July It, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
28 
Talk about things with strings on ! All the things I had 
tied on to keep the bees out were now keeping them in! 
Some of the bees I took with me wanted to get out, but 
they couldn't, so they stayed with me— stuck right to me. 
When I did get out of my extra duds, every bee was aim- 
ply stupefied with victory and sated with revenge, I 
sat down to recover my senses and incidentally to pick the 
stingers out of myself that the bees seemed to have had no 
further use for. My dog seemed to have thought I was in- 
sane, and he even risked the bees to get around some- 
where where I could fall over him in my mad career. 
Now he condoled with, me, and I asked him if he had ever 
made one of such a pair of fools before in his life. 
He looked skeptical and was non-committal; but between 
his experience with the bees and his traffic with the skunk 
he seemed to feeft humiliation too, 
I left for home with half a barrel of honeycomb, 2 or 
3lbs, of honey, a swelled head, a smarting anatomy, lots 
of experience and a fond hope to get a chance at Hermit 
and the bee editor of Forest and Stream some day. 
The foregoing account is merely the record of the first 
day's operations with bee tree No. 1. I never quit an en- 
terprise that I undertake so long as I think the rest is easy, 
and that I have had the worst of it. I went back to those 
bees. I spent the next two days with them, and dreamed 
of them the intervening nights. There are about eight 
gallons of them, and at this writing I have them on my 
premises. I brought them down in two loads, corked up 
in a keg and a box. Whether I have one, two or three 
swarms I don't yet know. I poured them out and drove 
them into ray new gums with a switch, I divided them 
as near as I could. 
To-day they all seemed to be having a time of it 
themselves to get straightened out and reorganized. 
They get out on the piazza to their new homes and 
march from one hive to the other They ^tand on 
their heads, kick at the sky and buzz and counter- 
march. I don't know what their plans are, but I do 
know they haven't quit fighting back. They have not 
yet missed a reasonable chance to sting me. It is said that 
when they sting they die; if this is true and they keep at 
me, they will all commit suicide. There are only a few 
million of 'em left. Before I cut my next bee tree I 
will wait until I can wear an ordinary shaped hat Mean- 
time I will think up some on the subject. Ransacker. 
P. S, — I suppose there are apiarians who think they 
know all about bees, and have written books. To the 
novice I offer my advice free, viz: don't try to read up on 
bees. You would never get it all. Either cut a bee tree 
and hive a swarm or two, or be content with patent honey 
made out of sorghum and nitro-glycerine. R. 
THE SOUTH AMERICAN OSTRICH. 
BY ADOLPH ERICH BQECKING, PH. D. 
[A. number of questioos recently asked by readers of Forest and 
Strkam lead ua to publish an abstracc of a paper read by Dr. Adolpb 
Erich Boecking before the Scientific Society, of San Antonio, Texas, 
which contains a great deal of very interesting material about this 
species. Dr. Boecking states in this paper that it I3 rewritten and 
translated into English from his original field notes, which formed Che 
basis of his monograph on these birds published some years ago in 
Wiegtnann^s Archiv, a German publication devoted to zoology ] 
The American ostrich is the largest bird of the New 
World, and is the sole survivor here of a group of birds 
which were very abundant in post tertiary times. Some 
of these still survive, as the ostrich, the emu, the apteryx 
and others; but others, like the giant moasof Australasia, 
have become extinct. 
The South American ostrich, of which there are two 
species, is found distributed over the vast plains that ex- 
tend from the southern tributaries of the Amazon south- 
ward as far as Patagonia. Of these two forms the 
smaller is the more southern, while the entire pampa 
proper of the Argentina, the larger southeastern half of 
Brazil, the eastern portion of Paraguay and the whole of 
the Banda Oriental of Uruguay is the range of the larger 
and more northern birJ. This species is peculiarly a bird 
of the plains, and avoids alike the forest and abrupt hills 
or high mountains. He prefers the thickets of tke high 
prairie and the little islands of underbrush which are 
found here and there over these great prairies. 
This ostrich is a bird of the warm temperate zone, and 
diminishes in numbers as the equator is approached. 
Throughout all his range the species is found in moderate 
numbers, being the most abundant where food is plenty. 
During the breeding season the male lives with from 
tliree to seven hens, occupying a range of his own and 
defending it against any intruder. Daring the remainder 
of the year old and young keep together in loose herds of 
fifty or more individuals, which may be broken up and 
scattered by any accident such as a night surprise, a 
storm or even an intervening rise of ground, while they 
are feeding, and the stragglers join with the first feeding 
herd that they may encounter. Notwithstanding this 
fact, they appear to be attached to a particular range, and 
a crippled specimen, known by his wing, which had healed 
imperfectly, was found always within a few miles of a 
certain point by my men, and I often saw it myself. 
The tnost striking characteristic of the ostrich, and one 
which has passed iato a proverb, is his never-failing ap- 
petite. They seem to be eating all the time. In spring 
the food consists largely of fresh green clover and the in- 
sects of the prairie, but his mainstay and daily bread con- 
sists of grasses and unripe flower buds, together with such 
berries and insects as it can pick up. They do not appear 
to feed upon the dry and ripe seed of many grasses, nor 
do they touch grain at any time. They very rarely drink. 
It is in spring, which of course in the southern hemis- 
phere begins in the mouth of October, that the ostrich is 
seen at his best. It is then that his plumage is brightest, 
his d«portment stateliest, and it is then that he utters at 
short intervals thejionorous gutteral cry which gives him 
his popular name Nandu. This is a call to his mite, but 
it is also a challenge, an invitation, a warning, and an en- 
couragement all in one. ' 'This call never missed its effect 
upon myself when camped out, with nothing to keep me 
compaay for perhaps a hundred miles except my horses 
and dogs, I heard its long-drawn ring vibrate through the 
starry night. It was the reassuring manifestation of life 
and peace at the same time amid the overwhelming soli- 
tude and stillness. As long as this soixnd reverberates you 
are safe from every surprise. You will hear it even in 
yov^ Bleep, and only when it oeaaes thga you wake up 
with a start. The horses interrupt their cropping and 
listen, and the dogs take in the wind to ascertain what it 
can be. Of all watchful pampa creatures the ostrich is 
thfl most vigilant." 
Like all the other higher animals of the country they 
inhabit, wild or tame, the ostrich enjoys a siesta at noon 
during the summer; but to make up for this lost time it 
feeds for three or four hours during the night. In winter 
the birds rise and go to sleep with the sun. 
The first eggs laid by a family of ostriches are dropped 
here and there on the prairie early in December, but after 
a while the male bird scratches out a shallow hollow on 
some dry place, often choosing a wallow dug out by the 
rolling cattle, and here the eggs are laid, the number 
being from seven to twenty-three. Other eggs are laid 
outside the nest, for what purpose is not known. It has 
been stated that these were for the newly hatched birds 
to feed on, but this is not the fact, for these young birds 
from their second day on feed upon grass blades and in- 
sects. Incubation is performed by the male, who turns 
the eggs over every day. He sits on them all through 
the night and in the morning until the dew has left the 
grass, when he leaves them for a time to feed. This 
absence is sometimes more or less prolonged, and on one 
occasion I observed a male feeding for four hours before 
returning to the nest, and all of the eggs hatched. When 
the work of incubation begins the bird is timid and likely 
to steal away at the merest suspicion of danger, but later 
on he sits much more close and often springs up only 
when nearly approached. For a little while he will make 
as if he were about to attack his disturber, but thinking 
better of it, makes off, feigning to be injured and trying 
to induce pursuit. The nests are sometimes attacked by 
foxes, opossums, lizards and snakes, but the old bird is 
said to defend the nest against these creatures if they 
approach when he is near. 
The young are usually hatched about the bcKinning of 
January after six weeks' incubation. At two weeks old 
they stand about Hft, high and are very pretty in their 
striped livery of yellow and brown. When a few days 
out of the shell they cannot be overtaken by a man on 
foot, but earlier they are often caught; yet there is always 
danger of killing instead of catching them, since when 
nearly overtaken t.hey are likely suddenly to crouch flat 
on the ground and may easily be stepped on. When in 
this position they are recognized only with difficulty, so 
closely do they resemble the ground on which they lie. 
For the first few weeks these young birds follow their 
father about alone, but gradually they are joined by the 
females, which have hitherto apparently taken no interest 
in the young family. In fall, that is in April and May, 
the downy coat of the young has been changed for one 
of feathers, which, however, are not of the same gray color 
as the plumage of the adult female. At this season the 
families leave the thickets and move out into the open 
prairie to avoid the attacks of the larger cats, like the jag- 
uar and the puma, which prey upon them. On the whole, 
however, the ostrich has few enemies except man. Some- 
times they may be run down by wolves or captured by 
one of the big cats, or now and then young ones may 
serve as a meal for eagle, fox or boa. The pampa tires no 
doubt destroy more ostriches than all other caxxses put to- 
gether. 
The da nage done by the ostrich is confined to the little 
clover that it eats, or the rare occasions when it interferes 
with some cultivated crop. On the other 'hand the bird 
destroys great numbers of noxious insects, and vast quan- 
tities of injurious plants while they are green. It is a 
useful rather than a noxious bird. 
The Sea Serpent. 
State OF Washington, June SO —The sea serpent has 
at last been caught. The West is ahead as usual. Maybe 
it is not the sea serpent, only a sea serpent. If not a sea 
serpent, then a what do-you-call-it? The East sees sea 
serpents time and again, and there are the sensational 
stereotyped accounts in the papers which no one believes, 
but the great West sees sea serpents and goes one better, 
catches them. 
Some fishermen while plying their trade on Hood's 
Canal a few days since caught one of these elusive and 
long-sought monstrosities, which is now on exhibition in 
Seattle with all the full steam flourish of a sure enough 
side show, and a painting on the canvas fearfully and 
wonderfully made of a sinuous monster from whose low- 
browed, broken-nosed Bowery totigh head there issues a 
forked tongue that spits lightning to the four corners of 
the earth. 
I did not see the thing, but my informant who did de- 
scribes it as being between 6 and 7ft. long, about as large 
as your arm near the shoulder, sleeve and all, of a 
brownish color, mottled, with smooth skin, dorsal fin 
whole length of back, but no other, tail rather blunt, and 
with a head which was a "cross bebween that of a snake 
and a bulldog," if such a thing can be imagined, with 
teeth, tusks and all, like a cat's It had no whiskers, or 
if it had ever been possessed of those appendages they had 
been shaved off. Gills it had. Now if this isn't a sea 
serpent we'll try again. I think we can fetch it if neces- 
sary. 
It was reported that it was to be sent to Prof. Alexan- 
der, of the Fish Commission steamer Albatross, which is 
at Seattle, for inspection and identification if possible, 
but I know not whether it was done. 
As I have somewhere remarked in my works, there are 
other things beside rain in Washington. O. O. S. 
The Copperhead. 
1 SHOULD like to say for the benefit of Forked Deer that 
I had a pretty intimate acquaintance with this "myth" 
some twenty years ago on my father's farm. The editorial 
note states that the snake in question is found from the 
Atlantic to the Mississippi. He was the commonest dan- 
gerous refitile known in the section above referred to, the 
Ozark region of Southwest Missouri, some twenty miles 
n >rth of Springfield. He was usually to be found about 
old fences, piles of logs, stumps, etc., and was in a state 
oc chronic beliigerancy. This circumstance and the added 
one that he strikes without warning made him more 
dreaded than the rattlesnake. I have killed a great many 
of these handsome, villainous fellows, and only once 
remember seeing one try to retreat. 
They are marked a good deal like the rattlesnake, but 
of brighter colors. It is a commOA notion tl^at they are 
the female rattlesnake. " Az^gp, 
^Hm^ ^^(^ ^nd 0m 
AHERICAN GAME PARKS. 
The "Forest and Stream's" Third An 
hual Report on Game in Preserves- 
Part One.— Fenced Parks.— Continued. 
The PajB^e Fence Company. 
The Page Woven Wire Fence Company has a game 
park at Adrian, Mich., in which are included at present 
eight buffalo, seventeen elk and nineteen deer. There 
is also a black bear and a number of foxes, coons, 
badgers and coyotes. The coyotes do well in confinement 
and are prolific breeders. 
Among the deer are a number of black-tails. The com- 
mon deer are from stock captured in the Adirondacks, 
Michigan and other widely separated sections. On a re- 
cent Saturday, Sunday and Monday three sets of twin 
deer were born. 
The elk were purchased three years ago, and have bred 
regularly since the first year. They are handled as easily 
as domestic cattle. A large bull met bis death recently 
by a stroke of lightning. 
The buffalo at present are kept in what is known as 
the "breeding inclosure," which contains an area of 
about five acres. There are four cows and two bulls; 
one of the latter is nine years old, and an unusually fine 
THK "BtlPFALO range'" TO DAY. 
specimen. As he stands naturally he is said to hold his 
head 4i-ft. above the ground. 
The Page Company recently lost a large bull purchased 
from the herd of Mr, J, H. Bass, of Fort Wayne, Ind., 
from injuries received at the time of the transfer. The 
bull was very wild and resisted capture desperately, 
breaking repeatedly through temporary inclosures into 
which he bad been driven. After three days' maneuver- 
ing he was finally subdued, bound head and feet and 
dragged into a cage that had been prepared for his recep- 
tion, but the struggle had been too much, and he died a 
few days after his arrival at Adrian. 
The price paid for this buffalo is stated as $600. 
Under date of June 23 W. A. Hoisington writes: 
"Our people recently purchased two more buffalo — a 
bull and a cow — near Keokuk, la. They arrived in good 
condition one week ago and have already made friends 
with the Ft. Wayne and Chicago buffalo purchased earlier 
in the season. The bull is four years old and the cow 
three years, and they are equal to the best specimens that 
we have. Our people have just accepted a proposition of 
a Wisconsin man to sell a herd of sixteen deer and our 
gamekeeper will start for them to-morrow." 
The Bear Swamp Game Preserve. 
The Bear Swamp Game Park, located in Sussex county, 
N. J., contains about 1,0Q0 acres, principally woodland. 
About 100 acres near the center of the park is known as 
the Bear Swamp (from which the park derives its name), 
is an admirable protection for game, being thickly wooded 
with hemlock, pine, laurel, etc. This track was purchased 
by Dr. E. S. Dalrymple in 1894j with a view to forming a 
private game preserve. 
The park has recently been fenced with the Page woven 
wire deer park fence, T^f t. high. The park will soon be 
leased for a term of years to an association of sportsmen, 
the membership of which will be limited to twenty-five. 
The preserve has been but partly stocked; a few deer, 
Canada and Belgian hares were released this spring. The 
native game consists of partridges, quail and rabbits; the 
former are quite numerous. 
As soon as the association is fully organized and in 
working order it is proposed to stock the preserve with 
deer, Eaglish pheasants and such other game as is thought 
suitable. The park is watered by a stream and tributaries 
which empty in Lake Owassa, a lake lying along the 
western side of the park. 
Maple Point, a grcve adjoining the park and fronting 
on the lake, has been improved during the past two or 
three years, cottages built, roads laid out, etc. A site 
has been selected here for a club house, which will no 
doubt be erected in the near future. There are several 
lakes in this vicinity. Culvers and Owassa have been 
stocked with black bass several years, and more recently 
with landlocked salmon and wall-eyed pike. The bass 
fishing has been exoeUent during- the past three or four 
^eara, 
