juNE 3, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
42B 
Death from Snake Bite. 
YuMAj Ariz., May i. — Editor Forest aud Stream: 
March 17 an Apache Indian was bitten by a rattlesnake. 
He was a convict, a twenty-five-year man, and was at 
work on the prison farm about two miles distant. So far 
as I can learn he was in the act of striking at a small 
mammal with a stick when the snake rattled and almost 
at the same instant struck him about the middle of the 
left forearm. The reptile was evidently a large one, as the 
fang punctures were nearly an inch and a quarter apart. 
Beyond placing his arm in a sling the wounded man did 
nothing till he reported at the prison hospital- about half 
an hour later. The punctures were large and had, judg- 
ing b}'^ the coagulated blood on the arm, bled rather 
freely. Pending the arrival of the prison physician a 
tourniquet was put on above the elbow and the wound 
washed with ammonia. Tlie swelling had not at this 
time passed the elbow, and the pain was less intense than 
it became afterward. On arrival of the doctor, a few 
minutes later, he ordered a solution of permanganate of 
potassium, and endeavored to renew the bleeding by cut- 
ting deep into the wounds. This was, of course largely 
prevented by the tourniquet, but he managed to press out 
a little black blood from the incisions. The solution was 
then hypodermically injected deep under each woilnd, 
the tourniquet taken off and the patient put to bed. A 
cloth saturated with the solution was kept to the arm 
throughout the afternoon and following night. It was 
about 2 P. M. when the man was put to bed, and he was 
then resting comparativeh'^ easy, but by 7 P. M. he was 
suffering intensely, and represented the action of his heart 
by violent opening and closing of his hand. The skin 
had sluffed from the wound, the arm was black and the 
swelling had extended well up into the shoulder. The 
doctor then decided to give him whisky, and nearly a 
quart was administered before any effect was observable. 
Finally he began to express gratitude for what was being 
done for him, and to talk of the days when he "was a 
good man and a scout." By 8 o'clock he was asleep, and 
we all thought the danger past. I did not see him again 
till 5 o'clock next morning. At that time he was still 
sleeping, but his breathing was short and jerky. Pulse 
he had none, although his flesh was moist and warm. 
The doctor was called and attempted to administer a small 
dose of ammonia, but the throat seemed paralyzed and 
refused to act. An effort to work it doAvn with the fingers 
but partially succeeded. Ammonia was also lield to the 
nostrils, but it produced no apparent change in his con- 
dition, and by 7 o'clock he was dead. The body did not, 
however, become rigid till some hoiu-s later. 
His death was a surprise to me, for I shared the com- 
mon belief that intoxication in .such cases was a sure 
antidote, but in this it did not prove correct. At first 
the indications were that his stomach would refuse the 
whi.sky, but by administering small doses at intervals of 
three to five minutes the whole amount was retained, and 
in less than an hour he was asleep. 
He was a San Carlos Apache, twenty-eight years old 
and weighed isolbs. His health was fairly good, and 
there was every reason to suppose he would pull through 
all right. Indian-Hke, he made no complaint, and al- 
though the perspiration stood in large drops on his fore- 
head, he did not move or twitch a muscle while the doctor 
was lancing and dressing the Avounds, but later he asked 
that a couple of his Indiian friends be allowed to sit with 
him. His mother was advised of his death, and also that 
he had one dollar to his credit on the prison books. Her 
reply was, "Sorry my boy dead. Suppose it cotildn't be 
helped. Send me the dollar." 
The prison physician, Dr. Moeller, stated that during 
his practice in Texas and Arizona he had attended eleven 
other, such cases and had not lost any of them, although 
one suffered the loss of several fingers and the use of one 
arm. H. B. 
[Accounts of death from snake bite are not unusual, but 
each account giving accurate details like the above has a 
value, and is worth putting on record. The inefficacy of 
permanganate of potash as an antidote in this case is of 
interest.] 
More about the Eagle, 
Capt. E. B. Gallup, of Havre de Grace, Md., who 
sends us many quaint notes from that game abounding 
country, tells us that some of his friends have intimated 
that his recent reflections upon the American eagle must 
have come from the pen of one who was not a native-born 
American. The Captain is jealous of his Americanism, 
and sends us his pedigree, adding some interesting notes 
on the ways of birds. He writes : 
I am a descendant of one of many very old families 
living in this country. The history of the Gallups rec- 
ords that two brothers of that name, John and Elisha, of 
French lineage, came to this country sometime before the 
dea4h of Oliver Cromwell and the restoration of Charles 
II. ; and in Cooper's naval history may be found an ac- 
count of the first water battle ever fought in the waters 
of tlie northern part of the continent. This engagement 
was fought with the Indians in the Narragansett Bay 
about the year 1660. and old John Gallup was in com- 
mand. He defeated the Indians and captured their vessel. 
I am the oldest sprout now living of the fourth generation 
of the seed of old John Gallup, the great Indian fighter. 
My- father. Thomas Gallup, lived on the lonely Spesutia 
Island in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay, 
where I was born in the year 1820. I was on ducks 
and birds and fish of all kinds, and frogs, muskrats 
and snapping turtles. I have been a .sport and pot- 
hunter for seventy years; for I commenced to shoot when 
I was only ten years old. and supplied all the family with 
game of all kinds. All that we could not consume we 
had to throw away, as there was no market for game 
nearer than Baltimore; and it was a day's journey with a 
good team to reach Baltimore ; and ducks and birds of 
all kinds in those days were so numerous in Maryland 
that it would not pay to drive a team to Baltimore with 
game. After following the business of being a sport 
and pot-hunter for seventy j-ears, I claim to know as 
much about the history and character of all kinds of 
birds found in this countrj'' as any man living; and I 
have no hesitation in saying to the gentleman that would 
like to bring a charge against me for speaking slightly 
of Uncle Sam's pet birdj I believe in givmg the devil 
his due. The eagle can fly higher and come down faster 
than all other birds to be found in the country. During 
my life I have seen more than fifty times an eagle chase a 
fishing hawk with a fish m his claws and make him drop 
the fish, when the eagle would get under the fish and 
turn his back down and open his large claws and grab 
the fish before it reached the water. This does not loojc 
reasonable, but it is true. 
In calm weather it is no trouble for an eagle to capture 
a wounded duck. I have watched them many times 
chasing a wounded duck. When the duck would dive 
under the water the eagle would see in what direction his 
bill was pointed, and when the duck would come to the 
top of the water to get air the eagle would make a dart 
at him and would soon worry his victim out of breath 
and capture him, T was once hidden behind a blitrd and 
saw an eagle capture a wounded duck. He came near 
enough for me to tickle him with some small sbot, and 
he dropped the duck. When I went and picked it up I 
found that he had bitten several big mouthfuls of flesh 
out of the duck while flying for the land, and the dii~.k 
still had life in it when I picked it up. 
During my long acquaintance with the eagles, I have 
never known them to associate with but two families of 
birds in this country, and those the ones considered the 
very lowest — turkey buzzards and crows. When the 
buzzards and crows find a dead carcass they send a special 
invitation to the eagle to come and dine with them ; and 
not a buzzard nor crow is allowed to come to the first 
table, but must take a back seat until the eagle family 
gets enough. Many times have I seen the eagle feasting 
on a carcass and the buzzards and crows sitting a distance 
oft waiting until the eagle gets enough. 
Capt. E. B. Gallup. 
The Danger of Introducing Noxious 
Animals and Birds. 
BY T. S. PALMERj assistant CHIEF OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
From the Yearbook of the Department 0/ Agriculture. 
Acclimatization of plants and animals has attracted 
attention in all parts of the world. Useful or curious 
species have been introduced from one country to another 
with varying degrees of success; some have failed while 
others have become acclimated, and occasionally have in- 
creased to such an extent as to usurp the places of native 
species. In comparing the results of the introduction of 
plants and of animals, the important difference between 
these two classes of experiments should not be lost sight 
of. Plants, on the one hand, are introduced almost 
without exception for purposes of cultivation, and are 
therefore kept somewhat under control. Occasionally, 
under falvorable conditions, they "escape" and increase so 
rapidly that they become troublesome weeds. Chicory 
and wild garlic of the Eastern States and the water hya- 
cinth of Florida are familiar examples of weeds originally 
introduced as useful or ornamental plants. Animals, on 
the contrary, unless intended for pets or for exhibition 
in menageries or zoological gardens, are seldom kept in 
captivity, but arc liberated and allowed to live as nearly 
as possible under natural conditions. Only the strongest 
and hardiest species survive, and in adapting themselves 
to new surroundings necessarily cause some change in 
the existing fauna. If prolific, they ai'e likely to become 
abundant in a short time ; if they crowd otit indigenous 
species, they are regarded as nuisances. Hence, it is 
sometimes said that acclimatization of animals has pro- 
duced far less satisfactory results than that of plants, 
but the comparison is made between the relatively small 
number of animals, birds, and insects purposely imported 
and allowed to run wild, and a long list of useful and 
ornamental plants carefully kept imder cultivation. 
Means of Dispersal. 
Animals are transported from one country to another 
or to distant islands, either by accident or by the direct 
agency of man. Horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs 
and cats are now almost cosmopolitan, but they owe their 
wide distribution entirely to man, who has carried them 
with him to all parts of the earth. Accidental distribution 
is much less common in the case of mammals and birds 
than among the smaller plants and insects, and species 
which have gained a foothold in distant lands have almost 
always been intentionally introduced. 
Certain small mammals have, however, accidentally 
found their in vessels from -one port to another. Two 
or three species of rats and the house mouse of Europe 
have thus become widely dispersed over the globe. Fruit 
vessels plying between ports of the United States and 
Central or South America occasionally bring snakes, small 
mammals, and insects in bunches of bananas. In November, 
1895, a Central American mouse, of the genus Ory::omys, 
concealed in a bunch of bananas shipped from Piterto 
Limon. Costa Rica, was captured alive in a commission 
house in Washington. D. C. A young murine opossum 
from tropical America was discovered in a bunch of 
bananas at Ames. Iowa, during the summer of 1882, and 
was kept alive for some time. If such cases were fre- 
quent, it can be readily seen how a species gain a foothold 
in new regions, provided the conditions were favorable 
for its increa.se. 
During the last fifteen or twenty years Bering Island, 
one of the Commander group in Bering Sea, has been 
overrun with the common Siberian red-backed mouse 
{Evotomys rutilus). This species was formerly unknown 
on the islands, but has been introduced .since 1870, prob- 
ably in firewood brought from Kamchatka. Within ten 
years it spread all over the island from the beaches to 
the mountains in the interior. It occurs both in the 
swamps and on the sand dunes, and has become a pest in 
the huts of the natives. In 1889 it was still confined to 
Bering Island, but will probably reach Copper Island in 
time. 
Domesticated Species May Become Noxious. 
Domesticated animals, like cultivated plants, may run 
wild and become so abundant as to be wctremely injurious. 
Wild horses are said to have become so numerous in some 
parts of Australia that they consimie the feed needed for 
sheep and other animals, and hunters are employed to 
,shoot them. In some of the Western States they have 
also become a nuisance, and in Nevada a law was passed 
m 1897 permitting wild horses to be shot. Recent reports 
from Washington indicate that cayuses are considered of 
so little value that they are killed and used for bait in 
poisoning wolves and coyotes. 
Pigs have run wild in some of the Southern States 
and also on certain islands, where, as on the Galapagos, 
they were originally introduced to furnish food for crews 
of vessels in need of fresh meat. According to Dr. 
Finsch,' they were introduced into New Zealand by Cap- 
tain Cook about 1770, and soon becoming wild, increased 
to a remarkable degree. A century later wild pigs were so 
abundant m the flax thickets of the Province of Taranaki, 
on the North Island that a hunter could shoot fifty in a 
single day. Dr. Finsch also cites a case mentioned by 
Hochstetter in which 25,000 wild pigs were said to have 
been killed by three hundreds in less than two years. 
Sheep and goats when mnnerous are likely to cause 
widsepread injury, particularly in forested regions. An 
instructive example of the damage done by goats is that 
on St. Helena, described by Wallace.' St. Helena is a 
jnountainous island scarcely fifty square miles in extent, 
and its highest summits reach an elevation of 2,700ft. At 
the time of its discovery, about the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, it is said to have been covered by a dense 
forest; to-day it is described, as a comparatively barren 
rocky desert. This change has been largely brought 
about by goats first introduced by the Portuguese in 1513, 
and which multiplied so fast that in seventy-five years 
they existed by thousands. Browsing on the young 
trees and shrubs, they rapidly brought about the destruc- 
tion of the vegetation which protected the steep slopes. 
With the disappearance of the undergrowth, began the 
washing of the soil by tropical rains and the destruction of 
the forests. In 1709 the governor reported that the timber 
was rapidly disappearing, and that the goats should be 
destroyed if the forests were to be preserved. This ad- 
vice was not heeded, and only a century later, in 1810, 
another governor reported the total destruction of the 
forests by the goats, and in consequence an expense of 
$13,600 (£2,729) in one year for the importation of fuel 
for Government use. 
Tlie Santa Barbara Islands, off the coast of southern 
Cal|ifoniia, and the Island of Guadalupe, off the Lower 
California coast, are utilized as ranges for goats. All 
these islands are dry and more or less covered with 
brush, but arborescent vegetation is comparatively scarce. 
The goats practically run wild, and already exist in con- 
siderable numbers. On Santa Catalina, one of the Santa 
Barbara group, wild goat hunting is one of the diversions 
afforded tourists, and is considered one of the principal 
attractions of this popular .summer resort. As yet the 
goats have not been on the islands long enough to cause 
any serious effects on the vegetation, and they may never 
bring about the ruin which has been wrought on St. 
Helena. But it is scarcely possible for the islands to be 
grazed by goats for an indefinite length of time without 
suffering serious damage. 
House cats are often greater pests than commonly sup- 
posed. When numerous about the suburbs of cities and 
towns, they are apt to forage for a living either from 
necessit5f or choice, and their food is by no means con- 
fined to rats and mice. They are constantly on the watch 
for birds, but it is impossible even to estimate how many 
they destro)'. It is certain, however, that in some places 
the decrease in native birds is largely due to their pres- 
ence. Where cats have run wild on isolated islands, their 
work can be more readily appreciated. On Sable Island, 
off the coast of Nova Scotia, they were introduced about 
1S80 and rapidly exterminated the rabbits, which had 
been in possession of the island for half a century. In 
one of the harbors of Kerguelen Island, southeast of the 
Cape of Good Hope, cats were allowed to run wild upon 
a little islet known as Cat Island, which has been used as 
a wintering place for sealers for many years. Here they 
live in holes in the ground, preying upon sea birds and 
their young, and are said to have developed such extra- 
ordinary ferocitj^ that it is almost impossible to tame 
them even when captured young. Dr. W. L. Abbott states 
that on Aldabra, about 200 miles northwest of Madagascar, 
cats are common on the main island, and have com- 
pletely exterminated the flightless rail (Rougetius alda- 
hrnnus), an interesting bird, pecriliar to this group of 
islands. They arc also numerous on Glorioso Island, 120 
miles to the southeast, and in consequence birds are less 
common even than on Aldabra.'' 
The Chatham Islands, 500 miles east of New Zealand, 
were colonized about fifty j'ears ago ; cats, dogs, and pigs 
were introduced, and the native birds, represented by 
fifty-five species, including thirteen not found elsewhere, 
have since greatly decreased in numbers. Two of the 
most interesting birds are land rails of the genus Cahalus. 
Dr. Dieffenbach. naturalist of the New Zealand Com- 
pany, who visited the islands in 1840. states that one of 
these rails {Cahalns dicifcnbachi) . called by the natives 
"mcriki," was formerly common, but since the introduc- 
tion of cats and dogs it has become very scarce. It is now 
probably extinct, and the closely related species C. mo- 
destiis will doubtless soon suffer a similar fate, since the 
islet of Mangare. to which it is confined, has recently 
heen invaded hy cats.* 
Sources of Danger from Noxious Species, 
The animals and birds which have thus far become most 
troublesome when introduced into foreign lands are nearly 
all natives of the Old World. The mammals belong to 
three orders: (i) Rodents, including rats of two or three 
species, the houfe mouse, and rabbit of western Asia or 
southern Europe : (2) Carnivores, represented by the 
stoat, weasel, and common house cat of Europe, and the 
mongoose of India; (3) Cheiroptera, - represented In- 
large fruit-eating bats or flying foxes of Australia and the 
Malay Archipelago. Flying foxes have not yet been actu- 
ally introduced, but are likely to be carried to dift'erent 
islands in the Pacific, and are dangerous because of their 
depredations on fruit. The birds comprise the house 
sparrow and starling of Europe, and the mina of India. 
Other species, usually regarded as beneficial in their na- 
tive homes, such as the European skylark, green linnet, 
1 Globtts, LXIX. 1896, Nr. 2. 
= T!5land .T.ife, ISSO. pp. 283-286. 
3Proc T'. S. Nat. Mu.s., XVI., lS9t, pp. 762, 7M. 
* Forbes, Itii.s, 6th ser., V.. 1893, pp. 523, 581-533. 
