FOREST AND STREAM. 
13 
July 7, 1906.] 
With the above fact in mind, is it not entirely 
reasonable and possible that the birds, harassed, 
shot, netted and continually disturbed, were led 
in search of new feeding and breeding grounds, 
into a locality entirely unfamiliar and unfit for 
them and there perished? 
It is immaterial whether they were swept'into 
the sea in a storm or, like chimney swallows 
wheeling into a smoke stack, they flew into the 
crater of an active volcano, with suicidal intent. 
The fact remains, that the birds did practically 
totally disappear so suddenly as to be startling 
to those parties who noted the phenomena; and 
in my opinion it is this mystery that kept alive 
the question for a generation past, and one that 
is still pertinent, "What became of the wild 
pigeons?” Noynek. 
The Eagle and the Sun. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I find this in the Detroit Free Press: 
‘‘Many birds, are provided with natural spec¬ 
tacles, a transparent membrane called the third 
eyelid. This third eyelid, when not in use, lies 
folded in the inner corner of the eye. Two 
muscles work it, spreading it over the cornea or 
folding it up again much more cleverly than a 
man can put on or take off his spectacles. But for 
its third eyelid the eagle could not look at the 
sun.” 
Is this description of the eagle’s eye correct, 
and can the eagle look at the sun in any other way 
than other birds look at it? Rochester. 
[The “natural spectacles” referred to in the 
quotation are the nictitating membrane, which is 
an elastic translucent whitish fold of the con¬ 
junctiva. This so-called third eyelid, or winking 
membrane, passes across the eyeball horizontally 
or obliquely from in front backward. It is an 
additional protection to the eye, and serves also 
as a shade to it, excluding a part of the light. 
One may often see an owl in the day time, with 
his eyes partly or wholly covered by this nictitat¬ 
ing membrane, and it may possibly be that the 
eagle screens his eye with it when he looks 
directly at the sun, if he ever does so. That the 
eagle looks at the sun is merely one of those 
bits of folk-lore which cluster so thickly about 
this impressive bird. There is a great deal that 
is interesting about the bird’s eye, but most of it 
has to do with the anatomy of the organ.] 
California Mammals. 
Ev-en if the latest general work on California 
mammals had been much less than fifty years old, 
there.would still be abundant justification for an¬ 
other work on the subject. Prof. Baird’s Volume 
VIII. of the Pacific Railroad Reports appeared 
in 1857, and so is not very much later than Audu¬ 
bon and Bachman. Within the last fifteen or 
twenty years our knowledge of all life has ad¬ 
vanced by leaps and bounds, and it is gratifying 
that for California mammals Mr. Frank Stephens 
has just brought together a list of the species 
found in that State, together with notes on them. 
California is one of our largest States. From 
north to south it spans more than 9 degrees of lati¬ 
tude, while its longitude covers seashore, marsh, 
arid plain, forest and snow-covered mountain. In 
the Colorado valley and in the desert the climate is 
subtropical, while on the summit of the Sierras it 
is arctic. The State which presents such con¬ 
trasts would naturally furnish conditions suited 
to a very great number of species and subspecies 
of mammals — and of birds. This is what Cali¬ 
fornia does, Mr. Stephens’ list giving a total of 
276 forms, beginning with the cetaceans and end¬ 
ing up with man. 
Mr. Stephens has long been a student of birds 
and mammals of the Pacific Coast; beginning like 
many other zoologist with the birds, and passing 
on later to the mammals. Something like fifteen 
years ago he joined the Death Valley Expedition 
of the Biological Survey and was with it for a 
season. 
His long experience has given him an intimate 
personal acquaintance with the great majority 
of the species which he describes, and has en¬ 
abled him to learn much about them, and we 
should have been glad if his notes on the various 
species had been fuller than they are, and he had 
given his readers the benefit of l\is wide in¬ 
formation. 
His knowledge of the cetaceans is less full, and 
his notes are taken chiefly from Scammon, who 
still seems to be the fountainhead of knowledge 
on these species. 
Two species of elk—Roosevelt’s and the re¬ 
cently described and almost extinct tule elk— 
are yet found in California; Roosevelt's in a few 
inaccessible places in three or four northwestern 
counties, and the tule elk on the Miller and Lux 
ranch, and now in the Sequoia National Park. Is 
it the fact, by the way, that the word “wapiti” is 
an Iroquois name, as Webster’s Dictionary states? 
The better authority, we think, holds that the 
word is from an Algonquian tongue—the Cree—• 
from the word “wapitiw,” meaning “dirty white,” 
“grayish,” referring to the animal’s color. Some 
of the older writers on northern mammals speak 
of the wapiti, it will be remembered, as the “gray 
moose.” 
Three forms of the mule deer and two of the 
blacktail deer are recorded, and in speaking of the 
California mule deer of Southern California, Mr. 
Stephens mentions an example of the well known 
fact that certain injuries to the generative organs 
are followed by a continuous life to the antler, 
which in the course of years becomes a mass of 
points, mostly small and still covered with harsh 
skin. 
Abundant as the antelope was formerly in many 
parts of California, the species is now almost exter¬ 
minated there. Two or three hundred may be left; 
but even this small number is steadily decreasing. 
Of two forms of bighorn given, the first—thought 
to be Canadensis —is exterminated in the north¬ 
ern mountains, where only it was found. Just 
what form it was that occurred in northern 
California is uncertain, and will perhaps never 
be known. The one still existing in the south 
and on the borders of the desert is the Nelson 
bighorn, which is decreasing in numbers. Mr. 
Stephens includes the white goat in his list, but 
gives no evidence of the animal’s occurrence in 
California, except Capt. Bendire’s old record, 
which is now understood to have been a mistake. 
The great order of gnawers is represented by 
something like 160 species, among which are two 
forms of beaver and many hares. Seals and sea 
lions includes the almost extinct sea elephant and 
the Guadaloupe seal. The queer little bassaris, 
or ring-tailed cat, is rare. Grizzly bears, once 
common in California, are now very rare, with 
the probability of their becoming extinct in the 
near future. Mr. Stephens has never seen a 
live grizzly at large. It is interesting to learn 
that the sea otter, formerly so abundant in the 
northern Pacific Ocean, still lives in very small 
numbers about the islands off the coast of lower 
and Southern California. The constant pursuit 
to which it is subjected must, before long, result 
in its extermination, unless some available refuge 
can be established for the species. Many people 
will be astonished to know that there are twenty 
species of bats in California. 
The illustrations in this volume are by Mr. 
Walter J. Fenn from studies afield. They are re¬ 
productions of water-color sketches, and are of 
varying excellence, some of them very good. The 
work is well and handsomely printed, and the 
type good and clean. Following the enumeration 
of the species, which occupies 282 pages, there is 
an essay on life areas of California as established 
by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, then follows a numbered 
list of mammals, a definition of the parts of a 
skull, and a glossary, together with a brief errata 
and an index. There are more typographical 
errors than there ought to be in the volume, and 
these are not by any means all included in the 
short table of errata. 
Mr. Stephens’ work is one which will be help¬ 
ful to a great multitude of people. His pains¬ 
taking labors have extended over many years, 
and he is to be congratulated on the outcome. 
ROUGHING IT 
soon grows tiresome unless the food is good. Good milk 
is one item indispensable to a cheerful camp, and 
Ilorden’s solves the problem. Eagle Brand Condensed 
Milk and Peerless Evaporated Cream keep indefinitely, 
anywhere, and fill every milk requirement. Beware of 
cheap imitations.— Adv. 
Philadelphia Zoological Society. 
The thirty-fourth annual report of the Board 
of Directors of the Zoological Society of Phila¬ 
delphia for the year ending February 28, 1906, 
was read at the annual meeting of the members 
of the society April 26 last. The report has just 
been printed. 
The total number of members of the society is 
1,851, of which 1,291 are life members and 250 
perpetual members. The total attendance for the 
year was 222,258, and the total receipts from 
admissions $32,253.30, an increase of over $2,000 
above the previous year. The whole number of 
animals shown during the year was 2,397, of 
which 571 were mammals, 868 birds, 813 reptiles 
and 145 batrachians. 
Among the accessions to the gardens was a fine 
pair of tigers, a pair of dingos, or Australian wild 
dog, two brown bear cubs from Admiralty Island, 
not yet identifiable. A pair of black and white 
geese and a brush turkey from Australia, and a 
pair of secretary vultures were added to the col¬ 
lections early in the year. Among the animals 
born in the garden were dingos, gray wolves, 
coyotes,- Brazilian tapir, red deer, elk, llamas and 
a kangaroo. There were hatched and reared a 
wild turkey, mallard ducks, black ducks, summer 
ducks and redheaded ducks. Unfortunately, the 
raccoon-like dogs did not live long. The young 
tapir at birth weighed seventeen and a quarter 
pounds, was twenty-six inches in total length and 
thirteen inches in height at the shoulder. The 
raccoon-like dogs do not often breed in captivity. 
The laboratory of pathology continued its good 
work, and much has been learned concerning the 
nature of the diseases occurring in the collections. 
No monkey is now placed on exhibition until it 
has gone through quarantine arid passed the 
tuberculin tests, and this, of course, while at first 
likely to reduce the number of animals on exhi¬ 
bition. is certain to produce in the end a collection 
of great hardiness and vigor. 
Franklin on the Eagle. 
Benjamin Franklin’s contumelious character¬ 
ization of the eagle is contained in Audubon’s 
Ornithological Biography, and reads as follows: 
“For nly part,” says he, in one of his letters, 
“I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as 
the representative of our country. He is a bird 
of bad moral character; he does not get his living 
honestly; you may have seen him perched on 
some dead tree, where, too lazy to- fish for him¬ 
self, he watches the labors of the Fishing Hawk; 
and when that diligent bird has at length taken a 
fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support 
of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pur¬ 
sues him and takes it from him. With all this 
injustice, he is never in good case, but like those 
among men who live by sharping and robbing, he 
is generally poor, and often very lousy. Be¬ 
sides, he is a rank coward; the little King Bird, 
not bigger than a Sparrow, attacks him boldly, and 
drives him out of the district. He is, there¬ 
fore, by no means a proper emblem for the brave 
and honest Cincinnati of America, who have 
driven all the King Birds from our country; 
though exactly fit for that order of knights which 
the French call Chevaliers d’Industrie,” 
The Sad Penguin. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., June 30.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Cynic’s view of the penguins as 
given in the last Forest and Stream is quite 
right. He might have added that the penguins 
range from the Antarctic Circle up to the Gala¬ 
pagos Island beneath the tropical sun, but there 
are very few of them about Galapagos or on the 
west coast of South America generally. Un¬ 
doubtedly the sad penguin prefers its Antarctic 
home, and although it has been pursued by the 
sealers and penguin hunters and has been most 
shamefully butchered of late years, especially on 
Macquarie Island, it clings to its southern 
habitat. 
My experience with the penguin is a trifle more 
extended than that of my friend the Cynic. I 
have met them at Valparaiso and about the 
Chincha Islands. The rest of my knowledge is 
gained from pictures and what I have read and 
heard. F. A. J. 
