The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-07
sHAD IN THE ST. JOHNS.
Ivhen and how it Was Discovered
They Assembled That River.

oman and how it Was Discovered
They Assembled That River,
GAINESVILLE, FLA, June 6.-Samuel
wainges, ex-sherif of this county and a
,,-aat fisherman, says it was not known that
mad assembled the st. Johns river until the
hag,nning of the war between the states.
IN 1851 the Jacksonville Light Infantry was
ancamped at Fort Steel, at the mouth of the
liver. below the old light house, and
abont two miles from Mayport. At this
'otnt little creek made into the river. and
Then the tide was out the water of the
o,aek barely covered a shoal near the
Taouth. Over this shoal the boys noticed
.one kind of fish moving in large numbers.
lin Livingston had an otter terrier named
pat which those Of the company now liy.
inc will remember as having urged into the
wster on many errands OF usefulness as well
az merriment. Pat was shown the fish and
Jirected to catch them. At it he went, and
every time he came TO shore he brought a
sne fat shad, to the very great delight, as
1ysII as astonishment; of the soldiers, But
Pat being unable to cater to the wants Of SO
many men, nets were improvised, and from
that day on as long as the shad season
lasted they Toasted on the finest fish the
waters produce. and thus was 1t first known
chat the shad ascende1 the st. Johns river
John Pallet Of this city had a hen which
developed a violent and uncomfortable
bomicidaI tendency. She not only killed
in one day five of her own brood, but put
N death eight chicks belonging to other
hens She would seize the little ones with
her bill by the small of the back and toss
them from her. The younglings would ex-
T1re in few moments. No cause could be
assigned by the owner of the hen for this
sudden outburst of rage, but he quieted her
nv cutting her head off with his ak
The insects have been very bad this
snring, owing to the dry, hot weather. The
tomato vines have suffered to some extent
and would have been ruined but for the fish
hawks which since the subsistence of the
water on Payne's prairie have had to find
other modes of living than catching fish.
From the fondness shown for them by the
hawks we suppose that the large, repulsive
green worm, so destructive of tobacco and
the tomato, suits them next best to fish.
The hawks fly low over the fields and
not a worm escapes their unerrinR
OPTICS The writer once had a 5-acre
field saved from ruin by two blue
darters or hen hawks that had a nest hard
by. Another 5-acre field, with cleared
land all round it was, attacked by the
worms, and it took four men most of their
time for two weeks to keep them down.
The mocking birds, and more especially the
butcher DlTuSs are STodb HelpS TO the
farmers, and would be Of still greater il
they would see to it that all birds, except
crows, are protected.
The butcher bird not only feeds himself
and young on insects, but he kills or impaes
on the orange thorns and the barbs of the
wire fences every insect he sees. The de-
structiou of insects seems to be his purpose
in life, and that of the small boy his destruc-
ton. Apropos of this bird, we saw one on
a telegraph wire the other day intenty
eying something on the ground just below
him. All at once. like gray streak against
the rosy background of the western horizon
be darted for the object. In a second |
saw arising rather slowly a tangled,
writhing mass of fur and feathers which
soon parting, the cunning or woods rat,
which the bird had pluckily but unwisely
tackled, falling to his former hiding place
in the grass and the bird taking his place
in quite a medltative way on the wire
again, where he quietly preened his
feathers while the ashes of roses faded into
dreary drab and the whippoorwills cry
ushered night on the scene.