S66 
the fact that so much ignorance prevails, not only con- 
cerning the actual structure and habits ot serpents in 
general, but of the distinctive characteristics of our 
native ophidians. It is the writer's intention to prepare 
a few notes for early publication in j'^our columns set- 
ting forth fundamental facts concerning this branch of 
zoological science which will serve as a base of reason- 
ing when dealing with these creatures, and thus aid 
even superficial observers of animal life in arriving at 
the facts concerning their structure and habits, their uses 
and their dangers. 
But the question asked by Mr. Norton may "bfe an- 
swered in a few words, since practically ail our native 
serpents have been carefully observed and studied by per- 
sons eminently qualifid for this work. There are no 
snakes, native to the United States at least — nor probably 
elsewhere in the world — that, scorpion-like, sting with 
their tails. All recognized venomous serpents inject their 
poison through fangs located in the mouth, and directly 
connected with specialized glands which secrete the 
poisonous fluid. Most of the fangs of venomous serpents 
are located in the anterior portion of the mouth, and 
are either movable or permanently erect; but a few 
species are known to science in which the poison is 
ejected through or along a posterior fang or posterior 
grooved tooth or teeth. These latter snakes are called 
opistoglyphs, and the species already studied are not par- 
ticularly dangerous to man or the larger animals, though 
frogs, toads and lizards bitten by them readily die. Four 
species of opistoglj^ph snakes have been found within 
the United States— one common to our entire southern 
border, two found onlj^ in the extrtme southern corner 
of Texas, and one species from southern Arizona. 
But to return to the snake with the armored tail. Al- 
though many serpents have a somewhat pointed horny 
tail cap, this is no more offensive than one's finger nail — 
no more capable of "'stinging" than a snake's tongue. 
Some herpetologists^ have tried to show th.at this horny 
extremity — ^when occurring on the Crotalidce (rattle- 
snakes, moccasins, etc.) — is really a rudimentary rattle, 
but there is much evidence to the contrary. We find a 
pointed horny tail cap on two common native snakes, 
which, at a superficial glance, much resemble each other, 
but which in reality are widelj^ different. These are 
the venomous copeprhead and the harmless "flathead" 
or "puff adder." On the copperhead the tail tip is de- 
flected to one side, while on the "puff adder" it is in line 
with the body. Doubtless the "horn snake" or "sting- 
ing adder" mentioned by your correspondent is none 
other than Hetcrodon platyrhinus — our friend the "puff 
adder," the "hog nose," the "blowing viper," etc. — to 
whom we paid a slight tribue in Forest and Stream 
for July IS, but which will doubtless continue to be ma- 
ligned and stoned as long as ignorance of things herpeto- 
logical continues — which promises to be for centuries 
to come. Dr. J. Hobart Egbert. 
A Sttccessfal Deer Photograph. 
Whitinsville. Mass., Oct. 28. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I send you by even mail a half-tone plate of a 
photograph of a buck that I obtained in August last. The 
plate was made from an enlargement, and shows the fact 
to some extent. 
It was necessary to use the bromide enlargement for 
this purpose, as the negative was reported "lost," together 
with another of a smaller buck which I had given to a 
photo goods dealer to have enlargements made. I do not 
think I shall see either negative again. I now consider 
myself fortunate to have the enlarged prints, as I have no 
contact prints from either. 
I have tried for several seasons to get a good photo- 
graph of a deer — one wherein the deer would show plainly 
and not require to be pointed out. I have obtained a num- 
ber first and last, but this one is far ahead of any of them 
and I would like to see it shown in the pages of Forest 
AKD Stream. 
The subject, position and background are ynusually 
good. The camera was a 4 by sin., 11 ^in. focus, with 
diaphragm shutter set for one-fifth second, distance 60 to 
7Sft., about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I had a rest in 
the bow of the canoe to set the camera on so there would 
be no movement other than the motion of the boat. It 
turned out that I gauged the stability of the buck to a 
nicety, as immediately after the exposure was made he 
turned and walked out of the water into the woods. There 
was hardly a half-second to spare. 
I find a good many things combine to prevent a good 
photo of deer in the summer — the chief thing is the red 
orange coat of the animal, which turns out to be dark in 
the picture, though it is bright enough in the original. 
In the present case the bright afternoon sun shone full on 
the deer, and the result is far better than usual; besides, 
the background being very dark helps to bring the deer 
out prominently. C A. Taft. 
Loading Buckshot. 
Richmond, Va., Oct. 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The method of loading buckshot mentioned in j^our issue 
of the 28th by Mr. B. W. Sperry is one that I tried my- 
self some years ago, but did not find very satisfactory. 
If, as l" understand him, he suggests loading them in 
the shell he intends to use, he will find that the wax will 
be shattered by the explosion, breaking it from the side 
of the cartridge, and the shot will scatter as bad as ever. 
Another method, which I used with more success, was 
to' take an empty cartridge and ram a wad down to the 
bottom of it; then load it up with buckshot in the man- 
ner he describes and pour in the melted wax. After it has 
cooled and solidified thoroughly, cut the cartridge away 
from around it. Then the shot and M'ax can be put into 
the shell to be used, as you would a bullet. This method, 
however, has the disadvantage' of being very uncertain, in 
some cases the load not breaking up at all, but going like 
a bullet, and in others not showing on a target any 
appreciable difference from a loose load. I can recall two 
instances in which the whole load only made one large 
hole, " the 'first at a target at 40yds., and the other at a 
bear cub in a large live oak. In neither case had the shot 
separated at all. R- F. Banks. 
FOREST AND oTRBlAM. 
^mtit md 0m 
Mr. Mulate's Big Moose. 
"Mk, Fames J. Mulate returned to Mommenttown 
Monday, after a three weeks' hunting expedition to Can- 
ada. Hudson's Bay was the northern terminus of the trip, 
in which region Mr, Mulate encountered three snow- 
storms and a temperature of 12 degrees above zero. Mr. 
Mulate killed a moose weighing about i,30olbs., whose 
horns measured from 53 to SSin- from tip to tip. Five 
shots were required to bring it to bay. Smaller game 
was shot and trapped, but of this no account was taken. 
About 325 miles of the journey was made in canoes and on 
foot. Mr. Greeley Bate was with Mr. Mulate, but was 
not so fortunate. Mr. Bate did not return with Mf. 
Mulate." 
l"he above silly story is Copied frotn a recent issue of a 
prominent Baltimore newspaper, with the names only 
changed. 
Mr. Mulate. if one is to believe his statement, made a 
trip from Maryland to Hudson's Bay (325 miles of the 
journey b}-^ canoe and on foot) and got back in three 
weeks,' with a moose weighing about i,30olbs., _ with 
elastic "horns" measuring all the way from 53 to SSin- 
Such a journey as Mr. Mulate says he made could not 
be accomplished by an ordinary mortal (but then, to be 
sure, Mr. Mulate "is no ordinary mortal) under four or 
five months, and instead of the journey being 325 miles by 
canoe and on foot, more than 1,325 miles would have to be 
made in that way, and at an expenditure probably ten 
times greater than Mr. Mulate's. Only one moose to show 
for such a remarkable journey, made in .such record- 
breaking time, would seem but poor recompense. The 
Province of Quebec permits of two moose for each per- 
son composing a hunting party, and as Mr. Mulate and 
his companion probably had a guide apiece, they were con- 
sequently entitled to eight moose, instead of only one. _ 
The above remarkable newspaper yarn is of a piece 
with a similar one printed in the Sun, of this city, three or 
four years ago, extolling the prowess of a certain silver- 
smith's clerk, who had just returned from a hunting trip 
with a moose weighing i,50olbs., and "said to be the 
largest moose ever shot in the State of Maine." Four 
men fired thirteen shots at this fabled monster, and yet 
did not stop it. The moose was found dead the next 
morning a few rods away. The carcass was shipped to 
New York, so the story ran, and distributed among admir- 
ing friends. An inviting morsel, truly, after lying all 
night with its entrals unremoved. This alleged sports- 
man boasted of killing six deer himself— two at one shot- 
regardless of the fact that he was entitled to shoot but 
two. 
Had this imitation sportsman been satisfied with simply 
printing his remarkable yarn without photographic em- 
bellishment, it would have been absurd enough to sports- 
men, but he actually had the nerve to print a picture of 
the i.soolb. moose on a raft, with the hero beside it, of 
course. The carcass did not come as high as the fellow's 
knee, and was of a four or five year old bull, weighing 
probably 6oolbs. 
Your correspondent knows of a resident of New York 
City who has just returned from Canada with the heads 
of three large bull moose. None of them, however, 
weighed 1,500 or even i,30olbs., and he was not compelled 
to shoot them thirteen times each, or to go to Hudson's 
Bay after them either. 303. 
Eastern Massachusetts. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
About now look out for game. It don't last very long 
in this part of the country, and the early bird catches the 
worm. Bv Dec. 1 it is father cold to be out with a rig 
on that's fit to shoot in, unless it be loxes. We ought to 
have close season on birds about Dec. i, as there is 
chance to pot-hunt with the snow on. Ruffed grouse, or 
partridges, as we call them here, seem to be as plenty as 
usual. The markets quote them as very scarce and pay 
$T-75 per pair, which is the highest price, I think, on 
record I don't know how it is, unless snaring has been 
suppressed to quite an extent by the State game asso- 
ciation. They are doing effective work by having war- 
dens out all the fall. If we could stop the sale of game 
we would strike the nail on the head. Birds at such 
a price makes too much of an inducement lor the mar- 
ket hunter. 
We have a case in the district court at present for snar- 
ing partridges, and it is reported that another arrest was 
made yesterdav of an old professional Boxford snarer 
that has the reputation of sending off "two bags of birds 
a week to the market." 
Quail were badly winter killed and are very scarce, i 
started one covey of about a dozen good-sized birds and 
shot five of them. Four of the five were male birds. I 
then left them alone. I am satisfied if I don't shoot an- 
other one this fall I hear of some very small birds being 
seen— hardly large enough to fly. I think in such cases 
the old birds' nest was destroyed by the mowing ma- 
chines in July, and they made. another nest and hatched 
a late brood. I have heard of only one other quail being 
killed in town this fall. Two good men with good dogs 
hunted all dav yesterday and didn't find a bird. _ 
Woodcock have been scarce. I shot a few native birds, 
but there seems to be no flight of the Northern bird along 
yet, and there ought to have been in this moon. Hunters 
get $1 per pair in Boston for the birds, w^hich is high. 
Rabbits seem to be more plentiful than for years, but 
the hills seem to be full of old burrows made by skunks 
and woodchucks, into which they scurry pretty lively after 
being started. If we can keep the ferret fiends away there 
will be plenty of this game left over, 
GvA.y squirrels are fairly plentiful, this being a bearing 
3'ear for nuts. Have heard of a raccoon being killed in 
Middleton. I think a man with a good dog coifld find 
good hunting in the Andover woods. The fox hunters 
have had very good luck so far, as I suppose, but I am 
not much of an authority on this sport. It seems to me 
about like going buffalo hunting on Cape Cod, but I ad- 
mire the pluck and perseverance that goes to make up a 
fNo?, 4, iSoy, 'I 
sucessful hunter. We have three up at this end of L'-t 
town that can hold their own in any crowd — Dr. E. Hi;' 
Niles, E. H. Langdon and i\rthur Beckford. Mr. Larjz ' 
don hung another large fine red to his belt a few day , 
since. Then there is Capt. Martin and D. S. Brown, o'|j 
Tapleyville, who think the sport about to their liking ani\|^^ 
get their share. 
The leaves are well oft' the trees and owing to the di ' 
weather the swamps are quite free from water, so tha 
the hunting conditions are unusually good. 
On the coast they are having good coot shooting, btt! 
it is poor sport to shoot the old fool fowl. They don'' 
seem to know anything. They will decoy to anythinji 
that floats, from a chip to a barrel with a boat hitched ti 
it. Shoot half the flock and they will then go looyds 
and bite again at the same bait. They are hardly fit h, 
cat unless you know just how to cook them, and so tougii 
you have to skin them to get the feathers oft'. I dldn" 
hear of many snipe on the flight here, neither have I see; 
any geese going south yet. John N. Babbitt. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST 
Chicago, Oct. 28. — The majority of the ducks workini? 
on the Calumet Marsh now are mallards, and in thj 
gamble of shooting chances in so much shot a country,- on. 
might on almost any day of the week pick up a half-doze: 
or more mallards along that marsh. The dam at the rail 
road crossing is backing up the water, and while it ha 
ruined our little snipe corner, it is slowly improving th/ 
ducking ground. 
Near the End. 
It is likely that we are near the end of our snipe seasoj 
now, as we have had very heavy cold rains for the la? 
three days, which has probably sent the birds on South 
I think they came down during the late moonlight night, 
and fine weather. Most of the birds killed this week hav 
been very poor of flesh. 
The Quail Season. 
However disappointing may have been the duck an^ 
snipe season this fall, the quail season will more thai 
make up for it. Quail have never been more abundari 
in the West than they are this year, and it is pleasing t 
feel that there may be abundance of sport for the nex 
few months in one part or the other of the South o 
West with these birds, which offer what I have alway 
thought to be the finest sport of America. If you g 
grouse hunting you get rough walking and a few bird; 
If you go snipe shooting you get wet and muddy. If yo 
go duck shooting you get up early in the morning. Bu 
when you go quail shooting, provided that you have plent 
of birds, and provided also that you have good dogs, yo 
have abundance of good, clean shooting of a natur 
difficult enough to offer sport. Moreover, if you kill 
good bag of say a couple of dozen quail, you have not got 
great pile of meat to reproach you. 
It will be easy to direct shooters to good quail countr 
this fall, for the birds are abundant from this latitudi 
south, all the way from Ohio to Kansas, and as far sout 
as the Gulf, I would say take the Illinois Central roa 
south, for instance, or say the Monon in Indiana. An> 
where a hundred and fifty miles south of Chicago ought t 
bring one into good quail country around the smalle 
villages. I have reports from lower Michigan which stat 
that the quail crop is in some places very good, though i 
others the birds seemed to have winter-killed a little b; 
last year. 
To-day I have met in town friends just up fror 
Tennessee and Mississippi, and these tell me that th 
quail crop, or the "bird" crop, as it is called in tb 
South. i« something extraordinary. At Woodstock, Luc 
and Millington, all points not far from Memphis, th 
birds are very numerous indeed. Mr. Wilbur A. Jones, c 
Port Gibson, Miss., tells me that in his neighborhood th [ 
birds are A^ery abundant. _ ' ni 
Speaking of the South, I am reminded that Memphi 
shooters have within the last week or so been having ver 
good duck shooting, also at Beaver Dam and Bear Lak* 
south of Memphis. 
la the ^est. 
A party made up of Mes.srs. T. P. Hicks and Sila 
Palmer, with Lieutenant of the Warren Avenue Folic 
Station, this city, left some time ago for Tracy, Mini; 
They have apparently had very good success, for the 
have sent home a great many ducks to friends in the citj 
Returning from Minnesota, these gentlemen came as 
toward home as Milwaukee, but then started back, an* 
are now in northern Wisconsin somewhere after big gami' 
This makes the matter of their license foot up a very p.ett 
figure. It is getting so these daj'S in the West that it cost 
something to own and operate a shotgun. 
Mr. Fredric W. Jenkins and his friend, Mr. C. I 
Hotchkiss, both of Binghamton, N. Y., reached Chicag 
this week and called at the Forest and Stream office t' 
ask where they were going. They had had all their plar, 
made for a trip in Routt county, Colo., where they ha 
been invited to join a rancher who was to take thei 
out. At the last minute, however, these plans fell througl 
and the gentlemen when they reached Chicago were ui 
decided as to whither they should head. I told them to g 
out to Mr. William Wells' hunting lodge, at Wells' Po; 
Office, in Uinta county, Wj'o. They were headed that wh 
w-hen last seen, and I trust will have a pleasant trip. J 
they do not on such short notice catch Mr. Wells himsel 
they should certainly be able to find a guide in that terr' 
tory, where they would be near to very good game cour; 
try, and unless the cats have got all of Mr. Wells' dog 
they ought to have ^ome fun with lions and lynx, 
presume they may get some snovv' before they gf^f out. bv' 
they both looked as if they could stand it. They hav' 
both hunted in Canada and New Brunswick, and eac 
has killed caribou and moose, so that the sight of th 
Rocky Mountain big game ought not to jar them. 
I was talking with George Thorne. of Montgomer 
Ward & Co., this city, the other day, and he tells me th? 
on his W^estern trip he went in at Libby, Mont., an^ 
hunted in the Kootenai country. He says he is fairlv we' 
pl.eased with his trip, in spite of the fact that he did nc 
kill very much game. The bear he got was a black beai 
but a very fine one. They ran across the bear in a thickc 
