July 10, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



491 



trophy to the place where he had got his supper, and ex- 

 hibited it to the family to receive their praises, at which 

 h e n ever f ailed to exhibit the greatest pride. More often, 

 I thmk, he buried his quarry, or left it unburied and went 

 in further search of game. Of course, he frequently treed 

 coons, and generally when this was the case he stayed by 

 the tree till daylight. His bark was sharp and ringing 

 and known to all in the neighborhood, and it was seldom, 

 indeed, that some one did not go to him in the morning 

 with such aid as rifle or ax could give. The night's hunt 

 was followed by the day's rest, usually at the home of the 

 man who had gone to his relief in the morning, or else at 

 the cabin whence he had set forth the evening before. 

 However, he had no uniform habit in this regard. He 

 might return home the second day or he might stay out 

 for two or three days, or even more. He might make one 

 house heaa quarters for the entire time he was out on any 

 particular hunt, or he might stop in for a longer or shorter 

 period at the houses of two or three persons. 



In this manner Old Jack lived and hunted. During 

 the hunting seasons, which to him were in the fall and 

 spring of the year, lie seldom failed to take one tramp a 

 week, and some weeks he went forth twice, and he has 

 been known to stay otic the whole week. Our own home 

 he Tery naturally made his headquarters more frequently 

 and for longer extended periods during his hunting sea- 

 sons than any home of our neighbors, while during the 

 winter and the very hot summer he was always at home. 



Old Jack confined his hunting operations to the Shiloh 

 neighborhood, because, as I suppose, he knew the people 

 in it; and he hunted down the noxious animals that in- 

 fested its woods and thickets, because, as I further sup- 

 pose, he loved the sport. I do not accord to him any 

 sentiment of duty. Nevertheless, may I not praise him? 

 Does he not deserve to be mentioned in the history of 

 good dogs? 



But alas, alas I Jack fell a victim to his own zeal. He 

 had grown old: his teeth were well worn down; his claws 

 were blunt and his muzzle had grown gray. Still he 

 kept on hunting. The bears had clean disappeared; it 

 was only now and then a deer was seen, and old Jesse 

 Young the hunter had oiled "Old Crate,'' his deer gun, 

 and hung her up on the gun rack, whence she was very 

 seldom taken down. But old Jack kept bringing in the 

 possums and coons. Of course these were much less 

 numerous in the woods than they had been in his early 

 doghood days, hut he was still recognized as a valuable 

 member of tbe Shiloh community. 



One bright spring day Jack left home and went to the 

 extreme western edge of the neighborhood, stopping at 

 the house of Joseph Young, whence he made a foray into 

 the woods. He did not return to Mr. Young's nor did he 

 return home. His absence occasioned talk. Inquiries 

 were made, but no one had seen or heard anything of the 

 dog. He must have met with an accident, reasoned the 

 people, and so he had. A small boy living just over the 

 neighborhood line reported to his father one evening 

 after driving the cows home that he heard a wonderfully 

 strange noise that came apparently from a hollow stump. 

 The noise frightened the cows, he said, as well as him- 

 self. My uncle hearing of the boy's Btory some days 

 afterward, went to the place, where he found a dead 

 sycamore stub, at the roots of which a dog had evidently 

 been digging, and which showed a hole large enough for 

 Jack to have crawled in, but which was closed with dirt 

 and rotten wood thrown up from the inside. Climbing 

 to an overhanging limb of an adjacent tree my uncle 

 peepeu into the hollow stub which was tenor twelve feet 

 high, and there, side by side, lay old Jack and two 

 possums. 



The manner of the dog's death was plain to be seen. 

 He had hunted his game to their den; and digging in 

 niter them had banked up the hole at which he went in. 

 The game unearthed and killed, he found himself a pris- 

 oner, but lacked the intelligence requibite to effect his 

 own escape. He had evidently scratched and dug, but 

 without judgment; he had howled for help but no one 

 heard him save a freightened cow-boy, and he had died 

 the lingering, awful death of starvation, with the dead 

 bodies of his victims lying untouched by his bide. 



By the time this history was finished my wife had sunk 

 into a sound slumber and, as I had not the heart to waken 

 her, it goes to the public without running the gauntlet of 

 her criticism. D. D. Banta. 



Indiana University, May 2t. 



tn\nl history. 



THE TRUMPET FISH. 



A LATE issue of the Pensacola, Florida, News reports: 

 "Capt. Wm. Johnson of the fishing smack G. L. 

 Daboll was yesterday exhibiting one of the most curiously 

 formed specimens of the fif-h family ever seen hereabouts. 

 It was caught well off shore in the gulf and its like was 

 never seen either by the hundreds of men who have fished 

 on the gulf grounds for twenty years or more or by many 

 masters of ships now in port and who have seen the 

 Btrange fisheB of every part of the globe. In form it some- 

 what resembles the garfish, but to no known family of 

 that species does it belong. It has the snout of a sword- 

 fish, the mouth of a sucker, the body of an eel and the 

 tail of a rat. It is scaleless and of varying flesh tints in 

 ;olor. In the works of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion it has no place; nor may any reference to it be found 

 in the Smithsonian Institution's publications. It is about 

 iffc. in length. Its snout if about 9in. long, nearly round, 

 being about 4in. in circumference and hollow through- 

 out its length. It was caught with a hook and line " 



The curiosity referred to is tbe trumpet fish (Fistularia), 

 3f whioh the books describe two species, tabacca ria and 

 ierrata; it is, however, not certain that the two forms are 

 really distinct. Wt may as well confess that the author 

 >f the above graphic description is in error as to the 6c- 

 jurrence of thete fishes in the publications of the U. S. 

 Pish Commission and National Museum. Both are de- 

 icribed in Bulletin 16, National Mu-eum, and we find one 

 )f them in the first Report of the Fish Commission and 

 n its Bulletin for 1887. From the Bulletin we leara that 

 }5 examples of Fistularia tabaccaria were seined by Dr. 

 3ean near Somers Point, N. J., in 1887, and that the spe- 

 cies is moderately common in Great 8outh Bay, Long 

 Island, and ooo^sional around Cape Cod. Dr. Storer had 

 \ specimen from Martha's Vineyard, which is well fig- 



ured in his "History of Mass. Fishes," plate xxv., figure 

 %t and described in his text under its old name of tobacco- 

 pipe fish — a name as venerable as Catesby. Dr. Kay 

 illustrates Storer's specimen in his work on the "Zo- 

 ology of New York." The fish was known, also, to Dr, 

 Mitchell early in the nineteenth century. The trumpet 

 fish is, indeed, a curiosity, but of rather ancient fame, 

 and we wonder at some of our contemporaries for their 

 failure to recognize an old friend in a new dress. 



DO SNAKES LIKE MUSIC? 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In some recent numbers of The American Naturalist, 

 Mr. Robt. E. Stearns discussed the effects of musical 

 sounds on animals, and gave some interesting details of 

 various cases in which animals were thus affected. 

 Among others Mr. Stearns mentioned some snakes tamed 

 by a gentleman in New York and trained chiefly by 

 means of music. These reptiles were said to compre- 

 hend rewards and punishments administered through 

 music, exhibiting either pleasure or anger according to 

 their preference of one or another musical instrument, 

 and a distaste for others. The owner of these highly 

 moral and musical snakes would confer a favor on stu- 

 dents of ophiology if he would kindly afford us some in- 

 sight into his mode of discipline, and of the particular 

 effect on the reptiles. In what manner do they evince 

 displeasure or the contrary? And has he observed them 

 to act in the same manner at other disturbing noises 

 whi^h are not music? This latter is a very important 

 point. 



It is an ancient belief that snake3 are sensitive to 

 "music," and the oriental snake charmers have for ages 

 worked on this belief in exhibiting their so-called "danc- 

 ing" cobras and other snakes. But what kind of "music"? 

 Can we call the tum-tumming of the Indian drums or 

 the noise of the bamboo pipes music? That snakes are 

 easily affected by noise, that is by a jarring sound, a 

 sudden knock — any sharp concussion in fact that con- 

 veys a vibration through solids — can be verified by any 

 one who observes them closely. And so are some lizards 

 and batrachians. In my work on snakes ("Curiosities 

 and Wonders of Serpent Life") I have devoted a whole 

 chapter to the examination of this subject, and may here 

 be permitted to repeat my conviction that it is music as 

 sound, as noise only, that affects them. Subsequent ob- 

 servations have tended rather to confirm than to nega- 

 tive this impression. 



When we consider that snakes have only very imper- 

 fectly developed organs of hearing, no tympanic cavity, 

 and no external orifice, we may well doubt the existence 

 of a sensitive ear. But, on the contrary, when we con- 

 template the form of a snake and of many other reptiles 

 prone upon the ground, we can well conceive the proba- 

 bility of an extreme sensitiveness to sounds as conveyed 

 through solids, or even through fluid mediums, as vibra- 

 tions. I have seen reptiles start at any heavy article 

 being placed down suddenly near them, or when any- 

 thing has been dragged along the ground or the shelf 

 where they might be. A sudden bell or outburst of 

 music might affect them similarly. 



At the reptile house in our Zoological Gardens, where 

 are long passages at the back of the cages, you may 

 observe that the snakes are on t he alert at familiar noises, 

 such as the trolly wheels; they listen to the stopping of 

 the trolly on which the keeper mounts to feed them, and 

 recognize the noise caused by the grating of the key, 

 when the trap-door of their cages is about to be opened. 

 You would think from these occurrences that they pos- 

 sessed a very sensitive ear, but the sensitiveness, in my 

 opinion, lies in their bones, their muscles «nd their nerves. 

 They feel sound rather than hear it. The sensation of 

 vibration through solids would naturally be more acute 

 in creatures with their whole body along the ground, as 

 those versed in acoustics would explain. The Indian throws 

 himself flat upon the ground and presses his ear close to it to 

 listen for a far-off sound, or to detect a distant footstep. You 

 may have a watch about you and be wholly unconscious 

 of its ticking until you inadvertently lean against the 

 table, or place your elbow upon it, when immediately the, 

 ticking of your watch becomes audible. It ticks no 

 louder than before, but the sound is conveyed to you by 

 a solid conductor. 



As for the so-called "dancing" of snakes, the waving 

 of their heads to and fro, that is a common habit when 

 they partly erect themselves and are unusually excited. 

 They do this, music or no music, only the jugglers take 

 advantage of the action andtime their "music" to suitit. 

 Mr. Stearns, 1 believe, came to the conclusion that it is 

 sound not as melody, but as noise only, that affects ani- 

 mals; and of course unusual and unfamiliar sounds are 

 more disturbing than familiar ones. 



Still, as we all have so much to learn, or to unlearn 

 about snakes, any information founded on actual and 

 careful observation is always of value, and I trust we 

 may be favored with further details regarding these tame 

 and intelligent New York snakes alluded to by Mr. R. E. 

 Stearns. Catherine C. Hopley. 



London, England. 



Striped Bass in Fresh Water.— A Savannah, Ga., 

 paper reports: "One of the strange freaks of the electric 

 storm at Thunderbolt Sunday morning was the effect the 

 lightning had on two of the eight rock fish in the fountain 

 in the Savannah Yacht Club house grounds. They seem 

 to have been crazed by the shock, each showing a dark 

 line on its back, and they are unable to swim for any 

 length of time in a natural position, but turn over and 

 float as if they were dead. When righted in the water 

 they attempt to swim, but gasp as if out of the water, and 

 soon flop over belly up, and come to the surface. The 

 stranget-t part of all is that though the fish received the 

 electric shock several days ago they still survive. The 

 rock fish are great pets with the members of the club, and, 

 though a salt-water fish, have lived and thrived in the 

 artesian fountain for the last four years. They will come 

 to the surface and take shrimp and prawn from the hand, 

 and are beautiful specimens, about twenty inches in 

 length." The above extract relates to some rock fish, or 

 striped bass, which were mentioned in this journal March 

 14, 1889. The fact, well authenticated, that this salt 

 water species has been reared in water from an artesian 

 well is sufficiently interesting and important to warrant 

 its repetition here. In about one year the fish increased 

 in length from 6in. to nearly 20in. on a diet of crabs 



efforts to raise striped bass in fresh-water ponds and 

 lakes. In this connection we may recall the 451 bs. bass of 

 this species which was found on the shore of Flax Pond, 

 in the village of East Wareham, Mass., last April. While 

 it is not known whether the fish will become sexually 

 mature in fresh water there is no question that it can be 

 profitably grown in such surroundings. As early as 1854 

 Prof. Baird recorded another successful experiment with 

 the striped bass. Through the kindness of Mr. Thomas 

 Lee we have been able to see a letter from one of his 

 Savannah correspondents relative to the probable method 

 by which the lightning reached the fish. In the tank 

 containing them there is a pipe under which they can go 

 about as far as the dorsal fin, and the two injured fish may 

 have been wedered in there and got a shock. They have 

 a large, round, black spot at the beginning of the dorsal 

 fin. The fish are in the habit of resting under the supply- 

 pipe in the position indicated. 



%nmt §dg m& <§w\. 



"FOREST AND STREAM " GUN TESTS. 



THE following guns have been tested at the Forest and 

 Stream Range, and reported upon in the issues named. 

 Copies of any date will be sent on receipt of price, ten cents: 



CnABROTTGH 12. May 1, 

 Colt 12, .Juh 2, r >, '89. 

 Colt 10 and 12, Oct. 24, '89. 

 Folsom 10 and 12, Sept. 2(5, '89. 

 Francotte 12, Dec. 12, '89. 

 Greener 12, Aug. 1, '89. 

 Greener 10. Sept. 12-19, '89. 

 Hollis 10, Nov. 7. '89. 

 Lefever 13, March 13, '90. 



Parker 10. hormuei-, June 6, '8! 

 Parker 12, hain'iiess, June 6, '89. 

 Remington lfi. May 30. '89. 

 Reminoton12, Dec 5,'S9, Feb 6,'99 

 Remington 10, Dpc. 26, '89. 

 Scott 10, Sept. 5, '89. 

 L. C. Smith 12, Oct. 10, '89. 

 Whitnet Safety 12, M'cb.6, '90. 

 Winchester 10 & 12, Oct. 3, '89. 



A TURKEY CALL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have used different kinds of calls, and for twenty 

 years or more one superior to them all, and superior, I 

 think, to that described by "A. J. W.," if I understand 

 his description. 



To make this call, take a piece of dry and straight- 

 grained black walnut, fin. thick and large enough to be 

 when finished 3|in. long and l|in. wide. With a |in. 

 centerbit bore a hole iin. from each end, with other holes 

 between, trimming away the remaining wood until a slot 

 is made fin. long and lin. wide, with semi-circular ends, 



Front 



End 



Top' 



as in the first figure. This rough block is now worked 

 down until the sides are each -,^in. and the ends iin. thick 

 the corners being rounded off, as shown by the full lines 

 in the front view. The front of this box is a piece of -fein. 

 black walnut, glued fast and with a brad or half a stout 

 pin in each corner. The back is of the same material and 

 thickness, but projects on one side, as shown by the 

 broken line and also in the end view. Before it is fast- 

 ened on, the top side is cut away, as shown, leaving an 

 opening -fVrn. wide adjoining the projecting portion of 

 the back. Tbe latter is glued and nailed as described for 

 the front. A little rosin on the end of the projecting part 

 completes the call. The object of the varying curve of 

 the projecting part is to change the sound. 



To manipulate the call, take the gun across the left arm 

 or across the legs, and one end of the call between the 

 thumb and forefinger of the right hand, and place the 

 edge of that projection perpendicular to the side of the 

 stock and lightly stroke the stock toward the person. 



With a good ear and a little practice, the sportsman 

 can deceive the wariest of old gobblers. It is a fine thing 

 for calling when a flock of turkeys have been scattered 

 by a dog or otherwise. A man with a good ear can suc- 

 cessfully call with his mouth turkeys that have been 

 scattered; this requires considerable practice. During 

 the latter years of my hunting turkeys my calling was 

 principally done with my mouth. 



The wide part of the box projection should be so put 

 on that when the stroke is made the wide part will be 

 between the person and the main part of the box. 



Kankakee, Illinois. H. L. 



Cakibou Heads.— Mr. W. Holberton has on exhibition 

 at 18 Vesey street, five heads of woodland caribou, that 

 for size and beauty cannot be equalled by any we have 

 ever seen. Most of them carry from 28 to 32 points, and 

 the epades are wonderfully developed. The heads come 

 from Newfoundland, where the woodland caribou are 

 said to be found larger and with finer heads than in any 

 other part of North America. Mr. Holberton intends 

 visiting the hunting and fishing grounds of Newfoundland 

 this coming fall with the intention of finding out what 

 sport can be had there for the benefit of those who wish 

 to visit this far off wilderness. 



Woodcock in a Tree.— Baltimore, July 2.— The other 

 day when bunting woodcock, I started one that lit in a 

 tree. Did you ever hear of a like case? I did not. — W. 

 „ H. F. [No, We have seen English snipe alight in a tree, 

 and oysters, This experiment should justify additional 1 but have never seen woodcock do so.J 



