I add a little evidence in regard to the num- 

 bers sometimes found in a single nest. In early June, 

 1885, a young man living here found a nest containing 

 23 eggs. He flushed the old bird from the nest. This 

 spring a man, in burning some brush piles, discovered a 

 nest containing 18 eggs. In 1S84 I found a nest near here 

 and will append my notes in regard to it. It will show 

 the period of incubation to be different from that given 

 by some writers: May 2, 1884 — I found this day a nest 

 of the ruff ed grouse containing 12 eggs ; one must have been 

 laid to-day, it looked so fresh and clean. May 4 — The 

 above nest contains 14 eggs to-day. May 28, 7 P. M. — 

 The old bird was away from the nest, but the eggs are all 

 right and sound. May 31 — Thirteen eggs hatched, and 

 old bird and young all gone; I got the shells and one 

 addled egg. The first nest of a quail that I ever found 

 was in New London county, Conn., and contained about 

 15 eggs. The old birds were just four weeks in incuba- 

 tion. By looking up notes, I could give other instances 

 of large clutches of ruffed grouse. — John Williams. 

 [Our correspondent's notes are worth putting on record, 

 and we shall hope for the rest of them. ] 



Recent Arrivals at Philadelphia Zoological Garorn.— 

 Purchased— One West Austra lian kangaroo \Mui roiimoeydromvx), 

 £ , two Gillespie's hair seals (Zalnphus (jillcxpii), i and ? ."onegnson 

 (daUctix villa ta), one skunk (Mcpliitm nu:piiitira), four prairie foxes 

 (Vidpcx macrurtts), two bald eagles (HutioHim kucacephalm). two 

 green jjaye (Xanthura hixuoxa), one »ing-neck.< d parakeet (Pulceor- 

 nis ior</nat us), two yellow-throated parakeets (lirotoycrys t&oi),ano 

 Barbary partridge (Cacealris pctroxa). one blue-headed pigei n 

 (Staracvnas cyaiioccplialu), three alligators (Alligator minxixsippi- 

 enxis), two alligator snapping turtles (Macrociidyx laccrtina), two 

 black hog-nosed snakes (Helcrodon platyrhitiux niacr), one hog- 

 nosed snake, black variety (It. plat yrhi mix atmodes), three hog- 

 nosed snakes (H. platyrliinu.i atmndex), two hog-nosed snakes (H. 

 plalyrliinus), one hog-nosed snake (II. simns), one indigo snake 

 [Spvqtes ereiennus), and one king snake (uphibolux QetuhtS). Pre- 

 sented—Two opossums (Dkklphyx irdtaimana), one gray squirrel 

 (Sciurus earolineitsis), two woodchuctcs (AreO'iiiys nxonainh one 

 blackbird (Quiscalm purpureux). one trow (Corvus americarms), 

 three screecft owls (Scops an in), two reed birds (EioUehoiaix oryzi- 

 vorus), one king rail (Batfusetegans). one pintail duck (Dntila acuta). 

 one Canary bird (Serinux caiiarius). one' sott-ohelled turtle, ('Aspi- 

 dbnectcs ftrox), six alligators (Alliyator inksksiiijikuxix), two water 

 snakes (Trupidoiiotus xipedon), two Auassiz tortoises (Xcrnbolex 

 ayaxsizi), one grass snake (Cyrlnpliis actions), one horned lizard 

 (Ph/rynosoma iw/!i<<<i>, one crowned horned lizard (I'lirynoxumaeoro- 

 nata'i, and one punctated gecko (Splurrodat tylitx punctalixsittius). 

 Born— One bulTalo (Bison amcrkamis), one Virginiadeer (C iriai ux 

 riryinianux), one elk (Ccmtx canadensis), three peafowl U'aco 

 criatata), and one zebra tiuch (Extrclda mhjldva). 



j§ug mid 



A STUDY OF WOODCOCK. 



r PO me there is no bird so interesting as that shy, mys- 

 J. terious, semi-nocturnal haunter of shades and swamps, 

 the woodcock. I have studied it for years, and yet it 

 seems to me as if I knew very little more about it than 

 when I began. It is a bird which almost baffles the 

 efforts of the student of natural history, because it seems 

 to live always under the consciousness of being watched. 

 It is the coyest, most retiring game bird of our Northern 

 coverts. To know it intimately, one must be as assidu- 

 ous in one's attentions as the most devoted- lover. 



I do not hesitate to say that I have some theories about 

 the woodcock which I have not yet succeeded in verify- 

 ing. Some of them are altogether contrary to the com- 

 monly received statements of well-known writers on 

 natural history. I may be laughed at for advancing one 

 or two of these theories in the present paper, but I con- 

 sole myself with the thought that many mirth-provoking 

 theories, in the course of modern investigation, have 

 become science. 



Among other things I believe the woodcock has the 

 power of song. To be sure I have not verified this theory 

 yet, but 1 think I am on the way to do it. I have heard 

 the song, but I haven't quite fastened the responsibility 

 for it upon the woodcock. However, that will come in 

 time. 



Not long since I spent a moonlight night on a certain 

 water, a famous breeding ground for woodcock, mating 

 a nocturnal study of these birds. The record of it may 

 not be uninteresting. I chosG a night when the moon 

 was full, so as to have all the light possible. In my pocket 

 I carried an ordinary opera glass and a small metal whis- 

 tle. The use of these appliances will be described pres- 

 ently. 



I left the road just before it reaches the bridge over the 

 river, and crossing a wide meadow came to the breeding 

 covert I have spoken of. It lay not far from the river, 

 and was abundantly watered by a little stream which ran 

 through it with many a zigzag and devious digression. 

 The covert was composed of alders, birches, hemlocks and 

 a few cedars. When I reached the ground it was late in 

 the afternoon. The air was oppressively warm, and not 

 a sound broke the absolute stillness of the place. I sat 

 down on a little knoll, lit my pipe, and tried to drive 

 away the persistent cloud of mosquitoes which hovered 

 around me. But in vain. They swarmed into the cloud 

 of tobacco smoke as if enamored of its fragrance. I had 

 forgotten my "'Jumboline," and all that remained for me 

 to do was to grin and bear the inevitable affliction as best 

 I could. 



Presently I heard some animal — it may have been a 

 dog — passing rapidly through the covert up a little dis- 

 tance. As I listened there was a familiar sound of whistl- 



