202 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


Sporting Hews from Abroad. 
OME time ago, enthusiastic as we were after seeing 
Mr. Reiche’s collection of English pheasants, in 
Chatham street, we ventured to expostulate against calling 
shooting pheasants as practiced in England—sport. If the 
pheasants are as tame as canary birds, and petted and cared 
for up to a eertain point, we declared it in our humble 
opinion to smack something of brutality, all of a 

sudden to turn into the aviary with cruel breech- 
loaders and treacherous dogs and blaze away at 
the poor birds without a moment’s warning. But 
all things have their remedies. In this case the cure 
does not come from the fact that every bird of the pheasant 
species can be shot off from the ground and the race destroy- 
ed for the season, (for with their perfect method of preserving, 
the English game keeper ought to know toa bird how many 
there are on the preserve), but from the exceedingly rational 
reason, that such is the press of sportsmen, the métralle of 
shot, all converging to a certain centre in a well arranged 
battue, that it is quite as often that the sportsmen get loads 
of No. 8 sent point-blank into their precious selves, as into the 
poor birds. It must be something amusing in a thick copse 
for the timid man when the game-keeper cries: ‘‘ mark 
cock,” to notice the element of self-preservation displayed 
on the part of the sportsman, and his taking to a tree in 
order to get out of the way of the fire. If direct man- 
slaughter does not arise in these coverts, very certainly 
many aman’s legs get riddled, and as a leading English 
paper ‘“Of course shooting in a covert 
even with beginners, is attended with Jess danger 
than making a railway journey ; indeed sportsmen 
are safer as a rule in the field than they are in cros- 
sing London streets.” But our contemporary goes on 
to say: ‘tt might not be a bad notion for a host who 
entertains on a big scale for the coverts, but who leaves to 
fortune and good luck the lives of some of his guests 
through the incompetence of some disguised Winkle, to 
supply each of the party with a suit of leather similar to 
the coats of protection worn by some of the Cromwellian 
troops. A stout rhinoceros jerkin, a pair of double buck- 
skin breeches, a thick vizor with a small aperture in it to 
see through, would compose a striking and lively-looking 
costume for a covert shooter.” In fact, as is intimated, 
shooting parties in England, like dancing parties, have be- 
come too large and extensive in their propcrtions, and just 
as there is a crush of dancing men who clutter the stairs, 
so we may suppose every field at certain seasons to be 
thronged by spor.smen until even to bring a gun to one’s 
shoulders can only be accomplished at the inconvenience 
of somebody else’s comfort—of course the risk of life is a 
secondary consideration. 
—What avast amount of dogs they must have in Eng- 
land. When one notices the net duty on dogs, which end- 
ing on the 31st of March last, produced the handsome 
amount of £302,017.153, about $1,500,000, there is no wonder 
why Mr. Lowe isso proud of the surplus in his budget. 
Guns of course, or the right to carry them, must bear a 
certain proportion to the dogs, and the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer rejoiced last year in the neat amount of £63,363 
produced from this service. As to the price of that rare 
animal the dog, there is no limit to it, for we notice 125 
euineas offered and refused for a dog, the winner of a late 
cup. Practical are our English friends, and admirably so. 
After the pointer and settcr trials at Bala, full accounts of 
which we gave our readers in our last number, they have 
expresses. it: 
had on the same grounds a sheep-dog trial. Substitute 
sheep for grouse and the matter is understood. Not only 
was it a trial of dogs but of shepherds and of sheep. There 
was a prize for good looks, and a prize for good behaviour,, 
and one collie combined most of all these qualities. 
—It is now the close of the rod fishing, and on the Tweed‘ 
the Forth, the Yore, Swall, Tay and Spey, all streams 
familiar to us, the fish have a chance for another year. On 
this Spey the sport before the closing must have been 
grand, as we read of salmon innumerable, of good size, of 
thirty-five pounds and upwards having been caught. Last 
season a salmon of seventy-five pounds was caught near 
Taymouth Castle, on the outlet to Loch Tay. The Scotch 
rivers, thanks to better preserving of the salmon, have 
aff-rded admirable sport this season. 
<p 0 
—A human skull is reported to have been found near Osace 
Mission, Kansas, embedded in a solid rock, which was 
broken open by blasting. Dr. Wiley, of the mission, com- 
pared it with a modern skull*which he had in his oftice, and 
found that; though it resembled the latter in general shape 
it was an inch anda quarter longer in greatest diameter, 
and much wetter developed in some other particulars. He 
says of the relic: ‘‘It is that of the cranium of the human 
species, of large size, embedded in conglomerate rock of 
the tertiary class, and found several feet below the surface. 
The piece of rock holding the remains weighs some forty 
or fifty pounds, with many impressions of marine shells, 
and through it runsa vein of quartz, or, within the cranium, 
crystallized organic matter, and by the aid of the micro- 
scope, presents a beautiful apearance.” 
Oe 

Sharp birds rooks and crows are. In Munich, where sey- 
eral cases of cholera have occurred, these birds, which be- 
fore flew about the steeples and thronged the trees of the 
public promenades, have all emigrated, and the same thing 
is said to have occurred during the cholera seasons of 1836 
and 1854. The faet, if it is a fact, may be worth noting. 
or 
p —A hippopotamus, which escaped from a menagerie, is 
is sporting in Savannah river, and the farmers are turning 
out by scores to capture him. 

‘at a time. 
Che Aiennel. 
—We have seen wonderful precocity in dogs, both at pub- 
lic exhibition and at home, but never intelligence so nearly 
akin to reason as was possessed by poor ‘‘ Mac,” who died 
in Brookiyn last week, aged 7 years, weight 20 pounds. 
Mac was of the black and tan variety, and in early infancy 
was picked up an outcast and nearly dead with hunger and 
cold. His assiduous nurse in those days, and his constant 
companion ever since, was a negro dwarf, classically named 
‘**Romeo,”” who is now in his twenty-second year, stands 
thirty-eight inches high in his stockings, and is about the 
same weight of a three years old grandchild of his master 
living in the same house. It was by the care of Romeo 
that the dog survived, and it is quite probable that by sub- 
sequent daily contact the full measure of the intelligence of 
the one wis imparted to the other, and so, in this way, Mac 
came to be the very extraordinary dog he was. Certainly, 
if Mac did not know fully as much as Romey, both under- 
stood each other perfectly, and communicated their ideas 
by processes familiar only to themselves. 
Of course our readers expect to hear that Mac was a lithe, 
active dog, fully up‘to the most remarkable of the tricks 
we are accustomed to read of and see. He could find 
articles hidden, follow his tail backwards and reverse, sit 
on his haunches and stand on his hind feet, pick a piece of 
biscuit from the back part of a mantel-piece without touch- 
ing his paws, catch and retrieve balls, ran up a perpendic- 
ular wall to the height of nine feet and pick up a ball placed 
there; and in one instance he ran fifteen feet up the trunk 
of a tree and brought down a piece of paper which he had 
been told to get. Then he would meet the carriers at 
morning and evening and bring in the newspapers, and 
once when his master was sick in bed for many days he 
never left his room, but watched carefully until he im- 
proved, and when he was convalescent, brought spectacles, 
newspapers, handkerchief or whatever else he was desired 
to do—for it was the most remarkable feature of this dog’s 
intelligence that he seemed to distinguish words when 
spoken to in ordinary tones. He would take any place on 
table, chair, or floor, where designated, would lie down, or 
stand, leave the room and enter, go up stairs and down, call 
romey, or indicate his understanding of any ordinary want 
or word with the quickest intelligence. That he was a good 
watch-dog may be supposed. 
One Sunday morning, about one o’clock, he heard some 
one prowling about the house; he first went to his master’s 
bed and woke him—then tried to get out of the door. As 
soon as he was let out, he jumped a five-feet board fence 
into a vacant lot adjoining, gave chase to, caught, and trip- 
ped up a negro who had attempted to enter the house Ly 
the rear, and then stood over him until a policeman arrived 
and took him to the station. Of course he was a great 
favorite with the police ever afterwards. 
Moreover, as a bird or rabbit dog, Mac was equal to any 
pointer or setter, which is remarkable for one of his treed. 
He would stand on a bird as well as any dog, and retrieve 
from the water as well as on land, never mouthing a bird, 
and in one instance bringing a winged snipe from a pond in 
such condition that it lived for some weeks after as a pet at 
the house of his master. As a pet among the children he 
was equally famous, and it was jnteresting to see him sit- 
ting side by side with his master’s grandchild in a little 
wagon drawn by a white goat, with the redoubtable dwarf 
Romeo for charioteer. 
Ordinarily, Romey stood by, a quiet but intensely sym- 
pathetic observer of Mac’s traits and antics, but the gleam 
of pride that beamed from his great white eyes when the 
performances were concluded, showed how muci he felt 
his own reputation to be involved in the success of his 
friend. It was not often, however, that an exhibition of 
the dog’s qualities was called for, for Mac was not ostenta- 
tious of his own endowments, and his master, (a modest 
thoroughbred sportsman by the name of Dan Hughes, who 
keeps a quiet chop-house and billiard room in a three story 
brick house with vine-covered verandah and well-kept 
flower garden in front,) did not often call them into requisi- 
tion. There was a vole, however, in which both Mac and 
Romey appeared together, and which gentlemen in the 
neighborhood got wind of, and at last it became quite a set 
thing to take a stranger in to see it. It was no less than an 
imitation on a small scale, of the sports of the ancient 
arena, when gladitor met wild beast in deadly encounter 
—though no more than a half dozen spectators were allowed 
When the floor was cleared, the dwarf took 
position in one corner of the room, and with foot and fists 
advanced, sleeves rolled up, and grim determination por- 
trayed on every feature, awaited the onslaught of his op- 
ponent who was held between Dan’s legs, bolt-upright 
and paws presented. At the signal both met in the centre 
and then came a sparring match and struggle for vantage 
which would bring tears to eyes most stolid. At last the 
dog would get his lock on Romey’s legs and never let go 
until he threw him. Then came the tussle, sometimes one 
on top and sometimes the other, with scarcely a sound per- 
ceptible except the labored breathing of the dwarf, until at 
last the dog would invariably retire the victor, leaving his 
opponent to pick up the quarters and dimes from the spec- 
tators, not the least bit injured by the fracas, but with an 
exchequer considerably improved. 
Recently, after repeated offers from exhibitors of less 
note, the merits of this wonderful pair came to the notice 
of the irrepressible P. T. Barnum, and an engagement was 
closed at the rate of $3,000 a year, to have begun on the 
very Monday before the dog died: It is needless to say 


that there is mourning inthe house of Hughes. All the 
doctors could not avert the catastrophe, though many 
were summoned at highest rates. After ten days of suffer- 
ing from malignant sore throat, the dog choked ina spasm, 
and his stuffed body now looks down on the disconsolate 
Romey from its glass case above. : 
—The Harrier, as its name implies, is used for hunting 
the hare, and is nothing more nor less than a small fox 
hound and would be found a very useful animal for track- 
ing rabbits. The American rabbit is a somewhat different 
animal from its English cousin; the latter in a wild state live 
together in warrensin immense numbers. The warren is a 
series of burrows or holes in the ground, of extremely 
irregular construction, and often communicate with each 
other to a remarkable extent. The American rabbit, so 
called, on the contrary live together in couples, bring forth 
their young on the surface, and when their offspring are 
able to take off to themselves they quit the parental roof 
and forage on their own account. The scent of the 
American rabbit is much stronger and holds to the ground 
as it were for a longer time, and in this respect bears a 
marked similarity to the English hare. The points of a 
good Harrier are similar to those of the fox-hound. There 
are necessary points in the shape of a hound which ought 
always be attended to by a sportsman, for if he be not of a 
perfect symmetry he will neither run fast nor bear much 
work. Keep in mind that the hound has much tedious la- 
vor to undergo, and should have strength proportioned to 
it. Let his legs be straight as arrows, his fect round and 
not too large, his shoulders well back, his breast rather 
wide than narrow, his chest deep, his back broad, his head 
small, his neck thin, his tail thick and bushy, and if he 
carry it wellso much the better. Many of our friends will 
say it is impossible to procure such a dog, so perfectin all 
his points. Get one so nearly like the description as pos- 
sible, and such hounds as are weak from the knees to the 
foot—mongrel] breeds of pointers and setters—shoot them at 
once. ‘To use the expression ‘‘shoot them,” would perhaps 
seen cruel, but we can suggest no other method to 
vid the country of a breed of puny, miserable dogs general- 
ly found in a litter of whelps, which if allowed to grow 
and subsequently breed from,are sure to propagate animals 
as worthless as themselves. Attention to the proper weed- 
ing out of bad stock is the only way in which good staunch 
strains can be bred. , 
Lost, 4 Biack-anp-Tan Doc.—lf anybody has seen a 
black-and-tan dog, answering to the name of “Judge” 
going down street in company -with a hard-shell-turtle, that 
won't answer to anything, and certainly won’t answer to 
tackle, as the dog can tell you if you can get him to stop 
long enough, please halt the eloping pair, as they are the 
property of the editor of this paper. We are fondly ai- 
tached to the dog on account of his vagabondish Bohemian 
ish habits. He knows every dog in Peoria by name, and is 
on speaking terms with nine-tenths of the granger dogs that 
come in under the wagons, and he knows more of the in- 
habitants of this city than the tax collector does. The 
turtle is a more recent acquisition. It was placed in the 
back yard yesterday, and the dog spent an hour and a halt 
trying to entice iv to come out of its shell and be sociable. 
The old iron-clad maintained his reserve, however, until 
the dog crammed his nose against the forward part and be- 
gan to sniff. The pair seemed to come to some sort of un- 
derstanding at once, for the dog made an impetuous remark 
on a very high key, and they both started immediately on 
a tiip after Donaldson’s balloon. When the dog jumped 
over Fisher’s barn we thought he had struck the eastern 
current ani would go right through, but we learn since 
that he landed and was seen sauntering along like a whirl- 
wind, the turtle staying right by him. We should be very 
sorry to lose the dog now, as he has acquired another im- 
portant and valuable quality. He knows more about turtles 
than any other dog in the country, and it’s mighty hard to 
find a real good turtle dog.—Peorta Review. 
Boy Rescurp By A Dog.—Stories of boys saved by dogs 
are perhaps more numerous than well authenticated. Here 
is one, however, from the Glasgow Herald which we feel 
certain is truthful:— 
‘Yesterday morning, about ten o’clock, a most exciting 
affair happened at Kilean river, about one mile from Tar- 
bert, by which a little boy aged about eight years, named 
John McCallum, son of Donald McCallum, road contractor 
Killean, nearly lost his life, and was only saved as it were 
‘by the skin of his teeth’ trom a watery grave, by the ex- 
traordinary sagacity and fidelity of a collie dog belonging 
to the boy’s father. It appears that the boy was at the 
time along with an elder brother, amusing himself near the 
river by leaning over a wire fence on its banks and endeav- 
oring to catch the small pieces of wood and other waits 
borne down by the flood, when suddenly the wire on which 
he was leaning brokc, and he was precipitated into the an- 
gry flood below, and borne along with the current towards 
the sea. His brother, unable to save him, ran to the house 
and alarmed his father and other of the neighbors. His 
father immediately rushed away along the banks of the 
stream, closely followed by his faithful collie dog. Fora 
time no trace of the boy could be seen, but after proceeding 
about a quarter of a mile along the bank towards the sea 
the dog apparently saw the object of theirsearch coming to 
the surface, for he bounced into the stream and ina few 
moments was seen struggling to regain the bank with what 
seemed to be the lifeless body of the poor boy. Seeing that 
the noble animal had succeeded in securing his son the 
agonized father, greatly at the risk of his own life, spran 
into the torrent and seconded the frantic efforts of the dog 
to bring the boy to the bank, andin this way he wiis ulti. 
mately successful. When taken to the bank the boy was 
perfectly lifeless; but after he had been handled in the 
usual way for restoring animation by an old ‘galt’? named 
Neil McAllister, he gradually recovered consciousness. and 
is not much the worse for his dip. The little fellow’ was 
carried along by the current for nearly half a mile at a very 
rapid rate. 
or 
—A gentleman having his hair cut, was asked by the 
garrulous operator: ‘‘ How he would have it done.” “If 
possible,” replied the gentleman, “‘ in silence.” 

