exciting stern chase, and putting spurs to your horse, 
you gallop over the plain, with eyes directed upward, 
regardless of the deep cart-ruts that occasional!}' cross 
your course. As the rook ascends, and almost disap- 
pears in the distance, you fear that the falcon will never 
be up in time, hut the next moment she shoots over your 
head like an arrow and is soon far away and in a favor- 
able position for dealing the fatal blow. Once more she 
misses the clutch, as the artful rook, by a fortunate 
dodge, eludes her grasp, and again the same tactics are 
repeated by both birds. Now they look like two specks 
in the sky, and you hardly distinguish one from the 
other, but these suddenly melt into one, which descends 
rapidly to the earth, and you must be well mounted if 
you are up in time before life has departed from the 
quarry, over which the conqueror now strides with evi- 
dent exultation. The loss of a falcon during a flight of 
this kind is not unusual, especially in a high wind. We 
have witnessed more than one. Sometimes, after sev- 
eral ineffectual stoops at a wily crow, she becomes dis- 
gusted and rakes off in pursuit of a passing wood- 
pigeon. Then “ Greek meets Greek ” in a contest of 
speed, and perhaps at last, like Noah’s dove, she returns 
no more. Untoward accidents of various kinds are lia- 
ble to occur. An unconscionable gunner, deaf to the 
warning tinkling of her bells, will sometimes take a pot 
shot at a trained falcon; but one of the most touching 
and humiliating incidents of this kind we ever wit- 
nessed occurred a few years ago on Salisbury Plain. A 
perfect falcon, “ Juno,” worthy of her name, had just 
treated us to a grand aerial exhibition, such as we have 
described. After a stern chase of a couple of miles we 
came up at full gallop to the spot where she had de- 
scended with her quarry in her clutches — a cottage gar- 
den on the very borders of the plain. Alas! we were 
too late. What did we behold? An elderly cripple 
leaning on one crutch while he flourished the other 
aloft — the weapon with which he had just brained poor 
Juno, who lay in convulsions at his feet. An ignoble 
end for the Queen of Olympus! 
Viiliie of the Homing Pigeons of Belgium. 
La Gazette (Belgium) has recently published, under 
the title “ Les Pigeons Voyageurs,” a very interesting 
article. The writer estimates that in the province of 
Liege alone upward of two hundred thousand birds are 
in training, varying in value from ten to five hundred 
francs. Calculating the whole at an average value of 
thirty francs each, he arrives at the astounding figure of 
six millions of francs as being the intrinsic value of the 
birds belonging to the province of Liege. Starting from 
this basis, Belgium possesses at least one million and a 
quarter of birds, of an aggregate value of thirty-seven 
and a half millions of francs, or one million and a half 
sterling. To arrive at a correct amount is of course a 
very difficult matter, and Mr. Bodenbach, of Assche, in 
a letter he has sent to Le Colomhophile, has suggested a 
practical way of establishing a statistical table of all the 
homing birds. During the height of the season special 
trains are started for the conveyance of birds ex- 
clusively, and on the 30th May last the large number of 
70,600 birds were forwarded from all the lofts in the 
province of Liege alone, to be tossed at various stations 
in France, such as St. Quentin, Fresnoy, Paris, etc. 
Out of this large number 12,000 birds came from the 
neighborhood of Verviers, 22,000 from the vicinity of 
Seraing and Huy, and about half the number from the 
town of Liege. Consequently we may presume that 
200,000 birds must have traveled on that day by the 
different lines of railway which conveyed them across 
the borders. On the 13th of July the Abeona Club flew 
their birds at Orleans, and upward of 12,000 birds were 
liberated there. Owing to the state of the weather, 
which was exceedingly favorable, the birds traveled 
home at a very rapid rate, most of them accomplishing 
the work in four hours and a half. 
The London Sporting Gazette, while it thinks the 
prospects of sport in the coming shooting season more 
hopeful than last year, urges moderation in making bags 
on all sportsmen. It moralizes thus on the necessity of 
sparing the game : 
“ Previously to the late heavy rains the prospects of 
partridge and pheasant shooting were good throughout 
England. But we fear they are no longer so. In the 
midlands especially wc hear that great havoc has been 
wrought among the game by the floods, and there are 
very few parts of the country which have not suffered 
more or less severely in this respect. So that the shoot- 
ing season of 1875 does not at present promise to bring 
anything but disappointment to the sportsman. If we 
could only hope that these depressing prospects of sport 
would induce sportsmen to wait patiently for another 
season and allow the game comparative immunity this 
year, in order that there may be more left for breeding 
purposes, we should not view them with much regret. 
But this is too much to hope. The lust for slaughter, 
which breech-loaders have done so much to aid and 
abet, must be gratified, and we fear that in consequence 
the prospects for next year will he even worse than this, 
since reckless shooters will leave scarcely a feather on 
the moor in their wild, insane passion for big bags. 
Another reason, too, for anticipating reckless slaughter 
during the coming season is that there will be rivalry 
between the old and new system of boring. We pre- 
sume “choke-bores” will be the fa.shion now, and one 
advantage accniing from their use w'ill be that men will 
have to hold their guns straighter and there ■will be 
fewer “cripples.” We are not prepared ourselves to 
accept the new' system of boring as better than the old 
without actual and careful trial in the field. In the 
early part of the season, unless the birds are unusually 
w'ild, we cannot see how a man can help mangling his 
birds. Tow'ard the latter end of the season they may 
possibly and probably have advantage over the old- 
fashioned style which candid experiment may force us 
to acknowledge. But we should certainly not advise 
any sportsman who has an old gun which he can trust 
to have it converted into -a “choke-bore.” It can be 
done, and the gun can be made to shoot effectively after 
the conversion, as we have proved at targets ; but we 
still hold that it is only spoiling a good gun to have it 
thus converted. There can never again be the same 
satisfaction in shooting with it.” 
A LE.\DiXG English paper makes the follow’ing com- 
ment on the snobbery and cockneyism of sundry travel- 
ers: “ The Englishman abroad constantly makes him- 
self obnoxious by talking of the superior way in which 
things are done in England, particularly in the sporting 
line. Nothing can be more snobbish than running down 
either the institutions or the customs of the country you 
are living in, or in which, perhaps, you are making a 
livelihood. Why in goodness don’t these people stay 
at home if their own country is so perfect? Americans, 
as a rule, are very forbearing, and take these rude re- 
marks veiy well.” 
■LISB ABY TABLE. 
A Statement op Affairs at Red Cloud Agency 
MADE TO THE PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES, by 
Prof. 0. C. Marsh. There are few' of our readers who 
are unacquainted with the name and reputation of Prof. 
Marsh, of Yale. He is one of four most successful paloe- 
ontologists, and has added to the records of science by 
his geological researches, at the risk of health, almost 
of life, and at great personal cost, considerations never 
weighed by the devotees of science, who do the work on 
hand, and rejoice that they are thought worthy to suffer. 
To the claims on our esteem Prof. Marsh has now added. 
He has stepped out of the calm contemplative regions 
of scientific inquiry into the unprofitable and harassing 
region of political reform. His clients are the poor sav- 
ages, his opponents the powerful office-holders. The 
pamphlet before us gives the views of an independent 
and experien ced observer on the atrocious ill manage- 
ment of Indian affairs, by which war and bloodshed are 
artificially made perpetual for the benefit of agents and 
officials. We have had a war to free the colored race, 
and if it was a moral and political duty to emancipate 
the negro and to purge the nation of the taint of slavery, 
it must be no less right and just to recognize our respon- 
sibilities to the Indian and to American civilization, and 
to end this vile system of bartering flesh and blood 
against fat contracts and agency peculation. Whatever 
the issue, the nation owes thanks to Prof. Marsh for 
stepping into the breach, and doing the duty that belongs 
to the political aspirant, who yet dares not to strike for 
fear of wounding his friends. Mr. Marsh merely pre- 
fers to put the case before the whole country rather than 
submit it to the partial judgment of secretaries and com- 
mittees, and for better assurance he confines his narra- 
tive to what he has seen and known, his motive being 
“ to destroy that combination of bad men known as the 
Indian ring, who are debasing this service and thwart- 
ing the efforts of all who endeavor to bring to a full 
consummation the noble feeling of peace.” 
Penn Monthly, for August, is made up of solid ar- 
ticles, while “The Month” bears the impre.ss of warm 
weather. “ Consciousness in Evolution,” “Educational 
Reform,” and “Fossil Flora of North America,” are 
alarming titles at this season. “ Fusang,” as an awk- 
ward word, might stimulate curiosity, but as a problem 
of Chinese geographic tradition, it brings no comfort to 
the reader, who seeks only to cast away thought, and in 
babbling brooks and cool shades seeks relief from 
weariness. 
The Pet Stock Pigeon and Poultry Bulletin for 
.kugust has the following full and various table of con- 
tents: Houdans (illustrated). Care of Y’oung Chickens, 
Good Eggs, Rise in Canary Seed, Rearing Chickens Ar- 
tificially, Duck Raising, Egg Statistics, Impregnation of 
Eggs, Egg Buyers and Sellers, Color of Table Poultry, 
Egg Testers (illustrated), A Rara Avis, Predatory Poul- 
try Enemies (illustrated). Which Breed of Poultry Eats 
Most, Advertising at Yearly Rates, Too Poor to Take a 
Newspaper, The Illustrated Bot)k of Pigeons — Part XV, 
Moore’s Book of Pigeons, The Pigeon Loft, The South- 
ern Tier Poultry Society, American Poultry Associa- 
tion, the August Meeting of the A. P. A., Questions 
and Answers, Houdans and Crevecoeurs as M'intcr 
Layers, A New Rabbit Disease, Canker in Carriers. The 
New York Flying Antwerp Club, The Pigeon Flying 
Match — Another Challenge, The International Pigeon 
Match, A Pigeon Four Y’ears a Captive Goes Home, 
The Story of a Swallow, An Intelligent Mouse, Fowls 
and Vegetables in the Olden Time, The Cock of the 
Silver Walk, Animals Received in Central Park. 
Prof. Baird has just received a number of live fish 
from Germany. These fish were brought from Hungary 
and Bavaria, taken from the River Danube, and have 
been four weeks on the way, the last twelve days in 
tanks on board the steamer Donau. The fish are 27 in 
number, all that lived of 300; of these 7 are carp, which 
it is expected will spawn soon, 8 gold tench, and 12 
common tench. They were brought over in tanks of 
water, in which the temperature was regulated with 
ice. The fish are to be sent to Baltimore, and put in 
ponds and hatching-houses furnished by the city au 
thorities. The carp have been transported in order to 
domesticate a fine-flavored and prolific fish, which will 
live in warm, still water. There are many inferior 
species of carp, but these from the Danube are very fine. 
Priority of Fish Breeding. — Dr. Garlick has issued 
a small eight-page pamphlet, containing letters from 
him.self on the subject of priority in the art of artificial 
fish breeding. The doctor, being unanswered, makes 
out a fair case in favor of himself as the originator, in 
this country, of the practice. The matter is not unfa- 
miliar to our readers, and was the subject of a paper read 
before the National Sportsmen’s Meeting in Cleveland, 
and duly reported at the time. It is a matter of justice 
that inventors and discoverers should have the credit 
which attaches to public benefactors. It does not de- 
tract from Dr. Garlick’s merit that fish breeding is 
claimed for the Chinese and for the monks of the middle 
ages. The Chinese have been at the birth of every 
modern invention, and those old recluses did many use- 
ful things. We should like, however, to hear wh:it 
Seth Green, Stephen Ainsworth, and some others have 
to say. 
“ Some Observations on the Birds of Ritchie Co., W. 
Va.,” is the title of a paper by William Brewster, read 
before the Lyceum of Natural History, N. Y’., and re- 
printed from their annals. These monographs from a 
pen so competent as Mr. Brewster’s, are full of interest, 
and are colored with a more vivid personality and 
greater minuteness of detail than the more compendious 
general works, for which they serve as minutes. 
SPORT IN SUMMER 
Brothers I the wann. bright summer is here. 
The pleasantest time of all the year; 
With its joyous birds, its blooming flowers. 
Its hot skies and refreshing showers. 
It brings for the angler the trout so flae, 
The worthiest game for his hook and line; 
For the sportsman it has the shy woodcock, 
And the well-fed grouse in whirring flock. 
We sally from camp in the dewy morn. 
To the sound of the hunter’s clarion horn, 
With gun and dog in pursuit of game, 
We’re never careful about the name. 
Cock ” or pheasant, or small gray plover. 
We hunt through the broad and open glade. 
Or in woody hill-side's leafy cover, 
We fish the brook in the forest shade, 
Or the dimpling lake, where the wild fowl hover. 
In our jaunt we traverse the buckwheat field, 
That in the autumn fat ducks will yield; 
We pass the orchards where bees are humming. 
Through scrub oak, with partridge drumming. 
We cast our lines in the mountain brooks. 
O'er pebbly ripples, and cool, dark nooks; 
A flash and a twist, and the trout or bass 
Lies safe in our creel, on the fresh green grass. 
Leaving the brooks now far behind, 
In a bean patch thick the grouse we find ; 
A flash! a bang! one, two, three, four — 
Follow them up, we'll soon have more. 
Now they spread and light in a corn-field'.** edge, 
Or on grassy slope near that willow hedge; 
Set the dogs to range, look to the gun, 
There, one is up, and off in the sun. 
He veers a little, just out of the light; 
He is “ covered," and quickly he falls from sight. 
Now he’s retrieved, so we till the bag, 
And the sport goes on with never a lag. 
We drive along, up starts another; 
With plenty of leisure and nothing to bother, 
We pass him by; he’s an old stray " hummer "; 
This is some of the sport we have in summer. 
Abe 
