486 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June i8, 1898. 
get's fixative with an atomizer, though with this latter 
treatment the figure of the print is apt to be disturbed 
somewhat. 
In the preparation of mushrooms for the table; in- 
formation may be obtained from other sources if it is 
not already at hand, since we cannot here enter into a 
discussion of the culinary treatment. But as a matter 
of course all wormy and very old specimens should be 
discarded. 
In communities where there is a desire to become 
acquainted with the common fleshy fungi, those inter- 
ested might combine to form a "mycological club." A 
number of persons thus associated together might pur- 
I, AMANITA THALLOIDES. 
_ White form, showing pileus, stipe, annulus and volva. 
chase a small reference library to be kept in a club room, 
at a trifling cost to each member. Here specimens 
could be brought, the literature and illustrations com- 
pared, and an exchange of opinions between the mem- 
bers on the various plants would assist in a more ready 
determination of the plant, and in the acquisition of 
useful information as to occurrence, habits of growth, 
etc. Some few in such a community would become 
more expert than others, and could at length be regard- 
ed as "specialists" to whom more doubtful matters 
coyld be referred, or who themselves in doubtful cases 
J. AMANITA PHALLOIPKS. 
View of under side of pileus, showing form and position of 
annulus and volva. 
could consult by correspondence with some one pos- 
sessing greater ' opportunity at some botanical center. 
Such a club would undoubtedly become interested in 
other nature subjects which would afl^ord both pleasure 
and profit. 
Mud Turtles and Tetfapin* 
Fox Lake, Wis. — There was quite a trade here this 
spring in mud turtles; every fisherman and market 
shooter was catching them. I asked a dealer where he 
shipped them to. He said down South. I wonder if 
they ain't sent back as terrapin? W. E. W, 
Notes on the Badger. 
One 'of the most interesting and at the same time 
one of the least known of our animals is the badger. 
It is not precisely nocturnal in its habits, though no 
doubt spending a good part of the day in sleep, but 
much of its life is passed under ground. It is small, and 
is so admirably protected by its color that it is but sel- 
dom seen except by accident. Some of its habits are 
no longer secrets to us, but on the other hand we 
know almost nothing aboitt its breeding or its ways, in 
winter. 
Most people who have traveled much over the plains 
have seen_ badgers, and Have had some experience 
of their digging powers, of tbeir pluck in defending 
themselves, and_ of the difficulties of seeing them when 
they do not wish to be seen. Many a man too has 
had reason to curse the badger, when his horse on 
stepping into one of its holes fell, throwing the rider 
heavily on the hard prairie. 
A badger has little to fear from an ordinary dog. 
The latter may escape the badger's fierce jaws by supe- 
rior activity, but, do the best he may, the dog can get 
hold of nothing save mouthfuls of hair or loose skin, 
and after a day of worrying the badger, though he may 
be weary, will be unhurt. On the other hand if tlie 
badger should close his jaAvs on the dog the latter will 
not easily get away from him. 
I used to believe that the badger could be killed by 
a sharp rap on the end of the nose, and for several 
years I lived in the faith that 1 had killed a number 
of badgers by that means. One day,- however, after 
having struck one on the nose, and seen him roll over 
on his back and claw the air in apparent death agony, I 
stopped near him for some purpose, and a few moments 
later saw the badger strug.gle to his feet and stagger off, 
improving as he went, until he trotted along apparently 
none the worse for his period of unconsciousness. 
Often one sees a badger being tormented by a coyote 
in the manner spoken of in the recently published "Trail 
and Camp-Fire." The sight is an odd one, and 1 never 
quite understood the coyote's motive. The suggestion 
made by the writer just referred to is plausible, and rriay 
very likely be correct. 
One bright, warm day last alitumn 1 left the tancb 
house and started to Walk down toward the lake. I 
took with me a rifle, for there was a possibility that 
1 might see a coyote or a badger or a duck or possibly 
even an antelope. A few hundred yards below the house, 
where the fence ends. I turned to cross the brook, pass- 
in"- over a patch of ground where many tall thistles 
stood. As 1 was about to step out from among the 
thistles t saw on the other side of the brook a badger 
smelling among some ground squirrel holes, and stood 
still to watch him. 
He waddled clumsily from one hole to another, smell- 
ing at each, and now and then with his claws scraping 
away a little of the soft dirt at the mouth of one of 
the holes. Nothing seemed especially to interest him, 
however, and he came on toward the brook and went 
down into its bed. As he passed out of sight. I stepped 
forward nearly to where the bank brolce off. In two 
or three minutes the badger's head appeared over the 
edge of the bank. He paused a moment to look at 
me, and then seeing nothing to alarm him clambered 
up, and cortiing tAvo or three feet nearer to me sat on 
his haunches and looked first at me and then all about 
him; not trusting to his eyes alone, but turning up 
his nose and wrinkling it and sniffing in all directions. 
He held his arms down by his side, much as a prairie 
dog often does when sitting erect. Loweriner himself 
to the ground, he walked forward again until he was 
within loft. of me. and to leeward, so that he must 
have scented me. Here he again sat on his haunches, but 
this time with his forepaws resting on the ground, and 
sniffed tlie breeze. Still he gave no sign of being 
alarmed, but started on again, passing three or four 
feet from me, walking here and there and examining the 
ground passed over. His gait was a brisk walk, not a 
trot. His body, or rather the end of the long fringe 
of hair at his sides, was perhaps 2in. above the ground. 
After he had passed me a little way I followed him 
slowly, moving only when his tail was toward me and 
his head down. He hunted along until he came to 
an open grassy flat, from which the house was in plain 
sight. Here he stopped, raised his head high, and for 
a long time looked toward the house, as if to see 
whether there was anything dangerous in that direction. 
Perhaps he was looking for the^ dog. Then he lowered 
himself quite flat to the ground and crept swiftly across 
the short grass of the open to a hillside beyond it, on 
which were many large stones and occasional clumps 
of sage bru.sh. When he had reached this place the 
badger seemed to think that caution was no longer need- 
ed. He trotted briskly for a few steps, and then raising 
his tail straight up in the air began to gallop about, as 
if entirely gay and free from care. He was now perhaps 
7Syds. from me, too far to be seen with great distinct- 
ness, so I turned and went on my way. 
Not very long ago I came upon an article in the San 
Francisco Chronicle about a tame badger, which is well 
worth reproducing. It reads: 
The particular loadger whose friendship I once en- 
joyed was a full-grown specimen of the California badger, 
which does not materially differ from the European vari- 
ety, although it is rather more carnivorous. Even in 
their wild state these creatures are exceedingly clever, 
and association with civilization had so broadened this 
fellow's intellect that he was occasionally rather more 
clever than was convenient. His cunning, his propen- 
sities for almost human mischief and teasing, together 
with his enormous strength, made him rather formidable 
when, as sometimes happened, he succeeded in entering 
the house. 
He soon learned to stand up on his brief hindlegs 
and reach a latch of the door that led from the house 
to the inclosed porch that was his home, and for a while 
he reveled in destruction. Once, during the temporary 
absence of the ruler of the kitchen, he pushed the heavy 
kitchen range out into the middle of the floor. Laree 
bureaus, heavy trunks, beds, were mere featherweights 
to this 2ft. long Sampson, and he delighted to shove them 
about. He would insinuate his nose or one paw between 
a trunk and the wall against which it stood and carefully 
work his Avay behind the trunk. Then he would brace 
himself against the wall and push. If the floor was un- 
carpeted a tiny crack between the boards afforded his 
sharp hind claws suflicient hold from which to push, 
and a carpet was his keenest delight. 
This fellow slept in a sort of kennel, on the porch, and 
he was as particular about airing his bed as any fine 
lady could be. On sunshiny mornings he would drag 
the old blanket that formed his couch out from the ken-' 
nel, and standing^ up on his hindlegs and using his fore- 
claws and teeth in a truly wonderful fashion he would 
throw this blanket over the rail of the porch, which 
he could just reach. He fiever failed to . do this on 
pleasant days, but he had never been taught the trick, 
it had always from the first been his custom to drag 
his bedding forth, but his mistress used to pick it Up 
and spread it on the rail, imtil one day she found him 
doing it himself. Doubtless the imitative instinct, which 
was very strong in him, accounts in a great measure for 
this trick, but the fact that he never did it on rainy days 
lends a cUrioUfe air of reasoning to the perforniance. 
There were times when none of us deemed it wise 
to approach him; none, that is, save the mi-stress; of the 
household, who. when it was reported to her that the 
badger was "in a tantrum," would calmly proceed- to ad- 
minister maternal chastisement with the palni, ;of her 
hand. He always seemed very much depressed- by this 
experience, and_ after a season of chastened quiet would 
come to her with an expression of contrition, putting up 
his nose and begging to be reinstated in favor.; It is 
not possible that the punishment ever hurt him,, but he 
always grunted hard while it was being administered 
and seemed much mortified. 
Audubon and Bachman, in "The Quadrupeds of Amer- 
ica," and Dr. Coucs, in his^ "Fur-bearing Animals," give 
niuch interesting information aboiit this SpeCieS. Few 
of your correspondents have much to say about it, yet the 
species is well worth studying. 
American Museum of Natura:! History, 
The annual report of the president of the American 
Museum of Natural History for the year 1897 has just 
been issued and is an interesting volume of 125 pages, 
illustrated by a number of full-page plates and a map. 
The report sho\vs rnatked progress in the museum as 
a whole, and very great additions to the Collections itl 
many departments. The accessions in the department 
of vertebrate paleontology are very large, and the man- 
ner in wliich portions of the collections in this branch 
have been piit on exhibition deseryes the greatest praise. 
Much has been done also in adding to and arranging 
for exhibition the collections in the department of an- 
thropology, wdiich is largely under the guidance of Dr. 
Franz Boas, Great accessions have been made to the de- 
partment of entomology and to the libi'afyi 
A very important branch of the museuni*s \vork do^iieS 
under the head of the department of public instruction. 
This consists of scries of lectures to the teachers of 
the public schools and to members of the rriuseum, of the 
Columbia University course and of the Board of Educa- 
tion lectures, together with those given by the New York 
Botanical Society, Linnfean Society and Entomological 
Society. 
The list of accessions to the collections and the Hbrafy 
of the museum is a long one. The plates which illustrate 
the report arc chiefly photographs of restorations of fos- 
sil forms now on exhibition in the museum, and of 
scenes taken in the West, where fo.SSils were being Col- 
lected. 'The frontispiece is a ipetspective view of the 
south front of the museum facing on Seventy-seventh 
street. There is a colored map. showing the field of 
proposed operations of the Jesup North Pacific expedi- 
tion for five years. 
The Vanishing Hippopotamus. 
The last hippopotamus has been slaughtered in Natal. 
All the larger and more curious creatures are disappear- 
ing so fa.st that this will be a monotonous world, at any 
rate for naturalists, in another century. Not SO long ago 
the hippopotamus haunted the rivers of Cape Colony 
and Natal, and "lake cow bacon," as the salted layef 
of fat underlying the hide is called, was a favorite dish; 
but now this huge creature has disappeared h'om both 
countries. The hunter has been its enemy for many a 
century, but the rifle is a far more deadly weapon than 
the assegai. The animal has an' appetite proportionate 
to its bulk, and can accommodate a good deal of Vege- 
table produce. Besides this it is a wasteful feeder, tram- 
pling down and tearing up much more than it coilsOfneSv 
and it prefers cultivated plants to wUd vegetation. That 
has proved its doom in Natal. One herd was left at 
Seacow Lake, a coast lagoon near Durban, and was 
protected by the Government. It consisted of parents 
and a family of five. Unfortunately these, like young 
people all the world over, loved "sweetiei/' and made 
nocturnal raids on the neighboring sugar-^ISite' planta- 
tions. The owners petitioned the Government, a Warrant 
of execution was granted, and the parental bull, wll© tflust 
have been nearly fifty years old, was the last to fall, and 
will henceforth be only an "exhibit" in the DurbafJ 
Museum. 
The hunter of the hinpopotamus is not without excuse. 
The flesh, especially the young calf, is more than palat- 
able. The feet of the young calf are said to make 
an excellent stew, and the skin to be better than 
conger eel as a substitute for turtle in soup. The thick, 
tough hide is useful for many purposes, among other,s 
for correction, since it makes formidable whips. Hip- 
popotamus XYOvy at one time found a place in the mouth 
of man, being much used for artificial teeth, so that the 
lake cow was worth capturing. That no doubt has helped 
in accelerating its departure from a world where for a 
long time it had managed to maintain existence. It 
lived on the Lower Nile in the days of the Pharaohs. 
A fresco in the old temple of Edfu shows that it was then 
harpooned by the natives much as it is now by the 
Sudanese. Herodotus describes it; probably it is the 
behemoth of the Book of Job, so that the animal must 
then have been fairly common. Roman crowds stared 
at it in the days of the Empire. 
