9 2 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[July 18, 1908. 
FIG. I. EGG CASES OF THE DOBSON. 
A group photographed at a distance of nineteen inches, showing them about half their natural size. 
These were on a boulder about afoot above the water. 
have covered 300 yards after the attack by the 
eagles. The victim, which had evidently offered 
a gallant resistance, seems to have made a stand 
in three places, chiefly where found, but also at 
points along the trail. The crimson stained 
snow and thickly strewn hair, added to the well 
defined wing prints of the flapping and drag¬ 
ging eagles, sufficiently revealed this prairie 
tragedy. One or more of the birds must have 
clung tenaciously to their quarry’s back, and 
from the deep wounds thus, inflicted ‘the blood 
had spurted out as when a cow’s horns are sawn 
off.’ ” 
Many years ago Forest and Stream recorded 
an attack by eagles on antelope kids in the 
autumn at a time when the antelope were six 
or seven months old. 
It is well known that eagles sometimes kill 
coyotes, and Mr. Cameron quotes a wolfer as 
telling him that he has found coyotes in his trap 
devoured by eagles. 
In the mountains, the golden eagle kills many 
young wild sheep and goats; not only when they 
are quite small and of a weight which the eagle 
may carry off, but also when they are much 
larger and can be killed and tumbled off the 
cliffs. For this reason many hunters believe 
that the eagles—just like the mountain lions— 
ought to be killed at every opportunity, on the 
ground of their destructiveness to the sheep and 
the goats. The matter has been more or less 
discussed in Forest and Stream. 
On the coast of Alaska, where to be sure there 
are no golden eagles, but where white-headed 
eagles are known to be abundant, these birds 
destroy great numbers of young foxes, and are 
bitterly regarded by the persons who are in¬ 
terested in fox farms. 
Mr. Cameron discusses also the question of 
the ability of the golden eagle to carry weight, 
and concludes that the carrying power of this 
bird is limited to a weight of eight pounds at 
the very most. We believe that to carry a 
weight of eight pounds for even a short distance 
would test the endurance of any eagle, and that 
it would be obliged to drop its prey in a very 
short time. Down hill or against a wind, the 
eagle might very likely carry that weight for 
some distance, but all stories of their carrying 
off lambs of any size or dogs or children are 
of course absolutely untrue. 
In certain parts of Europe and above all in 
parts of Tartary, the golden eagle is trained for 
use in falconry. This bird may be larger than 
the American golden eagle and is at all events 
able to kill foxes, and perhaps to stop, if not 
to kill, much larger animals. 
Destruction of Deer in Ceylon. 
A writer in Spolia Zeylanica for April directs 
attention to the ruthless destruction of deer— 
especially chital—now going on in Ceylon dur¬ 
ing the close season. Every native cart coming 
from the direction of Hambontota was observed 
to contain deer skins, w r hile venison is usually 
procurable everywhere, and shots may be heard 
nightly in the jungles. The villagers take ad¬ 
vantage of the condition of hinds during the 
close season for the purpose of slaughtering 
them; and a sportsman reported the discovery 
of the uterus of a deer containing a living fawn 
which ought to have been born in the course of 
a few days, while he also observed bags of 
venison concealed in the jungle. The game laws, 
adds the writer, are practically a dead letter, and 
while the European sportsman, who in many 
cases would be content with the head of a stag 
as a trophy, is strictly debarred from shooting 
during the close season, the villagers, actuated 
by commercial or selfish motives, shoot what 
they will with impunity, sparing neither male nor 
female, old nor young. 
STIMULATION WITHOUT REACTION. 
After a day of enjoyable sport it is wise to 
choose a drink which helps to restore the vital 
powers rather than one which tends to deplete 
them, as in the case with many drinks. Bor¬ 
den’s Malted Milk is delicious, concentrated, 
nourishing, invaluable to the camper, made ready 
for use by adding water, hot or cold.— Adv. 
The Eggs of the Dobson. 
All along Esopus Creek, in the Cats! 
Mountains, the boulders are dotted in midsui 
mer with white spots which, at a distance, appe 
to the stranger as unusual. At first glance th 
seem to have been put there by an idle pers 
by the flip of a brush. 
So numerous are these markings that on 
attention is attracted and his interest arousf 
He makes a closer inspection and notes tl 
nearly all of the prominent boulders in this lar 
stream are similarly marked. This leads to t 
further observation that the location of t 
groups of white spots is not haphazard; tl: 
seem to have been put in certain places, at giv 
distances above the water and with some rega 
for the effect of the sun’s rays. Method, the 
fore, seems evident and one examines the sp< 
more carefully to find that each one is a m; 
of insect eggs. 
Each group of eggs is about an inch in dia 
eter, oval in form, composed of cells containi 
a greenish-yellow watery substance resembli 
the heart of a weed, the whole anchored to 1 
rough face of the boulder and coated with 
harsh lime-like substance, probably glue-1 
while fresh, but which is turned white by 
sun. So firmly are these eggs attached to 
stones that they cannot be removed with 
hands, and careful prying with the point of 
knife is required to remove one intact. 
Each of these white envelopes contains e; 
of the horned cor-ydalis (Corydalis cornu 
known to anglers as dobson, helgramite, clip; 
water centipede or sprawler. As this is one 
our largest insects, it is not remarkable that 
deposits such masses of eggs and in so m; 
groups, though it is by no means certain t 
each group represents the effort of a single 
dividual, for the “flying dobson” as the im: 
is called by anglers who are familiar with it 
seen but seldom and then usually at night, wl 
it flits about the water and may be mistal 
for a bat, so large is it. As it is estimated t 
each female lays several thousand eggs, it 
not improbable that each one selects its c 
site and remains in the vicinity until the end 
the laying season. 
In Fig. 1 the irregularity with which the e 
are placed will be seen. Some are detacl' 
others made fast at fairly regular interv 
while still others that are small and irregt 
in form, seem to have been crowded in betw 
larger ones, as if the female had found it d 
cult to make them fast to the smooth side 
the boulder save where little depressions occ 
red. 
The eggs begin to appear on the boulders 
the Esopus in June, and disappear in July, 
larvae going into the swift water, to find ref 
under stones, where they feed on the larvae 
smaller insects until they attain their growth. 
A female was caught one night by an ani 
and placed in a pasteboard box for closer 
amination next day. When the box was ope 
it was found that the insect had deposite< 
large quantity of eggs on one side of the 
during the night. They were inclosed in 
characteristic envelope, which was made fasi 
the box in the manner described above. 
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supply you regularly. 
