FOREST AND STREAM. 
5* 
July ii, 1908.] 
New York Zoological Society. 
The twelfth annual report of the New York 
Zoological Society reports a total membership 
for the society of 1,624, of which 1,335 are an " 
nual members and 193 life members. The at¬ 
tendance at the Zoological Park for the year 
1907 was 1,276,041 and at the aquarium 2,131,393, 
a total of nearly three and a half million visitors 
to the two institutions for the year. The cost 
to the city for providing amusement, recreation 
and scientific instruction to this great crowd was 
a little over five cents each. The number of 
animals on exhibition has greatly increased; 865 
species were represented by 4,034 specimens, in 
other words in its park the New York Zoologi¬ 
cal Society has a greater number of specimens 
on exhibition than any other zoological garden 
in the world. The next largest is Berlin with 
3,149, which is closely followed by London with 
2,972. 
One of the most interesting exhibits in the 
collection is the group of Western white goats, 
which, since the issuing of this report, has been 
increased by a birth, the first white goat ever 
bred in confinement. The birth last year of 
twelve American bison, four bears, four black 
j coyotes, three lions and a large number of old 
world ungulates speaks well for the general 
health of the collections. On the other hand 
a markhor and a large orang died during the 
year. The collection of birds shows a great 
number of most interesting forms, and all of 
them seem to be in excellent condition, as do the 
reptiles. 
The work of improving the grounds goes on, 
and the park becomes more and more a favorite 
with the New York public and visitors to the 
j city. 
The attendance at the aquarium is the best 
gauge of its popularity. The collections there 
have never been so large or so interesting. The 
manatee, presented by Mr. A. W. Dimock in 
I 1906, lived in captivity for about eighteen months, 
an unexampled length of life. The fish hatchery, 
established by Director Townsend some years 
ago, continues in operation, and 2,300,000 fry 
; were distributed last year. 
| Among the papers of great interest that ac- 
! company the report is one by Director C. H. 
| Townsend on the Pollution of Streams, an ad¬ 
dress delivered to the Anglers’ Club of New 
I York in March. 1908, and one on the Condition 
of Wild Life in Alaska, by Mr. Madison Grant. 
The latter has been printed in Forest and 
I Stream. 
Goney and Why? 
Brooklyn, N.. Y., June 22. — Editor Forest 
j and Stream: In Forest and Stream for May 
30, in an article on the cruise of the Galilee, 
Dr. J. Hobart Egbert advocates the use of goonie 
for the name of the black-footed albatross in¬ 
stead of the much better goney now in use. 
While common names mean little or nothing, 
yet it is inadvisable to change them after they 
have been in use for many years. The word 
goney has been in use over half a century, 
although by one of those strange transpositions 
that will happen it is now applied to a bird 
quite distinct from the one to which it was 
originally given. 
The word goney was applied for years to the 
smaller Southern albatrosses, or rather to those 
I _ 
that are white with black wings. It is, to a 
certain extent, synonymous with mollymawk, 
but generally used to denote Diomedia melano- 
phrys in distinction to Diomedia chlororhynchus. 
The term mollymawk, by the way, has also been 
incorrectly changed to mollyhawk, a word that 
was not heard in the earlier sixties. The appli¬ 
cation of the name goney to the black-footed 
albatross of the North Pacific is of compara¬ 
tively recent date and is a parallel case to the 
application of the name penguin to the birds now 
known by that name, when it was originally 
applied to the great auk. 
To substitute goonie for goney seems to me 
very much like the use of gooms for gums and 
doos for does. The etymology of goney is un¬ 
known to me, but it certainly does not come 
from gonys, as it has been habitually used by 
people who have not the slightest idea of what 
gonys is. Oddly enough, Alfred Newton fails 
to give goney in his dictionary of birds, but the 
term occurs frequently in the logs of whale¬ 
men, and as previously noted was in common 
use in the early sixties. F. A. Lucas. 
Birds and the Boll Weevil. 
Reference has frequently been made to the 
services rendered to the cotton growers of the 
South by the birds which winter there. The boll 
weevil, which now infests the greater part of 
the cotton growing area of Texas and Louisiana, 
and portions of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mis¬ 
sissippi, is a terrible enemy to the planter, and 
his ravages must be combatted. The loss occas¬ 
ioned by the boll weevil is variously estimated 
in different localities at from 10 per cent, to 50 
per cent, of the crop, but whatever it may be we 
know that in the aggregate it amounts to a 
money loss of many millions of dollars. 
Many species of birds feed to a greater or 
less extent on the weevil, and the Bureau of 
Biological Survey has for some years been in¬ 
vestigating this subject. During the first year 
only twenty species of birds were found to feed 
upon the insect, but further inquiries, carried on 
during several years, and at all seasons, have 
shown that fifty-three species of birds feed on 
the weevil, many of them destroying it in large 
numbers. 
Among these helpful birds are three species 
of blackbird—the meadowlark, a number of 
species of sparrows, the titlarks, which are 
numerous and which feed in freshly plowed 
fields as well as among old cotton stalks. They 
destroy vast numbers of weevils. So also do 
some of the wrens and the titmice. The cotton 
planter can do nothing better for his own in¬ 
terest than to strive to protect all insect-eating 
birds. 
Oregon Notes. 
Alsea, Oregon, July 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have several times been on the 
point of writing to you to correct a statement 
that I have seen in print that the only band of 
elk now to be found on the Pacific coast was 
located in Washington. There are elk ranging 
in this coast strip, but their numbers are fast 
diminishing, and it will be only a short time 
before they are exterminated. There is ap¬ 
parently an absolute public indifference as to 
their protection. 
Oregon has inadequate game and fish laws, 
and where there is a law there is but little 
attempt to enforce it. There is now no law 
for the protection of trout in Oregon, except 
in one stream. I am in the midst of excellent 
trout fishing, and but a few miles from me is 
the Alsea Bay, where I believe some of the best 
salmon fishing is to be found on the coast. A 
silver salmon, one of the varieties there, will 
put up the most startling and stubborn fight it 
has yet been my good fortune to handle. I have 
killed ouananiche in the Grand Discharge and 
muskelonge in Chautauqua, but this silver sal¬ 
mon, fresh from salt water, is the most sky- 
rockety demon I have yet brought to gaff with 
a six-ounce rod. J. N. H. 
[There are elk still on Vancouver Island, and 
on the British Columbia mainland, in Washing¬ 
ton, Oregon and a few in California. In all 
these localities they are few and fast diminish¬ 
ing, except perhaps in Washington and Califor¬ 
nia. where special efforts have been made for 
their protection. —Editor.] 
Ferocious Mountain Sheep. 
A recent item, which appears in the Denver 
Post, and which we print below, appears to be 
an example of the way in which animals natur¬ 
ally wild and shy may lose their fear of man. 
At the present day, in countries where it is 
hunted, no animal is more wary than the moun¬ 
tain sheep; on the other hand in Colorado, sheep 
are protected by law and no doubt in many 
places this law is reasonably observed. Here 
is the dispatch to the Post: 
Buena Vista, Colo., June 18.—That John M. McCul- 
louch, a prospector, is alive to-day, is due to his ability 
in a crippled condition to get to a safe place in a tree 
to escape from a mob of thirty-five or forty infuriated 
mountain sheep. 
McCullouch started yesterday afternoon with his dog 
to do some prospecting on Mount Princeton, in the 
Chalk Creek district, twenty-two miles southwest of 
here. While passing through a level, grassy place in 
the mountain he came suddenly upon a large band of 
mountain sheep, among them being many lambs. The 
old sheep cornered the dog, and to save its life McCul¬ 
louch attempted to drive them off, when the entire band, 
in which there were many old rams, knocked him 
down and trampled upon him. After a desperate fight 
he managed to climb a tree, where he remained several 
hours before the sheep moved off up the mountainside. 
McCullouch was considerably bruised about the body 
and his face is badly scratched. 
Once, he said, he thought his time had come, when 
one of the rams, with formidable looking horns, made a 
charge at him while he was down, striking him on the 
right side. Just as the maddened beast reached him he 
struck it with a club, dazing it so that it momentarily 
stopped, thus saving him from serious injuries. 
On reading the item, we wrote to the station 
agent at Buena Vista, inquiring as to the facts 
in the matter. He very kindly replied as fol¬ 
lows. 
‘'The report given in the Post covers the facts 
in the case. The cause of the attack was the 
mother sheep trying to protect their young from 
a dog the prospector had with him. When the 
prospector went to the rescue of his dog the 
sheep set upon him.” 
The whole matter seems very curious from 
its unexpectedness, but as a matter of fact it 
is not much more odd than the very common 
occurrence of a tame deer or elk attacking a 
human being. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
) 
