860 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 1898. 



woodpeckers at work; and many other most in! eresting 

 species too varied and numerous to mention. I select 

 here one of the smaller groups as an illustration, and one 

 that I saw attracted universal attention at the Fair, as 

 well it might. It is a group of jacanas disporting them- 

 selves on the lily pads of a placid pool. The reproduction 

 of the water, the pond's bottom, the lilies and their leaves, 

 are all masterpieces of that kind of work. The surface of 

 the water is in glass, and gives a very realistic idea of the 

 real element. 



Many fish and reptiles are cast in plaster of paris, and 

 two good specimens of these are given in Figs. 3 and 4. 

 They but faintly give an idea, however, of the original, as 

 the latter are Bo skillfully colored to imitate nature, that 

 they are in many instances very decepdvf . Fish, reptiles 

 and many species of invertebrates are likewise cast in 

 gelatine and subsequently colored, and such pieces have 

 even a far more natural appearance than when made in 

 plaster. 



But it would be impossible in a short article like the 

 present to pretend to enumerate even the pieces by name 

 m the national collection, and the best way for the art 

 student in taxidermy and the lover of nature is to repair 

 to the great Fair and study them for himself; the Gov- 

 ernment Building alone is worth the journey to Chicago. 



I From our Staff Correspondent.} 



Forest and Stream Burratt, World's Fair, Aug. 16. 

 — Few things at the Fair are of more interest to the sports- 

 man than the displays of taxidermy which show mounted 

 heads or full-size specimens of wild animals. This art has 

 now been brought to such perfection that to see it at its 

 best is fairly to meet the actual animal in view. Too 

 often the captive animal seen in parks or menageries has 

 lost its character, its quality, if not its proper contour. 

 Upon the other hand the mounted specimen, if prepared 

 by artistic hands, upon lines established by measure- 

 ments of the normal wild animal, is justly typical of that 

 animal as it actually appeared when in the state of wild- 

 ness and unreduced freedom wherein centers the chief 

 interest of the sportsman. If you wiU stand in front of 

 a captive deer, even in front of a captive lion, you will 

 not feel the wish to kill it. Look at a perfectly mounted 

 specimen of either, and your rambling eye is searching 

 for soft spots for a possible bullet. Try this, and you will 

 find the proof of what I have said, that a dead and 

 mounted wild animal is wilder than a captive wild ani- 

 mal, and has more of a sporting interest. The interest in 

 the captive is that of the naturalist, therefore largely one 

 of curiosity. To trophies of the chase there attaches as 

 great and also another and keener interest. 



The sportsman who wishes to attain a knowledge of 

 the actual appearance of wild animals never had so good 

 an opportunity in all his life as he has at this World's 

 Fair. Since it is not likely that another exposition of this 

 magnitude will ever be held, it is probable that he will 

 never again have a like opportunity. This is true espe- 

 cially in regard to the American and North American an- 

 imals, but applies also in great measure to the wild an- 

 imals of every country, as we shall duly show before leav- 

 ing this interesting field of news. The branching head, 

 the fierce front, the soft skin, the rugged coat, the stately 

 form — any and all the shapes the trophies of the chase 

 may assume — even to-day we are men enough to realize 

 the value of these in the purposes of ornamentation. The 

 artist spirit recognizes the hunter spirit dormant in nearly 

 every man. Of this idea the most lavish use has been 

 made at this great assembly ground of the nations. Never 

 in the full history of the world has there been so varied 

 and so complete a showing of the trophies of the chase as 

 may be seen at the World's Fair of 1893. 



The Greatest Exhibit on the Grounds. 



Without any sort of question, the greatest taxidermic 

 exhibit on the grounds, and probably the greatest one 

 ever gotten together, is that of Ward's Natural Science 

 Establishment, of Rochester. N. Y. It belittles this great 

 exhibit to call it a display of taxidermy, or to call it a 

 collection of trophies. It is far more. It is a display of 

 the animals of the earth, not alone of this continent, but 

 of all continents, not alone of the earth but of the sea, 

 not alone of this age, but of ages gone. More than this 

 one cannot say, and to describe the display fully would 

 take more than a whole issue of Forest and Stream, and 

 more than whole books of natural history. Probably you 

 never saw or heard of an animal which you can not find 

 here. The total is astounding. To see it needs a week. 

 To bring the exhibit, required a train of freight cars. To 

 put it in place required months. To install it took the 

 whole south gallery of the great A nthropological Building, 

 and part of the space downstairs. These facts must be 

 the excuse for brief mention, but nothing should serve 

 as excuse for a brief visit to this interesting part of the 

 Fair. College professors who have been glorying in the 

 appointments of the "museums" of their institutions 

 would better stay away, for it will make them feel very 

 ordinary. 



Start on a Mastodon. 



You go up the stairs and meet a robust mastodon, full 

 size but quiet. Suppose you start on this and go around 

 toward your left. You will see a number of familiar 

 American wild animals, some elk, whitetail deer, a gaunt 

 gray wolf, a remarkably lai-ge puma, panther, cougar or 

 mountain lion, a wolverine, a fisher, a fox, an army of 

 small gnawing animals, and a rare thing, a white porcu- 

 pine. Near by are a black bear, a big-footed bay lynx, a 

 large elk, two gi-and specimens of the moose, some beavers 

 I icely shown at work, and a pair of buffalo, a six-year-old 

 MuU and a three-year-old cow. 



Already you have had a good look at American animals, 

 but here you strike exhibits of other firms. Let us pass 

 on around to the left through these, clear around through 

 the gallery, until we sti'ike the Ward exhibit again at its 

 further extremity on the other side of the building. 



A Wilderness of Cases. 



We are now in a wilderness of vast glass cases, twice as 

 high as one's head, arranged parallel, covering thousands 

 of square feet, and holding all the creatures of the sea and 

 land. The lower orders of life have their full showing in 

 their proper departments, but we must pass the low organ- 

 isms, the sea things, the Crustacea, the reptiles, and we 

 must even pass with merest mention the great cases full 

 of common, rare and foreign birds in all their wondrous 

 colorings. We can mention only the things which strike 

 us saliently as we go. Thus, one remembers the rare 

 specimen of a mounted giraffe, and reverts jwith unusual 



wonder to the great wild boar of France, higli aa a man's 

 waist and six feet long, far more monstrous and taore 

 savage than an American would have thought this ani- 

 mal capable of being. 



If one has a taste for further foreignism, he can find, 

 arrayed beyond this specimen of our prong-horn ante- 

 lope, many creatures foreign even to the literature of the 

 circus poster, I am speaking now, let it be remembered, 

 not of mounted or preserved skins, but of animals 

 mounted entire, animals perfect and unpatched, complete 

 and actual to the life. In procession come a gaur ox of 

 southwest India, a zebra of Africa, a tapir of Soutii 

 America, and a sambur of India, the latter looking more 

 like a thin-necked and inferior elk than anything I can 

 think of. Then we have an alpaca (llama), a guanaco, a 

 vicuna, and two more of this same llama family, marked 

 Uama plain. Then there is a full-sized dromedary, facial 

 expression and all. Bear in mind these are all full-sized 

 and entire specimens, showing the whole form of the 

 animal. 



A husky little goat is the ibex of Switzerland. Beside 

 him is a "ravine deer" of Africa, and near ]^ is a Sus 

 papuensis, much like a peccary, but blacker. Then thete 

 is an ovis "nahoor," of the Nepal, much like oUl- moun- 

 tain sheep; and an oryx of West Africa, and a white- 

 tailed deer of Uruguay, and two of the savage little 

 Mexican hogs, peccaries. If you like not these, you may 

 gaze upon a Nemorhedvs crispus, from Japan, much re- 

 sembling our mountain goat except in coloration, it being 

 darker in coat. Then there is a European roebuck and a 

 southwest Indian deer, and a little Mexican deer, and 

 also a chamois (the second one I have found in the Fair. 

 These are probably the only two here). Then there is an 

 odd little creature, a coney, from Cape Colony. 



A Region of Birds. 



Now we have fallen upon a region of birds, but we can 

 only touch upon the whole in general. The ordinary case 

 of stuffed birds is one of the most tii'esome things on 

 earth. For instance, here you can see the great condor 

 of Peru, of which you have read so much but know so 

 little, and which you never saw before in all yoUt life. 

 Then there is the great Alpine eagle, and all ouJ eagles; 

 and a Japanese eagle, as big and vicious as any of them; 

 and also the king vulture of Venezuela. But We fly 

 hence, leaving hundreds. 



More Quadrupeds. 



Take a look at the 25ft. python, from Natal, Africa, and 

 you will be ready to go on dovni among the cases and lopk 

 at mote quadrupeds — not that the python is one. There 

 is a nylghau, of India, and a great anteater, and a fine 

 case of marsupials, showing all the Australian animals. 

 Then you meet a monkey-bear, with funny little wobbly 

 ears, and a wombat, and a capybara, and a European por- 

 cupine, which latter, I am bound to say, is prettier tnan 

 our porcupine, and has longer quills. 



You are at the end of a case hefe, and yoU tUrn to the 

 left and look over the fence and see a monstrous India 

 elephant, a male, mounted perfectly, and neaf him a baby 

 elephant, the two such a group as one Will hunt long to 

 see elsewhere. 



You turn back to the eases and review a parade con- 

 sisting of a fisher or "black devil," a Polar bear, a grizzly 

 bear (and a great one), a mountain goat, a series of small 

 bears, of wolves, etc. At the end of this case is a large 

 white wolf {Lupus occidentalis), of snowy whiteness. 

 Then you turn to a sun-bear of Borneo, with claws like 

 those of a little grizzly, and look at a European badger, 

 and a sea otter, which isn't like a cheap ottet and a sort of 

 ring-tailed marten-looking thing whose eSistehce most 

 people never dreamed , but which Js marked as a cacomixle, 

 of southern California. Near by this unknown is a Nama 

 socialis, of Central America, and a ring-tailed badger also. 

 On the other hand one finds a spotted hyena and a striped 

 hyena, and a beautiful big cat, an ounce (Felis irl)is) of 

 Thibet, and an African wild hunting dog, and a grand 

 black leopard, a beautiful fierce creature, whose like we 

 shall not see again, at the Fair at least. In the same case 

 are a pair of superb Bengal tigers, and also a grand lion 

 and a lioness. These are not stuffed animals, but mounted 

 animals, and they show the distinctive quali^ of each 

 subject. Beyond these again is a group of mounted lions, 

 a male and female put up in spirited fashion, and a pair 

 of kittens, which, however, from the difference in shade 

 of their coats, I think did not come from the same actual 

 litter. 



Faults of Mounted Elk. 



Just beyond the great musk ox which surmounts one 

 case, you see a beautiful pair of very dark, nearly black, 

 moose, which accord with the popular notion of moose 

 very well. Near at hand are a pair of elk, nicely handled 

 enough, and yet not good enough to suit the eye of our 

 friend Mr. Hofer, the Yellowstone Park guide, who has 

 charge of the Hunter's Cabin, 



"These elk are pretty good," said Billy Hofer, "but 

 they have a fault very common in specimens of mounted 

 elk. You see the top line of the back is nearly straight, 

 clear up to the base of the neck. Well, that isn't right. 

 An elk has a sort of roach or raise just above the top of 

 the shoulder blades. It isn't a hump, but is a distinct rise 

 above the line of the back. Very few specimens show it 

 right. Nearly all elk are mounted too full and roimd, 

 too. Indeed the tendency is to stuff out the skins too full 

 in nearly all animals." 



This I submit to the taxidermists wiUingly, for Mr. 

 Hofer has not only killed many elk, but studied them, 

 photographed them, and lived among]and with them. 



Mr. Hofer also told me the ages of the group of four 

 buffalo in a case near by, one old buU, one five years old, 

 one yearling and one three years old. Near these one can 

 study the difference between a Maine caribou and a Nor- 

 wayrtindeer. 



Department of Paleontology. 



I was about to explain the difference between zoology 

 and paleontology by stating that in the former you get 

 bones and hair, and in the latter bones and no hair; but 

 this is not strictly correct, for one of the first specimens 

 in the department of paleontology has hair all over it, 

 although it is artificial hair. TMs is the mammoth, or 

 Elephas prinnginius, before which there was no elephant, 

 and whose footprints jio degenerate elephant of to-day 

 can fill. This original elephant lived before the age of 

 billiard baUs, and he wasn't scared to let his tusks grow. 

 They grew to be l8ft. across, and curved out, northeast 

 and northwest, after reaching the point where tusks stop 



to-day. The height of this old-timer (by which term I ' 

 mean to convey no disrespect) was about 20ft., and in 

 load waterline he was in the neighborhood of 30ft. His 

 feet were 8£t. across, and his trunk was built according, 

 and was likewise corrugated and plenty hairy. In 

 general, he looked like a circus elephant, only he was 

 huskier and hairier. The hair of this one is perhaps made ; 

 of mohair, but others have been found with real hair on 

 them, and have been pronoimced good to eat, too. 



This specimen, which is really magnificent, is a recon- 

 struction on the tusk and bones found near Stuttgart, 

 Wiirtemberg, The outer covering is copied from the 

 specimen in the Museum of the Imperial Academy, St. 

 Petersburg, Russia. The card further says, "This was a 

 mammoth among mammoths, at least one-fourth larger 

 than the average mammoth." There were giants in 

 quaternary days. 



The Irish Ilk anei ©thef§. 



Now you shall pa88 a ease of genUiiie ndastodon bdheS, 

 and paUse befofe the Skfeleton of a giant elk, the extinct 

 ifish elk. The palmated antlers (actual) spread over 10ft. 

 ahd the frame resembles that of our moose, though the 

 head seems small. If you are not interested (as you 

 should be) in the Irish elk, perhaps you might prefer the 

 skeleton of the New Jersey hydrosaurus near by, or the , 

 tusks and skull, 16ft, long in total, of the Miocene repre- 

 sentative of Elephas. Or would you prefer the dimothe- 

 rium of the same day, or the Mastodon gigantmm whose 

 head and tusks rest near by? If hard to please, you may 

 fancy the soupful-Iooking glyptodon of early L^ruguay, 



Ranged end to end are further cases of teeth, tusks, 

 tracks, traces, bones and other properties of ancient ani- 

 mals, which set a fellow thinking. The skull of a virbaa, ■ 

 from the Big-Bone Lick, Kentucky, reminds one that ; 

 horned cattle were not always what they are, nor yet buf- 

 falo, for here is a buffalo head whei'e the horns tui'ned ' 

 down. Cheek by jowl herewith junkets a megathetiuul ! 

 come to Bee the Fair^ and a Golossmhdyi attan*, which has i 

 shakeu off the duet of Mioceue times; ahd dome ffoni I 

 southwest India; 15, SbuCia. 



909 SEdTjRiTT BuluJiNQ, Chicago. 



Skin-Shedding of the Rattlesnake. 



Douglas, Wyo., Oct, 16. — ^In your issue of Oct. 14 I 

 notice an article from El Comancho, describing what he 

 calls a white rattlesnake. AUow me to sugg* st an ex- 

 planation of the phenomenon other than albinism. In : 

 all probability the specimen was one of the common : 

 species of rattlesnake in process of moulting or shedding j 

 its skin. This shedding takes place at all seasons of the 

 year and with no regularity as to intervals, Specimena 

 under observation have been determined to shed their 

 epidermis in almost every month of the yeal', if not in ■ 

 evely oue, Wheh the snakes ate on shoft allowance of 

 food it is noticed that Sheddiiig is mUch tetarded. Wheh i 

 a rattlesnake is about to shed its skin the eye and the 

 button are the first to whiten, then the whole skin be- : 

 comes gradually paler and the markings less distinct, till i 

 just before shedding the general color is a dirty milky ; 

 white. It takes a rattlesnake, as far as I have been ahle < 

 to determine, about twenty days to complete the process ■ 

 of moulting, dating, from the time the eyes begin to > 

 change. The actual shedding, or getting out of the skin, i 

 I have Been done in less than half a-n hour from the time 

 the fitst crack was seen at the back of the neck. If El : 

 Comandho's specimeti was hot killed t should like to heat 

 whethei- it Shed its skin, coming out in its true colors 

 and dispersing the inference that it was an albino. 



Dr. JeS. 



Those Iowa Bii'ds in the Woman's Building. 



CORALVILLE, la., Oot. li.— Editor Forest and Stream: < 

 Please accept my sincere congratulations on the success of ■ 

 FOKEST AND STREAM in having been awarded the diploma : 

 and medal, in recognition of its excellence, by the judges ■ 

 at the Columbian Ekposition. 1 am always intetested Ih I 

 anything pertaining to the FDiiEsf AnO StreAm, aS it haS 

 been a Weekly visitot to otir home fot a numbef of ^-feitrS; : 

 and is enjoyed by evefy member of the household. 



I greatly regret that I shall be unable to place my name 

 upon your register or see for myself the exhibit of which . 

 all patrons of your paper are justly proud. I think I can i 

 say, however, that I have seen a portion of your exhibit : 

 though I have not visited the Exposition, 



In the Science room, in one corner of the Woman's 

 Building, there is a smaU collection of our native Iowa 

 birds. These would never have been placed there had not 

 the Forest and Stream most graciously presented the ■ 

 writer hereof with Hallock's "Sportsman's Gazetteer." 

 This furnished the instruction, and the Forest aNO i 

 Stream the inspiration which resulted in the exhibit. 



If there is any credit in the achievement, I feel that we 

 ought to share it conjointly, as it is all owing to the For- 

 EST AND Stream. Violet S. Williams. 



Greene County (Pa.) Summer Birds. 



Mr. J, Warren Jacobs, of Waynesburg, Pa. , has sent 

 US a brief annotated list of the summer birds of Greene 

 county, Pa. The list includes about ninety species, and 

 the short notes which accompany it have to do principally 

 with the breeding habits of the birds. We learn that the 

 pileated woodpecker, which was formerly a common spe- 

 cies, is now rare, but still breeds occasionally in the large 

 forests. The worm-eating warbler is occasionally found 

 here, and the Kentucky warbler is common. Greene 

 county lies in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, 

 and West Virginia forms the southern and western bound- 

 aries of the county. The elevation is not far from a 

 thousand feet, some points reaching 1,300. Mr. Jacobs's 

 list is not without interest. 



A NEW-SUBSCRIBER OFFER. 



A bona fide new subscriber sending us ?5 will receive for that sum 

 Che Forest aitd Stream one year (price 84) and a set of Zimmerman's 

 famous "Ducking Scenes" (advertised on another page, price 85)— a 

 89 value for 85. 



This offer is to new subscribers only. It does not apply to renewalt. 

 For $3 a bona fide new subscriber for six months will receive the 

 FoRBST AND Stream during that time and a copy of Dr. Va;i Fleet's 

 handsome work, ''Bu-d Portraits for the XQuiJg" fthe price of wf^iq^ 

 isfS). " ' ' ' 



