(CULTURE^ 
*Ut> THE ^ 
Mitral 
EXCELSIOR 
141 I’nrlt How, New York 
l >CJ llullalo Bit., Hoclicfilor, 
Y H All. 
ight Cents, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, SEPT. U, 1870 
| Entered accorilinir to Act of Congress. in the ve:vr 1ST0. by I). I). T. Moouk, In the office of the Ijlbrurlnn of Congress, ut Washington.1 
men,) hang it in the sun or near a moderate 
tire, until sweet and thoroughly dry. 
I prefer to have the specimen stuffed with 
tow, wool, oakum, or any sort, light sub¬ 
stance, rather than the preserving mixture. 
It is advisable, to put a few hits of gum cam¬ 
phor or tobacco into the cavities with the 
final stuffings, to keep away moths. If you 
have no glass cage wherein to put these pre¬ 
served specimens, apply to the feathers or 
ftir, with a camet-lmir brash, it mixture con¬ 
sisting of two drachms of corrosive sublimate 
and one ounce of spirits of wine, which will 
very soon dry and produce no effect on the 
colors. 
When moths make their appearance, put 
benzine on the specimens, and when dry, 
annoint with the sublimate and wine. 
Geo. Robert. 
Suncook Valley, N. IT., Auk., 1870. 
flic Satimilist 
FRUIT-EATING BATS, 
The London Field says:—The collection 
in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, is 
now rich in specimens of the fruit-eating bats, 
(or, as they are sometimes absurdly named, 
flying foxes,) of the warmer regions of the 
globe. Frequently, however, as these ani¬ 
mals have been kept in confinement, ahd 
lame and familiar as they become, they have 
not., until the present season, been known to 
breed in confinement; Indeed, tho breeding 
of any one of the Cheiroptera in confinement 
is an event that deserves to he recorded. 
The specimen which has-been horn in the 
Gardens, is the Collared Fruit Bat of Natal, 
the Cytoonycferix foliar ix of naturalists. The 
male parent has been living in the menagerie 
since May, 1868, having been captured at sea 
off St. John’s River, Natal, on the first of 
March in the same year. When received, it 
was placed in the cage with the Indian Fruit 
Bat, (Pleropux media*,) that lias been living 
in the gardens since October, 186;!. The fe¬ 
male was purchased on the 1st of November 
of last year, and the young one wits horn on 
February 27. 1870. As the voyage from Na¬ 
tal would necessarily occupy some months, 
it, is probable that the young is the offspring 
of the male now in the gardens. 
The engraving represents the female and 
recently horn young, of about the natural 
size. The suspension of the parent from the 
branch by the hinder claws, and the mode 
adopted by the young in clinging to the 
mother during the time it is sucking, are ac¬ 
curately represented. At the present dale, 
the young one is in full health, very lively, 
lias left the parent, and subsists upon bread 
and milk, boiled rice, and fruit, of which it is 
excessively fond. 
The tameness of the whole group ol fruit- 
eating hats in confinement is remarkable. 
Oil opening the door of the cage they scram¬ 
ble out with a degree of activity that they 
would hardly he suspected of possessing. 
Their docility is most interesting; they fondle 
the lingers of those who caress them, ami 
nibble the tips gently, as if to ascertain 
whether they are good to eat. 
Tlie structure of the wings is most beauti¬ 
ful. If they are viewed when between the 
observer and the light, the delicate network 
of vessels is exquisitely displayed ; no 
branches of fern could he more delicate in 
the tracery. The membrane of the wing is 
obviously very sensitive, and I he animal 
shows a strong disinclination to have it han¬ 
dled or even touched. This extreme sensibility 
of the wings is obviously essential to the well¬ 
being of the animals; it is the safeguard 
which preserves the membrane from injury. 
The power of flight possessed by these hats 
is considerable. Those in the gardens, how¬ 
ever, rarely attempt to exercise the faculty— 
partly, no doubt owing to the very limited 
space in which they are confined. Contrary, 
however, to general opinion, they can rise 
off the ground, and will attempt to fly up to 
the door of their cage, a bight of at least 
four feet from the floor. 
NOTES FOR NATURALISTS. 
KNwtfi 
Tefirliimr Dons. 
Ik teaching dogs tricks, you must first 
learn a lesson yourself, and that is patience. 
Some dogs learn far more easily than oth¬ 
ers, and therefore less patience is needed in 
teaching them. I have a dog, of tho rat 
terrier species, which I can teach any com¬ 
mon trick, as to speak, be dead, hold bread 
on his nose until a certain number is spoken, 
and then tossing it up, and witching it in 
his mouth, and many others, in from five to 
ten minutes ; hut such dogs are rare. 
There is no dog but will learn to kill 
woodchucks by instinct; but very lew know 
how to catch them. When a woodchuck is 
seen from his hole, allow your dog to see it; 
then lake him by the neck in such a manner 
as to hold him and creep towards the wood¬ 
chuck, behind fences, or any obstruction, 
which will conceal you from his view until 
you are as near as possible, then let the dog 
loose. Repeating this several times will 
soon teach the dog to creep upon the ani¬ 
mal unobserved. 
Teaching them to hunt coons is nearly as 
easy, if they are “ good on the track.” Lead 
your dog around the corn field until a track 
is struck, then let him loose, and he will soon 
“tree tlie coon.” The great trouble is to 
teach tiogs to hark, a tier an animal is treed ; 
hut by exciting him—as throwing stones 
and shouting—whenever any animal is 
treed, you will soon teach him to burk on 
every occasion.— t. ir. r r. 
Chciiii Food for Canaries. 
Bekton's Management of Home Pets says: 
“ Folks who pet canaries, will find they are 
extravagantly fond of tho seed produced 
from the plantain, which may be found in 
almost every yard, the leaf of which is 
known to every school-boy as an excellent 
remedy for the effects of a bee sting. Tho 
birds will eat these seeds voraciously, when 
they appear to have a decided distaste for 
every other kind of food offered them.” AVe 
have for years been in the habit of gathering 
this seed and drying it in the sun for the uso 
of our birds in winter. They seem to thrive 
better with it given them once or twice a 
week, mixed with other food.— l. 
THE COLLARED FllLTIT*-ITAT — CYNONYCTERIS COLLARIS, 
continuity of length, notwithstanding the 
cocoons were small, and I he product that of 
worms very poorly reared. 
For the past three or four years T have 
fed small broods of native and foreign silk 
worms upon the various native kinds of 
mulberry, as well as upon the Osage orange 
plant, the paper or Otaheite mulberry, the 
elder, the milk weed, and various kinds of 
oak leaves, and all, with considerable suc¬ 
cess, under numerous great disadvantages. 
In 1866, and the present summer, I reared 
a small brood of common silk worms in the 
open air upon the uiidctaehed foliage of a 
seedling white mulberry tree, the worms and 
tree having merely a coarse gauze covering 
to keep off insects and birds; neither rain, 
sunshine nor wind, seeming in the least to 
interfere with, or impair the life of the worm, 
or the perfect formation of the cocoon. 
In the year 1867,1 produced a small lot of 
as large and perfectly formed cocoons as 
would compare with the best raised in Cal¬ 
ifornia or elsewhere, and as I am of the 
opinion that the greater portion of the 
United States, in the course of ten or twen¬ 
ty years, will be the silk-producing country 
of the world, my various experiments in 
mechanical appliances, and open air feeding, 
will he, as far as my health and facilities 
will admit, continued the next season; 
hoping all who may be engaged in, or in 
skin with tho greatest possible care; rub 
over the whole interior (of the skin) with 
arsenic—a deadly poison—put wires from 
the head to the legs, to preserve the natural 
form, and stuff immediately with tow, wool 
or the like. If allowed to dry after applying 
the arsenic, the skin becomes stiff and hard 
to handle.” This method l have never test¬ 
ed, hut give it because he inquired ” how to 
stuff the skins of beasts.” 
Another and a better way for ordinary 
taxidermists, is to take the specimen, with 
its entrails carefully removed, and make an 
unobstructed passage from the opening thus 
made to the brain, which should he cleaned 
out through its month. Then till these cavi¬ 
ties with a mixture of nearly equal quanti¬ 
ties, the first a little in excess of the last 
mentioned; salt, alum and pepper, exercis¬ 
ing care to leave quantities in every place 
where an excavation has been made. 
In order that the whole body may become 
saturated with the preserving mixture, sus¬ 
pend the specimen by the feet, after giving it 
a natural shape and smoothing the feathers 
or fur, and in a few days pass the thread 
through the mandible— i. e., Hie lower jaw or 
bill, ami restore to its natural shape; then 
suspend it. in the same airy and cool place. 
When it has the appearance of being dry, 
(of course the time required for this opera¬ 
tion will depend upon the size of the speci- 
Tr. - i|M>lna (aopliers. 
“ PRAruiE Bov ” can catch gophers in a 
steel-trap, by setting it close to the new made 
mounds which lie at the entrance of their 
holes, fastening it securely to a stake driven 
in the ground. Another way to catch them 
is to cut potatoes halfway in two, and put a 
little strychnine in the cut and drop the po¬ 
tatoes, thus prepared, about their holes.— 
FEEDING SILK WORMS, 
TAXIDERMY, 
In Rural New-Yorker. August 20th, 
mention is made of feeding silk worms upon 
leaves of the Osage Orange tree; and, as 
many persons may think it a novelty, I have 
respectfully instate that, several years since. 
J in 1866 or 1867, I tested, in a small way, the 
r fibers of cocoons of the common silkworms 
\ l| mt were fed on leaves of the Osage Orange 
] tree. The sample of cocoons was furnished 
A m '-‘ by Townsend Glover of the Agricul- 
Jn- tuiiil Department. AVho the person was 
j* v that, reared the small brood from which the 
>. sample was furnished, I do not remember. I 
K found the fiber of very fine texture, and 
Con I Oil tor ftfottfju ttoea. 
The American Entomologist recommends 
to persons troubled with mosquitoes to satu¬ 
rate a piece of cotton hatting with coal oil 
and rub it lightly over tho face, and they 
will not he troubled, as the insects do not 
fancy the smell of coul oil. 
