44 
FOREST ANt) STREAM. 
t July, 16, 1898. 
the bird, discovering that no notice has been taken of 
him, quietly arises and stalks off like a pouting child. 
He is inordinately fond of playing with the dog, who 
leaps and bounds about the bird, the pair going through 
all sorts of gymnastics. The pony too receives his full 
share of attention, and as he browses in the lot the bird 
walks close by his side, with head erect, taking a step 
as the horse takes one. 
The intelligence of the inferior creatures ought to 
make man adored by them, if he would but show that 
sympathy that is due to the animal. They ask peace 
of us, and are all in need of our protection and 
gentleness. The shy and wary crane under kind treat- 
ment develops a trustfulness and love for human soci- 
ety, and the human heart necessarily recedes a special 
blessing in the reflex influence. 
TBe sandhill crane is the most imposing and pictur- 
esque of all Florida birds. He will measure across the 
expanded wings 6ft., and while flying with neck and 'legs 
extended attracts the eye at a great distance. A few 
years ago it was no uncommon sight to see a large flock 
in numerous districts of Florida, and their loud trumpet- 
tike cry could be heard for miles; but the march of civ- 
ilization has made sad havoc with them, and it is only 
occasionally one is seen now. 
The crane makes her nest on a little knoll, among 
marsh lilies and tall grasses. She lays but two eggs, and 
af the end of four weeks the most cunning yellow-legged 
birds appear. As soon as they are out of the shell they 
are able to run, and from this time until they are old 
enough to take care of themselves both parents are kept 
busy supplying them with food. The male bird takes one 
under his protection, while the mother takes the other, 
and thus from morning until night they wander over the 
prairie, continually digging for bugs, worms and tender 
roots. When full grown the crane has changed from a 
yellow, downy bird to a most exquisite steel-gray color, 
his yellow legs and beak have turned to a black, his soft, 
dove-like eye has become keen and piercing, and his 
head is surmounted with a brilliant red crest. 
In its wild state the crane is a most wary bird, and 
makes an excellent picket for the timid deer When 
the deer, feeding on the plains, hears the warning note 
of the crane, he knows some enemy is near, and bounds 
away into safe retreat. The crane selects his roosting 
place far from bushes, rocks or other spots which might 
serve to conceal an enemy. Such a careful watch do 
they keep during the night that it would be difficult for 
any one to approach without being discovered. In cap- 
tivity he follows the same instincts, sleeping on one 
fobt; v with his head under his wing, and yet 
detecting the most delicate sound. He is noisy oh 
the wing, continually uttering that loud, clangorous and 
penetrating sound. The peculiar voice is caused by the 
windpipe undergoing several convolutions before reach- 
ing' the lungs; it also enlarges to a great chamber within 
the breast bone, which serves as a sounding board. 
In a wild state the bird feeds on bugs, wormg and 
tender roots, but under the influence of civilization he 
soon learns to eat anything that would be fed to the 
chickens, and feeds with them as complacently as if 
he were one of them. He is aesthetic, however, and what 
he eats must be clean. Bits of meat and bread he carries 
to the water, where he washes them off before eating. 
The parents are devoted to their young, and should 
a dog come upon them he is in danger, for they stand 
guard with their long bills and wound at every blow- 
always striking for the eye. It is said that even the 
wildcat leaves them in peace. 
Last summer a prominent New York banker came 
to Florida to hunt "big game." The first day he was 
out he shot a sandhill crane, only wounding it in the 
wing. It came at him with all the fury of a tigress, 
jumped on him and stamped and prodded until driven 
off by "the guide. The New Yorker refused to hunt "big 
game" after, saying, "If your beasts are as dangerous 
as your birds, I want none of them." 
MinNie Moore-Willson. 
TCissimmee, Florida. • - . . fl 
Honey Dew. 
""TgE sticky substance found on some leaves is a secre- 
tion from the aphis, an insect often destructive to various 
species of vines. The aphis is called by Linnams "the 
ant's cow," almost all species of ants, habitually domesti- 
cating and defending' them in return for their honey. 
Sir John Lubbock's book, "Bees, Ants and Wasps," 
contains a most interesting description of the friendly 
relations between the ants and aphides. The whole book- 
is one that anv sportsman-naturalist would enjoy. 
- If one notices on a plank sidewalk under elm trees, 
spots apparently dry during a light shower of rain, it is 
quite probable that the trees will be found to be infested 
by, aphides, the dry looking spots being caused : by the 
honey dew dropping from the insects above, and protect- 
ing the' wood from moisture for a short time. 
That honey dew should be poisonous to animals, as 
reported by Mr. Kennedy, is news indeed. Can't we 
hear more on the subject? • Jos. S. Walton. 
The product of the aphides is one form of honey 
dew; another is a vegetable exudation from the leaves. 
We extract from Sir John Lubbock's work on "Ants, 
Bees and Wasps" thesepafagraphs relative to the aphides 
and honey dew: ' 4 
"The food of ants consists of insects, great numbers 01 
which they destroy; of honey, honey dew and fruit; indeed 
scarcely any animal or sweet substance comes amiss to 
them. Some species, such, for instance, as the small 
brown garden ant, ascend bushes in search of aphides. 
The ant then taps the aphis gently with her antennae, and 
the aphis emits a drop of sweet fluid, which the ant 
drinks. Sometimes the . ants even build covered ways up 
to and over the aphides, which, moreover, they protect 
from the attacks of other insects. 
It has long been known that ants derive a very ifrn 
portant part of their sustenance from the sweet juice ex- 
creted by aphides. These insects in fact, as has been 
over and over again observed, are the cows of the ants.< 
The different species of ants utilize different species 
of aphis. The common brown garden ant devotes itseli 
principally to aphides, which freaueht twigs and leaves; 
Casius brunneus to the aphides which live on the bark 
- 
of trees, while the little yellow ant keeps flocks and 
herds of the root-feeding aphides. 
The ants may be said almost literally to milk the 
aphides; for, as Darwin and others have shown, the 
aphides generally retain the secretion until the ants are 
ready to receive it. The ants stroke and caress the 
aphides with their antennae and the aphides then emit 
the sweet secretion. 
As the honey of the aphides is more or less sticky, 
it is probably an advantage to the aphis that it should 
be removed. Nor is this the only service which ants 
render to them. They protect them from the attacks 
of enemies, and not infrequently even build cow sheds 
of earth over them. The yellow ants collect the root- 
feeding species in their nests, and tend them as carefully 
as their own young. But this is not all. The ants not 
only guard the mature aphides, which are useful, but 
also the eggs of the aphides, which of course until they 
■corne to maturity are quite useless. Our ants may not 
perhaps lay up food for the winter, but they do more, 
for they keep during six months the eggs which 
will enable them to procure food during the following 
summer, a case of prudence unexampled in the animal 
kindom. 
The nests of -our common yellow ant contain in abun- 
dance four or five species of aphis, more than one of 
which appears to be as yet undescribed. In addition, 
however, to the insects belonging to this family, there 
are a large number of others which live habitually in 
ants' nests, so that we may truly say that our English 
ants possess a much greater variety of domestic animals 
than we do ourselves. Markel satisfied himself that 
large nests of Formica rufa might contain at least a 
thousand of such guests, and I believe that the aphides 
in a large nest of Lasius flavus would often be even 
more numerous. Andre gives a list of no less than 584 
species of insects which are habitually found in asso- 
ciation with ants, and of which 542 are beetles. 
mid (Bun. 
Maine Guides and Moose. 
At the annual excursion of the Maine Sportsmen's 
Fish and Game Association at Kineo, last Tuesday, Com- 
missioner L. T. Carleton delivered an address, in part as 
f ollows : k 
The Guide Registry Law. 
In the various places where guides meet, such as 
Kineo, Greenville, Rangeley, Ashland, Jackman, Strat- 
ton, Dead River and hundreds of other places, there is 
always a great comparing of notes of the many things 
said and done, of the supply of fish and game, of the 
game laws, and desired or proposed changes. 
Two things have been discussed probably more than all 
others during the last year and a half, to wit, the law 
requiring guides to be registered, and the change that 
was made in the moose law at the last session of the 
Legislature. 
I shall take but little of your time to discuss the guide's 
registration law. A year and a half's trial has conclu- 
sively demonstrated its wisdom and its usefulness; it has 
most certainly come to stay, crude it is in some' respects 
and needs, and will receive wise amendments; but 
nevertheless- it-is the rock, the sure foundation upon 
which we must build for fish and game protection in 
this State. 
If we are to have protection in fact and not im theory 
only, if we are to have the laws enforced which we 
ourselves have made, as we all admit the laws of the 
land should be enforced, it must come through this 
channel. 
If the Legislature of this State is to make in the future 
large appropriations for fish and game, it will be be- 
cause of the fact largely that the guides are registered 
and are in fact protectors of the fish and the game; 
repeal this law and you might as well stop taxing our 
people for fish and game interests — repeal this law and 
the big game of Maine is doomed to speedy extinction; 
because, if the guides of Maine are not willing to have 
themselves known, are not willing to have their post- 
office addresses known to the. State officials, are not 
willing to make a report annually to the State of facts 
coming within their knowledge and of general interest 
and importance, and to aid in enforcing the game laws 
of the State, then in that event we may as well stop tax- 
ing our people, stop appropriating money for fish and 
game laws and give every man an equal chance to take 
the fish and the game while it lasts, and it would last 
under these, conditions but a mighty little while. 
And so it seems to me that the sooner the guides of 
Maine as a body realize this the better it will be for all 
concerned. 
Instead of putting forth efforts to destroy this law 
in my judgment you should unite to help make it bet- 
ter. We welcome your assistance and your suggestions, 
and they will always receive all due consideration. 
The registered guide will in the future come more and 
more into prominence as an important personage. 
Theirs is a great field of usefulness; under their in- 
fluence and example and effort vast good or vast harm 
may be done. 
While at Rangeley this spring on a brief trip, I ob- 
served that the "fish hog" is no longer considered a 
desirable personage; his room is considered more de- 
sirable than his company, though he may be clad in fine 
broadcloth and possess a long purse — and in many in- 
stances the fish caught were returned to the waters, the 
excitement of catching them being deemed sufficient. 
No more should the "game hog" have any standing 
among true sportsmen. Here the hand of the guide can 
be made powerful. 
I am no prophet, but I venture the prediction that the 
time is not far distant when all of the fish and game laws 
will be administered through the instrumentality of the 
first-class, registered guides. 
Something is being said nowadays not only about re- 
gistering guides, but also about registering or licensing 
hunters and fishermen. What the future will bring forth 
in this direction I cannot tell. The only proposition in 
this direction that I know of that is likely to get before 
the law making power in the near future, is this, to allow 
sportsmen who have lawfully killed game or fish to 
transport it to their homes without accompanying it 
by paying a small fee — not compel them to do this, but 
give them this privilege if they wish to avail themselves 
of it. 
I venture the prediction that not a great while will 
elapse before legislation will be demanded by guides 
and all true sportsmen to remedy a state of affairs that 
now exists, and is disclosed in the following extracts 
from letters received from guides and wardens recentl} r . 
This is a fair sample of many received: 
"Dear Sir: At Lake, June 18, there was a party 
of three Boston gentlemen — came without guides. When 
near my camp fired seven shots at a deer. I quickly 
went to see if the deer was killed, but they said he went 
away all right, and said to me, 'I suppose you don't go 
hungry for deer meat,' I told them it was too bad to 
shoot an old doe and leave the fawn to starve, and that 
the deer was not fit to eat this time of year. They 
thought everybody shot everything they saw. Now 
what are guides going to do, pay a license fee and let 
students shoot all the game in close season and trappers 
using deer and moose for bear bait?" 
You notice this guide asks: "What are guides going 
to do under such circumstances?" I answer, report them 
to me, with their names, and the wardens will do the 
rest. 
I will tell you what I would do if I had the power, 
I would make every man who goes into the game region 
in close time, at least, with a Winchester rifle for a 
fish pole, hire a registered guide and take him along 
with him, and I would have the registered guide see to 
it that no game was slaughtered. 
The game of Maine is too valuable, in my judgment, to 
allow indiscriminate roaming among our forests in. close 
time, and in open time they should either hire a re- 
gistered guide or pay a gun tax to shoot game. 
Game and Crops. 
Another question we have got to meet, and we should 
meet it fairly, equitably and in a spirit of fairness and 
candor, and do exact justice. The farmer whose crops 
are injured or destroyed by game must be fully remuner- 
ated, and legislation must be had to this end. It is a fact 
that deer do, in certain instances, damage crops, and the 
commissioners invite the co-operation of anybody who 
will aid in bringing about a just law to this end, and 
the commissioners sa.y to all farmers of Maine who are 
thus injured, "Let your injury be known to us, and aid us 
in bringing about just legislation in your interests." 
The Moose Season. 
Now briefly I wish to allude to the change in the 
moose law at the last session of the Legislature, making 
open time from Oct. 15 to Dec. 1 on these animals. 
It is said that confession is good for the soul. I 
was the author of this law, and urged its passage with all 
the vigor I was capable of, and it was about to be made a 
law, when at the very last days of the session, at the re- 
quest of the attorney of the Guides' Association at Green- 
ville, who said "there would be no kicking over the guide 
law — provided the open time on moose was left from 
Oct. 1 to Dec. 1." 
My associates and myself, and others interested in the 
matter, in consequence of this, consented that the moose 
law should so remain — open time from Oct. 1 to Dec. 
1 — and Brother Hudson made the desired change by hav- 
ing an amendment to this effect introduced, which was 
adopted; but by an error of a clerk the last day of the ses- 
sion, an error for which I and my associates, or any 
member of this association, were not in any way respon- 
sible, the moose law was after all changed. 
This practical question now faces us in view of the ap- 
proaching session of the Legislature. Do you want to 
go back to the old law — is it wise so to do? Why is the 
first half of October desired as a hunting season for 
moose? Principally, I think, for moose calling. 
A prominent sportsman thus describes moose hunting 
as it was before this change: 
"In the latter days of September and the early weeks 
of October the moose is mating." (Before the change in 
the moose law.) "Then it was that the woods of Maine 
were traversed by thousands of sportsmen with their 
guides, all in search of one thing, a chance to kill a 
bull moose. Now the female moose in one particular is 
very like some other female of the animal kingdom ; she 
is coy and capricious, leading her lover a merry dance 
'o'er moss and fell,' through bog and swamp, along the 
margins of lakes, and ponds and lagoons. At night she 
comes down to the water to feed on the roots and tops 
of the lily pads which grow so abundantly in sluggish 
waters. 
"If her mate be her escort he usually stands on the 
bank eyeing his spouse tenderly as she feeds, and with 
ears cocked ever ready to protect her from all danger 
real or fancied. 
"If the bull moose has no cow of his own, but is mere- 
ly ranging and scouring the country to find a mate, then 
is the time he falls into the moose caller's trap, and a 
very sure one." 
My -guide and I are paddling — (the guide alone pad- 
dling) in a big bog. We hear a branch break, we stop- 
ped and listened. A deer, we both thought as another 
and another branch broke. Then came the sound of 
heavy footfalls and we knew a moose "was coming to 
the water." We listened intently, so intently that I could 
hear the ticking of my watch, though it was buried under 
a sweater, a coat, and an overcoat, nay more, I heard, 
perhaps it may have been fancy, the stretching of my 
elastic suspenders as I breathed. Soon we distinguished 
through the dark of the moonless night a great object, 
big as a hippopotamus, move down the bank and step 
into the water. 
The guide pushed the canoe up deftly and silently. It 
was so dark I could not see whether the big object had 
horns or not, but the guide settled that problem with 
"be quick; that's him on the bank— now down him." I 
raised my rifle and downed him and had a i,ooolb. 
moose dead in the water. A nice head and a few steaks 
was all I got. 
Now have I not fairly described the hunting of moose 
up to Oct. 15, when it used to be lawful to do so, as it 
was mostly done? 
