Nov. ii, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
711 
garden, near Lisbon, a small fish pond, full of 
different kinds of fish. Its bottom was level 
with the ground and was made by forming a 
bank all round. There was a shrubbery close 
to it. While I was lying on the bank, observ¬ 
ing the fish swim about, I desired a gentleman 
who was with me to take a loaded gun and go 
behind the shrubs and fire it. The reason for 
going behind the shrubs was that there might 
not be the least reflection of light. The instant 
the report was made, the fish appeared to be all 
of one mind, for they vanished instantaneously 
into the mud at the bottom, raising as it were a 
cloud of mud. In about five minutes after they 
began to appear till the whole came forth 
again.” 
To test the effect of single loud noises on 
fishes, several Fund ulus were liberated in a cage, 
and after they had become quieted, a fowling 
piece was discharged a few feet from them, but 
in such a position that they could not see it. 
At the report of the gun most of the fishes gave 
a single leap forward and to one side. This 
was several times repeated at considerable in¬ 
tervals and invariably with the same results. 
Bait was then thrown into the cage, and while 
the Fundulus were busy tussling with this food, 
the gun was again discharged. They immedi¬ 
ately forsook the bait, but in half a minute they 
had returned to it with full vigor. 
To ascertain something of the strength of the 
sound stimulus that caused the Fundulus to re¬ 
act, an observer dove under the water, and while 
he was there the gun was discharged in much 
the same relation to him as it had been to the 
fishes. Although the report of the gun in the 
air was almost deafening, when it was heard 
under a foot or so of water, it resembled the 
pop of a soda water bottle both in quality and 
intensity. This great reduction in intensity of 
the sound, as in the case of the motor boat 
sounds, results from the reflection of most of 
the sound from the surface of the water, and 
hence its failure to enter the water. Yet the 
little that did enter the water sufficed to stimu¬ 
late the fishes. 
Fundulus is known to be quite sensitive to 
sound, but the fact that it lives under water ren¬ 
ders it relatively inaccessible to sounds, since 
most sounds originate in the air. This explains 
why Fundulus and most other fishes fail to re¬ 
spond to the human voice. It is not that the 
human voice in itself is not strong enough to 
stimulate a fish, but rather that so little sound 
from it enters the water that stimulation is im¬ 
possible. The surface between water and air is 
for fishes an effective screen through which very 
little sound can pass. 
With the view of ascertaining something of 
the effectiveness of a gun report as a stimulus 
for Fundulus, trials were made by firing the gun 
at various distances from the cage of fish. 
Fundulus invariably responded to the discharge 
of the gun at 100 feet from the cage. They 
usually responded at 200 feet, but they never re¬ 
sponded at 500 feet. From these observations it 
is evident that the effect of the report of a gun 
is distinctly local, and in this respect it resem¬ 
bles the motor boat noises. 
Through the courtesy of the commanding 
officer of the United States revenue cutter 
Gresham, it was possible to study the effect of 
the explosion of a saluting charge of two pounds 
of powder from a six-pound howitzer. In these 
tests a considerable number of Fundulus were 
retained in a cage, and the tests made at vary¬ 
ing distances from the gun. At 2,000 feet no 
response was given to the report, and the same 
was true at 1,000 feet. Within thirty feet of the 
gun the conditions for accurate observation, be¬ 
cause of the heavy detonation, were very un¬ 
favorable, but the response at this position was 
at most only momentary and certainly not more 
striking than the reaction to the report from a 
fowling piece. 
The problem of the relation of fishes to sounds 
is a’most always taken up from the standpoint 
Progress of the_ Hunting Season. 
November marks the height of the hunting 
season. Tracking snow on the ground in the 
North permits moose and deer hunting to begin 
in earnest; upland game birds are well grown, 
and the migration of waterfowl is at its heaviest. 
The chief interest centers in the opening of 
the hunting season for quail. Every State in 
which they are abundant, from New York to 
Nebraska and from Florida to Texas, opens its 
quail season this month, with the exception of 
Georgia, where the opening is delayed until the 
1st of December. The season is already open in 
New England, Michigan and Minnesota, where 
quail are few, and in the Western States, whose 
quail differ from the bobwhite of the East. East¬ 
ern sportsmen may take the field from the first 
day of this month, except in Delaware, Kentucky, 
Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louis¬ 
iana and Oklahoma, where shooting begins on 
the 15th, and in Indiana and Illinois, where it 
begins on the 10th and nth, respectively. 
Next in importance to the opening of the quail 
season is the opening of wild turkey hunting in 
most of the States where turkeys are abundant. 
Arkansas, Arizona and Maryland have permitted 
turkey hunting since September, and in Georgia, 
Alabama, Mississippi and Texas the opening of 
the season is deferred until after the close of 
November, but in all other States, from Penn¬ 
sylvania to New Mexico, where the hunting of 
wild turkeys is a feature, the season opens in 
November. 
Eight Northern States which offer deer hunt¬ 
ing, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North and 
South Dakota open seasons in November, vary¬ 
ing from five days to a month in length, and in 
the South deer hunting begins this month in 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Okla¬ 
homa and Texas. 
October witnessed the opening of the ruffed 
grouse season in most of the States still afford¬ 
ing good shooting, but Pennsylvania, where an 
unusually abundant supply is reported this year, 
opens its season on the 1st of November. 
The shooting of waterfowl has been in pro¬ 
gress throughout most of the United States for 
one or two months, but two important ducking 
centers of the East, the Susquehanna Flats, at 
the head of Chesapeake Bay, Md., and Currituck 
Sound, North Carolina, have been closed to duck 
hunters until this month. Duck shooting on the 
of negative reaction, in that it is assumed that 
noise drives fishes away. It must be remembered, 
however, that there are fishes like the drumfish 
and especially the squeteague, that produce noises 
which are without much doubt concerned with 
bringing the sexes together in the breeding sea¬ 
son, and that these noises, therefore, are not re¬ 
pellent, but serve to attract. Cases of this kind 
show that it is possible that even artificial noises, 
if appropriate in character, might attract fishes, 
for sound, even when disagreeable to the human 
ears, is not of necessity always disturbing to 
fishes and might even serve as a lure. 
waters of New Jersey also opens in November. 
The hunting of black bears is not a general 
form of sport, and in a few States bounties are 
paid for their destruction. Several States, how¬ 
ever, retain the bear on the game list, with a 
fixed hunting season, and three of those in which 
bear hunting is still a prominent sport, viz.: 
Michigan, Louisiana and Mississippi, open their 
bear seasons in November. 
November witnesses also the closing of some 
important seasons. By the end of the month 
deer hunting is over in the North, except in 
Maine and New Hampshire. It may be fol¬ 
lowed in the South for additional periods vary¬ 
ing from one month in Louisiana and Texas to 
three months in Mississippi. In New York and 
everywhere in the West the deer season is closed 
by the beginning of November. By the last of 
the month the prairie chicken season is over in 
every State in which these birds may yet be 
shot, and woodcock shooting has ended in all 
Northern States in which woodcock may yet be 
found in comparatively large numbers, though 
in the South the season continues open. 
Reports received by the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture from various sources indi¬ 
cate about forty-five fatalities that accompany 
the hunting season have occurred up to Nov. 1. 
New Clubs. 
Scranton Camp No. 60 of the United Sports¬ 
men of Pennsylvania has been organized in that 
city. After the shooting season closes smokers 
and lectures will be held and prominent men in¬ 
vited to talk on game protection and kindred 
subjects. Officers have been elected as follows: 
President, William Bird ; Vice-Presidents, Samuel 
B. Edgar, William Anneman; Secretary, C. J. 
Potter; Treasurer, Matt F. Bohn; Press Secre¬ 
tary, D. J. Reese; Treasurer, George Felton. 
The Naurasham Hunting Club has been orga¬ 
nized in Nyack, N. Y. Hunting, game protection 
and trapshooting will be given attention by mem¬ 
bers. 
Keep an Eye on the Gun. 
Keep in mind always the end of your gun. A 
driver is told to keep an eye and a half on the 
road and a half of an eye on his horse. If the 
hunter will keep an eye and a half on the field 
and his dogs and a half eye on the muzzle of his 
gun, there will be fewer accidents.—Spartans- 
burg (S. C.) Herald. 
RG3 
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