26 
— 
^JuLY fj, 189& 
found most abundantly in Long Island Sound, though 
many Xylotrya fimbriata were also found. 
The breeding season in North Carolina, so far as 
determined, lasts at least till the middle of August, and 
perhaps throughout the summer. That the latter is the 
true period is indicated by two sets of facts. In the first 
place individuals are found with ripe sexual products 
during the early part of August, and the young de- 
rived from eggs laid at this time must continue to set 
till September or later. Tn the second place the voung 
were setting" in the wood abundantly till the middle of 
August, a fact which indicates that the same condition 
continues to some degree for some time longer. Of 
course, from an economic standpoint the period during 
which the wood is attacked is one of the most vital 
roints to discover. 
Ihe r.umbtr cf young produced is amazing, being 
estimated in one case, from a single very large female, 
at a hundred million, and while the greater part are 
lost before the setting stage is reached, yet the number 
that set is very great, and this is one of the most dis- 
cern raghg features in dealing with ship-worms in a prac- 
tical way. If the spat were of fairly appreciable si ce and 
set in but moderate numbers, it might be feasible, bv the 
careful removal of all old piles and other old timbers, 
to Sufficiently reduce the number to a minimum. But 
when, under favorable conditions, over a hundred to 
a square inch set where there \s not room for more than 
or.e cr two to reach maturity, it is easily seen what an 
excess- is always present, and how futile it is to try to 
ci inbat the larva? before they enter tbe wood. 
The practical way, cf course, is to prevent their en- 
trance into the wood by protecting the wood with cop- 
per paint and sheathing. With small piles and timbers 
it would seem to be worth while to try various means 
( f keeping the bark on the wood, which so far as I 
know has ret been dore; fcr it is well known that as 
long as the hark is on timbers they are not attacked by 
ship worms. 
Once the ship-worm has set into the wood it grows 
with amazing rapidity in our Southern waters. In twelve 
days it has grown to be an %in. long; in twenty days 
about l /\v., and in thirty-six days 4m., when it is thou- 
sands of times as large in volume as when it sets. It has 
become sexually mature and is ready to produce a new 
generation. Hew long ship-worms may live has never 
been observed, though it is probable for several years, 
and that during this time they keep growing if there be 
room in the wood for growth, though when crowded 
the individuals become dwarfed. I have found specimens 
of great size cf T. norvegica. seme 3 to 4ft. long: and 
it is easily seen how destructive may be a few of these 
individuals, which may become almost an inch in dia- 
meter. The age of such specimens I have not been 
able to determine, but it is estimated to be less than 
two years. 
In the colder waters of Long Island I have found 
specimens of both T. naval is (?) and Xylotrya fimbriata. 
the former the more abundant. They seem to set most 
abundantly after the rst of July, though observations 
fcr one season cannot be conclusive. The rate of growth 
is much slower, and it would seem to take twice as long 
to attain the same sizes as in the warmer Southern 
waters. 
Observations, to be of any considerable economic 
value, must cover a variety of localities under different 
conditions, and must extend through a period of years — 
observations which I have not had sufficient opportunity 
to make, and which for our American forms have un- 
fortunately never been made. 
Chas. P. Sigerfoos. 
How to Name The Birds. 
This is the title of a little volume of 115 pages, bound 
in limp leather and issued by Charles Scribner's Sons. 
Mr H, E. Parkhurst, the compiler, calls it "a pocket 
guide to all the land birds and to the principal water fowl 
normally found in the New England States, New York, 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for the use of field orni- 
thologists." 
It is illustrated by two plates showing the distinctive 
areas of a bird's body, thus very clearly defining what is 
meant by the terms used in the text. There is also a 
plate showing the various forms of tails of birds, a map 
and an analytical key on a somewhat new plan. The 
descriptive list of birds is arranged in an artbitrary 
fashion by the colors which they show, such as "neutral 
list," "black list," "yellow list," which of course often 
places birds which have most diverse relationship next 
to each other on the page. We should imagine that 
this might prove confusing to the beginner. 
Department of Agriculture Year Book. 
The year book of tbe Department of Agriculture for 
the year ending June 30, 1897, is before us. It is a 
bulky volume of nearly 800 pages, and is fully illustrated 
here and there in colors. Besides the report of the Sec- 
retary, and those of the chiefs of bureaus, it contains 
many papers of very considerable interest to farmers, 
and indeed to all persons interested in the progress of 
this country. The subject of "Birds that Injure Grain" 
is taken up by Mr. F. E. L. Beale, of the Biological 
Survey, who under this head discusses the crow and 
various blackbirds, mentioning also toward the close of 
his article the mourning dove, California quail, shore 
lark and ring-necked pheasant. The paper is not without 
interest, but the conclusions drawn are quite inadequate. 
A Duck's Nest in a Tree* 
Granby. P. Q., June 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: 1 
was told that a duck had a nest in a tree up the river. I 
never heard of such a thing before, and was inclined to 
doubt it, so to-day I went up to investigate. 
I found an old elm tree on the bank of the river. 
About 12ft. up a large limb had been broken off close to 
the trunk years ago. leaving a hub on the trunk, the 
inner part having rotted out. Tbe diameter of the hole 
at the mouth is about 8in., the depth about 10 or i2in., 
but orobably a little over a foot across at the bottom. 
Although from my information I knew about where the 
tree was, yet I would never have suspected a nest there; 
but in looking over closely I noticed a few downy 
feathers adhering to the entrance. I was pointing these 
out to my seven-year-old boy when the duck flew out, 
alighting on a dead birch tree about twenty rods further 
up the stream. She was about the size of a blue-winged 
teal, but a little more gray than the female of this species. 
I put some sticks against the tree and mounted, finding 
several young ducks therein. I know they were ducks, be- 
cause I took a couple of them in my hand. They had a 
short, flat bill and web feet. Those I took out were 
black on the back, lighter colored on the breast, with 
three downy gosling colored rings running partly up 
the neck and around the eyes. There must have been 
ten or a dozen in the nest. They were probably a week 
or ten days old. I left them all there, but how she pro- 
poses to get them out of there to the water is a mystery 
to me, as it is fully 15 ft. of a drop to the water, although 
the tree is almost on the edge of the water. 
I never heard of a duck's nest in such a place before, 
and if much out of the common I could get a photo of 
the tree, and possibly, by careful work, get a snap shot 
on the duck as she is leaving the nest, 
J. Bruce Payne. 
[Not a few sorts of ducks nest in hollow trees; and 
geese in some localities, notably along the Missouri 
River, are known to build their nests on the tops of Cot- 
tonwood stubs, far above the ground. The most com- 
mon of the tree nesting ducks is the wood duck, whence 
its name; but there are others, for example the golden 
eye, or whistler, the butterball or bufflehead, and the 
hooded merganser.] 
Bird Tablet for Field Use. 
With this title an abridgment of some of the pages 
of Miss Florence A. Merriam's "Birds of Village and 
Field" has been published by Josephine A. Clark, of 
Washington. This is a pocket notebook, in which the 
student unfamiliar with birds may enter under the proper 
headings the characters of the different species which he 
sees in his walks. These headings are size, color, mark- 
ings of the different parts, shape of the different parts, 
movements, f ight, localities frequented, food and man- 
ner of obtaining it, song, habits; nest as to location, 
size, ;.hape, materials, methods of construction, etc.; 
eggs; incubation and observations on the young. These 
take up two pages, and there are two blank pages for 
notes. The book should be useful to the class for which 
it is intended. 
'nnp %§ H 8 m & % m * 
Firecrackers in China. 
From the Consular Reports. 
During the year ending June 30, 1897, there were ex- 
ported from China 26,705.733 pounds of firecrackers, 
valued by the Chinese imperial customs at $1,584,151 
gold. 
Of the total shipment, by far the largest part was 
sent to New York, A small quantity went to Eng- 
land. Other countries buy only infinitesimal amounts. 
The exports represent only a small fraction of the amount 
manufactured and used in China. There are no large 
manufactories; the crackers are made in small houses 
and in the shops where they are sold. In the latter places 
the proprietor of the shop, his wife (or wives) and 
children do the work. No record is kept of the number 
made and sold, and no estimate is possible of their cost. 
The use of crackers is universal in China, and has been 
as far back as history records. It is most probable 
that in the beginning they were used to frighten away 
evil spirits. Now they are most frequently an expres- 
sion of good feeling or of ceremonious compliment. 
They are used at weddings, births, and funerals; at fes- 
tivals; religious, civil and military ceremonies; at New 
Year; to saiute persons about to make a journe3 r ; and, in 
fact, on all occasions out of the ordinary routine. 
In making crackers, only the cheapest kind of straw 
paper which can be produced in the immediate locality 
where the crackers are made is used for the body of 
the cracker. A little finer paper is used for the wrapper. 
A piece of straw paper 9 by 3oin. will make twenty-one 
crackers i^in. long and one-fourth of an inch in diam- 
eter. 
The powder is also of the cheapest grade, and is 
''made in the locality where used. It costs 150 to 175 
cash per catty, cr 6 to 7 cents gold per pound. 
For the fuse, a paper (called "leather" in Shanghai) 
is used which is imported from Japan and is made from 
the lining of the bamboo. In other places a fine rice 
paper is used, generally stiffened slightly with buck- 
wheat-flour paste, which, the Chinese say, adds to its 
inflammability. A strip of this paper one-third of an 
inch wide by 14 in. (a Chinese, foot) long is laid on a 
table, and a very little powder put down the middle of it 
with a hollow bamboo stick. A quick twist of the paper 
makes the fuse ready for use. 
It is not easy to persuade the Chinese to exhibit their 
modes of manufacture to a foreigner; but Mr. Williams; 
Vice-Consul at Shanghai, thus describes the work as he 
has seen it: 
"The straw paper is first rolled by hand around an 
iron rod, which varies in size according to the size of 
cracker to be made. To complete the rolling, a rude 
machine is used. This consists of two uprights support- 
ing an axis, from which is suspended by two arms a 
heavy piece of wood, slirrhtly convex on the lower side. 
There is jttst room between this swinging block and the 
top of the table to place the cracker. As each layer of 
paper is put on by hand, the crackei is placed on the 
table and the suspended weight is drawn over the roll, 
thus tightening it until no more can be passed under the 
weight. For the smallest "whip" crackers, the workman 
uses for compression, instead of this machine, a heavy 
piece of wood, fitted with a handle like that of a carpen- 
ter's plane. In filling crackers, 200 to 300 are tied to- 
gether tightly in a bunch. Red clay is spread over the 
end of the bunch and forced into the end of each cracker 
with a punch. While the clay is being stamped in, a 
little water is sprayed on it, which makes it pack closer. 
The powder is poured in at the other end of the 
cracker. With the aid of an awl the edge of the paper 
is turned in at the upper end of the cracker, and the 
fuse is inserted through this." 
The long ends of the fuses are braided together in such 
a way that the crackers lie in two parallel rows. The 
braid is doubled on itself, and a large quick-firing fuse 
inserted, and the whole is bound with a fine thread. 
The bundle is wrapped in pap>er and in this shape sent to 
the seacoast. 
A variety of cracker I do not remember to have seen 
in the United States, but which is popular here, is the 
"twice-sounding." It has two chambers separated by a 
plug of clay, through which runs a connecting fuse. 
There is also a fuse extending from the powder in the 
lower chamber through the side of the cracker. When 
the cracker is to be fired it is set on end, and fire set to 
the fuse. The powder exploding in the chamber throws 
the cracker high in the air, where the second charge 
is exploded by fire from the fuse extending through the 
plug between the two chambers. In the manufacture 
of these the clay is first stamped in with a punch to form 
the separating plug. The lower chamber is then loaded 
with powder and closed by turning over the paper at 
the end. The upper chamber is loaded and closed with 
clay. A hole is punched in the side of the lower cham- 
ber with an awl, and the fuse inserted through this 
opening. 
At Canton the ordinary-size cracker (i^in. long by 
m diameter) costs 1 tael (62 cents) for 10,000 for 
export. At Hankow the best quality of this size costs 1 
tael for 5,000; while of the second quality 20,000 can be 
bought for 1 tael. At Chungking 15,000 of the ordinary 
crackers can be bought for 1 tael. At Shanghai 1 tael 
will purchase 5,000 of the ordinary size, while the largest 
sell for $5 per i ,000. These prices are probably only a 
shade above the actual cost of manufacture. The small 
manufacturers sell to Chinese compradores, who buy 
as agents of foreign firms and ship the crackers in 
bundles to the seacoast, where they are packed in 
boxes which cost about 4 taels ($2.50) per hundred, and 
hold 250,000 firecrackers. 
Aside from the fact that all the material used is na- 
tive and produced where the crackers are manufactured, 
and that transportation does not enter into the cost, the 
wonderful cheapness of manufacture is accounted for by 
the kind of labor used and the wages paid. The items of 
cost of plant and interest on it are eliminated by the 
fact that the crackers are made in the homes of the work- 
men and in the shops where they are sold. The hours 
of labor are from 6 A. M. to 11 P. M., and there are 
seven < working days in each week. Four-fifths of the 
crackers consumed in China are made by the families of 
those who sell them; these people, of course, receiving 
no wages. Of the paid work, a very large proportion is 
done by women and children, who are paid by the piece. 
It is estimated that thirty women and ten men can 
make 100.000 crackers per day; for which work the 
women will receive 5 cent's each and the men about 
7 cents each. An apprentice is bound for four 
years, and during that time receives only his board. At 
the end of that period he will receive, if he is a fairly 
good workman, 150 cash per day, or*7 cents in United 
States money. An expert at the trade receives 200 cash 
per day, or 10 cents gold. 
Workmen at this trade receive about the average rate 
of wages paid here for common labor. The trade is 
considered unhealthy and dangerous, and therefore not 
desirable. 
John Goodnow, Consul-General. 
Shanghai 
Old Clubfoot. 
Redlands, Cal., June 18. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I inclose you herewith a clipping from the Los Angeles 
Herald, describing the capture of the famous three- 
footed grizzly bear known to all southern California for 
years past, and while I cannot vouch for the statements 
made, I should not like to dispute any of them, as "Old 
Clubfoot" has an unsullied reputation for ferocity. 
Reeleoot. 
The story runs: The great, fat, powerful carcass of 
"Old Clubfoot," the famous grizzly known to all old 
California hunters and prospectors on this coast, arrived 
in Bakersfield on Thursday afternoon. She was killed 
last Monday on the' head of Cottonwood Creek, near 
the southern boundary of Kern county. It required a 
two-days' battle of three men with long-range Win- 
chesters to bring down the monster, besides the as- 
sistance of a number of clogs. These men had been hot 
on the trail of "Clubfoot" more than a week. Last 
Sunday morning two of them came in sight of her, and 
the battle opened at a distance of 600yds., and ranged 
from that down to a few yards. It was a most desperate 
and thrilling encounter. Finally the hunters' ammunition 
gave out. Late in the evening they called off their dogs 
and went to camp. Early next morning they returned, 
and with the aid of the dogs "Old Clubfoot" was again 
found. The hunters opened fire on her, and the battle 
raged all day before the monster gave up the ghost. 
She weighed i.ioolbs. She was Qj^ft. long, 3ft. across 
back, with head i8in. broad. The teeth of the animal 
were almost worn off, showing her great age. The 
plucky hunters were John A. Johnson, Jean Pool and 
James McKenzie, who say that "Clubfoot" has ranged 
the mountains of Kern, Santa Barbara and Ventura for 
the past thirty years. She has killed a number of men in 
battle, and a whole herd of cattle in her day. Eleven 
bullets were fired into her head and neck. Nearly a 
hundred shots were fired. 
Death of Armm Tenner. 
We regret to learn of the death of Armm Tenner, at 
his home in Berlin, on June 17, at the age of fifty-two. 
Mr. Tenner came to America in the sixties and served 
in the Federal army. He was a leading spirit in the 
establishment of the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, and 
in the enterprise of introducing European song birds into 
the United States. In 1873 he conducted an extensive 
series of tests of powder and shot. 
