occasionally destroys disabled animals of a 
larger size. “ All Northern travelers and 
writers on the Natural History of the Arctic 
regions speak of the indomitable pci-severance 
of the Wolverine, in following the footsteps 
of the trappers, to obtain the bait or take 
from the traps the Arctic fox, the martin, 
beaver or any other animal that may be 
caught in them.” IIearne says one of them 
overset the greatest part of a large pile of 
woo>.i more than seventy yards around, to 
cages also have a door in the upper part, to 
enable the person cleaning them to take out 
the nests without taking down the shelf or 
searing the birds. Ha ng the cage in a quiet 
corner, high up in tlxe room, above doors and 
windows, where the air is warm and there is 
no draft, and where the birds will not bo dis¬ 
turbed by seeing the doors opened and shut. 
Put them together about the last of March. 
If all goes well, you will have the first egg in 
eight days from that date, and in a fortnight 
haps not enough for a thorough test ; 1 would 
add, some were impregnated, some not. We 
do not. use many eggs and they lasted us some 
time, continuing perfectly fresh to the last. 
Baltimore Co., Md. Novice. 
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS-XV, 
THE WOLVERINE 
POULTRY BREVITIES, 
Culo Luscus—LINN. 
The Wolverine lives throughout the Arctic 
regions, and diminishes in numbers towards 
the South. Years ago, a few specimens were 
obtained in Northern New York and among 
the Green Mountains of Vermont, but most 
lively these were only stragglers, andtheani- 
milis almost entirely confined to more North¬ 
ern regions. In conversing with many old 
trappers, I have never found one who had 
seen the Wolverine, though some have seen 
tracks thej* supposed to be his. 
This species is about two feet and a-half 
long, from the tip of the nose to the roots of 
the tail, which, with the long hair, is nearly a 
foot in length. Head, broad and rounded ; 
oars, low, hidden in the fur; back, arched : 
body, compactly made ; the whole form indi¬ 
cates more strength than activity. Legs, 
short, stout ; feel, broad, clothed on the un¬ 
der surface with a compact mass of woolly 
hair; toes, distinct, armed with rounded and 
sharp claws; the tracks in the snow are like 
those of the bear. The tail is short, hung low, 
and is covered with long, pendulous hairs. At 
its roots are two secretory organs about the 
size of walnuts, containing a thick, yellowish- 
brown, musky fluid, which the auimai dis¬ 
charges when hard pressed by its enemies. It 
has v. very thick coat of two kinds of hair ; 
the minor fur soft, an Inch long ; t.he inter¬ 
mixed hairs, numerous, rigid, smooth and 
four inches long. These are blackish-brown, 
throughout their whole length ; the under 
fur is a deep chestnut-brown. Eyes and nose 
black ; a brownish-white bar crosses the fore¬ 
head from ear to ear, and a pale, reddish- 
brown band begins on the shoulder, runs 
along the body and turns upward on the 
hips. This lateral band is found in all speci¬ 
mens, though it is much lighter in some than 
in others. 
Many exaggerated accounts are given by 
old writers of the Wolverine, or Glutton, a-; 
they call it. They represent him as possess ¬ 
ing extraordinary strength, agility and cun¬ 
ning, and as an unaccountable gormandizer. 
Magnus says “ It is wont, when it lias found 
the carcass of some large bea3t, to eat until 
its belly is distended like a drum, when lb 
rids itself of its load by squeezing its body be¬ 
twixt two trees, growing near together, and 
again returning to its repast, soon requires 
to have recourse to the same means of relief.” 
Li xx as us says :— “ He watches large animals 
like a robber, and after having darted down 
from a tree like an arrow upon the animal, 
he sinks his teeth into its body and gnaws the 
flesh until it expires; after that he devours 
it at his ease, and swallows both hair and 
skin.” Be ffox, in an early description of this 
animal, says “It attacks beaver lodges and 
devours whole families, and it pursues and 
eats fishes.” But his opinions were very much 
changed afterwards. He kept a captured 
Wolverine alive and watched its habits for 
eighteen mouths, and found it to be an ani¬ 
mal possessing no very striking peculiarities. 
It is mild, avoids water, moves by a kind of 
leap, Is almost perpetually in motion, and eats 
pretty voraciously. 
Audubon once took a Wolverine out of its 
cage, and describes it as very geutle. It bur¬ 
ied its head in his lap while he admired its 
long claws and felt its woolly feet. It ran 
around him and made awkward attempts to 
caress him. The same person once killed one 
of this species near the Hoosack River. Early 
one morning, with two hounds, he discovered 
a track upon the snow, that he supposed was 
that of a bear. The hounds followed it to 
the mouth of a burrow, when they began a 
furious attack upon the animal within, whose 
sharp claws and teeth soon drove them out 
with no desire to return. At length an open¬ 
ing was made in the side of the burrow and 
the auimai was finally shot. He was surpris¬ 
ed that it was not a bear and greatly delight¬ 
ed as he supposed it a new species, but after¬ 
wards found Buffox described it us the Glut¬ 
ton. This shows that the animal has long 
been very rare or it would not have been such 
a stranger to this earnest, enthusiastic and 
unwearied naturalist, “There was a large 
nest of dried leaves in the cavern, which had 
evidently been its place of resort during the 
whole Winter, as its track, from every direc¬ 
tion led to the spot. It had laid up no Winter 
store, and evidently depended on its nightly 
excursions for a supply of food. It had fared 
well and was very fat.'’ 
Richardson says it feeds chiefly on the 
carcasses of beasts killed by accident. It de¬ 
vours mice, marmots and other rodentia, and 
My Brahmas do not act like my other 
hens, which are the common fowl. The 
Brahmas will stand and shake their heads 
every few minutes ; act as if they were try¬ 
ing to shake off something, or swallow. They 
have frozen their combs and act worse since. 
Please give information soon.—C. W. Cole. 
Apply glycerine three times a day to the 
frozen combs until cured. We should think 
frozen combs sufficient cause for shaking 
their heads. 
Staggering Hen. —R. D. M. has a Black 
Spanish lien that staggers when she walks, 
goes sideways, eats good, seems dumpish, 
will not go on the roost with the rest of the 
fowls. Asks Rural readers, with experience, 
to say what ails and will cure her. 
Preparing Food for Fowl *.—A correspond¬ 
ent of the Rural New-Yorker asks the best 
food for fowls—both for making meat and 
cgg-producing. Let our readers give expe¬ 
rience. 
Cutting off the Comb of a Booster. — Can 
the comb of a common rooster be cut off 
without injury to the bird I If so, which is 
the best way to do it ?—A Subscriber. 
Fowls for Eggs and Market. —H. A. asks 
which is the best fowls for eggs and market. 
For eggs alone, Polands; for market birds, 
Brahmas or Cochins. 
Musk or Brasilian Ducks, —“Plimpton” 
is informed that we do not know who breeds 
these ducks. 
Spanish and Iloudana are regarded the 
best non-sitting egg producers. This answers 
B. C. F. 
get at some provisions that had been hid 
there. Wolverines produce young once a 
year from two to four in a Litter. The cubs 
are said to be covered with a downy fur of a 
cream color. It is at all times suspicious of 
traps ; it is caught chiefly in steel traps, which 
must be set with great caution and concealed 
with much art. Its fur resembles that of the 
bear. The skins are quoted from three to 
five dollars. r. 
you ma y expect to see the young ones. When 
you put the old ones together, feed them on 
high food, such ns boiled eggs chopped line, 
lettuce, apples, sopped bread, hemp, rape, 
maw and canary seed. Give the birds a little 
lime and cuttle fish, to form the shell of 
the egg, and plenty of sand. The young 
ones will be fed by the old ones regularly for 
about two, or sometimes throe, weeks, when 
thoy will be able to shift for themselves. 
Then take them out, as they will disturb the 
old ones in raising thou’ second brood. Feed 
for a month or so on soft food and seed, and 
then gradually accustom them to seed alone. 
Substituting hard food too suddenly would 
kill them. 
With good management yon can raise five 
broods Ui one season.; but that is too much, 
find it weakens the old hen bird too much ; 
three broods is all I raise a season from one 
pair. In mating birds, always mate an old 
hen with a young cock, and you will have 
more male birds, and vice versa. Allow the 
females to Winter in a large cage, ns it makes 
them strong and healthy; the males, as soon 
as they commence to chirp, put in separate 
cages, as they will then sing more, and learn 
faster, than if left in large cages, where they 
would do nothing but jump and fly around 
all day. 
I feed my birds on % rape and X canary 
seed ; a little maw aud hemp, once in a while, 
for a change ; apple and fruit generally, but 
no cake or crackers or sugar. Hoping that 
all who undertake the business this year may* 
be successful, I um, p. g. r. 
Cleveland, Ohio. 
NEWSPAPER PILE 
As there are a great many of the readers 
of the Rural New-Yorker who would like 
to keep their papers so as to have them to¬ 
gether without having them bound, I will 
show them the way 1 keep mine. (See illus¬ 
tration.) I take two sticks, one-half inch 
wide, three-fourths of an inch thick, 16 
inches long, and two screws. Punch holes in 
the Rural with a punch, so as not to tear 
them ; have a good paper cover, and every 
NESTS FOR CANARIES, ETC 
In reading the last number of your very in¬ 
teresting and instructive paper, I noticed an 
inquiiy ns to which was the best kind of a 
nest for breeding canaries in. As I am a 
great bird fancier, and am always interested 
in tiny tiring pertaining to the raising and 
breeding of all kinds of home pets, 1 will just 
briefly give my own experience, and, per¬ 
haps, some of your readers will be benefited' 
by it. I have repeatedly tried to raise birds,, 
aud have watched difi'orent kinds of them, 
aud have also used diflerent kinds of neats, 
and with more or less success. I have come 
to the conclusion that the best nest for cana¬ 
ries is the artificial one, made aa follows r 
Buy a small basket, about four inches in di¬ 
ameter and three inches deep ; on the inside 
of it sew a lining of cotton batting about as 
thick as your finger; then sew a little bag of 
cotton flannel lo fit the inside of the nest, and 
sew it in so that the wooly (soft) side of it 
comes outside. You can, if you wish, put a 
little insect powder between the two linings, 
to prevent the vermin from troubling your 
birds. Be careful that you hide all of your 
seams and ends in sewing in the lining, as 
otherwise the birds will be constantly peck¬ 
ing at the threads. 
I have found this kind of nest the most 
profitable, because the birds have the nest 
already made, and need not waste any un- 
week when, the Rural comes, unscrew the 
clamps, put your paper in, and do so for six 
months. When you have one volume, make 
another set of clamps for the next six 
months. L Young. 
POSTAL CARDS IN PRUSSIA 
The Berlin post office is about to carry the 
post-card system a step forward, as the cards 
are to be so arranged that they will serve for 
the answer as well as for the original mes¬ 
sage. One side is to be arranged to receive 
the name and address of the person to whom 
the card is first sent, at the top, and those of 
the sender below, so that, in case of reply, 
the latter serves for the address, while the. 
other side will be divided into two portions, 
one for the original communication, the other 
for the reply. The double postage may be 
paid at once, or the person sending the reply 
may affix the stamp. 
TO DISINFECT SPONGES, 
The following is from a French pharma¬ 
ceutical journal:—Take of permanganate of 
potash 4 parts ; water 100 parts. Impregnate 
the sponge with this, and afterwards wash in 
a quart of a solution of sulphurous acid (25 
parts to 100), after which wash plentifully 
with water. 
PACKING EGGS IN SALT 
Your correspondent, “H. E. P.” asks, in. 
Rural of March 1st, information in regard to 
packing eggs in salt, I con only say I tried 
it; commencing packing eggs in July and 
continuing through August. I placed them 
in a box, small end down, on a two-inch layer 
of salt, not allowing one egg to touch an¬ 
other ; then another layer of salt not so deep ; 
then on top of that more eggs and so on al¬ 
ternately till the box was full, ending with 
salt two or three inches deep. This box re¬ 
mained in my barn (frame) all through the 
severe weather until Christmas, when it was 
brought to the house and we commenced 
using. The eggs were as fresh, apparently, as 
if only laid a few days before. True, there 
was but a small number—twelve dozen—pey- 
INFOKMATION IN BRIEF 
necessary time in making nests; and, also, 
you do not have the cotton and wool and 
feathers flying around the room. It is good 
to have two nests in each cage, for good 
breeders will veiy often commence laying 
eggs for a second brood before.the first is 
fully fledged. 
Place the nest on a board thus (see cut), 
placed like a shelf in the upper part of the 
cage. By buying a German breec ing cage 
you ’will get the shelf already adjusted, These 
The Hoosac Tunnel has been opened 
22,199 feet ; 2,833 feet remain to be opened. 
Cement for Lamp Chimneys may be made 
by heating ooipmon plaster of Paris to 300° 
Fahrenheit. 
VegetabUn should never be cooked in iron 
pots, except, the latter ure enameled or other¬ 
wise coated internally. 
All Bngities Under 75-Horse Power and 
craues lifiie ig less than twelve tons are ex¬ 
cluded front i the Vienna Exposition. 
