Aug. 12, 1905.] 
or such a matter from the ground, when one of the ro- 
dents missing its footing came down, kerwhack, to the 
ground. Not hurt in the. least, seemingly, it quickly 
jumped up, frisked up the trunk of the tree, and was 
again playing with its fellow as if nothing had happened. 
If a person had fallen from a proportionate height — ■ 
which would be some 500 or 600 feet — and struck on the 
ground, what kind of a looking object would he then be? 
Agkin, in the line of swimming, nature is much more 
partial to all the.other orders than to mankind, for there 
is scarcely an animate thing excepting man but can swim 
instinctively. Pitch overboard into the sea a lot of men 
who have never learned to swim, and at least ninety-nine 
out of every hundred would drown in less than twenty 
minutes, while every other animal, whether accustomed to 
the water or not, could easily manage to keep afloat. 
Still again, should one at any time wish to go on a 
.journey to Florida, for instance, he would have to work 
:steadily and economize like fury for at least a whole year 
to get the needed cash to pay his fare and his other ex- 
jpenses, while a bird, one of the long-winged swimmers, 
(could easily get there in less than twenty-four hours, and 
have the rest of the time to loaf around in that delightful 
section; besides, the bird, while on its journey, could vary 
the programme by an occasional fish dinner and a jolly 
good swim in the sea. ' 
Now, as to the power of his voice, man is proportional- 
ly far behind many of the other orders in that respect. If 
the average person had a voice in proportion to a frog’s 
croaking, the most powerful foghorn would be almost 
as a whisper compared to it. Should a politician have 
such a sonorous delivery — which we are all mighty 
- thankful is not so — he could stand on an eminence some- 
where near the middle of any State and stump the whole 
commonwealth at one lick. 
Also, in regard to singing, how much greater volume 
has a bird’s voice comparatively than a human’s! If one 
of our noted singers had as loud and as clear a voice pro- 
portionately as a hermit thrush or a red-winged black- 
bird has, he or she could take a position on one of the 
sky-scrapers and charm the whole population of Greater 
New York with her vocal music and not half try. 
I Then in regard to running and leaping. There is 
scarcely an animal, aside from a snail, but what can beat 
man out of his boots in those exercises — that is, taking 
into consideration the differences in size and weight. If 
one could run as swiftly as the majority of other animate 
things, autos, wheels, and trolleys would be useless 
articles. Supposing an athlete were capable of making a 
succession of leaps of fifty feet each, he could fill Madi- 
son Square Garden with spectators night after night from 
. floor to ceilin,g. Now there are lots of our wild quadru- 
I peds that can double that distance proportionately and 
keep up that gait for quite a long time. 
[ Another illustration. If in proportion to his size and 
weight, one could leap or jump as far as a common flea 
can, why, goodness gracious, if he, facing west, stood in 
one of our Eastern States and commenced leaping, about 
ten jumps would land him over on the other side of the 
Rocky Mountains 1 
And I sometimes have wondered whether poor, sickly, 
‘ bald-headed, spectacled, toothless or semi-toothless hu- 
- inanity would not be willing, or even glad, to part with 
“a few” of its highly-strung mental faculties in exchange 
for the bounding healths, the heads as well thatched, the 
' teeth as sound and as pearly white, and the senses as 
i .acute as those of the average mammal. 
But why continue this any further? If one will but no- 
I dice he will find that nature is no more partial to man — 
1 .even if she has endowed him- with a superior mind — than 
! do any one of the other orders of her animate children. 
A. L. L. 
' 3I1LHURST, N. J. 
New York Zoological Society. 
The annual Report of the New York Zoological 
' Society for 1904 comes to us in an imposing volume of 
j almost 275 pages, by far the largest as yet brought out. 
As usual, it is handsomely printed and is illustrated by a 
jnultitude of engravings of great beauty and value to 
all who are interested in the Zoological Park or in the 
:zoology of the vertebrates. 
The total membership of the Zoological Society is now 
4,578,, of which 1,315 are annual members, 182 life mem- 
bers, and the remainder founders, associate founders and 
patrons, with one benefactor, Mr. William Rockefeller. 
The report of the executive committee shows constant 
progress in the development of the park and the aquar- 
ium; a number of new buildings such as the bird house, 
the ostrich house, the small mammal house, the Harri- 
man Alaskan house with its totem pole, have been erected 
and each one of these is full of attractions to the many 
visitors to the park. The improvements in the aquarium 
' have been many. The Zoological Park has been recently 
made more accessible by the opening of the new rapid 
transit system, which carries the public by a new route 
and for a single fare to the very borders of the park. 
That this accessibility is being taken advantage of more 
and more, is shown by the constantly increased attend- 
ance, which consists very largely of very poor people, 
whose opportunities for pleasure are limited and to whom 
the opening of the park with its multitude of attractions 
is a very great boon and blessing. 
Great numbers of additions to the collections have been 
received during the year. Among these are a riding ele- 
phant from Col. Oliver H. Payne, two snow leopards 
from Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss, a Baker’s roan antelope 
and five Punjab wild sheep from Mr. George C. Clark, 
two Burrhel sheep from Mr. J. J. Hill, a large number 
of ostrich-like birds for the filling of the new ostrich 
house from Mr. Charles T. Barney, and a great number 
of other gifts, a full list of which is given in its proper 
place. Mr. Grant, the secretary of the Society, tells 
briefly of landscape and forestry work which has been 
done in the park, to which article is added a list of the 
trees and shrubs found in the park. 
The Report of the Director is full of interesting detail, 
and gives a programme of what is contemplated in the 
work of construction for the year 1905. The showing is 
a fine one. Mr. C. H. Townsend, the Director of the 
aquarium, reports interestingly on conditions there. The 
attendance during the year — over. 1,600,000 people— shows 
how highly the aquarium is valued by the New York 
public, It is also doing a remarkable educational work in 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
furnishing small aquaria for schools to assist teachers of 
biology in their work of instruction. Certain work of 
fish hatching is going on all the time. This is open to 
public inspection and drouses much interest. The gifts 
to the aquarium as well as tllosfe to the park are duly 
listed. 
In addition to the reports of officers are several special 
paper-s by persons belonging to the Society. Mr. W. T. 
Hornaday describes a new white bear from British Co- 
lumbia under the name Ursns ketmodei; Mr. Townsend 
writes most interestingly of certain pinnipeds, or seals, 
giving data as to their present commercial importance ; 
Drs. Harlow Brooks and W. Reid Blair discuss cage 
paralysis of primates in captivity; Mr. Raymond. L. Dit- 
mars gives some “Observation on the Mental Capacity 
and Habits of Poisonous Serpents,” besides describing a 
new species of rattlesnake and an unusual variation in 
another rattlesnake ; Mr. C. William Beebe gives an in- 
tresting account of the ostriches and their allies, and Mr. 
Madison Grant has a paper — already noticed in Forest 
AND Stream — on the Rocky Mountain goat. 
All these articles, as indeed the whole report, are illus- 
trated by beautiful reproductions of photographs carefully 
printed on heavy paper. The volume is one that belongs 
in every library. 
Siberian Birds. 
In a recent number of the Bulletin of the American 
Museum of Natural History Dr. J. A. Allen reports 
interestingly on the birds collected in northeastern 
Siberia by the Jessup North Pacific Expedition. The 
collecting ground was on the north and west shores 
of the Okhotsk Sea, and so very close to the point 
where the old world and the new approach each other 
within a few miles. Nevertheless there are scarcely 
any American birds included in the list except those 
which are common to the old world and the new alike, 
and a few sea birds which might readily enough in their 
wanderings overstep the exact boundaries which nature 
seems to have set for some species. In the list there 
are two new forms described, one a lark the other a 
titlark {Anthus). 
The collector has made quite full notes on the habits 
of some of the species which came under his observa- 
tion and. often gives the Russian name of the bird, yet 
this does not necessarily mean much since the Russians 
seem to have special names only for the larger birds, 
while small land birds are called P’teet-ish-ka, meaning 
little birds. In the same way the smaller sandpiper are 
called Koo-lich-kah, the diminutive of Koo-leek, a sand- 
piper. Mr. Buxton, the collector, was assisted by a 
Russian officer who is greatly interested in the fauna 
of the region and who presented Mr. Baxton with 
about 220 skins. 
An important species on which the inhabitants de- 
pend more or less for food is the Siberian white-fronted 
goose, which reaches the Anadyr district about May i, 
coming a little earlier or a little later, according to 
the weather. By June I they have all arrived, and by 
the middle of June the eggs are laid. In the latter part 
of July they repair to the large lakes inland to moult, 
and when they have lost the power of flight, the Rus- 
sians make expeditions to these lakes and kill many 
of the geese. The Tungus also visit these places with, 
canoes and secure many geese. The migration from the 
north begins Sept, i and continues for a month. Some 
of the hunters kill large numbers of the geese and salt 
them for winter use. 
Mr. Buxton found the black grouse near Marcova, 
where they are said to be common. The willow ptar- 
migan and the rock ptarmigan are found, but the former 
is much the more abundant. Of the raven Mr. Buxton 
says: 
“One of the most interesting and conspicuous birds 
in northeastern Siberia. During the winter many of 
them congregate about the Russian and native settle- 
ments, where they find garbage and dead dogs for food. 
When traveling in winter time one also encounters 
them on the barren tundra far from villages. At that 
time they will come up behind the sledge and sail slow- 
ly over the whole length of the dog teams, eyeing the 
outfit critically, alight on the^^snow off to one side of 
the trail, and then repeat the performance after the 
. sledges have passed. The dogs prick up their ears and 
race madly over the snow so long as the raven continues 
in sight. For days at a time this is the only diversion 
that the traveler has from his monotonous journey. 
They are a sacred bird to the Koraks, who hang rein- 
deer heads and pieces of meat on poles” about their 
camps for them. 
“At Kooshka, about April i, they begin to fly down 
the river every evening in large numbers to the sea, 
where they roost, and return up the river the next 
morning. They come straggling down after their day’s 
foraging like a lot of children just out from school. 
Some play on the way, chasing each other and circling 
about anything that attracts their attention; some fly 
rapidly along, alone and in groups of four or five; 
while others amuse themselves by uttering all their 
notes and calls. Have often heard one far up the river, 
long before it came in view, running over these notes, 
and it continued until it passed and disappeared over 
Maiak Point, two miles distant. They have seven dis- 
tinct notes. 
“When sailing along, looking for food, they have a 
curious way of closing one wing and dropping several 
feet on that side, and then extending it and closing the 
other, repeating this several times, which makes them 
appear to revolve in the air.” 
> The paper is one of unusual interest. 
Sharks and Bathers. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have many times heard it stated that there is no 
well authenticated instance of a shark having attacked 
a Caucasian while bathing. I am not able to furnish 
you positively with such an instance on this occasion, 
but can come fairly close to it. 
On the 14th inst, an . enlisted rnan by the name of 
Abernathy was swimming with two companions in the 
bay at this station. He was out from the beach about 
200 yards, and not far from a steamboat at its cus- 
jS9 
tomary anchorage. While he was swimming along, he 
was attacked by something in the water with such 
violence that he cried out with pain. His companions 
immediately came to his rescue, and a boat was sent 
from the steamboat, which picked up the whole three 
and carried them to land. On taking him out of the 
water, he was found to be bleeding profusely from his 
right foot and ankle, and by the time medical aid 
could be _ obtained, which was but a comparatively 
short period, he had nearly died from loss of blood. 
The surgeon quickly stopped the bleeding, took him 
to the hospital and dressed the injured member. He 
found several gashes penetrating to the bone — one on 
bis ankle well up, one on his heel, and one on his 
instep, each several inches long, besides minor ones. 
I he surgeon took fifty-nine stitches in dressing his 
injury, and he informed me that the wound had every 
appearance of having been made by the teeth of a 
shark or some similar animal. I saw the wounds 
myself on the following day, but of course could then 
form no idea as to their origin. I had supposed by 
their number that the fish, or whatever it was, had 
made several snaps at the leg, but Corporal Abernathy 
assured _me such was not the case; he felt but one 
attack; it lasted only for an instant and that was all 
there was of it. The sailors who came out and took 
him into their boat say they saw a lhark attack him 
(I give the remark for what it is worth; any one is at 
liberty to believe as little or as much of it as he may 
choose). It would appear that some large swimming 
animal bit this man most cruelly, and as sharks com- 
monly loiter about steamboats, it is only a fair infer- 
ence that it might have been a shark. 
I am happy to add in conclusion that Corporal 
Abernathy is now doing well, and bids fair to recover; 
but the poor fellow must pass a long and painful 
period before he is able to swim again. 
Wm. T. Flynn. 
. Camp Wallace, Union Province, Luzon, June 16. 
Some Birds,^ Winter Food. 
Mr. W. L. McAtee, of the Biological Survey, Wash- 
ington, D. C., has recently called attention to a food 
supply for birds found in the heaps of drift cast up 
along the shores of rivers, creeks and other bodies of 
water. 
It is a well recognized fact that crows, in winter and 
spring especially when the ground is covered with snow, 
resort to the shores of streams and to the seashore for 
food, but it is not so generally known that jays, black- 
birds and many sparrows do the same. In order to 
ascertain the character and quantity of the available 
food in these drift heaps, Mr. McAtee recently filled a 
half-pint tin can with this material, scraping it in at 
random from the surface of one of the piles. In this 
half pint of material he found by actual count 1,583 
seeds and fruits of more than fifty-five species of plants, 
all of them food eaten by birds and found in stomachs 
that have been examined. Besides the vegetable matter 
there were a few insects in various forms. This obser- 
vation suggests the vast amount of food existing in the 
cast-up material which lines the shores of all our waters, 
and is one of very great interest. 
A New Danger to the Heron. 
Surgeons have long been seeking for some material 
for sutures and ligatures which should be more satis- 
factory than those at present in use, which include cat 
gut, kangaroo tendon, silk worm gut, horse hair and 
silver wire. Dr. Chas. F. Kieffer has recently used and 
suggests in a medical journal that the tendons of the 
cranes and heron make excellent sutures and ligatures 
and seem to possess some advantages over the materials 
at present in use. 
Should these suggestions be generally approved by 
physicians, birds of the heron group are threatened with 
a new danger, which naturalists and bird lovers will 
deplore. Some species of heron have already so greatly 
decreased in numbers that they are even thought to 
be on the verge of extinction, and all have become much 
less abundant than they formerly were. The herons 
are not prolific birds, the number of eggs in the nest 
being small. The danger which threatens this group 
is thus a very real one. 
How Field Mice Live in Winter. 
The farmer with whom I am domiciled has recently 
discovered that some forty young bearing apple trees 
whose leaves are beginning to turn brown, were girdled 
last winter by field mice. The trees are about four 
inches in diameter. Most of them will certainly die, 
as the bark is eaten off all around, but a few may live, 
not having been entirely girdled. Besides apple trees, 
quite a few maples and birches have suffered in the 
same way. The cinctures are some twenty inches above 
ground, indicating the winter snow level. While the 
Manket mantled the earth at this line a thaw came and 
a crust resulted. This impounded the mice and they 
ate the bark as a last resort to keep from starving. Very 
few could have died, for they are unvisually abundant 
this summer. The hay harvest has uncovered hundreds. 
C. H. 
Plainfield, Mass. 
Fish Stop a Ttain. 
Two five-inch fish held up a freight train on Jhe Jersey 
Central Railroad yesterday. When the train neared 
Whiting station the steam began to give out, and it was 
necessary to haul up at Whiting for want of power. The 
fires were drawn and an investigation made. There were 
no obstructions in the boiler. The feed pipe at the boiler 
end was clear, but when the feed pipe opening at the 
tender end was examined it was discovered that two little 
fish had been plastered, dead, over the opening. They 
were taken out and the train resumed its journey. Rail- 
road men say that they have heard of eels plugging up 
locomotives, but never before of fish stopping a train. It 
is supposed that the two got into the tender tank when 
water was drawn from one of the brooks on the. road.— 
New York Times, 
