forest and stream. 
young alive— as being, “so far as [he knew], the first example 
ot a viviparous species in the family [i. e. orderl of rays ’’ 
At present I cannot recall any instance on record of an egg 
laying ray outside the family of Raiaida. Platyrhina which 
is egg-laying, and which has been referred to the family Rhi- 
TwbatulcB, seems to me to belong rather to the Raiida and as 
t a hT en V° f A S / r ‘ Jonathlln Couch ‘bat he had ’satisfied 
himself that viyhobaUs was oviparous, I simply do not believe 
him, and prefer rather to regard him as an incompetent wit- 
Ko “ n ,0 "* by 
St added that all vertebrates 
KS”* nia ° and .other mammals) produce their young 
1 ? ter ^ eDt,on of eggs. In mammals the eggs are 
vmy minute; mothers they attain a considerable size. 
Wanking ton, D. C, June, 1878. Thko. Gill. 
— The following quite interesting letter from Mr. Stearns 
throws additional light on the stingrays. Mr. Stearns has 
made some very valuable collections of fish, etc., for the 
Smithsonian Institution, and is thoroughly conversant with 
the ictbyology of Florida : 
-pditw Forest and. Stream : Being several years in the 
nsh business, and a few months engaged in collecting speci- 
mens of the fishes of this vicinity for the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, I have had the opportunity to examine species of MyUo- 
batidee, Trygonida and Raiaidm. Of the Myliobatidie, I have 
examined some specimens of Rhinoptcra quadrilota a few of 
which contained young, sometimes two, but usually one onlve 
with no trace of eggs in any of them. In April I secured on 
of this species, of a size convenient for shipment, which con- 
tained young, and forwarded it to the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. 1 presume this is the one mentioned by Professor Beau 
Trygon centrum being very abundant, I have secured and 
examined many I think they attain a much larger size than 
R. quadrilota ■ one that was caught in a seine this spring 
measured six feet and eight inches across the back. In many 
that I have cut open I have found young, varying in size, that 
were quite lively, and when once free seemed able to take 
care of themselves ; in others the young were small and with- 
out much fife. is the greatest number that I have taken 
from one individual. I have never found the leathery eggs or 
sacks in the stingray, but have often picked up on the sea- 
beaches dried sacks, somewhat different from those of the 
iea?’ , whlC , h 1 iTO opposed belonged to some species 
of Oaborhimda. The fishermen here say that “ the stingray 
brings forth young alive twice a year,” in April and in Octo- 
ber ; but from my own observations I can only assert that it 
brings forth young alive in April, a fact I have noticed several 
year8, • Silas Stearns. 
— » *#» 
A Sea Lion Whelp. —I have been awaiting the birth of 
t he sea lion for some time. For a few days past I noticed that 
the mother became very uneasy and restless, constantly 
swimming and diving about the basin, frequently keeping it 
up until late at night. On the night of the 24th inst. I con- 
cealed myself and watched her until after ten o’clock, when 
she seemed more uneasy than usual, several times stopping 
and resting her chin on the lip of the basin, peering out 
through the railing and moaning in a very peculiar manner, 
as if she would like to get out. The next morning I was up 
bright and early, aud on getting in sight of the tank saw 
Prince, the male, swimming back andforth as if he had some- 
thing worrying him ; but the female was missing. I immedi- 
ately hurried around so as to look into the door of their house 
which is built of stone in the centre of the basin, and as soon 
as Dolly, the female, heard my footsteps she put her head 
around the jamb of the door and gave that peculiar bellow 
common to the females while nursing their young. Then it 
was a race between Prince and myself who should reach the 
roof first. I scrambled up the ladder, flew across the bridge 
and sprang on the roof ; but he was too quick for me, and 
was quietly awaiting my arrival, duly expecting his break- 
fast of fish. Finding himself disappointed he gave a snort 
and sullenly plunged into the water, while I as quickly disap- 
peared through the “ man-hole,” intent ou peuetrating the 
mysteries of Dolly's bed-chamber. So soon as my eyes be- 
came accustomed to the gloom, I found that she had waddled 
alongside of me and was looking back over her shoulder at 
the baby, which was squalling its best, no doubt started out 
of its morning nap by my sudden appearance. I could have 
fairly hugged the mother with delight if I had not feared an 
attack in the rear from Master Prince, who had come iu by 
the door, and by his voice and actions seemed disposed to re- 
sent my intrusion on his wife’s privacy. By dint of coaxing 
and wheedling I managed to get him outside and fastened the 
door, while Dolly, taking it all iu good part, had waddled 
back to her babe, rolled over on her side, and was busily en- 
gaged in giving it its%iorning’s rations; and I, by way of 
quieting my nerves, struck a match, lighted my matutinal 
pipe, squatted down on the floor and began to muse over my 
new role of playing dry nurse to a baby sea lion, the first, I 
believe, ever born aud bred in captivity in the United States. 
I would like to forward you its weights and measurements, 
but mamma strongly objects to have her darling bandied. As 
soon as I can do so with safety both to the youngster and 
myself you shall have them. Frank J. Thompson. 
Cincinnati. 
4 43 
^' 1 b ^ 0t8 into the oil while it was boiling. When 
cool we added lampblack and a little japan to dry it. This 
i?,qMor a eDt im P e J v,ous 10 w «ter, air or light. Our tents are 
just large enough for one person to sit in with ease. We 
fished on the lake about three weeks and caught 1,300 pounds 
of fish, mostly pickerel. During our fishing we saw three 
Ph« k mmm hat .iT er ?, half wblte from the taU forw ard to about 
the middle, the other part the natural color of pickerel. I 
I^w WO t’ ° n , e ,°, f which would weigh about six pounds, the 
other about three. The one W. B. R. saw lie judged to 
‘0 five pounds. Wo did not succeed m get- 
ting either of the fish out of the water, however. W. B. R. hit 
the one he saw with the spear, but lost him before lie could 
had h^n°qi' We l e , told b / the l ,e0 P le there that there 
whit? 1 0406111 001 01 tbe Iake that were nearly all 
Benton Harbor, Mich., June, 1878. ^ Oodbn. 
„„?! hb BtT T E ° ALnr Caudalus. — I desire briefly to record the 
cap.ure of Buteo albi caudalus (Vieill), near Fort Brown, 
i exa8 ’ where it is rather common during the summer mouths. 
n^ i e c. X .° ndcd ,, nollce of tbis addition to the avifauna of the 
united States will soon appear. 
Washington, D. C. Dr. J. C. Merrill, U. S. A. 
• 
A Good Move. -Louisville, Ky„ is soon to have a Zoologi- 
and botanical park. b 
— 
Animals Recbived at Cbntral Park Mknaobbib fob Week End- 
ing June 29.-Two (lying squirrels, Plerotnys volueella, presented by 
Mr. Joseph H. Choate, New York city; 2 rabbits, Up us cuniculus, pre- 
sented by Mr. Eastman Johnson, Now York city; 2 razor-billed curas- 
fows, tlitua tuberosa, presented by Mr. It. M. Evcrlt. New Haven; 2 
Zenalda doves , Zenaula amabilis ; 12 pea- fowls, Pavo c ristala, and ’20 
Guinea fowls, Numida meleagris, bred in the Menagerie. 
W. A. Conklin, Director. 
— -•- — 
Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoolooioal Garden for Week 
Ending July 2 , Inclusive.— One lizard, Scelolcoms, purchased ; three 
garter snakes, R. sirtalis, presented ; one garter snake, K. sirtalis 
paricltUis, presented ; nve snakes, Coluber vulpinus, presented; one 
oopperbelly snake, T. sipedon erythrogaster, presented ; one water 
snake, T. sipedon, presented ; three hog-nosed snakes, Ilelerodmi platy- 
rhinus, presented ; one ringed snake, Cemophora eocnnea, presented ; 
one milk suuko, Coluber obsoUtus confinis, presented ; uue Boseaulon 
constrictor, presented ; one song thrush, Turdus musicus, presented ; 
two American robin*, Turdm migralorius, presented ; two gray foxes/ 
Yulpes Virginianm, presented ; two prab le wolves, rants lairans , pur- 
chased ; two swift foxes, Yulpes velox, purchased; one belzebnth 
spider monkey, Aisles beUebuth, presented; one coatl red far, \a«ua 
nasica, purchased ; one opossum and ten young, D. Vlrginiana, pre- 
sented ; one male deer. Centos maerotis, bora In Garden. 
is wv? *■ 
“ * px*l barn ioTwcS iLger 
es-ass? ass 
“ atao, “»> r “”T,S or 1« 
saw them run, and {2 , 1 “ ™ 0Uk l believe - “nlil I 
fence six feet high seems 1 to be iust tnn^."? tbe , ln ' A raiI 
feet, then a few short ^^honneV n C ? d ., Wlth lbe 1111111 
Don’t talk about riding y vP®» they are ^one. 
Georgia. Some one who has more & c . 00 , ulry liko Middle 
\ C ^,^i°V bc nJ d,,s “ r ASf ’ 
[Wo should bo most happy to hear from Mm .1 ^ 
introduced to our readers^] fr0m tbc 6C ^“°n thus 
1 0 Correspondents. — Those desiring os to prescribe for their dogB 
‘ill please take note of and describe the following points In each au!- 
ual: 
1. Age. 2 . Food and medicine given. 9. Appearance of the eye ; 
or the coot. ; of the tongue and lips. 4. Any changes In the appearance 
of the body, as bloating, drawing In of the flanks, etc. 6. Breathing, 
the number of respirations per minute, and whether labored or not. 
6. Coudltlon of the bowels and secretions of the kidneys, color, etc. 7. 
Appetite ; regular, variable, eto. S. Temperature of the bod y as Indi- 
cated by the bulb of the thermometer when placed between the body 
aud the foreleg. 9. Give position of kennel and surroundings, outlook, 
contiguity to otber buildings, and the uses of ihe latter. Also give any 
peculiarities of temperament, movements, etc., tuat may be noticed 
lgn of suffering, etc. 
Birth of Young Snakes. — Dr. Bean of the Smithsonian 
Institution, informs us that their garter snake (A. eutacnia), 
was safely delivered of twenty-six young on the 2d of July. 
Mother and young doing well. Experiments will be made 
with a view of learning whether or not this snake will swallow 
its young. 
How the Oat Jumps. — Some time ago an article went the 
rounds of the papers as to the actual distance cleared by a cat. 
The cat wanted a canary in a cage and sprang from the ground 
eleven feet up. A gentleman employed as shipping clerk on 
the wharves informs us of having measured a cat-jump of 
twelve feet two inches, straight up. The cat belonged to a 
vessel, got off on a barge and made a clear spring from the 
deck of the barge to the bulwark of the vessel. 
Albino Fish.— In the winter of 1874 and 1875, In company 
with W. B. R., known to the readers of the Forest and 
Stream as “ Lutron,” we started from Benton Harbor for 
Stony Lake, in Oceana County, Mich., to fish for pickerel 
and bass through the ice, with spear and decoy. We used a 
small tent made of common sheeting and painted with a com- 
position made by boiling linseed oil and putting any old rub- 1 back to Chapman 
DOGS IN SOUTHWESTERN GEORGIA. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
We have no red foxes in this vicinity. They are, however, 
numerous in middle Georgia and to within fifty miles of here. 
But they seem to be gradually approaching and will possibly 
be here in three or four years more. The gray foxes are nu- 
merous, and a hound that can pick them up in two or two 
and a half hours is as fast a one as we want. Any shorter 
time spoils the sport. Several of us keep two, three, or four 
dogs apiece, and when we want a chase we meet at some de- 
signated time and place. These hunts are generally appointed 
from one to the other, but when disappointments occur on 
account of weather, they are appointed, perhaps, weeks 
ahead, and LoreDSO Dow never filled his appointments with 
any more punctuality than we fill these. We run these same 
hounds after deer. Deer are becoming very scarce, and as 
we have no game law, we have made a compact among our- 
selves to shoot no more deer for three years, from the first of 
February last. We have some little trouble in keeping 
would-be hunters off, but we talk big, and make u great 
noise, and thereby make them shy. In counties south of us — 
Irwin, Worth, Wilcox, etc.— deer' are hunted incessantly, and 
though the practice is an outrage, I expect some of those set- 
tlers have the best trained hounds in the world. These same 
dogs are made to take the thick branch, while the men ride- 
on the open liill-sides. Not a whimper do they muke until 
the deer is jumped ; then comes a keen squall, and out 
bounds the deer like a streak of scared lightning, and, with 
ears laid back, goes his course, regardless of men or horses. 
If he goes off severely crippled, the dogs will follow in full 
cry, and you must keep up. If he goes off unharmed, you 
can sit down, for the hounds will be back in thirty minutes 
to try further on for another deer ; and so the sport goes on 
till you are satisfied. Then these dogs will “ Slow Track ”— 
following a trail either in a walk or run, as you may wish, 
without a whimper. When we are driving through large 
swamps the dogs can be put in, and, by a peculiar whistle 
and hollow, can be made to trail and ran in full cry, the same 
as our hounds. Many other things these hounds are taught 
to do too incredible to be told to one who never saw them 
hunt. If the laws of Georgia would afford proper protection, 
this is the finest deer hunting country in the world. Our 
bird dogs are almost entirely pointers The hot weather and 
immense quantities of cockle burrs that grow in the fields 
make setters undesirable. There are only two setters in the 
vicinity ; one is a Gordon and the other on imported English 
dog. But our pointers beat them badly. There are no regu- 
lar kennels in this portion of the State. Some twelve or 
fifteen of us, who live in three different counties, hunt to- 
gether and club together, so to speak, and we keep up our 
nogs among ourselves, and nearly all of them can be traced 
lack to Chapman’s “Dash" and Dick Brown’s “Belle.” 
Salt fob Distemper.— Seeing the article from “ Tt rvn » 
011 treatment of distemper, induces we to sav^vh.it 
or - iff £S5 its. fia&ss 
JILult 1 “nhinlTin 6 8econ(1 dose aiwuys uccompli8hing P tho 
carefuHy note its effect!^! % 
do uot now remember-porhaps from Columbus, On. wLeu 
Isay “we," I mean “us,” and this, you know, is vert ex 
licit-embracing the bird-shooting fraternity of n™ or 
three counties in southwestern Georgia. I give our exneH 
ence for wlmt it is worth, us it corroborates the sta emffif 
you; Dublin correspondent. wuitmeni ot 
Americus, Qa., July \st, 1878. g U0T 
How a Nebraska Doo Died. -T his story of a dog’s de- 
votion, grief and death comes from Lincoln, Nebraska and 
is told by tho Journal of that town : 
“Our readers will remember the drowning last Sundav or 
the little si x-y ear-old boy, Dany. The child had a little doJ 
who was his constant companion and playmate When 1 ho 
accident occurred that resulted iu the drowning of the bov the 
dog was with him, aud by his strange conduct and uneasi 
ness he attracted th(*at tuition of thoso present. White the 
boy was lying m the bottom of the stream, the dog would 
run to the child s mother and then toward the place where 
the bov was supposed to he, and finally plunged in and 7m m 
around or over the spot where his little master lay AtV 
the body had been placed ... the coffin, the dog manifested a 
strong desire to see the child, and when the lid oftl.e coffiS 
was raised, he licked the dead face aud seem to feci intense 
grief. In a short time the dog went, out to the railroad track 
and lay down upon the road, ns it had done many times be- 
fore ; but upon the approach of the train, he laid himself up- 
on the rail and de iberately permitted the train to pass over 
his body-being killed. The whole actions of tho doTwcrn 
such as to convince one that it was governed by reiwoninv 
Powers, and is another illustration of the remarkable love oi 
attachment that some auimals have for their masters The 
mother, at the time of tho drowning, supposed the child was 
at home, and, therefore, neglected to obey the hint given bv 
the dog that might have saved the boy’s life." h y 
Death of Island Belle.— Tho many friends of Mr Clint 
Wisner will be pained to learn of the death of Island 
w o’ T exblblled ft tl,c last N. Y. Bench show. 
While at the show she caught the dislempc-r, and while at 
one time it was thought she could be saved, all efforts went 
for nothing, and she died on the 1st of July. She was 
( although young) a splendidly broken bitch, with all the best 
qualities. 
Leo.— Putnam, Conn., June 24.— Mr. E. T. Whitmore’s 
fine pointer dog Leo, which recently died of cerebro-spina! 
memugetis, was among the most intelligent and best trained 
dogs we had here. After several days of great suffering the 
kindly aid of chloroform was culled in and the poor brute’s 
sufferings ended. Hie pedigree none could fiud fuult with or 
question, as bis mother was Mr. Murray’s Jet; father, Martin 
Keith's dog Browuey, and Browney's father, Colonel Colt’s 
famous dog Phil, of Hartford. Leo was four years of age 
brave, faithful, intelligent, loving, and beloved by all of Mr’ 
Whitmore's family and friends. Peace be to his ashes. If 
there is a dog’s heaven, Leo has gone there. A. M. G 
Very Choice Dogs. — A gentleman of Baltimore, a mem- 
ber of the Kennel Club, is desirous of disposing of some of 
his choicest stock. Dream, us fine a black and tan bitch as 
can be found, is to be disposed of. In the lot are puppies by 
Flake and Lillie. Our own personal knowledge of this stock 
induces us to speak of these animals in the highest terms. It 
is rarely that so fine a lot of dogs are put on the market. Ad- 
dress J. A. S., care of Forest and Stream. See advertise- 
ment. 
— +. 
Sales.— The Irish red setter Rake, by Patt O'Rooney ox 
Sal, has been sold by Mr. John M. Niull, Killnloe, Ireland 
to Count Scbiinmelmanu, Ahercushurg Custle, Prussia for’ 
wo unders'and, a “ century ’’ Rake is litter brother to Dash’ 
first prize winner at Londonderry show. He is half-brother 
to Mr. Fottler's recently imported bitch Kathleen. 
— • — •- — 
Whelps.— Mr. E. S. Wtuintnuker’s red Irish setter bitch 
Leaf (Plunket— Stella) whelped, June 28, one dog and two 
