FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
443 
The Zoological Society of this city recently received from 
President Grant, a pair of beautiful Nicaraguan birds, to- 
gether with a very complimentary letter. They are now 
on exhibition in the Garden. 
HOW TO KEEP GOLD FISH. 
Seth Green gives the following instructions as to the 
manner of keeping gold fish : Use any well, creek, or river 
water that is not impregnated with mineral. Change the 
water when the fish come to the top and stay there, and 
breathe part water and part air. Take out nearly all the 
water, leaving enough for the fish to swim in, and fill the 
vessel with fresh water. Never take the fish in your hand; 
if the aquarium needs cleaning, make a net of mosquito 
netting, and take the fish out in it. There are many gold 
fish killed by handling. Keep your aquarium clean so that 
the water looks as clear as a crystal. Watch the fish a little 
and you will find out when they are all right. Feed them 
all they will eat and anything they will eat, worms, meat, 
fish water or fish spawn. Take great care that you take all 
that they do not eat out of the aquarium. Any decayed 
meat or vegetables in water has the same smell to fish that 
it does to you in air. If your gold fish die it is attributed, 
as a rule, to one of three causes — handling, starvation, or 
bad water. 
AFRICAN PARROTS. 
On Hong Island, in Africa, close to the Gaboon River, 
there is a stupendous cotton tree, the wide-spread and gigan- 
tic arms of which have served, time immemorial, as a 
lodging place not only for the parrots belonging to this part 
of the country, but, one might be tempted to believe, for 
all in Africa. These birds usually spend an hour or more 
in adjusting themselves in their proper places at night, 
during which time they keep up such a loud and incessant 
screaming that you cannot be heard anywhere in the vicin- 
ity withour raising the voice considerably above the ordinary 
pitch. At length they are quietly seated, when they com- 
mence what very closely resembles a musical concert; this 
they continue about an hour longer. At regular intervals 
during the night they sing out as if they were keeping 
watch. The natives say the concerts have been borrowed 
from them, and the practice of keeping, watch they suppose 
to have been derived from vessels lying at anchor in the 
river. These conjectures will not appear improbable to 
those who are acquainted with the singular aptitude of these 
birds to catch and imitate the sounds of the human voice. 
They are never molested ; their powers of utterance, in the 
estimation of the African, are so close an approximation of 
human speech, that to kill and eat them would be almost 
equivalent to murder and cannibalism. 
THE ESQUIMAUX DOG. 
What the reindeer is to the Laplander, the Siberian dog 
is to the Esquimaux. He is their only beast of burden, 
and is generally employed in drawing materials in a sledge 
over the boundless and dreary deserts of snow, where the 
cold is so intense that no other domestic animal save the 
reindeer, could exist, and bear the hardships this animal is 
called upon to undergo. They are generally fed once a 
day — at night — their allowance beng a dried fish, weighing 
perhaps two pounds. The sledge, to which they are har- 
nessed, is about ten feet in length and two in width, made 
with seasoned birch timber, and combines, to a surprising 
degree, the qualities of strength and lightness. It is simply 
a skeleton framework fastened together with lashings of 
dried seal skin, and mounted on broad curved runners. 
No iron whatever is used in the construction, and it does 
not weigh more than twenty pounds, yet it will sustain 
a load of four or five hundred pounds, and endure the 
severest shocks of rough mountain travel, occasionally ren- 
dered more than ordinarily severe by the erratic behavior 
of the dogs, who, sometimes, should a deer or fox cross their 
route, cannot overcome their wolfish propensities, but give 
chase in a most determined manner, heedless alike of the 
driver’s shouts and the loaded team behind them, dragging 
the sledge and its contents at lightning speed over bluffs and 
down steep inclines, often not being brought to a stand-still 
until submerged several feet in a snowdrift. The driver 
of a dog team carries no whip, but has, instead, a thick 
stick with a spiked point, which is used to check the speed 
of the sledge in descending hills. The number of dogs 
harnessed to the sledges varies from seven to fifteen, accord- 
ing to the nature of the country to be traversed, and the 
weight of the load. Under favorable circumstances eleven 
dogs will make from forty to fifty miles a day, with a man 
and a load of four hundred pounds. They are harnessed to 
the sledge in successive couples, by a long central thong of 
seal skin, to which each dog is attached by a collar and a 
short trace. They are guided and controlled entirely by the 
voice, and by a leader dog, who is especially trained for 
the purpose. 
GRIMALKIN IN THE SHROUDS. 
During the recent gales the schooner Eaglet lay in Tober- 
mory Harbor. In furling the mainsail, a cat belonging to 
the vessel, without the knowledge of the sailors, got rolled 
up, and, while the sail continued furled, it could not escape 
from its confinement. For twenty-three days the sail lay 
untouched, and during that time poor puss was a close 
prisoner, without food or drink, and very little air. When 
the sail was unfurled the cat dropped out in such a weekly 
state that it could not stand. The sailors nursed their 
favorite so carefully that in a day or two it was skipping 
about the vessel as if nothing had happened. 
WHAT THE FANCIERS SAY OF THE 
JOURNAL. 
Bethel, May 21, 1874. 
Mr. J. M. Wade. 
Dear Sir: I should like very much to get the complete 
files of your Journal, having a few numbers. I like the 
paper very much. Could not do without it. Think I can 
get it a few subscribers. Truly yours, 
J. A. Morton. 
Bangor, Me., May 2G, 1874. 
J. M. Wade. 
Dear Sir: Inclosed please find amount for another sub- 
scriber to your valuable Journal. Send it to Mr. 
Respectfully yours, Albert Noyes. 
Wilmington, Del. 
Mr. Wade. 
I thank you for the Fanciers’ Journal with which I am 
very much pleased, and will forward the subscription price 
soon. Respectfully yours, 
Joshua Bowers. 
