Aug. ii, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
213 
—SisA-HORsE (Hippocampus 
aterrimus). Male. 
—Sea-iiopse ( 
DONIS). M 
—Sea-horse (Hippocampus hudso- 
nius). Female. (After Jordan and 
Evermann.) 
—Sea-horse (Hippocampus zostera:). 
Female. (After Jordan and Evermann.) 
ing to Jordan and Evermann, T ‘the smallest 
known species of sea-horse, abundant in shallow 
water in the lagoons, always found clinging by 
its tail to the sea-wrack ( Zostera marina).’’ 
With these two species, two from Japan 
first described not long ago (1901) by Jordan 
and Snyder may be compared. The descriptions 
are given will furnish hints enough to discrimi¬ 
nate between them and others and indicate the 
range and variation. . 
Certain Hippocampines of southern seas develop 
exaggerated characteristics, which are more or 
less manifest in the ordinary sea-horses. The 
cutaneous appendages, which are merely tags of 
skin in most species, become greatly developed, 
aspecially about the tail, and simulate in a re¬ 
markable degree the appearance of the seaweeds 
in which they are wont to lurk. 
Pheasant Adopts a Feather Duster. 
Mr. Charles A. Shriner relates in the Pater¬ 
son, N. J., Chronicle this odd freak of a pheas¬ 
ant chick: 
“No common barnyard producer of eggs is 
he, but of the lineage of that royal game bird, 
the golden pheasant, for of a dozen eggs brought 
from Cincinnati and hatched out six weeks ago, 
he is the sole survivor, and thereby hangs the 
story of his greatness. 
“The eggs were a gift to Dr. George Pope, 
of the Government Animal Detention Station, 
and came from a zoological garden. The Doc¬ 
tor’s interest in his prospective acquisition was 
very great, and, selecting a fine white Leghorn 
hen for a stepmother, he was rewarded in due 
time with three little mottled brown "and gray 
chicks. 
“But something was the matter, for the 
feathered infants took no interest in the life 
thrust upon them; eating or sleeping appeared 
beyond their comprehension, and least of all did 
they respond to the motherly solicitude of the 
old hen. The sanctuary of her sheltering wing 
held no appeal to them, and after a few days 
two were dead of exhaustion. 
“The survivor, showing every evidence of 
following the majority, was then turned over to 
School Commissioner Harold Godwin, who, as 
a large breeder of pigeons, was interested to 
see what the unappreciative stranger would do 
in a different social atmosphere. 
“But a clean pigeon cote and friendly society 
of its numerous occupants could no more in¬ 
duce this proud scion of royal game birds to 
sit up and take notice than had the frantic 
efforts of its plebeian foster mother. 
“The fattest of worms and the most enticing 
preparation of breakfast foods were alike un¬ 
regarded, and the poor little, exile, with disso¬ 
lution imminent, wandered around his new 
bounds apparently bent on working along that 
line to the finish. In the corner of the pen 
lay an old feather duster, long in use for clean¬ 
ing. At first unnoticed, the exhausted infant 
no sooner saw it than he tumbled over in that 
direction and, after the briefest of examinations, 
settled himself into its fluffy, bedraggled center 
and went to sleep. This, his first rest, was a 
long one, and he was found, regardless of all 
feathered custom, still asleep the next day. 
“Master pheasant is a much bigger bird now 
and full of the beautiful promise of his royal 
ancestors, for all this happened several weeks 
ago. 
“The maternal yearnings of a feather duster 
appealed to him as had no other substitution. 
Did instinct tell him that the feathers were once 
from his own species? Did the duster’s shape 
conform more to his untaught idea of the ma¬ 
ternal pheasant? Or did his unlicked nature 
require a mother who would neither exact nor 
forbid? 
“At any rate, the chick will sleep nowhere, 
excepting in the embrace of the feather duster, 
and it has shown affection for nothing but its 
ten-cent-counter foster mother.” 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any nezvsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
WHERE QUALITY IS FIRST. 
Campers and sportsmen who demand the best should 
note that the equipment of every scientific and exploring 
expedition for the past fifty years has included a supply 
of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. Keeps in any 
climate and under all conditions. The original and lead¬ 
ing brand since 1S57.— Adv. 
Substitutes for Water. 
Some paragraphs in the valuable article of Mr. 
Ernest Thompson Seton on the antelope in the 
July Scribner’s (p. 44) touch upon a question 
which has been of much interest to me. From 
1888 to 1897 I lived in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 
during which time I made frequent hunting trips 
into the dry Sierras and tablelands of the ad¬ 
jacent region, mostly after white tail deer and 
smaller game. Not only the deer but the rabbits 
(hares), the quail (C. squamata ) and the song 
birds generally, evidently go without drinking 
for weeks at a time. There were no antelope 
there then, though there were traditions of them, 
and a station on the Mexican National Rail¬ 
way some distance further north is called, after 
the neighboring hacienda, Berrendo. 
Now when Messrs. Van Dyke and Wuerpel, 
as quoted in this article, speak of the “cactus” 
as supplying both food and water, the story is 
not all told. The word is usually applied to the 
prickly pear family {Opuntia) and seems to be 
so meant in this instance. It is the broad nopal 
leaves, as the Mexicans call them, from which the 
spines are burned that the cattle may eat them in 
comfort. But range cattle eat them “raw so,” 
slabbering and shedding tears over the spines 
but getting them down somehow. Occasionally 
the spines collect in the stomach of an ox in 
large, densely packed balls, ultimately proving 
fatal. I have seen these queer mementoes of the 
sufferings of the poor beasts, three inches or 
more in diameter. 
But there are many other succulent plants be¬ 
sides the prickly pear, and there are many species 
of the Opuntia in Mexico, not less than a hun¬ 
dred, I should think. Some of these have almost 
no spines on the leaves. (It is by taking ad¬ 
vantage of some extreme form like this that 
Burbank has produced the spineless cactus.) 
Others have the tufts of spines so wide apart 
that a goat or a deer may insert his muzzle be¬ 
tween and get a good bite, though a cow could 
not. Others have soft spines, especially when 
the leaf is new. 
But in that arid region the soil contains so 
little moisture that most of the plants have to 
have facilities for collecting it from the air. 
