940 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. is, 1906. 
Mr. Cowan’s Sheep. 
Londonderry, Ireland, Nov. 17 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I notice in your issue of Nov. 10 a 
paragraph or two under the heading of “Can¬ 
adian Game Notes,” signed by my Triend, Mr. 
L. O. Armstrong, of Montreal. Kindly allow 
me to correct two statements, made, evidently 
through Mr. Armstrong mistaking what I said 
to him. Mr. Armstrong writes: 
“Mr. Cowan states that he has killed a new 
kind of sheep on the Skeena River.” What I 
really told Mr. Armstrong was, “That I had 
secured what I took to be a new species of sheep 
at the headwaters of the Skeena River.” Again 
Mr. Armstrong must have mistaken me when 
he writes that “many of the local sportsmen 
have killed Ovis liardehsis for a number of 
years.” 
This assertion I particularly wish to correct, 
as I do not.believe the sheep that I secured from 
an Indian has ever been shot by other than an 
Indian. At all events I have not heard of any 
white man bringing a perfect specimen out be¬ 
fore, and should be interested to hear if any 
one else has. I did hear that a very imperfect 
specimen of this sheep fell into the hands of 
Dr. Lydeker, but as to how it was secured, I 
do not know. The sheep I got was a three- 
year-old. It was perfectly black with a white 
patch on the stern, in size similar to that of the 
patch on the Ovis montana. Its horns were 
identical with the horns of a three-year-old Ovis 
stonei, .and it was killed out of a band of twelve, 
all of which were the same in color. The range 
of mountains it came from empty their waters 
into the Liard River. More information than 
this I do not feel justified in making public 
.until I verify the statements of the Indian who 
shot the one I brought out, by traveling with 
him to thfc mountains they range on, and, if 
possible, shooting one myself. 
C. G. Cowan. 
[Of so-called “black sheep” a number have 
been killed of late years, but these we have been 
informed have all been 0 . stonei. The systematic 
position of some of these northern sheep is 
as yet quite uncertain, and we believe that even 
the naturalists with abundant material are doubt¬ 
ful about where they belong.] 
A Mouse in a Mallard’s Crop. 
Newark, N. J., Nov. 21.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have written of snapping turtles eat¬ 
ing young ducks, of frogs eating young snapping 
turtles, of ducks eating young frogs, and of pick¬ 
erel eating pickerel with still smaller pickerel in¬ 
side, but these are trifles compared with an in¬ 
cident related last week by special Fish Commis¬ 
sioner Joseph Crawford, of Newark, N. J. Com¬ 
missioner Crawford, Dr. B. A. Robinson, Walter 
Parsons and one or two other Newarkers have 
a modest little snuggery at the mouth of Cheese- 
quake Creek, on Raritan bay shore. 
Crawford is famous as an amateur cook and 
everybody else in the little party is willing to 
take a back seat when Joe puts on his apron. 
The fishing down at Cheesequake Creek is over 
for the season, but the Newarkers go down 
there every week to enjoy a dinner of rabbits, 
grouse, quail and other game. Only a few days 
ago Captain “Tray” Bloodgood furnished them 
with what he said was a wild goose, ready 
dressed for the oven, and 'Crawford fixed it up 
and. served it in great style. After dinner they 
discovered the long neck and head of a crane 
under the flooring of the shack. They voted 
unanimously that the crane was ‘a success. 
Commissioner Crawford did not partake of the 
last feast he prepared for three of his friends. 
Two mallard drakes formed the piece-de-resist¬ 
ance. Crawford dressed the fowls and prepared 
a delightful stuffing in which Italian chestnuts 
took a prominent part. While the ducks were 
roasting, the commissioner’s investigating habit 
asserted itself. He just had to know what those 
ducks fed on to make them so fat, and taking 
up a knife, he ripped open the crop of one of 
the pair and revealed a mouse whose head was 
partly digested. He examined it closely and de¬ 
termined that it was a meadow mouse. (Arvicola 
pennsylvanianicus ). Professor Crawford's mind 
was disturbed; likewise his appetite. If any¬ 
body had told him that ducks ate mice he would 
have scoffed, and when he found the indisputable 
evidence before him he decided that if ducks did 
eat mice, he would eschew ducks for that day at 
least. He said nothing to his companions, but 
let them enjoy the meal and placidly accepted 
their compliments upon the cooking. Just before 
dinner, he got a big package of candy and ate 
it with considerable ostentation, afterward mak¬ 
ing it an excuse for his loss of appetite. 
Harrimac. 
[If each of us were to carefully investigate the 
stomach contents of the animals, birds and fishes 
which we eat, persons with delicate nerves would 
most of them become vegetarians. The big trout 
WILD PIGS IN A FLORIDA CAMP. 
Photograph by Martin J. Hall. 
which the angler has caught, after weeks and 
perhaps years of effort, has very likely been 
largely nourished on mice. The quail brought 
in by the sportsman have been fed on worms and 
beetles. From the craw of a ruffed grouse a 
small frog or even a snake is occasionally taken. 
Among the common creatures used for food by 
man the hog and the domestic duck are prob¬ 
ably the foulest feeders. Yet few of us think 
of these matters and it is wise to ignore them. 
Most of us have troubles enough of our own 
without striving to find other matters to worry 
over.] 
It Breathed Through its Wing. 
Salem, Mass., Nov. 25. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was very much interested in Mr. 
Finley’s “Heron Village,” as we have one at 
home, in Nova Scotia. It also reminded me of 
a curious experience I had with a heron a num¬ 
ber of years ago, when a boy. I shot one. and 
after tugging him up the bank by the neck, 
naturally shutting off his wind, was very much 
astonished to find him comfortably breathing 
through the broken bone of his wing. Is there 
anything unusual about that? Or .can all birds 
breathe through their hollow wing bones when 
broken? L. V. S. 
[There in nothing unusual about this. No 
class of animals is so pneumatic as the birds. 
Not only are the ordinary air passages and the 
lungs used in breathing, but there are large air 
spaces among the muscles, in the bones, and in 
some cases even under the skin. These great 
air spaces serve various purposes. There is no 
reason why for a time some birds might not 
breathe through their bones.] 
Oysters and Typhoid Fever. 
New York, Dec. 5. —Editor Forest and Stream: 
Perhaps there are fewer oyster typhoid deaths 
among sportsmen than among other people, 
for the reason that sportsmen are apt to know 
more about the subject of oysters. It is well, 
however, to give an annual warning until some 
one takes up the matter of making dealers 
pay the doctor’s bills of their customers. At 
this moment people are dying of oyster typhoid 
fever in various parts of the country, and the 
condition of affairs will remain until proper 
legislation is brought to bear upon dealers. 
They alone are responsible, but so long as the 
market calls for invalid oysters, they care very 
little about other invalids. The matter may 
be briefly stated: , 
(1) Typhoid bacteria do not live in salt water. 
(2) Typhoid bacteria are found at various 
times or perennially in most of the fresh-water 
streams along the coast. 
(3) Oysters feed upon typhoid and other 
bacteria, along with their regular diet of diatoms 
and other infusoria. They collect typhoid bac¬ 
teria in such quantities that their gills are some¬ 
times loaded with these germs, which are prob¬ 
ably as harmless to the oyster itself as any other 
part of its food would be. 
(4) Oysters in their chosen habitat in salt 
water cannot get hold of typhoid bacteria. 
(5) Dealers place oysters where they can feed 
upon typhoid bacteria, in order to improve the 
appearance of their market product. 
(6) The reason why the appearance of the 
oyster is improved is because the salts in the 
body of the oyster are in proportion to preserve 
osmotic balance of water in the tissues. When 
the oyster is placed in fresh or brackish water, 
endosmosis occurs very rapidly. The oyster 
swells to plumper outlines, turns whiter, and 
becomes an invalid. While becoming an invalid 
it incidentally collects all of the typhoid bac¬ 
teria that are within reach for food. The in¬ 
valid is then sent to market, and looks well on 
the half shell, although it has lost the flavor 
which is sought by connoisseurs. 
(7) There is not a particle of danger in eat¬ 
ing the oysters chosen by connoisseurs. There 
is great danger from eating oysters chosen by 
the common herd, and furnished to them in pref¬ 
erence by dealers. 
(8) In ordering oysters, say to the dealer, 
“Give me salt-water oysters, full of flavor and 
of nutrition,” or else say, “I am one of the com¬ 
mon herd. Give 'me invalid oysters please, and 
serve the same to my wife and children.” 
Robert T. Morris. 
The Dog’s Intelligence. 
New York, Nov. 14. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The inclosed article is so exceedingly 
good, that I take the liberty of sending it to 
you, and would be very much pleased if you saw 
fit to give it space in the columns of Forest 
and Stream. G. Foster Howell. 
“Every once in a while I see a comment some¬ 
where or overhear it spoken about the horse 
being the most intelligent of animals,” said a 
man connected with the Smithsonian Institution to 
a Washington Star reporter, “and I am at a loss 
to understand how such a sentiment should 
e.ven be slightly entertained. 
“The horse, from a scientific standpoint, 
possesses a certain amount of well developed in¬ 
stinct and memory, but not intelligence as the 
word is understood as applied to the animal 
kingdom. The most intelligent of animals is 
■the dog. Man’s most faithful friend not only 
possesses intelligence as contradistinguished from 
