474 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 8, 1889. 



THE MARE-BROWED MAN AND THE 

 PHANTOM LOON. 



ON the southwest coast of the island of Newfoundland 

 is an area of the sea about sixty miles in length, 

 and called bp the early settlers Fortune Bay, because of 

 the abundance and variety of fishes in its teeming waters. 

 In nooks and corners, by its fiords, coves and harbors, 

 are settled a hardy and simple-minded race of fisher folk?, 

 chiefly descended from West Country stock froui Old 

 England. They were the pioneers in the cod fisheries, 

 and getting tired of the buffetings of the Grand Banks, 

 they gladly sheltered themselves where woods and water, 

 fishes, fur and feathered fowl were to be had by helping 

 themselves. They, too, sang this song of the lotus eaters: 



"Oh, rest ye brother mariners, we will not wnnder mure," 

 and returned not again to tl.e old home in England, 

 Needless to say, they brought the folk lore and super- 

 stitions of the old land with them, and their descendants 

 to-day in out-of-the-way coves, having little or no con- 

 nection with the outside world will, if you gain their 

 confidence, give you the goblin stories common two or 

 three centuries ago in the west of England. Their dialect 

 is decidedly West Country, sadly mixed in transportation, 

 scarcely understandable until you have been some months 

 in constant intercourse with them. 



Thev are firm believers in spells, and things lucky and 

 unlucky, in witchcraft and witches, in turning a key on 

 the Bible to discover a thief, and all the mvsteries of the 

 Black Art. 



On one occasion I was going hunting with an old skip- 

 per early in the morning when a woman crossed our path. 

 "We might a3 well turn back," said he; ''no luck to-day, 

 sir." It is also unlucky to meet a red-haired man, or for 

 a hare to cross your path when going deer hunting, and 

 above all, a mare-browed man is unlucky and has the 

 power of putting a spell on you. Their belief is that he 

 is possessed with an evil spirit of mischief, which he is 

 always ready to exercise to your harm. A mare-browed 

 man is always dreaded in the community in which he 

 lives, and he believes as firmly as his neighbors that he 

 has the power of putting a speil on and giving bad luck. 

 Perhaps the word is not commonly known among your 

 readers, and I had better give an explanation. 



A mare-browed man is one Avhose eyebrows meet and 

 extend continuously across the forehead. Fortunately 

 these people are not numerous if their powers are equal 

 to their belief. The word is an illustration of how ten- 

 aciously the common people in. out-of-the-way places 

 retain a strong hold of a word which would else be almost 

 lost f rom our language. In this case, however, there is 

 one other instance of its common use in the word night- 

 mare. "Mare" is an old Saxon word for goblin, an evil 

 and mischievous spirit. 



And now to my story of the mare-browed man and 

 phantom loon. I was on a pleasure excursion in Fortune 

 Bay in a yacht of about twenty tons. The fishing had been 

 superb in Salmon River, Long Harbor and Trammer. 

 Salvelinus fontinalis of the anadromous variety, weigh- 

 ing from 1 to 41bs., had been caught by our party until 

 we were satisfied, and would catch no more. After a 

 long experience in many waters, I am satisfied that no 

 finer sport can be had than in these rivers from the 15th 

 of July until the 1st of October. 



We were homeward bound, but a strong breeze forced 

 us to seek shelter in a cove called Doctor's Harbor, on the 

 north side of the bay. Tbis snug little place is nestled 

 under a range of hills which rise rather precipitouJy 

 from the water to a height of about 8601 1. The scenery 

 is grand. The tops of the hills are bare of trees of ver- 

 dure of any kind, except club mosses, ground juniper 

 and tuckamores. Here the Arctic hare, weighing from 

 10 to 141bs.,the rock ptarmigan and willow grouse are 

 numerous. The latter afford inagoificent sport. They 

 lie well to the dog, are strong of wing, and require 

 straight powder and a quick eye if you will bring many 

 to bag in the months of October and November. As a 

 game bird they are not surpassed by the ruffed grouse. 



In this quiet cove lived five families of fishermen- 

 fishermen in summer, hunters in winter. Their little 

 one-storied hut-* contained a kitchen with a large open 

 fire-place, on which were old-fashioned iron dogs. The 

 furniture consisted of a deal table, two or three home- 

 made stools and settle?, one or two arm chairs made of 

 flour barrels, and the- housewife's pride, a dresser of 

 crockery ware of gaudy pattern stood opposite the door, 

 which was near the center of the hou-e. The other end 

 of the house usually contains two small bed-rooms, while 

 the loft is devoted to a miscellaneous stowage of nets, 

 ro Is, lines, sails and children. In one of these houses 

 livel skipper John Baker, a mare-browed man. and near 

 by lived skipper Kish Cains. 



On going ashore I met the latter at hi9 door' step with 

 his right arm in a sling. After a cordial greeting— for he 

 had been an old hunting guide of mine— I inquired what 

 ailed his arm. He replied : < 1 Well , sir, last week I bought 

 this 'ere gun [which stood by the door] from Sam Leak, 

 the Nartin trader, an' gid un varty sluilin's fur un. Fish 

 wus scace, so day afore yisday I thought I'd go over the 

 hills and try un on a hare or patridge. I tooked her an 

 the powder barn and shotgut, and starts up yander 

 through the droke. You know the little pond on the top 

 of the hill. When I cumed in sight o' un, the fust thing 

 I sees is a loo' sittin' about the middle uv uu. 4 A queer 

 place far a loo ! to be,' siys I, fur the pond isn't more'n 

 00yds. across, and no trouble to git in gun shot a he. I 

 drawd down to the tuckamores aside the pond, an' °-ot 

 tvvixt thirty and varty yards from un. I lets drive and 

 the loo dove. The gun kicked pow'ful an' I loads her 

 agen, a light load, not mor' 'n six fingers. The loo' comes 

 up m trie same place an' I lets drive again, and he dove 

 agen In a minit he cumed up in the same place, aud I 

 loaded an fired twenty-eight shots at un, an' he dove 

 every time. I hadn't a grain of shot left. At the last 

 ?* V„V 00 disa PPsared, then I seed I'd been vuled 

 [tooled] . 



" "What became of the loon?" said I. 

 " 'Twa'n't no loo' at all, sir." 

 "What was it then?" . 



+ wTw S ,^ m ? an ' the a^ I knowed then 



that that blaiakety blank blank Jan Baker put it on " 



8a , ld *• " you s »oiud not believe, such things." 

 Well, lookee here, sir," opening his shirt and showing 



his shoulders as black as my hat. "I've vised too many 

 guns not to know I wouldn't be served like that if there 

 war'nt a spell on her." 



I replied, "Oh, Kish, you are mistaken; she is an old 

 army musket, warranted to kick like a mule." 



"Mistaken, sir! I got proof I'm right. Shortly after I 

 cumed out to the harbor Jan Baker he cumed in from 

 vishin, and I says to un, 'Skipper Jan. I thinks there's a 

 spell on my gun.' 'Let me look at her,' says he. I gid 

 her to un an' he looks along the bar'l. 'Yes, ses he, Skip- 

 per Kish, there is a spell on her, I can see it. It looks 

 just like a vishes vloat [fish's air float or air bladder].' 

 I ses, "Canst take it off, Skipper Jan?' He says, 'No, I 

 can't.' 'Well, I can,' says I, 'fur I knows the blankety 

 blank that put it there.' 



"So yistday maruin, sir, w'en Jan Baker an' the rest 

 went out vishen, I gets a piece of paper and cuts it out 

 the shape uv a man's heart, an' I writ Jan Baker's name 

 on it and stuck it up on that picket six foot in front uv 

 the door. I puts a small charge in the gun, and cubs off 

 a piece uv silver the size uv a shot and puts it in with the 

 shot, I stood here in the doorway andvired; and I hope 

 that I might never live another day, sir, if I'm tellen ye 

 a lie — every shot cumed flyin' back in the house among the 

 crockery on the dresser and rattlin' on the floor. I looked 

 at the paper heart; not a shot had passed through it, but 

 I seed a small piece chipped out of the edge andlknowed 

 the silver had done it and the spell was off my gun. 



"In the evenin' when Jan Baker cumed in, he says, 

 'Skipper Kish, didst take the spell off youi gun?' And I 

 says, 'Yes, I did, Skipper Jan.' And he says, 1 knowed 

 it, Skipper Kish, fur when I was out on the fishin' ground 

 I f elt a drop of blood leave my heart, an' I says to my- 

 self, Skipper Kish is takin' the spell off his gun.' 



"Now, sir, didn't I tell you that I had proof that 'twa'n't 

 no loo' at all, only a spell on my gun." 



So ends my yarn of the mare-browed man and the 

 phantom loon. The names of men and places are all 

 real, nothing fictitious: all is set down as repeated to me 

 by Skipper Kish; but I cannot do justice to this dialect 

 on paper. B. 



Hajibob Gbace, Newfoundland. 



tn\nl ^jjiistorg. 



QUEER FOOD FOR RODENTS. 



IT is well known that many of the rodents are omnivor- 

 ous, and enjoy eating flesh as well as vegetable food. 

 Naturalists long ago called attention to the fact that the 

 red squirrel habitually feeds on young birds and on eggs, 

 that the thirteen-lined sperniopbile and other western 

 specimens eat grasshoppers, that muskrats eat fresh- 

 water mussels (Unio) and that some will eat their own 

 kind. The popular impression is, however, that rodents, 

 except the Norway rat and the house mouse, are vege- 

 table feeders exclusively. 



In the interesting report made by Mr. Vernon Bailey to 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of the Bureau of Economic Orni- 

 thology, there is given a great deal of information as to 

 the food of many of our mammals found in western Min- 

 nesota and Dakota, and among other points brought out 

 is the one to which we have alluded. 



Speaking of the muskrat Mr. Bailey eavs that it is 

 abundant at Elk River, Sherburne county, Minn. "Thev 

 eat fresh water mussels, small turtles and lily roots. The 

 mussels eaten are both the thin-shelled kind of the mud 

 bottomed lakes, and the heavy-shelled of rivers (Unio). 

 Some trappers use mussels for bait. The turtle eaten by 

 the Muskrats is a small bright-colored terrapin, probably 

 Chrysemys picta. Three or four years ago I took from a 

 Muskrat house a small turtle with three of its legs and its 

 tail paten off and the shell gnawed. It was still alive. 

 The lily roots eaten are Nymphcea iuberom, and Nuphar 

 adoma. They form a large part of the food of Muskrats 

 in winter when the ponds are frozen." 



Onyckomya Uucogastta is a curious mouse, which is very 

 largely insectivorous and which from this cause is known 

 as the grasshopper mouse. Near Fort Buford, Dakota, 

 Mr. Baiiy found this species common on the prairies and 

 hilL, but not among the underbrush. He kept one in 

 confinement for some little time, and his observations on 

 it are so interesting that we give what he says in full: 



"One which I kept in confinement was not full grown 

 when caught. From the first it did not show the least 

 fear. It took food from my fingers when first offered, 

 and never attempted to bite. If not disturbed or very 

 hungry it sleeps all day, and when waked up gapes, 

 stretches and Dlinks some time before he gets fully 

 awake, but is then lively for a time, though he does not 

 seem to like the light, and if it is bright keeps winking. 

 In the evening he becomes lively and tries to get out, 

 jumping and scratching at the sides of his cage, and 

 biting the wires of the front, but he never gnaws, and 

 though he has been a week in a thin cigar box there is 

 not a tooth mark in it. Sometimes he becomes crazy in 

 his efforts to get out nights, and jumps about with all 

 his might; but usually, unless hungry, he is quiet and 

 intelligent. He will come to the front of his cage at 

 once if the wires are rattled or scratched and look for 

 food. If a fly gets inside he is pretty sure to see it, and 

 seldom fails to catch it. He will not eat raw meat, but 

 the way he takes hold of grasshoppers and flies shows 

 that they are not new to him. He ate 16 crickets, 11 

 grasshoppers, 1 spider, a black bug, and a big fly one 

 forenoon. When very hungry he will eat weed seed or 

 the leaves and stems of knot-grass and pigweed, but he 

 has not been hungry enough for this many times since 

 I have had him. He will also eat a little cheese 

 and fried cake when hungiy, hut not much, and evi- 

 dently does not relish it. His favorite food is crickets; 

 he will not eat anything else while there is a 

 cricket in his box. Next to crickets he will 

 take, grasshoppers or flies, but does not seem to care 

 soniuch for beetles, though he will eat any kind that I 

 have yet offered him, principally a small black beetle 

 that lives mider sticks and stones; he also eats lady-bugs. 

 I have found only one potato bug since I have had him, 

 and . he seemed to relish that, as he ate it all but the 

 wings, shell and legs. He always begins at the head of 

 an insect, holding it in bis hands while he eats. 4 

 grasshopper will just nicely sit on its tail while he eats 

 .its head, with a hand on each shoulder; but the hopper is 

 bound to kick, and if a large one, makes him much 

 trouble, sometimes tipping him over; but he never lets 



go or stops eating until the head is off: then he eats his 

 way to the tail. The wings and legs fall off as he eats 

 the body out of them, and if he has plenty to eat they 

 are left: but if hungry, and the supply is short, he will 

 eat the legs afterward. He eats spiders, soft bugs, and 

 dragon flies. He killed and ate a small frog when hun- 

 gry, but would not touch one after eating all the hop- 

 pers he wanted. Next to insects he will take raw meat, 

 fat or lean. He is very fond of brains. The only insects 

 offered him which he would not eat were ants, and a few 

 in his box make him almost crazy. If a dozen grasshop- 

 pers or crickets are put in his box alive he will kill them 

 all by biting off their heads before he eats any. The 

 same day that I caught him I dropped a dead white- 

 footed mouse (Htsoeromtjs leuuopus) into his box. He 

 pounced upon it like a cat, caught it by the side of the 

 head near the ear, and began biting with all the ferocity 

 of a coon dog. I could hear the bones crack, and when 

 he let go and seemed satisfied that it was dead I took it 

 out and found quite a hole broken through the skull 

 just below the petrous bone. His teeth must have pene- 

 trated far into the brain. I put it back and Onychomys 

 began at once to gnaw through and pull off strips of flesh 

 from ihe neek, shoulders and skull, but did not get at 

 the brain. He ate both of its eyes. The savage disposi- 

 tion shown in his manner of "attack, and his prompt- 

 ness to seize it, would indicate a habit of killing mice. 

 Sept. 22.— At 7:43 A. M. I gave him 12 crickets and 1 

 spider. He had eaten them all in seven minutes. At 

 8 A. M. he ate 4 grasshoppers; at 10, 1 big fly; at 10:15, 4 

 grasshoppers and 4 crickets, and at 11:45, 4 grasshoppers 

 and a biack bug; total 30 large insects in four hours. Did 



at 12 M., 3 flies, 2 hoppers and 7 crickets; at 1:30 P. M., 6 

 blue flies; at 2, 3 big flies; at 2:30, 3 grasshoppers, and at 

 6, 3 crickets; total, 2 beetles, S grasshoppers, 15 flies and 

 28 crickets, or in all 53 large insects in less than twelve 

 hours. He would have eaten more if he had had them. 

 Sept. 28.— Put a small Hesperomys in his box and he 

 served it in the same way that he did the other one; also 

 gave him a song sparrow that I had killed; he bit it 

 through the head and ate part of it. I gave him a black 

 hornet, which he took and ate greedily, but the tail 

 seemed to bother him, and he evidently got stung on the 

 nose, but did not seem toniinn* it much. He is very fond of 

 cream. Sept. 30.— Gave Onychomys a common gray moth, 

 which he ate and seemed to relish. Oct. 3. — lie ate a 

 piece of another mouse of his own kind, and tried to eat 

 it before it was skinned. He has settled one thing for 

 me; that a squeaking cry which I heard evenings at 

 Brown's Valley and once or twice at Devil's Lake was 

 made by this species. He has made the same sound several 

 times. It is something like the cry of a flying squirrel. 

 Of four skinned I was able to save but one without the 

 loss of a patch of hair from the belly. Though the 

 weather was cool they would not keep more than six 

 hours without the hair loosening over the belly. Most of 

 those captured at Brown's Valley show one or more bare 

 spots. I have noticed the same thing in striped gophers 

 (8. tridecemlineatus), which had been feeding on grass- 

 hoppers. Probably the insect food causes this tendency 

 to early decomposition The excrement of this species is 

 easily known by the remains of insects it contains." 



THE OPOSSUM ON LONG ISLAND. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



During a six yeaiv-.' residence on Long Island I have 

 noticed a marked increase in the opossum crop year by 

 year. Some months ago I saw a paragraph in the South 

 Side Signal concerning their, introduction here, but neg- 

 lected to save it. Being interested in this matter I wrote 

 to the editor, asking for information about the animal, 

 and have gathered some facts which may be of interest 

 in awakening inquiry as to the length of time that the 

 opossum has been on the island. It is my habit each 

 night to let my terriers out for a run before going to bed, 

 and a year ago in my little garden they treed seven opos- 

 sums, which were caught. This winter they have found 

 but two, so far, although ihey are on the increase. In 

 November Mr. Sylvester Smith, of this place, caught 

 eighteen, nine of them being a female and her young. 

 Another man, name forgotton, caught thirty-two, and 

 the opossum is getting to be a nuisance to owners of fowl, 

 and there is every prospect of their increase. Finding, 

 to my surprise, that the persimmon tree grows on the 

 Island, it occurred to me that the opossum might be in- 

 digenous, hence my question concerning them, and 

 these are the facts brought out: 



From the Suffolk Bulletin, Huntington. L. I.. Dec. 22.— 

 "Mr. Fred Mather, Supt. of Fish Hatchery at Cold Spring 

 writes to the Signal inquiring about opossums as to 

 whether they are indigenous to Long Island or an intro- 

 duction here. Before 1880 they were unknown here. 

 Some time during that year Mrs. R. T. Hunn, who was 

 then in Virginia, sent three of them to Charles H. Smith 

 of this village. They escaped from the boy, but only two 

 succeeded in getting away, as one went prowling into F. 

 G. Sammis' cellar, and was killed by that gentleman. 

 Mrs. Hunn, who soon returned from the South and took 

 up her residence at Cold Spring, allowed another to 

 escape, and from these the present numerous array of the 

 varmints is supposed to have sprung. These facts have 

 been published by the different members of the Island 

 press before, and as they were not contradicted, it is sup- 

 posed are correct. If any one knew of oppossums before 

 1880 will they eo inform us that the question can be 

 settled?" 



From the South Side Signal, Dec. 22— Editor Signal: 

 In the last issue of your paper a correspondent seeks 

 information about the opossum on Long Island, now so 

 abundant, why he is here and where did he come from? 

 Some twenty-five years ago a citizen of Bellport had, I 

 think, five in number sent him from the South. They 

 undermined the pen he put them in and escaped. I also 

 heard a number were turned loose on the north side of 

 the island several years ago. They increase rapidly; in 

 fact, it would take a smart mathematician to "multiply" 

 with them, During my several years' residence in Flor- 

 ida, where I spent many happy hours in hunting and 

 shooting, I became well acquainted with the "varmints." 

 They are very destructive to poultry and game birds, but 

 are very palatable when stuffed and roasted. A "'pos- 

 sum -hunt" is a great institution "down in Dixie." And. 

 if young Ahierioa on Long Island would train dogs and 



