'"v - - 
June 2, 1900.I 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
427 
ring, delivered a lecture in description of their capture 
md training. 
Nixon was persuaded by some naturalists and church 
people to give morning entertainments minus the circus 
performance, and the lecturer had interested audiences 
tor two weeks. Before cold weajier set in my novel and 
successful enterprise met an unexpected and doleful finale 
in the sudden death of the whole herd from poison ad- 
ministered presumably by some one in pure malice, my 
pet Jim dying with his head in my wife's lap. I had 
:xpended over $10,000 in the scheme and could have made 
a great deal of money. I had been offered $500 a week 
for them. 
The Axolotl and the Proteus. 
Two small glass tanks, side by side, in the reptile house 
at the zoo in Bronx Park, contain each a strange and 
interesting water dweller. One is a curious axolotl from 
Mexico; the other a blind proteus from Lower Austria. 
These two animals have both a tuft of external gills on 
each side of their necks. It can be really said of them 
that they have their lungs on the exterior. 
Although both are interesting in their way, probably the 
most interesting of the two, by reason of its odd life 
habits, is the axolotl. To understand better the peculiar- 
ity for which the axolotl is noted, a word or two in ex- 
planation of the development of all amphibians, the class 
to which the axolotl and ihe proteus belong, would not be 
out of place. 
All of the amphibia, which includes the frogs, toads, 
salamanders , and newts, pass the very earliest stage of 
their lives immediately after the development from the 
egg, in a tadpole or larval form. The most characteristic 
thing in this tadpole period is the possession of externa! 
gills. In the tadpole form of the frogs and the toads, these 
gills soon disappear, and shortly thereafter the individual 
slightly darkening, and it may be reasonably supposed 
that this is due to the action of the light. Notwithstand- 
ing the blindness of this proteus, it is very sensitive to 
strong light, and on this account keeps at the bottom of 
the tank and as far away from the front as possible. 
E. LuTz. 
concluded that in the dry dust the weasel had lost the 
track, and only recovered it when he reached the grass 
again. Old Man. 
New York, May 16. 
Weasel Stories. 
As a contributor to your weasel stories, I may relate 
a couple of incidents which may be interesting. In July 
last I was cruising on Lake Couchiching on the sloop 
Wind's Will, when, in an endeavor to get through the 
narrows into Lake Simcoc, we were becalmed, just off 
Couchiching Point, perhaps lOO yards from shore, my 
sailing companion, Tom Wallace, noticed a small dark 
object in the water. He got into the dinghj- and went 
to investigate. The object turned out to be a beautiful 
black squirrel, apparently dead. There wasn't a sign of 
life in him when we put him on the cabin top to dry out. 
By and by, when his hair had become a little dryer, and 
the heat of the sun had warmed a little life into him, the 
squirrel commenced to wiggle some. We w-ere much 
interested. How had the poor fellow been placed in 
the water? I had no idea, and Tom hazarded the guess 
that he had been chased — probably by a weasel. In an 
hour or so, by which time we had drifted to a little 
wharf at Heron Island, our black friend had recovered 
enough to become frightened of us. So he shinned up 
the mast by slow degrees, and finally got right on top. 
We hadn't been tied up to the wharf more than fifteen 
minutes before Tom, who had been lazily reclining in the 
cabin top, jumped up, and ran below for a shotgun. I 
looked for the game, and saw in a crack in the crib work 
of the wharf a weasel, which evidently had its eye on the 
black squirrel on top of our mast, some 25 feet above 
him. Your correspondent of last week argued, I think, 
A Leaf from an Old Note Book. 
" Birdland Melody." 
The time is May and the dogwood has bloomed white 
and shed its petals. There is a scent of springtime flowers 
and the woods are ringing with singing of fresh arrivals 
among the birds. 
I wandered out this morning to my favorite grove of 
dogwoods and found the prairie warblers nesting by the 
hundreds in this thicket. They were singing gladly their 
quaint little twittering note. Catbirds were askmg "Who's 
there?" and the yellow-breasted chats were going through 
their somnambulistic evolutions in the a.r, u.tering as 
they came down with raised wings and flopping tails, 
"Who, who, who." Then, alighting, they wou:d say 
"Che, che, che." In the woods vireos warb ed from their 
green bowers in the oak trees. Brown thrashers are feed- 
ing their young, and so are mocking birds, so they are 
rather silent. They nest first of all birds around here 
that sing. Indigo buntings sing merrily on every hand 
and so do the song sparrows and others. Bachman's 
finch occurs here, but is very silent — seldom seen or 
heard. Water thrushes and oven birds are common in 
the darkest and more shadowy part of the deep woods. 
Its a pleasure to ramble in these big black hollows of 
the woods, for there is the smell of rich black earth and 
there is a silence that is awesome. The wood thrushes 
like these quiet retreats and sing their bell-like songs 
where few other birds are found. These ciear, sweet notes 
are like bells and form appropriate temple bells for the 
MEXICAN AXOLOTL. 
BLIND PROTEUS. 
develops into a mature animal by absorption of the tail 
and the growth of the four hmbs. In some forms of the 
amphibia, as the proteus, and the common mud puppy of 
the waters of the eastern Unued' Slates, the external gills 
are retained throughout life, in the axolotl there are, 
practically speaking, two adult forms; the one aquatic in 
habit witn tne exiernal gihs, and the oJier terrestrial m 
habits with air-breathmg lungs. When the g.lled axolotl 
was first found in the mounta.n lakes of Mexico, savants 
took it for the adult form of a distinct species, as it was 
observed to breed freely. It was not until some axolotls 
in captivity were observed to lose their gills by reabsorp- 
tion and become air breathers, that it was known that the 
axolotls were only the larva; form of a terrestrial salaman- 
der" The case in point happened some years ago at 
Paris in the Jardin des Piantes, when one morning the 
keeper missed one of his axolotls and found instead an 
air-breathing salamander. . . . 
The axolotl is known to the scientific man as Ambly- 
stoma mexicana. It is common in the lakes surrounding 
the City of Mexico. The native Mexicans use it as an 
article of food. . 
Ihroughout most of the regions where the axolotl 
occurs, it is supposed to go through the regular amphibian 
stages of egg, giUed tadpole and air-breathmg land animal. 
In this latter, or mature lunged, form it dwells altogether 
in moist localities, haunting damp moss and leaves; as 
moisture, in fact, is a very necessary condition of its 
surroundings. They do not drink water but take m 
moisture through the pores of the skin. It is believed 
that the reason the axolotl of the Mexican lakes does not 
develop into the air-breathing type is because the land 
bordering these lakes is exceedingly barren and_ dry. and 
in con-^equence does not afford the highly important 
environment of damp and soggy moss wiJi its accompany- 
ing humidity. _ . . . , . , 
The other =trange amphibian on view is the proteus, 
Proteus anguimis, of the naturalist. It is an inhabitant 
of the dark subterranean waters of caverns. The par- 
ticular specimen at the zoo is from the celebrated grotto 
of Adelsberg, Carnio'a. Austria. Although the proteus 
is blind, it is not eyeless; the eyes are completelj' grown 
over by the skin; they are also undeveloped and seem- 
inglv useless. , , , -n j 
The proteus never advances bevo.nd the larval gilleci 
form, as it keeps the tuft red gills throughout life. It 
is eel-like in form, and the apparently abortive legs are not 
much used for progression in the water. Movement is 
achieved mainly by a sinuous action of the long, slender 
body. The zoo proteus, when it first arrived, was of a. 
fleshy- white color, but it is observed that the color IP 
that the weasel follows its prey by smell, and not by 
sight. How does he explain the weasel seeing my squir- 
rel from shore? The wharf was 40 feet in length or 
thereabouts and the squirrel had been on the mast ever 
since we tied up. 
Well, Tom shot the weasel, and then our friend on the 
mast left us. 
A few m.inutes after this we were treated to a genuine 
race for life between a weasel and a chipmunk. About 
50 yards away from us a chipmunk jumped off a tree 
overhanging the water, and plunged boldly in, followed 
at a distance of not more than 3 feet by a weasel. It was 
a great jumping contest, and our hearts were with the 
little fellow in "front. However, we remained neutral. 
For 25 yards things looked black for the chipmunk. The 
weasel pulled up slightly — probably a foot — and- we pre- 
pared to go out and give" a hand. It was a fast race, too, 
the pair easily beating the best swimming I have ever 
seen a dog do. The weasel, I think, showed more of 
his body, and seemed to exert himself more._ After the 
first spurt, the chipmunk managed to hold his lead, and 
at the end of 100 j^ards or less the weasel, completely 
blown, suddely threw uo the sponge and wheeled around 
for shore, his successful competitor keeping right on for 
another island a quarter of a mile away. 
I think a chipmunk and probably a black squirrel can 
beat a weasel swimminer, and also that weasels do not 
depend entirely on smell when after a meal. 
Jas. W. Curran-. 
Montreal, May 18. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
At the risk of repeating something that T may have 
already published, I offer a small experience I once had 
of the weasel: 
Many years ago, while riding between New Haven and 
Milford, Conn., in midsummer, as I was passing through 
a piece of woods, a half-grown rabbit darted from the 
brush on one side and raced across the road. I pulled up 
my horse and sat there looking into the brush after him, 
but he had disappeared, .A.s T turned to look at the point 
from which he had come there was a movement in the 
grass and weeds, where the rabbit had run out — about 
20 yards ahead of me — and a weasel ran into the road. 
When he reached the dry dust, which lay thickly in the 
wheel tracks, he stopped, smelled about for a rnoment 
and then made one or two casts — aoparently fruitless— 
up and down the road. Then he made a wider circle, and 
in the grass where the rabbit had disappeared he seemed 
to strike the tracik and at once disappeared himself. I 
great temple of nature, the woods. Some shy warblers 
are seen now and then as we ramble among the leaves 
and brush. There is a flitting glance of a black and white 
warbler as it flutters away from its nest. A whippoor- 
will flushes nois'ly and wings its velvety flight to darker 
recesses of the hollows. Young crows are raising smoke 
over in the pine trees. 
We leave the woods and enter an old field overgrown 
and neglected. It looks like it had been visited by the 
snow king, for it is pure while with daisies. Bees lazily 
copne by us droning their lazy song. Field sparrows and 
indigo buntings cling to the weed stalks and sing in the 
warm sunlight. We pass the stream and find a big bull- 
frog sitting in the sun catching hapless gnats that come 
his way. A black^nake falls out, of some bu h at our 
approach and we hear him rustling the leaves as he 
scurries awav. 
There is a din of birdland melody — sweet, soft, rasping, 
rollicking, gentle, harsh, purring, lisping, "chuckling, 
trickling — all mixed in a great din of gladness. The big 
world is haopy. The sun shines warmly. It is nearly 
summer. The air is sweet and balmy. F'owers are grow- 
ing evervwhere. Nature smiles uoon her handiwork and 
blesses it to-dav. Of all months, we have May, the 
sweetest of them all. The sunflowers, the rosemary, the 
rhododendrons, the violets, the dasies. the Indian pinks^ 
the trailing arbutus, the wild rose, were born in May, 
and Mav flowers and b-rds are enough to make man 
happy. I am happy to-day. 
John W. Daniel, Jr. 
Lynchburg, Va , May 95. 
Fofef^a Birds for America. 
Macomh. 111.. May 14. — Editor Forest and Stream': The 
Lacey bill having become a law, every sportsman in the 
broad land owes a debt of gratitudi^ to the Hon. John 
F. Lacey for his work in nushing this bill to the front. 
A E^ame law backed up by the National Government 
will be enforced. 
The Government ought to introduce foreign game 
birds into (1 is cnuntr->'-. Irdii ."^eems to be the home 
of the game birds. They will live and thrive in this 
courtrv. for I have tested them, and I find they can 
5^-and the mercury 28 degrees below zero in this State. 
They have a larere variety of wild pieeons. and among 
them are the Bengal green pisreon, bronze-headed im- 
perial pigeon, prav-headed imperial pigeon, imperial 
green pigeon, Indian stock pigeon, C)range-breasted 
green pigeon, pink-necked pigeon, pin-tailed green 
pigeon, purple wood pigeon, speckle^ wood pifeon, bine, 
