June 23, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



B39 



you saw a soul!' then resumed my tug-of-war with the 

 turtle. Oh, but he was a whopper! 



"Now came other misgivings. Wliat if another guard 

 should approach and find me in a half -bent posture', pull- 

 ing on something which in the dark might be mistaken 

 for a shovel handle. Without a word, he might shoot me 

 down for a levee cutter. I again left the weapon in the 

 care of the turtle and strode up and down the levee— a 

 subdued man— completely baffled and disarmed by a snap- 

 ping turtle! 



"How long this state of affairs continued I cannot say. 

 It seemed like an age. At last, in a fit of desperation, I 

 resolved upon a last attempt. 



"Noiselessly approaching his turtleship, I suddenly 

 grasped the rifle and wi-enched it with almost superhuman 

 violence. With a sound like a pistol shot his mouth shut 

 down on the space vacated by the rifle barrel, and I was 

 again a guard with a gun (but a gun without a sight). 



" 'I guess I've seen enough of you, old fellow,' said I as 

 I rode off, content that another aspiring sportsman should 

 secure the prize for which I had made such a noble fight." 



Mississippi. TbiPOD. 



PECCARIES. 



One morning in Mosquitia a wrinkled crone, white as to 

 wool, and scaly, dark brown as to skin, gave me a cordial 

 welcome by three words of shockingly profane English, 

 taught to her as a proper and friendly salutation, no 

 doubt, by some joke-loving reprobate. With a gesture she 

 invited me to rest in one of the three or four hammocks 

 of roughly twisted strands of bark that swung across the 

 one room of the watla. 



Then she sharply spoke a few words to the group of 

 naked urchins, who stared curiously througli. the door be- 

 hind her. The children scurried away. The old woman 

 filled an iron pot with water and set it on the ends of the 

 three iron pins which, driven into the earthen floor, were 

 aU the range this mansion boasted. They securely held 

 the vessel six inches or so above the bed of glowing em- 

 bers. She put the ends of a few sticks of pitchy pine on 

 the coals, and a bright blaze at once flamed up, then 

 resumed her task of cleaning a. lot of fish, much like perch 

 in appearance. As she scaled and disemboweled them she 

 threw them into the pot. When that was rather more 

 than half full of the fish she peeled three or four platanos 

 and laid them on the fish, then covered aU with a leaf, 

 which she snugly tucked in around the edges. .Just then 

 a couple of boys came in bearing a net full of oranges 

 fresh from the trees and rich with most refreshing juice. 

 They were followed by a lad who bore a cocoanut from 

 which he had shaved a chip by one dextrous blow with 

 his machete, through husk and shell and almost through 

 the jelly-like white meat within. The point of the machete 

 reamed out a circular bit of the kernel, and out the milk 

 gushed. The milk disposed of. the lad split the nut and 

 gave half to the yomiger children and the other half to a 

 pet that had followed them into the hut. The like of that 

 pet I had never before seen in a house, and what I had 

 learned of the character of that kind led me to promptly 

 lift my feet into the hammock and out of his reach. 



He was some fifteen inches in height and may have been 

 three feet in length. He was a ' 'pepper and salt" in color, 

 and exceeduigly inquisitive and familiar in disposition. 

 He nosed about my hammock and snapped his white tusks 

 with a sharp sound that was suggestive to me of ragged 

 gashes in bleeding legs; but to the children the sound and 

 my care to keep my feet well out of the way were mani- 

 festly suggestive of fun. 



After he had neatly scooped out the last vestige of meat 

 from his half of the cocoanut and robbed the baby of what 

 was left of her half, he laid himself flat on the dirt floor, 

 almost under my hammock. I ventured to tickle his por- 

 cine majesty with a stick. He grunted softly and stretched 

 his legs. I scratched more vigorously, and he showed his 

 satisfaction more plainly. Then I dared to put my feet 

 out of the hammock, and at last stood beside the prostrate 

 peccary. He opened his little eyes, looked at me a brief 

 moment, accepted me for a friend, and shut his eyes again 

 in ecstatic enjoyment of a scratching that was more skill- 

 ful and thorough than his owners had ever given to any 

 created thing — except themselves. 



From that time that peccary was my too constant friend 

 and companion, my ready defender and my perhaps too 

 ardent champion. Whenever and wherever I moved 

 about that watla or the village, he was with me. If I 

 knocked an orange or a mango from a tree, he was alert 

 to pick it up for me— and to eat it for lumself . If a com- 

 mon hog came near, or failed to move out of our way 

 promptly, there woifld be a swift rush, a shriek of porcine 

 agony or fear, and a vanishing hog. Then the peppery 

 little pepper-and-salt rascal would trot along ahead of me, 

 vrith abundant content and vanity. 



What he would have done to any dog that might have 

 been caught in our path I do not know. What I do know 

 is that no dog in that village was so lost to aU sense of 

 prudence as to test the question. Whenever tha,t pig and 

 I came under a dog's notice, that dog went away. He 

 ustiaUy stretched his legs nimbly; often he yelped as he 

 fled. 



Once a dog. a stranger in the village, hopped over the 

 hewn cedar plank that was set up on edge across the door 

 to keep pigs out and the babies in. He explored with be- 

 coming diffidence, being a stranger, yet willuig to make 

 acquaintance with human or with 'any scrap of food. 

 Sus americamis happened to be busy just then and failed 

 to notice the stranger before he was well away from the 

 door. There was a rush and one snap of those tusks. 

 The dog flew for the door. As he rose to clear the plank, 

 the guardian of the household threw upward his nose, 

 and a keen tusk cut a gash 2 or Bin. long in the hindquar- 

 ter of the victim. He tore howling iu anguish down the 

 hni and into the bush ; my sweet pet returned to his bone, 

 gleefully snapping his tusks like castanets. 



Yet the sound is not quite like that of castanets. Nor 

 is it like any other soimd that I have ever heard. To try 

 to describe it is like trying to describe the flavor of a 

 fruit, a mango, for exarople, to one who has never tasted 

 such a thing. One can say only it tastes like a — mango. 

 Of one fact I feel quite sure. I am ia no danger of mis- 

 taking the sound of the snap of apeccaiw's tusks for anv 

 other noise. Nor is there any risk that it will fail to send 

 a shock tingling along my nerves, for I have learned to 



feel more than a wholesome respect for the devilish feroc- 

 ity of the untamed hog. I have Hstened to many a tale 

 of their utterly unreasoning savageness and have seen an 

 instance or two; so I never shoot at a peccary before I 

 have made sure that a line of safe retreat is open to me. 



One afternoon I sat on a rock in the tropical forest. 

 As far as I knew no other human being was within 

 twenty-five miles of my resting place. Yet I did not feel 

 that I was quite alone, for I had seen a footprint in the 

 trail a few minutes before I reached my rocky perch. It 

 was much like the impression which a man's clinched 

 fist might make if pressed, fingers down, into the loam. 

 The imprint was not yet filled by the water that was 

 trickling down the hillside. 



"So I have company, have I," said I to myself. 

 "Wonder how long he's been sneaking along my trail. 

 I guess I'll push on toward a camj^ing place!" 



I pushed along. Thin rain was falling and would be 

 heavier toward nightfall. Darkness would come early. 

 Every stick in the woods was wet and a good camp-fire 

 woidd be most comforting that night, since I must spend 

 it in the forest with such neighboi'S. 



Nevertheless, I sat down on that rock to rest. The 

 sound of a peccary's champing jaws came from a hollow 

 before me. I could not see the animal, but could hear 

 his grunts of satisfaction. He had reason for content- 

 ment, for a band of capuchin, or white-faced monkeys, 

 were busy with the fruit of a sapote tree and threw down 

 now and then such as they bit into and tossed aside for 

 other fruits not one bit better. 



The complacent grunt changed to a sharp note of inter- 

 rogation. I thought for a moment that he had got wind 

 of me, but he would have gone off like a shot if he had 

 smelled me out. 



A beast of ashen hue showing through Tiis brown, trot- 

 ted into sight in a glade a few rods from me. He was 

 considerably larger than his cousin, the collared peccary, 

 from which he differed in other ways also; but still he 

 was a lank, shai'p-comered, prying and long-headed 

 rascal. 



As he went he svrung his keen nose from side to side, 

 sniffing at the ground eagerly. He was far too intent in 

 his piu-suit to notice a.ny slight sound, so I cautiously 

 followed him. 



He grunted fiercely and charged on something that I 

 could not see. He violently shook his head from side to 

 side, and I could see and hear something slap against his 

 ribs. It was a tamagas — one of the two venomous ser- 

 pents known in Honduras — and he was savagely tearing 

 it to shreds. He held it down with his fore feet, and 

 with an upward thrust of his jaws stripped the skin from 

 half its body. 



Before he could eat his prey another waree came rim- 

 ning up. The captor of the snake squealed and ran away. 

 His fellow followed, snatching at the trailing reptile, and 

 was lucky enough to catch hold of it, and tear it in two. 

 Then both jjigs stopped to eat the pieces they had. 



They were beneath a liana that hung like a bridge 

 across the wide ravine, upheld by long and slender 

 bi'anches that were themselves thick and strong vines 

 clinging to the trees overhead. 



As I stood watching the two peccaries I coidd plainly 

 see the liana, as thick as a man's waist; but of a spotted 

 form which crept along the bridge— I saw nothing before 

 she di'opped on one of the pigs. One of the jaguar's thick 

 and tremendously powerful paws must have struck the 

 head of the victim and broken his neck. There was a 

 single faint squeak from him, and from his companion a 

 loud and viciotis squeal, instantly followed by a mad 

 charge at the great cat. But she had jumped back to her 

 safe perch, fully 5ft. from the ground, and carried her 

 prey with her. It must have weighed near a hundred 

 pounds. 



The peccary on the groimd kept up the f m-ious squeal- 

 ing which was the war cry of his kind. In a minute 

 there was the qtiick patter of hoofs on the damp leaves 

 that carpeted the ground, and half a score of warees were 

 barking, squeahng and climbing upon one another in 

 fierce efforts to reach the tigress. She lay along the big 

 Kana, her forearms across the dead peccary, which bent 

 over the vine. She seemed to actually grin in derision of 

 the frantic beasts below. They momentarily grew wilder 

 in their rage, if that was possible, as they vainly tried to 

 reach their enemy. 



Only a few minutes had passed since the victim of the 

 jaguar started on the trail of the serpent; but evening 

 was coming on, and I felt that I shoifld be going. It 

 would be a pity, though, to leaA^e those warees there to 

 waste the night, and perhaps a day or two in watching 

 the tigi-ess, only to be grievously disappointed at last. 

 For their enemy was safely beyond even the most vigor- 

 ous leaps. She had food' enough to last for days, and 

 whenever she should tire of sleeping on the liana she 

 could quietly walk away above their reach, over that 

 natural suspension bridge. 



To set matters right between the parties to the quarrel 

 —possibly in part because it was not really agreeable to 

 carry on a long and lonely tramp through the forest, the 

 conviction that a tiger was sUnking along through the 

 thickets beside me, and was hkely to at any moment 

 become obti-usively familiar— I drew a bead on that 

 jaguar's head, and hit her in the throat. 



The blood spouted from the torn jugular, and 

 sprayed the pigs below. The dead waree fell to the 

 ground, and his fellows rushed in bhnd fmy upon him. 

 The jaguar clung for an instant to her perch as though 

 paralyzed,^ then with an awful scream sprang high into 

 the air. She struck the ground a score of feet away from 

 the crowd of vicious brutes that were struggling to reach 

 her refuge. 



They were upon her before she could spring again. 

 They gashed her mottled skin with ripping thi-usts of 

 gleaming tusks. They charged on her again and again. 

 They trampled each other in the struggle for place in the 

 foremost rank — if ranks were where all was a whirl of 

 rnad rage. They were blind to every danger and insensi- 

 ble to every hurt. 



A blow from the giant cat's paw flung a boar through 

 the air and slammed him against a tree. His back was 

 broken, yet he strove to drag his useless legs behind him 

 to the fray. A stroke from the foe drove the ribs of 

 another into his hmgs. He staggered back to the fight, 

 blood gushing from hie nostrils with . every gasping 

 breath. 



Such battle could last but a few moments. The drain 

 tiirough that wg\tnd in her jugular was too great for even 



such tremendous vitality as that jaguar had. The pec- 

 caries that could move were soon working their will on 

 their vanquished enemy. They ripped strips of skin from 

 her body. They tore away great pieces of her flesh. 

 With jaws dripping blood they champed the shreds. 

 They dragged her bones here and there, and vainly strove 

 to pull them apart. They returned to the spot where the 

 tigress died and rooted the blood-soaked soil in hope of 

 finding there something more on which to didl the stiU 

 keen edge of their hate. E. W, P. 



The Owl's Antics. 



Two JlEDiciNE Lodge Creek, Jime 12.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: You may remember that I once told you 

 about the queer antics of an owl that I witnessed some 

 years ago on the Marias. Last night both my wife and I 

 saw the same thing again. 



It was just sundown when two large prairie owls came 

 flying slowly along, one about 100yds. in front of and 

 ahove the other. The lower owl would occasionaUy drop 

 in its flight a distance of about 100ft., falling at an angle 

 of about 40°, and while doing this the tips of its wingB 

 seemed to be touching each other below its breast, and it 

 made a clapping sound like a small stick held against a 

 carriage wheel, when in very rapid motion. Once the 

 bird hooted while sailing along. I suspect that this was 

 the male bird and that this is their mating time. J. W. S. 



[We beheve these birds to be the short-eared owl (Asio 

 accipttrinus), and it is altogether probable that this per- 

 formance was a part of the owl courtship. No doubt the 

 clapping sound referred to was made vtdth the biU.] 



§Hg mtd §utf. 



"Game Laws in Brief June, 1S93, revised. Game and Msh laiost 

 of all the States. Territories and Provinces. Correct, reliable, hand- 

 somely illustrated. Published by the "Forest and Stream.'''' Sold by 

 all dealers. Price S5 cents. 



INSTANCES OF VITALITY. 



Beatrice, Neb., June 11.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In reading my Forest and Stream of Jime 1 1 notice an 

 article headed "Sttange Vitality in Birds and Animals," 

 and the correspondent wants other instances cited. I will 

 quote from my journal of eight months' huntin.jj: among 

 the Bad Lands for his benefit, if you care to publish it: 



" July m.— Out of meat at the ranch to-day. Struck 

 west and north to head of Little Powder River. Saw 

 eight antelope and got a shot at about 800yds. Knocked 

 a doe down. Went to load her in the wagon, when she 

 jumped up and started off. Fired five shots (from a .45-70 

 Winchester) and ran out of ammunition. Harry drove up 

 with the Springfield, .50cal. The doe stopped near a large 

 boulder, and I crawled within ten paces and shot her three 

 times with the six-shooter (a .45 Colts belt revolver). She 

 ran three-quarters of a mile and lay down by a spring. I 

 crawled up behind the sage brush and shot five times with 

 the Springfield (old model .50cal. Government gun). On 

 skinning her, we found that ten shots out of the fourteen 

 had stmck her." (None less than .45cal.). I don't know 

 which ones belong to the separate calibers. 



Again I quote the journal written on the same day: 

 "Both hindlegs were broken, one in three places, one front 

 leg shot off about the knee. One ball passed through the 

 head just in front of the eyes, making a hole about 2in. 

 square through both nasal passages. Two balls through 

 the muscles of the neck and f om- through the body in 

 different directions, a total of ten separate shots which hit 

 her before she fell." 



This is copied from a log book kept while I was in the 

 hUls, written up every day, and containing exact data for 

 every day from May 27 to Dec. 21, 1890, and is open to 

 the curious; and I and Harry Cave, of this city (who 

 was with me), will swear to its being correct in every par- 

 ticular. 



The next instance is a blacktail buck on Mt. Zahn, 

 between the Black Hills and Big Horn Mountains. The 

 fii-st shot was at about 600yds. Two baUs struck him, one 

 at the base of the horn, which broke the bone but did not 

 enter the brain; the other struck above the root of the 

 tafl about 2in. and ranged along the vertebrse until over 

 the lungs, when it ranged down through the lungs and 

 cut two of the large veins of the heart, and stopped on 

 the inside of the left foreleg just above the knee. He 

 ran about 300yds. and fell dead. This was Nov. 9. 



On Dec. 6 Isaac Ward and myself killed a whitetaU 

 doe on Mason Creek in the Black HiUs. Ike shot first 

 and knocked her do^vn, but she jumped up and ran down 

 the creek. I cut across a bend and knocked her down 

 with another shot, but she started again, when I shot her 

 twice with the six-shooter and got her. She ran about 

 three-quarters of a mile and lived about half an hour, 

 though aU the shots were through the lungs and in the 

 region of the heart. 



I have had lots of experience with deer and antelope; 

 and there are only two shots that I know of that kill the 

 instant they strike, or at least so paralyze the animals as 

 to make them perfectly helpless, and so far as I am able 

 to distinguish, dead. These are through either the brain 

 or spinal cord. A shot through the heart is a sure killer, 

 but not always instantly, as is one in the brain or spine. 

 The conttary has been my experience with birds, and I 

 have in nearly every instance noticed that a bird shot 

 through the head lives longer than one shot through the 

 heart, though it is paralyzed in everything except mus- 

 cular action. A Bob White quail, if shot through the head f 

 will spin around like a peg top, with the head for a pivot, 

 in almost every instance. 



I have killed quite a number of antelope and deer with 

 a single ball through the heart or spine, but do not con- 

 sider a heart shot necessarily instantly fatal, as a spine or 

 Vjrain shot is invariably. I do not try to explain it, merely 

 state what I know from experience to be a fact. 



I always use a .45-70 Winchester gun and nothing but 

 TJ. M. C. .45-70 ammunition for big game, and consider 

 it the most effective combination extant for big game, 

 for carrying power and penetration. I can state pos- 

 itively that at an angle of 45' this size Winchester, using 

 U. M. 0. cartridges, wiU throw a ball three miles from 

 the gun, measured distance. There is an item for "pat- 

 tern and penetration" sportsmen to figure on. Also a 

 .22cal. Flobei-t rifle wiU shoot a .22 short ball a mile, 

 measured distance. I have measured both and know 

 whereof I speak, El Oomajncho. 



