FOREST AND STREAM 
407 
which completely paralyzed his right side also 
•deprived him of the power of speech. Thus the 
cause of bird protection lost the services of the 
man of most striking personality within its ranks. 
While Mr. Dutcher was active he was a leader, 
an originator and a most enthusiastic advocate 
of the cause for which he stood. 
The educational side of the Audubon work 
had been prominent from the beginning. Every 
local society was urged to advance it, especially 
among the young; and undoubtedly the recent 
development of nature study as a regular branch 
of school instruction is largely owing to seed 
sown by Audubon Society efforts. Questions for 
teachers and students had been appended to 
everyone of the leaflets, which from the very 
start have been issued at intervals of a few 
months, and have been distributed in hundreds 
of thousands. Here and there auxiliary societies 
and clubs of children began long ago to be 
formed, and this suggested a new field of work in 
the education of youngsters, to be formed into a 
connected subsidiary of the Audubon Society in 
each state, under the name of the Junior Audu¬ 
bon Classes. Since 1910 Mrs. Russell Sage has 
contributed annually a fund of $5,000 for the 
purpose of developing this work in the southern 
states. Another member has contributed $22,000 
in all during the past three years to carry on the 
work of organizing Junior Audubon Classes in 
the northern states. This important work is 
growing rapidly. Last year more than 53,00c 
school children were organized into classes for 
bird study, and were supplied with pictures and 
descriptive literature relating to North American 
birds and their usefulness. 
The National Association of Audubon Socie¬ 
ties is to-day a strong, far-reaching institution. 
Its platform is wide. While engaging actively 
in preserving wild life, it recognizes fully the 
claims of the sportsman, and has no fight with 
When our honored ancestors from the staid 
regions about Boston, Springfield, New Haven 
and Hartford, moved “up north,” as the region 
on both sides of Lake Champlain from Whitehall 
to Montreal was called, after the Revolution, they 
often bestowed singularly inappropriate names 
upon the fauna and flora found in their new 
homes. This resulted largely from the fact that 
they had previously been familiar with the terms, 
phraseology and ways of England and of the 
sea, and applied them to various objects strange 
to them, but which had to have some sort of a 
name for common speech. 
So they invariably called the large thimble- 
berry “mulberry,” although it bore not the slight¬ 
est resemblance to the latter delicious worm- 
the man who legally kills game birds and game 
animals. The association supports five agents 
and lecturers, whose voices are constantly heard 
before committees in legislative halls. In sum¬ 
mer it guards with paid wardens practically 
every important colony of sea birds on our At¬ 
lantic and Gulf coasts, as well as many lakes of 
the interior. It owns or leases many islands 
where ducks and sea birds breed, and these places 
are wonderful bird sanctuaries. It co-operates 
with the Government in protecting the Federal 
bird reservations. It publishes and distributes 
annually over 3,000,000 pages of bird protective 
literature, and the home office has long been a 
general clearing house for all kinds of informa¬ 
tion in reference to the study and protection of 
wild birds and animals. The association is par¬ 
ticularly active in legislative work and has been 
responsble for many laws enacted for the estab¬ 
lishment of state game commissions for shorten¬ 
ing seasons for shooting wild fowl and upland 
game birds, for prohibiting the sale of game, 
and for destroying the traffic in birds’ feathers. 
Every year it makes expenditures for big game 
protection, for feeding game birds and song birds 
in winter, and in prosecuting violators of the 
law. Its magazine, “Bird-Lore,” is easily the 
leading popular bird magazine of the world, and 
wields a wide influence. 
Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, the secretary, has been 
the general executive officer since Mr. Dutcher’s 
illness began, late in 1910. The work has greatly 
prospered under his administration, and the in¬ 
come has doubled during that time. The associa¬ 
tion expended $70,000 for the bird protection 
cause in 1913. One thing of which the friends of 
the organization often speak with pride is the 
fact that only eight per cent, of the income is ex¬ 
pended for administrative expenses. Money con¬ 
tributed to the Audubon Society goes actually 
into the work for which it was given. 
shaped fruit. The marsh marigold, which is 
about the first plant to display its dark green 
leaves and beautiful yellow blossoms in spring in 
that section, was promptly dubbed “cowslip” by 
the good women, who eagerly culled it to boil 
with pork or corn beef for dinner. 
The passion for giving American animals Eng¬ 
lish names is shown in the bestowal of the term 
“hedgehog” upon the porcupine—a most palpable 
misnomer. The well-known ruffed grouse be¬ 
came partridge or “partridge”; the mimic thrush 
or catbird, “mocking bird,” and the great crested 
fly-catcher, “rain bird.” This last designation is 
not so bad after all. Then few knew the differ¬ 
ence between the whipporwill and the night- 
hawk, and I have heard some persons honestly 
affirm that it was the male “whip” that flew 
about in the upper air at twilight, while the fe¬ 
male did all the singing on the old logs and 
fence rails. In similar fashion they called the 
dreaded puma, cougar or mountain lion, for¬ 
merly so abundant, “panther,” and even to-day 
in old books we find the terms moose and elk used 
interchangeably to designate two animals so en¬ 
tirely different in horns and appearance. 
It was so in the matter of localities. For in¬ 
stance, a natural harbor or haven from the fierce 
northeasters, on the west shore of Lake Cham¬ 
plain, opposite to and three and one-half miles 
from the narrows at Fort Frederick, on the his¬ 
toric Crown Point peninsula, was called by the 
early Canadian voyageurs floating up lake in their 
great batteaux filled with furs or articles of 
trade with the Mohawks and other Indian tribes, 
“Porte d’Entre.” Of course, the Yankee could 
not stand for such a name as that, so he changed 
it promptly to Port Henry, and it took that tight 
little burgh many years to discover its original 
title. Old Skeenesboro became Whitehall, and 
“Horicon” (silvery water) or “Lac Sacrament,” 
Lake George. 
Passing into the finny kingdom, we find this 
same fashion of giving old names to new species 
prevalent. They called a hideous, greenish- 
brown fish, somewhat resembling an eel, but much 
larger, and occasionally weighing ten pounds, 
“ling” or “scale ling.” This fish inhabits slug¬ 
gish creeks and inlets along with the gar pike, 
and is frequently taken through the ice in win¬ 
ter. Its flesh is coarse and rank, but some Ca¬ 
nucks and Indians will eat it. The larger speci¬ 
men of white fish were called “Champlain 
shad,” to distinguish them from the real kind, 
concerning which the old Vermont ditty runs, 
“And the pretty shad follows, all fresh from the 
sea.” 
One of the worst and most ludicrous errors 
was putting the name “carp” all over the un¬ 
fortunate large-mouth black bass, and this name 
is still applied to this game fish in localities 
where the inhabitants never saw a real German 
carp in their lives. 
It is no wonder, therefore, that the name 
“sheephead” should have been carelessly fixed 
upon a large and beautiful specimen of the spine- 
rayed dorsal fin species, found in great abund¬ 
ance in the clay-colored waters of southern 
Champlain, although but little known to modern 
anglers. This fish is eagerly sought by the local 
inhabitants as a valuable food on account of its 
great size, specimens running from two to eight 
pounds being frequently taken, and occasionally 
the nets bring up old monarchs weighing as much 
as fourteen pounds. The flesh somewhat re¬ 
sembles cod, and is frequently salted and dried 
for winter use. It is thought that the sheep- 
head is the “shepaug” of the Indians, and it is 
quite natural that the American settlers should 
have applied to it the nearest salt-water equiva¬ 
lent in sound known to them. 
Our beauty is silvery gray in color, with some¬ 
what irridescent sides. His body is lighter be¬ 
neath, and the fins are yellowish white. The 
scales are large and come off with great ease, 
being in this respect quite different from those 
of the yellow-mailed perch which swarms in this 
lake. Everyone has heard of the two “lucky 
bones” found in the head of each adult sheep- 
head, and school boys often carry them about. 
This Fish Needs A New Name 
The Champlain Sheephead A Misnomer—A Valuable Food Fish Whose Habits 
Are Little Known 
By Peter Flint 
