972 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. i7, 1910. 
composition that bacteriologic examination was 
not feasible, gave marked evidences of inflam¬ 
mation of the intestines and revealed in the in¬ 
testinal contents upon microscopic examination 
a large number of coccidial forms. In the case 
of two ducks received Oct. 5 from Dr. F. E. 
Murray, Inspector in Charge, at Salt Lake City, 
the tissues had been so acted upon by the alcohol 
in which they were shipped that all bacteriologic 
sowings were negative. These two birds were 
quite different from others, being extremely 
emaciated, and the alimentary tract being abso¬ 
lutely devoid of contents from mouth to vent. 
No coccidial forms were recognized in one of 
the ducks, whereas in the other, which showed 
a marked enteritis, were found what were diag¬ 
nosed as schizont forms of the coccidium.” 
“Oct. 31.-—As the' result of a conversation with 
Dr. T. S. Palmer, in charge of game preservation, 
Biological Survey, I am led to follow my letter 
of Oct. 22 with the following suggestion with 
•reference to disinfection as a means of prevent¬ 
ing, or at least diminishing the virulence of the 
duck plague at Salt Lake City. 
The failure of this office to find the fowl 
cholera organism in the ducks shipped to Wash¬ 
ington is not to be construed as a denial of the 
presence and activity of that organism in the 
present outbreak. Where coccidiosis has invaded 
a flock of birds, there results such a destruction 
of the mucous membrane lining of the intestinal 
tract that the birds become exposed to infection 
by various pathogenic bacteria more or less com¬ 
monly found in the alimentary tract, or to the 
absorption of poisons produced by even non¬ 
disease producing bacteria normally present in 
the digestive passages. Again such birds would 
become an easy prey to pathogenic bacteria or 
putrefactive poisons introduced from without, 
especially when their feeding grounds cover such 
immense sewage deposits, as in the case under 
consideration. Thus birds affected with cocci¬ 
diosis are exposed to auto-infection and auto¬ 
intoxication from their own intestinal tracts, and 
to infection and intoxication from without; hence 
you can readily understand how different birds 
from the same locality might give various posi¬ 
tive bacteriologic findings, or even where intoxi¬ 
cations was the immediate cause of death, nega¬ 
tive bacteriologic results. However, it. appears 
to be a logical necessity to incriminate the sew¬ 
age deposits on the feeding grounds,, so that the 
question naturally arises as to whether any 
method of disinfection could be tried. 
If you have any club grounds that would make 
possible an attempt to disinfect a limited area, 
it might be well to make the test. Almost all 
of our best disinfectants are so greatly reduced 
by contact with organic material that they would 
be absolutely out of the question in the condi¬ 
tions that obtain on the grounds involved. Lime 
appears to offer the most hope of success. Fresh 
unslaked lime, even though it appeared likely 
that it would slake rapidly after being spread 
over the grounds, would in all probability prove 
a severe irritant to a large number of birds. 
Air slaked lime is so frequently hard and lumpy 
that it would be practically useless. Lime that 
has been forced to slake quickly to a powder 
and then spread quickly over the grounds in 
question would probably give some very satis¬ 
factory results. I believe you would find it 
worth while to make the trial.” 
Fur Seals in New York City. 
The first fur seals ever exhibited alive in New 
York city are now on view at the Aquarium. 
1 hey are a pair of this year's pups, male and 
female, and seem to be in excellent condition. 
In February last we printed an account of the 
rearing of two seal pups by the boatswain of a 
revenue cutter, and told of their being brought 
east and left with the Fisheries Bureau in Wash¬ 
ington. where they still are. Up to that time it 
had not been supposed that the young sea’s could 
be fed, and each year many thousands of pups, 
whose mothers had been killed by the pelagic 
sealers, starved to death on the Pribilof Islands. 
The boatswain's discovery seems to promise the 
possil ility that the loss caused by pelagic seal- 
ODD VIRGINIA DEER. 
Mounted by H. B. McAdam, St. Stephens, X. S. 
Loaned by the late Manly Hardy. 
ing may be almost cut in two, and that while the 
mothers and their unborn young will be de¬ 
stroyed so long as this sealing is permitted, the 
pups which the mothers are suckling may,, some 
or all of them, be kept alive. 
Not long ago six or seven young fur seal pups 
were sent from Alaska to Seattle and from there 
to Washington, and a pair of these were pre¬ 
sented to the New York Zoological Society, and 
may now be seen by all New Yorkers. They are 
about twenty-eight inches in length and each 
weighs a little more than twenty pounds. They 
appear to be strong and exceedingly active, and 
feed eagerly on cut up herring and other small 
fish that are offered to them, though they pay no 
attention to living fish introduced into their tank. 
I hey do not seem to know what these live fish 
are. For a few days after their arrival in New 
York the male did not eat very well, but he 
seems now to have recovered. 
The extraordinary habits of the fur seal are 
pretty well known to most of our readers. It 
spends the breeding season on the rocks and 
islands of the Bering Sea on the coast of Kam¬ 
chatka, and at the approach of winter the herds 
set off on an extraordinary migration covering 
thousands of miles, and at the end of six or 
seven months find themselves again in the neigh¬ 
borhood of their breeding grounds. 
Residents of New York will do well to avail 
themselves of the opportunity of seeing these 
extraordinary little animals. 
As Bad as in Colorado. 
A dispatch to the New York Sun, dated New¬ 
ton, N. J., Dec. 10, says: 
‘‘Beavers are responsible for a suit over rent 
brought by the heirs of Abram S. Hewitt for 
$500 against John and Sophia Hooey, who have 
occupied a farm in Byram township belonging 
to the estate. Hooey has failed to pay, assert¬ 
ing that beavers built a dam and flooded the 
property so that he could not till the soil. 
Llooey says that it was up to the landlord and 
not to him to get the beavers off the stream.” 
In the Times a special from Utica, N. Y., 
dated Dec. 7, says: 
“A farmer living on Forbes Creek noticed 
that the water was rising, and backing up on 
some flat land on his farm. He made an investi¬ 
gation and discovered that a colony of beaver 
had built a dam across the creek, forming a 
large pond. 
“The beavers had felled many trees, some of 
them eight inches in diameter, and trimmed the 
branches so that they could float the logs to 
place. The dam was built with great skill and 
was very strong. In the center of the pond a 
house about ten feet square was erected. 
“It is supposed the beavers made their way 
from some Adirondack stream, as they have been 
increasing in numbers in that section for several 
years. It is forbidden to trap, take or snare 
them, and it is ordered that 'no person shall 
molest or disturb any wild beaver or the dams, 
houses, homes or abiding places, of the same.' 
The beavers have evidently taken full advantage 
of this provision, and have appeared in a well- 
settled section of country, built their dam. and 
set up housekeeping.” 
These complaints read as if they might have 
come from Colorado or Montana, where, ever 
since there have been laws protecting the beaver, 
the farmers have been much given to grumbling 
over the damage done to their fields, their crops 
and their irrigation ditches by these industrious 
animals. It is a new complaint for us to hear 
from New Jersey and New York. 
Deformed Antlers. 
One of the last acts of the late Manly Hardy 
was to send us, for the benefit of Forest and 
Stream readers, the photographs of the two ex¬ 
traordinary deer heads that are reproduced this 
week. One of them is the head of a California 
mule deer, sent Mr. Hardy by Frank Stephens, 
of San Bernardino, Cal., the other that of a 
Virginia deer from Nova Scotia. Judging from 
the photographs both these deer have received 
injuries which prevented their horns from ever 
growing to full size and hardening. The cause 
for this is given by Caton in his “Antelope and 
Deer of America,” and in past years more or less 
about it has been printed in Forest and Stream. 
