90 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
why it kills off a whole henroost or a flock of tame wood 
ducks in a night. 
The Swamp and Water Hares. 
To turn from the contemplation of a bloodthirsty mink 
to the timid and harmless hare is a pleasure. The fact 
that my countrymen call all hares "rabbits" does not de- 
ter me from telling them that if there are wild rabbits 
in America they have been brought here, for the true 
rabbit is gregarious, like the prairie dog, and lives in 
colonies, constructs burrows and brings forth its young 
blind and naked. Our little "cottontail" does not bur- 
row, but uses holes in the ground as its "form." Our 
American hares are like all hares, solitary. We have 
about five species, including the "jack rabbit" of the 
West, the "great northern hare," which is white in win- 
ter, our common "molly cotton" and two which live 
about the water and swim when they wish to swim. 
This explanation seems necessary when the hare is in- 
cluded among the "wild fishers I have fished with." 
When I first went fishing in the Southern States, I did 
not know of the existence of any more hares than the 
three enumerated above. One summer day I was lazily 
fishing a Louisiana bayou in company with a white- 
headed darky of most uncertain years, whom I knew 
only as "Uncle Eph." I love to fish with men of this 
kind, because they are natural, and therefore are interest- 
ing studies. They know how to catch fish, and are filled 
with practical knowledge, say 40 per cent., mixed with 
10 per cent, of tradition and 50 per cent, of superstition. 
Then, with only such a man for a companion, the party is 
complete. The addition of another white man would 
make the "Uncle" suspicious when he found that the two 
were enjoying if not guying him, and another colored 
man would make him jealous and taciturn. 
As I came around the bend I saw an aged colored 
man sitting in a dugout in the shade of several large 
gum trees, and he was fishing with a cane pole. As I 
paddled past in a. lighter dugout, he applied himself to 
baling out his craft with a tin cup, without a sign of 
being aware of the presence of a stranger. Here is a 
character worth cultivating, I thought, he has seen 
me, but does not care to have his privacy intruded upon. 
Just my man! 
"Good morning, Uncle, are the fish biting well to- 
day?" 
He dropped his cup, and touching what he regarded 
to be a hat, for he had been born a slave, replied: 
"Mawnin', sah. Dey doan bite too fas'," and then turned 
his attention to his one suspender and plainly intimated 
that the interview should close. I pulled in alongside 
him, and asked him if he would; he did, and we were 
friends. 
In answer to a question, he said: "Dey calls me Unc. 
Eph 'bout yah; fo' I was raised in Tangipahoa, an' 
since I'se been free I'se done lived by fishin', but I could 
do de same if I wasn't 'mancipated. I done seen yo' 
'bout de village, and I knows dey say yo' is a Yankee, 
but I do' know dat 'mancipation is good fo' de ole 
man, who is like de ole hoss w'at is tu'ned out to die. 
How yo' t'ink?" 
I had been busy in rigging up for fishing, and while I 
had heard what the old man said, did not reply, for I 
wanted to hear him talk. As the minnow was put on 
the hook, with the hook below the dorsal fin, and I 
was ready for a cast, an animal, which I thought to be a 
muskrat, swam past and I cast my hook over it. Why 
I did this is a problem that I can't answer to-day. I did 
not want a muskrat at that time. Its fur was not good, 
and better meat could be had. If the French saying is 
true, that an Englishman says: "It is a fine morning, 
let us go out and kill something," that must be the rea- 
son why I threw my hook over the back of that swim- 
ming animal and caught it in the back of the neck. It 
cried as I reeled it in, and when I saw that it was a hare 
the hook was taken out and the little animal swam 
across to the other side. 
"Uncle Eph," said I, "how do you suppose that rab- 
bit got in the water?" 
"W'y, sah, he jess walk in w'en he wants fo' to swim. 
Did vo' nebba see a rabbit swim befo'?" 
"Never did. The rabbits don't swim where I came 
from. I've seen them on the snow over frozen swamps 
gnawing willow bark and other things, and have seen 
them on swampy ground in summer, but never heard of 
one going into the water, they must be a different kind 
down here." 
"Yas sah, I 'spects dey is. We got two kinds 'bout 
yah, one he got a slim head an' a white tail, an' de odder 
he got broader head an' no w'ite awn he's tail. De w'ite 
tail one we calls watah rabbit, and w'at yo' cotch was 
swamp rabbit, he got no w'ite awn hees tail." 
I had often learned a little about birds, beasts and 
fishes from just such men and had also learned that 
they were often mistaken in some things, but my rabbit 
was not gray, nor was it white below like the familiar 
"cottontail" of boyhood, and there was a chance that the 
old man was right and that the yellowish brown animal 
which I hooked was a different species. While fishing 
afterward I saw several hares swimming and knew 
that they had not tumbled in accidentally. Study of this 
family in books, years later, shows that "Uncle Eph" was 
correct; the "marsh hare" (L. pnlustris) has no white on 
belly nor tail, and its skull is half as wide as long, while 
the "water hare" (L. aquaticus) has a white tail and a 
narrower skull. Both species are colored a yellow- 
brown. 
To carelessly throw a hook over what was thought to 
be a muskrat and to pull a crying rabbit out of the 
water was not only a new experience, but it led up to 
an inquiry which developed the fact, new to me, that we 
have two species of swimming hares in America. 
The Dragon-Fly and its Larva. 
Uncle Eph. had not spoken for some time; we had 
each been busy with our though Is and our fishing since 
the rabbit episode. He coughed, probably to attract at- 
tention, and said: "Look a' dat ole snake feedah a- 
crawlin' up dat grass, he gwine bus' out an' fly 'way 
soon." I turned and there on a stem of some water 
plant was the, pupa of what is popularly known as 
dragon-fly,, devil's darning-needle, demoiselle, snake- 
feeder and mosquito-hawk, I was familiar with this in- 
.d- - ~ 
teresting insect in its different stages, had seen thousands 
of empty pupa cases clinging to aquatic plants above 
water, but had never seen the. insect in the act of casting 
the pupa case. Here was a chance. 
The pupa was slowly crawling, and Uncle Eph. having 
fixed my attention, ostentatiously rinsed- his tin cup and 
dipped up some of the warm water to drink. The scheme 
worked, and while' he knew nothing of microbes, disease 
germs and such unwholesome things, he knew in his 
simple way that swamp river water was not considered 
wholesome by most white men, and then when they were 
forced to drink it they added some germ-killer to it. 
When he resumed conversation he was more fluent and 
said: "Now dat ah t'ing he got mighty tired a-clim'in' 
outen de watah, an' he stop fo' to get hees breff. He's 
been a-crawlin' roun' de bottom awn his six laigs fo' two 
yeahs, an' now he gwine fly. See how he stretches an' 
tries to bu'st. Dah, now! Hees back split open an' 
now hees shiny head an' big eyes come out an lo«k 
'roun'; now he drags hees laigs out fum de skin an' 
crawls out, an' dah he shakes out hees wings an' dries 'em 
an' den he crawls up and drags out hees long body, long- 
er dan what he was befo', dat w'at puzzles me, wha he 
keep all dat long body and dem wings in da little shuck 
wat he lef on de grass?" 
This was something I could not answer, and after 
watching it emerge from the pupa to the perfect or 
imago state, I watched this insect take wing and dart 
about our boats after insects. Its appetite seems to be 
insatiable. I have transfixed one with a pin through 
the thorax and then fed house-flies to it until I was tired. 
It would be a big contract for an able-bodied man with 
nets, or other machinery, to feed one able-bodied dragon- 
fly. I never saw such an appetite attached to any animal. 
It feeds ravenously as a larva, after hatching from the 
egg, when it breathes through its tail, like the larva of 
a mosquito, but has a formidable extension of its nip- 
pers which has two joints, the first at the extreme under 
side of the head, bending back, and the second under 
the thorax. This apparatus terminates in a pair of sharp 
pincers, and can be thrown out to seize a fish fully 
Y^'m. distant. Once 1 put a larva of this insect in a bowl 
with five young gold fish about iin. long, and in an 
hour it had devoured the last one. It feeds in the pupa 
state, a thing which few insects do. 
"Why do you call that insect a snake feeder, Uncle 
Eph.?" 
" 'Cause he got a bargain wid.de snake not to eat him 
if he bring de snake big fat bugs. Now a snake like some 
o' dese bugs dats got big. hard, shiny scales on top dey 
wings, an' de snake can't cotch 'nuff, so he bargain wid 
de snake feeder to bring him fat bugs, an' de snake spare 
hees life. W'at yo' call 'em wha you live?" 
"Most people call 'em dragon-flies, but the boys call 
'em the devil's darning-needle, and believe that they will 
sew a boy's ears *p." 
"Yah, hah! Dattah's funny, fo' a fac'; sow up dey 
years! He ain' got no needle and no string, but w'en he's 
a wum in de water crawlin' awn legs he's got sho' nuff 
pinchers, an' he pinch a little fish o' a frog, he will; I 
see 'em do it." I was much pleased with this keen 
observer, but pushed off when he began looking for 
bus cup again. 
Tortoises and Turtles. 
In America we popularly call them all "turtles," and 
the distinction of "tortoise" for the land and fresh-water 
kinds is almost unknown, while the principal exception 
is that delicate box of gelatinous meat, the diamond- 
back terrapin of the salt-water marshes. I never knew 
the box tortoise to eat fish, and I have had them in 
captivity for years; they seemed fond of fruits, melons 
and tomatoes. 
All the pond and river turtles are great fish eaters. 
They will float up quietly under a fish and make a grab 
for it. Some years ago I was using a live minnow for 
black bass, on Long Island, when I saw a great snapping 
turtle take the minnow and go below. A few pulls show- 
ed that a trout rod would never stir a 3olb. turtle from' 
the mud and weeds, and I kept weaving the rod from 
side to side in order to cut the snell on the reptile's jaw 
in order not to lose the entire leader. The game work- 
ed, and a hook was the only loss. I have taken these 
brutes on night lines set for eels, but there were hooks 
selected for that work, and no gut snells. 
The large, soft-shelled turtles of the Great Lake re- 
gion and the South are also savage fellows. A young 
man who was fishing near me in the Pamunky River, and 
using strong tackle, pulled in one of these critters and 
held it up to show me. Soon he yelled for help, and I 
rowed over to him and found the turtle fast to his shoe 
and biting his foot. He was in too much agony to 
help himself, and I did not know what to do. The first 
impulse was to seize the long neck and shut off the 
turtle's wind; as I did this I realized that it could do 
without breathing for an hour or two, and all the while 
the man was in agony with the cruel beak forcing it- 
self throu.j- the thin upper of his shoe and into his 
foot. On i seat, beyond him lay one of those strong 
dirk knive. 'hich are sold to would-be sportsmen as 
"hunting k <?s." Fortunately it was sharp as well as 
strong, and e way I vivisected the lower jaw out of 
that turtle 1 'c all my strength, and would have won 
applause frc the cruelty society. The young man 
fainted at th. finish, but a little water and fanning 
brought him around. When his shoe was removed there 
was much blood in it, and on taking off his stocking I 
found that the little toe was nearly severed, and the next 
one was injured, I bound^up his foot in his handkerchief 
and towed his boat to White House landing, where he 
had friends. He lost one toe, however. He said that 
the turtle had swallowed the hook, and he had cut the 
line to let him have it, when the turtle began running 
around to escape, and he kicked at it. "Well," said I, 
"you keep that hunting knife as a reminder, not only 
of the loss of your toe, but as the first instance known 
where such a knife was found to be useful." 
Passing from turtles, which are truly, dangerous, down 
to the little "skillypots" which sun themselves on logs is 
like descending from tiger hunting to shooting rabbits. 
The turtles before mentioned never sun themselves on 
logs. They may float on the water a few minutes when 
they come up . for air, but they remain in the water 
at all times, except when eggs are to be laid on land 
for the sun to hatch. Here is a grand division not 
noticed in the books. From the big "sliders" of the' 
South to the painted and spotted pond turtles of the 
North, they are all fish eaters. 
Last September I fished Lake Hopatcong, N. J., with 
Capt. W. A. Clark and Charles W. Romaine. both of 
Newark, N. J. Black bass was the objective, but inci- 
dentally Romaine hooked a "painted tortoise" of about 
6in., nearly the limit of their growth. When you know 
that Clark chewed hardtack and "beef dried on the hoof" 
with me in the long ago, and that our friend is just "of 
age" and not familiar with reptiles, you will under- 
stand how it was when he had a fierce bite and reeled in 
when he could. The line was under the boat, but the 
landing net was ready, and I landed the little turtle in 
the boat. This was a new problem to Charley; he could 
unhook a fish, but a fish had no such jaws of hard bone 
that might take a fellow's finger off. 
The turtle was seeking a way to escape, and Charley 
was holding a stiff rod on it. "What shall I do?" he 
asked. 
"Stick your finger down his throat and tickle his gullet 
and he will throw up the hook," said Clark. 
Charley looked at me in despair and said: "I don't; 
want that thing, and I don't want to lose my tackle; Avhat 
shall I do?" 
There had been fun enough, so I took the turtle in my 
left hand, pried its jaws open with a pocket knife, un- 
hooked the little fellow and tossed it overboard. As it 
peddled down into the weeds unhurt, there was a streak 
of bubbles behind it, which seemed to be a sort of jubila- 
tion at its escape. Charley drew a long breath, but made 
no remark. _ "Charley," said I, "you see a special provi- 
dence in this; you did not understand the management! 
of turtles, and Capt. Clark, having left one arm at Cold; 
Harbor, Va., could not have done it, but you asked me 
to join you, and there you are. Charley, my boy, re- 
member this day, and always invite me when you go 
a-fishing." 
Water Snakes. 
Few sportsmen know more about snakes than to have 
about half a dozen names to cover them all, yet few 
men see more snakes than the men who fish and shoot, 
yet Jordan, Manual of the Vertebrates, gives us twenty- 
four genera and fifty-three species in the northern Unit- 
ed States. Of these there are four which haunt marshy 
places and feed mainly on fish and frogs, although none 
of them would neglect a bird if it offered, whether the 
bird was nesting on the ground or feeding. And the 
other species may also take fish for all I know, while it 
is sure that none of them would decline a frog. 
These four piscivorous serpents have come frequently 
under my notice at times when I have been fishing alone 
from a boat or a log as a "contemplative angler." That 
is the way to see not only snakes, but other life, and I 
have fished with the four fish eaters and have seen them 
fish. I do not kill all snakes; in fact, I love to pet the 
"puff-adder" or "hog-nosed viper," for it is kind and 
likes petting; it is not poisonous, as the majority say it 
is, but it flattens its head and threatens, then I pick it up 
and we are friends. But the "four," the "big four," and 
we might add, "the dirty four," I kill them on sight. 
Two of them are as poisonous as the rattlesnake, and the 
others are vile beasts. 
The common water snake of the North (Tropidonotus 
sipedoii) grows to a length of 4ft. It is of a dirty brown 
color, with darker squares. It ranges from Maine fo 
Texas, and is found along the streams, a cross, dis- 
agreeable reptile. From 1868 to 1876 I had trout ponds 
at Honeoye Falls, Monroe county, N. Y., and this snake 
was a pest. The soil was a stiff clay, and a crawfish hole 
would never cave in, but made a good place for Tropi- 
donotus sipedon to hide in. On approaching the ponds in 
summer there would be many of these snakes seen to 
dodge into the water and hide under the overhanging 
grass. It was fun to see lady visitors screech when I 
threw off my coat and plunged the left arm under the 
bank, bringing out the angry beast, which, if not taken 
too near the neck, vented its wrath in sinking its teeth 
into my hand. But it was only like a brier scratch; not 
half as severe afterward as the prick from the spine of a 
catfish, but when my good right hand took the reptile 
by the head and twisted it from its body, some people 
thought it cruel. To me it was "cruel to see a snake 
take a trout, especially one that I had raised. Yet that 
snake filled its place in nature; the main trouble is that 
man writes up all these things from his point of view, just 
as I am doing. 
The other non-poisonous water snake which I know, 
although others are recorded, is the Southern one, T. 
fasciatus, which has dark vertical bands on its sides, and 
has a reddi'sh-brown belly. This snake is seldom found 
north of Georgia. I knew it quite well, having looked 
it over for poison fangs and found it to be harmless, so 
when a lady from Ponchitoula landed one and was about 
to spring out of the boat, I called to her to swing it over 
to me. She did so, and I was tempted to bite the animal's 
head off, just for bravado, but merely unhooked it and 
killed it with my heel. 
The Northern sportsman should remember this: 
Our North American poisonous serpents have triangular 
heads and also have a deep pit between the eye and the 
nostril, like a second nostril. The snake known as a cop- 
perhead in the North and cottonmouth in the South 
(Ancistrodon contortrix) has the top of its head a coppery- 
red, and a lot of V-shaped blotches on its back. If I 
am not mistaken, it is called "pilot" and "rattlesnake's 
mate" in Pennsylvania. It is very poisonous, but is not 
as common as it was. While fishing for black bass in 
the Delaware River, one crawled out of the water with a 
perch in its mouth so near me that I killed it with a 
stone. ' 
From Illinois south dwells the water moccasin (A. 
piscivorns), said by Jordan to be the most dangerous of 
our snakes. I have seen them hanging on bushes over 
the water ready for fish or frog, and have killed several - 
that had fish in them. When fishing in Southern waters 
I keep a good lookout for these animals, which give, no 
warning rattle, but carry small doses of sudden death 
ready to be injected into the leg of a peaceful angler, 
[TO ?E CQjmjJT/ED.] 
