in summer, and early in autumn, to feed on grasshoppers. They have never been quite so saucy in Union as they have occasionally been in other places. A few years ago, in Hopkinton, N. H., they killed seventeen turkeys in one flock, not taking one daily, as a hawk does, but destroying an entire brood at once. One farmer in that town discovered, on one of his lambs, a crow, which had picked out one eye, and was thwacking the lamb over so as to pick out the other. A neighbor lost eight lambs in one spring, which were undoubtedly killed by them. Of some of the lambs the tongues as well as the eyes were picked out. The crows in the neighborhood had become very bold. But in Union probably nothing of the kind has occurred. The most which is apprehended from them is the injury they may do in the cornfields; and to these it is believed they do no harm in spring, by pulling up the corn, unless they have young. When it is considered that it is very easy to scare them away at the seasons of the year when they do mischief, the policy of killing them may be questionable. They are scavengers and carrion-eaters, and destroy an immense number of insects and worms, which, without their co-operation, would in time bring desolation on many a rich field.

HUNTING MATCHES.

When the town was first settled, game was plenty; and for a long time there was one hunting-match or more yearly. Men who proposed to take part met and agreed on a day to which the hunt should be restricted, and determined the comparative value of different animals, according to their scarcity. A bear, perhaps, would count 100, a fox 20, a racoon 15, a partridge 6, a crow 5, a grey squirrel 3, a red squirrel 2, a blackbird 1, and so on. The party then chose two captains, and they cast lots for the first choice. After the successful captain had selected a man, they proceeded alternately till all present were enrolled in the one or the other company. On the day appointed, every man went to hunt. In the evening, all came

together. The game killed by each one was counted, according to the principles before laid down. The company which was victorious sat down with the other to a supper, the expense of which was paid by the vanquished. Sometimes, instead of joining in companies, the hunters paired off against each other, and the man who came at night with the least game paid for his rival's supper.1 Game, however, is now scarce, and the old hunters are nearly all gone.

Fish Laws.
Eels.

CHAPTER LI.

ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.

(Concluded.)

Salmon.

Alewives. -- Fish-hawks and Eagles.
- Other Fish.

- Smelts. - Trout and Pickerel.

FISH LAWS.

JULY 7, 1786, after the inhabitants here had made a movement to obtain an Act of Incorporation, and about three months before the Act was passed, the Legislature made a law "to prevent the destruction, and to regulate the catching, of the fish called salmon, shad, and alewives, in the Kennebec," and several other rivers, including the St. George's. No obstructions were to be built, or to be continued, which would prevent the fish from going up to the lakes and ponds

1 This kind of enjoyment suggests another, which sometimes was had sixty or seventy years ago, though it was not common. A man had wood to be sledded, or corn to be gathered or to be husked. He procured as much liquor as he thought would be necessary, prepared a supper, and invited his neighbors to the Bee. They came and assisted him in the afternoon. After the supper, the more genteel and the better dressed would go into the room, and dance with the young women; while those who were somewhat ragged, or wanted courage to enter, would at the same time be dancing the double-shuffle in the entry or around the door, to the same music which was sung to the dancers within the house.

to cast their spawn, between April 20 and June 10, annually. The owners of all dams were required to open sufficient sluice-ways and passages, at their own expense, for the fish to go through. During the same period, no persons were allowed to catch them "at any other time than between sunrise on Monday and sunset on Thursday in each week,” or at any time to “set any seine, pot, or other machine, for the purpose of taking any... within two rods of any sluice or passageway;" and no seine or net was to extend at any time more than one-third across the stream. It was ordered that the Act be read in town-meetings, in the month of March or April, annually. Every town and plantation was required to choose a committee to see it enforced, and to prosecute offenders. "Any person so chosen," who should "refuse to serve," unless he were elected to some other office, incurred a penalty of forty shillings. It was in accordance with this Act that fish-wardens were first chosen, at the first regular meeting after the town-organization. They were then denominated "a committee to take care that the fish should not be stopped contrary to law, the year ensuing."

FISH.

SALMON remained in ponds and deep places in the river during the summer. In the fall, when the autumnal rains came, they went up the river, and cast their spawn in large holes, which they made in the sand at the bottom of the stream. From the upper

and the lower end of the little island at the bottom of the eddy below the Middle Bridge, John Butler extended to the western shore two wears, the lower one having in it an eel-pot for the fish to pass through. From the water between the wears he would not unfrequently, in the morning, take out two or three large salmon with a pitchfork. Between the years 1790 and

1 Salmo salar.

Lin. The scientific names have been furnished by the eminent ichthyologist, Horatio Robinson Storer, of Boston. 2 Nathaniel Robbins, Esq.

1800, Royal Grinnell, with pitchforks, took from half a barrel to a barrel of them in a hole in the river opposite to his house in the summer;1 but they were not so good as if the weather had been cool. About the year 1790, Josiah Robbins, with Philip Robbins, Amariah Mero, and Rufus Gillmor, made a salmon-net, and set it off Gillmor's land below the bridge, and in one year took more than two thousand pounds of salmon, which were salted for winter. About the years 1803 or 1804, when mills were first erected at the Middle Bridge, the workmen killed these fish with axes and carpenters' tools. They were plenty, and furnished an important and luxurious means of subsistence to the early settlers. They disappeared many years ago.

ALEWIVES2 are numerous. Formerly the best places for them were near Taylor's Mills and Hills' Mills. The object in choosing fish-wardens in 1823, after neglecting it for some time, was to prevent the boys from taking the fish, as they had done for several years, at Crawford's River. In the morning, the alewives would pass up to the falls; and, being prevented from going further, they would all return in the course of the afternoon. By putting a rack across the river, ten or twelve rods from its mouth, the boys were enabled before night to take all that had gone up. William Gleason, Esq., observed that, if the fish were allowed to go down, a little time intervened before others came. The conclusion was, that they went off in search of another stream, and were followed by one or two of the shoals near them. In one, two, or three days, would be seen a few stragglers or pioneers, apparently part of a shoal. If these were caught, others would come, and finally the whole shoal, and the shoal be followed by others.

Soon after casting their spawn, multitudes of alewives, seeking a passage to the ocean, may be seen above the dam at Warren. Those which are nearest eddy round, a few each time dropping over, till finally

1 Lyceum Lecture.

2 Alosa tyrannus. — Dekay.

the whole shoal, with a rush, goes over, tail first. The young go down later; and, when they arrive at Warren, being about three and a half inches long, and of a suitable size for bait, they are vexed and driven in all directions by eels. The eels are also seen to lie quietly in the grass at the bottom of the water, and dart their heads up from time to time, and take as many as they want from the millions with which the river is crowded. Many years ago, when the only way of carrying boards down the St. George's was by rafting, so many would be killed by getting between them, that the boards would be slippery. When the old canal was used, the posts at the locking would be made greasy by the grinding of them.

FISH-HAWKS AND EAGLES. With the return of alewives in the spring was that of fish-hawks and eagles. Col. Herman Hawes says he has seen the white-headed eagle, more than fifty times, sitting on a dry tree on Seven-tree Island, watching the fish-hawks to rob them. A fish-hawk would come sailing along, stop in the air, suspend himself with easy flappings at a moderate height, select his prey, then plunge into the water, and, if successful, bring up a fish, shake himself, and think to bear away the prize to his nest. The white-headed eagle, improperly called the bald eagle, in the mean time being on the watch, would start and swiftly pursue him. After many trials, finding he could not escape, he would drop the fish. In an instant the eagle would close his wings, follow it down, and commonly seize it before it struck the ground, or he would pick it up, and, pirate-like, bear it off. Once a fish-hawk in Union dived into the water, brought up a fish, flapped his wings, and attempted to fly, but failed and was carried down. He rose again, and made another attempt, but was again drawn beneath the water, and seen no more.

EELS are not popular; and, as the streams and ponds are favorable to their multiplication, they are

1 Anguilla Bostoniensis. - Dekay.