692 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 31, 1908. 
get a jack snipe that fell, and the snake I think 
was also ready to gather it in. In both these 
cases birds were close to the snakes, and it may 
be that they were silent because they were after 
them. 
I have hunted for years in south Florida and 
killed quite a number of rattlesnakes. About 
half have been silent. From my observation it 
is not safe to depend on any notice from these 
fellows. C. A. D. 
A Fight With Two Eagles. 
Waterlily, N. C., Oct. 19 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A few days ago while going from the 
Swan Island Club to Knotts Island for the mail 
across the north end of Currituck Sound, Latrobe 
White, an employe of the club, had a novel and 
exciting experience with two very large bald- 
headed eagles. It seems that they had been 
fighting over the carcass of a duck and had 
fastened their talons into each other in such a 
manner that they could not get apart and had 
dropped into the sound where the water was 
too deep to wade. As they appeared almost life¬ 
less, Mr. White decided he would bag the pair 
and sell them to some zoo or private party for 
a good price. 
He found, however, that the birds were only 
“possuming,” as an eagle knows so well how to 
do, and when he tried to lift them into his small 
boat they let go each other and went for him. 
For a time it looked as if he would have to give 
up his boat to the eagles and swim ashore. They 
were so wet they could not fly and not being 
good swimmers, preferred the boat to the water. 
They seemed to forget their hard feelings for 
each other and paid strict attention to the com¬ 
mon enemy, Mr. White. He finally killed one 
with an oar and captured the other alive. This 
one he hopes to sell for enough money to buy 
a new suit of clothes, which he badly needed 
when the fight was over. More Anon. 
Sambur Deer for Dr. Pierce. 
Dr. R. V. Pierce, who owns St. Vincent 
Island, off Apalachicola, Florida, is to try 
an interesting experiment with sambur deer. 
According to the Times, Director Hornaday, of 
the Bronx Zoological Gardens, has at last ar¬ 
ranged a test to decide if Asiatic deer can be 
acclimatized in this country. The Director has 
wished for three years to settle the question, but 
not until he met Dr. Ray V. Pierce, of Buffalo, 
had he been able to arrange a test. 
Dr. Pierce has bought four sambur deer from 
the Zoo—a male and three females—and the 
quartet were 'shipped recently to Apalachicola, 
Fla.; thence they will be transported to St. Vin¬ 
cent Island, near Apalachicola, where Dr. Pierce 
has a camp at which he spends several months 
in the year. 
The deer will be liberated when they reach the 
island and left to their own resources in pro¬ 
curing food. They will receive no care, but 
Director Hornaday and Dr. Pierce believe never¬ 
theless that they will thrive. The climax on the 
island is said to be very like that of the native 
home of the deer. 
Sambur deer have long been exhibited in 
zoological gardens, but Director Hornaday says 
that this is the first attempt to acclimatize them, 
leaving them to their own resources. 
Reported Death from Skunk Bite. 
In dispatches dated Oct. 13 and 14, an Arizona 
paper prints accounts of the illness and final 
death at the County Hospital of J. B. Scantlin 
from the bite of a skunk. 
According to the accounts, Scantlin, who was 
trapping in the mountains, was bitten while 
asleep in the morning in his tent in Lawler 
Gulch, two miles from the Hillside Mine. He 
was aroused by something walking on his left 
arm, which was resting on his face, raised his 
arm and the animal jumped on his face and 
buried its teeth in the forehead. Scantlin grasped 
it with both hands and crushed it to death and 
then discovered that the animal was a small 
skunk of the kind generally known as “hydro¬ 
phobia skunk.” 
Scantlin at once came to Prescott, prepared to 
leave for the Pasteur Institute. He received 
some money from the bounty on some of his 
furs, told the board of supervisors of his mis¬ 
fortune, and was offered assistance to go to 
Chicago. That night he returned to Hillside 
station to make arrangements for the trip, but 
later changed his mind and did not go. He died 
Sunday, Oct. 11. 
It is reported that last summer a liitle girl, 
the daughter of a Mrs. John Myers, was bitten 
by a skunk and went to the Pasteur Institute 
where she was treated. On her return, however, 
she became sick and died. A. J. Lee, of the 
American ranch, was last year bitten by a skunk. 
He left for the Pasteur Institute the following 
day, took the treatment and is still alive. 
Scantlin is said to have come from Kansas in 
1907 and to have a wife, son and daughter in 
Oklahoma besides the son who was trapping with 
him at the time he was bitten. 
In the Southwest it has been believed for very 
many years that the bite of the skunk caused 
hydrophobia. One of the earliest published an¬ 
nouncements of this belief was in the American 
Journal of Science and Arts, May, 1874, from 
the pen of Rev. Horace C. Hovey. In this article 
Mr. Hovey quotes Dr. Janeway, an army sur¬ 
geon, who, in the New York Medical Record 
of March 13, 1875, expresses the belief that “the 
malady produced by mephitic virus is simply 
hydrophobia.” Mr. Hovey had previously ex¬ 
pressed belief that the hydrophobia which he be¬ 
lieved followed skunk bite was a different disease 
from that which follows the bite of the dog, and 
seemed to believe also that the bite of skunks 
in normal state of health was usually fatal. 
Readers desiring to refer to these articles will 
find them printed in Coues’ “Fur-Bearing Ani¬ 
mals.” Miscellaneous Publications VIII., of the 
U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, Wash¬ 
ington, 1877. 
The belief that the bite of certain skunks may 
cause hydrophobia has found its way into some 
of the natural histories and appears to be gen¬ 
erally accepted, but that the bite of the skunk 
is always followed by hydrophobia and that there 
is a species of skunk which is properly known 
as the “hydrophobia skunk” has never been 
proved. On the other .hand we have the opinion 
of our correspondent Kiowa, printed in Forest 
and Stream of Oct. 3, that there is no variety 
of skunk which carries hydrophobia. This cor¬ 
respondent has known of a case where so-called 
“hydrophobia skunks” bit a boy three times with¬ 
out the boy having hydrophobia. Kiowa has 
had a wide experience in the Southwest, and 
besides his own conclusions he offers testimony 
of Indians of two tribes who declare that they 
have known of many skunk bites without ever 
having heard of a case of hydrophobia from that 
source, although they have known of some cases 
from wolf bites. 
Woodduck and Ruffed Grouse. 
Mr. E. H. Forbush writes from Massachusetts 
saying: Already our people are beginning to see 
that the ducks must have better protection. Mr. 
Abbott H. Thayer, the well known artist, who 
is now in England, writes asking me to do some¬ 
thing for the protection of the woodduck and 
the partridge. New York, Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire laws forbid the taking or kill¬ 
ing of the woodduck and it is unsafe for any 
novice in the dusk of morning or evening to 
shoot at random at any small light-bellied duck 
lest it prove to be an immature woodduck or a 
dipper. The grebes, dippers or divers are pro¬ 
tected by the laws of most States and they are 
the only small light-bellied waterfowl beside the 
woodduck that spend the summer with us. 
All true sportsmen should withhold their hands 
from killing the partridge this season. One man 
goes out with his dog and follows the birds 
about, firing blank cartridges at each one. Every 
bird he shoots at will learn the fear of man and 
may escape to breed another year. A very few 
birds ought to satisfy any real sportsman when 
birds are not abundant. Such acts of self denial 
indicate high sportsmanship and in the long run 
will pay, rewarding the sportsman by an in¬ 
crease in the number of birds in future years. 
To Photograph African Game. 
The fashion of hunting with a camera, first 
suggested we believe in Forest and Stream 
many years ago by that delightful writer, Row¬ 
land E. Robinson, constantly grows in popu¬ 
larity and is being practiced in more and more 
distant lands. The habits and methods of big 
game in Africa have been pictured by Schil¬ 
lings, and now one of the most accomplished of 
American photographers is about to start for 
the African game fields to bring back pictures 
for American periodicals and for a volume. 
A. Radclyff Dugmore will shortly leave for 
England on his way to British East Afiica, that 
land which is reported to be the goal of Presi¬ 
dent Roosevelt’s ambitions at the close of his 
official term in Washington. Mr. Dugmore sails 
from England Dec. 30, going direct to Mombasa 
and thence by Uganda Railroad to Nairobe. 
Here his safari will await him and from this 
point he will go either to the Kenia district or 
the Athi plains. He expects to work in this 
region for six or eight months in the effort to 
get a suitable series of photographs of the game 
of the country. He will take flashlight and 
daylight pictures of big game, moving pictures 
and even color pictures, provided the plates will 
stand the climate, which, on account of the con¬ 
stant dampness, is said to be very hard on plates. 
Mr. Dugmore’s first lot of work will be in 
Collier’s Weekly and the next lot in Country 
Life, while his book will be published no doubt 
by Doubledav, Page & Co. 
