FOREST AND STRFW 
819 
fine adult shad from the Coosa River. Mr. E. J. Anderson, 
of Trenton, N. J., forwarded the second salmon, talmo salar, 
received, wilhin a short time, from the Delaware ltiver. This 
fine specimen. weighing 23* pounds, is now seen dally by 
many persons. It is believed to be one of the returns from 
eggs presented by the German Government in 1873, About 
5,000 of which were successfully planted in one of the 
tributaries of the Delaware. 
Mr. Blnckford contributed brook trout from at least twenty 
localities in the United States and Canada, besides species of 
salrno fr 3m England, Ireland and Scotland. From these a 
senes of beautiful casts have been prepared. Forest and 
Stream and Rod and Gun has already noticed the 47 £ pound 
salmon trout and the 60 pound cod which came from Mr. 
Blackford two weeks ago. The stomachsof both wero empty, 
That of the cod was perforated by the pubic bone of a pleu- 
ronectoid, the pre-anal spine of one just appearing externally, 
two other bones having escaped into the abdominal cavity. 
A beautiful albino cod was shipped by Messrs. Smith and 
Oakes, of Gloucester. This was 6aid to be entirely lemon- 
yellow and white when caught. On its arrival the lemon- 
yellow was interspersed with spots and blotches of oraoge, 
aud small areas of gray and black. A second individual like 
the above was reported a few days later. There wns no sign 
of disease about either of these cod, indeed they were in prime 
condition. 
Among a lot of fresh fishes sent by Sir. G. Brown Goode 
from Charleston, is one not often received here ; it is the 
“gilt head," called “ bastard snapper ” in Charleston market, 
the Sparus aculeatus of Prof. Gill’s catalogue of East Coast 
Fishes. Another interesting species is a Sargus, which close- 
ly resembles Pocy's Bargua eaudimacula. No species of Bargua 
is recorded from the East Coast of the United States, except 
Bargua ambaaais of Gunther, which is nothing more than our 
common scup. 
To Mr. Silas Stearns, of Pensacola, Fla., the collection is 
indebted for an addition to the fauna of the United States in 
the fine species of Caulolatilua secured by him. This has 
been described in full under the name of Caulolatilua micropa, 
Goode and Bean. It is readily distinguished from C. chryaopa , 
Cuv. aud Val., and C. eyanopa, Poey, by its deeper and 
thicker body, its smaller eye, which is contained 6 times in 
head, instead of limes as in eyanopa , or 4 times as in 
chryaopa, by the position of its nostrils midway from snout to 
eye, by its shorter pectoral, and by its greater number of scales 
(120) in the lateral line. A drta'kd description will appear 
in the proceedings of tbe U. S. National Museum. 
Just as this hasty sketch was supposed to be finished, a 
new arrival made its appearance, and as it is of special interest 
it deserves mention. I refer to a bishop-ray or whip-ray, 
called also skate and corn cracker, the ^tobatis narinari of 
Muller and Henle. One of its young is just escaping through 
tbe vent ; the whole of the tail, which is remarkably long 
compared with that of the parent, being extruded. 
Tablbton H. Bean. 
U. B. National Museum, April 20, 1878. 
(routing excursion. He sends us a list of fifty-seven species 
observed by him during his trip, all of them being mentioned 
by "their local names. In these local designations consists the 
chief interest of the list, and as a few of them arc new to us 
we should like to have the assistance of some of our corres- 
pondents in identifying the birds to which they belong. What 
species is it that is called chulet ? and what is the snake hawk ? 
Dibdabcr is, we presume, Podilymbus podieepa, and partridge 
woodpecker, Hylotomus pileatua, while the snake hawk may, 
perhaps, be BuUo lineatxu, as it kills a good many snakes. 
Others of the names are more cusily recognized, as uionniug 
dove, chuweet, oven bird, skunk blackbird, striped wood- 
pecker, marsh quail and canker bird ( cedar bird). The last 
named, so culled from its supposed habit of destroying gieat 
numbers of canker worms. 
Inadility of Our Quail to Make Long Flights.— Mr 
Editor — was the opinion of my grandfather, the late 
George Mason, of Gunston Hall, Fairfax County, Vu., n 
sportsman of great skill and experience, that the Virginia 
quail ( Orlyx virgltuanus) was incapable of flying a greater 
distance than about half a mile. This belief was founded on 
the fact that full grown coveys attempting to fly across Ro- 
llick Creek, between his estate and Cedar Grove, the resi- 
dence of the McCartya, at a poiut where it was half n mile 
wide, were often picked up on the beach in on exhausted con- 
dition, or even fell into the water, unable to reach the shore ; 
and on the further fuct, that he had never seen one of these 
birds fly further than half a mile over lnnd. My own ex- 
perience (and few meu have lmd more with this bird in the 
past thirty years), is to the same effect. They will seldom 
attempt to cross water much over 200 yards wide. I have 
shot many hundreds of them along both banks of the Poto- 
mac, near Leesburg, where it averages 600 yards iu width, 
and never saw one of them attempt to fly across. A friend, 
however, informed me that he had flushed a civey on the 
Virginia shore and they flew straight across, aud ho thought 
all reached the Maryland shore safely. In this case the lands 
were low on both sides, and the covey had no advantage of 
elevation in starting. This flight wns probably 650 yards. 
Lost. November I saw a covey fly 800 yard3 over land to 
cover, and though accurately marked down by a person stand- 
ing near the spot where they reached cover, I could not flush 
one, though using two very good setters. I thought they 
were exhausted by tbeir long flight and were withholding 
their scent, which power, I believe, they unquestionably pos- 
sess. M. G. E. 
Blacksburg, Virginia. 
MORE ABOUT THE EUROPEAN 
STARLING. 
St. John, N. B., Mar. 17, 1878. 
Editor Eorest and Stream: 
The south of England is the home of this beautiful bird, and 
in that part of it called the Weald of Sussex they are found in 
m-eiit numbers They choose the old hollow trees abounding 
fn tbe loXparks in that part of the island as their nesting 
,IJt ‘ ill,™, 1 ,,!. I have known, in my native towD, an occa- 
sSl’nes^under the eaves of the old parish church, and each 
S?n£g spdng saw a battle between the starlings and the 
house sparrows for the possession of a nesting place under 
fhe e»v?s of the old house at home, the former a ways coming 
off victorious. I have never seen a nest in a stone quarry ; 
?iTev live rather, to make their homes adjacent to rich 
th o e Jj n l ’ nnstures aud lawns, where tbeir food abounds. 
Ky never P frequent tbe woods. Their comical chattering 
oSwill whistling is most amusing, and in captivity they 
can be taught many imitative sounds. Their eggs lees anS 
0^“ D L ohnnt the same as the American blackbird. I have 
dark greei?, spotted with white, and inclining to dirty yelfow. 
T ^he 1 8ta^og^ a Are I g^egMiou8^only*i^wmter, when they are 
q I haw takes plaie, and on the approach of 
reassemb e ere y f on d of the comp any of 
spring ^ey pairoir ^ backg q{ the latter , 
sheep, and are f requ y The only litt i e s i n they com- 
ProbaWy K “chards-this to a limited ex- 
tent 8 But many of the choicest soDg birds of Europe are 
Liven to f ii?t“tealiog, “Philomela” not excepted I know 
Dell the north of Europe ; have never seen tbe starling m the 
winter in the Baltic provinces, and I believe that tbe birds 
bred ^ the norlh of En S land cotue soulh m ^vere weathen 
I have frequently picked them up dead from the effects of a 
^ThisTsaflVknow S\he habits of the starling, remembered 
from some thirty years since, when with me 
No nieasnres conta equal the Joys ol a school-boy, 
\vnen Christmas vacation a 1 large lets him ru “* 
To suet taro' the fields and to ebase uo the hedge-rows, 
r And nop “’er a blackbird » lth emsa-bow and gun; 
Or with tones went a-shylng at robins, or trying, 
— — 
Local Nomenclature. — A correspondent, Mr. Charles 
Bavlies of Taunton, MasB., writes to us remarking upon tbe 
grit abundance of birds recently noticed by him while on a 
Winter Range of tite American Goldfinch. — Warner, 
N. II. March 26, 1878.— I noticed in a recent number of the 
Forest and Stream a note irom H. D-, of Boston, on the 
American goldfinch, and your reply ns to tbeir wintering in 
Connecticut. I have noticed for many years that they win- 
tered here, and are often seen in large flocks. Duriug the 
winter of ’70-77 there was an unusually large flock of these 
birds in this vicinity, and I often saw them and have speci- 
mens taken at the time. But I never knew them to assume 
tbo yellow and black plumage of the male until much later in 
tbe season than H. D. mentions. M. (J. LI. 
[This is on extremely interesting note, as Chryaomitria 
triads has never before, we think, been reported to winter so 
far north. — E d.] 
Booming of tub Bittern— Peotone, IU, April 20, 1878.— 
H W. T. E. asks if any one can disprove Thoreau's theory 
about the booming of bittern. I have been quite close to the 
bird at times and have never noticed the “spouting" when 
making tbe noise called “booming." Robins have young 
ones several days old. H. E. 
^oodhnd, $trm mi d garden, 
THIS DEPARTMENT 13 EDITED 11T W. J. DAVIDSON, 8KO. N. Y. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
SOWING WILD RICE. 
Bai-bm, Mass., May 28, 1878. 
Editor Forest and Sthkam: 
Your Issue of April 18 contains a letter from Jucksou Gill- 
banks on tbe cultivation of wild rice. What I warn to know 
is, whether wild rice, or any other seed, will reproduce unless 
thoroughly mature? Gnu wild rice be mature when In tbo 
milk, or partially so? Does any plant drop its seed before 
said seed is ripe ? Iu the case in point, 1 take it that when 
tbo seed is ripe it drops .into the. water, sinks, and finds its 
own resting place, and, in duo season, is reproduced— there 
is no cultivation or covering with soil ; nature furnishes all 
that is necessary in the natural sediment In the water. It 
would, no doubt, lie well for any oue who is going to plant 
now localities, to first break up I ho bottom of the pond and 
offer a better resting place for the seed. 1 shall try this ex- 
periment this fall if l live, but shall order thoroughly ripe 
seed, hut no mud. Yours respectfully, C. T. J. 
Nearly five years ago we began giving instructions in plant- 
ing wild rice, and those persons who were fortunate enough 
to obtain the seed and follow our instructions have geucrully 
succeeded. Wild rice seed does not wait to harden before it 
rattles out of the heads, us other grain docs. When the heads 
become heavy their weight bends the stalks down to tho sur- 
face, where the kernels become soaked in tho water. Tho 
stalks begin to bend at full maturity, but tho grain is succu- 
lent and soft, though not aliictly milky. In grain which lnts 
been gathered a long time and become hardoned, tho germ is 
very tardy in developing itself, anil old seed Is not likely to 
propagate. We must imitate nature closely iu what wu do, 
and therefore it is important to gather tho rlco at tho period 
of its full ripeness, and to sow it In such a manner that It will 
not be swept out of tho mud by curronts or euteu by insects 
or creatures, or left to decay on unsuitable bottoms where it 
cannot tnko root. Therefore, us our correspondent says, It is 
well to chop a strip of three feet wide in tho mud around the 
margin of tho lake or pond, and to sow broadcast before an 
anticipated rise of \*|ter by rains or artificial means. Whore 
the water can bo regulated, it is well to draw off and flood, 
and cover the seed twice. 
A Wobd of Caution.— H. D. Minot, of Boston, Mass., 
says ; 
“Every spring items appear in the papers aunouncing the 
unusually early arrival of certain birds. Let me state iu your 
columns that robins, song sparrows, goldfinches and pigeon 
woodpeckers, all pass tho winter about Boston. I have inva- 
riably seen them for several years. Bluebirds and purple 
finches are said to have been found in southern New England 
throughout the year. A consideration of these facts will 
save much unnecessary astonishment." 
Florida Oranges. — A gentlomuu at Paletka, Florida, [writes 
May 21 : 
There will not ho a full crop this ycov. At. the time tho 
oranges wero the size of small peas we lmd a very violent rain 
storm that stripped tho trees, moro or less, all over tho Btato, 
when the storm passed. 
— — 
Queen b County Agmoultural Society.— ' There will be a 
grand fair held on Thursday nnd Friday tho 13tli anil 14th of 
Juuc, at Mlneola, L. I. 'i'he horlicufor exhibition will ho 
very complete and the money awards handsome. In addition to 
the horses' performances there will be a huso bull tournament. 
For full information apply to J. Howard Ruslunore, Old 
Wcatbury, Queens County, I,. I. 
§lu gfomqL 
Bluebibds and Woodpeckers— Nashville, May 33.— I 
have been much interested for the last few days in watching 
a prolonged combat between some bluebirds and two wood- 
peckers. In a tree close by my bedroom window some wood- 
peckers built a nest last year by hollowing out a place in the 
tree. This year the bluebirds arrived first and occupied the 
nest, and raised some young ones in it. By tho time the 
latter were beginning to take their first flights, the wood- 
peckers returned and tried to take possession of their old 
home. Then commenced tho fight, which lasted for more 
than a week. The bluebirds, old and young, defended their 
home, and to my surprise were able to keep the woodpeckers 
off, and the latter contented themselves by building a new 
nest in another branch of the same tree. 
An Epicurean Eagle.— O ur correspondent, John, of 
Hornellsville, N. Y., writes us inder date of May 12, saying : 
A large white-headed eagle swooped down on a fleck of 
sheep here and made a breakfast on lamb chops before he 
could be driven off. Five pure white robins have been ob- 
served here this spring; all males. They have mated and 
built nests. Two have been shot and stuffed. 
We hope that no more of those white robins will be shot, 
but that their offspring will be watched so a9 to see whether 
there is anything abnormal in their coloration. 
ARRIVALS AT THE PHILADELPHIA ZOOLOGICAL OABDBNt FOB WBHE 
Ending Tub-day, May 81.— One blue Jay, Cyanura crUlata, presented ; 
one ring-necked wake, Oadophut jiumAUu*. presented; one alligator, 
A mUaU»tpp*’»f*, presented ; nine prairie degs. Cvnomya Iwiortcianw,, 
bom in garden. Arthur E. Brown, Gen. Sopt. 
Dr. Dio Lewis has organized a party of forty or fifty 
ladies and gentlemen who 'are to camp out on one of tbe Cali- 
fornia mountains for about five months. 
fo Uorrbbpondbnts.— T tiOBO desiring as to proscribe for their dogs 
»U 1 (jleaue take noto of and describe tao following points In ouoh ani- 
mal: 
1. Age. 9. Food aud modlciao given. 3 Appearance of the eye 
of the oont ; of the tongao and j|pn. i. Any changes In tbo appoar&aoe 
of the body, as bleating, drawing In of tao llanks, olo. fl. lb oath lug. 
the number of respirations per minute, and whotbor labored or not. 
6. Condition of tho bowels and aecroilous of tho ktdnoys, color, etc. 7. 
Appetite ; regular, variable, etc. 8. Tomperaturo of the body as Indi- 
cated by tho bulb of the thermometer wheu placed between tho body 
and the foreleg. 9. Give position of konnol and surroundings, outlook, 
contiguity to other buildings, and tho use* of the latter. Also glvo any 
peculiarities of temperament, movements, etc., lliut may be noticed, 
sign of eulforlng, oto. 
WORCESTER DOG SHOW. 
F OLLOWING the exnmplo of other cities, Worcester, 
Mass., has had its dog show ; and though tho exhibition 
of the canine elite was not on so grand a scalo as those of tho 
larger cities, the displuy was most creditable to the enterprise 
of its managers. There was a good display of local dogs In 
the various classes. Mechanic's Hall proved an’ excellent 
place for the exhibition, and Worcester people were present 
in goodly numbers. Below we give the list of awards : 
PREMIUMS. 
Newfoundlands— Lonsdale, G Holgato, Lonsdale. R I He, 
Major. George F Dinamore; Frank, C H Kimball. 
8iborian Bloodbounde— Nero, Al Watts. Boston. 
St Bernards -Ponto. C B Hathaway. Weetborougb. 
Maatiffe— Romeo, A D Warren. V h o, Josie, W F. Sosetona. 
H o, Bruno, F G Davie, Millbury. 
Sliophord Doge-Beauty. C E Bond. V h o. Tam O Rhanter, T 
W Lawson, Boston. II c, Watoh, Wm T Slater. 
Champion English Bolters— Jennie, W Tillman, Walohemokot, 
R Champion Inah Settew-Pat. W Tillman, Walohemokot, B I 
Champion Pointers— Dog pup, L M Hand ; bitob, Buff, JUG 
H Imported English Setters— Dog, Dan. A D Warren ; bitob, Boni- 
bel, W Tallmau, Watohemokot, It I. V h c, Fritz, Al Watts, Boe- 
t0 Naflve Englisl *Sotlor»-Dog, Pete, W S Perry ; bitob, Gvpey, 
L F AJden . Vh e, Sam, M Brigham, Natick ; Don, R L Colbert ; 
Ralph, J Winn ; Jennie, W Tollman. Watohemoket, It I ; Jaok, 8 
L Bigelow. West Boylaton ; pupi*, Duke and Trim, J J Coburn. 
Imported Bed, or 'Bed and Wl.lte Iii-?h Setters— Pat. W k Tall- 
mao, Watohemokot, B i. V h o, Dun, 1 Jouon ; bitob, Peg, A D 
Native Red. or Bed and White Irish Belters— Tim, Geo E Ken- 
dall. Tbe, Dash, J W Clark, New York ; Dick, Dana K Flteb ; 
