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FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 25, 1911. 
The Mershon Expedition. 
It is now some years since the Michigan Geo¬ 
logical and Biological Survey and University of 
Michigan Museum began to co-operate in mak¬ 
ing a survey of the life of the State. The an¬ 
nual appropriation for the work by the Survey 
was very small, but it has done what it could, 
and has deposited its collections in the Univer¬ 
sity Museum. The museum’s expeditions have 
mostly been sent out by friends who were in¬ 
terested in the work, or in the university. 
In the summer of 1910, Hon. W. B. Mershon, 
of Saginaw, presented to this Survey a sum of 
money sufficient to send a small party to the 
Charity Islands in Saginaw Bay to study their 
fauna and flora. These three small islands are 
near the mouth of Saginaw Bay. They have not 
been connected with the mainland since glacial 
times, and their life must, therefore, have reached 
them over a wide stretch of water—six or eight 
miles. They seem also to be on the migration 
route of many species of birds. 
The men engaged in the study have done their 
field work without pay, receiving only their ex¬ 
penses, and are now preparing their observations 
for publication. The lighthouse board at Wash¬ 
ington, and Commander Morgan, Inspector of 
the Eleventh Lighthouse District, gave assist- 
ance. 
The facts collected by the expedition and the 
conclusions drawn will be published in the annual 
reports of the Michigan Academy of Sciences 
under the title, “Results of the Mershon Expedi¬ 
tion to the Charity Islands, Lake Huron.” It is 
expected to continue the work next spring and 
summer in order to make it cover a full yeai. 
This is another example of the many contri¬ 
butions that Mr. Mershon is so frequently mak¬ 
ing for the public good. 
Florida Rattlesnakes. 
Fort Myers, Fla., Feb. 16.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Tillot Henderson, of Punta Rassa, was 
talking about rattlesnakes and their habits one 
night last week at the hotel, and he remarked 
that the best thing to do when bitten was to 
crush a tablet of permanganate of potash to 
powder and apply it directly to the bites after 
slashing them open with a knife so that the blood 
would flow freely. He thinks that the powder 
mixed with the blood is better than liquid per¬ 
manganate to apply to a snake bite unless there 
are means at hand of injecting the fluid into the 
wound. He said that he had seen four dogs 
cured of rattler bites by the use of powdered per¬ 
manganate of potash, but had not known of a 
case of a man being bitten. 
Incidentally, Henderson remarked that there 
were some sneaky rattlesnakes in Florida that 
were too mean and lazy to rattle, and would 
strike without warning or attempting to evade 
an encounter with man, dog or horse. He saw 
one strike at a dog, fail to reach it and instantly 
coil for another stroke, but the dog did not 
wait. He quoted an incident in which his setter 
was slashed by a rattler which gave no warning. 
The dog was following up some young turkeys 
in the scrub palmettos and was struck by the 
snake. “The dog jumped as high as my head 
and the blood from his head flew higher yet,” 
said Tillot. The snake struck him under the 
eye and ripped the flesh down to the lip on the 
side. I do not think that the snake had time 
to lay back its fangs and squeeze out the venom, 
the dog ripped away so quickly when struck. 
Anyhow, the resultant swelling was extremely 
slight and the dog did not suffer any serious 
inconvenience from the slash. 
I never heard of a case of the kind before and 
I think it worthy of note. Harrimac. 
Cambridge Bird Notes. 
Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 4. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Seeing the article about the crows in 
Omaha by Sandy Griswold, I am writing about 
some bird incidents here. 
In North Cambridge small flocks of crows are 
seen flying back and forth in the very heart of 
the city. Every morning they congregate in a 
large elm tree in the garden on a wealthy per¬ 
son’s land. They are rather shy and can best 
be seen from a distance, yet it, is common to see 
them. About a year and a half ago a sharp- 
shinned hawk ( Accipiter velox ) was pursuing 
an English sparrow. It chased the bird to the 
piazza of a house, where it struck its head with 
great force against a pillar and was instantly 
killed. The sparrow lay dead beside it. This 
is vouched for by several people. At present I 
have the bird mounted in my home. We hear 
of sea birds being killed by flying against light¬ 
houses in a fog, but a hawk to run against a 
wooden pillar in broad daylight is something I 
have never heard of. T his strange accident 
occurred on the house next to mine. 
About a month ago I saw a little screech owl 
in the twilight in a little pine tree. Owls are 
frequently heard about here. 
To-day is a drizzly, uncomfortable day with 
a four-inch snow slowly melting. I saw three 
flickers in some trees flying about not long ago. 
The goldfinches stay with us here till late in 
the fall. In a public school near here a flicker 
flew into one of the attic windows a short time 
ago. The window was shut, the bird not being 
seen. A week or so afterward somebody went 
up into the attic and found the bird, evidently 
starved to death. Sandpiper. 
American Museum of Natural History. 
Prof. Bashford Dean, of Columbia Univer¬ 
sity, was last week reappointed curator of the 
department of ichthyology and herpetology of 
the American Museum of Natural History at a 
meeting of the trustees. Professor Dean left the 
institution last year because of differences with 
Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, director of the museum, 
who recently resigned. 
The trustees have also promoted Dr. W. D. 
Matthew from acting curator to curator of the 
department of vertebrate paleontology. Barnum 
Brown, who has been assistant curator of fossil 
reptiles, becomes associate curator, and Walter 
Granger, who has been assistant curator of fossil 
mammals, also becomes associate curator. 
Dr. Charles 'H. P'ownsend is to remain acting 
director of the museum until a permanent direc¬ 
tor has been engaged. Madison Grant and Dr. 
Walter B. James were elected trustees to suc¬ 
ceed D. O. Mills and J. Hampden Robb. Henry 
Fairfield Osborn was elected President; Cleve¬ 
land H. Dodge, First Vice-President; J. P. Mor¬ 
gan, Jr., Second Vice-President; Charles Lanier, 
Secretary, and Archer M. Huntington, Treasurer. 
Book Exchange. 
Among the readers of Forest and Stream 
there are many who are interested in old out-of- 
print and rare books on sport, travel, explora¬ 
tion and kindred subjects, and frequent letters 
are received at the office ordering such books. 
In the very nature of the case, however, these 
cannot be supplied on order, and it often takes 
months of search to secure copies, by which 
time the person who ordered them may have 
forgotten all about the matter. Within a few 
weeks we have received from readers and from 
dealers a dozen orders for a supposed book 
called “A Boy in Indian Camps,” which orders 
were called forth by an article printed not long 
ago in Forest and Stream, describing a book 
published in 1850 and long out of print. Such 
books as Dodge’s “Plains of the Great West,” 
“Hunting Grounds of the West,” Elliott’s “Caro¬ 
lina Sports,” Palliser’s little book on Western 
hunting and others are often sought for. 
These volumes and others like them contain 
a world of vivid interesting description of life 
in the open, as it was from forty to sixty years 
ago, and furnish the most delightful reading. 
On the other hand, because they are scarce, they 
are costly by comparison with the ordinary out¬ 
door book, which has just been published and 
stands in numbers on the shelves of the book 
seller. 
No doubt there are many of our readers who 
possess'these old books, and others who would 
be glad to possess them, and we are, therefore, 
making a special place in our advertising 
columns, which may be called a book exchange, 
where those who wish to purchase, sell or ex¬ 
change second hand books may ask for what 
they need, or offer what they have. 
The Alden Plumage Bill. 
On July 19, 1910, Percy Alden introduced into 
the English House of Commons a bill “to pro¬ 
hibit the sale or exchange of the plumage and 
skins of certain wild birds.” In presenting the 
bill Mr. Alden stated that the skins of 25,000 
hummingbirds had been catalogued for sale in 
London during the past year. When the bill was 
brought in and read the first time, it was re¬ 
ceived with cheers. 
New Audubon Societies. 
On Oct. 3, 1910, the Talbot county (Mary¬ 
land) Audubon Society was founded, and on 
Nov. 5, 1910, the East Tennessee Audubon So¬ 
ciety was organized at Memphis. I he Mary¬ 
land society is evidence of the transferred ac¬ 
tivity of W. Scott Way, late secretary of the 
California Audubon Society, who has recently 
changed his residence from California to the 
Eastern Shore of Maryland. 
Martins in Florida. 
Tarpon Springs, Fla., Feb. 16 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The martins appeared on the third 
of this month, and looked at their house, but 
my wife was sure that she heard them three or 
four days earlier. They do not decide positively 
about their housekeeping affairs for some days 
after their arrival. Kelpie. 
