Sept. 3, 1898.'] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
183 
peccary. The next day luck was with us. No man ever 
need starve in Costa Rica so long as he owns a gun and 
"keeps his powder dry." Buckshot is the best thing to 
use in hunting peccaries, because one is not apt to get 
many open shots, the underbrush being so dense in must 
parts of the forest. Both Mr. B. and the German used 
shotguns, but I preferred to take my .44 Winchester. 
We left camp at 6, and after going some little distance 
in the forest struck a rubber cutter's trail— a narrow path, 
which, if we had not had experienced guides, we would 
have lost a dozen times in every mile. However, it was 
better than cutting our way through the bush. The 
forest was alive with bird life, gorgeous butterflies flit- 
ted here and there, monkeys scolded us from the tops 
of high trees, and flocks of paroquets flew away, fright- 
ened at our approach, and once Juan stopped us to 
point out a superb cluster of yellow orchids some 20ft. 
from the ground. Now and then the most delicious 
perfume would be wafted from some tree in blossom, 
and we saw an immense variety of hummingbirds. It 
seemed almost like twilight in some parts of the forest, 
the branches of the trees were so closely interlocked. 
Even at midday it is always cool in these wonderful 
tropical woods. At least they appeared wonderfully 
beautiful to me, coming from a northern climate. It 
was the first week in February, and was like a midsum- 
mer day at home. 
Frederick S. -Lyman, 
[to be concluded.] 
In the Shasta Wilderness. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I take up my pen (that is, I have just dug it up out 
of a tin box full of pins, needles, tacks, nails, fishhooks 
and smoking tobacco) to impart to you a few things 
such as go to make up a system of communication 
used by animals of the highest order — according to our 
own classification. To give you "more matter with 
less art," I desire to say, in brief, that which fol- 
lows : 
Few things that appear in Forest and Stream escape 
congestion, sooner or later, as I find time to mix them 
Up with the brain food in my warehouse. As I glance 
over that sentence it doesn't seem to me to resemble 
anything reputable — but let it go. The world is full 
of trite phrases, and I am as nearly independent as 
mortal man may be. 
With me it is on the stroke of 12 P. M., at my hermit- 
age in the Shasta Mountains, and there is not a do- 
mesticated or civilized soul within miles of me, except 
two cats and a dog. We four, I am prone to believe, 
have souls and are civilized. Both cats and the dog 
are either asleep or "making believe." but they are 
curled up together on a deerskin mat. They never 
interrupt me at my midnight lamp. ' When I read or 
write they seem to signify each to each, "He's got- 'em 
again — let us go to sleep," and they go. 
But, to centralize my volley of words, permit me to 
say that my latest Forest and Stream contains a brief 
article that is the inspiration of these sentences. Some 
two years ago I wrote you a truthful account entitled 
"Bees," and after this long time along comes the 
breezy acknowledgment, from away down in St. Au- 
gustine, that my little story amused both Mrs. and Mr. 
Didymus very much. They rate my sketch very highly, 
and if it were anything more than a truthful relation of 
matters of fact I would begin to feel of some conse- 
quence. 
Those same bees and their descendants have been 
niaking a great deal of trouble and some honey for me 
since I brought them into my arena from the further 
woods. They have multiplied, as bees seem to have a 
way of doing, and I now have four colonies, while as 
many more have escaped into tall timber. I think I 
had about 20,000 to begin with, and I now have about 
72,000, and six or eight that never hold still to be 
counted; besides about 54,000 swarmed, leaving for parts 
unknown, when I. had my hands in the dough, from 
which I compile some bread, now and then, when the 
moon is right. At other times I utilize whatever re- 
sults to ballast my fowls and other confiding, but not 
overly fastidious, dumb dependents with. 
As to this utilization of a compound that never ma- 
tures more than once in the same style, I experience 
some anxiety. My cats always did prefer other things 
to eat; my dog after a while began to evade it when- 
ever he had any reasonable expectation of anything 
else during the next few days; when he felt a strong 
combination of the desire for something to eat and the 
realization that there was no quail on toast, he usually 
accepted my surplus pastry, and carried it off. I as- 
certained that he buried it, but if he ever dug it up 
again he did it privately, probably in the night. At 
present the fowls get double rations, as it were, but 
they are beginning to evince more indifference than 
hilarity. This is probably because they can't get over 
the garden fence after tampering with my liberality. 
As I was about to say, however, some of the bees 
swarmed when I was involved with the dough, or other- 
wise indisposed, and they have doubtless established an 
independent government somewhere in these moun- 
tains. The colonies I have seem to be thriving and are 
industrious, in both of which they are not particularly 
• consistent with my form of government. Nevertheless 
I have builded hives for them of several different styles, 
probably all of them innovations of doubtful utility." 
According to philosophy, a thing that has been done 
may be done, but, as I have deducted from my experi- 
ence, with bread for an instance, the same thing may be 
done differently — underdone, overdone, undone, and so 
on. Hence, I perpend, I can make bee hives along that 
perspective, and have done so, using enough nails and 
material to build a house. 
My latest achievement is a thing of' beauty and a 
joy, so far as I know, for some time to come. This is 
a hive with the inner case of glass. I have a fine colony 
of bees in it, and I have them in my house. The hive Is 
fastened upon a shelf, on an upper floor, with an exit 
and entrance for the honey-makers outside. By opening 
the outer case I can observe their operations at any 
time, and I am at present intimately familiar with their 
domestic affairs. None of them has an excuse to neg- 
lect work on my account. They cannot pull down the 
blinds either, and when I want to inspect their works 
I do it. They are susceptible and become acquainted 
with even a persistent intruder, and they now merely 
ignore me. You ought to have one or two such hives 
in your office. What could you have more interesting 
or ornamental? Besides, they thrive at the expense of 
the neighborhood. Again, you might turn a few loose 
inside when you wanted to break away now and then. 
What is the reason some one cannot start a bee "fad." 
Let Mrs. Grundy and a few other folks introduce it. 
Of course bees in society would have to be placed up 
near the eaves, where they could whizz around without 
getting mixed up with madame's parlors, boudoir or 
her unsophisticated guests. They should also be placed 
out of reach of Fauntleroy, who might get 'em into his 
knickerbockers. They do not chasscz around in the 
gloaming, and the affairs of that season need not be 
interrupted on their account. 
I have some other things in this neck of the woods, 
and hermitizing is laden with some tribulations and 
responsibilities. In fact, there are more things in 
heaven and earth, Horatio, than those in New York. 
I'm going to write up a small library entitled "Six 
Years in Solitude." or something or other. I con- 
template doing up some condensed wisdom regardless 
of conventional ethics. If I make a drive at literature 
I don't purpose to snap shoot with any smaller bore 
than something like Suvy's guncotton eructors. I be- 
lieve, however, that I'd rather go a-fishing or prowling 
around. Ransacker. 
Shasta Mountains, Cal. 
How Bears Feed. 
I can verify the statement of Mr. Hardy (Forest 
and Stream, Aug. 20, page 144) of how bears eat ber- 
ries, and indeed feed in other ways. Stories of bears 
are current talk in the backwoods, and the old resi- 
dents have learned a good deal of their habits in this 
way. 
Often, in the then very thinly settled north Michi- 
gan woods, I have accompanied my wife on her berry 
gathering excursions, fearing to let her go alone on 
account of the numerous bears which shared the enor- 
mous quantities of the finest berries which grew in the 
windfalls. Once when thus engaged at one side of a 
gigantic pine, which lay over breast high, we heard a 
sort of scuffling on the other side of it, amid the dense 
growth of blackberries. Thinking some other person 
was on the same business as we were, no notice was 
taken, birt all of us, bear as well, as we found afterward, 
went along the fallen pine until we came near the top 
of it, when looking up both of us saw at the same 
instant the head of a huge' bear as it showed itself by 
its head being far above the level of ours. The beat- 
saw us at the same instant and stopped eating, with an 
armful of bushes gathered between its forelegs. We 
did not move, but stood quite still, and very soon the 
bear went on with its meal, picking off the fruit with 
its mouth. We, of course, gently backed out of the 
bushes, and left the bear still feeding without any offen- 
sive movement. After that, and with some other ex- 
perience that bears are by no- means quarrelsome, if 
not disturbed or driven to resistance, or even disposed 
to fight when attacked, but rather inclined to get away, 
even the women and children of the locality were not 
alarmed further than to get away in the easiest manner, 
and leave the field to the big, black, shaggy fellows. In 
fact, this animal seems to be in no way quarrelsome if 
he is permitted to get his share of what is lying around, 
and is only dangerous when attacked and brought to 
bay. 
Bears often amuse themselves in the woods by break- 
ing trees. When camping out on exploring expedi- 
tions, or on surveys, I have heard the bears at night 
breaking down the limbs of epiite small trees, apparently 
for amusement, and they are quite fond of tearing the 
bark from the trees, apparently for the same reason, or 
otherwise to get at the sweet underbark, which is doubt- 
less what they are after. In fact, they are playful ani- 
mals, and when seen without them knowing it they 
will play and romp together as a lot of boys will, 
wrestling with each other, or chasing each other in a 
rough sort of game, which is very amusing when their 
really inoffensive habits have become known. But few 
people care to get too closely acquainted with them. 
They are exceedingly mischievous, and play havoc 
with one's camp and blankets, which they will tear into 
strips, in fact completely wrecking the outfit. Once, on 
going to a camp which had been left for some days, we 
found on returning to it a big bear in a most ludicrous 
mess. An old butter firkin had been left outside of the 
camp, of course having some leavings of butter in it. 
Nearing the camp we heard , a noisy sort of scuffling, and 
at once I thought of bears. Coming near the camp 
there was a bear on its hindlegs dancing around in such 
a ludicrous manner as to throw my Canadian-French 
foreman in a helpless condition of imbecility and help- 
lessness. He pranced and howled, and rolled on the 
ground. The bear had its head fast in the keg, and was 
pawing for all it was worth to get its head loose. It 
rolled on the ground along with Francois, who might 
have got into trouble had the infuriated bear got its head 
free. But it was not until the bear ran against a tree 
and knocked the staves loose that it could see what 
was the matter. Then it made off with the hoops around 
its neck into the woods, and was lost to sight. Francois 
did not quite recover for a long time, but would at 
times burst into a roar of laughter, when at serious 
business, when anything recalled this adventure \yith 
the bear. H. Stewart. 
— v. V; 
The Forest and Stream Is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday, and as much earlier as practicable. 
The Baltimore Oriole. 
The birds known in the United States as orioles be- 
long to a family {Icterida) which is strictly American, 
and quite different from the orioles of the old world. 
In the family there are about forty species, which in- 
habit almost -the entire country between the fiftieth 
parallel north and the fortieth south latitude. 
The splendid Baltimore oriole (/. galbula) is magni- 
ficent in color, and is noted for its neculiar nest, hanging 
from some swaying branch, which, moving to and fro 
in the gentle breezes, calls to mind the nursery lullaby 
Rock a bye, baby, 
On the tree top. 
When the wind blows 
The cradle will rock. 
As I write, by raising my eyes I can see a nest which 
was built this summer in the fork of a limb of a weep- 
ing willow tree. It is constructed of wrapping twine, 
thread, several shoe strings and small pieces of cord, 
and looks like an old-fashioned chain purse, knit through 
and through as if done by machinery. It is lined with 
carpet sweepings. The eggs are shining white, some- 
times tinged with pink, and sparsely dotted, and line 
marked with purple and black. 
The Baltimore oriole cannot be caged, as it will 
kill itself when confined. I have tried.it several times. 
Even the young will pine away and die. This is my ex- 
perience, and I have tried it several times. 
I will tell you of a fight I saw between a tame gray 
squirrel and a pair of orioles one Sunday morning in 
midsummer: 
The oriole had swung its nest on an elm tree across 
the street, in the very tip of a limb that hung toward 
the ground, and I suppose had eggs in the nest. As 
the squirrel was very fond of eggs, he decided to rob 
the swinging nest, and when almost down to the nest 
the female (which is not so bright in plumage as the 
male) made a dive for the squirrel. He seemed very 
scared, and tried to get back, but the limb being so very 
small, he could not make very good time. The cry of 
the female brought the male bird to the scene, and they 
proceeded to give the squirrel a good whipping for 
disturbing their nest. They would fly at him and 
strike with both wings, all the time making a loud 
noise, as if they wanted to scare him more than to 
hurt him for intruding on forbidden territory. I think 
they succeeded very well, as their nest was not disturbed 
again during the season by him. F. M. B. 
Gettysburg, Pa. 
The Snake as a Hypnotizer. 
There are few persons who have not heard of the 
peculiar power or fascination supposed to be exercised 
by snakes over birds, commonly expressed by the term 
"charming," yet few indeed are those who have actually 
beheld this strange natural phenomenon. 
By "charming," the reptile is supposed to get com- 
plete control of the will of the bird, so as to render the 
latter an eas}' and helpless victim. That snakes possess 
any such power or faculty as the one indicated has 
been frequently boldly asserted, and as often strenuous- 
ly denied by those supposed to be well posted in such 
matters, and so far as I know the question still re- 
mains sub judice. 
Having been an ardent sportsman from my youth, and 
like most sportsmen, a close observer of the facts of the 
natural world, I will now give my experience on this 
curious topic. 
I have often known birds to make a big fuss and 
rumpus over a snake that they had discovered stretched 
out in the grass, just as I have known crows to give a 
bad quarter of an hour to an unfortunate owl that they 
had overtaken at midday in the midst of the forest, but 
it is only recently that I have witnessed anything like 
snake charming, such as I have defined above. I am 
now free to confess that I am a convert to the affirma- 
tion side of the question without any restriction what- 
ever. 
The facts upon which I base my new belief are these: 
A week or ten days since, while .spending the day with 
a rural friend, and engaged in the enjoyment of a post- 
prandial pipe in the shade of his porch, my attention 
was attracted by the singular and unusual actions of a 
catbird in the lower part of the yard, which enclosed 
the house — the bird being some fifteen or twenty paces 
from where I was sitting. It was walking or rather 
pushing itself along a piece of board, alternately ex- 
panding and contracting its wings and tail, its body 
showing occasionally evidences of a trembling or con- 
vulsive movement. It uttered no note, however, that I 
could hear. The board or plank upon which the bird 
was performing these singular movements was about 
3 or 4ft. long by about 6 or Sin. in width. After reach- 
ing the end of the board the bird would turn and pur- 
sue the same route back to the other end of the plank, 
still keeping up the" singular movements of its body. 
I was at first of the opinion" that the strange actions 
of the bird were attributable to the intense heat which 
was prevalent at the time. Being much interested in 
the singular performance, and there being a lady sit- 
ting near me on the porch, I called her attention to 
the matter. After viewing the strange actions of the 
bird for a while, she declared that there must be a 
snake somewhere in the vicinity of the bird, for she had 
often heard that snakes had the power of charming 
birds. 
In order to ascertain the cause of the bird's actions 
we both advanced toward it, and when within a few feet 
it flew up and perched upon an overhanging limb of a 
bush. Upon viewing the ground near which the bird 
had been performing its singular evolutions, we des- 
cried a blacksnake within a few inches of the 
edge of the board upon which the bird had been 
walking. The snake was coiled up, with its head in 
the attitude of striking. Now. as the bird, in passing 
along the board, must have come within a few inches 
of the reptile, it is evident that it was completely within 
the power of the latter. It may be wondered by some 
why the snake, having the bird thus in its power, did not 
proceed to devour it, but for further information m 
