FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. i 7, 1908. 
6 I 2 
have done, and a closer inspection revealed the 
fact that the manatee, having objected to his 
confinement in such a flimsy structure, had burst 
the slats from the top of the boat, and departed 
without apologies to his host. 
It may also be of interest to know that dur¬ 
ing the latter part of the summer, tarpons of 
large size, say six feet in length, are frequently 
caught in the pound nets off Virginia Beach, and 
that the pompano is frequently caught, not only 
with hook and line, but in the seine and pound 
nets in this vicinity. The local name for the tar¬ 
pon here among the fishermen is the silver her¬ 
ring, and I have been told that there have been 
occasions when the pound was so full of them 
that the side had to be lowered in order to let 
them escape. 
Some years ago I was given a stuffed seal that 
was shot on the beach near Hatteras. It was 
coarse-haired, of a silvery gray color, and mot¬ 
tled with dark spots about the size of a silver 
dollar, which blended or intermingled with each 
other. J. F. Duncan. 
Tameness of Moose. 
An article in this paper about the habits of 
moose as related to their disappearance from 
the Adirondacks, printed last August, has called 
out from a gentleman who has resided for 
many years in New Brunswick a letter to one 
of our correspondents, which says: 
“Your description tallies correctly with the 
habits of moose in this section. During the 
holidays I was out at M. Lake watching the 
animals. I had eight moose and three deer all 
in sight at once, some of them not over twenty- 
five or thirty yards away, while I was sitting 
in full sight of them; but they seemed not to 
mind me. A blue heron, in search of his supper, 
had no sooner folded his wings than he spied 
me and was away in an instant. I concluded at 
once that birds were sharper sighted than 
moose. 
“A moose calf a few weeks ago got on the 
railroad and was unable to get over the wire 
fence. When the trackmen came along, it went 
up to them and could not* be driven away, but 
followed them from place to place, until they 
lifted it over the fence and went on with their 
work. 
“During the past few years in the first part of 
the season, moose tracks could be seen in the 
immediate vicinity of the village. A few weeks 
ago I went for a walk across the fields to the 
mill pond. Well, I was surprised to see a big 
bull moose feeding on the water grass. I 
watched him for full twenty minutes, when he 
leisurely walked away. 
“Last Saturday I was out to the north to get 
some cranberries from a big bog there. On 
my way home in the evening at a point where 
another road from the meadow comes in, on 
which a team and wagon were rumbling along, 
I was surprised to see a bear come tearing 
along like a whirlwind between the team and 
myself. He came directly into the road toward 
me and was not over twenty feet away when 
he saw me, and at once swerved from his course 
as quick as a cat and was soon lost to sight in 
the hardhack and brakes. That fellow demon¬ 
strated fully that a bear, although awkward in 
appearance, is not to be classed with slow 
animals.” 
Protection for the Mountain Sheep. 
During the past five years, the mountain 
sheep of Mexico, and especially those of Lower 
California, have attracted the attention of a 
number of American sportsmen. The difficul¬ 
ties of overland travel have deterred no one, 
for there are scores of sportsmen who are 
willing to go anywhere for a chance at real 
mountain sheep hunting. Most of the men 
who have hunted sheep in Mexico have killed 
only a reasonable number; but it is certain 
that some parties have exceeded what are gen¬ 
erally regarded as the proper bag limits. Of 
course, the residents of the peninsula have 
slaughtered at will, and in some regions the 
sheep already have been completely exter¬ 
minated. The absence of game laws to pro¬ 
tect the sheep was, until recently, rapidly 
operating to sweep off that species. 
The climax came late last June, when the 
Los Angeles Times published a detailed ac¬ 
count of the latest successful hunt in Lower 
California. Two men and a woman went from 
the United States to the region eastward of 
Magdalena Bay, and they prosecuted their hunt 
in May, the lambing time of the sheep. They 
slaughtered seventeen sheep, some of which 
were females, with lambs by their sides. The 
photograph of the party and the trophies, as 
reproduced in the newspaper, shows at least 
three skulls of ewes. 
The killing of seventeen sheep as the bag 
of three persons indicated that the time to 
call a halt had arrived. Accordingly the facts 
in the case, with certain suggestions regard¬ 
ing game laws, were forwarded to Senor Ole- 
gario Molina, Secretary of the Department of 
Fomento, of the Mexican Cabinet. By him 
the documents were placed before President 
Diaz, who at once directed that steps be taken 
to “put an immediate end to the wasteful 
slaughter.” 
As an initial step, on Sept. 5, an executive 
order was promulgated through the official 
land agencies of Lower California, prohibiting 
the hunting of big game without written per¬ 
mission from the government of Mexico, and 
calling upon the rurales and other officers of 
the law to guard the roads against the viola¬ 
tion of that order. 
It is a safe guess that the unrestricted 
slaughter of mountain sheep in Mexico will 
now cease. Meanwhile it is stated by Secre¬ 
tary Molina that “the Department of Fomento 
is studying a new project of game and fishing 
laws, more efficiently restrictive, and adapt¬ 
able to modern requirements.” 
Hornet and Humming Bird. 
Early in the summer of 1907, says a writer 
in Science, a dish of sweetened water was 
placed on the railing of the veranda of a cottage 
in North Acton, Mass. The next morning a 
female humming bird was seen hovering over 
it. In a few days she became so accustomed 
to the presence of the family that she would 
feed from the vessel while a number of persons 
were sitting only a few feet away. 
This year (1908) the cottage was first oc¬ 
cupied on June 2. The next morning a pair of 
hummers were seen hovering over the railing 
where the sweetened water had been placed the 
year before. A saucer of water containing a 
few lumps of sugar was immediately provided 
for them. 
They helped themselves frequently from this 
for several days, when the male disappeared. 
The female has continued her visits to the 
saucer many times each day up to the present 
time (Aug. 24). 
On July 22, while sitting within five feet of 
the vessel, I noticed, for the first time, a bald- 
faced hornet (Vespa maculata ) inside the saucer. 
As I watched his motions, the humming bird 
appeared, hovering over its accustomed feeding 
place. Instantly the hornet darted at it, and 
the hummer fled, closely pursued by the insect. 
The spectacle exactly resembled, on a small 
scale, the driving of a hawk or crow by a king¬ 
bird. In a minute or two the hornet was back 
exploring the contents of the saucer. 
Presently the hummer returned, poised itself 
over the tempting dish, long enough to see that 
its enemy was on the ground, when it fled 
precipitately. She still (Aug. 24) continues to 
come many times each day, only attempting to 
feed when the field is clear of hornets. 
Bees and Deer. 
Merrill, Wis., Oct. 1.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Reading “Trailing Wild Bees,” by D. 
E. Everett Lyon, reminds me of a bee tree an 
old friend of mine found some thirty years ago 
in Shawano county, Wisconsin, while camping 
on the Shioc River hunting deer—he was an old 
bee hunter. 
We were in a pine slashing the nth of 
November; the sun was warm. He discovered 
a honey bee on some brakes. We started a 
smudge, but before we could heat a stone or 
burn any comb, a cloud passed over the sun 
and the bee left. 
Next morning I went to help another hunter 
find a wounded deer. About noon I came upon 
my friend who was trying to locate the bees. 
He asked me to step back of the honey box he 
had on a stump and see if I could tell which 
way the bees went; there were thirty or forty 
of them at work. I knelt down and soon saw 
they passed a pine stub, going to a knoll with 
some tall pines on top, some forty rods south. 
My friend said that was where he had lined 
them. He soon called me to come up, take off 
my hat, stand where he was and look up at a 
spot of sky through some large limbs. I 
looked for bees but could see nothing and told 
him so. He said, “Look for mosquitoes.” 
Then I saw them—they looked like gnats. 
We waited two weeks before getting the 
tree. When we cut it, there was a foot of 
snow, and very cold. It took some time, as the 
tree was nearly three feet in diameter. When 
it fell, it split open and we took ninety pounds 
of fine honey, while the bees dropped in the 
snow benumbed with the cold. It was just 
ninety feet from the stump to where the bees 
entered the tree. 
My friend had hunted bees many years, be¬ 
ing then sixty years old, but had never seen 
them out as late as Nov. 11 before. When he 
saw the first bee, he said the tree was not forty 
rods from there; it was not over twenty. 
There was then no restriction on the number 
of deer one could kill, and we secured ten on 
that hunt, still-hunting. Lloyd Breck. 
