MoV. 3, igoo. J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S4S 
ridged' werte very numerous and well defined. This 
spac.e is tBe rabbit's breeding ground, and should be 
well drained. Clay ridges are tlie best, as sand is apt 
to give way, and is too damp during rains. By first 
boring a few hundred holes into the ridges the rabbits 
are giv>en a start. The hole is bored by a long, narrow 
spade and should be bored not straight into the hill, but 
slightly upward; this is the way the rabbit does it, and it 
keeps it dry. Trees can be grown on this space, as rab- 
bits do not eat the bark of trees, except when otlicr food 
is covered with snow. The land and neighboring 
countrif must be cleared from vermin, such as rats, 
mink, skunks, owls, hawks, eagles and snakes. It Would 
be best to surround the 180 acres with a wire netting 
fence 4 feet high, thus L; 9 inches placed along the 
ground prevents the rabbits from burrowing through, 
and tliey will never try to jump over it, no matter how 
wild they may be. All the ridges must be surrounded 
by low land, otherwise it would be useless to fence il; 
in, as high land would be burrowed under. On such a 
large scale you could not alter'the bucks. The rabbits 
are gathered from their feeding grounds at night time 
after their bellies are full. This is accomplished by 
long drag nets. None but the bucks and the late or 
small does should be killed. When a rabbit is killed it 
should be immediately bled and opened. The offal could 
be profitably fed to skunks or utilized to manure the 
soil. The above carried out on a smaller scale, say of 
£fty acres, could also be made to pay. 
But the question with most people is: Where is the 
market? Of all rabbits, tlie- Belgium hare (rabbit) has 
the best flavor, providing it is not hutch fed. Fried, it, 
i3 equal to frogs' hind legs; as a pie, it is not second to 
pigeon; stewed, it is better than the best beef; roasted, 
it is the equal of partridge: and no chicken soup or 
broth is better than it. My advice to Belgium hare 
(rabbit) raisers is never to glut the market. Send them 
in on very cold days, or just preceding a cold spell. 
Distribute them; send each commission merchant a few. 
Never send them m when the market is glutted witli 
poultry. The best months will be Febrttary and March, 
when poultry is high and scarce. Drive into the city 
yourself with a small load now and then during cold 
weather and visit the chefs of the clubs and the high- 
toned restaurants, and theti the high-class butchers., 
They all like to hang up a few pairs of them even fif 
they don't sell them, just for show, you, know. Of 
all the cities of North America, Toronto is the most 
difficult to sell rabbits in, and yet when this market is 
properly studied it could be supplied with thousands of 
pairs.- In writing this paper I am not considering Cali- 
fornia, but the Northern and Eastern States and Canada. 
We mu.st first estabh.sh a demand East, and then Cali- 
fornia can wrestle with the cheaper transportation and 
cold storage problems, and then they can start their 
big game farms and supply us with hares (rabbits), j 
in buyijig stock to start your game farm 1 will say 
that the difficulty of procuring the Belgium hare (rab- 
bit) is. much overrated.. If you take a clay-colored ral)- 
bit and cross it with a gray rabbit you will hnd that you 
have at least ont rabbit near the color of the Belgium— r 
i<: may have a white foot or a white star on the forehead 
ur a white patch. By careful breeding and foster- 
mothering the young, in a few generations you can 
procure as good a Belgium as it is possible to get, or 
you can get a wild, burrowing cottontail buck and cross 
"with a bronze, lop-ear doe, and the young will be as 
nearly hke the Belgium as you would want. Again, cross 
a gray rabbit on a Himalaya doe and you will hud the 
young are all gray, and by careful breeding you can 
procure the bronze. 
One ilnaccountable mistake Mrs. Churchill made is in , 
calling the Belgiums blue. "The color is blue or 
Maltese," she says. The color is bronze; gold and black 
hairs cause this rich bronze color. If you blow the hair 
apart you will find a second hair that is entirely out of 
■ight that is bluish, J^ut a Maltese-colored rabbit is an 
entirely different- color from a Belgium. Some of your 
readers might think that I, who never was in California, 
do not know what a California-Belgium hare (rabbit) 
:is Hke. I may say that the best prize winners were 
sent to that State by a man in this city who imported 
them from England. As a thing of beauty the Belgium 
is not to be compared to the jackass rabbit-hare of the 
Western States. The clumsy movement of the Belginm 
as compared to the jack rabbit's grace and lightning-like 
movements- is evident to a blind man. In color and 
size oF body the black-taiied Texas jack rabbit-hiue 
(Leptis texainis) and the Belgium are very similar, the 
ears and legs of the former being much longer, and the 
Texan has a larger black mark on the tops oi'the ears. 
The Belgium is nothing more nor less than :i large, well- 
fed, less hardy cottontail rabbit. Turn every breed of 
rabbits loose in a field in the spring time, and by the 
next spring y(ju will find the descendants all cottontails. 
This is the natural color of the rabbit, just as the bhie- 
ruck is the natural color of the pigeon. You may take 
tlie prize winners of all the Belgium hare clubs and' breed 
them, and you will find that they will throw young that 
are off color (gray). You will notice our wild rabbits — 
some gray and some bronze — and the same can be said 
of the jackrabbit hare of the prairie — some are gray and 
others rich bronze. As a fad this Belgium business is 
hollow, and bound to fall through. You. are breeding 
the animal for color and shape, and when .you have at- 
tained that, if you examine prize winners you will find 
that it has got the consumption, for rabbits will not 
get that rakish shape unless they have this disease. If 
you are satisfied with an animal that is more stocky and 
moire bronze, or grayer and not so golden, then you 
have a heahhy rabbit, that is good to eat, but not a 
prize winner. I have noticed that consumption is also 
the cause of that lighter bronze, the color aimed at by 
.fanciers. A light bronze will always beat a dark bronze 
at a show. The real truth of the matter— and I think I 
should know — is that if you want to win a prize you must 
have a side rabbit. A large, strong, healthy rabbit never 
won a prize at a Belgium show, because" they are off 
color — too dark. I have written this in order to keep 
your readers out of this craze. Why, some of the Cali- 
fornia papers have more news about Belgiums than 
about the war! And think of farmers keeping them in 
their cellars! I hope that Californians will not get like 
that Yorkshire man who could not speak with rage upon 
discovering that the baby and not his pet prize bull dog 
was occupying the cradle. I do not wish to underrate 
the value of this particular rabbit in question. I have 
eaten a large number of Belgium hares (rabbits)— that 
is, a rabbit with bluish-colored down and bronze hair — 
atid.l can say that they have a better flavor than any 
other breed of rabbits. By flavor I do not mean the 
taste of the hutch nor of turnips nor highness, but free- 
dom from su(-h. Next to the Belgium for flavor conies 
the silver gray. ' t-, 
In conclusion, I would say to Belgium farm ei'^' go info 
the stock raising business in expectation of low prices, 
say 35 cents per pair at the highest, and then you will 
not be disappointed. I am inclined to think that one 
acre will produce as mtich or more, Belgium as any 
other kind of flesh, but it' would be absurd to expect the 
retail public to pay more for them than for chickens or 
ducks, and 35 cents is the average price per pair for 
them in the LInited States and Canadian' markets. 
Speaking of hare-rabbits, I do not'wisii any one to be 
deceived, by the word, as there is no such animal as a 
mule. Such an animal never was bred and never will be. 
The h-are will not cross with' the rabbit under any cir- 
cumstances whatever. G. H. Corsan. 
A Record Sable Antelope Head. 
TiiK sable antelope, one ol the largest and noblest of 
all African antelopes, is, from its splendid horns, high 
courage and the excellent sport it affords, always 
looked upon by all hunters with great admiration. There 
is not a handsomer beast of chase in the world than the 
splendid sable antelope bull, with its coat of glossy black, 
touched with chestnut, its snow-white underparts, bushy, 
upstanding mane rmd fine scimitar-shaped horns, These 
horns are highly valued 'trophies, and form striking 
adornments to' a hali or smoking room. The sable 
antelope stands about thirteen hands at the' withers. 
.■\ RECORD S.M3LE .-XNTEI.OPE HE.\D. 
When vvounded or set up at bay it will charge savagely, 
and with a few sweeps of its dangerous horns slay hah 
a, dozen dogs. The female is somewhat smaller than the 
male, and her coat chestnut colored, instead of black. 
First discovered by the great hunter-naturaJist, Captain 
Cornwallis Harris, in 1837, in the western portion of the 
present Transvaal country, the sable antelope has since 
been found to range over much of southeast Africa and 
as far north as Nyasaland. Westward it is found in fair 
abundance in the Portuguese territory of Angola. It 
runs with plenty of speed and bottom, 'it is still plentiful 
in the eastern parts of Rhodesia; Mashonaland, where 
Mr. , Selous discovered it in very large numbers, being 
stiff a favorite for this grand bulk. Hitherto the finest 
known pair of horns of the sable antelope, measured by 
Mr. Selous in Rhodesia, and recorded in "liecords of 
Big Game," extended to 47% in. over the qutve. Mr. 
Rowland Ward has, however, lately received a pair of 
horns for setting up which measure no less than 483-^ in. 
This head, a photograph of which we reproduce, was 
obtained by Mr. John H. Hayes, in the Loangwa River 
country, central Africa. A more perfect : pair of horns 
of the sable antelope, showing beautiful symmetry of 
curves -^Uth great strength, we have never set eyes upon. 
— Lonjlbn' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach ua at the 
latest by Monday and as mucb earlier aa practicable 
South Sea Alilis. 
One of the most cotnmon molluscs of the reef waters 
of 1:he South Sea froiti Samoa as far to the west as New 
Guinea is the shell known only by the Samoan name of 
Alili. It has a shape similar to the shell of a land snail, 
it grows to be about 2 inches across, and is a trifle longer 
from point to mouth, Tlie shell is striped with yellow 
and reddish brown. These shells are most common on 
the lagoon side of barrier reefs, where they rest among 
the branches of the coral, and are not exposed to the 
rough usage which would fall to them when carried away 
by the heavy waves. They form a considerable article 
of the diet of the islanders both raw and baked in their 
own shells. 
They are popular for another reason. The mouth of 
every' shell is closed with an operculum which is de- 
cidedly ornamental. This is a boss of shell, flat on the. 
side attached to the animal tissue, where it is marked with 
a whorl, which shows how it is being built up to cor- 
respond with the growth of the shell, of which it forms 
the lid. The other surface is rounded and very smooth; 
it is' colored with a stripe of dark red irregularly blending 
with a circle of a riqh green. The resemblance to an 
eye is not only close enough to cause white people in 
the islands to speak'of these as "cat's eyes," but has led 
the wild natives in the Solomons and other cannibal 
islands to insert the disks to serve as eyes for their war 
gods of wood and (;halk. 
Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
Musk-Oxen for Sweden. 
It will be remembered that some years ago the Hon. 
C. J. JoTies. known more familiarly as Buffalo Jones, 
made the long and diflicuff journey to the Barren 
Grounds for the purpose of capturing young musk- 
oxen, which he intended to bring to the United States. 
How he went, what he did there, the securing of the 
calves arid their subsequent loss, is all told in Mr, 
Jones' "Forty Years of Adventure." 
It appears that Prof., Kolthoff, the leader of a Nor- 
wegian Arctic expedition, has recently returned to 
Sweden, bringing with him a male and a female calf of 
the nuvsk-ox. Prof. Kolthoff believes in the possibility 
of acclim.atizing, domesticating and breeding the musk- 
ox, and has a high idea of the value of this animal on 
account of its heavy coat of wool, which is said to be 
extremely strong and fine. It is reported to be the pur- 
pose of Prof. Kolthoff, as soon as these animals appear 
to be acclimatized, to set them free in the mountains of 
the North, where it is thought they will do wjell. 
It is of course well known that in ancient times the 
musk-ox was found throughout the Arctic regions, but 
it has now become extinct everywhere except in. eastern 
Arctic America. - . 
Mayor and Chief of Police Taken In. 
The current issue of the Suffolk County News reports: 
"State Fish and Game Protector John F. Overton, of 
Port Jefferson, is a man who believes in enforcing the 
law. Learning that the law against shooting wild ducks 
from sail boats in the Great South Bay was being violated, 
he came over to the south side and went out in Mr. 
Havemeyer's yacht on Tuesday. While cruising off Say- 
ville he detected Everett Rogers, of Bay Shore, and his 
friends, George B. Burgkamp, Mayor, and William Vetter, 
Chief of Police of West Hoboken, violating the law. They 
were arrested and taken before Justice Frederick Smith 
Wright at Islip, and by advice of counsel pleaded guilty. 
The three men were fined $15 each." 
Commenting on this, a Sing Sing correspondent writes, 
under date of Oct. 27: Great SeTuth Bay, with its report 
of arrests for violations of game law, calls to mind a 
snnilar case of "shooting ducks out of a sail boat" which 
occurred here two weeks ago. We have a curiosity, a 
local game warden, Frederick Cronk by name, who has 
attended strictly to business, to the undoing of illegal 
shooters to the tune of $72 for the quartet. In spite of 
numerous violations this is the first instance where fines 
have been imposed— a case worth mentioning. Would 
there were more like Cronk. C. G. Blandford. 
100 Sportsmen's Tlna$. 
Some of the Queet Dfscdveries Made fcy Those Who Are 
Looking for Game or Fish. 
27 
Colonel B. B. Jacksoti,. of Siskiyou county, Cal. tells 
this story: ';^In 1849, I and eight other Oregonians ran 
across ICit Carsop and General Fremont with a small 
lorce of men, near the sink of the Humboldt in Nevada. 
I hey had been rounded up by a lot of Indians, but we 
beat them off, and all went intoi camp together on the 
spot. Provisions had got pretty low, and one day Carson 
proposed to me that we go out and try for some deer. 
We started out together, and met witli poor luck and 
while separated from Kit I took a shot at a fat buck in 
the brush, , but he got away from me. Just after I fired 
T noticed a fluttering sound coming from the direction 
in which I had aimed, and upon investigation I found a 
young goose, which had been slightly injured but had 
become entangled in the thick underbrush and 'thus pre- 
vented from escaping. At this juncture Carson came 
up and I proposed that we take a rest, at the same time 
telling him that I was going to mark the goose and let 
It go. For this purpose I took a tin tag which always 
came around the percussion cap boxes furnished by 
Uncle Sam m those days, an^ marked the initials of my 
name and the date on the tag in heavy and enduring 
characters with a file which we carried to repair the 
locks of our guns. This tag was twasted around the 
goose s leg m such a manner as to prevent its falling off 
and he was released. That was the last I ever heard of 
the goose until May, 1894, when a letter informed me 
that Jim Sturgeon, editor of the Homer Index, had the 
goose in his possession, alive and well. My information 
stated that the tag was intact and that the initials were 
stul plainly visible." 
