97 * 
[June 22, 1907. 
neck, come up on the other side, and resume his 
seat, repeating the feat many times. 
The horse was usually killed at the grave of 
its owner, just as his arms were buried with him, 
in order that he might be equipped for the jour¬ 
ney that he was about to take. A number of 
Plains tribes practiced a horse dance. There 
were songs about horses, and prayers were made 
in their behalf. On the whole, however, the 
horse’s place in ceremony was only incidental. 
On the occasion of great gatherings horses were 
led into the circle of the dancers and there given 
away, the donor, counting a coup as he passed 
over the gift to the recipient. In modern times 
the marriage gift sent by a suitor to a girl’s 
family consisted in part of horses. Among some 
tribes a father gave away a horse when his son 
killed his first big game or on other important 
family occasions. In the dances of the soldier 
band societies of most tribes two, four or six 
chosen men ride horses during the dance. Their 
horses are painted, the tails are tied up as for 
war, hawk or owl feathers are tied to the fore¬ 
lock or tail, and frequently a scalp, or something 
representing it, hangs from the lower jaw. The 
painting represents wounds received by the 
rider’s horse, or often there is painted the print 
of a hand on either side of the neck to show 
that an enemy on foot has been ridden down. 
In preparing to go into a formal battle the horse 
as well as his rider received protective treat¬ 
ment. It was ceremonially painted and adorned, 
as described above, and certain herbs and medi¬ 
cines were rubbed or blown over it to give it 
endurance and strength. 
Among some of the Plains tribes there was a 
guild of horse doctors who devoted themselves 
especially to protecting and healing horses. They 
doctored horses before going into battle- or to 
the buffalo hunt, so that they should not fall, 
and doctored those wounded in battle or on 
the hunt, as well as the men hurt in the hunt. 
In intertribal horse races they “doctored” in be¬ 
half of the horses of their own tribe and against 
those of their rivals. G. B. G. 
New York Zoological Society. 
The eleventh annual report of the New York 
Zoological Society has just been published and 
is full of interest. The essential features of the 
report of the executive committee of the board 
of managers were announced last winter imme¬ 
diately after the annual meeting. The scientific 
work of the society is still held more or less in 
abeyance, pending the completion of the con-* 
struction work of the park. This construction 
work shows the completion of a number of new 
buildings, general improvement in the park and 
additions to- its conveniences- 
How highly the work of the Zoological So¬ 
ciety is appreciated by the public may be seen 
from the fact that the attendance at the park 
during the year 1906 amounted to about 1,322,- 
000, an increase of more than 88,000 over the 
previous year; while the attendance at the 
Aquarium was over 2,100,000 or about 380,000 
more than the previous year. Since its original 
opening the Aquarium has been visited by the 
astonishing number of more than 17,000,000 of 
people. 
At the close of the year 1906 the collections 
at the Zoological Park numbered 3,624, an in¬ 
crease of 753 over the previous year. They rep¬ 
resented 808 species, an increase of 152 over the 
previous year. Notable among the gifts of the 
year were a hippopotamus, an African rhinoce¬ 
ros, a pair of jaguar cubs, two manatee, two 
Florida crocodiles, five buffalo, with some sea 
lions, elk and black bears. The National Col¬ 
lection of Heads and Horns, just established 
under the auspices of the society, has for its 
nucleus Mr. Hornaday’s donation of his entire 
collection—131 specimens. 
The health of. the animals at the park was un¬ 
usually good during 1906, and the rate of mor¬ 
tality very small. The flock of five white goats, 
so well known to visitors to the park for their 
occupancy of the roof of the house in their in¬ 
closure, has suffered no losses and the health of 
the animals continues good. The buffalo, the 
elk, the European bison, and all the Asiatic and 
tropical deer are doing well. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
During the year there were born in the park 
forty animals, including a grizzly bear, two buf¬ 
falo, two Spanish ibex, one Altai wapiti, four 
mule deer, and a considerable number of deer 
of other species. ' The collection of birds has 
greatly increased, and twenty-six out of the 
thirty-one orders of birds x are represented. The 
occupants of the reptile house have done well. 
Mr. Ditmar’s observations on the growth of alli¬ 
gators is printed in the volume. The reports of 
the chief constructor and forester and of the en¬ 
gineers are all interesting and deserve careful 
study. 
That the Aquarium, which is located in the 
heart of business, New , York, should receive 
more visitors than the Zoological Park in the 
BronJc is natural, but the Aquarium is full of 
most interesting things. The fish hatchery is a 
source of unending delight to visitors, the tropi¬ 
cal fishes with their brilliant colors call forth 
exclamations of delight, while the giant turtles 
and immense sturgeons cause others to wonder. 
The report of Mr. Chas. H. Townsend, direc¬ 
tor of the Aquarium, is preceded by an interest¬ 
ing old picture showing Castle Garden at the 
first appearance of Jennie Lind in America, Sept. 
11, 1850. 
An interesting paper, drawn from Mr. Town¬ 
send’s pen by inquiries addressed to him by the 
public, is one on the “Cultivation of Fishes in 
Natural and Artificial Ponds.” It contains a 
great amount of information on fish culture, a 
list of species which may be satisfactorily reared 
and a bibliography. The report of the veteri¬ 
narian is followed by two papers from Dr. W. 
Reid Blair on a peculiar skin disease in an ele¬ 
phant and on lump jaw in the black mountain 
sheep. Mr. Ditmar’s article on the growth of 
the alligator has been alluded to. Mr. C. Wm. 
Beebee, curator of birds, contributes the interest¬ 
ing paper on “Owls of North America” and 
gives a list of birds living at the New York 
Zoological Park. 
The membership of the Zoological Society 
does not increase as rapidly as might be de¬ 
sired. The total of all classes is 1,567, the an¬ 
nual members falling just short of 1,400. The 
list should be doubled. 
As usual, the mechanical execution of the report 
is admirable and Mr. Sanborn’s photographs are 
quite beyond praise. 
Mother Carey’s Chickens. 
Editor. Forest and Stream: 
On a dreary evening at sea, as the good ship 
goes heaving on her lonely way, suddenly a flock 
of dusky swallow-like birds appear and poor Jack, 
casting a bodeful eye at the sky, cries: “Mother 
Carey’s chickens !” 
The birds after flying about the ship for a 
while '(and so rapid is their flight that they can 
pass her as though she were standing still), settle 
m the wake and then begins a singular perfor¬ 
mance. Dropping down to the surface of the 
water with hanging legs and wings fluttering in 
butterfly fashion, they run about or stand still 
as though they were on dry land. But this is 
no mere amusement. They are earnestly at work 
seeking their living, which in the main consists 
of b'arnacles or minute shell fish. If the cook 
should empty a pail overboard, however, they 
will eagerly devour the greasy matter. Mean¬ 
while if it should begin to> blow and the waters 
to rise, they appear to revel in the storm and 
their evolutions among the surging waves are 
one of the most interesting and beautiful sights 
imaginable. At the approach of night they de¬ 
sist from their labors, and rising, disappear in 
the gathering gloom. 
Time was (and perhaps it has not entirely 
gone by) when the appearance of Mother Carey’s 
chickens aroused something very like terror in 
the bosom of poor Jack, for they were believed 
to be allied with evil spirits. It is not hard to 
understand how such a belief came to exist. 
The stormy petrel, alias Mother Carey’s 
chicken ( Procellaria pelagica), or ( Oceanites 
oceanicus) , according as we have reference to 
the species of the eastern or western Atlantic, 
has not got the epithet of “stormy” for noth¬ 
ing. As already stated, the bird appears to revel 
in a tumult of the winds and waves and actually 
does so for a good and sufficient reason. This 
is that its food supply is very much more abund¬ 
ant when the ocean is agitated than when it is 
at rest. Then, the petrel has a decided habit 
of following ships, which has really nothing to 
do with impending storm. No, it seeks the ship, 
not because it is afraid or lonely, but simply be¬ 
cause the ship agitates the waters. Very likely 
as it follows a storm may spring up and then, 
seeing the bird so obviously delighted, poor 
superstitious Jack not unnaturally thought there 
was some connection between them. From this 
to a belief in a companionship in evil was only 
a step. 
The queer notions about the stormy petrel 
did not end here. It was believed (and the 
naivete of this belief is decidedly racy of poor 
Jack) that it carried its eggs under its wing and 
hatched them on the water.- It was also believed 
that it could appear at will in the neighborhood 
of a ship anywhere about the ocean. All this 
certainly pointed to necromantic or uncanny 
power, and it is not to be wondered at that the 
bird became such an object of fear and aversion 
to the poor man before the mast. 
The poet Coleridge has left us a fine picture 
of the terrifying influence of the albatross on 
the Ancient Mariner, but no poet seems to have 
awakened to the possibilities of the stormy petrel 
as a theme. However, we read much about it 
off and on in old chronicles or tales of the sea. 
In one of these it is recorded that the sailors, 
seeing the herald of storm join the ship too 
near land, as they supposed, mutinied and re¬ 
fused to proceed. 
This brings us to the distribution of the stormy 
petrel. It is to be met with all over the northern 
and middle Atlantic. As a rule it haunts the 
open ocean, but is to be seen occasionally scud¬ 
ding along shore. There are records of its hav¬ 
ing been driven inland by heavy storms, and per¬ 
haps in this we have an indication of why it 
loves the open deep. It builds in colonies like 
the bank swallow, and on this side of the Atlantic 
its favorite breeding places appear to, be the 
Bahamas and the east coasts of Florida and 
Cuba. It drops its eges, three in number and 
of a white color, in holes or the cavities of rocks. 
When the chicks are hatched they are left alone 
all day, the parents returning at night to feed 
them with the oily food from their stomachs. 
This species, by the way, is so fat and oily that 
it is said the inhabitants of the Ferro Islands 
draw a wick through its body and make it serve 
the purpose of a candle. 
As is well known, of course, the name petrel 
is a diminutive of Peter (the Apostle) who 
walked the waters. But whence “Mother- Carey’s 
chickens?” Yarrell, the distinguished British 
ornithologist, states that the name was first used 
by the sailors of Capt. Carteret and probably had 
reference to some' hag of that name. But this 
does not seem a very satisfactory derivation. 
One which is made more so and most likely the 
true one is that which traces the name to Mater, 
Cara (“Mother dear”), who was the patroness 
of French and Italian sailors and was supposed 
to send the “chickens” to give warning of a com¬ 
ing storm. If at any time they were held, in 
favor (as they certainly deserved to be, seeing 
the charitable nature of their mission) they have 
long fallen from it and are now anathema with 
poor Jack. In this we have another illustration 
of the truth that the bearers of evil tidings, how¬ 
ever good may be their intentions, are never 
popular. Francis M^oonan. 
The Summer Tragedy Again. 
Milford, Conn., June 15.— Editor Forest , and 
Stream: In your issue of June 8, you printed 
a note from me telling of the ‘tragic death of a 
couple of nestling phoebes, which together had 
become entangled in a cowhair, forming part of 
the lining of their nest and had so perished. At 
the end of the note I expressed a hope that the 
parent birds would repair and occupy the old 
phoebe’s nest at the other end of the piazza.. 
This, I am glad to say, has been done, and 
I am now able to report that the mother bird 
is sitting there on five eggs. I hope with all 
my heart this brood may have better fortune 
than their predecessors. Observer. 
