July 23, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
■ 
68 
good, I sat resting from my arduous labors. It was 
half-hour before my first strike, and he was but a trifle 
more fish than the small one that had fooled the Gen- 
eral early in the morning. 
My next capture, some time later, was a. turtle of the 
hard shell denomination. He was heavy and vicious, 
and afforded me considerable sport until landed, and then 
if was a parallel case with the man that caught the bear — 
I wanted somebody to help me let him loose. He show- 
ed such an attachment for my hook that I finally cut it 
off my line and presented it to-him together with a few 
inches of snood. 
About two pipes after this episode I was recalled from 
the top of the mountain that towered above me — where 
in fancy I had climbed — by a splash in the water. A. 
goodly bass had struck at my minnow, which was swim- 
ming near the surface, and missed. Again he struck, and 
missed; and then I saw him attack as I had never before 
seen a bass do. He leaped entirely out of the water and 
came down on the minnow, and gcjt him. 
Bass leaping out of the water after fleeing minnows is 
usual, but to see one leap out of the water and come 
down on a stationary minnow was a novelty to me. 
A short time after this experience a horn, a small boy 
from the house, and my department of the interior united 
in an effort to convince me that it was dinner time in 
the "cove." 
Desiring to avoid the embarrassment of comparing 
two fish with my companion's fine string, I hid mine 
away in a cool place and repaired to the house, where 
I found my two companions with a magnificent long 
string containing three bass. We were trying to ac- 
count for our lack of success, when a rumble of thunder 
was heard over the western mountain, and then we knew 
that a thunderstorm was brewing, and the fish not feed- 
ing. Our hard luck had not impaired our appetites, and 
they live well in the cove. 
Twere better far to be able to eat such a dinner as 
Rex and the General ate that day, and feel no more ill 
effects from it than to be president of the Philippines. 
After dinner and a pipe of peace, during the smoking 
of which I argued the General out of his fixed and ex- 
pressed intention of throwing me into the river at 
the first opportunity, we called a council to consider our 
plans for the afternoon. A heavy shower had fallen, but 
the clouds were breaking away and the sultry heat of the 
morning had been tempered and cooled most delight- 
fully. 
We finally agreed on a campaign for the afternoon. 
Rex and the General were to fish down the river a 
mile or more to where the road crossed it, and I was to 
fish my favorite place, the creek mouth, for about an 
hour, and then drive down, pick them up, and all start 
for home. 
Starting me in to fish with the minnows on hand, my 
two companions, with a tall native, went up the creek 
to seine a fresh lot of minnows. In about a half-hour 
they worked their way back to me with a goodly lot of 
minnows, and a fine string of perch, bass and goggle- 
eye or rock bass. To. my surprised look of interrogation 
they proceeded to explain that Rex and the native had 
done the seining, while the General had fished on 
ahead in all the likely holes, catching the fine string of 
fish aforesaid. For an instant I was an arrant skeptic; 
but a look in the General's eyes as he quietly shifted them 
from me to a sizable chunk of water-soaked wood, ap- 
parently his favorite weapon, considerably nearer him 
than me, converted me. 
I did not then, and do not now, doubt the fact that 
the General caught more fish in one-half hour, with two 
men and a 20ft. seine splashing in the water within a 
few feet of him, than all three of us caught in a day 
of applying the most approved methods. 
I am willing to give my reasons for my faith; First, 
my friends are truthful men and readers of Forest and 
Stream. Second, it is against the law to seine fish in this 
State. 
Now this new method of. taking bass is not to be 
copyrighted, but, like the grand new scheme of our 
friend Hough, of the "Windy City" — who says lash and 
not lure your fish — is to be given to the readers of 
Forest and Stream. 
There was but one more incident in this eventless but 
enjoyable outing. Becoming interested in my earnest 
efforts to catch any of the few fish that had escaped the 
General's fatal rod and remarkable skill, T did not 
start down the road to utir agreed meeting point until 
the sun was dropping over the mountain and it was 
decidedly cool. 
The trysting place was not well known to me, and 
when I reached it came near driving by under the im- 
pression that some dew dippers had broached a keg of 
the "moonshine" brand, and were fighting furiously 
in a drunken orgy; but something familiar in the voices 
made me stop and hail the old mill on the bank of the 
river, from which the sounds proceeded. It was my 
friends, and they proceeded at once to give me to under- 
stand, in language more forcible than polite, that they 
had been shivering in their wet clothes for nearly two 
hours waiting for me to arrive with their grips contain- 
ing drv clothes. 
They had not had any success, and had hurried on 
down to the meeting place in hopes that I would be 
there; and had spent the time running up and down the 
old mill floor to keep up circulation. 
I was very much afraid that they would suffer some 
ill effects from their long exposure to the chill air in 
wet clothes, until I heard them express themselves free- 
ly, and then concluded that they were too hot to be 
hurt by a simple wetting. 
By packing up all their wet clothes and tackle, I fin- 
ally won them back into their usual amiability, and we 
pulled out for home. 
Looking back on the trip it seems singularly eventless, 
but nevertheless I had many narrow escapes. 
The General generously divided his new process 
caught fish with Rex and me, and we have agreed to go 
again as soon as he recovers from his cold and forgets 
his bad two hours in the mill. 
Lewis Hopkins, 
Two Hawks. 
While out in the woods one day along in February 
of '97 I observed two red-tailed hawks sitting in the 
trees, but keeping a respectful distance from my gun. 
Thinking there must be a nest near by, I proceeded to 
look the matter up with the result of locating it. 1 
made up my mind to visit it again late in the season, 
which I did about the 1st of May. 
The nest was situated in the very top of a beech about 
60ft. from the ground. Not having any climbers with 
me, I nailed cleats on the tree until I could reach the 
first branches, then, after considerable effort, reached 
the nest. It was a bulky affair, made entirely of small 
twigs about the size around of a lead pencil, with founda- 
tion of sticks 3ft. long and iin. in diameter. The top was 
perfectly flat, about 3ft. across. There must have been 
over a half wagonload altogether. In, or rather on, the 
nest I found two young fledgelings and one egg. There 
were also one freshly killed downy woodpecker, the hind 
leg of a rabbit and some bones and feathers. While 
I was pawing over the nest one of the adult birds came 
sailing around with vengeance in its eye; but I was saved 
from an attack by one of the boys sending a charge of 
shot after it, which caused the bird to turn about and 
go to its mate to figure out a plan of attack. I secured 
the birds and egg, and reached the ground with no fur- 
ther incident except that I was nearly "bushed," 
The birds w r ere curious little, creatures, perfectly white 
and covered with a down resembling a young lamb. 
They were not able yet to stand on their feet, and after a 
day readily took meat from the hand. I would cut up 
pieces of meat in small chunks and feed them so that 
their crops would fill out the size of a baseball. They 
grew rapidly, and in a few weeks were able to fly around 
some. I put them in a coop with a couple of crows, but 
one morning awoke to find one of the crows dead. The 
hawks hadn't eaten it, but simply killed. I suppose 
this was to stop the incessant cawing it was" wont to 
keep up early in the morning before being fed. After 
that I tethered them by their legs to a post in the yard, 
giving about 30ft. of rope to exercise with. One became 
Quite tame; the other always seemed to have a surly 
disposition, and did not like to be handled much. I 
taught the tame one to sit on my arm by giving it a 
piece of meat when it behaved well, so that it would 
sit there and allow me to carry it anywhere. I would 
let them loose at intervals for exercise, and after they 
alighted would catch them again. 
They never seemed to notice the chickens that were 
continually running about, but their chief delight was a 
bird or rat— rat especially. When eating a bird they 
would always take it in their claws anrt give one bite at 
the nape of the neck, whether dead or sufvfe, and crush 
its skull. They would pick most of the feathers off and 
begin under the wing to devour it by tearing off chunks 
and taking out the heart almost the first thing. After 
the forward half had vanished the remainder, including 
the legs, was swallowed whole. When a rat was given 
them, they always seemed to be ready for a fight, one 
grabbing one end, while the other would get a grip 
on the other end; and there would be a tug of war, both 
bristling up and squealing for all they were worth. A 
few hours after feeding they would eject a roll or ball 
from their crops, called a casting, which consisted of 
the indigestible parts of their foods, such as feathers, 
hair, bones, etc. 
One of them got loose one day, and while flying around 
was shot by a man, who mistook it for a wild hawk. 
During the winter I kept the mate in a barn, and once 
put a chicken in for it to eat; but it never bothered the 
fowl, both roosting on the same perch, until I killed 
the chicken and cut it up, and then it ate it all right. In 
the spring, having occasion to go elsewhere, I let the 
bird loose; it took a circle around town and alighted on 
a passing freight train, where it was soon lost to view. 
I suppose ere this it has met its fate by dropping down 
near some one's dooryard, not knowing the danger of 
undue familiarity with strangers and guns. It may be 
identified by a strap sewed on its leg with a ring in it foi 
tying it by. Rqbt. P. Stark. 
Michigan, July, 1S08. 
The Origin of Animal Instincts. 
For more than a score of years I have unresistingly 
suffered violence to some of my most cherished con- 
victions and theories concerning the habits and in- 
stincts of animals, and such kindred phenomena, by 
men who seemed to me old enough to know better, and 
with whom I would homologate, fraternize, go fishing 
and sit at their feet upon any other subject whatever. 
But even the worm will turn, when too persistently 
trodden upon selected spots, and that has at last hap- 
pened to me. Many a time, for instance, have I suffered 
in silence from the publication of stories about the in- 
tercommunication of animals which would make angels 
weep. But I never rebuked even the theory that dogs 
have a wig-wag alphabet with their tails, and spell out 
to each other all sorts of messages, as the Army Signal 
Corps do with their flags — perhaps with one vertical 
drop for the end of a word, two for a sentence, and 
three for interrogation. Nor have I ever remonstrated 
at the martyrdom of fatigue inflicted by Prof. Garner 
upon the whole population of the United States except 
the newspaper reporters. But now I have drawn the 
line, and I am going to defend the memory and the 
theory, as I understand it, of Darwin from a growing 
misconception— from a burglarious interjection of an 
idea into it which he never advanced; and which is so 
illogical, so in the face of facts, that it is enough to 
disturb his bones in the grave. Perhaps it will give the 
clearest idea of how this theory is being distorted and 
perverted if I first give the particular instance of its mis- 
application, which has, as it were, blown up the Maine of 
my endurance, and precipitated this disturbance of the 
peace. 
It occurs in the otherwise most amiable letter of de- 
lightful Fred Mather, in Forest and Stream of April 
Q, when he accounts by heredity. for the shyness of fish 
and game which have been much pursued. He says: 
"An old trout, often pricked, learns caution and trans- 
mits that quality to its progeny; the heedless young 
trout takes the first lure, and has no progeny to trans- 
mit its rashness to." Then, in reference to ducks, deer, 
etc., he says: "There is no instinct in it; it is reason 
pure and simple. The wounded that survived learned a 
lesson and transmitted it to their posterity." 
Now there stands exposed a theory, often supposed to 
be Darwin's, and which too at a casual glance seems 
most simple and plausible. But it will neither stand 
analysis nor a checking up against facts. First, as to its 
logic. The fish pricked with a hook rarely seems to 
mind it. He is usually ready to bite again in five min- 
utes. He has no clear conception of man and his 
works, or that he has escaped a great danger. It 
seems to me indeed at least as reasonable to sup- 
pose that his escape would tend to diminish his instinc- 
tive wariness', as that the slight prick would increase 
it. And for every wounded bird which survives and 
has further progeny there are hundreds unhurt to whom 
the explosion of the gun was, after all, only a harmless 
sound, and one which in certain circumstances they 
will easily come to disregard entirely. Birds and fish 
do not know what death is, nor do they figure out 
that missing ones are dead. The whole conception as- 
sumes for all animals reasoning powers which thou- 
sands of more conclusive phenomena show that they 
do not possess. 
But, even if they did, there is a still further logical 
difficulty. Is it plausible to suppose that the progeny 
of the small percentage pricked, wounded and surviving 
will overcome the progeny of all others, and even their 
own born, before. they received their injuries; and finally 
come to possess the territory? The danger from hooks 
or guns, it must be remembered, is not the only danger 
which thins their ranks. Jt is but one danger of many, 
and often comparatively speaking a very minor one! • 
Especially is this true of fish. Eternity hardly seems 
long enough for the infinite happening of chances to 
bring about that every living trout, or duck, should 
have in his family tree more and nearer ancestral blood 
