Oct. 20, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
611 
For the Kingfisher. 
Norwood, O .—Editor Forest and Stream: As 
an interested reader of your excellent paper, I 
would like to make a few remarks under the 
above subject. In your issue of Sept. 1 there 
appeared an article entitled “About King¬ 
fishers,” signed by Wooden Sinker. The writer 
states that he has killed 189 of these birds in 
the past five years and has made a pillow from 
the feathers, thus obtained, which he expects to 
use on his camping excursions. 
Now. on a camping trip or outing, one of the 
greatest pleasures to me (and I think many 
others will agree with me) is the bird life along 
our streams and around our lakes, and one of 
the most interesting forms is that of the king¬ 
fisher perched on a solitary stake or dead limb 
from which he now and then makes a headlong 
dive into the placid water, many times return¬ 
ing to his perch without his intended victim and, 
when he does make a catch, it is generally a 
shiner, chub, or some other inferior species of 
the fish family. Can. it be that our beautiful 
kingfisher is depleting our streams and lakes 
of our most valued game fish? I say no. He is 
only making an honest living for himself and 
family, catching just enough for his own con¬ 
sumption and no more. 
Surely our friend Wooden Sinker should use 
his time and energy in exterminating the king¬ 
fishers who operate at night with dynamite and 
seine; they are certainly the most despicable 
and dangerous enemy of our fish. 
The Audubon societies all over this country 
are endeavoring to preserve one of the grandest 
gifts which God has bestowed on mankind, our 
native birds. Let us all co-operate with them. 
I would rather rest my head on the bare, hard 
ground than on a soft, downy pillow containing 
the evidence of the slaughter of 400 innocent 
birds. T. S. Allen. 
Brooklyn, N. Y .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
In looking over Forest and Stream for the 
past month I came with much regret upon 
Wooden Sinker’s article on the kingfishers in 
the number for Sept. 1. and if such an expres¬ 
sion will be tolerated I think he should be well 
ashamed of it. 
From the kingfisher’s standpoint Sinker is 
not merely a thief, having possessed himself of 
their waters, but a murderer. Furthermore, he 
does not object to fish being killed, but to their 
being killed by any one but himself, for Wooden 
Sinker is not raising fish for the fun of it, but 
either to sell or catch them later on. It is 
granted that kingfishers do kill fish, especially 
in ponds devoted to fishculture. But the ma¬ 
jority of us do not and never will own fish 
ponds, do care something about birds, and pro¬ 
test against their slaughter for the mere pleasure 
of one man. As for Sinker’s elaborate calcula¬ 
tion of the fish eaten and fish saved, it is not 
worth the paper it was written on. Sinker 
probably does not know the number nor the 
species eaten, nor the inter-relation between 
them, other fishes and life in general. Were all 
the kingfishers in the United States killed, it is 
doubtful if it would have any visible effect on 
the increase of fish. A dry season, a single 
flood, an unusually severe winter wreak more 
havoc among the finny tribes than do their 
feathered foes. The output of one sawmill or 
of one factory will clear out a stream far more 
effectually than a hundred kingfishers; and if 
Sinker would devote his energies to the making 
and enforcement of proper laws, he would do 
more good than by killing kingfishers. A single 
bait-fisherman, be he never so careful, will 
destroy more fishes in a day than a kingfisher 
will catch in a month, and here I speak from 
personal experience. 
Right beside Sinker’s tirade against the king¬ 
fishers was Dr. Henshall’s article on the 
enormous destruction of trout by irrigation 
ditches, a destruction readily preventable and en¬ 
tirely unnecessary; a little further on was an 
article on the mortality among fishes in Newark, 
N. J., apparently due to natural causes. It has 
come within my own observation to see the fish 
driven from a large section of Waubaushene 
bay by sawdust; all the fish in one pond killed 
by a severe winter and all in another swept into 
the sea by the breaking of a dam. Compared 
to such accidents as these, the food of the king- 
yellowstone park bears. 
fisher is a drop in the bucket, while the real 
depletion of our waters comes from sewerage, 
manufactories, sawmills and—by no means least 
—overfishing. To destroy fish in this wholesale 
manner and then lay the decrease to the king¬ 
fisher is to add insult to injury; it reminds one 
of the thoughtful fly who would not light upon 
the horse because he did not wish to tire the 
poor beast. If Sinker is to be consistent, he 
should advocate n.ot only killing the kingfisher, 
but every other fish-eating beast, bird ana 
reptile; herons, gulls, terns, ducks, cormorants 
and pelicans, muskrats, minks, turtles and 
snakes; as a side issue he should kill every 
bobolink that comes within range and destroy 
each nest he may find, for the damage done by 
this songster to the rice crop is far more evi¬ 
dent than that done by kingfishers to fish, it 
man will only use proper care, there will be 
fish for all, including the poor kingfisher. 
F. A. L. 
Catching Fish with Intoxicants. 
The fruit of a tree common in Guam the 
natives use to stupefy fish. 
The fruit is pounded into a paste, inclosed 
in a bag, and kept over night. The time of an 
especially low tide is selected, and bags of the 
pounded fruit are taken out on the reef next 
morning and sunk in certain deep holes in the 
reef. The fish soon appear at the surface, some 
of them lifeless, others attempting to swim, or 
faintly struggling with their ventral side upper¬ 
most. The natives scoop them in their hands, 
sometimes even diving for them. Nothing more 
striking could be imagined than the picture pre¬ 
sented by the conglomeration of strange shapes 
and bright colors—snake-like sea eels, voracious 
lizardfishes, gar-like houndfishes, with their jaws 
prolonged into a sharp beak; long-snouted 
trumpet-fishes, flounders, porcupine-fish, bristl¬ 
ing with spines; squirrel-fishes of the brightest 
and most beautiful colors—scarlet, rose color 
and silver, and yellow and blue; parrot-fishes 
(Scarus), with large scales, parrot-like beaks, 
and intense colors, some of them a deep green¬ 
ish blue, others looking as though painted with 
blue and pink opaque colors; variegated Chreto- 
dons, called “sea butterflies” by the natives; 
trrnkfishes with horns and armor, leopard- 
spct: ed groupers, hideous-looking, warty toadfishes. 
In the mangrove swamps when the tide is low 
hundreds of little fishes with protruding eyes 
may be seen hopping about in the mud and 
climbing among the roots of the Rhizophora 
and Bruguiera. These are the widely spread 
Periophthalmus koelreuteri, belonging to a group 
of fishes interesting from the fact that their air 
bladder has assumed in a measure the function 
of lungs, enabling the animal to breathe atmos¬ 
pheric air.—National Geographical Magazine. 
Savage Deer in Parks. 
Whttneyville, Conn., Oct. 9 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I am sending with this a clipping 
from one of the New Haven papers in refutation 
of the claims often made by some sportsmen that 
there are no wild animals in the United States 
which will voluntarily attack man. And this is 
not the only instance in which an attack has 
been made on a person in this same game pre¬ 
serve. It was about a year ago that a boy was 
badly injured .by an enraged red deer buck in 
much the same manner. 
The students referred to had no business what¬ 
ever on the Greist premises at the time they were 
attacked, as there have been advertisements in 
the leading newspapers notifying the public that 
the park was closed, owing to the rutting sea¬ 
son. Owing to the liberality of the Greists. this 
beautiful and interesting preserve is opened to 
the .public at all times of the year. 
William H. Avis. 
[The clinping refers to the injuring of young 
Chauncey B. McCormick by a bull elk near Percy 
R. Greist’s game preserve. New Haven, recently, 
which we mentioned last week. 
According to the account given by Jmung Mc¬ 
Cormick and his companion, Fleming H. Revell. 
Jr., (hey saw a number of elk browsing quietly 
at a distance, and approached them. The bull, 
they said, seemed to be quiet, but suddenly he 
lowered his head and plunged at them, catching 
his antlers in McCormick’s clothing, and carrying 
the latter bodily for some distance before tossing 
him aside. The bull then ran after Revell. but 
the young man reached the fence safely. Mean¬ 
while McCormick attempted to reach a tree, but 
was overtaken by the bull and. it is said, gored. 
He lay still and the bull finally left him. He 
then climbed a tree, and although bleeding from 
several ugly wounds, remained there until dark, 
as the crowd that was attracted excited and 
angered the bull, so that he frustrated all at¬ 
tempts to rescue McCormick for a time, but 
finally followed some cows and the student was 
carried out of the enclosure. 
The injured student, who is a nephew of R-obert 
S. McCormick, our ambassador to France, is re¬ 
covering satisfactorily from his hurts. 
Those who have tamed bull elk are very care¬ 
ful to watch them during the rutting season, to 
guard against attacks on persons, especially 
strangers, coniine near them. Some bulls that, are 
as gentle as kittens at other times, are vicious 
then.— Editor.] 
