Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Teh ms, $4 a Yeah, 10 Cts, a Copt, I 

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NEW YORK, AUGUST 1, 1889. 



j VOL. XXXHI.-No. 5J. 

 (No 318 Broadway, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Ways of the Woodcoek. 



Docking Tails and Cropping 

 Ears. 



Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Shooting on Mt. Olympus. 



Camping Out (Poetry). 

 Natural History. 



Some Old- Time Natural His- 

 tory; 



The Woodcock and the Vv orm. 



That Stinging Snake. 

 Game Bag and gun. 



Pattern and Penetration Tests 



Bullet from Shotgun. 



A Bear Scrimmage. 



Hollow Bullets. 



Notes from Worcester. 



"Cruising in the Cascades." 

 Sea and River Fishing . 



Chicago Anglers and Angling. 



Camps of the Kingflshers.-m. 



A Salmon Score. 



Trout of the Pools. 



Newfound Lake Fish. 



Haunts of Boston Anglers. 



FlSHOULTURE. 



Lake Ronkonkoma. 



The Kennel. 



English Setter Bitches Stolen. 



Brooklyn Dog Show. 



Irish Red Setter Club's Field 

 Trials 



Mastiff Importation. 



Sales of Sporting Dogs at Al- 

 dridges. 



Dog Talk. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Ra,nge and Gallery. 



Our Team Abroad. 



The Trap. 



American Shooting Associa'n. 



Bandle defeats Winston. 



The Crookston Tournament. 

 Yachting. 



The Forty-Foot Class. 



West India Hurricanes and 

 the Great March Blizzard. 



New York Y. C. Cruise. 



Beverly Y. C. 



Valkyrie. 



Racing Notes. 

 Canoeing. 



Puritan C. C. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



DOCKING TAILS AND CROPPING EARS. 



IF we recollect rightly it is Hugh Dalziel who tells of a 

 time in Great Britain when dogs without tails were 

 exempt from taxation; and so to chop off a dog's tail 

 was to lop off with it one's tribute to the crown. That 

 time, if it ever existed, is now as hazy as the reign of 

 good King Womba, and in the degenerate present the 

 most that can be said in defense of docking the tails of 

 dogs and cropping their ears is that fashion calls for such 

 mutilations. And the whims of fashion are quite as apt 

 to be dictated by perverted tastes as by good sense. Wit- 

 ness the docked-tailed horses of our avenues and the 

 villainous high check-rein, both of them a reproach to 

 humanity. The practice of docking horses' tails, it is 

 true, is not without defence on the ground of utility; 

 veterinary surgeons there are who aver that to cut the tail 

 off short is beneficial to the physical condition of the horse. 

 Nor are there wanting advocates of docking dogs' tails f or 

 hygienic reasons. The notion is entertained by many 

 ignorant people, and stoutly enough defended, that 

 a puppy's tail must be cut off because in the end of it is 

 a worm, and this worm is the cause of distemper. Cut off 

 the tail and thus remove the worm, say these sapient 

 grannies, and the dog will never be ailing. This "vulgar 

 error" of the worm in the end of the dog's tail is widely 

 prevalent, and thousands of puppies have sacrificed their 

 brushes in consequence thereof. A similar superstition 

 holds with respect to a mythical worm in the cow's tail, 

 which must be cut out to insure the cow's good health. 

 It is not difficult to understand that the white cords of 

 the tail, in dog or cow. might have been mistaken by an 

 ignorant person for worms, and that in this way the 

 curious belief about their removal may have arisen. Bat 

 the strange thing is that intelligent dog owners will 

 accept this ridiculous theory of the worm in the tail, 

 when propounded by ignorant individuals whose opinion 

 would be received on no other subject under heaven; and 

 will countenance the mutilations which are based on 

 the silly superstition. 



Another reason given for docking the tails of sporting 

 dogs is that when of reduced length this appendage is 

 less subject to injury in the field. It is a common thing 

 for dogs working in the brush to whip their tails so 

 vigorously as to seriously wound them by the constant 

 beating. The end of the tail becomes raw, and after 

 working a rough cover the dog's sides and flanks will 

 sometimes show the marks where the bleeding tail has 

 whipped against them. If cutting off a few joints of the 

 tail would remedy this laceration, the operation might 

 be admissible, but experience demonstrates that the dock- 

 ing is not effectual to accomplish such a purpose. A dog 

 given to whipping its tail in the brush so violently as to 

 lacerate it will suffer whether the tail be of natural length 

 or shortened by a few joints; of course if the mutilation 

 be such as to leave only a stump of the tail, that rem- 

 nant will be safe enough, but though a man may be 

 content to drive sheep with a bob-tailed sheep dog, no 

 one of good taste wants to follow a stump-tailed setter 

 in the field. 



It is well known that a greyhound's tail is of the great- 

 est importance to it in directing its course and turning; 

 a dog without this useful member would stand no chance 

 to win a coursing match. It is quite reasonable to con- 

 clude that the tail of natural length serves a like useful 

 purpose in other breeds. The rule is that nature does 

 her work well, and if she has given dogs tails and ears, 

 man with his notions and knives canot improve on 

 nature. 



Those who have read Theophile Gautier's chapters on 

 his pets will recall a pertinent bit of testimony afforded 

 by his experiment with a white rat. Acting on the preva- 

 lent notion that a rat would do better if its tail were cut 

 off. Gautier deprived one of his rats of this appendage; 

 but the effect was quite the reverse of beneficial; in spite 

 of being lightened of his caudal extremity, this rat was 

 always less agile than his companions, was wary in gym- 

 nastic exercises and often experienced a tumble; he was 

 like a tight-rope walker without his pole, like a boat 

 without a rudder; he would not venture on narrow ledges 

 where his long-tailed fellows went with sang froid 

 and safety; in short, he was a rat without a tail ; a rat 

 tinkered by man, and very much less of a rat than nature 

 made him. _" 



WAYS OF THE WOODCOCK. 



IN his interesting paper on the woodcock, published in 

 our Natural History columns, Mr. Brewster requests 

 our views on certain habits of the bird. The two points 

 of especial interest are the boring and the whistle, or 

 twitter, so well known to shooters, and about which such 

 diverse opinions are held. 



We have only once seen the w r oodcock bore in the wild 

 state. The bird, started by a companion, alighted within 

 6 or 8ft. of where we were standing-, ran a step or two, 

 stopped, turned its head on one side, stood so for an in- 

 stant as if listening, and then plunged its bill into the 

 mud. ft at once withdrew it, and raising the point of the 

 bill, appeared to be swallowing, but as its back was to- 

 ward us we could not see just what it did. 



We have, however, seen the woodcock bore in captiv- 

 ity. The operation, which was performed with great 

 deliberation, was repeated many times, and was wit- 

 nessed on several different days, being always done in 

 the same manner. The bird introduced the point of his 

 bill into the damp earth at an angle of about 80 degrees, 

 and by a series of slow pushes buried it to the base. 

 While doing this, his left foot was slightly advanced and 

 his body inclined downward. When the bill was fairly 

 buried, the bird stood perfectly still. He looked as if he 

 were listening, and we thought it quite probable that he 

 was doing so. It seemed likely also that he was feeling, 

 employing both senses to detect any movement in the 

 earth beneath him. The apparent sensitiveness of the 

 bill in the woodcock, as in some other waders, appeared 

 to us to justify the impression that the sense of touch as 

 well as of hearing came into play. If the bird found no 

 worm, he withdrew his bill, and again plunged it into 

 the earth at a little distance further on. If a worm was 

 felt, or some sound or motion indicated that one was 

 near, he partly withdrew his bill, and, altering its direc- 

 tion, plunged it in again and drew out the worm. The 

 operation of deglutition seemed to begin as so.on as the 

 point of the bill touched the worm. A movement of the 

 bases of the upper and lower mandibles indicated that he 

 had a worm, and as the bill was withdrawal the two 



came together again and again very rapidly, and almost 

 as soon as the bill was fairly clear of the earth the end of 

 the worm disappeared down the bird's throat. It ap- 

 peared, when the bird made his first thrusts into the 

 ground, as if they were tentative; a deliberate thrust fol- 

 lowed by a moment of waiting, another thrust and then 

 another wait, in all perhaps three or four motions before 

 the bill was buried to its base. This slow action we took 

 to be an exploration by the tip of the bill for motion in 

 the earth, at first near the surface and then deeper and 

 deeper. When the bird had learned that there was a 

 worm in the soil there was no hesitation. The bill was 

 buried by a sharp quick thrust, about which there was no 

 uncertainty. After devouring all the worms that it 

 could, this bird commonly cleansed its bill by means of 

 its feet, and then washed it in water by gently shaking 

 its head. This bird, which weighed six ounces, devoured 

 eight ounces of worms in twenty-four hours. 



The cause of the whistle of the woodcock has long been 

 a mooted point. There is no doubt that in rising the 

 bird makes a noise with its wings, which might perhaps 

 be called a whistle, but the sound to which we refer is the 

 well known ringing note, as often heard in the woodcock 

 cover, and which sometimes closely resembles the twit- 

 ter of the kingbird. A crow, a robin, an English sparrow 

 and a pigeon all make a noise with their wings, and so 

 does the woodcock, but this sound, we believe, is not to be 

 confounded with the other and better known note of the 

 springing bird. We said last week that we believed that 

 this sound was vocal, and that we could give reasons for 

 this belief, which appeared to us conclusive. We came 

 to this conclusion in October, years ago, when we. one 

 day shot a woodcock and broke its wing close to the 

 body. Having a puppy at home we captured the bird 

 alive in order to work the young dog on it. While at- 

 tempting to catch it in our hands it ran ahead of us, now 

 and then springing into the air as a wounded bird will, 

 trying to support itself on its uninjured wing, and at each 

 attempt to rise from the ground whistling. To us it ap- 

 peared impossible that this one wing, which from the 

 circumstances could not have been moved rapidly or it 

 would have turned the bird quite over, should have made 

 this sound. 



At another time we captured a wing-broken bird which 

 we held in the hand in the house; by a sudden spring it 

 slipped from our grasp and fell to a chair, a distance of 

 a foot or two. As it struggled to release itself and fell, 

 it uttered the well-known whistling note. Subsequently, 

 when this same bird was released on the ground before 

 the young dog, it sprang into the air, using its uninjured 

 wing as before, and whistling. This we have seen a 

 number of times, and with many different wing-broken 

 birds. Again, some of these wang-tipped birds, in the 

 thick grass and weeds of a yard, have made this wMstling 

 when it appeared to us an impossibility for them to have 

 used their wings. 



The vocal whistle of the woodcock and the whistle of 

 its wings appear to *s as different as the w r ell known 

 "scaip" of the Wilson's snipe is from the whistle of its 

 wings. Most snipe shooters have seen a wounded snipe 

 run on the ground, constantly springing into the air and 

 uttering its cry. We have never heard it questioned that 

 this call of alarm was vocal, and we believe that the 

 twitter or whistle of tfhe woodcock is in the same way 

 vocal. 



SNAP SHOTS, 



THE presence in the Yellowstone National Park of 

 Hon. S. S. Cox, of New York, as reported in our 

 last number, will interest and encourage those who have 

 long been hoping for legislation by Congress looking 

 toward the protection and proper government of this 

 reservation. It will be remembered that several years 

 ago Mr. Cox, by his eloquence, defeated by an over- 

 whelming majority a bill which authorized the running 

 of a railroad through the Park. Since that time he has 

 taken a great interest in Park matters, and it is believed 

 that his present trip is made for the purpose of thor- 

 oughly informing himself about this region with a view 

 to possible future discussions in Congress. 



The world does not weary of Izaak Walton, nor do 

 publishers tire of bringing out new editions of the "Com- 

 pleat Angler." It is reported that James Russell Lowell 

 has written a preface for a new edition which will be 

 published in Boston next autumn. 



