Dec. 13, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
755 
member the animals which are to be avoided.” 
So, the conspicuous brightness of the venomous 
coral-snake (Elaps) is a warning to all comers. 
The rattlesnake, while excitedly shaking his rat¬ 
tle, warns an intruder of its presence. The 
cobra tries to terrify its enemies by the startling- 
appearance it assumes, with its expanded hood 
and its striking eye-like marks. 
As regards the effect of warning-colors, in 
the case of caterpillars, such as the larvae of the 
maghie-moth (Abraxas glossulariata) which is 
prominently marked with orange and black on a 
cream ground, this larvae is refused altogether, 
or rejected with loathing, by the hungry foes of 
other caterpillars. 
It seems to be a fair general conclusion that 
the conspicuousness of various noxious and un¬ 
palatable animals, is deeply impressed on the 
memory of their enemies, who after bitter ex¬ 
perience of misadventure in the choice of living 
dietry, resolve to leave animals, with warning- 
colors, “severely alone,” on the principle of “once 
bitten, twice shy 1” 
A woodcock is most frequently found in the 
shelter and concealment of thickets, evergreen 
shrubs, and under the branches of fir trees, where 
Judging by some recent narratives and prints, 
the habit is growing among hunters of attempting 
to take photographs of 'helplessly wounded ani¬ 
mals, and thus prolonging their sufferings by add¬ 
ing mental torture to physical pain. The picture 
obtained is rarely needed, or an artistic success, 
and there is no proper excuse for attempting to 
record on a plate, a fellow-creature's dying strug¬ 
gles. It was with horror—and the same feeling 
has been expressed by other witnesses—that I 
saw at one of the 'Sportsman’s Shows a moving- 
picture of the murder of a caribou. A fine buck, 
evidently driven by some one in the distance, 
came trotting along the shore of a woodland lake, 
his head swinging from side to side in inquiry. 
Then, when he was right before us, a puff of 
smoke jetted from the woods, and the stricken 
animal reared and reeled into the water, where he 
lay, gasping and kicking in mortal agony, while 
the film was reeled on to record his writhings. 
This was a brutal exhibition which had no 
value whatever, except to disgust every consid¬ 
erate man with shooting anything. Had a blank 
cartridge been fired, and the startled spring of 
the buck to safety concluded the incident, the pic¬ 
ture would have been glorious. 
It was esteemed a knightly deed, in the days 
of chivalry, to give the coup-de-grace—the mortal 
stroke—to a fatally wounded foe, man or beast. 
Gentlemen in those days would have scorned to 
withhold this boon that somebody might make 
a picture of dying distress. 
There is assembling this week at Bale, Swit¬ 
zerland, the First International Conference for 
the Protection of Nature, under the leadership 
of Dr. Paul Sarasin. The idea of the confer¬ 
ence is expressed in his call for the meeting, in 
which he said: “A system of brutal and indus¬ 
trial exploitation has taken possession of the uni¬ 
verse, disturbing our existing relations with ani¬ 
mate beings, and sacrificing the jewels of the 
earth to the vanity and cupidity of men.” Among 
other instances, he cited the disappearance, actual 
or threatened, of the bison from the United 
the light and warmth of the sun’s rays art: ex¬ 
cluded ; and where the ground is bare of grass or 
vegetation, and thus leaving nothing but a clay 
surface strewn with withered leaves, decayed ber¬ 
ries and fir cones—all of which help, by their 
coloring to protect the woodcock, while he finds 
his food in such things as worms, slugs, beetles, 
and various insects. This mode of life is well 
adapted to the somewhat lazy habits of the wood¬ 
cock, which loves seclusion almost as much as the 
owl; and who affects a similar mode of flight, 
but it flies as little as possible unless disturbed 
by its enemies. 
The lion and puma are able to approach their 
quarry more easily, their colors being in har¬ 
mony with the respective grounds which they 
frequent in quest of their prey, which they are 
obliged to approach very stealthily even with the 
advantage of protective coloring. 
In the universal struggle for existence it will 
be seen, therefore, that in nature, necessity has 
been the “mother of invention”—-sharpening the 
wits, and developing the resources of all animal 
life in its endeavors to secure its self-preserva¬ 
tive and general well-being in the midst of the 
struggles and dangers of life. 
States, of the ourang-outang from the tropics of 
the heron from China, and of the seal, the whale, 
and the polar bear. “Awake from your slum¬ 
bers,” he cried eloquently to his learned col¬ 
leagues. He believes that only by international 
co-operation can the many interesting animals 
threatened with extinction be preserved; and we 
shall watch with interest the result of the Con¬ 
ference. An example of how this principle may 
be applied is disclosed in the Duke of Mecklen- 
berg’s recent book on sport and travel in centra) 
Africa. He points out that in the British Sudan 
elephants are thoroughly protected, and remain 
numerous, whereas they are being rapidly extin¬ 
guished in the adjoining French territory. Hence 
the two governments have undertaken to adopt 
similar protective regulations, as the only way to 
save these valuable animals. 
Baby birds in many cases are provided with 
organs or parts that serve a special requirement 
of the fleldgling and disappear as the bird gets its 
growth, because of no use to the adult. Such is 
the knob on the bill of the chick, enabling it to 
break its way through the shell of the egg with¬ 
out injury to the rather soft beak-tip. Another 
is the strong thumb of the hoactsin, by which 
it scrambles around the branches of its home- 
tree as if on all fours, the flying feathers of its 
wings not having yet sprouted. A third interest¬ 
ing example is the heel-pad on the ankle-joint of 
young woodpeckers, barbets, and other birds that 
nest in deep holes in trees. It is a matter of sur¬ 
prise that they are able to climb up to the mouth 
of the hole to be fed, as they do soon after birth, 
since the smooth walls offer nothing for the claws 
to grasp. This temporary, horny pad on the heel, 
however, is the means by which they accomplish 
the feat. It is not only rough, but has many 
points bristling backward; and by its aid, at the 
same time pressing the back against- the opposite 
wall of the hole, they easily scramble up to the 
entrance. By the time these birds reach ma¬ 
turity, the pad has scaled off and disappeared. 
This heel-pad has long been noticed, but only re¬ 
cently has its purpose been understood. 
Near Guadalajara, Mexico, there is a desert¬ 
like plain, sustaining only scattered cactus-shrubs 
and mezquit; and there, in certain circumstances, 
may be seen a “whirlwind” of birds. The prime 
condition is the presence of some large dead ani¬ 
mal, as a steer or borro—a common occurrence. 
Drag such a carcase there, leave it and retire a 
hundred yards or so, and the spectacle will soon 
begin. A confused blackish cloud will presently 
appear, and resolve itself into specks which a 
moment later show themselves to be a multitude 
of birds—blackbirds, perhaps, a stranger will sur¬ 
mise; then, as they come nearer and grow larger, 
he thinks them ravens but finally perceives that 
they are vultures—carrion crows and turkey buz¬ 
zards—descending upon the dead animal, around 
and over which the firstcomers are already walk¬ 
ing and tearing at the hide. Above the carcase 
there now extends into the air a vast inverted 
cone of birds, all circling in the same direction. 
Not one is out of place and the outline of the 
cone is as true 'and smooth as if the flock was 
confined within a glass funnel, and every bird 
on the "further curve is whitely lighted by the 
sun, while the hither surface is black as night, 
Half close your eyes and the whole mass appears 
as if composed of a myriad of slowly revolving 
wheels, intersecting and crossing each other, but 
never breaking the geometrical outline of the 
mass, which is densest and blackest at its apex 
near the earth. 
The ornithologist Beebe witnessed one of 
these living cyclones, and rode quietly toward it. 
Slowly, as he came into view, the oblique spirals 
swung upward. “The gigantic cone,” he writes, 
“still perfect in shape, lifts clear of the ground 
and drifts away; the summit rises in a curve 
which little by little frays out into ragged lines, 
all drifting in the same direction, and before our 
eyes the thousands of birds merge into a shape¬ 
less, undulating cloud, which rises and rises, 
spreading out more and more, until the eye can 
no longer distinguish the birds, which from vul¬ 
tures dwindle to motes, floating and lost among 
the clouds.” Binocular. 
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Notes of a Casual Reader 
