Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., APE1L 13, 1895. 



No. 11 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various brandies of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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 Unused U. S. Postage stamps of any denomina- 

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 lar. Make Money Orders and Drafts payable, 

 and address all subscriptions and communica- 

 tions to FRANK H. LATTIN, 

 Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y, 



A copy of Natural Science 

 News is mailed to every subsbriber 

 each week. Should you fail to re- 

 ceive your copy write for another 

 one sending your correct address 

 in full — thus enabling us to correct 

 our books if they are at- fault. 



Collectors are on the qui vive — 

 an unusually large number will 

 seek new fields to conquer this 

 season. The following are already 

 in the Field: — N. C. Davis, Unita 

 Co., Wyoming, R. C. Campbell, 

 Maricopa Co., Arizona; E. S. 

 Bryant and E. G. Mummery, Dev- 

 il's Lake Region; and that veteran 

 collector, Frank B. Armstrong, 

 still remains in Mexico. 



Natural Science News had by 

 actual count, on the morning of 

 April nth, one thousand and 

 twenty-four (1024) paid subscrib- 

 ers. Of this number fully Eight 

 hundred and fifty (850) are "pio- 

 neer" ones. These 1024 subscrib- 

 ers are distributed as follows: 



Alabama 2 



Arizona 4 



Arkansas 4 



California 47 



Colorado 9 



Connecticut 3S 



District of Columbia. 5 



Florida 14 



Georgia 5 



Illinois 91 



Indiana 16 



Iowa 4T 



Kansas 33 



Kentucky 5 



Louisiana 4 



Maine 27 



Maryland 9 



Massachusetts 53 



Michigan 58 



Minnesota 22 



Mississippi 4 



Missouri 20 



Montana ' 4 



Nebraska 12 



New Hampshire 13 



New Jersey 23 



New Mexico 1 



New York 148 



North Carolina 11 



North Dakota 6 



Ohio 64 



Oregon 13 



Pennsylvania 79 



Rhode Island 8 



South Carolina 5 



South Dakota 4 



Tennessee 8 



Texas 17 



Utah 3 



Vermont 9 



Virginia .ii 



Washington 4 



West Virginia 4 



Wisconsin 29 



Wyoming 1 



British Columbia 4 



Manitoba 2 



New Brunswick 1 



Ontario bt 



Quebec 5 



Switzerland 1 



1024 



Hon. J. D. Mitchell writes us 

 that he has recently added 18 

 species Marine; 29, Fresh Wat< r; 

 and 34, Land Shells to his collec- 

 tion of Texas Mollusca. 



Many Naturalists will be doing 

 Field work during the next few 

 months and rather than have them 

 miss the weekly visits of the Nat- 

 ural Science News, we will gladly 

 mail to them direct — if they will 

 only keep us posted as to their 

 whereabouts. 



Automatic Bear Catching. 



trading 



Landing at Olutorsk, a little 

 station on the northwest 

 coast of Siberia, during my last 

 trip to the Arctic," said Captain 

 Avery of the whaleship Grampus 

 to a New York Sun reporter, 

 "some Chuckchee Indians from in- 

 land came in, bringing reindeer 

 meat and peltries for sale. Among 

 the skins they brought was a huge 

 bearskin, which I tried to buy, but 

 I could not agree with the owner 

 as to the price. Through an in- 

 terpreter I learned the curious way 

 in which these Indians kill the 

 bear. The Kamschatkan bear is 

 a huge brown fellow, ofton weigh- 

 ing over 1,000 pounds, and is very 

 ferocious and hard to kill. Such 

 an animal is invulnerable to the 

 small darts which are the Chuck- 

 chee's missile weapons, and it is 

 necessary to cripple him before 

 closing in with spears. 



These bears inhabit ground 

 which is covered with dense thick- 

 ets, through which they have 

 paths and runways. The latter 

 are impenetrable to man, except 

 he crawl on hands and knees. To 

 circumvent the bear the Chuck- 

 chee takes two pieces of board 

 about six inches long 

 inches wide, through 

 bores numerous holes, 

 the holes in each piece he puts 

 long iron nails, with their points 

 sharpened. Then placing the 

 backs of the pieces of the wood to- 

 gether he lashes them with thongs, 

 thus leaving the sharp ends of the 

 nails projecting on either side. 

 This curious implement of hunting 

 he lays in the runway where the 

 bear tracks are thickest, lightly 

 covering it from view. 



"Presently the bear comes along 

 his great forepaws each covering 

 nearly a square foot of surface, 

 and almost to a certainty he plants 



and three 

 which he 

 Through 



one fore paw upon the nails, which 

 penetrate and hurt him. Rising 

 upon his hind legs he raises the 

 paw to which the boards are fast- 

 ened by the nails, looks at it, and, 

 seeing the thing that has hurt him, 

 he strikes at it with his other paw 

 to knock it off, thereby driving the 

 nails from the side he hits into 

 that paw. 



"Thoroughly angry, he now 

 hauls off and strikes with the first 

 paw that was pierced and the nails 

 again penetrate that. So he goes 

 on striking with one paw and the 

 other, driving the nails deeper and 

 deeper into the flesh, until ex- 

 hausted with pain and rage he 

 sinks to the ground. His paws 

 are now so sore that he cannot 

 travel far and as far as he goes he 

 leaves a trail of blood behind him. 

 Discovering this the Indians fol- 

 low him up, and with their spears 

 dispatch him." 



Curious Foods of the Fishes in 

 the New York City Aqua- 

 rium. 



The work of providing suitable 

 food for the many varities of for- 

 eign and domestic fish in the New 

 York City Aquarium makes a very 

 curious and interesting study. 

 The food provided is as nearly as 

 possible like the food the fish eats 

 in its natural free state. The fish 

 are fed once a day at a regular 

 hour. The live food is placed in 

 the tanks and is soon captured by 

 the fish, and the dead food is 

 thrown into the pools as required 

 and the part not used is afterward 

 taken out to keep the pool clean. 

 It is found necessary to have as 

 much variety as possible in fish 

 foods, since the fish are very fas- 

 tidious in their diet and often re- 

 fuse to eat the food offered them. 



The live food consists of clams, 

 shrimp, killies, crabs, and a vari- 

 ety of small fish. Clams are used 

 in large quantities, being cut up 

 into sizes to suit the fish. For 

 sharks and such large fish live men- 

 haden are placed in the pools. 

 The skate and the dog fish eat 

 large snails, the stripped bass are 

 fed on soft crabs. The smaller 

 fish required especially prepared 

 fish. If clams are fed them, for 

 instance, they have to be cut up 

 into mince meat or else carefully 

 scraped. The sea anemone, for 

 instance, are fed on crabs and the 

 soft parts of oysters, and it is nec- 



