Sept. 9, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
211 
ing of (he animal. Without having had any experience, 
1 was not going to seize him in the same nonchalant way 
as my Burman friend. On the contrary, I took good care 
to have his head under a stick before catching hold of 
him. At first I began by gripping him very tightly, but I 
soon found it was not at all necessary unless he was 
wriggling. I have referred to the performance of the 
Burmese snake charmers as marvellous to the uninitiated. 
By that I mean that when one has had a little experience 
of the ways of this snake the feat does not appear so 
w'onderful.' The first thing required in any dealing with 
venomous snakes is a certain amount of self-confidence. 
If yon want to seize a snake at a given moment, seize 
him ; do not go as if to catch hold of him and then draw 
your hand away. When you have got him, hold him firm- 
ly, as close to the head as possible. Do not get alarmed 
and try to get rid of him quickly, but make sure that all 
his body is clear of you first. 
The secret of the charmers’ success is this, the hama- 
dryad and cobra have only one method of attack, and that 
is as I have described it. This they never vary. Whether 
lying coiled up or otherwise they have to erect a certain 
length of body before they are able to strike, then you 
know that the strike is coming and ought to be able to 
avoid it. If you look at one of these serpents in its box 
it will rear up its head, expand its hood and remain 
motionless in this position for hours. This snake cannot 
make a snap at one like a viper. 
The hamadryad has the reputation of being the only 
snake that will attack mankind of its own initiative with- 
out being molested. There certainly have been many au- 
thentic instances of such attacks, but I am inclined to 
think it is in only a few cases that the snake will do this. 
Probably the serpent has very good' reason for its fierce- 
ness, viz., that someone has been close _to_ where the fe- 
male has just deposited her eggs, and it is for this rea- 
son that she attacks him. The constricting power of this 
.snake has been greatly overrated, and in point of fact is 
practically non-existent. With a little practice I found I 
kould feed my captive with ease. — G. Stigand, in London 
Field. 
A Late Singer. 
When the lightness and airiness of summer has de- 
parted and the swooning dog days have come, then the 
(migrants that made the woods musical have all fallen iiitO' 
a melancholy silence — all but one. The exception is the 
red-eyed vireo, commonly called the preacher bird. Up 
among the dusty drooping leaves, with the August sun 
hot upon him he continues to hold forth. But is it really 
fair to compare his vocal efforts to preaching! For one 
I think not. It is true he phrases dogmatically, as it 
.were, and iterates, but how sweet — how musical it really 
is — how free from gloom and uncomfortable suggestion. 
If he is .a preacher he is of the order of dryads — a voice 
from the pure, joyous heart of nature. Some writer on 
birds (T think it is Miss Mabel Osgood Wright) has said 
that he ought to be silent when late summer comes, as the 
whisper of leaves is then enough. But I cannot agree 
'with this view. Thei'e is always something oppressive in 
silence, and the silence of the woods can hardly be said 
to be relieved by the whispering of leaves — this indeed 
bnly seems to emphasize it. At a little distance the warb- 
ling of the vireo might be mistaken almost for the gurg- 
ling of a brook, and its persistence would add to the illu- 
sion. Surely there is nothing in this to offend the ear 
of one disposed to contemplation or even slumber. 
But every one to his taste. For my own part I am al- 
ways happy to hear the vireo at the end of summer. Un- 
doubtedly then a species of eclipse falls upon nature — the 
woods become sombre and drowsy, as it were — there is 
a presage of the fall — the season of decay and death. And 
the migrants feel it, for with the one excepted they not 
only fall silent but betake themselves to solitary thickets 
and mepe the days away. How grateful we ought to feel 
to the vireo who does not fall a victim to the depressing 
influence of the season, but still remains in view and lifts 
up his voice as cheerily as. he did in the buoyant days of 
June. Albeit his song is so different from that of the 
British robin he reminds me of the latter in his constancy 
and gay philosophy — not to the same extent, of course, 
for the British robin sings all winter long. “You see it, 
you know it; do you hear me? Do you believe it?’’ the 
vireo has been represented as saying by Mr. Wilson 
Flagg. I had this in mind one day strolling through 
he woods. Presently I espied my little friend up among 
he branches. I repeated Mr. Flagg’s interpretation, when 
he following answer seemed to reach my ear: “The pul- 
fit? Forget it! When you hear me, can you believe it?” 
‘No,” I said, “I cannot; I will not; I do not!” 
Vireo olivaceus the learned ones call him, and the 
'lame at least indicates his prevailing tint — olive. This 
olends so well with the faded foliage that the gay sprite 
would hardly ever be detected were it not for his brisk 
movements, for even while he sings he keeps on the go, 
seeking his living. Happy the bird or the man who can 
sing while he works. 
The distribution of this exponent of the cheerful life is 
very extensive. I have found him even on Nantucket, 
where birds are few. About the quaint old port of entry 
ire clustered the only large trees on the island. Here in 
i hoary branching elm the familiar voice was to be heard 
It all hours of the day — morning, noon and evening — 
echoing over the slumberous village. It was a solitary 
voice of its kind and for that reason I studied it the more 
elosely. I was surprised to find it possessed a note un- 
tieard elsewhere, viz., a shrill and more or less prolonged 
whistle. I puzzled over this for some time and finally 
arrived at this solution : Now, if song birds are few on 
Nantucket there is another variety which simply abounds 
;here, and this is the “rooster.” At dawn (to the woe of 
the sleeper) ’tis “Cock-a-doodle-do ! Cock-a-doodle-do !” 
from near and far and east and west and north and south, 
fill the whole welkin rings. Perhaps, I reflected, the sim- 
ple ifireo, being here alone, thought that the final note of 
:hanticleer would be an addition to his song and adopted 
it. If so, I am sorry for that vireo. A more depraved 
addition to his poetic little roundelay could not well be 
imagined. 
It must he a sad day in our minstrel’s life when he 
reases to sing. I can imagine him get up of a morning 
ihout the middle of Scpiemher and say to himself: 
‘Jninny, but 1 (loii’i feel like singing this mortting.” He 
mounts to the topmost branches of his abode (which he 
has rarely left all summer) and scans the world at large. 
There is a chill in the air, the sky is overcast and a dreary, 
gusty wind is tossing the woods, sending the first harvest 
of leaves a-flying. A change — a radical change. The sum- 
mer is gone — the fall is here. The observer realizes it all 
instinctively and is filled with a strange feeling of unrest. 
The large spreading tree loses for him its fascination, its 
home-like atmosphere; he takes to wandering through the 
woods. Occasionally you will catch a glimpse of him sit- 
ting silent on a branch and peering at you with ruby eyes. 
Strange to see him at once still and silent ! For a week 
or two you will meet him thus and then in a night, like 
the Arab, he will have stolen away. 
Francis Moonan. 
The Wild Pigeons and Their Fate. 
Squam Lake, Holderness, N, H., Sept. 2 . — Editor 
Forest and Stream: A batch of belated Forest and 
Streams has just reached me, and in the issue of Aug. 19 
I find an article of very peculiar interest to me. It is 
entitled “The Pigeon’s Fate” and is signed “Noynek.” 
The fate of the passenger pigeon has been to me for 
many years a problem of extraordinary interest and some 
readers of Forest and Stream may recall that on several 
occasions I have through its columns stated my belief that 
the sudden going out of the countless hosts of that noble 
bird was due mainly not to the usually assigned causes — 
ruthless slaughter by man and beast at the breeding places 
— but some cataclysm of nature. 
The slaughter referred to was a fact, of course; but 
having in my youth seen the pigeon flights of such extent 
as would be now quite unimaginable, I have steadfastly 
refused to believe that this vast aggregate of birds could 
have been destroyed so quickly by any of the agencies 
usually accredited with their destruction. I have several 
times, once I think within a year, in these columns pro- 
pounded my theory that the main pigeon flight was de- 
stroyed by being caught by a cyclone in crossing the Gulf 
of Mexico, and I have vainly sought, not only in the 
public press but by inquiry of all ornithologists person- 
ally known to me and by correspondence with others for 
data as to the southern limit of the winter migration of 
the pigeon, assuming that if it could be proved that the 
pigeons did not cross the Gulf in their annual flight my 
particular theory must be abandoned. 
In support of my theory I adduced other instances of 
the great reduction if not extermination of other species 
by the sudden action of natural causes and numerous 
instances of bird destruction by a tornado, and especially 
of the wholesale destruction of certain flights of pigeons 
by this very means. I cited the statement that Pigeon 
Cove, Mass., derived its name from the washing ashore 
there in the early time of a great mass of dead pigeons 
which had been killed by a tornado ; of an account pub- 
lished in a Montreal paper of a similar happening many 
years ago when a flight of pigeons was whelmed by a 
tornado in the waters of Lake Michigan, the bodies of the 
drowned birds being thrown up in windrows on the lake 
shore above Milwaukee. 
But the most significant thing and the one which long 
ago first set me to thinking on the subject was a news- 
paper item, unfortunately not preserved, to the effect that 
certain sailors coining into the port of New Orleans re- 
ported having sailed through leagues and leagues of water 
covered thickly with dead pigeons. Here, I said to my- 
self, was at last an adequate cause for what we know has 
happened, viz., the so sudden termination of the annual 
pigeon flights that were the wonder of my boyhood when 
living on the shores of the Fox River in northern Illinois. 
Singularly enough, I have never been able till very re- 
cently to find an ornithologist or even any scientific man 
who took any serious stock in this theory of cataclysm, 
the old idea of destruction by man and vermin being un- 
questioned and universally considered adequate. 
Learning that Prof. Lynds-Jones, of Oberlin College, 
was one of the best authorities on bird migration, I ad- 
dressed him, a letter on the subject which seemed to me 
of sufficient biological interest to engage the attention of 
scientific men and propounded to him my theory; 
To my delight he replied that the old explanations of 
the disappearance of the pigeon had always seemed to him 
utterly inadequate and he thought the data I adduced 
quite sufficient to warrant systematic inquiry and readily 
promised his co-operation. 
Now comes the article of “Noynek” with its singular 
testimony in the very line of my theory and of peculiar 
interest to me in its suggestion that the great pigeon 
flight may not have been whelmed in a migratory flight 
across the Gulf, but have been forced into the Gulf from 
the Texas shore by the fierce “norther” described, which 
beat with such fury for several days upon the forest near 
the coast and, as stated in the dialect of the aged negro 
from whom “Noynek”- got the story,, “dun blowed de tim- 
ber most to pieces.” 
Anyone who has encountered a genuine Texas “north- 
er” has had such an experience as would make him quite 
capable of believing almost anything that might be told of 
its fell and destructive possibilities to anything caught un- 
protected in its course. 
I earnestly hope that “Noynek” will give us more on 
this subject with fullest additional details possible. Lean 
assure him that anything further from him on this sub- 
ject will find one most interested reader, and I hope many 
more, and I believe he has hit upon testimony which may 
prove of great importance in the solution of the question 
which, as he' says, “fairly nettles the thoughtful lover of 
nature.” 
If the cataclysm theory is the true one, and the par- 
ticular occurrence narrated to him by the aged African 
was of sufficient extent to account for the sudden disap- 
pearance of the main pigeon fight, and if the old man’s 
recollection be correct that it was “’bout twenty-five years 
ago,” there must surely be many persons living on that 
Texas coast who could corroborate the story and give 
details of the greatest interest. I hope, therefore, that 
“Noynek” will not fail to prosecute such inquiry as he 
will doubtless know how to make among his friends and 
acquaintances on the Gulf (;oasl and will report In 
Forest .^nd Stream, C. H, Ames. 
Homs Seven Feet Across. 
In Forest and Stream of Aug. 5 we printed an item 
telling of the discovery in Kansas of a pair of horns 
which measured seven feet from tip to tip, and suggested 
that these horns belonged to one of the great bisons of 
Postertiary time, having in mind Bison latifroms, de- 
scribed by Harlan. We are advised by Mr. F. A. Lucas, 
Curator in Chief of the Museum of the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute, who has seen photographs of the specimen, that this 
is an example of Bison latifrons as supposed. He adds : 
“It is one of the finest examples of this species ever 
discovered, and marks the westernmost range of the 
species. As is almost inevitably the case with fossil 
bison, the frontal bones only were present, but in this 
case they were_ united and the horns in their natural 
position. This is not the case with the Cincinnati speci- 
men, in which the frontal bones had been separated. This 
species is by far the finest of North American bison, and 
must have been a magnificent animal.” 
Persons interested in American bison should read Mr. 
Lucas’ pamphlet on the “Fossil Bis'on of North America,” 
in one of the Bulletins of the National Museum, about 
1887. This gives, so far as was then known, the number 
of species and their distribution. 
From this paper we learn that there are half a dozen 
species of fossil bison in America, but that the remains 
are likely to be fragmentary and difficult of comparison 
with each other. It might thus well enough result that 
a species should be described from the tooth, another 
from a horn, another from a leg bone, all of which might 
have belonged to- the same individual, or at least to the 
same species. In all the bison, however, the teeth are 
very much alike, and do not afford very good characters. 
A horn core described as bison by Mr. Rhoads appears 
to be a horn core of the muskox, while another species 
of “bison” described from a horn core, by Cope, seems 
to be founded on the horn of a species of bighorn sheep. 
Fossil bison were found pretty much all over the 
United States, being very abundant in the ice cliffs of 
Eschscholtz Bay, and occurring southward of across the 
continent to Florida. 
Bison latifrons (Harlan) was described in 1825, and 
the type we believe is now -in the Academy of Natural 
Sciences in Philadelphia. It came, as already remarked, 
from the Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, and specimens have 
been found in a number of localities in Florida, as well 
as in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Ohio and 
Texas. 
Black Snake Chatming a Catbitd* 
The following description, of such an occurrence is 
taken from the annals of the Jamestown expedition in 
1607. A boat party of colonists were on their way up the 
James River to the village of Opechancanough, Chief 
Powhatan’s first lieutenant. 
This eminent aboriginal, it is stated, was not a native of 
Virginia, but came from a distant country to the south- 
west, possibly from some province of the Mexican empire. 
The fact is of ethnological and historical value as show- 
ing that an early intercourse was current between sections 
geographically wide apart. There is abundant other testi- 
mony to prove not only commercial but genital connec- 
tion between tribes dwelling far apart. 
The snake, which was about six feet long, was making 
a small continual hissing noise through his nostrils. The 
bird seemed to be in great distress, often coming within 
reach of the snake, who turned his head in every direc- 
tion as the bird flew around him, although its mate en- 
deavored by striking with its bill and wing's to make the 
serpent lose its prey. Notwithstanding all this annoy- 
ance, which hurt the snake very much, as appeared from 
his wincing, he continued his spell till the bird, grown 
faint and weary, became much disordered, its feathers 
rising loose from its body, was seized with a tremor, 
settled down on its feet within reach of the charmer, its 
tail and wings being drawn forward before its head, and 
its head bowed as if resigned to death. By this time the 
bird’s mate had flown away and the snake took the vic- 
tim’s head into his mouth without resistance. 
This account would seem to furnish all the evidence 
needed as regards this much vexed question. It is very 
graphic. Charles Hallock. 
The Food of Hommingbads. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In a recent article on the hummingbird by Charles F. 
Holder I find the following: “When grown up the birds 
demand insect food, which is their normal diet. That 
they are drinking honey from flowers is a stretch of the 
imagination perpetuated by some one, as the minute birds, 
when poising before flowers, are searching for small flies, 
gnats and other insects which creep in between the petals 
and blossoms.” 
The best authority on hummingbirds and their habits 
was the late Didymus, and he has frequently told me that 
the birds do not touch insects, but live exclusively on 
the honey extracted from flowers. He was familiar with 
the habits of the bird as found not only in the United 
States but in both Central and South America, and had 
spent nearly three-quarters of a century in the study of 
the bird and was well equipped with information as to 
their food and habits. ' Chad. 
It Interest Them. 
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