404 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 21, 1898. 
mouth) are constantly deteriorating in quality and flavor. 
Can this come from their inshore habits, frequenting 
the sloughy shallow waters? Only occasionally does a 
bass have the right taste, and then it is caught in deep 
water or on the more rocky western shore of the lake. 
Catfish, planted in 1890 and 1892, are beginning to show 
up in the seines. I have heard of none caught with hook 
and line. 
One afternoon about a month ago I took a walk along 
one/of our streams and was arrested by a piteotis squeal- 
ing at my feet. Looking down I saw a little creatttre 
that I should have taken for a newly born kitten had it 
not been that the foundling was absolutely naked. As 
I stooped to handle it I heard a chattering and a female 
weasel came within 5ft. of me, and stopping short, sur- 
veyed me with a most quizzical air. She was herself 
quite attractive from her unusually large size and the 
brilliant lemon color of throat and belly. I remained 
motionless, and she evinced no fear, for she came to _my 
feet, picked up her infant in her teeth and departed with- 
out undue haste and in a dignified manner. An horn- 
later a boy told me that there was a deer lying in an 
adjacent pasture. It was even so. A doe, shot through 
the head. She had probably been wounded some dis- 
tance away and had run down into the settlement, where 
the hunter dared not claim her. 
Cats can be trained to hunt. I have proved it. Last 
summer I was stopping in the cabin of a rancher named 
Bigelow in the top of the Wet Mountains of southeast- 
ern Colorado. Mr. B. had a cat that aroused my curi- 
osity, for every time he would go after the cows or up 
on the mountain after his horses that cat would follow 
like a well-trained dog. As we sat at the supper table 
one Saturday night, a rifle in close proximity spoke two 
or three times. We rushed to the door in time to see a 
limping deer leave the oats and enter the timber. It 
took a little time to get on our boots and fix our shoot- 
ing irons, and then we joined Mr. Bigelow's neighbor, 
who had done the shooting. The cat came along, as 
much interested as anj'^body. It was already after 8 
o'clock and the woods were so dark that it was impos- 
sible to track. We beat about in vain for some time, 
when the cat ran ahead for a little ways, jumped on a 
quaking asp log and commenced to scratch. We fol- 
lowed and found a blood spot. Then the cat went on 
until she found another spot and again she scratched. 
So we followed her for half a mile, when it became im- 
possible to see our hands before our faces, and we had 
to feel our way back. I realize that this yarn sounds 
very fishy, and I should not have believed it had I not 
been an eye witness; but what a cat that would be to 
breed a race of hunting felines from ! SHOsnoNE. 
; pRovo Utah, May 10. 
New Mammals* 
The extraordinary way in which new forms of 
mammalian hfe in America are being brought to light 
is well exemplified in the last issue of the Proceedings 
of the Biological Society of Washington, dated April 
30. Here in thirty- nine pages, many of which are par- 
tially blank, are described no less than forty-six species 
and subspecies of mammals. The actual issue includes 
pages 85 to 129, but of these six are devoted to a dis- 
cussion of some points in the nomenclature of the bats 
bv Dr. T. S. Palmer. . . , 
The first paper in the series consists of descriptions of 
eleven new species and subspecies of voles, or meadow 
mice, by Vernon Bailey, of the Biological Survey. The 
localities from which these different forms come are 
widely scattered, one being from the Great Gull Island, 
N. Y.; another from Labrador; others stih from Mis- 
sissippi, the Indian Territory, Utah, California, etc. ■ 
Under the name of Procyon maynardi Outram Bangs 
describes a new raccoon from Nassau Island in the Ba- 
hamas, the species being named after Mr. C. J. Maynard, 
of Newton, Mass. This small species is abundant upon 
Nassau Island, but little is known about it, and it is 
uncertain from what continental form it is derived, Mr. 
Maynard has, or had recently, two living specimens of 
this raccoon at his home, but the type is a young male 
collected in August, 1897, by Mr. H. L. Claridge, of 
Nassau. 
Mr. Bangs also describes under the name of Urocyon 
aquilns a new fox 'from the Santa Marta Mountains in 
Colombia. It is a dark form, similar in general appear- 
ance to our Southern gray fox. Mr. Bangs also describes 
a small opossum from Margarita Island, Venezuela. 
Five specimens of this new form are collected by Lieut. 
Wirt Robinson, U. S. A., four of which went to the 
National Museum and one to Mr. Bangs. It is named 
Marmosa robinsoni, after its discoverer. 
From the same island, and collected by the same offi- 
cer, come three new rabbits closely allied to some of the 
mainland forms. One of these is now described by 
Gerritt S- Miller, Jr., under the name L. margarita. Ex- 
cept for its long ears and short, dark-colored tail it bears 
a superficial resemblance to one form of our common 
gray rabbit. 
An interesting paper by Dr. C. Hart Merriam deter- 
mines the earliest generic name for the North American 
deer and describes five new species and subspecies. The 
genus Cariacus was established by Lesson in 1842 to 
contain the Virginia deer and its allies, but in 1895 Mr. 
Oldfield Thomas reinstated the name of Dorcelaplius as 
having priority by one year. Dr. T. S. Palmer, how- 
ever, has pointed out that two of Rafinesque's_ nam.es 
were still earlier— Panallodon, in 1831, and Odocoileiis, m 
1832. The first of these Dr. Merriam rejects for abun- 
dant reasons, but the second was based on an upper 
premolar of a Virginia deer, found in a cave near Car- 
lisle, 'Pa., and the tooth Avas described by Rafinesque 
in detail, and figures of both outer and inner faces were 
published of natural size. Thus identified, there can be 
no question as to its place, and our common whitetail 
deer, which at various time? )^^s been Cervus, Cariacus 
and Dorcelaphus virginianus, now becomes Odocoileiis 
virginianus (Bodd). 
Of the five species and subspecies described by Dr. 
Merriam, one from Sitka, and one from California, 
are of the 0. colnmbianus type; of the other three, one is 
of the mule deer type, the other two seem to be of the 
Virginia deer type. 
From among a great mass of material brought back 
from Mexico by Mr. E. W. Nelson, Dr. Merriam de- 
scribes three new species of mice of the genus Microtus, 
representing three subgenera, two of which are new. 
The remaining papers of this issue are Random Notes 
on the Nomenclature of the Chiroptera, by Dr. T. S. 
Palmer; Descriptions of Twenty New Species and a 
New Subgenus of Peromyscus from Mexico and Guate- 
mala, by Dr. C. Hart Merriam; and A New Genus 
(Neotomodon) and Three New Species of Murine Ro- 
dents from the Mountains of Southern Mexico, by Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam. 
It is well known that during tertiary time the group 
of animals which contains the camels and the llamas 
was very greatly developed, and that in America there 
were many different forms of these animals, some large 
and some small, some quite similar to the representa- 
tives of the group found on earth to-day, and some very 
different from them. 
The same thing may be said of the group which con- 
tains the horse and horselike animals, whose evolution, 
worked out many years ago by Marsh and Huxley, was 
regarded at the time as one of the strongest pieces of 
evidence confirmatory of the doctrine of evolution. 
Dr. J. L. Wortman, of the American Museum of Nat- 
ural History, has recently published in the tenth vol- 
ume of the Museum's Bulletin an interesting paper 
treating of the extinct camels of North America and 
some associated forms. This paper consists of a re- 
view of the genera and species of the North American 
camel-like animals, with descriptions of additional ma- 
terial pertaining to types already known, as well as of 
some new forms; a consideration of the various steps 
in the development of the group; and a study of cer- 
tain characteristics of the higher selenodont even-toed 
(so-called) animals in its bearing on the transmission of 
acquired character. 
The camel-like animals constitute an aberrant group 
which branched off from the main stem of the artio- 
dactyle stock very early in the tertiary; but it is not 
until later eocene times that animals were found with true 
camel-like characters. The earlier forms were small ani- 
mals with short legs and separate radius and ulna and 
tibia and fibula, while according to Dr. Wortman the 
union of the metapodial bones and consequent forma- 
tion of the cannonbone took place much later. Dr. 
Wortman traces the development of the present camels 
back through different forms to some of their early an- 
cestors. 
In the same volume of the Bulletin, Dr. J. A. Allen 
describes a number of new species of mammals from 
western Mexico and Lower California. The_ material 
on which he has drawn are a number of specimens re- 
ceived from Mr. Oldfield Thomas, of the British Mu- 
seum, and a collection from Mr. A. W. Anthony, who 
collected on the islands off the west coast of Lower Cali- 
fornia in 1897. The new species include an- opossum, 
three forms of hare, several pocket gophers, several 
bushtail rats, and a number of mice. Included in the 
collection made by Mr. Anthony were two females of 
the desert mule deer and a specimen of the California 
sea Hon. < 4 
Notes on Wisconsin Hawks and Owls 
I. — Owls, 
The order Raptores, containing hawks, owls and other 
birds of prey, is one of special iiiterest to those who 
would study bird life from an economic as well as an 
ornithological standpoint. 
It was the desire to learn more of the nesting 
habits of certain species of Raptores that led me to 
make special effort along this line during the season 
of 1896. The following notes are based on observa- 
tions made during what time could be spared^ from 
business, and are not as complete as I would wish. 
I remembered having seen a very large nest of some 
kind, late in the spring of 1892, on an island above the 
inlet of our lake, but close attention to business had 
prevented an .earHer visit. On the afternoon of March 
17, accompanied by the editor of our local paper, who 
went along to see an owl's nest, and incidentally to take 
a snap shot of same. I started out to see what could 
be found in the way of nests. 
We drove across the lakes, up the winding inlet, and 
made a circuit around the marsh to reach the road 
which leads to the island. Hundreds of acres of marsh 
surround this island, which rises abruptly on all sides, 
and is about one-half mile long and nearly as wide. It 
is covered Avith heavy timber, with the exception of a 
few acres of cleared land in the center, thus making 
an ideal nesting site for hawks and owls. 
Hitching the horse at the east end, yve. made our 
way along the south edge of the woods without locating 
any nests, and worked east again, coming nearer to the 
place where I had seen the nest in '92. Finally we 
caught a glimpse of a big bunch of articles high up in 
a large black oak. A moment later and the editor, 
who was in advance, shouted: "There's one! see his 
horns!" 
Sure enough, there sat Bubo virginianus, with tufts 
erected, peering at us ov^r the edge of the nest, still 
some few rods away. 
I was at the foot of the oak in short order, and found 
it a comparatively easy one to climb. I was half way 
to the nest before it was vacated. The greatest trouble 
was in getting around and over the bulky affair, in or- 
der to see the contents. After much hard pulling and 
hanging on — for a stiff March wind was playing with 
the "branches— I managed to get above the mass of 
sticks, and there on a bed of feathers, pulled from the 
breast of the bird, rested three white, globular eggs. 
I picked one up immediately, but what was it that I 
heard? 1 turned the egg over, when I saw a hole and 
si6ii%thing move within, then another pip-pip, and then 
I realized that I was too late. 
The mbther owl's work of incubating was about over, 
for the other two eggs were both cracked, one slightly 
more than the other, which showed that incubation be- 
gan when the first egg was deposited. We left the eggs 
to hatch, and shortly after we sa\V the old bird trying, 
to escape from a flock of crows which had attacked hen' 
as soon as she left the nest. 
I shall never forget how that nest looked as I peered- 
over its edge, just two weeks later. There in the center' 
was a mass of down. It took but a touch, and the' 
mass of down became three separate bodies, each cov- 
ered with grayish white down all over. The eyes were- 
dark hazel gray, not the bright yellow iris of the adults. 
Bills were black, while the ear tufts \yere just begin- 
ning to appear in the way of elongated pin feathers oni 
the largest of the three. There was c'ortsiderable dif-- 
ference in size, which indicated the order in which they 
were hatched. They had evidently been Well fed, tO' 
judge by the size they had attained, and flo wonder. 
Arranged around the nest were the hind quSitfters of ai 
rabbit, a very large rat with the head off, and flie back; 
half of a bluebill duck. Variety enough to suit a'fl tastes- 
had been procured by the provident parent. Tff this- 
instance the heads and foreparts seem to have' Bveenn 
eaten first. 
The nest was 70ft. from the ground and nearly 3ft.- 
across, and had evidently been added to year after year" 
till it was ij^ft. thick at center. It was very shallow,.: 
being hollowed just enough to keep eggs from rollingn^ 
to the edge. 
I found another nest of great horned owl on March? 
23 in a tall black ash tree, 6oft. up. The bird was sitting: 
on a branch near the nest, but flew away at our ap- 
proach. A climb to the nest revealed one egg. The' 
nest was lined with the tawny feathers of the breast,- 
while the body of the nest was made of sticks and twigs,, 
not making as large a nest as the former. On blowing' 
the egg I found that incubation had begun, but the 
embryo had died, and the egg became addled. This 
probably accounts for the disconsolate manner of the 
bird sitting on the limb. The female may have been 
shot after laying the first egg, and the male was thus 
mourning her loss; but this is merely a conjecture, as 
close search failed to reveal any signs of other eggs 
being broken in or below the nest. 
A nest of the American long-eared owl was found 
April 19 with one egg, which was taken. Another visit 
was made to the nest on the 26th, when three rnore fresh 
eggs were found. The nest was placed 25ft. up in a well- 
formed fork of a small black cherry tree, in a dense 
thicket of second growth, along an immense marsh. It 
was compactly built of sticks and twigs, was 7in. across 
inside, and sin. deep, lined with bark from posts and 
a few feathers. 
The female stuck to the nest while the tree was shaken 
a number of times. She then flew away, but soon re- 
turned with the male, and then what a snapping of bills 
and scolding ensued. First one would fall to the 
ground, sprawl its wings, drag its "legs, and flutter in 
terrible agony, only to have the same thing repeated by 
the mate, Avhile the other would then fly back and forth, 
passing close to the nest, from tree to tree. This was 
repeated time after time during our entire stay in the 
vicinity. The female would sometimes perch herself on 
a nearby tree top and utter a guttural wo-wo-wo-wo. 
The attempts at deception on the ground, in feigning 
disability, fairly rivaled those of the killdeer when it 
has young. 
These birds are quite common here, but on account 
of their habit of keeping concealed in dense second 
growth are rarely met with outside. 
Another species that is common here at times is the 
short-eared owl, but I have not found it breeding. Dur- 
ing the winter of '92 about twenty- five of these birds 
made their roosting place in a long row of spruce trees 
on the south side of town, and continued to hang around 
there even after several of them had been shot. 
The barred owl is our most common species, many 
of them being shot wantonly by hunters going through 
the woods. I did not find it breeding last year, but hope 
to learn something, of its nesting habits the coming sea- 
son. 
A number of snowy owls have been shot here during 
the past few winters, as they came down from the north, 
but being very wary arc hard to approach, especially 
when you have a gun. Geo. A. Morrison, 
Fox Lake, Wis. 
The "Wild Pigfeon in Mexico. 
Macomb, 111., May 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: After 
writing to almost all points of the United States and 
Central America, making inquir}' for the American wild 
pigeon, I have found them at last in Mexico. It is true 
they are not there in such flocks as they were in the 
United States some forty or fifty years ago, when they 
would break the limbs off of the trees when they were 
nesting. I received a letter from the Hon. A. M. 
Beaupre, Consul General at Guatemala, Central 
America, a short time ago requesting me to write to the 
Hon, Samuel E. Magill, Consulate General at Tampico, 
Mexico, as he had been informed that the American 
pigeon was in that section of the countr3^ I addressed 
him a letter and I now inclose his reply: 
W. O. Blaisdell. 
Consulate of the United States of America. — 
Tampico, April 27. — ^Hon. W. O. Blaisdell: My dear sir— 
Yours of 17th inst. received. The wild pigeon of the 
United States is not thoroughly domiciled here, and does 
not occupy the position in the fauna of this country that 
he did in ours when seen at his best. Used to living on 
nuts of small size like our beech nuts, he does not find 
here the food he craves, hence does not reproduce as 
numerously as he would under certain conditions and 
is not seen in large flocks here. 
Another pigeon very similar to ours does better here 
and is more numerous, but it is not the wild pigeon of 
the United States, Yours truly, 
" — ■ ' ■ Samuel E, Magill, Consul, 
