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FOREST AND STREAM 
impact by instant retreat. The worm flung his 
head around in the direction of the blow, and 
found nothing. The insect kept up his blows and 
retreats. I could not see the worm closely enough 
to determine whether he tried to bite his tor¬ 
mentor, but that was the idea suggested by his 
head’s frantic efforts to reach the source of those 
blows. 
A thick, whitish fluid began to ooze from punc¬ 
tures in the worm’s sides. The assailant, aided 
by the eddy, had attacked the victim from every 
direction. The poor worm abandoned his efforts 
to reach the destroyer, and was writhing, seem¬ 
ingly in helpless and aimless agony. The slayer 
continued his attacks, but made his retreats less 
quickly. 
Another water daddylonglegs bumped against 
the worm, and drew back, as if to attack in the 
same way that the first had done. The possessor 
of the worm darted around his prey and launched 
himself at the intruder. He struck the second 
insect fairly in the side, and bowled him. over, 
so that for a moment he lay struggling in the 
water with feet flourishing frantically in the air. 
He soon regained his feet and promptly evacuated 
the neighborhood of the worm. 
The first of the water daddylonglegs turned 
to his finally motionless victim, and placed him¬ 
self astride the partially submerged body. With 
head tipped down and pressed against the green 
skin of the slaughtered worm, he stood in a 
huddled attitude and apparently without moving 
for three or four minutes. Then he went away, 
skipping over the water after the fashion of his 
tribe. 
I had partially risen to go,, when the other in¬ 
sects began to dart across the pool to the body of 
the worm. It seemed as if they did so delib¬ 
erately and not by accident, though each had to 
make several tries before finding it. One would 
hurry three-fourths of the way across the pool, 
turn back and again pass the worm, but not so 
far, and turn again. Noe one of them found the 
apparent object of his jearch in a single trip 
directly from the edge of the pool to its center, 
where the food supply was slowly turning round 
and round. Within about ten or twelve minutes, 
all of them reached the spot, and all repeated the 
movements of the first water daddylonglegs, by 
hovering over the green object that was a hun¬ 
dred times larger than themselves, and each one’s 
head was pressed for a few minutes against the 
green skin. At one time two were peacefully 
standing over the prostrate worm together. 
How they knew of the dead worm puzzled me. 
I was satisfied that it was not by sight, for the 
first and second insects had plainly bumped 
against the worm by accident, and the later in¬ 
sects had been unable to find the food except by 
experiments in the matter of direction. I lifted 
the worm out of the water with a stick, and tried 
to determine if there was any odor which may 
have guided them, but the evidence was negative. 
Human nostrils are not keen enough, anyway, to 
afford very valuable scientific information on the 
matter of odors. It may have been from the 
worm’s bodily juices spreading over the surface 
of the water, though I could detect no discolora¬ 
tion to indicate that. If the knowledge was water¬ 
borne, and reached them through the contact of 
their feet with the water, did it do so by means 
of a sense of feeling or of taste? I give it up. 
I had spent more than half an hour at watch¬ 
ing the natural act of one life maintaining itself 
by the taking of another life. As I trudged to¬ 
ward Musquash village with the knapsack on my 
sweating back, the war in Europe was far away, 
but the water insects and the worm were a pres¬ 
ent object lesson of the tragedy of the world. 
There came to me a consciousness of having 
heard or read of some one who had by a struggle 
in lowly nature been moved to feelings such as 
were stirring me. At last it came; I was turn¬ 
ing over in my head not merely the thoughts 
but some of the language used by Thoreau in his 
story of the battle of the ants. I knew how that 
■other man had felt, years before, and he would 
have understood how I felt on that September 
afternoon. 
HYBRID PHEASANTS. 
By Edward T. Martin. 
A MONG the various experiments tried on 
the Pacific Coast with the breeding of 
game, has been the crossing of a Cochin 
bantam hen with a ring neck pheasant. From 
a sitting of eggs thus obtained seven chicks re¬ 
sulted. The youngsters grew apace and ap¬ 
peared reasonably healthy, but when half grown 
one died, then another and finally a third. A 
postmortem examination to ascertain the cause 
of death produced no successful results in that 
direction but disclosed the fact that these 
hybrids possessed absolutely no evidence of sex: 
a remarkable condition which is certainly worthy 
of note. Two of these birds are now alive. A 
person studying their characteristics is puzzled 
to determine just what they resemble, certainly 
neither hen nor pheasant and really, so far as can 
be determined, no other bird but themselves. 
They are heavy, weighing between four and five 
pounds each, double as much as the mother 
bantam, considerably more than the father 
pheasant. They are pugnacious in the extreme, 
Cross Between a Cochin Bantam and Ring- 
Necked Pheasant. 
which trait they come by naturally, inheriting 
it from both parent birds. Their heads are per¬ 
haps hawk-like in appearance, only they are not 
crested but nearly bald like that of a buzzard. 
Bills are sharp and slightly curved. The pre¬ 
dominating color of one is between a royal 
purple and a crow black. The neck and back 
feathers much resembling those of a jack-daw 
blackbird excepting that they are more glossy. 
The plumage of the second bird is of a darkish 
brown coloration having no particular beauty. 
Otherwise the bird has the same characteristics 
as its companion. 
The experiment which was made in hopes of 
developing a species of bird that while possessing 
the beauty of the pheasant, would have the home- 
loving qualities of the bantam, resulted in flat 
failure for the cross-breds are as wild as a cock 
pheasant on his native heath without either his 
beauty or his grace. They have but one redeem¬ 
ing quality, the little food required to keep them 
in good condition which perhaps if they could 
be raised in sufficient quantities, might make 
them desirable for table use. 
LOOKS LIKE A FOX BUT CLIMBS TREES. 
Houston, Texas, May i, 1916. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When I was a boy of twelve years of age, 
something like 55 years ago, I was in company 
with two other boys hunting rabbits, when we 
heard our dogs barking as if they had something 
“treed.” We had a long run to catch up with 
them as they kept on the move and when we 
did get up with them we found they were after 
an animal which we at first sight took to be 
an unusually large fox squirrel, but we were 
experienced enough in woodcraft to soon see 
that it was an entirely different animal, and we 
began to stone in the hope of causing it to 
miss its footing in jumping from tree to tree. 
It finally took refuge in the top of a very tall 
tree beyond reach. Two of us concluded to 
stay with the dogs while the other went home to 
get his father to come and shoot the animal 
for us. When Mr. Bryant, the father, came with 
his rifle and our unknown game was on the 
ground an old negro who accompanied Mr. Bry¬ 
ant and who, by the way, did the shooting (on 
account of Mr. Bryant having badly inflamed 
eyes), exclaimed, “Dat’s a tree fox. You don’t 
see many of dem.” 
The following is a description of the animal: 
Head and tail very much like a fox, pointed 
nose and canine teeth. Tail more round than 
flat. Color a mixture of red and gray, making it 
a little lighter than the red squirrel and darker 
than the ordinary gray fox. As near as I can 
remember, its claws were sheathed but on this 
point I am uncertain, as it is a long time since 
that day. 
Perhaps some of your readers may be able to 
give the name and genus. 
Ingram Pyle. 
IT IS A BASSARISCUS ASTUTUS FLAVUS— 
(RHOADS). 
Bureau of Biological Survey, 
Washington, D. C., May 12, 1916. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Your letter of May 11, inclosing one from 
Ingram Pyle of Houston, Texas, regarding a 
strange animal which he calls a tree fox, is re¬ 
ceived. Mr. Pyle’s description of the animal in 
question is very indefinite and can not be posi¬ 
tively connected with any species, but apparently 
it refers to the civet cat, Bassariscus astutus 
flavns Rhoads. This little animal is about the 
size of a mink but with a fox-like face, a long, 
somewhat flattened and banded tail, and gener¬ 
ally buffy gray color. It climbs trees, but I do 
not know whether it jumps from tree to tree 
as this individual is described as doing. It is 
common in western Texas, but we have no rec¬ 
ord of it so far east as Houston, the vicinity of 
Corpus Christi being the easternmost record for 
the state. In one of our publications, North 
American Fauna No. 25, opposite page 182, you 
will find a picture of the head and face of this 
animal and a brief account of its distribution 
and habits. 
The gray fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, also 
occurs in that region and is known to climb 
trees but does not jump through the branches as 
this animal did, and is probably well known by 
Mr. Pyle. I think the animal is undoubtedly 
Bassariscus. 
H. W. Henshaw, 
Chief, Biological Survey. 
Laysan Island Albatross. 
Showing the bird executing its peculiar matri¬ 
monial dance—In the June number of Forest 
and Stream mention was made of the fact that 
owing to insufficient protection by the United 
States Government, poachers had destroyed 300,- 
000 of these birds in one year for their plumage— 
A crime for which there is no excuse. 
Victims of Government’s Carelessness. 
