. objects of no value to itself. 
FOREST AND .STREAM. 

lished himself as ruler of the premises. He bul- 
lied the cat, stealing from her the choicest mor- 
sels of food that were given her, and made the 
domestic poultry stand aside while he revelled in 
the dough dish. He was mischievous in the ex- 
treme, carrying away and hiding a great variety 
of small articles, particularly those of a bright or 
shining nature. 
Gentry very truly observes that the tame crow 
seemingly delights in mischief, often secreting 
It manifests sur- 
prising intelligence and seems to comprehend and 
obey certain orders. He further adds: ‘That 
the common barnyard fowl thoroughly despise 
the introduction of strangers into their midst. 
This contempt is especially noticeable when a 
semi-domesticated bird of an entirely different 
species is introduced. On the other hand, the 
same dislike is manifested when a tame bird is 
let loose among a flock of its wild and untamed 
brethren, or when it attempts to consort with 
them.” This fact has been noticed on many oc- 
casions, the pet often receiving a drubbing which 
nearly cost him his life. 
An old friend of mine who was in his younger 
days a hand-line fisherman on the coast of Maine, 
near Boothbay, had a pet crow which was his 
chum and constant companion. The bird accom- 
panied him wherever he went, sometimes perch- 
ing on his shoulder and as often flying around 
him as he moved about. He had a dislike of 
strangers, and resented any attempt at familiarity 
from them, but for the members of the family 
displayed great affection. He usually accom- 
panied the fisherman during his daily labors on 
the waters, and rested and sunned himself at the 
stern of the boat and inspected the flapping fish 
as they were hauled up and landed with great 
complacency and seeming approval. 

One day my friend left the house and reached 
the fishing grounds without the crow having 
noticed his departure. After a while he heard 
most discordant cawings and complaining notes 
and soon descried a flock of crows that were 
chasing a single bird, which proved to be his pet; 
darting down upon him one after another each 
gave him a savage blow or peck, and the thrash- 
ing he received before he reached the boat nearly 
proved fatal. He succeeded in escaping from 
them, however, and dove down under the seat of 
the dory, from which secure place of refuge he 
uttered a series of taunting yells which must have 
proved highly exasperating to his pursuers. 
A curious illustration of the sagacity of the 
crow is found in a communication by Mr..A. M. 
Frazer, published in the Bulletin of the Nuttall 
Club, which states that the bird stood patiently 
upon an ant hill and allowed the busy insects to 
run all over him, and pick off the parasites which 
infested his body. 
That the crow can count has been proved on a 
number of occasions, but its powers of enumera- 
tion seem limited to five, as has been shown in 
the following manner: A tent was erected near 
a cornfield in which crows were committing great 
depredations, and into this four men, armed with 
guns, secreted themselves. After a while three 
of them came out and moved away, but the crows, 
who were evidently keeping a keen lookout, 
would not approach the field until the fourth man 
had departed. Another man was added and the 
birds were equally cautious until the fifth man 
had gone, but when six men entered the tent and 
five had left it the crows in great numbers 
swarmed upon the cornfield. The gunner was 
thus enabled, greatly to their consternation, to 
pour in a deadly fire upon them. 
In addition to its discordant “caw,” the crow . 
has a number of other notes, some of which are 
quite musical, one of almost bell-like tone being 
particularly so. It has been stated by ornitholo- 
gists that the bird utters some fifty phrases, which 
are translatable by them, such as “food,” “good 
food,” “abundant food.” “possible danger,” “im- 
minent danger,” “be off at once.” Many of these 
I have heard and understood, but have never been 
able to detect anything like the number I have 
named, and, to most persons. the crow has but a 
single note, and he is only known to them “‘as 
the bird that never cries without caws.” 
IN THE AFRICAN NIGHT. 
From Schillings’ “‘With Flashlight and Rifle.” 
Havier Antlers. 
WEALD Park, Essex, England, Dec. 12.—Edi- 
tor Forest and Stream: I have herewith sent 
you, per parcels post, the antlers of a Japanese 
havier stag. They are of no value whatever. I 
send them only in order that you may see what 
the horns of the havier are like. The antlers of 
fallow deer haviers and also of red deer haviers 
are very similar to the Japanese in appearance, 
but are of course much larger. 
_ I killed this havier yesterday, Dec. 11, which 
is just about four months past the usual time of 
cleaning off the velvet of entire deer. You will 
see that the velvet is still on these antlers, and, 
of course, would always remain as long as the 
animal lived. 
One horn, as you will see, is shorter than the 
other. It accidentally got broken a few weeks 
ago. H. Hickmorr. 
[The horns, which have been received, are in- 
teresting. They are still covered with the “vel- 
vet,” or rather with soft, sensitive skin through 
which the blood passed up to the time of death. 
The fine, short brown hair, which gives the name 
“velvet” to this skin and which in an entire deer 
covers it up to the time when the horns grow 
hard, the blood ceases to flow into this skin and 
the antlers are cleaned, has all been worn off or 
in some way lost, so that in the present speci- 
mens the horn covering is merely a soft black 
skin which resembles the black skin that covers 
the top of the horn pedicel after the stag has shed 
its horns and before the new horns have begun 
to grow. 
We are obliged to our correspondent for his 
kindness in sending us these specimens, which 
are of interest to any naturalist who has devoted 
time to the study of deer.] 
Fulvous Tree Duck in Washington. 
ABERDEEN, Wash., Dec. 17.—Editor Forest and 
Siream: I have had many inquiries as to the 
time, place and circumstances of the killing of a 
fulvous tree duck last autumn, and then noticed 
in ForEST AND STREAM, and send you the follow- 
ing facts: 
I did not kill the duck. It was killed by Willis 
G. Hopkins. of Aberdeen, Wash., on Oct. 3, at 
about 3 P. M., on what is known as South Bay, 
the south arm of Gray’s Harbor, Wash., and 
about seventeen miles from this point. The flock 
of ten was first sighted by William E. Boeing, of 
Greenwood, Va., and myself as they flew in from 
the Pacific Ocean. We were working for a shot 
at a flock of geese, so did not try the ducks, 
though they were within range. We remarked 
them at the time, as in the sunlight they appeared 
to be red. 

17 
They flew across the mud flats about half a 
mile to where Mr. Hopkins was posted, and he 
was fortunate enough to secure one. They then 
flew back to us and almost within range but 
raised and flew south, and when last seen were 
still rising. 
Upon our return to Aberdeen Mr. Hopkins 
brought in the duck and asked me what kind 
of a bird it was, saying that no one seemed to 
know. We could not place it. He then asked me 
who would be a good firm to send it to for 
mounting, and I referred him to Fred. Edwards 
& Co., of Tacoma, with which firm I had done 
considerable business, and when he found that | 
was well known to them he asked me to send it 
on in my own name. I did so, and asked them 
to place the bird for me and in this way I re- 
ceived the credit for having taken the bird. 
It is beautifully mounted and now in the pos- 
session of Mr. Hopkins in this city. There was 
nothing peculiar in the flight of the birds, the 
only thing to attract particular attention being 
that in the sunlight the flock appeared very red, 
which at close range does not show, as the speci- 
men mounted is made up of most beautiful 
browns shading to almost yellow. 
Puiv. S. Locke. 
Woodcock Carry their Young ? 
UnapittA, N. Y,—Last winter, while staying 
at Hunters’ Lodge, Robeson county, N. C.,, 
where I passed several months, I found an 
abundance of quail and some woodcock. Late 
in the season woodcock were frequently found 
with young. On one occasion an old one that 
had been disturbed rose and made a short flight. 
Standing near by, I was surprised to see she 
had a young one firmly held between her legs, 
evidently endeavoring to remove it to a place 
of safety. Turning to my friend and host, Gen. 
Bond, I found that he also had observed the 
peculiar incident. Neither of us had ever seen 
or heard of such a thing. Together we dis- 
missed it and wondered if any of our fellow 
sportsmen had ever had a similar experience. 
Have. any of them ever seen woodcock carrying 
their young in flight? Ge TS HAvES: 
[The mother woodcock’s habit of sometimes 
removing her young from danger has long been 
known to naturalists. It is practiced by the 
great woodcock of Europe and by his smaller 
North American cousin. In an issue of June, 
1880, the Forrest AND STREAM dealt with the 
question quite fully, and then it was pointed out 
that the habit had been recognized by Lloyd 
and written of in his “Field Sports” as long ago 
as 1830. He quotes Mr. Greipf as saying: “Tf 
in shooting you meet with the brood of wood- 
cocks and the young cannot fly, the old bird 
takes them separately between her feet and 
flies from the dogs with a moaning cry.” Abund- 
ant testimony from Britain declares that the 
habit is common there, and Mr. Chas. St. John, 
in his ‘‘Natural History and Sport in Moray,” 
says: “I found out that the old woodcock car- 
ries her young even when larger than a snipe, 
not in her claws, which seem quite incapable of 
holding up any weight, but by clasping the little 
bird tightly between her thighs and so holding it 
tightly against her own body.” In Dr. Mer- 
riam’s “Review of the Birds of Connecticut” 
he quotes Mr. John H. Sage and Mr. W. W. 
Coe, both then of Portland, Conn., as having 
seen a woodcock pick up and carry away a 
young one with its feet. This was in May, 1874. 
Mr. Sage is now the secretary of the A. O. U. 
Again in Forrest AND STREAM of July 15, 1880, 
two correspondents testify to having seen the 
same thing in the American woodcock, and in 
one case the same bird was seen to carry off 
the young one twice from the same place. We 
are glad to have this added observation by Mr. 
Hayes, and shall welcome any others in the 
same line. ] 

Ph. Ploupolulos, a Greek, will introduce sponge- 
fishing boats on the Grecian model into Florida 
waters. They will be among the queerest craft 
afloat in American waters, and will add to the 
picturesqueness of the Florida winter. 
