FOREST AND STREAM. 



123 



has swallowed Lheni for protection, which they never do. 

 That article called out the following, which appeared in 

 the Hartford Times of Oct. IS, 187:J: 



"New York City, Oct. 16, l8ttS.— Your correspondent is wrong. 

 Bnakcs do swnllow theit young Cot sarety. if you please I will 

 give vou a true story of a snake that I and my brother Warren 

 Marshall were eye witnesses to. We were living at Hie old place in 

 Windsor, formerly known as Pigeon HUT. My brother and two 

 apprentices were returning t'roni mowing bushes. They heard a 

 strange noise which attracted their attention to the pines, and 

 they saw a copperhead and many small snakes funning down her 

 throat. lie secured the snake and brought it home. I saw them 

 coming, and at first thought it an eel, as they had crossed the 

 orook running from our niill pond. He dropped the snake from 

 the point of his scythe in the yard, and little snakes over an eighth 

 of a yard in length commenced running and hissing ottt of her 

 mouth all around us. until we counted twent y-five. Our family 

 all saw them. It was long ago, but the occurrence is as clear tn 

 mv mind as if it was but yesterday. Yours very truly, Emily M. 



WOLCOTT." 



Let us analyze Miss Wolcott's "true story" a little. She 

 does not pretend that she saw the mother swallow them. 

 It is the instinct of any snake with which I am acquainted 

 to hide as quickly as possible, and twenty- five of them 

 from four to six inches long would disappear in the grass 

 in an instant, while it wotdd require some time for them 

 all to seek shelter in their mother's mouth, while she in 

 the meantime is waiting to be captured with all her 

 progeny. That docs not look like instinct. Besides if 

 they went there for safety, why did they come out? I do 

 not doubt that a snake was captured with young in her 

 body, and that the young, after escaping, could crawl 

 and run out their tongues; but further than this, Miss 

 Wolcott's "true story" is all nonsense. I cannot learn 

 from, the oldest inhabitant that a copperhead snake was 

 ever seen in "Windsor. They are usually found in rocky 

 places, and I ha ve never seen them except in traprock 

 districts. I do not know of a locality where water snakes 

 live in greater abundance than in the valley of Mill 

 Brook in Windsor. I have seen them there, and many 

 times have 1 crossed the bottom lands, where the boys 

 captured the snake, crossed Mill Brook on a pole and 

 ascended the bluff to the table land, where the old 

 Marshall mansion now stands, and where snakes from 

 five or six inches long hissed. It was doubtless a water 

 snake, the young of which had matured in the mother, 

 but had not yet been born. Miss W. says they commenced 

 running out of her mouth. Perhaps the snake was so 

 ruptured internally as to make it possible for them to 

 escape at her mouth ; but as she was carried up to the 

 house on a scythe, it is more than probable that they 

 escaped from a wound in her body. 



As to the boys seeing them enter their mother's mouth, 

 that is only hearsay, but their presence evidently led 

 them to believe they had done so. Miss W. says it was a 

 copperhead; perhaps it was; they too are viviparous, and 

 the facts would remain the same. 



I do not believe they heard those twenty -five snakes 

 hiss any more than I believe they saw them enter their 

 mother's mouth, i think I have seen more than a 

 thousand snakes, and I am not aware that I ever heard 

 one hiss. The "American Cyclopedia" says: "The hissing 

 attributed to serpents is of faint character, produced by 

 the slow escape of air through the mouth or nostrils 

 during expiration, and only exceptionally would make a 

 noise noticeable by an indifferent observer." If large ser- 

 pents are but exceptionally heard to hiss, what must have 

 been the display of those 5 to 6in. long, and no larger than 

 a goose quill. One author says: "It has been said that 

 they receive their young into their mouths for protection, 

 but the anatomy of the snake seems to forbid this con- 

 clusion. The stomach is little more than a prolongation 

 of the oesophagus, and the intestines are very short." 



The Water Snake or Water Adder {Tripiedonotus 

 sepedon). 



In 1831, while passing along near a swamp, in one of 

 the last days iu August, in company with a brother, we 

 saw the hinder part of a snake of monstrous size drawn 

 into an old stone wall. We took down the wall and 

 secured it without wounding it. We threw it out upon 

 the ground. It was a water snake, about 4ft. long, and 

 it must have been at least 9in. in circumference. It tried 

 to crawl, but it was so heavy that it moved but slowly. 

 Its head and neck were no' larger than that of other 

 snakes of that length. At about one-fourth of its length 

 from the head, and just below the vital organs, the body 

 began to assume enormous proportions. We severed the 

 snake at that point, and then pressed upon the body and 

 forced out of it fifty-four young snakes; they were five or 

 six inches in length, and some of them would crawl, run 

 out their tongues and act like little reptiles, as they were. 

 I have on two other occasions witnessed the like. I have 

 thought it singular that the habit of the water snake's 

 breeding was not more generally known. But my obser- 

 vation has been that when in young, being unable to 

 move rapidly, they seek a place to lie in the sun where 

 they can quickly conceal themselves when disturbed. 

 There were weeds and brakes by the side of this wall, and 

 where the snake had lain they were matted as though 

 a hen had nested there. I had previously been told that 

 snakes swallowed their young for protection, and had 

 captured a striped one that had young in her and sup- 

 posed she had swallowed them: but the examination of the 

 water snake convinced me that they had never been born. 



About the 1st of Sept., 1882, 1 saw a paragraph in the 



gaper saying that Mr. Win. H. Cutler of Danielsville, 

 onn. , had killed a water snake and found thirty-seven 

 young ones in its body. I wrote him asking for par- 

 ticulars, he says in reply that he "found the snake in 

 the rear of his barn where he had never seen one of 

 that species before. It had been seen by some boys 

 several days previous. When he discovered it, it was 

 coiled up on the top of some old hay surrounded with 

 water. As he approached near enough to see what it 

 was she went into the water. A while after he saw 

 her on the hay again and he got a gun and shot her. 

 She was 3ft. 8in. long, and large around the body, and 

 had the appearance of being full of something. Opened 

 her and found her full of young snakes from 6 to Sin. 

 long; counted thirty-seven. When first taken out they 

 appeared dumpish but soon began to move around. One 

 of my neighbors says, that years ago he saw a striped 

 snake killed that had fifty young contained in her. I 

 should like to know if there are" snakes that breed in 

 that way? I know that some snakes lay eggs." 



Mr. James L. Rowley of Bloo in field tells me that he 

 once captured one, and found her body to contain sixty- 

 six young. N. Starkweather. 

 Hartford, Conn. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



MANATEES EXHIBITED IN NEW YORK. 



(^APT. J. W. ZELLER, commander and owner of the 

 J schooner Manatee, of Titusville, Fla., has arrived 

 in this city with three manatees, and female and two 

 males, which he captured in the Indian River, Florida, 

 or one of its tributaries, in June last. Two of them were 

 brought to this city under contract, and the third hav- 

 ing been captured the same trip, was brought along to 

 fill the bill. For the moment, however, they remain on 

 their captor's hands, and he has stored them in South 

 street, foot of Fulton street, where they are now exhib- 

 ited to a curious publ ic, the captain being willing to 

 make affidavit and depose that, to the best of his knowl- 

 edge and belief, these are the real "sireus" or mermaids, 

 who have lured so many a sentimental sailor to his doom. 



The manatee is a very interesting animal, belonging, 

 as most of our readers know, to the family of the Sirenians 

 or sea cows, aquatic mammalia frequenting rivers or shal- 

 low seas, in which they find suitable vegetation. They 

 are entirely vegetarian' in their habit and capable of sub- 

 sisting on perhaps as wide a range of food plants as cows 

 are. In its native state its food consists of river plants, 

 especially of one known as manatee grass, which reaches 

 the surface of the water and then trails, forming in 

 places quite dense thickets, in which the manatees hide 

 and feed. At times they betake themselves to the mouths 

 of rivers and feed on plants growing in brackish or salt 

 water. 



There was a manatee in the Central Park some years 

 ago, which subsisted mainly on canna grass alternated 

 with a seaweed, Fuciis veMcuTosil^, obtained in the East 

 River. Others have shown a partiality for cabbage, 

 celery tops, spinach, kale, baked apples, lettuce, water- 

 cress, carrots, etc., but at times they become very fastid- 

 ious. Dr. Murie had one in the Zoological Gardens, 

 London, which tried all that was offered him, and then 

 settled down to watercress and lettuce, but growing at 

 length tired of watercress, just when lettuce was scarce 

 and dear, he became rather an expensive boarder, his 

 daily rations costing ten shillings or two dollars and a 

 half, but he had apparently reached the conclusion that 

 life without lettuce was not worth living. 



They are very timid animals in their wild state, which 

 is only a natural consequence of their being so much 

 hunted, but they are gentle, confiding, and perhaps, oven 

 capable of attachment under domestication. The flesh is 

 very highly esteemed, the skin and oil are valuable pro- 

 ducts, and the manatee's protection would add much to 

 the natural wealth of Florida, as all the rivers of that 

 peninsula east and west are its proper habitat, but, like its 

 kindred, the sea cows of Behring's Straits, it appears to 

 be doomed to extinction at the hand of man. 



These animals ordinarily come to the surface every 

 two or three minutes to breathe, and six or seven min- 

 utes appear to be the limit of time they can remain under 

 water without being suffocated. They do not put much 

 of their nose out of water, which is probably due to their 

 timidity and their liability to attack. They never go 

 ashore, being quite unfitted for land travel. The young 

 are born in the water, after a period of gestation which 

 is supposed to be eleven months. 



Several of these animals have been taken alive, and as 

 high prices are paid for them, there is some inducement 

 to undertake their capture. Captain Zeller has been 

 some time in the trade; his schooner, the Manatee, is 

 properly equipped for the purpose, and he follows the 

 chase with the same ardor as the Greenlander follows the 

 whale, but not with the same destructive tendencies. 

 His prime object is to save the game alive, and to guard 

 it from injuring itself in its struggles to escape. 



His principal appliance is a rope net 800yds. long; and 

 provided with this, a couple of boats, and a Capable crew, 

 he drifts around until he sees some floating grass or 

 other indication of the presence of manatees in the 

 neighborhood; the boats are then lowered away and the 

 net run out, one end. being attached to each boat. As 

 soon as the boats are in position the schooner shakes out 

 her sails and cruises about with the object of driving the 

 game into the net. This being accomplished, the boats' 

 crews come in for their share of the performances. They 

 overhaul the net until they come up to the animal, which 

 invariably sinks to the bottom as soon as it finds itself 

 entangled in the meshes, and would certainly be killed 

 unless they succeed in getting its head above water 

 within six or seven minutes. But the manatee, having 

 taken in a fresh supply of air, makes desperate efforts for 

 liberty, and with its powerful paddle blade of a tail with 

 a superficees of two to three square feet is capable of a 

 severe struggle as long as it has fighting breath in it, and 

 as the boatmen have to take measures to secure it the 

 needful supply of air, the battle is ordinarily prolonged 

 to about half an hour, when the captive gives in ex- 

 hausted, and submits to have the slings passed around it. 

 It is then lifted aboard the schooner by the fore and aft 

 halliards, and lowered down into the tank ready to 

 receive it. Captain Zeller allows little superfluous space 

 in his tanks, which are made about 9ft, long, 30in. wide 

 and 15in deep, and fit the animal as comfortably as a 

 tailor-made suit. The captain says that he has found by 

 experience "that the closer they fit the tank the better 

 they ship, and the less they worry or struggle." 



The three now on exhibition in New York were taken 

 in June last; they have traveled in their tanks from 

 Florida, first by rail from Titusville to Fernandina, two 

 days, during which there was no water in the tanks, the 

 comfort, or at least the necessities of the animals, having 

 been secured by covering them with wet sacks. On Aug. 

 9 they were shipped by the Mallory line of steamers to 

 New York, where they arrived in good health on the 14th. 

 On this trip they were supplied with salt water, but 

 declined to feed in it, which is the more remarkable in 

 that manatees in captivity have shown themselves partial 

 to more than one variety of seaweed, which appears 

 pretty conclusive evidence of their feeding in salt water 

 in their natural state. However, Captain Zeller's refused 

 food when aboard, and commenced to feed freely when 

 on arrival in New York they were supplied with fresh 

 water. 



The capture of these animals is exciting enough, and 

 not wholly unattended with danger; the manatee, urged 

 by his powerful propeller, glides through the water like 

 lightning, and if , in the course of wagging its tail, a 

 small boat should happen to be iu the way, the occupants 

 might think they had been struck by a torpedo. Twice 

 has Captain Zeller been knocked out and his boat upset 

 by a manatee's tail, and considerable weight naturally 



attaches to his opinion as to the amount of reserve force 

 in the implement in question. 



The female is still in her traveling tank, but a tank of 

 10ft. square has been constructed for the two males, and 

 there they lie as philosophically and calmly chewing the 

 cud of their reflections and of strange vegetables as 

 though, to use the worthy captain's expression, "they 

 had been born in a tank, and knew very well that a care- 

 less flip of their tail might let out all the water." 



At times they lie so still that incredulous visitors insist 

 on having them stirred up to afford evidence of their 

 vitality, and the captain, who plays the part of showman, 

 lias to exhibit the animals in motion. They have no ex- 

 ternal ears, but their sense of hearing is acute enough, 

 and the female will occasionally lift up her nose when 

 her keeper addresses her in terms of endearment, which 

 he invariably does in deference to her sex, and in the firm 

 conviction that she is the veritable mermaid of history 

 and tradition, although not so charming in person as she 

 is gentle in disposition. Captain Zeller tells us that they 

 never feed with their noses out of the water. 



The skin is very thick and tough, and at some seasons 

 of the year presents a very rough, almost black surface, 

 which in time scales away, leaving the animal with a 

 soft, clean integument. Captain Zeller's female is in the 

 former state, but the two males appear to have thrown 

 off last year's epidermis. 



Herons as Pets. —Dr. W. Van Fleet, who is the author 

 of a volume entitled "Some Native Birds," short! v to be 

 issued from this office, tells these incidents in the Septem- 

 ber American Magazine: "My herons, Tom and Peggy, 

 were plucky in the extreme, and though peaceable enough 

 when not imposed upon, resented fiercely any domineer- 

 ing from the barnyard inhabitants. Their combined 

 forces were always more than sufficient to route the 

 enemy. Once only we witnessed an instance of their 

 partial discomfiture. Tom had accepted the challenge of 

 a bullying young rooster, and at the first pass was placed 

 hors cle combat, with a spur through his throat. Before 

 the cock had time to sound his clarion of victory, Peggy, 

 with a savage cry, came flying through the ah, and 

 alighting full on his back, by a fierce stroke of her spear- 

 like bill, deprived him of an eye. So energetically did 

 she follow up her advantage that most energetic inter- 

 ference was required to save the fowl from complete 

 destruction. Tom's wound was so severe that a consid- 

 erable portion of his internal anatomy was exposed; 

 nevertheless he recovered rapidly. A contraction of the 

 gullet followed, which often caused him great astonish- 

 ment by refusing to pass such large articles as formerly. 

 Occasionally he would attempt to swallow added sunfish 

 or other spiny object, which, sticking fast, could neither 

 be cast up nor down. A little water, with some careful 

 manipulations, always relieved him from his unpleasant 

 predicament; but to the last, experience did not render 

 him wiser on this point. Their exceeding tameness 

 exposed them to great danger when they chanced to 

 wander from then adopted home; and then fate, at last, 

 was that of being stoned to death." 



Antelope and Deer of America. By J. D. Caton. 

 Price $2.50. Wing and Glass Ball Shooting with the 

 Rifle. By W. C. Bliss. Price 50 cents. Rifle, Rod and 

 Gun in California. By T. S. Van Dyke. Price $1.50. 

 Shore Birds. Price 50 cents. Woodcraft. By '-Ness- 

 muk." Price Si. Trajectories of Hunting Rifles. Price 

 50 cents. The Still-Hunter. By f. S. Van Dyke. Prices?. 



GROUSE ABOUT BOSTON. 



BOSTON, Mass., Sept. 4.— The early shooters have 

 been out. Saturday was the first day of Septem- 

 ber, and those of the gunners who have observed the 

 law either tried the brush with dog and gun, or wished 

 that they had the time to try. Again Monday was 

 Labor Day in Massachusetts, and a legal holiday, and 

 this gave some of the more busy sportsmen a chance at 

 the early birds. It is not a pleasant thing to do to men- 

 tion only small bags generally. Somehow the birds do 

 not seem to be plenty in this part of the country, or at 

 least within easy distance of Boston. There is a dark 

 suspicion that the farmers' boys have been breaking the 

 law, and that they have killed the birds in such season 

 this year that no city shootist can get them. Remark- 

 ably wild birds found on the first day of September, 

 birds as shy of the dog as they usually are in November, 

 indicate that they have seen the dogs early, while here 

 and there patches of feathers show that somebody has 

 been there with the dogs. To be plain about it, the law 

 against grouse shooting in Massachusetts previous to 

 September first is not observed worth one cent by the 

 local gunners. Indeed it is pretty well understood by 

 these gunners, in some parts of the' State, that they stand 

 a much better chance at the birds if they begin, early, 

 and there is something of a silent agreement among 

 them that they shall not inform against each other. The 

 gunner from outside would be quickly complained of 

 for breaking the law, but the local gunners are a law 

 unto themselves. The Massachusetts Fish and Game 

 Commission may be doing its full duty, but at the 

 very best there is next to nothing being done for the pro- 

 tection of game birds in the State. I am aware that this 

 is a sweeping assertion, but where is the instance of any 

 enforcement of the law? 



Indeed the same is true of the lobster law. Short lob- 

 sters are plenty in the markets. The dealers handle sue'.i 

 lobsters as the fishermen bring, and no questions are 

 asked. The beach houses have used lobsters in dicrimi • 

 nately this year. Since Deputy Commissioner F. R. 

 Shattuck resigned, some three months since, nothing 

 has been done toward enforcing the law in this section' 

 though there have been a few short lobster prosecutiens 

 in the vicinity of Lynn and Beverly; but even these were 

 spasmodic and of short duration." Massachusetts raises 

 some money for the protection of fish and game. Where 

 does it go? Special. 



New York Game Protectors.— At a meeting of the 

 Commissioners of Fisheries, last Tuesday, Robert Brown, 

 of Port Richmond, and J. W, Pond, of Malone, were ap- 

 pointed game protectors. Frederick P, Drew, of Wash- 

 ington Mills, Oneida county, was appointed chief game 

 protector. 



