JUNE 5 
■whole party mount to the tops of the highest 
trees, whence, at a signal consisting of a 
single cluck given by a leader, the flock takes 
flight for the opposite shore. The old and 
fat birds get easily over, even should the 
river be a mile in width, but the younger 
and less robust frequently flail into the water 
—not to drown, however, as might be im¬ 
agined : they bring their wings close to their 
body, spread out their tail as a support, and, 
Ashes to please the sportsman has been car¬ 
ried too far, and many waters are filled with 
them that will be wanted for a more peace¬ 
able and prolific fish in a few years. If you 
wish to stock a hundred acres of land with 
animals, what kinds will you choose, lions, 
tigers, wolves, weasels, etc., or cattle, sheep, 
deer and rabbits ? And from which class 
would you expect the greater number of 
pounds of meat ? 
AMERICAN GAME BIRDS.-VIII 
IS FISH CULTURE PROFITABLE I 
THE WILD TURKEY.—MELEAGR1S OAllOPAVO. 
The Wild Turkey, the origin of our do¬ 
mestic turkey, was once common through¬ 
out the whole of our country, but it basso 
diminished In numbers as settlements in¬ 
creased that it is now rarely seen in the 
Eastern and Middle States. It is found, 
though in yearly decreasing numbers, every¬ 
where west of the Ohio, and some few are 
Been in the South and far West. Audubon 
and Thompson say this bird is found in the 
southern part of Vermont, but most likely it 
never bred there, and it is extremely doubt¬ 
ful if any stragglers even are left there now. 
The Turkey was sent from Mexico to Spain 
In the sixteenth eenturv, and was introduced 
into England, France and other parts of 
Europe about the same time. Its bill is yel¬ 
lowish-brown, shortish, rather obtuse, cov¬ 
ered with membrane at the base : head 
small, flattened above with a blue and 
red Conical, pendulous, erectile curuncle on 
the forehead. Neck, slender; body, short; 
feet, longish and strong; hind toe elevated 
half the length of lateral toes, which are 
much shorter than the middle one. Legs 
and toe* light purplish rea ; a conical, obtuse 
spur on tarsus. 
Conical papillar of the forehead rugose, 
sparsely covered with bristles. The skin of 
the head and neek is of various tints of blue 
and purple 
bright red, changing to blue. 
In answer to an inquiry as to the profits of 
fish-culture for their flesh only, Mr. Fred. 
Mather, a noted pisciculturist, writes to the 
Forest and Stream as follows : 
SHAD AND HERRING, 
to tne means or restoring the value of now 
almost useless fishing properties. The Cecil 
Whig says that thirty years ago herring 
sold on the Susquehanna fora dollar a barrel 
at fishing shores where now no seines are 
hauled, and that shad were caught at the 
same fisheries and sold at correspondingly 
low prices. Fifty year* ago shad were 
caught in Northeast and Elk rivers, in parts 
of those streams which were fordable when 
the tide was out, and were sold as low as $4 
per hundred. And the same facts apply to 
numerous other localities, while the fisheries 
that are still worked, and at a profit, have 
considerably fallen off in their prodact. In 
order to remedy this condition the Whig 
advises the formation of associations of 
property owners on the rivers to investigate 
the matter, point out existing abuses and 
suggest remedies therefor in the shape of 
stringent legislation. It is understood that 
the State fishery commission desires to under¬ 
take to restock the rivers with Bhad and 
herring, but has not means to procure the 
requisite hatching apparatus. The next 
Legislature should provide means for the 
purpose, and thus essay to revivify this 
languishing but highly important interest. 
the wattles of the latter are 
Plumage, 
short, compact, glossy, with metallic reflec¬ 
tions. Feathers, double, generally oblong 
and truncated. A pendulous tuft of long, 
brownish-black bristles from the upper part 
of breast. Thighs, shortish, convex, round¬ 
ed. Tail, long, rounded of eighteen bi’oad, 
rounded feathers, capa- lo of being erected 
and expanded in a prominent manner when 
the bird is excited, and reaching nearly to 
the ground when the bird is standing erect 
at rest. 
Upper part of back and wings, yellowish- 
brown, of a metallic luster, changing to deep 
purple ; tips of feather s broadly edged with 
velvet black ; large quill coverts, same color 
but more bronzed ; primaries dusky banded 
with white ; lower part of back and tail 
coverts deep chestnut, banded with green 
and black. Tail feathers same color, bronzed 
undulatingly and sprinkled with black, with 
broad, olackisli bar at tip. Under parts, 
duller; abdomen and thighs, browulsh-gray, 
under (ail coverts, blackish, glossed with 
bronze; tip, bright reddish-brown. Length 
of male four feet. The female is consider¬ 
ably smaller, having smaller wattles on neck 
and the tuft on breast small and only on the 
old ones; Color of plumage duller, lower 
parts brownish-black. The young, before 
fledged, are pale brownish-yellow, pale yel¬ 
lowish-gray below. 
The female makes her nest in some seclud 
ed spot and is very guarded in her approaches 
to it, seldom using the same route twice in 
succession, aud if discovered uses various 
wiles to draw the intruder from the spot. 
As soon as the young are hatched she takes 
them under her charge, and they go wander¬ 
ing about to great distances, at lust avoiding 
marshy places, and returning heme at night; 
but after a Jit tie their journeys are increased 
and they spend the nigbt wherever they eau 
find agreeable roosting places. 
The Turkey is a very migratory bird, and 
in its tamed state gives no small trouble to 
its owner on this accouut. Audubon thus 
describes one of these migrations “ About 
the beginning of October, when scarcely any 
of the seeds and fruits have fallen from the 
trees, these birds assemble in flocks aud j 
gradually move towird the rich bottom j 
lands of the Ohio and Mississippi. The males, t 
or as they am more commonly called, the i 
gobblers, assemble in parties from ten to 1 
a hundred, and search for food apart from , 
the females, while the latter are seeu either ] 
advancing singly, each with its brood of i 
young, then about two-thirds grown, or in e 
union with other Lundies, forming parties 
often amounting to seventy or eighty iudi- t 
viduals, all intent on shunning the old cocks, | I 
— •°‘V7 
WILD r . 
striking out their legs with great vigor, pro¬ 
ceed rapidly towards the shore, and, ap¬ 
proaching which, should they find it too 
steep for landing, they cease their exertions 
for a few moments, float down the stream 
until they come to an accessible part, and 
by a violent effort generally extricate them¬ 
selves from the water. It is remarkable that 
immediately after crossing a large stream 
they ramble about for some (imeas if be¬ 
wildered. In This state they full an easy 
prey to the hunter.” 
Thera appears to be no very sportsmanlike 
means employed in hunting wild turkeys, 
the. commonest modes of killing them being 
shooting them on their roosts in moonlight 
nights and decoying them up to an ambush 
by imitating tlicir cry with a call made of 
the pinion-bone of this bird. Enormous bags 
are sometimes made by both methods, and 
they are also trapped in various ways. 
Frank Forester says : —“ The nearest ap¬ 
proach to fairness, or sport, that is ever 
still skeptics. Of course there are failures. 
So in all business. One part y had not water 
enough ; another could not got food, &c. 
But there are others who have succeeded by 
having everything favorable in connection 
with the requisite amount of brains. One 
great drawback on private fish culturists 
has been, iu my opinion, the desire to confine 
themselves to what are called game fishes. 
They seem like boys who mingle work and 
play. The game fishes are more or less can¬ 
nibals, and it is this that raises the grayling 
in my estimation far above the brook trout, 
for the trout are piscivorous ns well as in- 
1, while the grayling cannot eat 
WHY HOGS EAT ASHES 
and cinders. This singular propensity is 
easily accounted for. Poultry are very fond 
of eggshells, lime, sand, etc., and it it well 
known these substance are necessary in 
order to form the shells of eggs, and to 
furnish material for the bones of fowls. 
Now is it reasonable to suppose that swine 
eat ashes and cinders for the purpose of 
supplying the material for their bodies, and 
this singular instinct in animals so low in the 
scale of intelligence, is truly wonderful, for 
ashes contain the ingredients which are 
necessary to form bones, viz; carbonate 
i Bectivorous, 
fish, but thrives on the refuse of the slaughter 
house as well as the trout, does. There are 
but few places suitable for raising trout on a 
large scale, and it is only on a large scale 
that it will pay. An ordinary spring will 
suffice to furnish a few, but to turn out a ton 
or more a year, requires not only a large flow 
of water, but also a great quantity of food. 
There are those who have made it pay, but I 
do not feel at liberty to publish what little 1 
know of their business. Fish culture for 
profit and fish culture for sport are distinct 
things, and the following gives my ideas on 
“ game fish.” 
1. I have kept trout at a temperature 
above 60', in fact as higii as 75“ where there 
was a good flow and consequently a rapid 
change. 2. Don’t dam a ravine for a pond ; 
the wind will blow leaves in, which with the 
leaves and drift brought down by rains, will 
clog the screens and the floods will carry 
everything away. 3. If you dam the ravine 
do it high up, and lead the water in a ditch 
along the hillside into ponds, and let all floods 
and surface water go over the dam and 
down the old channel. 4. I find that trout 
kept at the head of my spring, whero the 
temperature is 411°, do not grow much, while 
those kept below, where it is 6(J‘ and 65°, 
grow rapidly, and trout fry if left free will 
work down where the water is even warmer. 
5. Black baas, pickerel and perch are recom¬ 
mended where the water is too warm for 
trout, but these fish are all cannibals ; the 
first named is good for the table and the 
sportsman ; the second is a gormandizing 
beast, unfit to associate with decent fishes, 
and only eatable when nothing better can be 
had ; the third is a good little pan fish, but 
terribly destructive to other fish. 6. If I 
were asked for a list of fishes to be kept in 
waters not suitable for trout or grayling, it 
would comprise white fish, ciscoes, smelts, 
the large carp of Europe, and the square- 
tailed variety of catfish that is known in the 
Eastern States as a bull-head, hornpout, etc. 
The indiscriminate introduction of predacious Rubbing with turpentine is also advised. 
j the necessary ingredients ; but when they 
are shut up, they endeavor to supply the 
materials necessary for keeping up their 
frames by devouring ashes and cinders. 
Let them have plenty of them.— People. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the The Iudiana 
Farmer saysLast fall I knew a man who 
had two lots of hogs bought, that he had had 
to feed fourteen days before they went off. 
The first lot weighed two hundred aud fifty 
pounds ; the second, three hundred and six. 
The first lot ate dirt considerably ; the 
second did not. The result was, the first 
lot gained nothing, while the second gained 
thirty-one pounds. Now the remedy is to 
supply them with plenty of finely broken 
stone eoal. This they will eat as if it were 
hickory nuts or walnuts. I know 
SPARROWS IN ENGLISH GARDENS 
a man 
that goes to the coal mine and gets a load of 
fine coal and throws it in his hog lot when¬ 
ever he is feeding a lot of hogs for market. 
