The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-12
ON THE WING
BY JAMES II. HARD

4 quail and think it would be great sport
| to shoot them while on the wing from a
motor boat.
! Mr. John Sparrow told me that he saw
/ on a recent trip between Savannah and
Boston flying fish pursued by doiphns
| that the flying fish were wonderful fly
1 ers, but that the dolphins far exceled
them, that the dolphins would oustrip
| the flying fish, turn and meet them and
catch them in the air. AS 1 remarked,
4 regular Tyrus Cobb of a dolphin. 1 felt
| like striking the gentle Tyre" but con-
! Guided to take the matter under advise
| ment. Later l concluded that it was pos
| sible that the dolphins may have been
| showing off before the sharks, or that
Mr. Sparrow's eyesight might have been
affected by his observation of the mer-
maids OF the Massachusetts main
The waters of Florida TEEN q believe
that is a good world wish fish of every
variety from the tiny top minnow to the
| 400-pound Jew fish, with mouths large
enough to admit key of nails. 1t may
| have been Jew fish which swallowed
| Jonah. OF course there are whales IN
| those waters, also. I brought home once
/ from De Funiak Springs slx-foot rib
of a whale which had been stranded on
the coast several miles below there. I
| took 1t to Bessemer presented 1t to the
| Ladies' Park association, and 1t remained
| fastened to the iron fence around the
| gold fish fountain for several years. Not
| great while ago my whale rib was ex-
hibited in a Birmingham store window
| as the bone of a prehistoric monster,
name and species unknown"
| What had happened was that thief
had taken the bone to the junk yard
J sold it and later 1t came into the pos
session of an enterprising advertiser
| 1 was once sailing from Hudson on
the gulf to Tarpon Springs with an enter
prsng sponge fisherman, and he told me
many things which were interesting. One
was that once he sailed for three days
| through what appeared to be a sea of
dead fish, probably killed by some erup
| ton of volcano in the floor of the gulf
That must be one of natures methods Of
| preserving the equilibrium, for surely
| something must be done to keep down the
| tremendous increase of population.
| One of the lower orders of the fishes
! which cling to the rocks, limpet, or
something like that, was found to have
| laid 100000 eggs in a limited period and
| X was not a specially good laying season,
either.
| Some fish can Climb tree, and paddle
or shovel nosed catfish can make as
f, big hole in river bank as can a razor
backed hog.
! Sometime ago l wrote something about
| hellgramites for fish bait, whereupon
| Mr.. Simpson Of the Western Newspaper
| Union, told me that once he found an
extra large hellgramite under a rock and
| baited his hook with It. The hellgra-
| mite is tenacious of life and Its head Is
armed with pair of pincers. Mr. Simp-
| son says he cast his hook and when he
| got a bite and pulled In he found that
| the bait had grabbed a great big Dream
| by the cartilage of the mouth and hung
on until he secured the price. re-
marked that was an ally worth having.
! Down about 10 miles below Miami,
| Fla, a year or two ago Captain Thomp-
son harpooned and, after using up five
harpoons and $50 bullets from rifle and
| 80 hours of time, succeeded in capturing
4 a fish which required a steam tug to
| tow it to Miami. The fish was 45 feet
| long, 1915 feet In circumference and
| weighed 10000 pounds. It's skin was three
| inches thick, its liver weigher 1700 pounds
| and it had as much gall as unofficial of
| the Southeastern Tariff association-but
| they finally killed it, and it only took
1 time and three men to accomplish the
/ feat.
| Down at Punta Gorda, Fla, near where
| the silver tarpon glows, a mate on a
| fishing boat called sharpe, told me
| that they used gill nets and stop nets
4 to catch mullet, and that while often
| they got only few fish at a haul he
had known occasions when they caught
so many that it took three days to land
/ them. When it Is known that some nets
are about a mile long and when one has
has seen schools of mullet pursued by
i tarpon or spanish mackerel, 1t does not
seem SO Incredible.
Il I have heard of 5000 mullet being
i taken at one haul.
I think that Is too many.
II I would myself prefer sitting by the
limping brook, or placid millpond. listen
u ing to the water falling over the mill
], dam, damming the flies and mosquitoes
catching mess of Dream, red bellies
horny heads pyerch, channel cat, a few
[ shell crackers and maybe an eel or two
, say just about enough for two goot
{ bats.
j I believe I would like that better thar
4 catching tub full of spanish mackeral
/ or a ton or two of tarpon, In fact thinl
my friend Tom DAILY just about expresse.
: my sentiments in his poem called:
ii CONTENT.
t Along about this time O. year,
/ The while set ablinking
4 In the warm sunshine here,
3 always get to thinking
., The old farm amt SO bad place
The while feel some pity
3 For the dumb fools
n That's in the race for gold
g Down IN the city
d got shirt, pair O. pants. coat. hat
s and appetite.
know the fish and all their hants
And when they like to bite,
d And all the clothes I want is what viii
: keep off cold and shiver,
: The while I'm sitting in this spot,
q Test best along the river
; Ketch me combing of my hair
And wearing cuffs and collars.
n I wouldn't be millionaire
i'll For seven hundred dollars.
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