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  WILD ANIMALS
  OF NORTH AMERICA

  INTIMATE STUDIES OF BIG AND LITTLE CREATURES
  OF THE MAMMAL KINGDOM

  [Illustration]

  BY

  EDWARD W. NELSON

  Natural-Color Portraits from Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

  Track Sketches by Ernest Thompson Seton

  PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
  WASHINGTON, D. C.
  U. S. A.


  COPYRIGHT, 1918

  BY THE

  NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

  WASHINGTON, D. C.

  PRESS OF JUDD & DETWEILER, INC.




INTRODUCTION


In offering this volume of “Wild Animals of North America” to members
of the National Geographic Society, the Editor combines the text and
illustrations of two entire numbers of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE--that of November, 1916, devoted to the Larger Mammals of
North America, and that of May, 1918, in which the Smaller Mammals of
our continent were described and presented pictorially.

Edward W. Nelson, the author of both articles, is one of the foremost
naturalists of our time. For forty years he has been the friend and
student of North America’s wild-folk. He has made his home in forest
and desert, on mountain side and plain, amid the snows of Alaska
and the tropic heat of Central American jungles--wherever Nature’s
creatures of infinite variety were to be observed, their habits noted,
and their range defined.

In the whole realm of scientists, the GEOGRAPHIC could not
have found a writer more admirably equipped for the authorship of a
book such as “Wild Animals of North America” than Mr. Nelson, for, in
addition to his exceptional scientific training and his standing as
Chief of the unique U. S. Biological Survey, he possesses the rare
quality of the born writer, able to visualize for the reader the things
which he has seen and the experiences which he has undergone in seeing
them. Each of his animal biographies, of which there are 119 in this
volume, is a cameo brochure--concisely and entertainingly presented,
yet never deviating from scientific accuracy.

In Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the National Geographic Society has
secured for Mr. Nelson the same gifted artist collaborator which it
provided for Henry W. Henshaw, author of “Common Birds of Town and
Country,” “The Warblers,” and “American Game Birds,” all of which were
assembled in our “Book of Birds.” In the present instance Mr. Fuertes
has produced a natural history gallery of paintings of the Larger and
Smaller Mammals of North America which is a notable contribution to
wild-animal portraiture, and the reproductions of these works of art
are among the most effective and lifelike examples of color printing
ever produced in this country.

Supplementing the work of Mr. Nelson and Mr. Fuertes is a series of
drawings by the noted naturalist and nature-lover, Ernest Thompson
Seton, showing the tracks of many of the most widely known mammals.

“Wild Animals of North America” provides in compact and permanent form
a natural history for which the National Geographic Society expended
$100,000 in the two issues of the Magazine in which the articles and
illustrations originally appeared.

  GILBERT GROSVENOR,

_Director and Editor_.




INDEX TO WILD ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA

(The articles and illustrations in this volume are reproduced from the
November 1916, and May, 1918, National Geographic Magazine. The first
page is numbered 385, as it originally appeared in the Magazine The
following pages are numbered in sequence.)


                                                 Color          Track
                                       Text   illustration   illustration
  Antelope, Prong-horn                  452       451            611
  Armadillo, Nine-banded                584       559             ..
  Badger                                420       419            601
  Bat, Big-eared desert                 603       567             ..
  Bat, Hoary                            598       566             ..
  Bat, Mexican                          599       567             ..
  Bat, Red                              596       566             ..
  Bear, Alaskan Brown (frontispiece)    441        ..             ..
  Bear, Black                           437       439            608
  Bear, Cinnamon, or Black              437       439             ..
  Bear, Glacier                         437       439             ..
  Bear, Grizzly                         440       442            608
  Bear, Polar                           436       438             ..
  Beaver, American                      441       443             ..
  Beaver, Mountain                      529       534             ..
  Beluga, or White Whale                468       470             ..
  Bison, American, or Buffalo           461       463             ..
  Blarina                               593       566            595
  Bobcat, or Bay Lynx                   409       411             ..
  Bowhead                               469       471             ..
  Buffalo, or American Bison            461       463             ..
  Cachalot, or Sperm Whale              472       471             ..
  Caribou, Barren Ground                460       422            610
  Caribou, Peary                        460       422             ..
  Caribou, Woodland                     460       459             ..
  Cat, Common                            ..        ..            487
  Cat, Jaguarundi, or Eyra              413       415             ..
  Cat, Ring-tailed                      586       562             ..
  Chipmunk, Antelope                    545       539             ..
  Chipmunk, Eastern                     549       542            580
  Chipmunk, Golden                      545       542             ..
  Chipmunk, Oregon                      552       543             ..
  Chipmunk, Painted                     553       543             ..
  Cony, or Little Chief Hare            494       511             ..
  Cougar, or Mountain Lion              412       414            605
  Cow, Common                            ..        ..            594
  Coyote, Arizona, or Mearns            424       423             ..
  Coyote, Mearns, or Arizona            424       423             ..
  Coyote, Plains                        424       423            599
  Deer, Arizona White-tailed            457       458             ..
  Deer, Black-tailed                    456       455            611
  Deer, Mule                            453       455            607
  Deer, Virginia                        456       458             ..
  Deer, White-tailed               456, 457       458            606
  Dog                                    ..        ..       596, 597
  Elk, American                         453       454            607
  Eyra, or Jaguarundi Cat               413       415             ..
  Ferret, Black-footed                  571       551             ..
  Fisher, or Pekan                      444       446             ..
  Footprints, wild folk                  ..        ..            485
  Fox                                    ..        ..            575
  Fox, Alaska Red                       417       418             ..
  Fox, Arctic, or White                 425       426             ..
  Fox, Cross                            417       418             ..
  Fox, Desert                           420       419             ..
  Fox, Gray                             417       419             ..
  Fox, Pribilof Blue                    425       426             ..
  Fox, Red                              416       418             ..
  Fox, Silver                           417       418             ..
  Fox, White, or Arctic                 425       426             ..
  Goat, Bighorn                          ..        ..            604
  Goat, Rocky Mountain                  452       451            604
  Gopher, Pocket                        500       515             ..
  Hare, Arctic                          491       510             ..
  Hare, Little Chief                    494       511             ..
  Hare, Varying                         489       507            490
  Horse                                  ..        ..            610
  Human footprints                       ..        ..            609
  Jaguar                                413       414             ..
  Kangaroo Rat                          502       518             ..
  Lemming, Banded                       503       519             ..
  Lemming, Brown                        504       519             ..
  Lion, Mountain                        412       414            605
  Lynx, Bay                             409       411             ..
  Lynx, Canada                          409       411            612
  Manati, Florida                       465       467             ..
  Marmot, American                      533       534            578
  Marmot, Hoary, or Whistler            536       535             ..
  Marten, or American Sable             576       555             ..
  Mink, American                        575       555       586, 587
  Mole, Oregon                          588       563             ..
  Mole, Star-nosed                      589       563             ..
  Moose                                 461       462            602
  Mouse, Beach                          524       530             ..
  Mouse, Big-eared Rock                 525       531             ..
  Mouse Field, or Meadow                505       522            495
  Mouse, Grasshopper                    520       527            570
  Mouse, Harvest                        517       527             ..
  Mouse, House                          529       531             ..
  Mouse, Jumping                        496       514             ..
  Mouse, Pine                           508       522             ..
  Mouse, Red-backed                     509       523             ..
  Mouse, Rufous Tree                    512       523             ..
  Mouse, Silky Pocket                   497       515             ..
  Mouse, Spiny Pocket                   498       515             ..
  Mouse, White-footed                   521       530            572
  Muskhog, or Peccary                   448       447             ..
  Musk-ox                               464       466            600
  Muskrat                               513       526            569
  Ocelots, or Tiger-cats                416       415             ..
  Opossum, Virginia                     408       410            588
  Otter                                 445       446             ..
  Otter, Sea                            432       434             ..
  Peccary, Collared                     448       447             ..
  Pekan, or Fisher                      444       446             ..
  Pig, Common                            ..        ..            571
  Pika, or Little Chief Hare            494       511             ..
  Polecat, or Spilogale                  ..        ..            593
  Porcupine                             495       514             ..
  Prairie-dog                           536       538             ..
  Quadruped, with biped track:
    Common cat                           ..        ..            487
  Rabbit, Antelope Jack                 486       506             ..
  Rabbit, California Jack               487       507             ..
  Rabbit, Cottontail                    492       510            492
  Rabbit, Jack                           ..        ..            488
  Rabbit, Marsh                         493       511             ..
  Rabbit, Snowshoe                      489       507            490
  Raccoon                               408       410            590
  Rat, Brown                            525       531            574
  Rat, Kangaroo                         502       518             ..
  Sable, American, or Marten            576       555             ..
  Sea-elephant, Northern                432       434             ..
  Sea-lion, Steller                     429       431             ..
  Seal, Alaska Fur                      429       431             ..
  Seal, Elephant                        432       434             ..
  Seal, Greenland                       433       435             ..
  Seal, Harbor                          433       435             ..
  Seal, Harp, or Saddle-back            433       435             ..
  Seal, Leopard                         433       435             ..
  Seal, Ribbon                          436       438             ..
  Seal, Saddle-back                     433       435             ..
  Sheep, Dall Mountain                  449       450             ..
  Sheep, Rocky Mountain                 448       447             ..
  Sheep, Stone Mountain                 449       450             ..
  Shrew, Common                         591       566             ..
  Shrew, Short-tailed                   593       566            595
  Skunk, Common                         580       558            592
  Skunk, Hog-nosed                      582       559             ..
  Skunk, Little, or Polecat              ..        ..            593
  Skunk, Little Spotted                 577       558             ..
  Squirrel, Abert                       564       550             ..
  Squirrel, California Ground           541       539             ..
  Squirrel, Douglas                     557       546             ..
  Squirrel, Flying                      568       551             ..
  Squirrel, Fox                         561       547       581, 582
  Squirrel, Gray                        560       547             ..
  Squirrel, Kaibab                      564       550             ..
  Squirrel, Red                         556       546             ..
  Squirrel, Rusty Fox                   561       547            581
  Squirrel, Striped Ground              540       538             ..
  Spilogale, or Polecat                  ..        ..            593
  Stoat, or Large Weasel                572       554             ..
  Tiger-cats, or Ocelots                416       415             ..
  Walrus, Pacific                       428       430             ..
  Wapiti, or American Elk               453       454             ..
  Weasel                                 ..        ..            584
  Weasel, Large, or Stoat               572       554             ..
  Weasel, Least                         573       554             ..
  Whale, Greenland Right                469       471             ..
  Whale, Killer                         468       470             ..
  Whale, Sperm, or Cachalot             472       471             ..
  Whale, White, or Beluga               468       470             ..
  Whistler, or Hoary Marmot             536       535             ..
  Wildcat, Texan                         ..        ..            612
  Wolf, Arctic White                    421       422             ..
  Wolf, Black                            ..       423             ..
  Wolf, Gray, or Timber                 421       423            605
  Wolf, Prairie                         424       423             ..
  Wolf, Timber, or Gray                 421       423             ..
  Wolverine                             428       427            583
  Woodchuck, Common                     533       534            578
  Woodrat                               516       526             ..

[Illustration:

  From a drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
  Copyright by the National Geographic Magazine, 1916, Gilbert H.
      Grosvenor, Editor

THE LARGEST CARNIVOROUS ANIMAL EXTANT

THE ALASKA BROWN BEAR

The great brown bear of the Alaska peninsula, _Ursus gyas_, and his
cousin, _Ursus middendorffi_, of Kodiac Island, are the largest of all
bears, as well as the largest carnivorous animals in the world. While
sometimes attaining a weight of 1500 pounds, they are, as a rule,
inoffensive giants, taking flight at the first sight of man. But when
wounded, or surprised at close quarters, they give battle, and their
enormous size, strength and activity render them terrific antagonists.
The world did not know of the existence of these bears until 1898.
During the spring the Alaska brown bear lives upon the salmon which
come up the rivers and creeks to spawn, while in the summer and fall
they eat the sedge of the lowland flats, grazing like cattle, and
varying their diet with small mammals and berries which they find in
the hills. The comparatively limited and easily accessible territory in
which they live renders their future precarious unless reasonable means
for their proper protection are continued.]




The Larger North American Mammals

BY E. W. NELSON

_Chief, U. S. Biological Survey_

With Illustrations from Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes


At the time of its discovery and occupation by Europeans, North America
and the bordering seas teemed with an almost incredible profusion of
large mammalian life. The hordes of game animals which roamed the
primeval forests and plains of this continent were the marvel of early
explorers and have been equaled in historic times only in Africa.

Even beyond the limit of trees, on the desolate Arctic barrens, vast
herds containing hundreds of thousands of caribou drifted from one
feeding ground to another, sharing their range with numberless smaller
companies of musk-oxen. Despite the dwarfed and scanty vegetation of
this bleak region, the fierce winter storms and long arctic nights, and
the harrying by packs of white wolves, these hardy animals continued to
hold their own until the fatal influence of civilized man was thrown
against them.

Southward from the Arctic barrens, in the neighboring forests of
spruce, tamarack, birches, and aspens, were multitudes of woodland
caribou and moose. Still farther south, in the superb forests of
eastern North America, and ranging thence over the limitless open
plains of the West, were untold millions of buffalo, elk, and
white-tailed deer, with the prong-horned antelope replacing the
white-tails on the western plains.

With this profusion of large game, which afforded a superabundance
of food, there was a corresponding abundance of large carnivores, as
wolves, coyotes, black and grizzly bears, mountain lions, and lynxes.
Black bears were everywhere except on the open plains, and numerous
species of grizzlies occupied all the mountainous western part of the
continent.

Fur-bearers, including beavers, muskrats, land-otters, sea-otters,
fishers, martens, minks, foxes, and others, were so plentiful in the
New World that immediately after the colonization of the United States
and Canada a large part of the world’s supply of furs was obtained here.

Trade with the Indians laid the foundations of many fortunes, and later
developed almost imperial organizations, like the Hudson’s Bay Company
and its rivals. Many adventurous white men became trappers and traders,
and through their energy, and the rivalry of the trading companies,
we owe much of the first exploration of the northwestern and northern
wilderness. The stockaded fur-trading stations were the outposts of
civilization across the continent to the shores of Oregon and north
to the Arctic coast. At the same time the presence of the sea-otter
brought the Russians to occupy the Aleutian Islands, Sitka, and even
northern California.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Capt. F. E. Kleinschmidt

TOWING HER BABY TO SAFETY

When a mother polar bear scents danger she jumps into the water and her
cub holds fast to her tail while she tows it to safety. But when no
danger seems to threaten she wants it to “paddle its own canoe,” and
boxes its ears or ducks its head under water if it insists on being too
lazy to swim for itself.]

The wealth of mammal life in the seas along the shores of North America
almost equaled that on the land. On the east coast there were many
millions of harp and hooded seals and walruses, while the Greenland
right and other whales were extremely abundant. On the west coast were
millions of fur seals, sea-lions, sea-elephants, and walruses, with an
equal abundance of whales and hundreds of thousands of sea otters.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Capt. F. K. Kleinschmidt

A SWIMMING POLAR BEAR

A polar bear when swimming does not use his hind legs, a new fact
brought out by the motion-picture camera.]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Roy Chapman Andrews

FUR SEAL: FEMALES AND YOUNG PUPS

From the ages of one to four years fur seals are extremely playful.
They are marvelous swimmers, and frolic about in pursuit of one
another, now diving deep, and then, one after the other, suddenly
leaping high above the surface in graceful curves, like porpoises.]

Many of the chroniclers dealing with explorations and life on the
frontier during the early period of the occupation of America gave
interesting details concerning the game animals. Allouez says that in
1680, between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan the prairies were filled
with an incredible number of bears, wapiti, white-tailed deer, and
turkeys, on which the wolves made fierce war. He adds that on a number
of occasions this game was so little wild that it was necessary to
fire shots to protect the party from it. Perrot states that during the
winter of 1670-1671, 2,400 moose were snared on the Great Manitoulin
Island, at the head of Lake Huron. Other travelers, even down to the
last century, give similar accounts of the abundance of game.

[Illustration:

  © Keystone View Co.

ROAMING “MONARCHS OF THE PLAIN”: BRITISH COLUMBIA

A remnant of the veritable sea of wild life that surged over American
soil before the dikes of civilization compassed it about and all but
wiped it out.]


TRAINS HELD UP BY BUFFALO

The original buffalo herds have been estimated to have contained
from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000 animals, and in 1870 it was estimated
that about 5,500,000 still survived. A number of men now living were
privileged to see some of the great herds of the West before they were
finally destroyed. Dr. George Bird Grinnell writes:

“In 1870, I happened to be on a train that was stopped for three hours
to let a herd of buffalo pass. We supposed they would soon pass by,
but they kept coming. On a number of occasions in earlier days the
engineers thought that they could run through the herds, and that,
seeing the locomotive, the buffalo would stop or turn aside; but after
a few locomotives had been ditched by the animals the engineers got in
the way of respecting the buffaloes’ idiosyncrasies....

“Up to within a few years, in northern Montana and southern Alberta,
old buffalo trails have been very readily traceable by the eye, even
as one passed on a railroad train. These trails, fertilized by the
buffalo and deeply cut so as to long hold moisture, may still be seen
in summer as green lines winding up and down the hills to and from the
water-courses.”

Concerning the former abundance of antelope, Dr. Grinnell says: “For
many years I have held the opinion that in early days on the plains,
as I saw them, antelope were much more abundant than buffalo. Buffalo,
of course, being big and black, were impressive if seen in masses and
were visible a long way off. Antelope, smaller and less conspicuous in
color, were often passed unnoticed, except by a person of experience,
who might recognize that distant white dots might be antelope and not
buffalo bones or puff balls. I used to talk on this subject with men
who were on the plains in the ’60’s and ’70’s, and all agreed that,
so far as their judgment went, there were more antelope than buffalo.
Often the buffalo were bunched up into thick herds and gave the
impression of vast numbers. The antelope were scattered, and, except in
winter, when I have seen herds of thousands, they were pretty evenly
distributed over the prairie.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by E. E. Kleinschmidt

A WALRUS BATTLE FRONT: THOUGH FORMIDABLE LOOKING, WITH THEIR LONG
TUSKS, THEY ASK ONLY TO BE LET ALONE.]


ANTELOPES EVERYWHERE

“I have certain memories of travel on the plains, when for the whole
long day one would pass a continual succession of small bands of
antelope, numbering from ten to fifty or sixty, those at a little
distance paying no attention to the traveler, while those nearer
at hand loped lazily and unconcernedly out of the way. In the year
1879, in certain valleys in North Park, Colorado, I saw wonderful
congregations of antelope. As far as we could see in any direction, all
over the basins, there were antelope in small or considerable groups.
In one of these places I examined with care the trails made by them,
for this was the only place where I ever saw deeply worn antelope
trails, which suggested the buffalo trails of the plains.”

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Albert Schlechten

A CINNAMON TREED: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Bruin for the most part is an inoffensive beast, with an impelling
curiosity and such a taste for sweet things that he can eat pounds of
honey and lick his chops for more.]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by E. C. Oberholtzer

MOOSE FEEDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES

The moose likes the succulent water plants it finds at the bottom of
lakes and sluggish streams, and often when reaching for them becomes
completely submerged.]

The wealth of animal life found by our forebears was one of the great
natural resources of the New World. Although freely drawn upon from
the first, the stock was but little depleted up to within a century.
During the last one hundred years, however, the rapidly increasing
occupation of the continent and other causes, together with a
steadily increasing commercial demand for animal products, have had
an appalling effect. The buffalo, elk, and antelope are reduced to a
pitiful fraction of their former countless numbers.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by E. C. Oberholtzer

COW MOOSE WITH HER YOUNG

Notice the fold of skin at her neck resembling a bell.]


WANTON WASTE OF WILD LIFE

Practically all other large game has alarmingly decreased, and its
extermination has been partly stayed only by the recent enforcement of
protective laws. It is quite true that the presence of wild buffalo,
for instance, in any region occupied for farming and stock-raising
purposes is incompatible with such use. Thus the extermination of
the bison as a denizen of our western plains was inevitable. The
destruction, however, of these noble game animals by millions for their
hides only furnishes a notable example of the wanton wastefulness which
has heretofore largely characterized the handling of our wild life.

A like disregard for the future has been shown in the pursuit of the
sea mammals. The whaling and sealing industries are very ancient,
extending back for a thousand years or more; but the greatest and
most ruthless destruction of the whales and seals has come within the
last century, especially through the use of steamships and bomb-guns.
Without adequate international protection, there is grave danger that
the most valuable of these sea mammals will be exterminated. The fur
seal and the sea-elephant, once so abundant on the coast of southern
California, are nearly or quite gone, and the sea otter of the North
Pacific is dangerously near extinction.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by W. J. Stroud

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK

They can hold their own in the mountains in summer, but when the deep
snows come they are compelled to go down into the valleys. Just before
they leave the big bulls travel the mountains from one end to the
other, driving old and young before them into the lower country. In
case of a hard winter the elk are thin and weak, and then the dreaded
wolf makes havoc among them, especially the little calves.]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by W. J. Stroud

AN UNUSUAL ELK PICTURE]

The recent great abundance of large land mammals in North America,
both in individuals and species, is in striking contrast with their
scarcity in South America, the difference evidently being due to the
long isolation of the southern continent from other land-masses, whence
it might have been restocked after the loss of a formerly existing
fauna.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Charles E. Johnson

THE MOOSE IS A POWERFUL SWIMMER]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by F. O. Seabury


PART OF A HERD OF SIXTY MOUNTAIN SHEEP

They are fed hay and salt daily at the Denver and Rio Grande Railway
station at Ouray, Colorado. This picture was taken at a distance of
about 10 to 15 feet from the wild animals, which grow quite tame under
such friendly ministrations.]

[Illustration:

  From a drawing by Charles R. Knight

A MOOSE THAT LIVED IN NEW JERSEY IN PLEISTOCENE TIMES: CROVALCES

A primitive moose-like form, a nearly perfect skeleton of which
was found in southern Jersey some years ago. In size and general
proportions the animal was like a modern moose, but the nose was less
developed, and the horns were decidedly different in character.]


SPECIES COME AND SPECIES GO

The differences in the geographic distribution of mammal life between
North and South America and the relationships between our fauna and
that of the Old World are parts of the latest chapter of a wonderful
story running back through geologic ages. The former chapters are
recorded in the fossil beds of all the continents. While only a good
beginning has been made in deciphering these records, enough has been
done by the fascinating researches of Marsh, Cope, Osborn, Scott, and
others to prove that in all parts of the earth one fauna has succeeded
another in marvelous procession.

It has been shown also that these changes in animal life, accompanied
by equal changes in plant life, have been largely brought about
by variations in climate and by the uplifting and depressing of
continental land-masses above or below the sea. The potency of climatic
influence on animal life is so great that even a fauna of large mammals
will be practically destroyed over a great area by a long-continued
change of a comparatively few degrees (probably less than ten degrees
Fahrenheit) in the mean daily temperatures.

The distribution of both recent and fossil mammals shows conclusively
that numberless species have spread from their original homes across
land bridges to remote unoccupied regions, where they have become
isolated as the bridges disappeared beneath the waves of the sea.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Gus A. Swanson

THEIR LIVING LIES BENEATH THE SNOW

All nature loves kindness and trusts the gentle hand. Contrast these
sheep, ready to fly at the slightest noise, with those in the picture
on page 396, peacefully feeding in close proximity to a standing
express train. Every one appreciates a good picture of a living animal
more than the trophy of a dead one!]


VAST NATURAL MUSEUMS OF EXTINCT ANIMAL LIFE

For ages Asia appears to have served as a vast and fecund nursery for
new mammals from which North Temperate and Arctic America have been
supplied. The last and comparatively recent land bridge, across which
came the ancestors of our moose, elk, caribou, prong-horned antelope,
mountain goats, mountain sheep, musk-oxen, bears, and many other
mammals, was in the far Northwest, where Bering Straits now form a
shallow channel only 28 miles wide separating Siberia from Alaska.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by L. Peterson

INTRODUCING A LITTLE BLACK BEAR TO A LITTLE BROWN BEAR AT SEWARD, ALASKA

“Howdy-do! I ain’t got a bit of use for you!”

“What do I care! You’d better back away, black bear!”]

The fossil beds of the Great Plains and other parts of the West contain
eloquent proofs of the richness and variety of mammal life on this
continent at different periods in the past. Perhaps the most wonderful
of all these ancient faunas was that revealed by the bones of birds and
mammals which had been trapped in the asphalt pits recently discovered
in the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. These bones show that
prior to the arrival of the present fauna the plains of southern
California swarmed with an astonishing wealth of strange birds and
beasts (see page 401).

The most notable of these are saber-toothed tigers, lions much larger
than those of Africa; giant wolves; several kinds of bears, including
the huge cave bears, even larger than the gigantic brown bears of
Alaska; large wild horses; camels; bison (unlike our buffalo); tiny
antelope, the size of a fox; mastodons, mammoths with tusks 15 feet
long; and giant ground sloths; in addition to many other species, large
and small.

With these amazing mammals were equally strange birds, including, among
numerous birds of prey, a giant vulturelike species (far larger than
any condor), peacocks, and many others.


DID MAN LIVE THEN?

The geologically recent existence of this now vanished fauna is
evidenced by the presence in the asphalt pits of bones of the gray
fox, the mountain lion, and close relatives of the bobcat and coyote,
as well as the condor, which still frequent that region, and thus link
the past with the present. The only traces of the ancient vegetation
discovered in these asphalt pits are a pine and two species of juniper,
which are members of the existing flora.

There is reason for believing that primitive man occupied California
and other parts of the West during at least the latter part of the
period when the fauna of the asphalt pits still flourished. Dr. C.
Hart Merriam informs me that the folk-lore of the locally restricted
California Indians contains detailed descriptions of a beast which is
unmistakably a bison, probably the bison of the asphalt pits.

The discovery in these pits of the bones of a gigantic vulturelike bird
of prey of far greater size than the condor is even more startling,
since the folk-lore of the Eskimos and Indians of most of the tribes
from Bering Straits to California and the Rocky Mountain region
abound in tales of the “thunder-bird”--a gigantic bird of prey like a
mighty eagle, capable of carrying away people in its talons. Two such
coincidences suggest the possibility that the accounts of the bison and
the “thunder-bird” are really based on the originals of the asphalt
beds and have been passed down in legendary history through many
thousands of years.


CAMELS AND HORSES ORIGINATED IN NORTH AMERICA

Among other marvels our fossil beds reveal the fact that both camels
and horses originated in North America. The remains of many widely
different species of both animals have been found in numerous
localities extending from coast to coast in the United States. Camels
and horses, with many species of antelope closely related to still
existing forms in Africa, abounded over a large part of this country up
to the end of the geological age immediately preceding the present era.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Carl J. Lomen

A REINDEER HERD AT CAPE PRINCE OF WALES, ALASKA: MANY FAWNS ARE TO BE
SEEN IN THE HERD, AS THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER THE FAWNING
SEASON]

Then through imperfectly understood changes of environment a tremendous
mortality among the wild life took place and destroyed practically all
of the splendid large mammals, which, however, have left their records
in the asphalt pits of California and other fossil beds throughout the
country. This original fauna was followed by an influx of other species
which made up the fauna when America was discovered.

At the time of its discovery by Columbus this continent had only one
domesticated mammal--the dog. In most instances the ancestors of the
Indian dogs appear to have been the native coyotes or gray wolves, but
the descriptions of some dogs found by early explorers indicate very
different and unknown ancestry. Unfortunately these strange dogs became
extinct at an early period, and thus left unsolvable the riddle of
their origin.

Before the discovery of America the people of the Old World had
domesticated cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats; but
none of these domestic animals, except the dog, existed in America
until brought from Europe by the invaders of the New World.

The wonderful fauna of the asphalt pits had vanished long before
America was first colonized by white men, and had been replaced by
another mainly from the Old World, less varied in character, but
enormously abundant in individuals. Although so many North American
mammals were derived from Asia, some came from South America, while
others, as the raccoons, originated here.


FEWER LARGE MAMMALS IN THE TROPICS

It is notable that the fossil beds which prove the existence of an
extraordinary abundance of large mammals in North America at various
periods in the past, as well as the enormous aggregation of mammalian
life which occupied this continent, both on land and at sea, at the
time of its discovery, were confined to the Temperate and Arctic Zones.
It is popularly believed that the tropics possess an exuberance of
life beyond that of other climes, yet in no tropic lands or seas,
except in parts of Africa and southern Asia, has there been developed
such an abundance of large mammal life as these northern latitudes have
repeatedly known.

[Illustration:

  From Scott’s “History of the Land Mammals of the Western Hemisphere”:
      Macmillan Company

THIS REPRESENTS A SCENE AT THE CALIFORNIA ASPHALT PITS, WITH A MIRED
ELEPHANT, TWO GIANT WOLVES, AND A SABER-TOOTHED TIGER (SEE PAGE 399).]

In temperate and arctic lands such numbers of large mammals could exist
only where the vegetation not only sufficed for summer needs, but
retained its nourishing qualities through the winter. In the sea the
vast numbers of seals, sea-lions, walruses, and whales of many kinds
could be maintained only by a limitless profusion of fishes and other
marine life.

From the earliest appearance of mammals on the globe to comparatively
recent times one mammalian fauna has succeeded another in the regular
sequence of evolution, man appearing late on the scene and being
subject to the same natural influences as his mammalian kindred.
During the last few centuries, however, through the development of
agriculture, the invention of new methods of transportation, and of
modern firearms, so-called civilized man has spread over and now
dominates most parts of the earth.

As a result, aboriginal man and the large mammals of continental areas
have been, or are being, swept away and replaced by civilized man and
his domestic animals. Orderly evolution of the marvelously varied
mammal life in a state of nature is thus being brought to an abrupt
end. Henceforth fossil beds containing deposits of mammals caught
in sink-holes, and formed by river and other floods in subarctic,
temperate, and tropical parts of the earth, will contain more and more
exclusively the bones of man and his domesticated horses, cattle, and
sheep.


DESTROYING THE IRRESTORABLE

The splendid mammals which possessed the earth until man interfered
were the ultimate product of Nature working through the ages that have
elapsed since the dawn of life. All of them show myriads of exquisite
adaptations to their environment in color, form, organs, and habits.
The wanton destruction of any of these species thus deprives the world
of a marvelous organism which no human power can ever restore.

[Illustration:

  From a drawing by Charles R. Knight

A PRIMITIVE FOUR-TUSKED ELEPHANT, STANDING ABOUT SIX FEET AT THE
SHOULDER, THAT LIVED AGES AGO IN THE UNITED STATES (TRICOPHODON
MIOCENE)]

Fortunately, although it is too late to save many notable animals,
the leading nations of the world are rapidly awakening to a proper
appreciation of the value and significance of wild life. As a
consequence, while the superb herds of game on the limitless plains
will vanish, sportsmen and nature lovers, aided by those who appreciate
the practical value of wild life as an asset, may work successfully to
provide that the wild places shall not be left wholly untenanted.

Although Americans have been notably wasteful of wild life, even to
the extermination of numerous species of birds and mammals, yet they
are now leading the world in efforts to conserve what is left of
the original fauna. No civilized people, with the exception of the
South African Boers, have been such a nation of hunters as those of
the United States. Most hunters have a keen appreciation of nature,
and American sportsmen as a class have become ardent supporters of a
nation-wide movement for the conservation of wild life.


SAVING OUR WILD LIFE

Several strong national organizations are doing great service in
forwarding the conservation of wild life, as the National Geographic
Society, the National Association of Audubon Societies, American Bison
Society, Boone and Crockett Club, New York Zoölogical Society, American
Game Protective and Propagation Association, Permanent Wild Life
Protective Fund, and others. In addition, a large number of unofficial
State organizations have been formed to assist in this work.

Through the authorization by Congress, the Federal Government is
actively engaged in efforts for the protection and increase of our
native birds and mammals. This work is done mainly through the Bureau
of Biological Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, which
is in charge of the several Federal large-game preserves and nearly
seventy bird reservations.

[Illustration:

  From a drawing by Charles R. Knight

A GROTESQUE CREATURE THAT ONCE LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES (UERTATHERIUM
EOCENE, MIDDLE WYOMING)

It had six horns on the head and, in some species, two long canine
teeth projecting downward from the upper jaw. The feet were somewhat
like those of an elephant, but the skull and teeth resemble nothing on
earth today.]

On the large-game preserves are herds of buffalo, elk, deer, and
antelope. The Yellowstone National Park, under the Department of the
Interior, is one of the most wonderfully stocked game preserves in the
world. In this beautiful tract of forest, lakes, rivers, and mountains
live many moose, elk, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, black and grizzly
bears, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and lynxes.

Practically all of the States have game and fish commissions in one
form or another, with a warden service for the protection of game,
and large numbers of State game preserves have been established. The
increasing occupation of the country, the opening up of wild places,
and the destruction of forests are rapidly restricting available
haunts for game. This renders particularly opportune the present and
increasing wide-spread interest in the welfare of the habitants of the
wilderness.

The national forests offer an unrivaled opportunity for the protection
and increase of game along broad and effective lines. At present the
title to game mammals is vested in the States, among which great
differences in protective laws and their administration in many cases
jeopardize the future game supply.

If a coöperative working arrangement could be effected between the
States and the Department of Agriculture, whereby the Department would
have supervision and control over the game on the national forests,
so far as concerns its protection and the designation of hunting
areas, varying the quantity of game to be taken from definite areas
in accordance with its abundance from season to season, while the
States would control open seasons for shooting, the issuance of hunting
licenses, and similar local matters, the future welfare of large game
in the Western States would be assured.

[Illustration:

  From a drawing by Charles R. Knight

THE PRIMITIVE FOUR-TOED HORSE (EOHIPPUS, LOWER EOCENE, WYOMING)

The so-called four-toed horse, a little creature some 12 inches in
height at the shoulder, having four well-defined hoofs on the front
foot and three on the hind foot. The animal is not a true horse, but
was undoubtedly an ancestor (more or less direct) of the modern form.
It must have been a very speedy type, which contributed greatly to the
preservation of the species in an age when (so far as we know) the
carnivores were rather slow and clumsy.]

Under such an arrangement the game supply would be handled on business
principles. When game becomes scarce in any restricted area, hunting
could be suspended until the supply becomes renewed, while increased
hunting could be allowed in areas where there is sufficient game to
warrant it. In brief, big game could be handled by the common-sense
methods now used so effectively in the stock industry on the open
range. At present the lack of a definite general policy to safeguard
our game supply and the resulting danger to our splendid native animals
are deplorably in evidence.

[Illustration: A TRUE HORSE WHICH WAS FOUND IN THE FOSSIL BEDS OF
TEXAS: PLEISTOCENE

It is interesting to note that this country was possessed of several
species of wild horses, but these died out long before the advent of
the Indian on this continent. The present wild horses of our western
plains are merely stragglers from the herds brought over by the
Spaniards and other settlers. When Columbus discovered America there
were no horses on the continent, though in North America horses and
camels originated (see text, page 399).]

[Illustration:

  From drawings by Charles R. Knight

THE FOREST HORSE OF NORTH AMERICA (HYPOHIPPOS MIOCENE)

This animal is supposed to have inhabited heavy undergrowth. It was
somewhat off the true horse ancestry and had three rather stout toes on
both the fore and hind feet.]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Gus A. Swanson

A MONTANA DOE AND FAWN

Observers of those times believed that at the beginning of the last
century there were more deer and antelope in the United States than
there were buffaloes. If that be true, they were probably more numerous
than any domestic animal we have today.]

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Gus A. Swanson

THE SPIRIT OF THE WILD

Timorous as a gazelle in the open, brave as a lion when forced to
fight, with nerves as quick as lightning and sinews as hard as
steel, these denizens of the deep wood match the wind for speed, are
unsurpassed for endurance, and yield place to no other species in
graceful beauty.]


=OPOSSUM, VIRGINIA OPOSSUM= (=Didelphis virginiana= and its
subspecies)

The opossums are the American representatives of the ancient order
of Marsupials--a wonderfully varied group of mammals now limited to
America and Australasia. Throughout the order the young are born in an
embryonic condition and are transferred to teats located in an external
pocket or pouch in the skin of the abdomen, where they complete their
development. The kangaroos are among the most striking members of this
group.

Numerous species of opossums are known, all peculiar to America and
distributed from the eastern United States to Patagonia. The Virginia
opossum, the largest of all the species, is characterized by its coarse
hair, piglike snout, naked ears, and long, hairless, prehensile tail.
Its toes are long, slender, and so widely spread that its footprints
on the muddy border of a stream or in a dusty trail show every toe
distinctly, as in a bird track, and are unmistakably different from
those of any other mammal.

This is the only species of opossum occurring in the United States,
where it occupies all the wooded eastern parts from eastern New York,
southern Wisconsin, and eastern Nebraska south to the Gulf coast
and into the tropics. It has recently been introduced in central
California. Although scarce in the northern parts of its range, it is
abundant and well known in the warmer Southern States.

These animals love the vicinity of water, and are most numerous in and
about swamps or other wet lowlands and along bottom-lands bordering
streams. They have their dens in hollow trees, in holes under the roots
of trees, or in similar openings where they may hide away by day.
Their food consists of almost everything, animal or vegetable, that is
edible, including chickens, which they capture in nocturnal raids.

The Virginia opossums have from 5 to 14 young, which at first are
formless, naked little objects, so firmly attached to the teats in the
mother’s pouch that they can not be shaken loose. Later, when they
attain a coating of hair, they are miniature replicas of the adults,
but continue to occupy the pouch until the swarming family becomes
too large for it. The free toes of opossums are used like hands for
grasping, and the young cling firmly to the fur of their mother while
being carried about in her wanderings.

They are rather slow-moving, stupid animals, which seek safety by
their retiring nocturnal habits and by non-resistance when overtaken
by an enemy. This last trait gave origin to the familiar term “playing
possum,” and is illustrated by their habit of dropping limp and
apparently lifeless when attacked. Despite this apparent lack of
stamina, their vitality is extraordinary, rendering them difficult to
kill.

While hunting at daybreak, I once encountered an unusually large old
male opossum on his way home from a night in the forest. When we met,
he immediately stopped and stood with hanging head and tail and
half-closed eyes. I walked up and, after watching him for several
minutes without seeing the slightest movement, put my foot against his
side and gave a slight push. He promptly fell flat and lay limp and
apparently dead. I then raised him and tried to put him on his feet
again, but his legs would no longer support him, and I failed in other
tests to obtain the slightest sign of life.

The opossum has always been a favorite game animal in the Southern
States, and figures largely in the songs and folk-lore of the southern
negroes. In addition, its remarkable peculiarities have excited so much
popular interest that it has become one of the most widely known of
American animals.


=RACCOON= (=Procyon lotor= and its subspecies)

Few American wild animals are more widely known or excite more popular
interest than the raccoon. It is a short, heavily built animal with
a club-shaped tail, and with hind feet that rest flat on the ground,
like those of a bear, and make tracks that have a curious resemblance
to those of a very small child. Its front toes are long and well
separated, thus permitting the use of the front feet with almost the
facility of a monkey’s hands.

Raccoons occupy most of the wooded parts of North America from the
southern border of Canada to Panama, with the exception of the higher
mountain ranges. In the United States they are most plentiful in the
Southeastern and Gulf States and on the Pacific coast. Under the
varying climatic conditions of their great range a number of geographic
races have developed, all of which have a close general resemblance in
habits and appearance.

They everywhere seek the wooded shores of streams and lakes and the
bordering lowland forests and are expert tree-climbers, commonly having
their dens in hollow trees, often in cavities high above the ground.
In such retreats they have annually from four to six young, which
continue to frequent this retreat until well grown, thus accounting for
the numbers often found in the same cavity. Although tree-frequenting
animals, the greater part of their activities is confined to the
ground, especially along the margins of water-courses. While almost
wholly nocturnal in habits, they are occasionally encountered abroad
during the day.

Their diet is extraordinarily varied, and includes fresh-water clams,
crawfish, frogs, turtles, birds and their eggs, poultry, nuts, fruits,
and green corn. When near water they have a curious and unique habit
of washing their food before eating it. Their fondness for green corn
leads them into frequent danger, for when bottom-land cornfields tempt
them away from their usual haunts raccoon hunting with dogs at night
becomes an especially favored sport.

Raccoons are extraordinarily intelligent animals and make interesting
and amusing pets. During captivity their restless intelligence is
shown by the curiosity with which they carefully examine every strange
object. They are particularly attracted by anything bright or shining,
and a piece of tin fastened to the pan of a trap serves as a successful
lure in trapping them.

They patrol the border of streams and lakes so persistently that where
they are common they sometimes make well-trodden little trails, and
many opened mussel shells or other signs of their feasts may be found
on the tops of fallen logs or about stones projecting above the water.
In the northern part of their range they hibernate during the coldest
parts of the winter, but in the South are active throughout the year.

Raccoons began to figure in our frontier literature at an early date.
“Coon-skin” caps, with the ringed tails hanging like plumes, made the
favorite headgear of many pioneer hunters, and “coon skins” were a
recognized article of barter at country stores. Now that the increasing
occupation of the country is crowding out more and more of our wild
life, it is a pleasure to note the persistence with which these
characteristic and interesting animals continue to hold their own in so
much of their original range.


CANADA LYNX (Lynx canadensis)

The lynxes are long-legged, short-bodied cats, with tufted ears and a
short “bobbed” tail. They are distributed from the northern limit of
trees south into the Temperate Zone throughout most of the northern
part of both Old and New Worlds. In North America there are two
types--the smaller animal, southern in distribution, and the larger,
or Canada lynx, limited to the north, where its range extends from the
northern limit of trees south to the northern border of the United
States. It once occupied all the mountains of New England and south in
the Alleghenies to Pennsylvania. In the West it is still a habitant of
the Rocky Mountains as far south as Colorado, and of the Sierra Nevada
nearly to Mount Whitney.

The Canada lynx is notable for the beauty of its head, one of the most
striking among all our carnivores. This species is not only much larger
than its southern neighbor, the bay lynx, but may also be distinguished
from it by its long ear tips, thick legs, broad spreading feet, and the
complete jet-black end of the tail. It is about 3 feet long and weighs
from 15 to over 30 pounds. As befits an animal of the great northern
forests, it has a long thick coat of fur, which gives it a remarkably
fluffy appearance. Its feet in winter are heavily furred above and
below and are so broad that they serve admirably for support in deep
snow, through which it would otherwise have to wade laboriously.

This animal does not attack people, though popular belief often credits
it with such action. It feeds mainly on such small prey as varying
hares, mice, squirrels, foxes, and the grouse and other birds living
in its domain; but on occasion it even kills animals as large as
mountain sheep. One such feat was actually witnessed above timberline
in winter on a spur of Mount McKinley. The lynx sprang from a ledge as
the sheep passed below, and, holding on the sheep’s neck and shoulders,
it reached forward and by repeatedly biting put out its victim’s eyes,
thus reducing it to helplessness.

The chief food of the Canada lynx is the varying hare, which throughout
the North periodically increases to the greatest abundance and holds
its numbers for several years. During these periods the fur sales in
the London market show that the number of lynx skins received increases
proportionately with those of the hare. When an epizoötic disease
appears, as it does regularly, and almost exterminates the hares, there
is an immediate and corresponding drop in the number of lynx skins
sent to market. This evidences one of Nature’s great tragedies, not
only among the overabundant hares, but among the lynxes, for with the
failure of their food supply over a vast area tens of thousands of them
perish of starvation.

The Canada lynx has from two to five kittens, which are marked with
dusky spots and short bands, indicating an ancestral relationship to
animals similar to the ocelot, or tiger-cat, of the American tropics.
The young usually keep with the mother for nearly a year. Such families
no doubt form the hunting parties whose rabbit drives on the Yukon
Islands were described to me by the fur traders and Indians of the
Yukon Valley.

During sledge trips along the lower Yukon I often saw the distinctive
broad, rounded tracks of lynxes, showing where they had wandered
through the forests or crossed the wide, snow-covered river channel.
Here and there, as the snow became very deep and soft, the tracks
showed where a series of leaps had been made. Lynx trails commonly led
from thicket to thicket where hares, grouse, or other game might occur.
Canada lynxes appear to be rather stupid animals, for they are readily
caught in traps, or even in snares, and, like most cats, make little
effort to escape.


=BOBCAT, OR BAY LYNX= (=Lynx ruffus= and its subspecies)

The bay lynx, bobcat, or wildcat, as _Lynx ruffus_ and its close
relatives are variously called in different parts of the country, is
one of the most widely distributed and best known of our wild animals.
It is about two-thirds the size of the Canada lynx and characterized by
much slenderer proportions, especially in its legs and feet. The ears
are less conspicuously tufted and the tip of the tail is black only on
its upper half. Bobcats range from Nova Scotia and southern British
Columbia over practically all of the wooded and brushy parts of the
United States except along the northern border, and extend south to the
southern end of the high table-land of Mexico.

[Illustration: OPOSSUM]

[Illustration: RACCOON]

From the earliest settlement of America the bobcat has figured
largely in hunting literature, and the popular estimate of its
character is well attested by the frontier idea of the superlative
physical prowess of a man who can “whip his weight in wildcats.”
Although our wildcat usually weighs less than 20 pounds, if its reputed
fierceness could be sustained it would be an awkward foe. But, so far
as man is concerned, unless it is cornered and forced to defend itself,
it is extremely timid and inoffensive.

[Illustration: CANADA LYNX]

[Illustration: BOBCAT (Bay Lynx)]

Like all cats, it is very muscular and active, and to the rabbits,
squirrels, mice, grouse, and other small game upon which it feeds is a
persistent and remorseless enemy. Although an expert tree-climber, it
spends most of its time on the ground, where it ordinarily seeks its
prey. It is most numerous in districts where birds and small mammals
abound, and parts of California seem especially favorable for it. At a
mountain ranch in the redwood forest south of San Francisco one winter
some boys with dogs killed more than eighty bobcats.

Ordinarily the bobcat seems to be rather uncommon, but its nocturnal
habits usually prevent its real numbers being actually known. In
districts where not much hunted it is not uncommonly seen abroad by
day, especially in winter, when driven by hunger.

The bay lynx makes its den in hollows in trees, in small caves, and in
openings among rock piles wherever quiet and safety appear assured.
Although a shy animal, it persists in settled regions if sufficient
woodland or broken country remains to give it shelter. From such
retreats it sallies forth at night, and not only do the chicken roosts
of careless householders suffer, but toll is even taken among the lambs
of sheep herds.

As in the case of most small cats, the stealthy hunting habits of the
bay lynx renders it excessively destructive to ground-frequenting
birds, especially to quail, grouse, and other game birds. For this
reason, like many of its kind, it is outlawed in all settled parts of
the country.


=MOUNTAIN LION= (=Felis couguar= and its subspecies)

The mountain lion, next to the jaguar, is the largest of the cat tribe
native to America. In various parts of its range it is also known as
the panther, cougar, and puma. It is a slender-bodied animal with a
small head and a long round tail, with a total length varying from
seven to nine feet and a weight from about 150 to 200 pounds.

It has from two to five young, which are paler brown than the adult and
plainly marked with large dusky spots on the body and with dark bars
on the tail. These special markings of the young, as in other animals,
are ancestral, and here appear to indicate that in the remote past our
plain brown panther was a spotted cat somewhat like the leopard.

No other American mammal has a range equal to that of the mountain
lion. It originally inhabited both North and South America from
southern Quebec and Vancouver Island to Patagonia and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific coasts. Within this enormous territory it appears to be
equally at home in an extraordinary variety of conditions. Formerly
it was rather common in the Adirondacks of northern New York and
still lives in the high Rocky Mountains of the West, where it endures
the rigors of the severest winter temperatures. It is generally
distributed, where large game occurs, in the treeless ranges of the
most arid parts of the southwestern deserts, and is also well known in
the most humid tropical forests of Central and South America, whose
gloomy depths are drenched by almost continual rain.

A number of geographic races of the species have been developed by the
varied character of its haunts. These are usually characterized by
differences in size and by paler and grayer shades in the arid regions
and by darker and browner ones in the humid areas.

The mountain lion, while powerful enough to be dangerous to man, is in
reality extremely timid. Owing to its being a potentially dangerous
animal, the popular conception of it is that of a fearsome beast, whose
savage exploits are celebrated in the folk-lore of our frontier. As a
matter of fact, few wild animals are less dangerous, although there are
authentic accounts of wanton attacks upon people, just as there are
authentic instances of buck deer and moose becoming aggressive. It has
a wild, screaming cry which is thrillingly impressive when the shades
of evening are throwing a mysterious gloom over the forests. In the
mountains of Arizona one summer a mountain lion repeatedly passed along
a series of ledges high above my cabin at dusk, uttering this loud
weird cry, popularly supposed to resemble the scream of a terrified
woman.

The mountain lion is usually nocturnal, but in regions where it is
not hunted it not infrequently goes abroad by day. It is a tireless
wanderer, often traveling many miles in a single night, sometimes in
search of game and again in search of new hunting grounds. I have
repeatedly followed its tracks for long distances along trails, and in
northern Chihuahua I once tracked one for a couple of miles from a bare
rocky hill straight across the open, grassy plain toward a treeless
desert mountain, for which it was heading, some eight or ten miles away.

Although inoffensive as to people, this cat is such a fierce and
relentless enemy of large game and live stock that it is everywhere an
outlaw. Large bounties on its head have resulted in its extermination
in most parts of the eastern United States and have diminished its
numbers elsewhere. It is not only hunted with gun and dog but also with
trap and poison.

A mountain lion usually secures its prey by a silent, cautious stalk,
taking advantage of every cover until within striking distance, and
then, with one or more powerful leaps, dashing the victim to the ground
with all the stunning impact of its weight. In a beautiful live-oak
forest on the mountains of San Luis Potosi I once trailed one of these
great cats to the spot where it had killed a deer a short time before,
and could plainly read in the trail the story of the admirable skill
with which it had moved from cover to cover until it reached a knoll
at one side of the little glade where the deer was feeding. Then a
great leap carried it to the deer’s back and struck the victim to the
ground with such violence that it slid 10 or 12 feet across the sloping
ground, apparently having been killed on the instant.

Another trail followed in the snow on the high mountains of New Mexico
led to the top of a projecting ledge from which the lion had leaped out
and down over 20 feet, landing on the back of a deer and sliding with
it 50 feet or more down the snowy slope.

The mountain lion often kills calves, but is especially fond of young
horses. In many range districts of the Western States and on the
table-land of Mexico, owing to the depredations of this animal, it
is impossible to raise horses. Unfortunately the predatory habits of
this splendid cat are such that it can not continue to occupy the same
territory as civilized man and so is destined to disappear before him.


=JAGUAR= (=Felis hernandesi= and its subspecies)

The jaguar, or “el tigre,” as it is generally known throughout
Spanish America, is the largest and handsomest of American cats. Its
size and deep yellow color, profusely marked with black spots and
rosettes, give it a close resemblance to the African leopard. It is,
however, a heavier and more powerful animal. In parts of the dense
tropical forests of South America coal-black jaguars occur, and while
representing merely a color phase, they are popularly supposed to be
much fiercer than the ordinary animal.

Jaguars are characteristic animals of the tropics in both Americas,
frequenting alike the low jungle of arid parts as well as the great
forests of the humid regions. In addition, they range south into
Argentina and north into the southwestern United States. Although less
numerous within our borders than formerly, they still occur as rare
visitants as far north as middle Texas, middle New Mexico, and northern
Arizona. They are so strictly nocturnal that their presence in our
territory is usually not suspected until, after depredations on stock
usually attributed to mountain lions, a trap or poison is put out and
reveals a jaguar as the offender. Several have been killed in this way
within our border during the last ten years, including one not far from
the tourist hotel at the Grand Canyon of Arizona.

Although so large and powerful, the jaguar has none of the truculent
ferocity of the African leopard. During the years I spent in its
country, mainly in the open, I made careful inquiry without hearing
of a single case where one had attacked human beings. So far as I
could learn, it has practically the same shy and cowardly nature as
the mountain lion. Despite this, the natives throughout its tropical
home have a great fear of “el tigre,” as I saw evidenced repeatedly
in Mexico. Apparently this fear is based wholly on its strength and
potential ability to harm man if it so desired.

Jaguars are very destructive to the larger game birds and mammals
of their domain and to horses and cattle on ranches. On many large
tropical ranches a “tigrero,” or tiger hunter, with a small pack of
mongrel dogs, is maintained, whose duty it is immediately to take up
the trail when a “tigre” makes its presence known, usually by killing
cattle. The hunter steadily continues the pursuit, sometimes for many
days, until the animal is either killed or driven out of the district.
It is ordinarily hunted with dogs, which noisily follow the trail, but
its speed through the jungle often enables it to escape. When hard
pressed it takes to a tree and is easily killed.

Few predatory animals are such wanderers as the jaguar, which roams
hundreds of miles from its original home, as shown by its occasional
appearance far within our borders. In the heavy tropical forest it so
commonly follows the large wandering herds of white-lipped peccaries
that some of the Mexicans contend that every large herd is trailed by
a tiger to pick up stragglers. Along the Mexican coast in spring, when
sea turtles crawl up the beaches to bury their eggs in the sand, the
rising sun often reveals the fresh tracks of the jaguar where it has
traveled for miles along the shore in search of these savory deposits.

In one locality on the Pacific coast of Guerrero I found that the
hardier natives had an interesting method of hunting the “tigre” during
the mating period. At such times the male has the habit of leaving its
lair near the head of a small canyon in the foothills early in the
evening and following down the canyon for some distance, at intervals
uttering a subdued roar. On moonlight nights at this time the hunter
places an expert native with a short wooden trumpet near the mouth
of the canyon to imitate the “tigre’s” call as soon as it is heard
and to repeat the cry at proper intervals. After placing the caller,
the hunter ascends the canyon several hundred yards and, gun in hand,
awaits the approach of the animal. The natives have many amusing tales
of the sudden exit of untried hunters when the approaching animal
unexpectedly uttered its roar at close quarters.


=JAGUARUNDI CAT, OR EYRA= (=Felis cacomitli= and its
subspecies)

The eyra differs greatly in general appearance from any of our other
cats, although it is one of the most characteristic of the American
members of this widely spread family. It is larger than an otter,
with a small flattened head, long body, long tail, and short legs,
thus having a distinctly otterlike form. It is characterized by two
color phases--one a dull gray or dusky, and the other some shade of
rusty rufous. Animals of these different colors were long supposed to
represent distinct species, but it has been learned not only that
color is the only difference between the two, but also that the two
colors are everywhere found together, affording satisfactory evidence
that they are merely color phases of the same species.

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN LION]

[Illustration: JAGUAR]

[Illustration: RED AND GRAY PHASES OF THE JAGUARUNDI CAT, OR EYRA]

[Illustration: TIGER-CAT, OR OCELOT]

The eyra is a habitant of brush-grown or forested country, mainly
in the lowlands, from the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas south
to Paraguay. In this vast territory it has developed a number of
geographic races.

In southern Texas, where it is often associated with the ocelot, the
eyra lives in dense thorny thickets of mesquites, acacias, ironwood,
and other semitropical chaparral in a region of brilliant sunlight;
but farther south it also roams the magnificent forests of the humid
tropics, in which the sun rarely penetrates. It appears to be even more
nocturnal and retiring than most of our cats, and but little is known
of its life history. The results of thorough trapping in the dense
thorny thickets near Brownsville, Texas, indicate that it is probably
more common than is generally supposed.

The natives in the lowlands of Guerrero, on the Pacific coast of
Mexico, informed me that the eyra in that region is fond of the
vicinity of streams, and that it takes to the water and swims freely,
crossing rivers whenever it desires. Its otterlike form goes well with
such habits, and further information may prove that it is commonly a
water-frequenting animal. Its unusual form and dual coloration and our
lack of knowledge regarding the life of the eyra unite to make it one
of the most interesting of our carnivores.


=TIGER-CATS, OR OCELOTS= (=Felis pardalis= and its relatives)

The brushy and forested areas of America from southern Texas and Sonora
to Paraguay are inhabited by spotted cats of different species, varying
from the size of a large house cat to that of a Canada lynx. Only one
of these occurs in the United States. All are characterized by long
tails and a yellowish ground color, conspicuously marked by black
spots, and on neck and back by short, longitudinal stripes--a color
pattern that strongly suggests the leopard.

In the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas the tiger-cat is rather
common, with the eyra-cat, in areas densely overgrown with thorny
chaparral. Like most of the cat tribe, it is strictly nocturnal and by
day lies well hidden in its brushy shelter. By night it wanders along
trails over a considerable territory, seeking its prey. Birds of all
kinds, including domestic poultry, are captured on their roosts, and
rabbits, wood rats, and mice of many kinds, as well as snakes and other
reptiles, are on its list of game.

Its reptile-eating habit was revealed to me unexpectedly one day in
the dense tropical forest of Chiapas. I was riding along a steep trail
beside a shallow brush-grown ravine when a tiger-cat suddenly rushed up
the trunk of a tree close by. A lucky shot from my revolver brought
it to the ground, and I found it lying in the ravine by the body of a
recently killed boa about 6 or 7 feet long. It had eaten the boa’s head
and neck when my approach interrupted the feast.

The first of these cats I trapped in Mexico was captured the night
after my arrival, in a trail bordering the port of Manzanillo, on the
Pacific coast. The rejoicing of the natives living close by evidenced
the toll this marauder had been taking from their chickens.

The tiger-cat is much more quiet and less fierce in disposition than
most felines. It excited my surprise and interest whenever I trapped
one to note how nonchalantly it took the situation. The captive never
dashed wildly about to escape, but when I drew near sat and looked
quietly at me without the slightest sign of alarm and with little
apparent interest. A small trap-hold, even on the end of a single toe,
was enough to retain the victim. On one occasion, while a cat thus held
sat looking at me, it quietly reached to one side and sank its teeth
into the bark of a small tree to which the trap was attached, and then
resumed its air of unconcern.

The tiger-cat brings within our fauna an interesting touch of the
tropics and its exuberance of animal life. It is found in so small a
corner of our territory, however, that, despite its mainly inoffensive
habits, it is certain to be crowded out in the near future by the
increased occupation of its haunts.


=RED FOX= (=Vulpes fulva= and its relatives)

Red foxes are characterized by their rusty red fur, black-fronted fore
legs, and white-tipped tail. They inhabit the forested regions in the
temperate and subarctic parts of both Old and New Worlds, and, like
other types of animal life having a wide range, they break up into
numerous distinct species and geographic races.

In America they originally ranged over nearly all the forested region
from the northern limit of trees in Alaska and Canada south, east of
the Great Plains, to Texas; also down the Rocky Mountains to middle
New Mexico, and down the Sierra Nevada to the Mount Whitney region
of California. They are unknown on the treeless plains of the West,
including the Great Basin. Originally they were apparently absent from
the Atlantic and Gulf States from Maryland to Louisiana, but have since
been introduced and become common south to middle Georgia and Alabama.

Wherever red foxes occur they show great mental alertness and capacity
to meet the requirements of their surroundings. In New England they
steadily persist, though their raids on poultry yards have for
centuries set the hand of mankind against them. For a time conditions
favored them in parts of the Middle Atlantic States, for the sport of
hunting to hounds was imported from England, and the foxes had partial
protection. This exotic amusement has now passed and the fox must
everywhere depend on his nimble wits for safety.

Since the days of Æsop’s fables tales of foxes and their doings have
had their place in literature as well as in the folk-lore of the
countryside. Many of their amazing wiles to outwit pursuers or to
capture their prey give evidence of extraordinary mental powers.

Their bill of fare includes many items, as mice, birds, reptiles,
insects, many kinds of fruits, and on rare occasions a chicken. The
bad name borne by them among farmers, due to occasional raids on the
poultry yard, is largely unwarranted. They kill enormous numbers of
mice and other small rodents each year, and thus well repay the loss of
a chicken now and then.

Red foxes apparently pair for life and occupy dens dug by themselves
in a secluded knoll or among rocks. These dens, which are sometimes
occupied for years in succession, always have two or more entrances
opening in opposite directions, so that an enemy entering on one side
may be readily eluded. The young, numbering up to eight or nine, are
tenderly cared for by both parents.

Although they have been persistently hunted and trapped in North
America since the earliest times, they still yield a royal annual
tribute of furs. It is well known that the highly prized cross, as well
as the precious black, and silver gray foxes are merely color phases
occurring in litters of the ordinary red animal. Black skins are so
highly prized that specially fine ones have sold for more than $2,500
each in the London market. The reward thus offered has resulted in the
development of black fox fur-farms, which have been very successful in
parts of Canada and the United States, thus originating a valuable new
industry.

By the modern regulation of trapping, foxes and other fur-bearers are
destined to survive wherever conditions are favorable. In addition to
the economic value of foxes, the location of an occasional fox den here
and there on the borders of a woodland tract, the meandering tracks in
the snow, and the occasional glimpse of animals cautiously making their
rounds add a keen touch of primitive nature well worth preserving in
any locality.


ALASKA RED FOX (Vulpes kenaiensis)

The red fox of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and the adjacent mainland
is probably the largest of its kind in the world, although those of
Kodiak Island and of the Mackenzie River valley are nearly as large.
Compared with its relatives of the United States, the Kenai fox is
a giant, with heavier, duller-colored coat and a huge tail, more
like that of a wolf than of a fox. The spruce and birch forests of
Alaska and the Mackenzie Valley are apparently peculiarly adapted to
red foxes, as shown by the development there of these animals--good
illustrations of the relative increase in size and vigor of animals in
a specially favorable environment.

As noted in the general account of the red foxes, the occurrence of the
black phase is sporadic, and the relative number of dark individuals
varies greatly in different parts of their range. The region about the
upper Yukon and its tributaries and the Mackenzie River basin are noted
for the number of black foxes produced, apparently a decidedly greater
proportion than in any other similarly large area. The prices for which
these black skins sell in the London market prove them to be of equal
quality with those from any other area.

Like other red foxes, the Alaskan species digs its burrows, with
several entrances, in some dry secluded spot, where both male and
female share in the care of the young. In northern wilds the food
problem differs from that in a settled country. There the surrounding
wild life is the only dependence, and varying hares, lemmings, and
other mice are usually to be had by the possessor of a keen scent
and an active body. In summer many nesting wild-fowl and their young
are easy prey, while heathberries and other northern fruits are also
available.

Winter brings a season of scarcity, when life requires the exercise of
every trained faculty. The snow-white ptarmigan is then a prize to be
gained only by the most skillful stalking, and the white hare is almost
equally difficult to secure. At this season foxes wander many miles
each day, their erratic tracks in the snow telling the tale of their
industrious search for prey in every likely spot. It is in this season
of insistent hunger that many of them fall victims to the wiles of
trappers or to the unscrupulous hunter who scatters poisoned baits.

Fortunately the season for trapping these and other fur-bearers in
Alaska is now limited by law and the use of poisons is forbidden. These
measures will aid in preserving one of the valuable natural assets of
these northern wilds.


=GRAY FOX= (=Urocyon cinereoargenteus= and its relatives)

Gray foxes average about the size of common red foxes, but are longer
and more slender in body, with longer legs and a longer, thinner tail.
They are peculiar to America, where they have a wide range--from New
Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Oregon south through Mexico and Central
America to Colombia. Within this area there are numerous geographic
forms closely alike in color and general appearance, but varying much
in size; the largest of all, larger than the red fox, occupying the New
England States.

Gray foxes inhabit wooded and brush-grown country and are much more
numerous in the arid or semiarid regions of the southwestern United
States and western Mexico than elsewhere. In parts of California they
are far more numerous than red foxes ever become. They do not regularly
dig a den, but occupy a hollow tree or cavity in the rocks, where they
bring forth from three to five young each spring. As with other foxes,
the cubs are born blind and helpless, and are also almost blackish in
color, entirely unlike the adults. The parents, as usual with all
members of the dog family, are devoted to their young and care for them
with the utmost solicitude.

[Illustration:

  CROSS FOX      RED FOX      SILVER FOX

The precious black and silver gray foxes are merely color phases
occurring in litters of the ordinary red animal (see text, page 416).]

[Illustration: ALASKA RED FOX]

[Illustration:

  DESERT FOX      GRAY FOX]

[Illustration: BADGER]

Like other members of the tribe, they are omnivorous and feed upon
mice, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and large insects, in addition to
acorns or other nuts and fruits of all kinds. In Lower California they
are very common about the date-palm orchards, which they visit nightly
for fallen fruit. They also make nocturnal visits to poultry yards.

In some parts of the West they are called “tree foxes,” because when
pursued by dogs they often climb into the tops of small branching trees.

On one occasion in Arizona I saw a gray fox standing in the top of
a large, leaning mesquite tree, about thirty feet from the ground,
quietly gazing in various directions, as though he had chosen this as a
lookout point. As soon as he saw me he came down at a run and swiftly
disappeared.

In the same region I found a den in the hollow base of an old live-oak
containing three young only a few days old. The mother was shot as
she sprang from the hole on my approach and the young taken to camp.
There the skin of the old fox, well wrapped in paper, was placed on the
ground at one side of the tent, and an open hunting bag containing the
young placed on the opposite side, about ten feet away. On returning an
hour later, I was amazed to find that all three of the young, so small
they could crawl only with the utmost difficulty, and totally blind,
had crossed the tent and managed to work their way through the paper to
the skin of their mother, thus showing that the acute sense of smell in
these foxes becomes of service to them at a surprisingly early age.


=DESERT FOX= (=Vulpes macrotis= and its subspecies)

A small fox, akin to the kit fox or swift of the western plains,
frequents the arid cactus-grown desert region of the Southwest. It is
found from the southern parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California
south into the adjacent parts of Mexico. The desert fox is a beautiful
species, slender in form, and extraordinarily quick and graceful in its
movements, but so generally nocturnal in habits as to be rarely seen
by the desert traveler. On the rare occasions when one is encountered
abroad by day, if it thinks itself unobserved by the traveler it
usually flattens itself on the ground beside any small object which
breaks the surface, and thus obscured will permit a horseman to ride
within a few rods without moving. If the traveler indicates by any
action that he has seen it, the fox darts away at extraordinary speed,
running with a smooth, floating motion which seems as effortless as
that of a drifting thistledown before a breeze.

The desert fox digs a burrow, with several entrances, in a small mound,
or at times on an open flat, and there rears four or five young each
year. Its main food consists of kangaroo rats, pocket mice, small
ground-squirrels, and a variety of other small desert mammals. In early
morning fox tracks, about the size of those of a house-cat, may be seen
along sandy arroyos and similar places where these small carnivores
have wandered in search of prey.

Like the kit, the desert fox has little of the sophisticated mental
ability of the red fox and falls an easy prey to the trapper. It is
nowhere numerous and occupies such a thinly inhabited region that there
is little danger of its numbers greatly decreasing in the near future.


=BADGER= (=Taxidea taxus= and its subspecies)

The favorite home of the badger is on grassy, brush-grown plains,
where there is an abundance of mice, pocket gophers, ground-squirrels,
prairie-dogs, or other small mammals. There it wanders far and wide at
night searching for the burrows of the small rodents, which are its
chief prey. When its acute sense of smell announces that a burrow is
occupied, it sets to work with sharp claws and powerful fore legs and
digs down to the terrified inmate in an amazingly short time.

The trail of a badger for a single night is often marked by hole after
hole, each with a mound of fresh earth containing the tracks of the
marauder. As a consequence, if several of these animals are in the
neighborhood, their burrows, 6 or 8 inches in diameter, soon become so
numerous that it is dangerous to ride rapidly through their haunts on
horseback.

Although a member of the weasel family, the badger is so slow-footed
that when it is occasionally found abroad by day a man on foot can
easily overtake it. When brought to bay, it charges man or dog and
fights with such vicious power and desperation that nothing of its own
size can overcome it. It appears to have a morose and savage nature,
lacking the spice of vivacity or playfulness which appears in many of
its relatives.

Although commonly found living by itself in a den, it is often found
moving about by day in pairs, indicating the probability that it may
mate permanently. In the northern part of its range it hibernates
during winter, but in the south remains active throughout the year.
Its shy and retiring character is evidenced by the little information
we have concerning its family life. The badger is so destructive to
rodents that its services are of great value to the farmer. Regardless
of this, where encountered it is almost invariably killed. As a
consequence, the increasing occupation of its territory must result in
its steady decrease in numbers and final extermination.

The American badger is a close relative of the well-known badger
occupying the British Isles and other northern parts of the Old World.
It is a low, broad, short-legged, powerfully built animal of such wide
distribution that it has developed several geographic races. Its range
originally extended from about 58 degrees of latitude, on the Peace
River, in Canada, south to the plains of Puebla, on the southern end
of the Mexican table-land, and from Michigan, Kansas, and Texas west to
the Pacific coast. It has now become extinct over much of this area and
is everywhere greatly reduced in numbers.

It appears to thrive equally well on the plains of Alberta, in the
open pine forests of the Sierra Nevada in California, and on the
dry tropical lowlands at the southern end of the Peninsula of Lower
California.


ARCTIC WOLF (Canis tundrarum)

In order to fit properly into a high northern environment, Arctic
wolves have developed white coats, which they wear throughout the year.
They are among the largest of their kind and have all the surpassing
vigor needful for successful beasts of prey in the rigors of such a
home. Nature is more than ordinarily hard on weaklings in the far North
and only the fittest survive.

The range of the white wolves covers the treeless barren grounds
bordering the Arctic coast of Alaska and Canada and extending thence
across the Arctic islands to the north coast of Greenland beyond 83
degrees of latitude.

The short summer in the far North is the season of plenty, during which
swarms of wild-fowl furnish a bountiful addition to the regular food
supply. Young wolves are reared and the pack feeds fat, laying up a
needed reserve strength for the coming season of darkness. When winter
arrives lemmings and Arctic hares and an occasional white fox furnish
an uncertain food supply for such insistent hunger as that of wolves,
and larger game is a necessity.

In the northern part of their range they share with the other denizens
of that land the months of continuous night. There, amid relentless
storms and iron frosts, the trail, once found, must be held to the
end. The chase is made in the gloom of continuous night and the white
caribou or musk-ox herd is brought to bay, and by the law of the pack
food is provided.

White wolves are the one dreaded foe Nature has given the musk-ox and
the caribou in the northern wilds. The number of the wolves, as with
other carnivores, varies with the abundance of their chief prey, and
they will disappear automatically with the caribou and musk-oxen.


=GRAY, OR TIMBER, WOLF= (=Canis nubilus= and its relatives)

Large wolves, closely related to those of Europe and Siberia, once
infested practically all of Arctic and temperate North America,
excepting only the arid desert plains. This range extended from the
remotest northern lands beyond 83 degrees of latitude south to the
mountains about the Valley of Mexico.

When America was first colonized by white men, wolves were numerous
everywhere in proportion to the great abundance of game animals. With
the increased occupation of the continent and the destruction of most
of its large game, wolves have entirely disappeared from large parts of
their former domain. They still occur in varying numbers in the forest
along our northern border from Michigan westward, and south along the
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre to Durango, Mexico, and also in
all the Gulf States.

The variations in climate and other physical conditions within their
range has resulted in the development of numerous geographic races,
and perhaps of species, of wolves, which show marked differences in
size and color. The white Arctic wolf, described on pages 421 and 424,
is one of the most notable of these, but the gray wolf of the Rocky
Mountain region and the eastern United States is the best known.

Since the dawn of history Old World wolves, when hunger pressed, have
not hesitated to attack men, and in wild districts have become a
fearful scourge. American wolves have rarely shown this fearlessness
toward man, probably owing to the abundance of game before the advent
of white men and to the general use of firearms among the pioneers.
That wolves are extremely difficult to exterminate is shown by their
persistence to the present day in parts of France and elsewhere in
Europe. This is due both to their fecundity (they have from eight to
twelve young), and to their keen intelligence, which they so often pit
successfully against the wiles of their chief enemy--man.

Gray wolves appear to mate permanently, and in spring their young
are born in natural dens among great rocks, or in a burrow dug for
the purpose in a hillside. There both parents exercise the greatest
vigilance for the protection of the young. The male kills and brings
in game and stands guard in the neighborhood, while the mother devotes
most of her time to the pups while they are very small. At other
times of year packs made up of one or more pairs and their young hunt
together with a mutual helpfulness in pursuing and bringing down their
prey that shows a high order of intelligence. Wolves are in fact first
cousins of the dog, whose mental ability is recognized by all.

During the existence of the great buffalo herds, packs of big gray
“buffalo wolves” roamed the western plains, taking toll wherever it
pleased them. Since these vast game herds have disappeared only a small
fraction of the wolves have survived. There are enough, however, not
only to commit great ravages among the deer and other game in northern
Michigan and on the coastal islands of Alaska, but also to destroy much
live stock in the Rocky Mountain region.

[Illustration: THE PEARY CARIBOU

One of the geographic forms of the Barren Ground Caribou (see text,
page 460).

ARCTIC WOLF]

So serious have the losses in cattle and sheep on the ranges become
that Congress has recently made large appropriations for the
destruction of wolves and other predatory animals, and these disturbers
of the peace will soon become much reduced in numbers. The necessity
for action of this kind is shown by the recent capture in Colorado of a
huge old dog wolf with a definite record of having killed about $3,000
worth of stock. Interesting as wolves are, filling their place in the
wilderness, their habits bar them from being tolerated in civilized
regions.

[Illustration:

  GRAY, OR TIMBER, WOLF       BLACK WOLF]

[Illustration: PLAINS COYOTE, OR PRAIRIE WOLF]

[Illustration: ARIZONA, OR MEARNS, COYOTE]


PLAINS COYOTE, OR PRAIRIE WOLF (Canis latrans)

Western North America is inhabited by a peculiar group of small
wolves, known as coyotes, this being a Spanish corruption of the Aztec
name _coyotl_. They range from northern Michigan, northern Alberta,
and British Columbia south to Costa Rica, and from western Iowa and
Texas to the Pacific coast. As a group they are animals of the open
plains and sparsely wooded districts, ranging from sea-level to above
timber-line on the highest mountains. They are most at home on the
wide brushy or grassy plains of the western United States and the
table-lands of Mexico.

Within their great area coyotes have developed several distinct species
and a number of geographic races, distinguished by differences in size,
color, and other characteristics. Some attain a size almost equaling
that of the gray wolf, while others are much smaller.

They are less courageous and have less of the social instinct than gray
wolves, and on the rare occasions when they hunt in packs they form,
no doubt, a family party, including the young of the year. They appear
to pair more or less permanently and commonly hunt in couples. The
young, sometimes numbering as many as fourteen, are born in a burrow
dug in a bank, or in a den among broken rocks and ledges. Young animals
are readily tamed, and it is entirely probable that some of the dogs
found by early explorers among western Indians may have descended from
coyotes.

Coyotes are a familiar sight to travelers in the wildest parts of the
West. Here and there one is seen trotting through the sagebrush or
other scrubby growth, or stopping to gaze curiously at the intruder. If
suddenly alarmed, they race away across the plains with amazing speed.
At night their high-pitched, wailing howls voice the lonely spirit of
waste places.

With the growth of settlement in the West and the steady decrease of
large and small game, coyotes have become more and more destructive
to poultry and all kinds of live stock. As a result, every man’s hand
is against them, reinforced by gun, trap, and poison. Despite years
of this persistent warfare, their acute intelligence, aided by their
extraordinary fecundity, has enabled them to hold their own over a
great part of their original range. Their depredations upon live stock
have been so great that many millions of dollars have been paid in
bounties for their destruction.

This method of control has proved so ineffective, however, that the
Federal Government has engaged in the task of suppressing them,
together with the other less numerous predatory animals of the West,
and has placed about 300 hunters in the field for this purpose. The
complete destruction of coyotes would, no doubt, upset the balance of
nature in favor of rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other harmful rodents,
and thus result in a very serious increase in the destruction of crops.

The coyote supplies much interest and local color to many dreary
landscapes and has become a prominent figure in the literature of the
West. There it is usually symbolic of shifty cunning and fleetness of
foot. Whatever his faults, the coyote is an amusing and interesting
beast, and it is hoped that the day of his complete disappearance from
our wild life may be far in the future.


ARIZONA, OR MEARNS, COYOTE (Canis mearnsi)

The Arizona coyote is one of the smallest and at the same time the
most handsomely colored of all its kind. Its home is limited to the
arid deserts on both sides of the lower Colorado River, but mainly
in southwestern Arizona and adjacent parts of Sonora. This is one of
the hottest and most arid regions of the continent, and for coyotes
successfully to hold their own there requires the exercise of all the
acute intelligence for which they are noted. Instead of the winter
blizzards and biting cold encountered in the home of the plains coyote,
this southern species has to endure the furnacelike heat of summer,
with occasional long periods of drought, when water-holes become dry,
plant life becomes dormant, and a large part of the smaller mammal life
perishes.

The Arizona coyote, like others of its kind, is omnivorous. In seasons
of plenty, rabbits, kangaroo rats, pocket gophers, and many other
desert rodents cost only the pleasant excitement of a short stalk.
With the changing seasons the flesh diet is varied by the sugary
mesquite beans, juicy cactus fruit, and other products of thorny desert
plants. Wherever sufficient water is available for irrigation, small
communities of Indians or Mexicans are to be found. About such centers
many coyotes usually establish themselves and fatten on poultry, green
corn, melons, and other fruits provided by the labor of man. Many of
them also patrol the shores of the Gulf of California and feast upon
the eggs of turtles and other spoils of the sea.

The arrival of men at a desert water-hole is quickly known among these
alert foragers, and when the travelers arise at daybreak they are
likely to see tell-tale tracks on the sand where one or two coyotes
have walked in and out between their sleeping places and all about
camp. Shortly afterward the campers, if inexperienced, may learn that
bacon and other food are contraband and always confiscated by these
dogs of the desert. These camp marauders often stand among the bushes
only 75 or 100 yards away in the morning and watch the intruders with
much curiosity until some hostile movement starts them off in rapid
flight.


WHITE, OR ARCTIC, FOX (Alopex lagopus)

The Arctic fox, clothed in long, fluffy white fur, is an extremely
handsome animal, about two-thirds the size of the common red fox. It
is a circumpolar species, which in America ranges over all the barren
grounds beyond the limit of trees, including the coastal belt of tundra
from the Peninsula of Alaska to Bering Straits, the Arctic islands, and
the frozen sea to beyond 83 degrees of latitude.

The blue fox of commerce is a color phase of this species, usually of
sporadic occurrence, like the black phase of the red fox. The white fox
makes its burrow either in a dry mound, under a large rock, or in the
snow, where its young are brought forth and cared for with the devotion
which appears to characterize all foxes.

How this small and delicately formed animal manages to sustain life
under the rigorous winter conditions of the far north has always been a
mystery to me. I have seen its tracks on the sea ice miles from shore.
It regularly wanders far and wide over these desolate icy wastes, which
can offer only the most remote chance for food. However, it appears to
thrive, with other animal life, even where months of continuous night
follow the long summer day.

The food of the Arctic fox includes nearly all species of the wild-fowl
which each summer swarm into the far North to breed. There on the
tundras congregate myriads of ducks, geese, and waders, while on the
cliffs and rocky islands are countless gulls and other water birds. In
winter they find lemmings and other northern mice, occasional Arctic
hares, and ptarmigan, as well as fragments of prey left by Arctic
wolves or polar bears. Now and then the carcass of a whale is stranded
or frozen in the ice, furnishing an abundance of food, sometimes for a
year or more, to the foxes which gather about it from a great distance.

Perhaps owing to its limited experience with man, the northern animal
is much less suspicious than the southern red fox. During winter sledge
trips in Alaska I frequently had two or three of them gather about my
open camp on the coast, apparently fascinated by the little camp-fire
of driftwood. They would sit about, near by in the snow, for an hour or
two in the evening, every now and then uttering weak, husky barks like
small dogs.

The summer of 1881, when we landed from the _Corwin_ on Herald Island,
northwest of Bering Straits, we found many white foxes living in
burrows under large scattered rocks on the plateau summit. They had
never seen men before and our presence excited their most intense
interest and curiosity. One and sometimes two of them followed closely
at my heels wherever I went, and when I stopped to make notes or look
about, sat down and watched me with absurd gravity. Now and then one at
a distance would mount a rock to get a better view of the stranger.

On returning to the ship, I remembered that my notebook had been
left on a large rock over a fox den, on the island, and at once went
back for it. I had been gone only a short time, but no trace of the
book could be found on or about the rock, and it was evident that the
owner of the den had confiscated it. Several other foxes sat about
viewing my search with interest and when I left followed me to the
edge of the island. A nearly grown young one kept on the _Corwin_ was
extraordinarily intelligent, inquisitive, and mischievous, and afforded
all of us much amusement and occasional exasperation.


PRIBILOF BLUE FOX (Alopex lagopus pribilofensis)

The blue fox is a color phase of the Arctic white fox and may occur
anywhere in the range of the typical animal. In fact, the blue phase
bears the same relationship to the white that the black phase does to
the red fox. In the Pribilof, or Fur Seal, Islands of Alaska, however,
through the influence of favorable climatic conditions, assisted by
artificial selection in weeding out white animals, the blue phase has
become the resident form. Isolation on these islands has developed
other characters also which, with the prevailing color, render the
Pribilof animal a distinct geographic race of the white species. A blue
fox is also the prevailing resident animal in Iceland.

In years when fur-seals were killed in considerable numbers on the
Pribilofs their carcasses remained on the killing grounds as a
never-failing store of food through the winter. During summer there
is an abundance of nesting water-fowl, and throughout the year there
are mice on land and the products of the sea along shore. As a result
the foxes have thrived amazingly and several hundred skins have been
produced a year. With the lessening number of seals now being killed
on the islands and the resulting scarcity of winter food, the fate of
the foxes is somewhat in doubt. The Pribilof skins are of high market
value, bringing from $40 to $150 each in the London market.

Stock from the Pribilofs has been introduced on a number of the
Aleutians and other Alaskan islands for fur-farming purposes. The value
of these fur-bearers is so great that special effort should be made not
only to keep up the stock on the islands, but still further to improve
it.

The Pribilof foxes have from five to eleven young, which are usually
born above ground and are later carried to the shelter of dens dug
in the open or under the shelter of a rock. Foxes have become so
accustomed to people on these islands that they have little fear and
come about boldly to satisfy their curiosity or to seek for food. They
often show an amusing interest in the doings of any one who invades the
more remote parts of their domain. White animals born on the islands
or coming in by chance when the pack ice touches there in winter are
killed, whenever possible, in order to hold the blue strain true.

[Illustration:

  WHITE, OR ARCTIC, FOX      PRIBILOF BLUE FOX]

[Illustration: WOLVERINE]


WOLVERINE (Gulo luscus)

The wolverine, or carcajou of the Canadian voyageurs, is a circumpolar
species belonging to the northern forested areas of both continents. In
North America it formerly ranged from the northern limit of trees south
to New England and New York, and down the Rocky Mountains to Colorado,
and down the Sierra Nevada to near Mount Whitney, California. It is
a low, squat, heavy-bodied animal, with strong legs and feet armed
with sharp claws, and is the largest and most formidable of the weasel
family.

The wolverine is extraordinarily powerful and possesses what at times
appears to be a diabolical cunning and persistence. It frequently
trails trappers along their trap lines, eating or destroying their
catches and at times hiding their traps. It is a tireless wanderer, and
the hunter or traveler in the northern wilds always has this marauder
in mind and is put to the limit of his wits to provide caches for his
provisions or other supplies which it can not despoil.

What it can not eat it is likely to carry away and hide. A wolverine
has often been known to expend a surprising amount of labor in
apparently deliberate mischief, even carrying numerous articles away
from camps and hiding them in different places. It sometimes trails a
traveler for many miles through winter snow, always out of sight, but
alert to take advantage of any carelessness in leaving game or other
food unguarded.

Mingled with these mischievous traits the wolverine possesses a savage
ferocity combined with a muscular power which renders it a dreaded foe
of all but the largest animals of its domain. When guarding her young,
the female is no mean foe, even for a man.

As a consequence of its mental and physical character, the wolverine,
more than any other animal of the north, has impressed itself on the
imagination of both native and white hunters and travelers. A vast
amount of folk-lore has grown up about it and both Indians and Eskimos
make offerings to propitiate its malignant spirit. The Alaskan Eskimos
trim the hoods of their fur garments with a strip of wolverine fur, and
Eskimo hunters wear belts and hunting bags made of the skin of the legs
and head, that they may acquire some of the power of the animal from
which these came.

The value of the handsome brown fur of the wolverine, as well as the
enmity the animal earns among hunters and trappers, has resulted in its
being so persistently hunted that it has become extinct over much of
its former territory, and wherever still found it is much reduced in
numbers.


PACIFIC WALRUS (Odobenus obesus)

The walruses, or “sea horses” of the old navigators, are the strangest
and most grotesque of all sea mammals. Their large, rugged heads, armed
with two long ivory tusks, and their huge swollen bodies, covered with
hairless, wrinkled, and warty skin, gives them a formidable appearance
unlike that of any other mammal. They are much larger than most seals,
the old males weighing from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds and the females about
two-thirds as much.

These strange beasts are confined to the Arctic Ocean and the adjacent
coasts and islands and are most numerous about the borders of the pack
ice. Two species are known, one belonging to the Greenland seas, while
the other, the Pacific walrus, is limited to Bering Sea and the Arctic
basin beyond Bering Straits.

The Pacific walruses migrate southward through Bering Straits with
the pack ice in fall and spend the winter in Bering Sea and along
the adjacent coast of eastern Asia. In spring they return northward
through the straits and pass the breeding season about the ice pack,
where they congregate in great herds. One night in July, 1881, the U.
S. steamer _Corwin_ cruised for hours along the edge of the ice pack
off the Arctic coast of Alaska and we saw an almost unbroken line of
walruses hauled out on the ice, forming an extended herd which must
have contained tens of thousands.

Walruses were formerly very abundant in Bering Sea, especially about
the Fur Seal Islands and along the coast north of the Peninsula
of Alaska, but few now survive there. Owing to the value of their
thick skins, blubber, and ivory tusks, they have been subjected to
remorseless pursuit since the early Russian occupation of their
territory and have, as a result, become extinct in parts of their
former range and the species is now in serious danger of extermination.

Like many of the seals, walruses have a strong social instinct, and
although usually seen in herds they are not polygamous. They feed
mainly on clams or other shellfish, which they gather on the bottom
of the shallow sea. On shore or on the ice they move slowly and with
much difficulty, but in the water they are thoroughly at home and good
swimmers. When hauled out on land or ice, they usually lie in groups
one against the other. They are stupid beasts and hunters have no
difficulty in killing them with rifles at close range.

Walruses have a strongly developed maternal instinct and show great
devotion and disregard of their own safety in defending the young. The
Eskimos at Cape Vancouver, Bering Sea, hunt them in frail skin-covered
kyaks, using ivory- or bone-pointed spears and seal-skin floats.
Several hunters told me of exciting and dangerous encounters they had
experienced with mother walruses. If the young are attacked, or even
approached, the mother does not hesitate to charge furiously. The
hunters confess that on such occasions there is no option but to paddle
for their lives. Occasionally an old walrus is unusually vindictive
and, after forcing a hunter to take refuge on the ice, will remain
patrolling the vicinity for a long time, roaring and menacing the
object of her anger.

When boats approach the edge of the ice where walruses are hauled
up, the animals plunge into the sea in a panic and rise all about
the intruders, bellowing and rushing about, rearing their huge heads
and gleaming white tusks high out of water in an alarming manner. As
a rule, however, they are timid and seek only to escape, although
occasionally, in their excitement, one has been known to attack a boat
and by a single blow of its tusks to do serious damage and endanger the
crew.


ALASKA FUR SEAL (Callorhinus alascanus)

Several species of fur seals are known, all of them limited to the
southern oceans or the coasts and islands of the North Pacific. All
are strongly gregarious and formerly sought their island breeding
grounds in vast numbers. At one period, soon after the purchase of
Alaska, it was estimated that several million fur seals were on the
Pribilof Islands in one season. During the height of their abundance
the southern fur seals were equally numerous.

The value of their skins and the facility with which these animals may
be slaughtered have resulted in the practical extermination of all but
those which breed under governmental protection on the Russian islands
off the coast of Kamchatka and on the Pribilof Islands in Alaska. Owing
mainly to wasteful pelagic sealing prior to the recent international
treaty, the numbers on both these groups of islands were much reduced.

The Alaska fur seal is a migratory species, wintering down the Pacific
coast as far as northern California. The migrations of these seals
are of remarkable interest. In spring they leave the northwest coast
and many of them travel steadily across more than two thousand miles
of the North Pacific. For days at a time they swim through a roaring
gale-swept sea, under dense, low-hanging clouds, and with unerring
certainty strike certain passages in the Aleutian Islands, through
which they press to their breeding grounds, more than 100 miles beyond,
on the small, fog-hidden Pribilof Islands.

Fur seals are extremely polygamous and the old males, which weigh from
400 to 500 pounds, “haul up” first on the breeding beaches. Each bull
holds a certain area, and as the females, only one-fifth his size, come
ashore they are appropriated by the nearest bulls until each “beach
master” gathers a harem, sometimes containing more than 100 members.

Here the young are born, and after the mating season the seals, which
have remained ashore without food from four to six weeks, return to the
water. The mothers go and come, and each is able to find her young with
certainty among thousands of apparently identical woolly black “pups.”

From the ages of one to four years fur seals are extremely playful.
They are marvelous swimmers and frolic about in pursuit of one another,
now diving deep and then, one after the other, suddenly leaping high
above the surface in graceful curves, like porpoises. Squids and fish
of various species are their main food. Their chief natural enemy is
the killer whale, which follows their migrations and haunts the sea
about their breeding grounds, taking heavy toll among them.

Since the discovery of the Pribilof Islands by the Russians the fur
seal herds there have yielded more than five million recorded skins.
A census of the herds in 1914 gave these islands nearly three hundred
thousand seals. Now that pelagic sealing has been suppressed and the
herds are being protected, there is every reason to expect that the
seals will increase rapidly to something like their former numbers.


STELLER SEA-LION (Eumetopias jubata)

Sea-lions are near relatives of the fur seals and have a nearly similar
distribution, both in far southern and northern seas. The males of the
several species are more than twice the size of the females and are
characterized by an enormous development of neck and shoulders. The
Steller sea-lion is the largest member of the group, the old bulls
weighing from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. All are extremely gregarious and
polygamous.

The Steller sea-lions belong to the North Pacific, whence they range
in winter as far south as the coasts of California and Japan. In
spring they migrate northward to their breeding grounds among the
Aleutian, Pribilof, and other rocky islands of the North Pacific. The
early histories of this region record their great abundance, including
several hundred thousand which were reported to have congregated to
breed each season on the Pribilof Islands. Although less valuable than
the fur-seal, persistent hunting has gradually reduced their numbers on
these islands until in 1914 only a few hundred remained.

In summer range they are less limited than the fur seals, occurring in
herds about the shores of many rocky islands along the mainland coast
of the North Pacific and the Aleutian chain.

Since the primitive days before the arrival of civilized men in their
haunts, sea-lions were of the greatest economic importance to the
Aleutian Islanders and other coast natives. Food and fuel were obtained
from their flesh and blubber; coverings for boats were made of their
skins; water-proof overshirts of their intestines; boot soles from the
tanned skin of their flippers; trimmings of fancy garments from their
tanned gullets and bristles, and thread from their sinews.

They are preëminently animals of the most rugged of shorelines and the
stormiest of seas, being superbly powerful beasts with extraordinary
vitality. The ease with which they pass through a smother of pounding
seas to mount their rugged resting places is an admirable exhibition
of skill and strength. The males have a bellowing roar, which rises
continually from the herds on the rocks in savage unison with the
booming of the sea against the base of their refuge.

The harems of the bulls on Pribilof Islands rarely exceed a dozen
members, which are under less strict discipline than the harems of
the fur seals. The old bulls, especially during the mating season,
are aggressive and savage fighters, inflicting severe wounds on one
another. At all times they are more courageous and belligerent than fur
seals, and hunters driving parties of them back from the beach on the
Pribilofs approach them with extreme caution, to avoid the dangerous
charges of angry bulls. It is reported that an umbrella opened and
closed suddenly in the faces of the old sea-lions appears to terrify
them more than any other weapon and is used successfully in drives.
At sea they have only a single known enemy to fear--the fierce killer
whale.

[Illustration: PACIFIC WALRUS]

[Illustration: ALASKA FUR SEAL]

[Illustration: STELLER SEA-LION]


=SEA OTTER= (=Latax lutris= and its subspecies)

Sea otters, distant relatives of land otters, are heavy-bodied animals,
about 4 feet long, with broad webbed hind feet. When in the water they
have a general resemblance to seals, whose mode of life is similar to
theirs. Their fur is extremely dense and on the skins of adult males is
almost black, closely sprinkled with long white-tipped hairs. The fur
of prime skins has a silky luster, equaled in beauty by only the finest
silver-tipped fox skins. For centuries sea-otter fur has been highly
prized and single skins have brought more than $1,000 in the London
market.

Otters are limited to the coasts of the North Pacific, where formerly
they were incredibly abundant all the way from the shores and islands
of Lower California to the Aleutians, and thence along the Asiatic
coast to the Kuriles. Through excessive hunting, they are now extinct
along most of this extended coast-line.

In the days of the Russian occupation of Alaska the discovery of the
abundance of sea otters led to intense activity in their pursuit.
Otter-hunting expeditions were organized by the Russians along the
storm-swept coast from Unalaska to Sitka, sailing vessels being used
as convoys for hundreds of Aleut hunters in their skin-covered boats.
The loss of life among the hunters under their brutal taskmasters was
appalling and resulted in seriously and permanently reducing the native
population of the Aleutian Islands. At the same time enormous numbers
of sea-otter skins were taken. Afterward both English and American
ships engaged in the pursuit of otters farther down the coast.

The first year after the discovery of the Pribilof Islands the records
show that 5,000 sea otters were taken there. Many expeditions in other
directions secured from one to several thousand skins. When sea otters
were most abundant they were found all down the coast, even in San
Francisco Bay, and one American trading vessel obtained 7,000 skins in
a few weeks from the natives of the northern coast of Lower California.

The otters formerly frequented the shores of rocky islands and outlying
reefs, but constant persecution has driven the few survivors to remain
almost constantly at sea, where they seek resting places among kelp
beds. They are now excessively shy and, aided by keen eyes and an acute
sense of smell, are difficult to approach. When anything excites their
curiosity they commonly raise the body upright, the head high above
water, and gaze steadily at the object. If alarmed, they dive and
reappear at a long distance.

Otter hunters report the animals very playful in pleasant weather, and
sometimes floating on their backs and playing with pieces of kelp. The
mother is devoted to her young and is said to play with it in the water
for hours at a time.

All efforts to rear the young in captivity have failed. The food of the
sea otter is mainly of shellfish of various kinds, secured by them from
the bottom of the sea.

Practically the only sea otters left among the hordes which once
frequented the American shores of the North Pacific are now scattered
along the Aleutian Islands. Government regulations prohibit their being
hunted and it is hoped that enough still remain to restock the wild and
stormy sea where they have their home.


NORTHERN SEA-ELEPHANT, OR ELEPHANT SEAL (Mirounga augustirostris)

Sea-elephants are the largest and among the most remarkable of the
seals. Two species are known--one from islands on the borders of the
Antarctic Ocean and the other from the Pacific coast of Upper and Lower
California. The northern species formerly existed in vast numbers along
the coast and among outlying islands from Point Reyes, north of San
Francisco, south to Cedros Island, but is now reduced to a single small
herd living about Guadalupe Island, off Lower California.

The old males attain a length of 22 feet or more and are huge, ungainly
beasts, moving with difficulty on land, but with ease and grace in
the water. The name sea-elephant is obviously derived from the broad
flexible snout of the males, which, when relaxed, hangs 6 or 8 inches
below the muzzle. This curious proboscis can be moved about and raised
vertically, giving the animal a strange appearance. The males have a
loud roar like the bellowing of an ox.

The breeding season extends from February to June, and during this
period these seals are far more numerous on shore than at any other
time. They are gregarious in habits and formerly hauled up in herds on
the islands or on remote and inaccessible beaches of the mainland. On
shore they are sluggish, having none of the alertness shown by many
other seals. They lie supine on the sand and permit a man to walk
quietly up and touch them without showing signs of fear. When attacked
by sealers or otherwise alarmed, however, they become panic-stricken
and make ungainly efforts to escape, but quickly become exhausted by
the exertion necessary to move their great bodies. Their only natural
enemy appears to be the killer whale.

Between 1855 and 1870 the great numbers of northern sea-elephants,
combined with their helplessness on shore and the value of their
oil, attracted numerous sealing and whaling ships to the coast of
Lower California. The resulting slaughter reduced these animals from
swarming abundance to a few scattered herds. Since then their numbers
have steadily decreased, and there is a serious probability that these
strange and interesting habitants of the sea will soon disappear
forever.

The small remaining herd on Guadalupe Island is without protection
and lies at the mercy of wanton hunters. The people of the coastal
towns of California should exert themselves to discourage hunters from
killing these seals, since the only hope for the preservation of this
noteworthy species lies in an awakened public sentiment in its favor.
Even within recent years they have occasionally visited the Santa
Barbara Islands, California, and if the existing survivors can be saved
they may again become resident there.


HARBOR SEAL, OR LEOPARD SEAL (Phoca vitulina)

The harbor seal, one of the smallest of the hair seals, attaining a
length of only 5 or 6 feet, is one of the most widely distributed and
best known of its kind. It is a circumpolar species, formerly ranging
well south on the European coast and to the Carolinas on the American
side of the Atlantic, though now more restricted in its southern
extension. On the North Pacific it ranges south to the coast of Japan
on the Asiatic side and to Lower California on the American side.

Throughout its range the harbor seal haunts the coast-line, frequenting
rocky points, islets, bays, harbors, and the lower courses of rivers.
It commonly frequents the sandy bars exposed at low tide about the
mouths of rivers, and has been known to ascend the St. Lawrence to
Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario, and the Yukon to several hundred
miles above its mouth. It is still a common and well-known animal on
the coast of Maine and eastern Canada and about many harbors on the
Pacific coast. It appears to be a non-migratory species and in northern
waters frequents the pack ice along shore in winter. Where the pack
is unbroken, the seal makes breathing holes through the ice, which it
visits at intervals, and where it is hunted by the Eskimos.

It is not polygamous and is not so strongly gregarious as some of the
other seals. That it has some social instinct is evident, however,
since it commonly gathers in small herds on the same sand spits, rocky
points, and islets. The young are born in early spring and at first are
entirely covered with a woolly white coat. The mother is devoted to the
“pup” and shows the deepest anxiety if danger threatens.

The flesh and blubber of this seal are highly prized by the Eskimos
as the most palatable of all the seals, and the skin is valued for
clothing and for making strong rawhide lines used for nets and other
purposes. On the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea in fall the Eskimos
capture many seals in nets set off rocky points, just as gill nets are
set in the same places in spring for salmon.

Owing to the presence of this seal along so many inhabited coasts,
much has been written concerning its habits, especially as observed
about the shores of the British Isles. Where not disturbed it shows
little fear and will swim about boats or ships, raising its head high
out of water and gazing steadily with large intelligent eyes at the
object of its curiosity; but when hunted it becomes exceedingly shy and
wary. All who have held the harbor seal in captivity agree in praising
its intelligence. It becomes very docile, often learning a variety of
amusing tricks, and develops great affection for its keeper.

The small size of this seal and its limited numbers are elements which
save it from extensive commercial hunting and may preserve it far into
the future to add life and interest to many a rocky coast.


HARP SEAL, SADDLE-BACK, OR GREENLAND SEAL (Phoca grœnlandica)

The black head, gray body, and large dorsal ring of the male harp seal
are strongly distinctive markings in a group generally characterized
by plain dull colors. The harp seal is a large species, the old males
weighing from 600 to 800 pounds.

It is nearly circumpolar in distribution, but its area of greatest
abundance extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Greenland, and
thence eastward in that part of the Arctic Ocean lying north of Europe
and western Siberia. Its reported presence in the Arctic basin north
of Bering Straits or along the coasts to the southward is yet to be
confirmed. It is an offshore species, migrating southward with the ice
pack in fall to the coast of Newfoundland and returning northward with
the pack after the breeding season in spring. For a day or two during
the fall migration, when these seals are passing certain points on the
coast of Labrador, the sea is said to be thickly dotted with their
heads as far as the eye can reach, all moving steadily southward.

The harp seal is extremely gregarious and gathers on the pack ice well
offshore during March and April to breed. The main breeding grounds
are off Newfoundland and off Jan Mayen Land in the Arctic. During the
breeding season, in the days of their abundance, they gathered in
enormous closely packed herds, sometimes containing several hundred
thousand animals and covering the ice for miles.

[Illustration: SEA OTTER]

[Illustration: NORTHERN SEA-ELEPHANT, OR ELEPHANT SEAL]

From all accounts it is evident that originally there were millions of
these animals in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Their gregarious
habits made them an easy prey, and the value of their skins and blubber
formed the basis for a great industry. Hundreds of vessels were
sent out from north European and American ports and nearly 1,000,000
harp seals were killed during each breeding season. This tremendous
slaughter and its attendant waste has resulted in the disappearance of
these seals from many of their former haunts and has alarmingly reduced
their numbers everywhere. Some are still killed off the coast of
Newfoundland, but the sealing industry, now insignificant as compared
with its former estate, is practically dead.

[Illustration:

  HARBOR SEAL, OR LEOPARD SEAL       HARP SEAL, SADDLE-BACK, OR GREENLAND SEAL]

The hunting of harp and other seals on the pack ice is an occupation
calling for such splendid qualities of virile hardihood in the face of
constant danger to life that its brutality has been little considered.
In this perilous work great numbers of hunters have been cast away and
frozen miserably on the drifting ice and many a sealing ship has been
lost with all hands.

Off Newfoundland the young harp seal is born early in March, wearing
a woolly white coat. At first it is tenderly cared for by its mother,
but before the end of April it has learned to swim and is left to care
for itself. The young do not enter the water until they are nearly two
weeks old and require several days of practice before they learn to
swim well. The adults are notable for their swiftness in the water.
In the tremendous herds of these seals the continual cries uttered by
old and young is said to produce a steady roar which may be heard for
several miles. Their food is mainly fish. Man is their worst enemy, but
they are also preyed upon by sharks and killer whales.


=RIBBON SEAL= (=Phoca fasciata=) (see polar bear group, page
438)

The broad-banded markings of the male ribbon seal render it the
handsomest and most strongly characterized of the group of hair seals
to which it belongs. Its size is about that of the harbor seal. Its
range extends from the Aleutian Islands, on the coast of Alaska, and
from the Kuriles, on the Asiatic shore of the Pacific, north to Bering
Straits.

This seal is so scarce and its home is in such remote and
little-frequented waters that its habits are almost unknown. Apparently
it is even less gregarious than the harbor seal and usually occurs
singly, although a few may be seen together, where individuals chance
to meet. There are records of its capture at various places along the
Asiatic coast, especially about Kamchatka and the shores of Okhotsk
Sea. In Alaska it is a scarce visitant to the Aleutian Islands and
appears to be most common on the coast south of the Yukon Delta and
from Cape Nome to Bering Straits.

The few individuals taken by the Alaskan Eskimos are captured while
they are hunting other seals on the pack ice in winter, and while at
sea in kyaks in spring and fall. Owing to its attractive markings, the
skin of the male ribbon seal is greatly prized by the Eskimos, as it
was formerly by the fur traders, for use as clothes-bags. The skin is
removed entire and then tanned, the only opening left being a long
slit in the abdomen, which is provided with eyelet holes and a lacing
string, thus making a convenient water-proof bag to use in boat or
dog-sledge trips.

The scarcity of the ribbon seal and its solitary habits will serve to
safeguard it from the destructive pursuit which endangers the existence
of some of its relatives.


POLAR BEAR (Thalarctos maritimus)

Both summer and winter the great ice bear of the frozen north is
appropriately clothed in white. It is also distinguished from all other
bears by its long neck, slender pointed head, and the quantity of fur
on the soles of its feet. It is a circumpolar species, the limits of
whose range nearly everywhere coincide with the southern border of
the pack ice. The great majority live permanently on the ice, often
hundreds of miles from the nearest land.

During summer the polar bear rarely visits shore, but in winter
commonly extends its wanderings to the Arctic islands and the bordering
mainland coasts. In winter it ranges southward with the extension of
the ice pack. In spring, by an unexpectedly sudden retreat of the ice,
individual bears are often left south of their usual summer haunts,
sometimes being found swimming in the open sea far off the coast of
Labrador. Occasionally some of those which migrate southward with the
ice through Bering Straits fail to turn north early enough and are
stranded on islands in Bering Sea.

That a carnivore requiring so much food as the polar bear can maintain
itself on the frozen polar sea is one of the marvels of adaptation to
environment. The activity of these bears through the long black night
of the far north is proved by records of Arctic explorers, whose caches
have been destroyed and ships visited by them during that season. In
this period of privation they range far over land and ice in search of
food, and when in desperate need do not hesitate to attack men. I have
seen several Eskimos who had been seriously injured in such encounters,
and learned of other instances along the Arctic coast of Alaska in
which hunters had been killed on the sea ice in winter. During the
summer season of plenty, polar bears are mild and inoffensive, so far
as men are concerned. At that time they wander over the pack ice,
swimming in open leads, and, when hungry, killing a seal or young
walrus.

When spring opens, many polar bears are near the Arctic coast. At that
time the natives along the northeast coast of Siberia kill many of them
on the ice with dogs and short-hafted, long-bladed lances. The dogs
bring the bear to bay, and the hunter, watching his opportunity, runs
in and thrusts the lance through its heart.

During the cruise of the _Corwin_ we saw many of these bears on the
broken ice off Herald and Wrangel Islands. One large old male climbed
to the top of an uptilted ice-pan and, after looking about, lay down on
one side and, giving a push with one hind foot, slid down head foremost
30 or 40 feet, striking the water with a great splash. He then climbed
out and walked sedately away.

Another bear saw a seal basking on the ice by a large patch of open
water and, swimming across, suddenly raised himself half out of the
water to the edge of the ice, and by a blow of his paw crushed the
seal’s skull. He then climbed out and made a feast within 500 yards of
where the _Corwin_ was anchored to the ice pack.

Once while we were anchored in a dense fog several miles off the pack
a bear came swimming out to us, stopping every now and then to raise
its head high out of water to sniff the attractive odors from the ship.
Although strong and tireless swimmers, these bears lack the necessary
speed to capture their prey in the water.

The female retires in winter to a snug den among the hummocks on the
sea ice, where one or two naked cubs are born, which by the time the
ice begins to break up are ready to follow the mother. Until the cubs
are well grown the mother cares for and defends them with the most
reckless disregard for her own safety. On one occasion I saw a wounded
mother bear shield her cub, twice the size of a Newfoundland dog, when
bullets began to strike the water about them, by swimming straight away
with the cub safely sheltered between her forelegs.

The inaccessible character of so large a part of the home of the polar
bear will long preserve it from the extermination that is overtaking
some of the land bears.


=BLACK BEAR= (=Ursus americanus= and its subspecies)

Numerous species of black bears varying in size occur in North and
South America and in Asia. In North America a black bear, remarkably
uniform in general appearance, but representing various geographic
races and possibly species, is generally distributed throughout the
forested areas from the borders of the Arctic barrens, at the northern
limit of trees, south throughout the United States and down the wooded
Sierra Madre to Jalisco, Mexico, and from Newfoundland on the east to
Queen Charlotte Island on the west.

These bears are usually entirely black except for a brown patch
covering the muzzle and an occasional white spot on the breast. Their
weight is variable, the largest ones exceeding 500 pounds, but they
average much less.

The cinnamon bear, so common in the West and Northwest, long supposed
to be a distinct species, has proved to be merely a color phase of the
black bear--cinnamon cubs being born in the same litters with black
ones.

Since the days of primitive man and the great cave bear, the ways of
bears have had a fearsome interest to mankind. Childhood revels in the
delicious thrills of bear stories and dwells with wonder on the habit
bears have of standing upright like droll caricatures of man, on the
manlike tracks of their hind feet, and on their fondness for sweets and
other palatable food.

From the landing of the first colonists on our shores, hunters and
settlers have encountered black bears so frequently that these are
among the best-known large forest animals of the continent. During
winter they hibernate for months, seeking a hollow tree, a low cave,
the half shelter of fallen tree trunks and brush, or else digging a
den for themselves. The female chooses a specially snug den, where in
midwinter from one to four cubs are born. At birth the young, only 8 or
9 inches long, are practically naked and have their eyes closed. They
are so undeveloped at this time that it is more than a month before
their eyes open and more than two months before they can follow their
mother.

Although powerful beasts, black bears are so shy and timid that to
approach them requires the greatest skill on the part of a still
hunter. They only attack people when wounded or so cornered that they
must defend themselves or their young. To safeguard themselves from
danger they rely mainly on a fine sense of hearing and an exquisite
delicacy of smell. They have poor eyesight, and where a suspicious
object is seen, but no sound or scent can be noted, they sometimes rise
on their hind feet and look long and carefully before retreating.

To bears in the forest everything is game. They often spend the entire
day turning over stones to lick up the ants and other insects sheltered
there, and at night may visit settlers’ cabins and carry off pigs. They
raid the settlers’ cornfields for green corn and are passionately fond
of honey, robbing bee trees whenever possible. In season they delight
in wild cherries, blueberries, and other fruits, as well as beechnuts,
acorns, and pinyon nuts. They are mainly nocturnal, but in districts
where not much disturbed wander widely by day.

The success of black bears in caring for themselves is well
demonstrated by the numbers which still survive in the woods of Maine,
New York, and other long-settled States. Their harmlessness and their
exceeding interest to all render them worthy of careful protection.
They should be classed as game and thoroughly protected as such except
for certain open seasons. If this is done throughout the country, as
is now the case in certain States, the survival of one of our most
characteristic large wild animals will be assured.


GLACIER BEAR (Ursus emmonsi)

When first discovered the glacier bear was supposed to be a distinct
and well-marked species. Recently cubs representing the glacier
bear and the typical black bear have been found in the same litter,
thus proving it to be merely a color phase of the black bear. Its
color varies exceedingly, from a light smoky, almost bluish,
gray to a dark iron gray, becoming almost black. Some individuals
are extraordinary appearing beasts, quite unlike any other bear.
The interest in this curious color development is increased by its
restricted distribution.

[Illustration:

  RIBBON SEAL       POLAR BEAR]

[Illustration:

  GLACIER BEAR      CINNAMON BEAR      BLACK BEAR

The cinnamon bear is merely a color phase of the black bear.]

The glacier bear is an Alaskan animal, which occupies the seaward front
of the Mount St. Elias Range, about Yakutat Bay, and thence southeast
to Glacier Bay and a short distance beyond toward the interior. The
popular name of this bear was well chosen, as its home is in the
midst of innumerable stupendous glaciers. Here, where the contours of
gigantic mountain ranges are being steadily remade by glaciers, Nature
appears to have begun the evolution of a new kind of bear. That the
task is in progress is evidenced by the excessive variation in color,
scarcely two individuals being the same.

The food of this bear consists largely of mice, ground squirrels, and
marmots, which it digs from their burrows on the high mountain slopes.
Its food is varied by salmon during the spawning season and by various
herbs and berries during the summer. The winters in the home of the
glacier bear are less severe than across the range in the interior, but
are so long and stormy that the bear must spend more than six months
each year in hibernation.

Owing to the remote and little-frequented region occupied by this bear,
little is known of its life history. For this reason it is important
that all sportsmen visiting its country bring back careful and detailed
records of their observations. Up to the present time so few white men
have killed glacier bears that a skin of one taken by fair stalking
is a highly prized trophy. As the glacier bear country becomes more
accessible, more stringent protection will be needed to prevent the
extermination of these unique animals.


=GRIZZLY BEAR= (=Ursus horribilis= and its relatives)

Recent research has shown that the popular terms grizzly or silver-tip
cover a group containing numerous species of large bears peculiar to
North America, some of which, especially in California, have become
extinct within the last 25 years. These bears vary much in size, some
about equaling the black bear and others attaining a weight of more
than 1,000 pounds. They vary in color from pale dull buffy to nearly
black, usually with lighter tips to the hairs, which produce the
characteristic grizzled or silver-tipped appearance upon which the
common names are based.

The strongest and most distinctive external character of the grizzlies
is the long, proportionately slender, and slightly curved claws on the
front feet, sometimes more than 3 inches long.

Grizzly bears have a wide range--from the Arctic coast of Alaska
southward, in a belt extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific,
through western Canada and the United States, and thence along the
Sierra Madre of Mexico to southern Durango. They also occupy the
barren grounds of northern Canada, and vague reports of a large
brown bear in the interior of the Peninsula of Labrador indicate the
possibility of the existence there of an unknown species of grizzly.

From the days of the earliest explorers of the Rocky Mountain region
grizzly bears have borne the undisputed title of America’s fiercest
and most dangerous big game. In early days, having little fear of the
primitive weapons of the Indians, they were bold and indifferent to the
presence of man, and no higher badge of supreme courage and prowess
could be gained by a warrior than a necklace of grizzly claws.

Since the advent of white men with guns, conditions have changed so
adversely to the grizzlies that they have become extremely shy, and the
slightest unusual noise or other alarm causes them to dash away at a
lumbering, but surprisingly rapid, gallop. The deadly modern gun has
produced this instinctive reaction for self-preservation. It does not
mean, however, that grizzlies have lost their claim to the respect of
even the best of hunters. They are still considered dangerous, and even
in recent years experienced hunters have been killed or severely mauled
by them. They are much more intelligent than the black bear, and thus,
when wounded, are a more dangerous foe.

Like the black bear, the grizzlies are commonly nocturnal, but in
remote districts often wander about in search of food by day. They
roll over stones and tear open rotten wood in search of grubs and
insects. They also dig out ground squirrels and other rodents and eat a
variety of acorns and other wild nuts and fruits. As an offset to this
lowly diet, many powerful old grizzlies, from the Rocky Mountains to
California, have become notorious cattle-killers. They stalk cattle at
night, and, seizing their prey by the head, usually break its neck, but
sometimes hold and kill it by biting. These cattle-killing grizzlies
still occur on the Western ranges. One or more wily marauders of this
kind have run for years with a bounty of $1,000 on their heads.

Like other bears, grizzlies hibernate in winter, seeking small caves,
or other shelter, and sometimes digging a den in the ground. The young,
from one to four in number, are born in midwinter and are very small,
naked, and but partly developed at birth. They go about with the mother
throughout the summer and commonly den up with her the following
winter. Although full-grown grizzlies are ordinarily solitary in
habits, parties of from four to eight are sometimes seen. The object of
these curious but probably brief companion-ships is not known.

Grizzlies are disappearing so rapidly that it is very desirable that
they be placed on the list of game protected during part of the year,
except in the case of the few individuals which become stock-killers.
They are among the finest of native animals and their absence from the
rugged slopes of the western mountains would leave a serious gap in our
wild life.


=ALASKAN BROWN BEAR= (=Ursus gyas= and its relatives)

(_See frontispiece of this Magazine for the illustration of this
remarkable animal_)

The Alaskan brown bears form a group of gigantic animals peculiar to
North America and limited to the coast and islands of Alaska, from the
head of Norton Sound to the Sitka Islands. The group includes a number
of species, individuals of two of which, _Ursus gyas_, of the Alaska
Peninsula, and _Ursus middendorffi_, of Kodiak Island, sometimes attain
a weight of 1,500 pounds or more, and are not only the largest existing
bears, but are the largest living carnivores in the world. They can be
likened only to the great cave bears, which were the haunting terror
of primitive mankind during the “Old Stone Age” in Europe. Brown bears
still exist in Europe and Asia, but they form a distinct group of much
smaller animals than the American species.

The Alaskan brown bears vary much in color, from a dull golden
yellowish to a dusky brown, becoming almost black in some species.
In color some of the darker species are indistinguishable from the
great grizzlies, with which in places they share their range; but the
relatively shorter, thicker, and more strongly curved claws on the
front feet of the brown bears are distinctive.

As a rule they are inoffensive giants and take flight at the first sign
of man. The taint left by a man’s recent track or the faintest odor on
the passing breeze, indicating the proximity of their dreaded enemy, is
enough to start the largest of them in instant flight. Instances are
reported of their having attacked people wantonly, but such cases are
extremely rare. When wounded or suddenly surprised at close quarters,
the instinct of self-defense not infrequently incites them to attack
their enemy with furious energy. Many Indian and white hunters have
been killed or terribly mauled by them in such encounters. At close
quarters their great size, strength, and activity--astonishing for such
apparently clumsy beasts--render them terrific antagonists.

Some of the species occupy open, rolling, or hilly tundras, and others
live on the steepest and most rugged mountain slopes amid glaciers,
rock slides, and perpetual snow-banks. On the approach of winter all
retreat to dry locations, usually in the hills, where they dig dens in
the earth or seek other cover to which they retire to hibernate, and
here the young, usually two or three in number, are born. They usually
emerge from hibernation in April or early May and wander about over the
snow-covered hills and mountains. At this time their dark forms and
their great tracks in the snow are so conspicuous that hunters have
little difficulty in finding them.

Despite their size, brown bears devote much of their time to hunting
such game as mice, ground squirrels, and marmots, which they dig from
their burrows with extraordinary rapidity. During the salmon season,
when the streams swarm with fish, bears frequent the lowlands and make
trails along the watercourses, where they feed fat on this easy prey.
During the summer and fall these great carnivores have the strange
habit of grazing like cattle on the heavy grasslike growth of sedge in
the lowland flats and benches, and also of eating many other plants.

Although Alaska was long occupied by the Russians and has been a
part of our territory since 1867, not until 1898 was there any
definite public knowledge concerning the existence of these bears,
notwithstanding their size and abundance. Since that time they have
become well known to sportsmen and others as one of the wonders of
the remarkable region they occupy. Their comparatively limited and
easily accessible territory renders their future precarious unless
proper measures for their reasonable protection are continued. They
are certain to be exterminated near settlements; but there are ample
wild and inhospitable areas where they may range in all their original
freedom for centuries to come, provided man permits.


=AMERICAN BEAVER= (=Castor canadensis= and its subspecies)

When North America was first colonized, beavers existed in great
numbers from coast to coast, in almost every locality where trees
and bushes bordered streams and lakes, from near the Yukon Delta, in
Alaska, and the Mackenzie Delta, on the Arctic coast, south to the
mouths of the Colorado and the Rio Grande. Although now exterminated
from most of their former range in the eastern United States, they
still occur in diminished numbers over nearly all the remainder of
their original territory, even in the lower Rio Grande and the delta
of the Colorado. Their vertical distribution extends from sea-level to
above an altitude of 9,000 feet.

Beavers are heavily built, round-bodied animals, with powerful
chisel-shaped front teeth, short legs, fully webbed hind feet, and a
flat, scaly tail. They are covered with long, coarse hairs overlying
the short, dense, and silky underfur to which beaver skins owe their
value. Their range covers the northern forested parts of both Old
and New Worlds. The American species closely resembles in general
appearance its Old World relative, but is distinctly larger, averaging
30 to 40 pounds in weight, but sometimes attaining a weight of more
than 60 pounds. Owing to the different physical conditions in its wide
range, the American animal has developed a number of geographic races.

Beavers mate permanently and have from two to five young each
year. Their abundance and the high value of their fur exercised an
unparalleled influence on the early exploration and development of
North America. Beaver skins were the one ready product of the New World
which the merchants of Europe were eager to purchase. As a consequence
competition in the trade for these skins was the source of strong and
bitter antagonisms between individuals and companies, and even
caused jealous rivalries among the Dutch, English, and French colonies.

[Illustration: GRIZZLY BEAR]

[Illustration: AMERICAN BEAVER]

Disputes over the right to trade in certain districts often led to
bloodshed, and even to long wars, over great areas, where powerful
rival companies fought for the control of a new empire. This eager
competition among daring adventurers resulted in the constant extension
of trading posts through the North and West, until the vanguard of
civilization reached the far borders of the continent on the shores of
the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Among the fur traders the beaver skin became the unit of value by
which barter was conducted for all sorts of commodities. This usage
extended even throughout northern Alaska, where it was current among
the American fur traders until the discovery of gold there upset old
standards.

Beavers belong to the rodent family--a group of animals notable for
their weak mental powers. The beaver is the striking exception to the
rule, and its extraordinary intelligence, industry, and skill have long
excited admiration. It is scarcely entitled to the almost superhuman
intelligence many endow it with, yet it certainly possesses surprising
ability along certain lines. Furthermore, it can alter its habits
promptly when a change in environment renders this advantageous.

In wild places, where rarely disturbed, beavers are unsuspicious, but
where they are much trapped they become amazingly alert and can be
taken only by the most skillful trapping. They are very proficient in
building narrow dams of sticks, mud, and small stones across small
streams for the purpose of backing up water and making “beaver ponds.”
In the border of these ponds a conical lodge is usually constructed of
sticks and mud. It is several feet high and about 8 or 10 feet across
at the base.

The entrance is usually under water, and a passageway leads to an
interior chamber large enough to accommodate the pair and their
well-grown young. From the ponds the animals sometimes dig narrow
canals several hundred feet long back through the flats among the
trees. Having short legs and heavy bodies, and consequently being
awkward on land, beavers save themselves much labor by constructing
canals for transporting the sticks and branches needed for food and for
repairing their houses and dams.

Along the Colorado, lower Rio Grande, and other streams with high banks
and variable water level, beavers usually dig tunnels leading from an
entrance well under water to a snug chamber in the bank above water
level. Under the varying conditions in different areas they make homes
showing every degree of intergradation between the two types described.

Beavers live almost entirely on twigs and bark, and their gnawing
powers are surprising. Where small trees less than a foot in diameter
abound they are usually chosen, but the animals do not hesitate to
attack large trees. On the headwaters of the San Francisco River, in
western New Mexico. I saw a cottonwood nearly 30 inches in diameter
that had been felled so skillfully that it had fallen with the top in
the middle of a small beaver pond, thus assuring an abundance of food
for the animals at their very door.

In the cold northern parts of their range, where streams and ponds
remain frozen for months at a time, beavers gather freshly cut green
twigs, sticks, and poles, which they weight down with mud and stones on
the bottoms of ponds or streams near their houses, to be used for food
during the shut-in period.

The mud used by beavers in building dams and houses is scooped up and
carried against the breast, the front feet being used like hands. The
flat tail serves as a rudder when the animal is swimming or diving, and
to strike the surface of the water a resounding slap as a danger signal.

Beavers are usually nocturnal, but in districts where not disturbed
they sometimes come out to work by day, especially late in the
afternoon. Among the myriads of small streams and lakes in the great
forested area north of Quebec they are very plentiful; their dams and
houses are everywhere, sometimes four or five houses about one small
lake. Their well-worn trails lead through the woods near the lake
shores and frequently cross portages between lakes several hundred
yards apart.

Where beavers continue to occupy streams in settled districts, they
often make regular trails from a slide on the river bank back to
neighboring cornfields, where they feast on the succulent stalks and
green ears. They also injure orchards planted near their haunts, by
girdling or felling the trees. Within recent years laws for their
protection have been passed in many States, and beavers have been
reintroduced in a number of localities. They should not be colonized
in streams flowing through lands used for orchards or cornfields, nor
where the available trees are too few to afford a continuous food
supply.


FISHER, OR PEKAN (Mustela pennanti)

The fisher is one of the largest and handsomest members of the weasel
family. Like others of this group, it is a long-bodied, short-legged
animal. It attains an extreme length of from 3 to 3½ feet and a weight
of 18 or 20 pounds, but the average is decidedly lower than these
figures. In general, it is like a gigantic marten, and from its size
and dark color is sometimes known locally as the “black cat” or “black
fox.”

It lives in the forested parts of Canada and the United States, where
it originally occurred from the southern shores of Hudson Bay and Great
Slave Lake south throughout most of eastern Canada and New England and
along the Alleghanies to Tennessee; also in the Great Lakes region,
south to the southern end of Lake Michigan; along the Rocky Mountains
to Wyoming, down the Cascades to northern California, and from the
Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and Maine to the Pacific coast of
southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. They still occur regularly
in the Adirondacks of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont and
in Maine, but are gone from most of the southern border of their former
range.

Fishers are powerful and agile animals, probably for their size by far
the swiftest and most deadly of all our forest carnivores. So swift
and dextrous are they in the tree-tops that they not only capture
squirrels without difficulty, but are able to overtake and kill the
marten, almost an incredible feat. When in pursuit of their prey or
when alarmed, they make astonishing leaps from tree to tree. While not
so speedy on the ground as some other animals, they have the tireless
persistence of their kind and capture snowshoe hares in fair chase.

Among the habitants of the forest the fisher is a fearless and savage
marauder, which feeds on frogs, fish, and nearly every bird and mammal
its domain affords, except species so large that their size protects
them. Porcupines are among its favorite victims and are killed by being
turned over and attacked on their underparts. As a consequence of such
captures, the fisher often has many quills imbedded in its head and the
foreparts of its body.

The fisher, like many other predatory animals, has more or less regular
“beats” along which they make their rounds over the territory each
occupies. These rounds commonly require several days to accomplish. In
winter they keep mainly along wooded ridges, where they are trapped.

It follows trap lines like the wolverine and eats the bait or the
captured animal, but, unlike the wolverine, appears to have no
propensity for further mischief. When overtaken by dogs or when at war
with any of its forest rivals, it is so active and ferocious that it is
worthy all due respect from antagonists several times its size.

Although essentially a tree animal, much of the fisher’s time is spent
on the ground. In summer it appears to be fond of heavy forests in
low-lying situations and the vicinity of water. Its dens are usually
located in a hollow high up in a large tree, but sometimes in the
shelter of fallen tree trunks or crevices in the rocks, where, the last
of April or early in May, the young are born. These may number from
one to five, but are usually two or three. The young begin to follow
the mother in her wanderings when quite small and do not leave her
guardianship until nearly grown.

The fisher is not a common animal and only about 8,000 of its skins are
marketed each year. Owing to its size, it is conspicuous, and its very
fearlessness tends to jeopardize its existence. It is gone from most
of the southern part of its former range and will no doubt continue
steadily to lose ground with the increasing occupation of its haunts.


=OTTER= (=Lutra canadensis= and its relatives)

Land otters are common throughout a large part of the Old World,
and when America was explored the animals were found generally
distributed, and sometimes common, from the northern limit of trees
in North America to southern South America. Within this great area a
considerable number of species and geographic races of otters occur,
all having a close general resemblance in appearance and habits.

The Canadian otter is the well-known type throughout the United States,
Canada, and Alaska. It is a slender, dusky brown animal, from 4 to 5
feet in length, frequenting streams and lakes which contain a good
supply of fish. Otters are too short-legged to move easily on land, but
are remarkable for their admirable grace, agility, and swiftness in the
water. Although so poorly adapted to land travel, they are restless
animals, constantly moving up and down the streams in which they live
and often crossing from one stream to another. In the far north in
midwinter they travel surprising distances across snow-clad country,
following the banks of streams or passing between them searching for an
entrance to water, whether through the ice or in open rapids.

In Alaska I saw many otter trails in the snow crossing the Yukon and
through the adjacent forest. In such journeys it was evident that
the animals progressed by a series of long bounds, each leaving a
well-marked, full-length impression in the snow, so characteristic
that it could not be mistaken. These trails, often leading for miles
across country, always excited my deepest interest and wonder as to how
these animals could succeed in finding holes through the ice in this
vast snow-bound waste. Nevertheless they seemed to know full well, for
the trails always appeared to be leading straight away for some known
objective.

Although never very abundant, otters are so shy and solitary in their
habits that they have managed to retain almost all of their original
range. They occur now and then in the Potomac, near Washington,
and in other rivers throughout the country, where their tracks may
occasionally be detected on sand-bars and in the muddy shallows along
the banks. A sight of the animals themselves is rare. Their dens are
usually in the banks of streams or lakes above or below the surface of
the water, under the roots of large trees, or beneath rocky ledges.

Otters are extremely playful and amuse themselves by sliding down steep
banks into the water, repeatedly using the same place until a smooth
chute or “slide” is defined. They usually have two to five young, which
remain with the mother until nearly grown.

While close relatives of the weasel, they are much more intelligent,
have a gentler disposition, and make playful and most interesting
pets. Their fur is highly prized and always brings a good price in the
market. As a result, they have been persistently hunted and trapped
since our pioneer days. That the species should continue to exist,
though in much diminished numbers, throughout most of its original
range is a striking evidence of its retiring habits and mental
acuteness.

[Illustration: FISHER, OR PEKAN]

[Illustration: OTTER]

[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP]

[Illustration: COLLARED PECCARY, OR MUSKHOG]


COLLARED PECCARY, OR MUSKHOG (Pecari angulatus)

The numerous and extraordinarily varied species of wild pigs of the
Old World are represented in America by the peccaries, a specialized
group containing two species of small pigs peculiar to North and South
America. One of the many differences between them and their Old World
relatives is their having but two young. The name muskhog, applied to
them, is based on their possession of a large gland, located high up
on the middle of the rump, which emits a powerful odor. The musky odor
from this quickly permeates the flesh of a peccary unless it is cut out
as soon as the animal is killed.

The collared peccary is the smaller of the two species, usually
weighing less than 75 pounds. It ranges from the southwestern United
States south to Patagonia. Within this range numerous geographic races
have developed, varying from light grizzled gray to nearly black. It
formerly occurred within our border north to the Red River of Arkansas,
but is now limited to the southern half of Texas and the southern parts
of New Mexico and Arizona.

In tropical America collared peccaries are found in dense forests or
in low jungles, but in northern Mexico and the southwestern United
States they are equally at home among scattered thickets of cactus and
other thorny plants on plains and in the foothills. They are strictly
gregarious and live in bands of from a few individuals up to thirty
or more, usually led by the oldest and most powerful boar. They are
omnivorous, feeding on everything edible, from roots, fruits, nuts, and
other vegetable products to reptiles and any other available animals.
They are specially numerous in many tropical forests where wild figs,
nut palms, and other fruit-bearing trees provide abundant food. In the
arid northern part of their range dense thickets of cactus and mesquite
afford both food and shelter. Their presence in a locality is often
indicated by the rooted-up soil where they have been feeding.

Young peccaries become very tame and make most intelligent and amusing
pets. One moonlight night on the coast of Guerrero two of us, after
a bath in the sea by a small Indian village, strolled along the hard
white sand to enjoy the cool breeze. Suddenly a little peccary, not
weighing over eight or ten pounds, came running to meet us and, after
stopping at our feet to have its head scratched, suddenly circled about
us, away and back again in whirling zigzags, with all the joyous frenzy
of a playful puppy. Continuing this performance, it accompanied us for
several hundred yards, until we returned to the village.

Tales of the ferocity of bands of the collared peccaries and of their
treeing hunters who have disturbed them read well to the novice, but
have little foundation in fact. In reality the animals are shy and
retiring and fight only when forced to do so for self-protection. When
brought to bay by dogs or other animals, they fight viciously, and
with their sharp, knife-edged tusks can inflict serious wounds. Their
natural enemies are mainly the jaguar in the south and bobcats and
coyotes, which prey upon their young, in the north.

The increasing occupation of our Southwest has already resulted in the
extermination of peccaries from most of their former range within our
border, and unless active steps are taken to protect the survivors
their days will be few in the land. They are such unique and harmless
animals that it is hoped interest in their behalf may be awakened in
time to retain them as a part of our wild life.


=ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP= (=Ovis canadensis= and its relatives)

Wild sheep inhabit mountain ranges in both Old and New Worlds. Northern
Africa and southern Europe have representative species, but Asia
appears to be the true home of the group. There the greatest variety of
species is found, including such giants as _Ovis poli_.

In the New World they occur only in North America, where there are
two or three species, with numerous geographic races. Among these the
sheep inhabiting the main Rocky Mountain region is best known. It is
a heavier animal than its northern relatives of the Stikine country
and Alaska, with larger and more massively proportioned horns. It
occupies the main range from south of Peace River and Lake Babine,
in British Columbia, to Colorado, and possibly northern New Mexico.
Closely related geographic races occur elsewhere in the mountains of
the western United States and northern Mexico.

The usual conception of wild sheep as habitants of the cold, clear
upper world at timberline and above is justified in the case of
the Rocky Mountain sheep. In early spring its one or two young are
born amid these rugged elevations, where it remains until the heavy
winter snows drive it down, sometimes through the open timber to the
foothills. That wild sheep thrive equally well under very different
conditions, however, is shown by their abundance on the treeless
mountains of our southwestern deserts, among cactuses, yuccas, and
other thorny vegetation, where water is extremely scarce and summer
temperatures rise high above 100° Fahrenheit in the shade.

The Rocky Mountain sheep, like other species, appears to feed on nearly
every plant growing within its domain. In spring many lambs are killed
by bald and golden eagles, and in winter, when driven down to lower
levels by snow, it becomes easy prey for mountain lions, wolves, and
coyotes. Owing to continuous hunting, this sheep has disappeared from
many of its former haunts and is decreasing in most of its range. When
effective protection is undertaken in time, however, as in Colorado,
the range is readily restocked.

The sure-footedness with which a band of these sheep will dash in
full flight up or down seemingly impossible slopes, where a misstep
would mean death, is amazing. Even the old rams, with massive sets of
horns, bound from point to point up a steep rock slope with marvelous
grace and agility. Mountain sheep living among the rugged summits of
high ranges possess the courage and prowess of skillful mountaineers,
so admired by all, and the mere sight of one of these animals in its
native haunts is an adventure achieved by few.

No other big-game animal carries with it the romantic glamour which
surrounds this habitant of the cold, clear upper world. Big-game
hunters prize above all others their mountain-sheep trophies, which
form vivid reminders of glorious days amid the most inspiring
surroundings and evidence their supreme prowess in the chase.


STONE MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Ovis stonei)

Owing to its dark, iron gray color, _Ovis stonei_ is often called the
“black” mountain sheep. Despite its dark color, the Stone sheep is
probably a geographic race of the pure white Dall sheep of Alaska. It
has the same slender, gracefully coiled horns, frequently amber colored
and extended in a widely spread spiral.

Its range lies in northern British Columbia, especially about the
upper Stikine River and its tributaries; thence it extends easterly to
Laurier Pass in the Rocky Mountains, north of Peace River, and south
perhaps to Babine Lake. Unfortunately it appears to have become extinct
in the southern border of its range, so that its real relationship with
the Rocky Mountain sheep farther south may never be determined.

The sheep occupying the mountains between the home of typical _stonei_
and that of _dalli_ in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern
Yukon Territory are characterized by having white heads, with bodies of
a varying shade of iron gray, thus showing evident intergradation on a
great scale between the white northern sheep and the “black” sheep of
the Stikine. These intermediate animals have been called the Fannin, or
saddle-backed, sheep (_Ovis fannini_). Hunters report a considerable
mingling of entirely white animals among flocks of these intergrading
animals, and occasionally white individuals are seen even in flocks of
the typical dark sheep of the Stikine country.

Like the white Alaskan sheep, the Stone sheep exists in great
abundance in many parts of its range, especially east of Dease Lake.
It usually ranges in flocks, those made up of ewes and young rams
often containing a considerable number. The old bucks, except in fall,
keep by themselves in smaller bands in separate parts of the range.
The Stone sheep lives in one of the most notable big-game fields of
the continent. Its home above timberline is shared with the mountain
goat and in the lower open slopes with the caribou, while within the
adjacent forests wander the moose and two or more species of bear.

Owing to its frequenting remote and sparsely inhabited country, it
continues to exist in large numbers; but if its range becomes more
accessible, only the most stringent protection can save this splendid
animal from the extermination already accomplished on the southern
border of its range.


DALL MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Ovis dalli)

The only variation in the pure white coat of the Dall sheep is a
mixture of a few black hairs on the rump, sometimes becoming plentiful
enough to form a blackish spot on the tail and a light brownish stain
over the entire body, due to the slight discoloration at the tips of
the hairs from contact with the earth in their bedding-down places.
Their horns are usually dull amber yellow and are notable for their
slender proportions and the grace of their sweeping coils, which
sometimes curve close to the head and again spread in a wide, open
spiral.

As their white coats indicate, the Dall sheep are the northernmost
of their kind in America. Their home lies mainly in Alaska, where
they were formerly abundant in many mountain ranges, from those
bordering the Arctic coast south through the interior to the cliffs
on Kenai Peninsula, but are now scarce or gone from some mountains.
To the eastward they are numerous across the border in much of Yukon
territory, nearly to the Mackenzie River. Their haunts lie amid a
wilderness of peaks and ridges, marked in summer with scattered
glaciers and banks of perpetual snow and in winter exposed to all the
rigors of a severe Arctic climate. They are extraordinarily numerous in
some districts, as among the outlying ranges about the base of Mount
McKinley.

In their high, bleak homes these sheep have little to fear from natural
enemies, although the great Canada lynx, the wolf, the wolverine, and
the golden eagle, as overlords of the range, take occasional toll
from their numbers. Their one devastating enemy is man, with his
modern high-power rifle. Even so long ago as the summer of 1881, I saw
hundreds of their skins among the Eskimos at Point Barrow, taken that
spring with the use of Winchester rifles among the mountains lying
inland from the Arctic coast. Of late years the advent of miners and
the establishment of mining camps and towns have greatly increased the
demand for meat, and this has resulted in the killing of thousands of
these sheep. Large numbers of these splendid animals have also been
killed to serve as winter dog food.

The advent of thousands of men engaged in the construction of the
government railroad which, when completed, will pass through the Mount
McKinley region, makes imminent the danger of extermination that
threatens the mountain sheep, as well as the moose and caribou, in a
great area of the finest big-game country left under our control.

[Illustration: STONE’S, FANNIN’S, AND DALL’S MOUNTAIN SHEEP]

Properly conserved, the game animals of Alaska will continue
indefinitely as one of its richest resources, but heedless wastefulness
may destroy them forever. All sportsmen and other lovers of wild
life should interest themselves in an effort to safeguard the future
of Alaskan game animals before it is too late; for, under the severe
climatic conditions prevailing, the restocking of exhausted game
fields in that region will be extremely difficult, if not practically
impossible.

[Illustration: PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE]

[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT]


=ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT= (=Oreamnos montanus= and its subspecies)

The numerous wild goats of the Himalayas and other mountains of Asia
are represented in America solely by the Rocky Mountain goat. This
is one of the most characteristic, but least graceful in form and
action, of our big-game animals. It is distinguished by a long ungainly
head, ornamented with small black horns; a heavy body, humped at the
shoulders like a buffalo, and a coat of long shaggy white hair.

The range of these habitants of the cliffs extends from the head of
Cook Inlet, Alaska, easterly and southerly through the mountains to
Montana and Washington. Unlike mountain sheep, the goats do not appear
to dislike the fogs and saline winds from the sea, and at various
points along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska they range down
precipitous slopes nearly to the shore.

They are much more closely confined to rugged slopes and rocky ledges
than the mountain sheep, which in winter commonly descend through the
foothills to the border of the plains. Through summer and winter, goats
find sufficient food in the scanty vegetation growing among the rocks,
and their heavy coats of hair protect them from the fiercest winter
storms.

Owing to their small horns and unpalatable flesh they are less sought
after by hunters than mountain sheep, and thus continue to exist in
many accessible places where otherwise they would long since have
become exterminated. They are frequently visible on the high ledges
of a mountain across the bay from the city of Vancouver and are not
difficult to find in many other coastal localities.

Although marvelously surefooted and fearless in traversing the faces of
high precipitous slopes, goats lack the springy grace and vivacity of
mountain sheep and move with comparative deliberation. They are reputed
to show at times a stupid obstinacy when encountered on a narrow ledge,
even to the point of disputing the right of way with the hunter.

Their presence lends interest to many otherwise grim and forbidding
ranges where, amid a wilderness of glacier-carved escarpments, they
endure the winter gales which for days at a time roar about their
cliffs and send snow banners streaming from the jagged summits overhead.

Owing to the character of their haunts, mountain goats have few natural
enemies. The golden and bald eagles now and then take toll among
their kids, but the lynx and mountain lion, their four-footed foes,
are not known to prey upon them to any considerable extent. Through
overhunting they have vanished from some of their former haunts, but
still hold their own in many places, and with effective protection will
long continue to occupy their peculiar place in our fauna.


=PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE= (=Antilocapra americana= and its
geographic races)

Unique among the antelope of the world, among which it has no near
relatives, the prong-horn, because of its beauty of coloration, its
grace, and fleetness, claims the attention of sportsmen and nature
lovers alike. It is a smaller and slenderer animal than the larger
forms of the Virginia deer. Its hair is coarse and brittle, and the
spongy skin lacks the tough fiber needed to make good buckskin. Both
sexes have horns, those of the doe being smaller and slenderer. One
of the extraordinary peculiarities of this antelope is its habit of
shedding the horns every fall and the developing new horns over the
remaining bony core.

The rump patch of the prong-horn is formed of long pure white hairs,
which in moments of excitement or alarm are raised on end to form two
great chrysanthemum-like white rosettes that produce an astonishingly
conspicuous directive color mark. The power to raise these hairs is
exercised by the fawns when only a few days old. Even when the hairs
are not erected the rump patch is conspicuous as a flashing white
signal to a distance of from one to two miles as the antelope gallops
away. When the animal whose rump signal has been plainly visible at a
distance suddenly halts and faces about to look back, as is a common
custom, its general color blends with that of the background and it
vanishes from sight as by magic.

Early explorers discovered antelope in great abundance over a vast
territory extending from near the present location of Edmonton,
Alberta, south to near the Valley of Mexico, and from central Iowa west
to the Pacific coast in California. They were specially numerous on the
limitless plains of the “Great American Desert,” where our pioneers
found them in great bands, containing thousands, among the vast herds
of buffalo. So abundant were they that it has been estimated that on
the Great Plains they equaled the buffalo in numbers. Now reduced to
a pitiful remnant of their former numbers, they exist only in widely
scattered areas, where they are constantly decreasing. Fortunately they
are strictly protected by law in most of their remaining territory.

The great herds containing thousands of antelope were usually formed
late in fall and remained together throughout the winter, separating
into numerous smaller parties during the summer. For years following
the completion of the transcontinental railroads they were commonly
seen from the car windows as trains crossed the Great Plains. At such
times their bright colors and graceful evolutions, as they swept here
and there in erratic flight or wheeled in curiosity to gaze at the
passing train, never failed to excite the deepest interest.

In early days prong-horns were noted for their curiosity and were
frequently lured within gun-shot by waving a red flag or by other
devices. I have repeatedly seen them circle or race a team, or a
horseman, crossing their range. In racing a horseman traveling along
an open road or trail they gradually draw nearer until finally every
member of the band dashes madly by only a few yards in front and then
straight away across the plains in full flight.

The prong-horns appear to possess a highly nervous temperament, which
requires for their welfare the wide free sweep of the open plains. They
do not thrive and increase in inclosures, even in large game preserves,
as do deer, elk, and buffalo. For this reason, it will require the
greatest care to protect and foster these attractive members of our
fauna to save them from soon being numbered among the many wild species
which have been destroyed by the coming of civilized man.


=WAPITI, OR AMERICAN ELK= (=Cervus canadensis= and its
relatives)

By a curious transposition of names the early settlers applied to
the American wapiti the term elk, which belongs to the European
representative of our moose. Our elk is a close relative of the
European stag. It is the handsomest and, next to the moose, the largest
member of the deer family in America. The old bulls, weighing more than
800 pounds, bear superb widely branched antlers, which give them a
picturesque and noble mien. This is the only American deer which has a
well-marked light rump-patch. The young, numbering from one to three,
are white spotted, like the fawns of other deer.

Originally the elk was the most wide ranging of our hoofed game
animals. It occupied all the continent from north of Peace River,
Canada, south to southern New Mexico, and from central Massachusetts
and North Carolina to the Pacific coast of California. Like the
buffalo, it appeared to be equally at home in the forested region east
of the Mississippi River and on the open plains flanking the Rocky
Mountains. Its range also extended from sea-level to above timberline
on lofty mountain ranges.

Exterminated throughout most of their original range, elk still occupy
some of their early haunts in western Canada, Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado, and the Pacific Coast States. The last elk was killed in
Pennsylvania about 60 years ago, and in Michigan and Minnesota some 20
years later. The main body of the survivors are now in the Yellowstone
Park region. Their size and the readiness with which they thrive
in captivity has led to serious consideration of elk farming as an
industry.

In the West, before the settlement of their range crowded the elk back,
large numbers lived throughout the year on the plains and among the
foothills. They have now become mountain animals, spending the spring
and summer largely in the timberline forests and alpine meadows, where
many bands linger until the heavy snows of early winter force them down
to the foothills and valleys. During the last days of their abundance
in the Rocky Mountains winter herds numbering thousands gathered in
Estes Park and other foothill valleys.

Elk are the most polygamous of all our deer, each bull gathering a
small herd of cows during the fall. At the beginning of the mating
season the bulls wander widely through the high forest glades, their
musical bugling piercing the silence with some of the most stirring
notes of the wilderness. Amid the wild grandeur of these remote
mountain fastnesses the appearance of a full-antlered buck on the
skyline of some bare ridge presents a noble picture of wild life.

There are probably over 40,000 elk still left in the United States, and
of these more than 30,000 are located in Wyoming, mainly in and about
Yellowstone National Park.

During the last few years great interest has been shown in the
reintroduction of elk in parts of their former range, where they had
been exterminated and where conditions are still suitable for their
perpetuation. Such efforts are meeting with much success. Not only
do the animals thrive and increase rapidly, but local sentiment is
almost unanimous in their favor. This is well shown by the active
interest taken by both cattle and sheep owners in northern Arizona in
regard to a band of elk introduced a few years ago on their mountain
stock ranges. The stockmen exercise a virtual wardenship over these
animals that insures them against molestation, and the herd is rapidly
increasing.

As against this, we have the despicable work of poachers, who are
shooting elk for their two canine teeth and leaving the body to the
coyotes. Information has been received that more than 500 elk were
ruthlessly slaughtered for this purpose about the border of Yellowstone
National Park during the winter of 1915-1916.


=MULE DEER= (=Odocoileus hemionus= and its subspecies)

Mule deer are larger than the common white-tails, with a heavier,
stockier form. Their strongest characteristics lie in the large doubly
branching antlers, large broad ears, and rounded whitish tail with a
brushlike black tip. Their common name in this country and the name
“venado burro” in Mexico are derived from the great, donkeylike ears.
Their antlers vary much in size, but in some examples are almost
intermediate between those of the white-tail and of the elk. Antlers
of the mule deer and of the black-tail agree in having the tines all
pronged, in contrast with the single spikes of the white-tails. In
summer these deer have a rich, rusty red coat which is exchanged in
winter for one of grayish brown.

[Illustration: WAPITI, OR AMERICAN ELK]

The range of mule deer extends from northern Alberta, Manitoba, and
western Iowa to the State of San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican
table-land, and west to Lower California and the coast of California.
Within these limits they inhabit different types of country, from the
deciduous forests along streams on the eastern border of the Great
Plains to the open pine forests of the high western mountains, the
chaparral-covered hillsides of southern California, and the thickets of
mesquites, acacias, and cactuses on the hot and arid plains of Sonora.
Several geographic races of this deer have resulted from these varied
conditions.

[Illustration: MULE DEER]

[Illustration: BLACK-TAILED DEER]

In spring in the Rocky Mountains the does leave the bands with which
they have passed the winter and seek undisturbed retreats among forest
glades or along scantily wooded slopes of canyons, where they have
two or three handsomely spotted fawns with which they remain apart
throughout the summer.

The bucks usually keep by themselves during the summer, in parties
rarely exceeding ten. As their horns lose the velvet and the mating
season draws near, the old bucks gather in bands of from six to ten.

At this time they are in perfect physical condition, and a band of
them in the open forest, their antlers held proudly aloft and their
glossy coats shining in the sun, presents a superb picture. They have
little of the protective caution so characteristic of the white-tails,
and when a shot is fired at a band they often begin a series of
extraordinary “buck jumps,” bounding high in the air, facing this way
and that, sometimes not taking fight until after several additional
shots have been fired. These high, bounding leaps are characteristic of
mule deer and are commonly made when the animals are suddenly alarmed
and often when they are in full flight through brushy thickets.

After the mating season, bucks and does join in bands, sometimes of
fifteen or twenty, and descend to the foothills and sometimes even to
the adjacent plains. Their preference, however, is for rough and broken
country, such as that of canyon-cut mountains or the deeply scored
badlands of the upper Missouri River.

These deer are not good runners in the open. On several occasions, on
level country in Arizona, I have ridden after and readily overtaken
parties of them within a mile, their heaving flanks and open mouths
showing their distress. The moment rough country was reached, however,
with amazing celerity a series of mighty leaps carried them away from
me over declivities impossible for a horse.

The sight of a party of these splendid deer bounding away through the
aisles of a mountain forest always quickens one’s pulse and gives the
finishing touch of wildness to the scene. Mule deer are characteristic
animals of the beautiful open forests and forest parks of the Rocky
Mountains and the high Sierras, where they may be perpetuated if given
reasonable protection.


=BLACK-TAILED DEER= (=Odocoileus columbianus= and its
subspecies)

In general appearance the black-tails have a close resemblance to
the mule deer, but average smaller. They have the same large ears,
forked tines to the antlers, and rather “stocky” body; but the brushy
all-black tail distinguishes them from any other American deer. In
color they have much the same shade of brown as the Virginia deer.
They have the usual cycle of annual changes common to most American
deer--assuming a dull coat in fall and losing their horns in winter,
followed by the resumption of a brighter coat in spring and the renewal
of their horns in summer.

The black-tails have one of the most restricted ranges among our deer.
They are limited to the humid heavily forested belt along the Pacific
coast from Juneau, Alaska, southward to the Coast range in central
California. This coastal belt is characterized by superb growths of
cedars, spruces, and firs in the north and by redwoods and firs in the
south, uniting to make one of the most magnificent forest areas in the
world. Here the deer live in the midst of rank undergrowths of gigantic
ferns and other vegetation, as luxuriant in many places as that of the
humid tropics.

Their home on the abruptly rising slopes of the islands in the Alaskan
Archipelago is so restricted that both in summer and winter they fall
an easy prey to native and white hunters. It has been reported that
there has been much wasteful killing of the deer on these islands for
commercial purposes. When the heavy snows of winter on the islands
force the deer down to the shore, great numbers of them are also killed
by wolves.

Black-tails commonly have two or three young, and this fecundity,
combined with the effective protection given by the dense forest where
many of them live, will aid in their perpetuation. At the same time
they have not developed the mental alertness of the Virginia deer, and
there is imminent need for prompt and effective action in safeguarding
the deer in the Alaskan part of their range if their extermination on
some of the islands is to be prevented. In this northern region the
black-tails share their range with strange tribes of coastal Indians,
whose huge sea-going canoes, totem poles, and artistic carvings are
unique among native Americans.


=VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER= (=Odocoileus virginianus=
and its subspecies)

The aptness of the name “white-tail” for the Virginia deer is obvious
to any one who has startled one in the forest and seen it dash away
with the tail upright and flashing vivid white signals at every leap.
The adults have two strongly contrasted coats each year: brownish gray
in winter and rusty red in summer. The fawns, usually two in number,
are dull rusty brown, marked with a series of large white spots, which
remain until the gray winter coat is assumed in the fall. Large bucks
sometimes attain a weight of more than 300 pounds.

The white-tail is the well-known deer of all the forest areas in
eastern North America. With its close relatives, it ranges from
northern Ontario to Florida and from the Atlantic coast to the Great
Plains; also in the Rocky Mountains south to New Mexico, and in the
Cascades and Sierra Nevada to northern California.

The supreme importance of this deer to the early settlers of the
Eastern States is made plain in all the literature covering the
occupation of that region. Its flesh was one of the most reliable
staples in the food supply, and not infrequently was the only resource
against starvation. In addition, the tanned skins served for clothing
and the sinews for thread. Many of the most striking and romantic
characters in our early history appear clad in buckskin, from fringed
hunting shirt to beaded moccasins.

As no other American game animal equaled the white-tail in economic
value to the settlers, so even to-day it remains the greatest game
asset in many of the Eastern States. Partly through protective laws and
partly through its acute intelligence and adaptability, the Virginia
deer continues to hold its own in suitable woodland areas throughout
most of its former range, and in recent years has pushed hundreds of
miles northward into new territory in Ontario and Quebec.

Even in the oldest and most densely populated States, as New York and
Massachusetts, white-tails still exist in surprising numbers. Over
7,000 were killed during the hunting season of 1915 in Maine, and
an average of about 2,800 are killed yearly in Vermont. The great
recreational value of the white-tail to a host of sportsmen is obvious.
To the growing multitude of nature lovers the knowledge that a forest
is inhabited by deer immediately endows it with a delightful and
mysterious charm.

In summer white-tails are usually solitary or wander through the forest
in parties of two or three. In winter, where the snowfall is heavy,
they gather in parties, sometimes of considerable size, in dense
deciduous growth, where food is plentiful. There they remain throughout
the season, forming a “yard” by keeping a network of hard-beaten paths
open through the snow in order to reach the browse afforded by the
bushes and trees.

Ordinarily Virginia deer are shy and elusive habitants of dense
forests, where they evade the unpracticed intruder like noiseless
shadows. Where they are strictly protected for a period of years under
State laws, they become surprisingly confident and often damage young
orchards and crops on farms near their haunts. Several States pay for
the damage thus done. Happily this attractive species thrives so well
under protective laws that its continued future in our forests appears
to be assured.


ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER (Odocoileus couesi)

The Arizona white-tails are slight and graceful animals, like pigmy
Virginia deer, so small that hunters often ride into camp with a
full-grown buck tied back of the saddle. They have two seasonal
pelages--gray in winter and more rusty brown in summer. The antlers,
very small, but in form similar to those of the Virginia deer, are shed
in winter and renewed before the end of summer.

These handsome little deer, the smallest of our white-tails, are
common in many of the wooded mountains of middle and southern Arizona,
southern New Mexico, western Texas, and in the Sierra Madre of
Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. By a curious coincidence this area was
the ancient home of the Apache Indians and has had one of the most
tragic histories of our western frontier.

During summer and early fall in the higher ranges small bands of
Arizona white-tails occupy the lower parts of the yellow-pine forests,
between 6,000 and 9,000 feet altitude, where they frequent thickets
of small deciduous growth about the heads of canyons and gulches. As
winter approaches and heavy snowstorms begin, they descend to warm
canyon slopes to pass the season among an abundant growth of pinyons,
junipers, oaks, and a variety of brushwood.

In the White Mountains of Arizona, between the years 1883 and 1890,
when wild life was more abundant than at present, I often saw, on their
wintering grounds, large herds of these graceful deer, numbering from
20 to more than 100 individuals. Such gatherings presented the most
interesting and exciting sight, whether the animals were feeding in
unconscious security or streaming in full flight along the numberless
little trails that lined the steep slopes. Where these deer live on the
more barren and brush-grown tops of some of the desert mountains in
southwestern Arizona and Sonora, the snowfall is so light that their
summer and winter range is practically the same.

Although far more gregarious than our other white-tails, the herds of
Arizona deer break up in early spring. At this time one or two fawns
are born, amid early flowers in the charming vistas of the open forest.
Very young fawns are hidden in rank vegetation and sometimes left
temporarily by their mothers. If a horseman chances by the fawns may
rise and follow innocently at the horse’s heels. On such occasions I
have had difficulty in driving them back to prevent their becoming lost.

In the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua one summer I found these little
white-tails occupying “forms,” like rabbits, located in the sheltering
matted tops of fallen pine trees which had been overthrown by spring
storms. In these shelters they rested during the middle of the day,
secure from the wolves and mountain lions which prowled about the
canyon slopes in search of prey.

With the growing occupation of their territory by cattle and sheep and
the increase in the number of hunters, these once abundant deer are
rapidly diminishing. It is high time more careful measures be taken for
their conservation, else extermination awaits them throughout most of
their original haunts.

[Illustration: VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER]

[Illustration: ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER]

[Illustration: WOODLAND CARIBOU]


=WOODLAND CARIBOU= (=Rangifer caribou= and its subspecies)

The caribou lacks the symmetry and grace of the true deer. Its large
head topped with irregular antlers, heavy body, and thick, sturdy legs,
ending in large, broad-spreading hoofs, produce a distinctly ungainly
animal. It is the only member of the deer family in which both sexes
have antlers, those of the female being smaller and slenderer than
those of the male. It varies in size in different parts of its range,
but large old bulls usually weigh from 300 to 400 pounds. A single calf
is the rule, but occasionally there are two.

The woodland caribou, the southern representative of the barren ground
caribou, inhabits almost the same northern forest of spruce, tamarack,
birch, and alder as those sheltering the moose. It ranges from the
northern border of the forests in Alaska and Canada south to Maine,
northern Minnesota, northern Idaho, and British Columbia. It is far
less gregarious than the barren ground caribou, during summer only
small parties of cows, calves, and partly grown young keeping together,
while the bulls are solitary or in still smaller separate parties. In
winter all unite in larger herds.

The curiously ungraceful appearance of the caribou, so different from
other deer, gives it a strong individuality, which seems to belong
with its remote haunts in the wilderness. This great animal has an
added appeal to our interest, owing to its close relationship to that
other woodland caribou which was such an important resource to the
cave-men of France and other parts of Europe, as shown by bone and horn
implements, carvings, and other records discovered in their homes.

During summer and fall in eastern Canada, where this caribou is
distributed through much of the wilder forests, it has a habit of
coming out of the woods to sun itself and bathe on the borders of
shallow lakes. Here the old bulls wallow in the water, and on rising
shake themselves like a dog, filling the air with a halo of sparkling
water drops. In such places the bulls frequently stand basking in the
sun for hours. To a canoeman gliding silently around a jutting point,
this rugged habitant of the wilds, discovered across the shining
waters, standing outlined against the dark green forest, represents a
wonderfully picturesque sight. When alarmed at such times the caribou
dashes shoreward through the water amid clouds of flying spray struck
up by its broad feet and vanishes in the sheltering forest, accompanied
by a loud crashing of dry branches.

The woodland caribou is neither so swift nor so astute in avoiding
danger as the Virginia deer or the moose. It falls an easy prey to
hunters and to wolves, and when not properly safeguarded is readily
exterminated. This is shown by its complete disappearance from the
Adirondacks, in northern New York, and by its threatened disappearance
from the forests of Maine, Minnesota, and Idaho; in fact, the woodland
caribou is in more imminent danger of complete and early extermination
within the United States than any other game animal and can be saved
only by stringent laws and careful guardianship.


=BARREN GROUND CARIBOU= (=Rangifer arcticus= and its
subspecies) (see illustration, page 422).

The typical barren ground caribou is smaller and paler colored than the
woodland species. Several geographic races have been distinguished,
among which the most notable is the Peary caribou, the palest of all
and the subject of the accompanying drawing. Like other members of the
group, this species is a heavily built animal, with thick legs and
large feet.

The barren ground caribou is characteristic of the desolate Arctic
barrens and tundras beyond the limit of trees, ranging to the
northernmost limit of land beyond 83 degrees of latitude. When
explorers first visited these northern wilds, including the treeless
coastal belt from the Peninsula of Alaska to Bering Straits, they
found these animals almost everywhere in extraordinary abundance. Over
great areas of this territory straggling herds of caribou, sometimes
numbering hundreds of thousands, drifted with the season from one
feeding ground to another.

The advent of white men with guns has resulted in their rapid decrease
everywhere and in their extermination over great areas. In many of
their old haunts the only trace of their former abundance is in
well-marked trails winding by easy grades to the bare tops of the low
mountains. They are still numerous on the Peninsula of Alaska and in
much greater numbers in parts of the barren grounds of Canada. There,
on the shores of Artillery Lake, during the summer of 1907 a small
migrating herd of about 2,000 was seen.

When alarmed these caribou often break into a clumsy gallop, which
soon changes to a steady shambling trot, their characteristic gait,
carrying them rapidly across country. In winter their tracks in the
snow show that their feet, instead of being raised high at each step,
like those of a Virginia or mule deer, drag through the snow like those
of domestic cattle. Their large, broad-spreading hoofs, with sharp,
cup-shaped edges, are admirably adapted to secure a firm footing in the
yielding and hummocky surface of their haunts in summer and on the snow
and ice in winter.

The barren ground caribou, living under severe climatic conditions,
has developed an extraordinary method of storing up fat to carry it
through winter stresses. Early in fall a layer of pure tallow, called
“backfat,” is formed over the entire top of the back from between the
shoulders to the rump. This is a solid slab of tallow lying between the
superficial muscles and the skin. It is almost as thin as a knife-blade
at the shoulders, but thickens gradually to a depth of from 4 to 6
inches at the rump. This slab of tallow is gradually absorbed during
the winter and has totally disappeared by spring. In early winter the
“backfat” is easily removed and transported in its original form. It
is highly prized for food and as an article of trade among the Eskimo
and Indian hunters, and figures as one of the chief delicacies at their
winter feasts.

The Peary caribou lives in Ellesmere, Grinnell, and other of the
northernmost Arctic lands to beyond 83 degrees of north latitude, where
in places it is common. It appears to thrive on moss, lichens, and
other dwarf and scanty Arctic vegetation, and holds its own against the
depredations of packs of the white Arctic wolves. In these northern
wilds, amid the most intense cold, the caribou passes from three to
five months of continuous night, its wanderings lighted only by the
moon, stars, and the marvelous displays of waving northern lights.

Tame reindeer, which are kept by the people of the Arctic border of the
Old World from Lapland to Bering Straits, are domesticated descendants
of the barren ground caribou of that region. They are used by their
owners to pack burdens and haul sledges as well as to supply them with
food and clothing. These animals have been successfully introduced in
Alaska, and both natives and white men are developing this new and
promising stock industry. The herds of tame reindeer are extremely
gentle and easily handled. Their progenitors were like other wild
caribou--of a dull and nearly uniform color--but domestication has
resulted, as with cattle, in producing endless color variations, from
white to black, with every imaginable piebald variation.

The changed conditions of life in Alaska, due to the recent development
of that territory, have seriously affected the welfare of the natives.
Fortunately the introduction of reindeer herds appears to open a
promising future for both Eskimos and Indians.


=MOOSE= (=Alces americanus= and its subspecies)

The American moose is a large cousin of the elk of the northern forests
of Europe and Siberia. The Old World animal is characterized not only
by its smaller size, but also by smaller antlers. The moose is a large,
grotesquely formed animal, with the most impressive individuality of
any of our large game. Its great head, with oddly formed nose, huge
palmated antlers, pendulous bell under the neck, short body, and
disproportionately long legs unite to lend the impression that it may
be a strange survivor from some remote geologic period.

The moose inhabits our northern forests, where it wanders among
thickets of spruce, tamarack, birch, aspen, and alder, from the mouth
of the Yukon and the lower Mackenzie southward to Maine, northern
Minnesota, and down the Rocky Mountains to Wyoming. It varies in size
in different parts of its range. The bulls of the Kenai Peninsula and
adjacent region in Alaska are the largest of their kind in the world,
sometimes weighing more than 1,400 pounds. The enormous antlers of
these great northern beasts attain a spread of more than six feet
and make the most impressive trophy the big-game hunter can secure in
America.

Although taller than an ordinary horse, weighing more than half a ton,
and adorned with wide-spreading antlers, the bull moose stalks with
ghostly silence through thickset forests, where man can scarcely move
without being betrayed by the loud crackling of dry twigs. In summer
it loves low-lying, swampy forests interspersed with shallow lakes and
sluggish streams. In such places it often wades up to its neck in a
lake to feed on succulent water plants, and when reaching to the bottom
becomes entirely submerged. These visits to the water are sometimes by
day, but usually by night, especially during the season when the calves
are young and the horns of the bulls are but partly grown.

Late in the fall, with full-grown antlers, the bulls wander through the
forest looking for their mates, at times uttering far-reaching calls of
defiance to all rivals, and occasionally clashing their horns against
the saplings in exuberance of masterful vigor. Other bulls at times
accept the challenge and hasten to meet the rival for a battle royal.
At this season the call of the cow moose also brings the nearest bulls
quickly to her side. Hunters take advantage of this, and by imitating
the call through a birch-bark trumpet bring the most aggressive bulls
to their doom.

Ordinarily moose are extremely shy, but during the mating season the
males become so bold that when encountered at close range they have
been known furiously to charge a hunter. They strike vicious blows
with their front feet, as well as with their heavy antlers, and make
dangerous foes for man or beast.

Moose have disappeared from the Adirondacks and have become scarce
in many districts where once plentiful. Through wise protection they
are still numerous about the head of Yellowstone Lake, and are still
among the available game animals of Maine and the eastern provinces of
Canada. Indeed, during the last few years they have steadily extended
their range in northern Ontario and British Columbia. They occupy great
areas of little-visited wilderness, which are becoming more and more
accessible; as a result the future existence of these superb animals
depends upon their receiving proper protection.


=AMERICAN BISON= (=Bison bison= and its subspecies)

The American bison, or buffalo, is a close relative of the larger bison
which once inhabited Europe and survives in limited numbers in certain
game preserves of Poland and the Caucasus. The size, dark shaggy coat,
great head, and high arched shoulders of our bison give them a unique
individuality among American big game. They once roamed in vast numbers
over a broad territory, extending from Great Slave Lake, Canada, south
to southern New Mexico, and from Pennsylvania and eastern Georgia to
Arizona and northern Nevada. It is thus evident that they were at
home in the forested country east of the Mississippi River, as well as
on the treeless plains of the West. In the northern part of their range
they are larger and darker than elsewhere and form a local geographic
race called the wood buffalo.

[Illustration: MOOSE]

[Illustration: AMERICAN BISON, OR BUFFALO]

Originally buffalo were enormously abundant in America, and it has been
variously estimated that when the continent was first discovered their
numbers were from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000. With the settlement of
eastern America, they gradually retreated across the Mississippi River,
but continued to exist in great but rapidly diminishing numbers on the
Great Plains up to within the last fifty years.

The crossing of their range by the first transcontinental railroad
quickly brought the remaining herds to an end. In 1870 there were
still about 5,500,000 head on the plains, but these were so wastefully
slaughtered for their hides that in 1895 only about 800 remained. The
depletion of the herds was so startling that sportsmen and nature
lovers awoke to the danger of the immediate extermination of these
splendid animals; the American Bison Society was organized and the
surviving buffalo were saved.

Although the bison usually has but a single calf a year, these are
so hardy and do so well in fenced preserves, and even in the closer
confinement of small parks, that their number has now increased to
approximately 4,000, about equally divided between the United States
and Canada. In the district south of Artillery Lake, northern Canada,
a few hundred individuals, remnants of the wild stock of that region,
survive and are increasing under the wise protection of the Canadian
Government. The only other herd still existing on its original ground
is that in Yellowstone National Park.

Experiments have been made in crossing buffalo with certain breeds
of domestic cattle for the purpose of establishing a new and hardier
variety of stock for the Western ranges. These have not proved
successful, largely owing to the lack of fertility in the hybrid, which
has been called the “cattalo.”

Under primitive conditions, buffalo herds numbering millions of animals
regularly migrated in spring and fall from one feeding ground to
another, often traveling hundreds of miles for this purpose. The herds
followed the same routes year after year and made lasting trails, often
from two to three feet in depth. Investigation has shown that many of
our highways, and even some of our main railway lines, seeking the most
convenient grades, follow trails laid down by these early pathfinders.
When a great migrating herd was stampeded, the thunder of its countless
hoofs shook the earth, and in its flight it rushed like a huge black
torrent over the landscape.

The buffalo was the most important game animal to the Indians over a
great area. Several tribes were mainly dependent upon these animals for
food and clothing and the entire tribal economy was built about them.
The mode of life, customs, and folk-lore of the Indians all centered
about these animals. Their clothing and tepee covers were made of the
skins. The tanned skins also served as individual and tribal records of
the warrior-hunters, the chronicles being drawn in picture-writing on
the smooth surfaces. The passing of the buffalo on the free sweep of
the western plains ended forever one of the most picturesque phases of
aboriginal life in America.


=MUSK-OX= (=Ovibos moschatus= and its subspecies)

The musk-ox is one of the unique and most interesting of American
game animals. In general appearance it suggests a small, odd kind of
buffalo, and is, in fact, related to both cattle and sheep. It is a
heavily built, round-bodied animal, with short, strong legs and long
fringelike hair which hangs so low on the sides that it sometimes
trails on the snow. The horns--broad, flat, and massive at the
base--curve down and out to a sharp point on each side of the head and
form very effective weapons for defense.

Fossil remains prove that musk-oxen lived in northern Europe and Asia
during Pleistocene times, but they have long been confined to Arctic
America. Up to within a century they have occupied nearly all of the
cheerless wilds north of the limit of trees, from the coast of northern
Alaska to that of east Greenland. They appear to have become extinct in
northern Alaska within the last 75 years, and their present range east
of the Mackenzie River is becoming more and more restricted.

They are now limited to that part of the barren grounds of Canada lying
north and northwest of Hudson Bay and from the Arctic islands northward
and eastward to the northern coast of Greenland. Their range extends to
beyond 83 degrees of latitude and covers some of the bleakest and most
inhospitable lands of the globe. There a short summer, with weeks of
continuous sunshine, permits the growth of a dwarfed and scanty Arctic
vegetation; but winter brings a long period of night, continuous, in
the northernmost parts, through several months.

Under such rigorous conditions musk-oxen thrive unless hunted by
civilized man. They are strongly gregarious, usually traveling in
herds of from six to twenty, but herds containing about 100 have been
recorded. Their eyesight is not strong, but their sense of smell is
good, and when danger is suspected they dash away with great celerity
for such heavily formed animals. If rocky ground is near, they seek
refuge in it and ascend steep, broken slopes with astonishing agility.

When brought to bay, the herd forms a circle about the calves and, with
heads out, presents to the enemy an unbroken front of sharp horns.
So long as the circle remains unbroken such a defense is extremely
effective against both dogs and wolves. The only natural enemies of
musk-oxen are wolves, and against these and the primitive weapons of
the Eskimos they hold their own very well.

When the Greely Expedition landed at Lady Franklin Bay in 1881,
musk-oxen were encountered and killed practically on the site where
winter quarters were established. Since then several exploring and
hunting parties have taken heavy toll from the herds of that region.
Some accounts of the wholesale killings do not make pleasant reading
for one who desires the perpetuation of our native species. Fortunately
for the musk-oxen, the adventurers of these northern quests are few and
far between, so that on departing they leave the game animals in their
vast solitudes to recuperate from these onslaughts.

Musk-oxen have but a single young, so that between depredations of
wolves and overkilling by white and native hunters these animals face
the very real danger of extermination threatening so many other game
animals in the far North. For this reason, it is hoped that sportsmen
who visit these remote game fields will restrain a desire for making
large bags.


FLORIDA MANATI (Trichechus latirostris)

The manatis, or manatees, are strange aquatic mammals, with seal-like
heads and whalelike bodies. Compared with whales, their flippers are
more flexible at the joints, and thus can be used much more freely.
They have very small eyes and a heavy upper lip, deeply cleft in the
middle and forming a thick lobe on each side. The skin is hairless and
covered with fine wrinkles.

These animals inhabit the rivers entering the sea and shallow coastal
lagoons on both sides of the Atlantic, in tropical parts of West Africa
and of eastern North and South America. The South American species
ascends the Amazon and its tributaries well up toward their headwaters.

The Florida manati regularly frequents the coast from eastern Florida
to Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies; in summer it sometimes
strays as far north as the coast of Virginia.

This species attains an extreme length of more than 15 feet and a
weight of more than 1,500 pounds, but the average size is much less.
A large specimen exhibited alive at New Orleans the winter of 1912
weighed 1,310 pounds and is reported to have eaten daily from 60 to 100
pounds of grass. One captured near Point Isabel, Texas, measured a few
inches more than 15 feet in length.

Manatis were formerly plentiful in the Indian River and elsewhere
along the Florida coast, but were shot and netted to the verge of
extermination. They were killed not only for amusement by thoughtless
sportsmen, but many were killed by residents for their flesh, which
was salted down like beef for future use. The flesh is said to be well
flavored and not unlike beef.

The imminent danger of the extermination of these curious animals and
their evident value for the interest they lend the coastal waters of
the State led to the passage of protective laws with a penalty of $500.
As a result of this, manatis have increased rapidly. A correspondent,
writing on June 20, 1916, from Ponce Park, on Indian River, says that
at this season scarcely an hour in the day passes but that from one to
half a dozen may be seen in front of his house. He adds that one with
a “calf” about 3 feet long keeps about his dock all the time. In this
vicinity manatis appear to be migratory, leaving about the first of
December and returning in early spring, the first one noted in 1916
appearing on March 26. They are extremely susceptible to cold, as was
demonstrated by the number which perished in Indian River near Micco,
February 12, 1895, when the temperature fell to 20° Fahrenheit. They
are known to winter in Biscayne Bay and elsewhere in southern Florida.

Within a few weeks after the manatis return to the vicinity of Ponce
Park the young are born. Just before this the females are said to seek
the protection of a dock, crib, or bridge, possibly in order that the
new-born young may be safe from the sharks and sawfish which abound in
these waters. Usually there is only one calf, which is about 30 inches
long, but sometimes the mother is seen accompanied by two. During
this season the females are scattered and, with their young, keep in
comparatively shoal water near the shore, and not infrequently lie
in shallow pools with half their bodies exposed. Later in the season
they gather in herds and often 15 to 20 may be seen close together. At
such times they roll about and make a great turmoil in the water. The
Mexicans on the coast of southern Vera Cruz described to me similar
summer gatherings of manatis in small lagoons and claimed they were
there for the purpose of mating.

In fall, near Ponce Park, the larger animals, probably the old males,
separate from the herds and roam about singly. At this time they often
make a peculiar noise like a loud snort, which may be heard for half a
mile or more.

The Florida manatis are extremely mild and inoffensive animals, seeming
never to fight one another, nor to show aggressiveness of any kind.
When not molested they are very gentle and will feed close about a boat
or dock regardless of the presence of people, but they become alarmed
by any sudden noise. In captivity they soon learn to eat from their
captor’s hands.

Manatis are sluggish, stupid animals, without other defense than
their size. They are not rapid swimmers and are among the extremely
few herbivorous aquatic mammals. Unlike seals, whales, and their
allies, which feed upon some form of animal life, manatis feed on the
lush grasses and other vegetation springing from the oozy bottom of
the waters they frequent. When feeding on the bottom they use their
flippers to help move slowly about. In places along the Indian River
they are reported to approach the shore and, with head and shoulders
out of water, to feed on heavy grasslike plants hanging from the banks.

[Illustration: MUSK-OX]

While they are feeding the heavy bi-lobed upper lips work freely and
are sufficiently prehensile to seize the grass, or other plant food,
between the lobes and thrust it back into the mouth. The ends of the
flippers are sometimes used to help convey food to the mouth, like huge
hands in thumbless mittens.

[Illustration: FLORIDA MANATI]

When suckling her young the manati rises to the surface, her head and
shoulders out of the water, and with her flippers holds the nursling
partly clasped to her breast. This semi-human attitude, together with
the rounded head and fishlike tail, may have furnished the basis on
which the ancients built their legends of the mermaids.


KILLER WHALE (Orcinus orca)

The killer whale is a habitant of all oceans from the border of the
Arctic ice fields to the stormy glacial margin of the Antarctic
continent. So far as definitely known, there appears to be but a single
species. It attains an extreme length of approximately 30 feet and is
mainly black with well-defined white areas on the sides and underparts
of the body. Its most striking and picturesque characteristic is the
large black fin, several feet long, standing upright on the middle of
the back.

The killer usually travels and hunts in “schools” or packs of from
three to a dozen or more individuals. Unlike most whales, the members
of these schools do not travel in a straggling party, but swim side
by side, their movements as regularly timed as those of soldiers. A
regularly spaced row of advancing long black fins swiftly cutting the
undulating surface of the sea produces a singularly sinister effect.
The evil impression is well justified, since killers are the most
savage and remorseless of whales. The jaws are armed with rows of
effective teeth, with which the animals attack and devour seals and
porpoises, and even destroy some of the larger whales.

Killers are like giant wolves of the sea, and their ferocity strikes
terror to the other warmblooded inhabitants of the deep. The Eskimos of
the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea consider killers as actual wolves in
sea form. They believe that in the early days, when the world was young
and men and animals could change their forms at will, land wolves often
went to the edge of the shore ice and changed to killer whales, and
the killers returned to the edge of the ice and climbed out as wolves,
to go ravening over the land. Some of the natives assured me that even
today certain wolves and killers are still endowed with this power and,
on account of their malignant character, are much feared by hunters.

Killers are known to swallow small seals and porpoises entire and
attack large whales by tearing away their fleshy lips and tongues.
When attacking large prey they work in packs, with all the unity and
fierceness of so many wolves. The natives of the Aleutian Islands told
me that large skin boats are sometimes lost in the passes between the
islands by sea-lions leaping upon them in their frenzied efforts to
escape the pursuit of killer whales.

The killers are specially detrimental to the fur-seal industry, owing
to their habit of preying upon seals during their migrations in the
North Pacific and during the summer in Bering Sea. They also haunt the
waters about the Fur Seal Islands to continue their depredations during
the summer. It would be a wise conservation measure for the Federal
Government to have these destructive beasts persistently hunted and
destroyed each spring and summer when they congregate on the north side
of the Aleutian passes. Their destruction would not only save large
numbers of fur seals, but would undoubtedly protect the few sea otters
still remaining in those waters.


WHITE WHALE, OR BELUGA (Delphinapterus leucas)

The white whale, or beluga of the Russians, is a circumpolar species,
limited to the extreme northern coasts of the Old and the New Worlds.
The adult is entirely of a milk-white color, is very conspicuous, and
as it comes up to “blow” presents an interesting sight. The young
beluga is dark slate color, becoming gradually paler for several years
until it attains its growth. The beluga usually lives in the shallow
waters along shore, and not only frequents sheltered bays and tidal
streams, but ascends rivers for considerable distances. Plentiful along
the coast of Alaska, especially in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean,
this whale also ascends the Yukon for a long distance. It also comes
down the Atlantic coast and enters the lower St. Lawrence River.

The white whale is said at times to attain a length of 20 feet, but
its ordinary length is nearer 10 or 12 feet. It travels in irregular
“schools” of from three to ten or fifteen individuals and usually rolls
high out of water when it comes up to breathe. It enters sheltered bays
and the lower courses of streams, mainly at night, in pursuit of fish,
which furnish its main food supply. During the twilight hours of the
Arctic summer night, glowing with beautiful colors, the ghostly white
forms of these whales breaking the smooth blue-black surface of a far
northern bay add the crowning effect of strange unworldly mystery to
the scene.

When on hunting trips in early autumn, I camped many times on the banks
of narrow tide channels leading through the coastal tundra, and for
hours during the darkness of night, as the tide was rising, heard the
deep-sighing sound of their blowing, as schools of belugas fished up
and down the current, often only 15 or 20 feet from where I lay.

The oil and flesh of the white whale is highly prized by the Eskimos,
and they not only pursue it in kyaks with harpoon and float, but set
large-meshed nets of strong seal-skin cords off projecting points near
entrances to bays. Young or medium-sized animals are often caught in
this manner, but powerful adults often tear the nets to fragments.

The beluga frequents broken pack ice along shore, and one trapped alive
by the closing ice north of the Yukon early one winter was reported by
the Eskimos to have uttered curious squeaking noises when they attacked
and killed it--an interesting fact, as the beluga is said to be the
only member of the whale family to make vocal sounds of any kind.

When a school has its curiosity aroused by the approach of a boat or
for any other cause, the members often raise their heads well out of
water, one after the other, and take a deliberate look, then dive and
swim to a safe distance before coming up again.

The small size of the beluga has long saved it from organized pursuit.
Recently it has been announced that its skin has become valuable for
commercial purposes, and that many are being killed. If this continues,
these harmless and interesting animals are likely soon to disappear
from most of their present haunts, unless proper measures can be taken
to protect them from undue killing.


GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE, OR BOWHEAD (Balæna mysticetus)

The Greenland right whale is one of the largest of sea mammals,
reaching a length of from 50 to 60 feet, and has a marvelously
specialized development. Its enormous head comprises about one-third of
the total length, with a gigantic mouth provided with about 400 long,
narrow plates of baleen, or whalebone, attached at one end and hanging
in overlapping series from the roof of the mouth. These thin plates of
baleen rarely exceed a foot in width and are from 2 to over 10 feet
long. One edge and the free end of each plate is bordered with a stiff
hairlike fringe.

The northern seas frequented by these whales swarm with small, almost
microscopic, crustaceans and other minute pelagic life, which is
commonly so abundant that great areas of the ocean are tinged by them
to a deep brown. These gatherings of small animal life are called
“brit” by the whalers and furnish the food supply of the bowhead. The
whale swims slowly through the sea with its mouth open, straining the
water through the fringed whalebone plates on each side of its mouth,
thus retaining on its enormous fleshy tongue a mass of “brit,” which
is swallowed through a gullet extraordinarily small in comparison with
the size of the mouth. Among all the animal life on the earth there is
not a more perfectly developed apparatus provided for feeding on highly
specialized food than that possessed by the right whale--one of the
hugest of beasts and feeding on some of the smallest of animals, untold
numbers of which are required for a single mouthful.

The bowhead is a circumpolar species, which in summer frequents the
Arctic ice pack and its borders, and on the approach of winter migrates
to a more-southerly latitude. For centuries this huge mammal has formed
the main basis for the whaling industry in far northern waters, first
in the Greenland seas and later through Bering Straits into the Arctic
basin north of the shores of Siberia and Alaska.

Each large whale is a prize worth winning, since it may yield as
much as 200 barrels of oil and several thousand pounds of whalebone.
All know of the rise and fall of the whaling business, on which many
fortunes were built and on which depended the prosperity of several New
England towns.

Whaling served to train a hardy and courageous generation of sailors
the like of which can nowhere be found today. They braved the perils of
icy seas in scurvy-ridden ships, and when fortune favored brought to
port full cargoes of “bone” and oil, which well repaid the hardships
endured in their capture. Many a ship and crew sailed into the North in
pursuit of these habitants of the icy sea never to return.

Interest in the brave and romantic life of the whalers still exists,
though the most picturesque quality of their calling passed with the
advent of steam whalers and the “bomb gun,” which shoots an explosive
charge into the whale and kills it without the exciting struggle which
once attended such a capture by open boats.

It has been well said that no people ever advanced in the scale of
civilization without the use of some artificial illuminant at night.
The world owes a great debt to the right whale and its relatives for
their contribution to the “midnight oil,” which encouraged learning
through the centuries preceding the discovery of mineral oil. It also
furnished the whalebone which built up the “stays” so dear to the
hearts of our great-grandmothers.

The female right whale has a single young, which she suckles and keeps
with her for about a year. She shows much maternal affection, and a
number of cases are recorded in which the mother persisted in trying to
release her young after it had been harpooned and killed.

Every year, as the pack ice breaks up for the season, the bowheads move
north through Bering Straits. As late as 1881 Eskimos along the Arctic
coast of Alaska put to sea in walrus-hide umiaks, armed with primitive
bone-pointed spears, seal-skin floats, and flint-pointed lances for the
capture of these huge beasts. These fearless sea hunters, with their
equipment handed down from the Stone Age, were sufficiently successful
in their chase to cause trading schooners to make a practice of
visiting the villages along the coast to buy their whalebone.

From one of the whaling ships encountered north of Bering Straits the
summer of 1881 we secured a harpoon, taken from a bowhead in those
waters, bearing a private mark which proved that it came from a whaling
ship on the Greenland coast, thus showing conclusively that these
whales in their wanderings make the “Northwest Passage.”

Persistent hunting through the centuries has vastly decreased whales of
all valued species, and the modern steam whaler is hastening their end.
Their only hope of survival lies in wise international action, and it
is urgent that this be secured in time.

[Illustration: KILLER WHALE]

[Illustration: WHITE WHALE, OR BELUGA]

[Illustration: GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE, OR BOWHEAD]

[Illustration: SPERM WHALE, OR CACHALOT]


SPERM WHALE, OR CACHALOT (Physeter macrocephalus)

The cachalot is from 40 to 60 feet long, about equaling the Greenland
bowhead whale in size. It has a huge blunt head, which comprises about
one-third of the entire animal. The mouth is large and the under jaw is
provided with a row of heavy teeth, consisting of ivory finer in grain
than that from an elephant’s tusk.

The great whaling industry of the last two centuries was based mainly
on the sperm and the bowhead whales. The largest of the bowheads is
limited to the cold northern waters, but the sperm whale frequents
the tropic and subtropic seas around the globe. The main hunting area
for them lies in the South Pacific, but they frequently visit more
temperate coasts, especially when seeking sheltered bays, where their
young may be born. The young are suckled and guarded carefully until
old enough to be left to their own devices. Sperm whales sometimes
occur off both coasts of the United States, especially off southern
California.

The feeding grounds of these whales are mainly in the deepest parts
of the ocean, where they cruise about in irregular schools containing
a number of individuals. Their food consists almost entirely of large
octopuses and giant squids, which are swallowed in large sections.

As befits a gigantic mammal possessing huge jaws armed with rows of
fighting teeth, the sperm whale is a much more pugnacious animal than
the bowhead. There are many records of whale-boats being smashed by
them, and several well-authenticated cases of enraged bull cachalots
having charged and crushed in the sides of whaling ships, causing them
speedily to founder.

The sperm whale yields oil of a better quality than the bowhead. Its
huge head always contains a considerable number of barrels of specially
fine-grade oil, which produces the spermaceti of commerce. Ambergris,
having an excessively high value for use in the manufacture of certain
perfumes, is a product occasionally formed in the digestive tract of
the sperm whale.

The name cachalot is one to conjure with. It brings up visions of
three-year voyages to the famed South Seas, palm-bedecked coral
islands, and idyllic days with dusky islanders. As in the case of the
Greenland bowhead, however, this animal has been hunted until only a
small fraction of its former numbers survives and the romantic days of
its pursuit are gone, never to return.




THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS

INDEX TO TEXT AND ILLUSTRATION PAGES


                                            Text   Illustration
                                            page.     page.
  Antelope, Prong-horn                       452       451
  Badger                                     420       419
  Bear, Alaskan Brown--(_Frontispiece_)      441
  Bear, Black                                437       439
  Bear, Cinnamon or Black                    437       439
  Bear, Glacier                              437       439
  Bear, Grizzly                              440       442
  Bear, Polar                                436       438
  Beaver, American                           441       443
  Beluga or White Whale                      468       470
  Bison, American, or Buffalo                461       463
  Bobcat or Bay Lynx                         409       411
  Bowhead or Greenland Right Whale           469       471
  Buffalo or American Bison                  461       463
  Cachalot, or Sperm Whale                   472       471
  Caribou, Barren Ground                     460       422
  Caribou, Woodland                          460       459
  Caribou, Peary, or Barren Ground           460       422
  Cat, Jaguarundi, or Eyra                   413       415
  Coyote, Arizona or Mearns                  424       423
  Coyote, Mearns or Arizona                  424       423
  Coyote, Plains, or Prairie Wolf            424       423
  Deer, Arizona White-tailed                 457       458
  Deer, Black-tailed                         456       455
  Deer, Mule                                 453       455
  Deer, Virginia or White-tailed             456       458
  Deer, White-tailed                    456, 457       458
  Elk, American                              453       454
  Eyra or Jaguarundi Cat                     413       415
  Fisher or Pekan                            444       446
  Fox, Alaska Red                            417       418
  Fox, Arctic or White                       425       426
  Fox, Cross                                 417       418
  Fox, Desert                                420       419
  Fox, Gray                                  417       419
  Fox, Pribilof Blue                         425       426
  Fox, Red                                   416       418
  Fox, Silver                                417       418
  Fox, White or Arctic                       425       426
  Goat, Rocky Mountain                       452       451
  Jaguar                                     413       414
  Lion, Mountain                             412       414
  Lynx, Bay                                  409       411
  Lynx, Canada                               409       411
  Manati, Florida                            465       467
  Moose                                      461       462
  Muskhog or Peccary                         448       447
  Musk-ox                                    464       466
  Ocelots or Tiger-cats                      416       415
  Opossum, Virginia                          408       410
  Otter                                      445       446
  Otter, Sea                                 432       434
  Peccary, Collared, or Muskhog              448       447
  Pekan or Fisher                            444       446
  Raccoon                                    408       410
  Sea-elephant, Northern, or Elephant Seal   432       434
  Sea-lion, Steller                          429       431
  Seal, Alaska Fur                           429       431
  Seal, Elephant, or Sea-elephant            432       434
  Seal, Greenland, or Harp Seal              433       435
  Seal, Harbor                               433       435
  Seal, Harp, Saddle-back, or Greenland      433       435
  Seal, Leopard, or Harbor Seal              433       435
  Seal, Ribbon                               436       438
  Seal, Saddle-back, or Harp Seal            433       435
  Sheep, Dall Mountain                       449       450
  Sheep, Rocky Mountain                      448       447
  Sheep, Stone Mountain                      449       450
  Tiger-cats or Ocelots                      416       415
  Walrus, Pacific                            428       430
  Wapiti or American Elk                     453       454
  Whale, Greenland Right or Bowhead          469       471
  Whale, Killer                              468       470
  Whale, Sperm, or Cachalot                  472       471
  Whale, White or Beluga                     468       470
  Wolf, Arctic White                         421       422
  Wolf, Black                                          423
  Wolf, Gray or Timber                       421       423
  Wolf, Prairie, or Plains Coyote            424       423
  Wolf, Timber or Gray                       421       423
  Wolverine                                  428       427




SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA

BY EDWARD W. NELSON

CHIEF, U. S. BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

_With illustrations in color from paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes_


In that part of North America lying north of Mexico more than 1,300
species and geographic races of mammals are known to exist. Of these by
far the greater number, both of species and individuals, fall into the
class of smaller mammals.

Some of the most characteristic types which appear to have originated
in North America are the mountain-beavers, pocket-gophers,
kangaroo-rats, pocket-mice, wood-rats, white-footed mice, muskrats,
skunks, and ring-tailed cats.

In Siberia and Europe live close counterparts of our northern weasels,
minks, martens, field-mice, lemmings, northern hares, conies, marmots,
moles, and others; and on our southern border the armadillo and the
hog-nosed skunk introduce a faint tinge of a strange fauna from South
America.


FURRY FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

The muskrats, minks, martens, and skunks for many years have yielded
an enormous annual return from their furs; the squirrels and rabbits
afford sport and a large supply of excellent flesh for food; the
prairie-dogs and some of the ground-squirrels existing in enormous
numbers have been excessively destructive to crops; and others, like
the porcupine and the armadillo, have attracted particular attention
because of their strange characteristics.


ANIMALS THAT LEARNED TO “DIG IN”

The smaller mammals live everywhere, from the tropical end of Florida
to the uttermost lands of the frozen North, and from the seashore to
the limit of vegetation on the high mountains. The heaviest forests,
open meadows, rugged mountain slopes, arctic barrens, and sun-scorched
desert plains all have their small four-footed habitants. Many
modifications of parts and organs of the various species have been
necessary to adapt the small mammals to specialized modes of life.

This is strikingly illustrated in the case of those true rodents, the
pocket-gophers, which apparently found competition on the surface of
the ground so acute that they took the unoccupied territory below the
surface, where they live as miners and tunnel from place to place in
search of edible roots, with an occasional stealthy excursion above
ground to seize some of the food available there.

Another excellent illustration is furnished by the moles, which,
leaving the numerous closely related species--the shrews--to feed upon
insects above ground, have descended and, like the pocket-gophers,
live in tunnels which they make in the pursuit of earthworms and
insects below the surface; like the gophers, they, too, make occasional
excursions above ground in search of food.

The mink and the muskrat, representing the carnivores and rodents, have
rivals for their food supply on land and have become amphibious, being
as much at home in the water as on shore, one feeding on fish and flesh
and the other on aquatic vegetation. Certain forms of the squirrel
tribe are heavy-bodied and live in underground burrows, while other
more slender and graceful species make their homes in the tree-tops.


A DEPARTURE FOR EVERY NEED

Another member of this group, the flying-squirrel, has developed an
extension of the skin uniting the front and hind legs, so it may glide
freely from tree to tree. The bats have gone still further, and the
skin uniting their lengthened front and hind limbs and long finger
bones forms broad wings which lend them powers of flight scarcely
equaled by those of birds.

The gophers, pocket-mice, chipmunks, and others are provided with
little cheek pouches in the skin on each side of the mouth, in which
they may carry food home to their store-rooms and other hiding places.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

HEREDITARY ENEMIES: A CAT WATCHING A GRAY SQUIRREL

At one time the gray squirrel was so abundant as to make ruinous
inroads on the corn and wheat crops of our pioneers. In Ohio, a hundred
years ago, there was a law requiring each free white man to deliver
100 squirrel scalps every year or pay a penalty of $3. Today the gray
squirrel needs legal protection to prevent its extermination.]

The hares have developed long legs for running on open plains, and the
weasels have long, slender bodies and an exceeding quickness which
enables them to follow and capture their elusive prey in its burrows
and among crevices in the rocks.

The hairy coat of the mole is short and equal to the finest velvet,
while that of the porcupine stands out in strong, sharp spines; the
skin of the armadillo is practically hairless, but forms a bony armor
covering its upper parts.

The front feet of squirrels and most other rodents are slender and used
with deftness as hands in manipulating food, while those of the badger
and skunk are heavily clawed and strongly muscled for the purpose of
digging up their prey.

The tails of many species are varied in form to serve special purposes.
The long-haired tails of tree-squirrels have a plume-like character,
which adds much to the beauty of these attractive animals. The long
tails of the kangaroo-rats and the jumping-mice serve as balances for
their bodies during long leaps. The vertically flattened tail of the
muskrat and the broad horizontally flattened tail of the beaver are
useful as rudders. Perhaps the oddest of all is the naked prehensile
tail of the opossum, which coils about branches or other support and
thus is a safeguard against a possible fall, and even permits the
animal to hang suspended by it alone.


STRANGE ADAPTATIONS TO MEET CONDITIONS OF ENVIRONMENT AND COMPETITION

In such ways, by thousands of adaptations and modifications of the
typical four-footed mammal, are they fitted to their varied modes of
life, each so far as possible in some special place of its own.

The effect of the pressure of environment and competition upon the
various species of mammals in any region could not be better shown
than by the kangaroos of Australia. That continent is occupied by many
species of these peculiar mammals, some of which inhabit the open
plains like our jack-rabbits in the West; others have learned to climb
and live arboreal lives in the tree-tops; and still other members of
this group have become burrowers and live in dens underground like some
of our native rats and mice.

From the instances mentioned above it is evident that the mammalian
organism is very plastic and has been molded by the environment
to which it has been subjected during the ages. The larger effects
evidenced by profound modifications in the anatomy are the result of
continued pressure extending far back in time. The far more numerous,
modern, and superficial changes known to naturalists as geographic
variations are everywhere in evidence.

[Illustration:

  © F. J. Haynes

“BABES IN THE WOOD”

The American black bear, of which the brown bear is a color phase, is
not aggressive and will attack man only when wounded or in defense of
its young. The hungry twins were born in mid-winter and came into the
world entirely devoid of fur overcoats. Their coats soon developed,
however; in a month their eyes were open, and in two months they were
following their mother about the great forests of the Yellowstone.]

By the collection of great series of specimens in North America and
elsewhere in the world it has been proved that it is common for a
single species of mammal to occupy a great area, including such diverse
climatic conditions as humid forested districts near the sea-level,
sections of arid desert plains in the interior, and high rugged
mountain slopes. In each area of differing conditions it is ordinarily
found that representatives of a species, under certain conditions, vary
from those in other areas mainly in shades of color and in proportions.


GEOGRAPHY AND COLOR

In arid areas the colors are usually distinctly paler and grayer, in
the humid districts they are darker and browner. Other conditions also
effect these changes among members of the same species, as is shown
in some of the most arid and desert plains of the southwestern United
States, where mammals living among dark-colored lava beds are darker
than those found, sometimes within a few rods, on paler adjoining
soil. Complete isolation under the same climatic and other conditions
sometimes produces marked changes, as is well illustrated by the
difference between the Abert and Kaibab squirrels on the two sides of
the Grand Canyon in Arizona (see page 448).

The different forms of a species occupying areas under varying
conditions are commonly termed geographic races. They grade
imperceptibly into one another along the border between their ranges,
step by step with the gradations of the climatic and other conditions
which have produced their differences.


ANIMAL CHEMISTS CHANGE STARCH INTO WATER

One of the most striking modifications of mammalian economy by
environment is that shown in many small mammals of our southwestern
desert region and adjacent parts of Mexico, in which such species as
the kangaroo-rats, pocket-mice, prairie-dogs, and others are able to
exist under the most arid conditions without drinking. The liquid
necessary for supplying their bodily needs is obtained through chemical
action in their digestive tracts, whereby some of the starchy parts of
their food are changed into water.

Over considerable areas in the waterless deserts on the peninsula of
Lower California periods of from three to five years sometimes pass
without a drop of rain falling. In these areas the small desert mammals
named above, as well as wood-rats, white-footed mice, cottontails, and
jack-rabbits, are numerous and successfully pass these dry periods
without inconvenience. The absolute independence of water of these
animals has been demonstrated in southern California in the case of
pocket-mice kept for months in captivity in a box and fed solely upon
thoroughly dried seeds without their showing the slightest sign of
discomfort.

Our small mammals may be roughly classified by their food habits into
three main groups: Rodents, or gnawing animals; carnivores, or flesh
eaters, and insectivores, or insect eaters.


GNAWERS MOST NUMEROUS OF MAMMALS

The rodents vastly outnumber all other mammals and are typified by the
squirrels, rats, and mice; their food is mainly vegetable matter, but
many of them eat insects and meat whenever available. The carnivores,
including such species as the weasel, mink, and marten, are mainly
flesh eaters, preying largely upon rodents, but they also eat insects
and fruits of many kinds. The insectivores include the moles and
shrews, which, with all the bats found within our limits, are almost
exclusively eaters of worms and insects.

While rodents primarily feed on vegetable matter, it is surprising
to note the large number of species among them which commonly feed
on insects and have strong carnivorous propensities. This is not so
much the case with such larger rodents as the beaver, porcupine, and
woodchuck, but most of the smaller kinds, from squirrels to mice, have
been found to be confirmed flesh eaters.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

A MILLENNIAL SCENE: A RABBIT-HOUND AND A YOUNG RABBIT ENJOYING EACH
OTHER’S SOCIETY

Here the camera records a friendship almost as remarkable as that which
is to mark the association of the lion and the lamb in the final days
of the world’s history.]

The destruction of the eggs and young of birds, both on the ground
and in the trees, by these animals must have a far-reaching effect in
reducing the number of insectivorous and other small birds. Some small
rodents, as the grasshopper-mice, subsist mainly upon insects and flesh.

The naturalist who sets traps for small rodents in field or forest is
constantly annoyed by finding trapped animals partly devoured by their
fellows. When mice or rats are confined together in cages and provided
with an abundance of vegetable food, it is a common experience to find
that the stronger kill and eat the weaker ones, until in a short time
only a single survivor remains. These cannibalistic traits are strongly
developed in the common house rat, which is notorious for its savagery
toward others of its kind.


CASES OF CONCENTRATED FEROCITY

To a certain extent the ferocity of mammals appears to increase
in proportion to a decrease in their size. The smaller members of
the weasel family--the weasels--are relatively far more active and
bloodthirsty than the minks, martens, and other larger members of the
group.

If the common weasel should be increased to the bulk of a mountain-lion
and retain its nature and physical prowess, it would be many times
more dangerous than any existing carnivore and the devastations it
would commit would be appalling. Even the tiny insect-eating shrews
are endowed with a fierce and aggressive spirit scarcely equaled among
larger animals.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

A WEASEL AT BAY ON A TREE-TRUNK


Wolves, coyotes, and foxes are the natural enemies of this ferocious
little creature. In spite of its diminutive size, it is a foe to be
respected, for its attack is always aimed at a vital point--commonly
the brain, the back of the neck, or the jugular vein of its adversary.]

Rodents and insectivorous mammals are without effective weapons of
offense or defense against the birds and beasts of prey which beset
them. Many, however, are surprisingly courageous when brought to bay,
and, using their front teeth, will fight to the death with vigor and
spirit. This is especially notable of the muskrats and their cousins,
the field-mice. Carnivores, both great and small, have teeth and claws
with which to defend themselves against attack.


WHY THE SKUNK NEVER HURRIES

In addition, skunks have an even more potent weapon in the secretion
of a vile-smelling liquid which is sprayed on a dangerous enemy. So
confident are skunks in the efficacy of this weapon that they are
extremely calm and unhurried in their manners and take little trouble
to avoid an encounter with man or beast. Their odorous weapon is not
used among themselves and appears to be held for service against more
dangerous enemies.

Scent glands are common among rodents, carnivores, and insectivores,
but are ordinarily used for purposes of communication with others of
their kind, sometimes to attract the opposite sex and sometimes merely
to give notice of their presence in a locality.

The hard school of experience holding through the ages has taught many
of our rodents the necessity of lying up stores of food to meet periods
of scarcity. Many species store food in a desultory way whenever a
surplus is available, but when harvest time comes, at the close of
summer, the work is taken up as a serious occupation during many busy
hours each day or night by the species living where the severe northern
winters make the stores a necessity.

The storage instinct is possessed as well by many of the southern
desert species, where climatic conditions permit activity throughout
the year. In such regions the supplies serve during storms and in
periods of drought, when the yield of plant food is limited.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton.

ARMED NEUTRALITY: A DOG AND A SKUNK PREPARE FOR COMBAT


Once in a lifetime the photographer of wild life gets an opportunity
such as is recorded here. Luck was with the camera man, but not with
the terrier, as a moment after this picture was made the dog was a very
nauseated and embarrassed animal, the skunk having employed its natural
weapon with overpowering odoriferous effect.]


GOOD HOUSEKEEPING IN RODENT LAND

One can but marvel at the wise prescience with which northern rodents
gather their winter stores and hide them away safe from the weather
in secret places in hollow trees, old logs, crevices among the rocks,
or in neat storage chambers dug for the purpose adjoining underground
burrows. The size of the stores and the tireless industry of these
little husbandmen in gathering them might well serve as examples worthy
of emulation by some of their human neighbors. The seeds gathered are
freed from chaff, the grasses and herbs are dried as “hay,” and roots
are carefully cleaned before being stored.

The storing habit appears to be nearly always for purely individual
benefit. The food is usually stored in bulk, but squirrels and
chipmunks often bury here and there single nuts, which they are able to
recover long afterward through their extraordinary powers of smell.

Stores are laid by for a single season, and a single failure of a nut
or seed crop will cause the starvation of many small animals, and the
failure of the crops for two or more seasons is so disastrous that the
rodents may nearly or quite all die of famine over great areas. The
reverse of this occurs during successive years of bountiful nut and
seed crops.

An abundant food supply appears to be a powerful stimulant to the
fecundity of mammals, and the number of young at a birth, as well as
the number of litters born during a season, are greatly increased by
it, until their haunts fairly swarm with them.


THE EBB AND FLOW OF ANTAGONISTIC SPECIES

With this stimulated increase of rodent life goes a related increase
in the number of birds and mammals which prey upon them. The close
relationship between the numbers of rodents and of the carnivores which
prey upon them is shown by the records of the Hudson Bay Company, in
which with the increase or decrease in the abundance of varying-hare
skins secured by the fur traders goes a corresponding increase or
decrease in the number of lynx skins taken.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

IT IS NOT VANITY WHICH PROMPTS THIS MOUSE TO TAKE ITS OWN PICTURE

The bait is a grain of corn attached to one end of a thread; the other
end operates the camera shutter; but the pose is almost “studied”.]

After rodents become enormously abundant, if food becomes scarce
they sometimes make extended migrations, during which vast numbers
swarm across the country, like the lemmings of the North or the gray
squirrels during their historic migrations of early days in the eastern
United States. At such times vast numbers of the wandering hordes
perish; epidemic disease also plays its part in reducing their numbers.
Nature thus is self-limiting in restraining the permanent increase of
any species beyond the numbers needed to preserve its balance.

The advent of man in new regions with his clearing of forests,
cultivation of the soil, and destruction of animal life for food or
other purposes, quickly upsets the balance of nature, and some species
are much reduced in numbers or disappear, while others, especially
among the smaller kinds of mammals, may greatly benefit through added
food supplies, and then increase until they become a pest, to be
destroyed by the farmer as a measure of self-protection.


ANIMALS THAT SEEK SAFETY IN DARKNESS

For some reason, perhaps owing to their small size and defenselessness
against birds and beasts of prey, the great majority of small mammals,
including hundreds of species and untold millions of individuals, are
nocturnal or live such obscure and hidden lives they are unknown except
to the comparatively few people who go much afield, with all their
powers of observation alert by day and by night. Many of the mainly
nocturnal species pursue minor activities by day, where shelter of one
kind or another gives them a reasonable feeling of security.

Under the revealing light of day most small mammals, especially the
rodents, are extremely watchful and timid, leading lives filled with
alarms which commonly end in tragic deaths. By night they appear to
have far greater confidence; yet this also is a time of imminent danger
from the owls and many beasts of prey then prowling about.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

A NEST OF YOUNG WHITE-FOOTED MICE

One form of this small animal has been found living at an elevation of
from 15,000 to 16,000 feet on Mt. Orizaba, Mexico, the highest record
of any North American mammal.]

That the small rodents have good cause for their timorous ways is plain
when we consider the array of enemies which encompass them, including
owls, herons, gulls, bears, foxes, bobcats, weasels and their cousins,
with snakes, and on occasion fishes, which take endless toll from their
numbers. Fortunately for them, these small folk live wholly in the
present and quickly forget the shadow of death cast by the passage of a
hawk or the skulking form of a four-footed enemy.


COUNTLESS BEASTS THAT ROAM THE NIGHT

By day the squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, and spermophiles are
abroad and unite with the birds to lend an air of pleasant animation
to forest and plain. With the falling shades of night, near the
abodes of mankind as well as in the remote wilderness, everywhere a
countless multitude of small beasts come forth and form a little,
bright-eyed furry world, clad in delicate shades of gray and brown and
characterized by remarkable grace and agility.

These small folk of the night swarm out from snug nests hidden in
burrows in the earth, in crevices among the rocks, in hollow trees,
under logs or other cover, and even from the shelter afforded by
buildings. In number and variety of forms they far exceed anything seen
by day. The air is filled with the flitting forms of bats, while among
the trees or on the ground, varying with the locality, are multitudes
of rabbits, flying-squirrels, rats and mice of many kinds, lemmings,
pocket-mice, kangaroo-rats, pocket-gophers, shrews, and even moles.

This abundance of night life brings forth the prowling powers of
darkness in the form of velvet-winged owls, weasels, skunks, minks,
martens, and other carnivores, which by scent and by keen vision
find abundant harvest. The small carnivores, in turn, are subject to
the predatory law of might and are at times hunted by the larger
carnivores, as the great-horned owls, the wolves, foxes, fishers,
bobcats, and mountain-lions.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by George Shiras, 3rd

A MINK TAKING ITS OWN PICTURE BY FLASHLIGHT


This is one of many remarkable nature studies which have been made
possible by Dr. George Shiras 3rd’s invention and development of
animal flashlight photography, with the animals themselves as the
photographers. The naturalist may have to spend hours, sometimes
days, waiting in swamp or desert to study his quarry, but by means
of flashlight photographs the inhabitants of the wild are revealed
in their native haunts to all who read a story told in pictures. Dr.
Shiras’s notable contributions to this magazine have always won hearty
appreciation from members of the National Geographic Society.]

To most people the majority of small rodents are classed as “rats” or
“mice” and are viewed with the prejudice born of long familiarity with
those omnipresent pests, the house rats and mice. The small beasts of
field and forest are commonly of remotest kinship to these repulsive
household parasites and are of entirely different lineage, having
nothing in common but their size.


ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE AKIN TO MAN’S

When viewed with unbiased attention, these little animals of the wilds
are certain to charm the observer either by their beauty and grace or
by their varied and interesting habits. No one can long study mammals,
large or small, without observing many traits of intelligence so akin
to his own that they awaken feelings of friendly fellowship.

The modes of life of small mammals are much more varied than those of
the larger species. At times radical differences in habits may be noted
among different individuals of the same species, as instanced by the
wood-rats of Santa Margarita Island, some of which live in burrows dug
by themselves in the ground and others in nests built of sticks in the
tops of mangroves rising amid the waters of a lagoon.

An even more extraordinary variation is shown among the heavy-bodied
meadow-mice of the genus _Phenacomys_, most of which live in
underground burrows; but one member of the group in Oregon builds its
nests in the tops of tall conifers, sometimes at an altitude of 80
feet, and rarely or never descends to the ground.


PEEPS INTO FUR-FOLK HOMES

The homes of small mammals vary greatly. The species living in
underground burrows usually excavate an oval chamber which is filled
with fine vegetable material to form a snug retreat. The muskrat places
a conical lodge on the border of a marshy stream or lake. The wood-rat
lives in an underground burrow, in a nest of sticks and trash heaped
above the ground or in a stick nest placed among the branches of low
trees. Harvest mice build a little hollow ball of grass blades, lined
with finer material, among the branches of bushes several feet above
the ground. White-footed mice may lodge in a knot-hole 50 feet or more
above ground in the trunk of a tree.

As a rule, small mammals are of inconspicuous colors which harmonize
so well with their surroundings that when not in motion, especially
if lying close to the ground, they are difficult to distinguish.
Exceptions to this rule are obvious in the case of jack-rabbits when
standing on bare plains, or other mammals which are apart from the
usual partly concealing growth of vegetation or other surroundings.

In contrast to the protective coloration are certain markings, like the
cottony white underside of the tail of the cottontail rabbit, which
renders the flight of this animal conspicuous in the gloomiest shades
of the forest, or even on the approach of night, when it is impossible
to distinguish the animal itself. The white underside of the tail of
the antelope chipmunk is another well-defined instance of this kind.


NEW COATS FOR BOREAS’ COURT

The most marked of all examples of “directive” coloration among the
small mammals appears to be that of certain white-sided jack-rabbits,
in which the white areas on the sides and rump are drawn up and down
as the animal runs across the plains, giving a flashing effect, which
attracts attention to them exactly as does the white rump-patch of the
antelope.

In the northern part of the continent, where snow lies for many months,
several species of hares are dusky or buffy gray in summer and change
to a pure white coat in winter. This change is of enormous protective
value to these animals. In Greenland, where the summer is short and
snow exists throughout the year, the highest northern representative
of the hares remains permanently white, while near the southern border
of snow in the United States the varying hares and white-tailed
jack-rabbits, which become pure white in the northern parts of their
range, make only a partial change.

Weasels are the only carnivores which change from the brown of summer
to a white winter coat. Owing to their small size and the need for
activity in the snowy northern regions, where they would be peculiarly
susceptible to danger from birds of prey and larger predatory animals,
their protective white coats serve them well.

It was formerly considered that the change of mammals from the brown of
summer to the white winter coat in the fall, and from the white to the
brown in spring, was due to a change in the color of the hairs, but it
is now known that it is entirely due to molt. The time of these changes
depends on the season, and this varies several weeks, according to
whether the fall or spring is early or late.

The general shades of mammals are of delicate tints, and the spots,
stripes, and other markings, as in the case of chipmunks and the little
spotted skunk, are often of great beauty.


ANIMALS THAT HAVE TO SING

Small mammals vary greatly in their vocal powers, but the changes in
intonation and character of the notes and calls indicate plainly that
they are used to convey a variety of meanings.

Some are practically voiceless, as in the case of rabbits and hares,
except when in an extremity of fear they utter loud shrieks of terror.
Squirrels, prairie-dogs, and some other small mammals bark and chatter,
while mice and bats have a variety of curious squeaking notes. Marmots
and ground-squirrels have chattering notes and sharp, whistling calls.

In addition, some of the squirrels and many mice are known to have
continuous series of notes which are as evidently songs as the
utterances of birds. Some of these notes, as in the case of singing
mice, have a remarkably musical character, similar to the warblings of
canaries. Various unrelated species of mice have been observed singing,
and a closer study of the life habits of these small animals may
develop the fact that all are songsters to some degree.

House rats and mice have, undoubtedly, been parasitic about the
haunts of man from early times. From Asia they have accompanied him
through his advance in civilization. With the growth of commerce they
have traveled around the world, becoming transplanted to all lands
and thriving in all climates. In various parts of America they have
not only become pests about human habitations, but where climatic
conditions were favorable have reverted to the wild state and are
competing with the native species in the fields.

Of all the small mammals none have become modified to such an extent
as the bats. As a group these mammals are of world-wide distribution
except in the inhospitable polar regions. They are true mammals and
present an extraordinary variation in size, from tiny little creatures,
almost as small and fragile as butterflies, to the huge fruit-bats,
with a spread of wings like that of a wild goose.


BATS WITH BULLDOG FACES

The heads of bats are strangely sculptured, some being smoothly
contoured and shaped like those of little foxes; others appear like
miniature bulldogs; and still others have curious cartilaginous
nose-leaves upright on the muzzle. Some have the entire face molded
into a hideous mask repulsive to look upon.

Their habits are equally varied to meet special conditions: Some are
eaters of fruit alone; others feed solely upon insects, while others
bite other mammals, including man, for the purpose of drinking the
oozing blood, upon which they subsist. All are nocturnal, but some
appear late in the afternoon, before the sun sets; most species,
however, wait until the shades of night have covered the earth.

Throughout the world the majority of the species of bats feed upon
insects, but there are many fruit-eaters. The teeming insects and
plant life of the tropics afford a never-failing food supply, and the
center of abundance of these animals is found there. In some localities
between twenty and thirty kinds of bats exist, with such vast numbers
of individuals that the bat population far outnumbers all other kinds
of mammals combined.


ANIMALS THAT PUT THEMSELVES IN COLD STORAGE

In the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds many mammals, including
bears, marmots, prairie-dogs, ground-squirrels, and jumping mice,
pass a large part of the winter months in a lethargic sleep called
hibernation. While hibernating these animals have extremely slow and
slight heart action and their bodily temperature falls far below the
normal of their active periods. During the most profound hibernation
an animal may be awakened if brought into a warm temperature, but when
again put into the cold at once returns to sleep.

Preparatory to this sleep, during the summer and in the autumn, the
hibernating mammals become exceedingly fat.

It has long been generally accepted that the fat thus accumulated was
for the purpose of being gradually absorbed to nourish the animals
during their long fast. As a matter of fact, during this period the
bodily functions appear to be practically suspended and the animals
may be said to be in cold storage. This is evident from the fact that
observations have been made of ground-squirrels, and even bears,
emerging in spring, after their long winter sleep, practically as fat
as when they retired in fall. Hibernating animals become extremely
active as soon as they come out in spring and quickly lose the fat
which should be of special service to them, owing to the temporary
shortage of food they experience at this season.

Most hibernating species do not retire for the winter until cold
weather is at hand, in September or October, at times remaining out
until after the first snow has fallen. The animals which retire
latest, like chipmunks and prairie-dogs, sometimes appear temporarily
during certain warm periods in winter.

Recent observations have established the fact that the adults of both
sexes of the Richardson ground-squirrel living in the Northwestern
States and adjacent parts of Canada become excessively fat by the first
of July, and before the first of August practically disappear for the
season, not appearing again until they emerge the following March or
April. The retirement of these squirrels for a part of the summer is
a case of imperfect estivation, as it is termed, followed by complete
hibernation. The young of the year enter hibernation at a considerably
later date.


DEFENSIVE AND OFFENSIVE ANIMAL ALLIANCES

A great number of both large and small mammals live solitary lives
except for brief periods during the mating season or the association
of the young with the mother. Some species, however, like the wolves
and coyotes, may mate permanently and show great mutual affection and
constancy. Many species have well-developed social instincts, which
appear in some cases to combine two purposes, self-defense and the
desire for companionship.

Herds of large herbivorous mammals, such as musk-oxen and buffalo,
frequently present a solid array of bristling horns to the attacking
wolves, and thus protect the weaker members of the herd and give an
example of the usefulness to them of the social instinct. Wolves and
some other predatory animals hunt in couples or in packs and succeed in
pulling down prey which singly they could not successfully attack.

Prairie-dogs living in colonies have the advantage of community
intercourse as well as added safety through the chance that some member
of the colony will espy an approaching enemy and by its warning cry
allow a safe retreat. In other cases, such as the flying-squirrels,
which gather in considerable numbers in hollow trees or other shelter,
and the bats, which gather in caves, the congregation appears to be
purely from a desire for close companionship.

[Illustration: FOOTPRINTS OF NATURE’S WILD FOLK

BY ERNEST THOMPSON SETON

In the drawings accompanying Mr. Nelson’s article I usually give the
track of a normal adult animal in about one inch of snow, that being
ideal for tracking. Some of the smaller kinds are shown in fine dust.
The trail goes up or across the page at the ordinary gait of the
animal. The scale is indicated, but when possible the topmost set is
given of life size. While there are endless variants in each kind, I
aim to give the reader at least one typical set of each.

In all animals which bound, the hind feet track ahead of the front
ones. This is very plainly seen in the rabbits. There are two
arrangements of the fore feet when bounding: That of the rabbit (_b_),
in which the fore feet are usually one behind the other, and that of
the tree-squirrel (_a_), in which the fore feet are side by side. The
latter arrangement is associated with power to climb a tree. The former
means that the animal is purely terrestrial. These, however, are true
only as generalizations. There are exceptions in all species. The
ground-squirrels conform to the rabbit type. The tracks are, of course,
ideal, giving far more detail than is usually to be seen.]


=THE ANTELOPE JACK RABBIT= (=Lepus alleni= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 506_)

The antelope, or Allen, jack rabbit is one of the most picturesque of
American mammals. It is larger than the common western jack rabbit and
is strongly characterized by enormous ears, long, slender legs, short
tail, and contrasting colors. It is a member of the white-sided group
of jack rabbits, which are distinguished by the extension of the white
of the underparts well up on the sides of the body.

This group is represented in limited areas on our southern border
by two species. One of these, the Gailliard jack rabbit (_Lepus
gailliardi_), occurs on the grassy plains of extreme southwestern New
Mexico and is succeeded by other white-sided species southward across
the Mexican tableland and through interior Oaxaca to the Pacific coast,
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The other species, the antelope jack
rabbit, occupies a considerable area in southwestern Arizona, and with
its geographic races ranges southward through the coastal plains of
Sonora and Sinaloa to northern Tepic.

All jack rabbits are more or less closely related to the Old World
hares, the term “rabbit” having been so generally misapplied to them
by the early settlers in the western United States that the name is
now fixed by current usage. In Mexico and among the Mexicans of our
southwestern border the proper distinction is made and the jack rabbit
is termed _liebre_, or hare, and cottontail is called _conejo_, or
rabbit.

The white-sided species are more widely differentiated from their Old
World relatives than the other jack rabbits and are the southernmost
representatives of the true hares in America, reaching their limit in
the tropics a little beyond the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

The extension of the white on the sides of these species assists
in producing one of the most extraordinary examples of directive
coloration known among mammals. I had the pleasure of discovering this
one day in May, 1895, when hunting on horseback over the grassy plain
bordering the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. As I rode
slowly along, a big jack rabbit hopped deliberately from its form in
the grass a few yards away, and by the contraction of a special set
of muscles along the back drew the dark-colored dorsal area forward
and together so that it formed only a narrow band on the middle of the
back, with a corresponding extension of the white area on the rump and
sides until, as the animal moved diagonally away, it looked almost
entirely white.

At a distance of fifty or sixty yards it came to a stop, and expanded
and contracted the dark dorsal area, thus producing a “flashing” effect
with the changing area of white on the sides and rump. This solved
the riddle of the mirror-like white flashes I had often seen as jack
rabbits on the tableland had dashed away in the brilliant sunshine.
The same habit of “flashing” the white was afterwards observed in
the species of southwestern New Mexico and southwestern Arizona,
demonstrating the appropriateness of the name, “antelope jack rabbit,”
given them by the ranchmen.

Formerly the antelope jack rabbit of Arizona was common on the plains
about Tucson, where many were shot for rifle practice. They are now
comparatively scarce in that district, and are never so excessively
abundant as the common species of the West now and then becomes. They
have an extraordinary appearance as, with their great ears erect, they
stand poised on their long, thin legs. When alarmed, they leap away
with amazing celerity in long, high bounds. They are usually much more
shy and alert than the common jack rabbits and at times are far more
difficult to stalk than antelope. A peculiarly appropriate setting to
this remarkable species is found in the strange and wonderful growth of
giant cactuses, yuccas, creosote bushes, fouquerias, palo verde, and
other desert vegetation of the plains in Arizona and Sonora.

Like other hares, the antelope jack rabbits occupy forms under bushes
or in the shelter of little patches of coarse vegetation. The only
exception to this rule I have seen was west of the city of Guadalajara,
on the Mexican tableland. There one summer day, in the midst of a
lovely open valley covered with short, velvety green grass and dotted
with scattered acacia bushes, a caracara eagle suddenly swooped down
upon a young white-sided jack rabbit. In mortal terror the little beast
dashed away at great speed, the caracara casting at it repeatedly from
a height of fifteen or twenty feet and each time striking the ground
just behind. The young animal ran not less than five hundred yards,
straight for a little bush on a small bank, where it vanished as by
magic.

The caracara was close behind and, alighting, ran round and round the
trunk of the bush, craning its neck and apparently as surprised as
myself at this sudden disappearance. Riding over to investigate, I
found, partly concealed by coarse grass, the entrance of a burrow large
enough to admit an adult jack rabbit. It extended almost horizontally
into the bank for about eighteen inches, and then, turning abruptly to
the left, ended in a rounded chamber some fifteen inches in diameter,
in which the young jack rabbit lay snugly ensconced. It appeared
altogether probable that this burrow had been made by the old jack
rabbit as a shelter for her young, one of which in its extreme need had
again sought asylum there.

White-sided jack rabbits are frequently found in pairs, occupying
forms in close proximity to one another. More rarely several may be
found in a small area. When driven from the forms, they often run in a
wide circle, and in the course of half an hour or more may be detected
returning slyly and watchfully from a direction nearly opposite to that
in which they departed.


THE CALIFORNIA JACK RABBIT

(=Lepus californicus= and its subspecies)

(_For illustration, see page 507_)

The common hares, or gray-sided “jack rabbits” of the Western States,
are among our best known and most interesting mammals. They are
characterized by long, thin necks, long ears tipped with black, long
legs, grayish sides differing but little from the color of the back,
and a rather long tail, black on its upper side and dingy gray below.

They are abundant and generally distributed over a vast and mainly
treeless area in middle North America extending from western Missouri
and eastern Texas to the Pacific coast, and from the border of South
Dakota and the Columbia River Valley of Washington south over the
tableland of Mexico and throughout the peninsula of Lower California.
Within this region they range from sea level up to an altitude of over
9,000 feet. In the North they experience severe winters with much snow,
but never show any winter whitening of their furry coat, as do more
northern hares.

The gray-sided hares over all this extended range belong to a single
species, typified by the California jack rabbit. The area thus occupied
includes many different climatic and other physical conditions, from
the sweeping grassy plains of Kansas to the juniper and pine dotted
plateaus of the Rocky Mountain region, the foggy coast of California,
the hot cactus-grown deserts of the Southwest, and the cool elevations
of the Mexican tableland.

This varying environment has worked on the plastic organization of
the species and modified it into a considerable number of well-marked
geographic races which together make up the gray-sided group of jack
rabbits, in contrast with the white-sided group already described.
Some of the races are very dissimilar in color, but each merges
imperceptibly into its neighboring races, and the group thus forms an
unbroken chain of subspecies.

Like other hares, the jack rabbits are both diurnal and nocturnal
in habits. They do not burrow, but make forms among dense growths
of grass or weeds, or under bushes, where they lie hidden. It is a
question whether they have more than one litter a season, although it
is known that in some parts of their range young are born at all times
throughout the spring and summer. From one to six are produced at a
time, fully clothed in fur and with their eyes open. Within a few days
they leave the “form” and run about like little furry balls. Even at
this early period they are amazingly alert and skillful in evading
capture by quickly doubling and zigzagging when pursued.

[Illustration: A QUADRUPED WITH BIPED TRACK: THE COMMON CAT

The cat does not show its claws in the track. In walking, the hind foot
is set exactly in the track of the front foot; this perfect register
offers many advantages and makes for a silent tread. The track of the
cat will probably be noticed more than that of any other animal, owing
to the large numbers of them in every locality.]

Throughout its range the gray-sided jack rabbit is preyed upon by a
host of enemies, including wolves, coyotes, wildcats, eagles, and
several species of hawks and owls. As a result it has become extremely
cunning and watchful. It is a beautiful sight to observe the cautious
grace with which one that suspects danger but thinks itself unobserved
will quietly move out of its form, pause like a statue for a few
seconds, then raise its body into a sitting posture and look keenly
about, its great upstanding ears turning sensitively to one side and
the other, delicately testing the air for sound waves, which may spell
approaching peril.

If not alarmed it may then move slowly along by a series of easy little
hops, occasionally varied by the single-footed gait of most other
mammals. At such times the ears are often raised and lowered as though
worked by some mechanism. If the rabbit becomes alarmed, however, it
leaps away in quick, springy and graceful bounds, now and then making a
high soaring leap as if to command a better view.

These occasional high leaps mark the first stages of alarm. In greater
stress, when pursued by a coyote or other swift-footed enemy, the jack
rabbit indulges in no such showy performances, but gets down to serious
work, and developing marvelous action in a continuous series of
rapid, low stretching leaps, with ears lying flat along the shoulders,
it skims over the ground almost as swiftly as a bird. Coursing jack
rabbits with greyhounds was for many years a favorite sport in
different parts of the West. No other dog has much chance for success
in the open pursuit of these animals.

[Illustration: THE TRACKS OF THE JACK RABBIT

The tracks of the western jack rabbit resemble those of the cottontail
(see page 492), but the feet are seldom paired; a typical set is seen
in the lower left-hand corner. The bounds cover 10, 12, or even 15
feet each. The tail is held down, so that it leaves a mark in the snow
between each bound. Sometimes the animal makes a spy-hop--that is, hops
up high to look around. This is seen in the track.]

Ordinarily jack rabbits are mute, but when wounded and caught they not
infrequently utter a series of long-drawn wailing shrieks which are
movingly expressive of terror and pain.

Since the settlement of the Western States numberless predatory animals
have been killed and at the same time the cultivation of the soil has
produced a dependable increase in the food supply. These changes have
resulted in the sporadic increase of jack rabbits in many parts of
their range, from Texas to Oregon, until at times they have become a
serious menace to agriculture.

During such periods of abundance they invade fields and devastate
grain, forage crops, vineyards, and young orchards. In places they
sometimes actually destroy entire crops and force settlers to abandon
their locations. In winter they swarm about haystacks and destroy many
tons of hay. Depredations of this character were committed by them on a
considerable scale during 1916 in parts of Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.

During the early development of the San Joaquin Valley, California,
jack rabbits became such an intolerable pest that great community
drives were organized. Large woven wire corrals with wing fences
leading away several miles from the entrance were built on the open
plains. The occasions of the drives were made public holidays through
all the surrounding region, and people gathered sometimes to the
number of from 5,000 to 8,000. A great line of beaters was formed,
miles in length, and the jack rabbits were driven between wing fences
into corrals. Four such drives in Fresno County in the spring of 1892
resulted in the destruction of 40,000 jack rabbits, one drive netting
more than 20,000 animals.

At this time the level floor of the San Joaquin Valley was crossed by
numberless well-worn rabbit trails six or eight inches broad and one or
two inches deep, extending in long straight lines sometimes for miles.
On approaching a patch of large weeds one often saw twenty or thirty
jack rabbits dash out and, after hopping away a short distance, sit
with upstanding ears to look curiously at the intruder.

It is a general rule that when any species of animal becomes extremely
numerous it loses its ordinary wariness and, conversely, when its
numbers are materially reduced its wariness is greatly increased. The
periods of abundance of jack rabbits usually extend through several
years until, at the height of their increase, a contagious malady
suddenly sweeps them away almost to the point of extinction, as in the
case of the varying hare. A period of years follows during which their
numbers are slowly recovered.

Jack rabbits are specially adapted for life on great plains, where
speed and the ability to subsist on almost any form of vegetation are
prime qualities. They are as grotesquely characteristic of the Western
States as the kangaroos were of Australia, and have entered largely
into the literature of the region they occupy.


=THE VARYING HARES= (=Lepus americanus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 507_)

The varying hares, white rabbits, or snowshoe rabbits, as they are
known, form a small group of closely related species and geographic
races of hares peculiar to northern North America. They sometimes
attain a weight of five pounds and are about half the size of the
arctic hares, which they resemble in form, except that they are more
heavily built and have proportionately shorter legs and larger hind
feet.

With a single exception they become white in winter and change to dusky
or brownish in summer. The molt from the brown summer coat to the
white winter one occurs with the arrival of winter snows, the exact
time varying according to the season, the reverse change in spring
being governed in a similar way by the disappearance of the snow. In
the southern part of their range the change to the white winter coat
is less complete than in the North. There has been much controversy
over the manner of this change in color, some maintaining that on the
approach of winter the hairs turn white with the first snow. It has
been definitely proved, however, that both seasonal changes are due to
molt.

The Washington hare (_Lepus washingtoni_), which remains brown
throughout the year, is the exception to the rule of white winter coats
in this group of hares. It lives in the cool, dense forests of the
humid coast belt of Washington and adjacent part of British Columbia,
where the snowfall does not affect its pelage.

In winter the large hind feet of the varying hares and their long,
spreading toes are entirely covered with a heavy coat of hair, forming
broad snowshoe-like pads, which enable their possessors to move about
freely over the soft snow, a peculiarity that has given rise to one of
the names in common use.

In cool, forested regions varying hares range from Maine and extreme
eastern Canada, including Newfoundland, to the Pacific coast, and from
the stunted bushes bordering the northern limit of trees south to the
northern border of the United States and beyond, following the higher
Alleghenies to West Virginia, the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico, and
well down the Sierra Nevada in California.

As in the case of other species, these hares make “forms” in which
they lie by day, for they are mainly nocturnal in habits. The mating
season occurs in early spring, when the males become very restless,
several sometimes congregating in the same vicinity and occasionally
fighting and chasing one another about. At this time, as well as at
other seasons, snowshoe rabbits have a habit of thumping rapidly on the
ground, making a dull sound audible for some distance. This is probably
done with the hind feet, as is known to be the case with the European
rabbit.

The thumping is apparently a signal and may be a part of the mating
display, but is also used for warning purposes. Hunters in northern
Canada call these rabbits by making a harsh squeaking noise with their
lips. Sometimes they become so eager and excited on hearing this call
that with odd little grunting sounds they come bounding close up to the
hunter.

The young, varying from two to seven, are born in nests made of dry
leaves, grasses, and other suitable vegetation, warmly lined with hair
from the mother’s body, and usually hidden under brush or in dense
vegetation. The young, which have their eyes open and are fully furred
at birth, within a few days leave the nest and move freely about.
Although the mother snowshoe rabbit will defend her young at first even
at the risk of her life, when they are half grown she leaves them to
shift for themselves. Young hares of various ages when caught often
utter shrill squealing cries of fright and the older animals when
wounded and caught sometimes do the same.

Perhaps through living so constantly in low ground, among swamps and
along streams, varying hares become less averse to entering water
than most of their kind. In the delta of the Yukon River I saw many
places where they had crossed small streams in spring, their wet tracks
entering and leaving the water, thus furnishing unmistakable evidence.
Curiously enough, when caught by a flood they will take refuge on
stumps or other support and often remain to starve rather than swim
ashore.

In summer, owing to their nocturnal habits and the dense thickets
they inhabit, varying hares are rarely seen unless they are unusually
plentiful. In winter their presence is known by their conspicuous
tracks, leading in every direction through their haunts. A single
animal will in one night so thoroughly track the snow in a patch of
woods it gives the impression that several must have been there.

In river bottoms, among densely wooded swamps, these rabbits frequently
make definite beaten runways in the snow; runways are also made through
thickets in their summer haunts. This habit renders it easy to snare
them, and enormous numbers are thus captured every winter.

They feed on a variety of small herbage in summer and in winter
depend on buds, twigs, and the bark of shrubs and small trees. They
are specially fond of willows, and their winter distribution in many
districts is governed by the abundance of willow thickets.

Varying hares are one of the most important mammals of the northern fur
country. They are generally distributed and exist in such numbers that
they are an important source of food supply both to the Indians and to
such predatory birds and mammals as the great horned and snowy owls,
the goshawk, gyrfalcon, lynx, fox, ermine, fisher, and others. The
skins are also used by the Indians for robes.

[Illustration: FOOTPRINTS OF THE VARYING HARE, OR SNOWSHOE RABBIT

The great size of the feet from which the creature is named is a strong
feature of the track, distinguishing it from that of the cottontail and
others (see pages 489 and 507).]

Under favorable conditions they steadily increase until they become
enormously plentiful over great areas. After this swarming abundance
continues for several seasons it reaches a maximum, and then, as in the
case of many other mammals when similarly overabundant, a mysterious
malady suddenly attacks and sweeps them off, until within a year or two
they become rare over the entire area. The people of the fur country
believe these changes in numbers run in cycles of about seven years
each.

As the hares increase in numbers some of the birds and mammals which
prey upon them increase proportionately. This is specially marked
with the big northern lynxes. The skins of varying hares are gathered
and sent to the London fur market with other furs, including those of
lynxes. In the records of sales of the Hudson’s Bay Company there are
direct increases of the numbers of Canada lynx skins sold corresponding
with the increases in the sales of varying hare skins. As the number of
hare skins abruptly decreases following the outbreak of epidemics among
them, there are correspondingly abrupt decreases in the numbers of lynx
skins sold.

This correlation is shown in the records extending back many years and
illustrates the interdependence in nature between the various forms of
animal life. The far-reaching tragic effect of the sudden disappearance
of the snowshoe rabbits is not confined to the wild habitants of the
forest, as it has not infrequently brought starvation and death into
many lonely Indian lodges in the great northern wilderness.


=THE ARCTIC HARE= (=Lepus arcticus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 510_)

Many parts of the northernmost circumpolar lands are occupied by large
hares, which attain a weight of more than ten pounds. They are about
the size of large jack rabbits, but are more heavily proportioned, with
much shorter ears and shorter, stronger legs. There are several species
and geographic races of these animals, all of which are snowy white in
winter except for a small black tip on each ear. In summer the southern
arctic hares change to a nearly uniform dull iron gray or grayish
brown. The northernmost animals of Ellesmere Land and north Greenland,
where the summer is brief and severe arctic conditions prevail, retain
their white coat throughout the year.

In keeping with the cold climate of their territory, the furry coat
of the arctic hares is long and thick, especially in winter, when the
ears, legs, and even the soles of +he feet, as well as the body, are
heavily furred. The coats of the hares of north Greenland and adjacent
region are so heavy and fleecelike that during the spring molt they
come off in felted patches as the new coat is assumed, giving the hares
a curiously ragged appearance.

In the region between the areas in which the summer coat remains
wholly white and where it is completely changed to grayish, there is a
gradual transition, with the lessening severity of the climate, through
every intermediate degree between the two. As in the case of the
snowshoe rabbit, the large hind feet and long spreading toes of its big
northern relative are so heavily covered with hair that they form broad
fluffy pads, which enable the hares to travel lightly over the arctic
snowfields.

The distribution of arctic hares is confined to the barrens or tundras
beyond the limit of trees. They range practically to the land’s
end of northern Greenland and Ellesmere Land. To the southward in
North America they range down the coast of Labrador and across to
Newfoundland, where they are limited to the open barrens. They also
occur along the shores of Hudson Bay and follow the tundras bordering
Bering Sea to the peninsula of Alaska.

In Ellesmere Land they are reported to be extraordinarily numerous
at times in certain little valleys, and the fur traders on the coast
south of the Yukon Delta informed me of similar gatherings in spring on
gently sloping hillsides in that region. Photographs taken in Ellesmere
Land show many of these hares scattered over a small area, each
crouched in a compact form and all heading in the same direction to
face the wind. Such gatherings, at least those in Alaska, occur during
the mating period, after which the animals scatter over the area they
occupy.

An account of the big northern hares would be incomplete without
reference to the white-tailed jack rabbit, the largest of all American
hares and a near relative of the arctic species. It attains a weight
of twelve pounds or more and appears like a giant of its kind. It has
longer legs than the arctic hare and a longer tail. In summer it is
grayish or buffy, with a conspicuous pure white tail. Throughout most
of its range in winter it becomes pure white except the black tips to
the ears, but near the southern border the change to white is not so
complete as in the North. The distribution of the white-tailed jack
rabbit extends from Minnesota to the Cascade Mountains and from the
Saskatchewan River, in Alberta, south to southern Colorado.

Arctic hares have from one to seven young in a litter each spring.
Owing to the climatic conditions under which they exist, it is doubtful
if more than a single litter is born each year.

The manner in which animal life adapts itself to its environment
is beautifully illustrated by the arctic hares of north Greenland
and Ellesmere Land. There the conditions are rigorously arctic and
continuous winter night extends through a period of several months. In
all this region the scanty and dwarfed vegetation is covered with snow
and ice the larger part of the year. The hares living there are, with
little question, a geographic race of those living farther south, but
have developed into larger and stronger animals, with heavier fur, to
meet the sterner conditions of life.

Their claws are much larger and heavier, so that they may dig the snow
from the hidden herbage. Most marvelous of all, the anterior ends of
both jaws are lengthened and the incisors set so that they project and
meet at an acute angle, thus serving, tweezerlike, more readily to pick
out the lowly vegetation imbedded in the snow.

In most parts of their range arctic hares are scarce and rarely
encountered. Each winter during my residence on the coast of Bering
Sea the Eskimos killed only a few individuals. They were shy and
watchful and the hunters sometimes followed one on snowshoes all day
over the tundra without securing it. In the high North they appear to
be more numerous in places, judging from the number killed for food by
members of polar expeditions. Their flesh is excellent, but a little
dry. Their natural enemies include wolves, foxes, weasels, gyrfalcons,
and snowy owls, all of which share their desolate haunts and join in
destroying them.

The winter skins of arctic hares have a beautiful snowy white pelage,
which make warm garments and sleeping robes for the North, but are too
delicate to withstand much service.

[Illustration: THE COTTONTAIL RABBIT’S TRACK

The large set of four tracks at the top gives the maximum possible of
detail, which is very rarely seen. The lower figure at the right-hand
corner is a typical track (_tt_). At the set marked “sitting” the tail
mark is seen, and in this only are the fore-feet tracks ahead of the
hind tracks. The cottontail has five toes on the front feet, but only
four ever show in the track (see page 510).]


=THE COTTONTAIL RABBITS= (=Sylvilagus floridanus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 510_)

North America has several species of hares, but no typical
representative of the European rabbit. The American cottontails
and their near relatives, the brush rabbits and others, combine
characteristics of both the hares and rabbits, but are most like the
rabbits, of which they appear to form aberrant groups.

The cottontails are distinctly smaller than most of the American hares
and average from two to three pounds in weight. They are otherwise
contrasted with the hares by their short ears, proportionately shorter
and smaller legs and feet, and by the fluffy snow-white underside of
the tail, which shows so conspicuously as they run that it has given
them their distinctive name.

The American mammals to which the term “rabbit” may be properly applied
include not only the cottontails, but numerous other species closely
similar in form and general appearance, but lacking the cottony white
tail. As a group, these rabbits have a far greater distribution in
America than the hares. They range from the Atlantic coast to the
Pacific and from the southern border of Canada south through Central
and South America to Argentina. Their vertical distribution extends
from sea level to above timberline, attaining an altitude of more than
14,000 feet on Mount Orizaba, Mexico.

In the United States cottontails are so numerous and generally
distributed that they are well known to nearly every one. They inhabit
all kinds of country, from the deciduous forests of the Eastern States
to the grassy or brush-grown plains and pine-clad mountain slopes of
the West and the sun-scorched deserts of the Southwest. As a result of
this extended distribution and the variety of conditions in the areas
occupied, these rabbits include numerous species and geographic races,
which in some instances differ greatly in appearance.

Cottontails are especially common about the brushy borders of
cultivated lands throughout the country, and in fertile brush-grown
areas of foothills, valleys, and river bottoms of the West. They are
mainly nocturnal, and in areas where there is an abundance of natural
cover in the way of brushy thickets and dense grass commonly make
concealed “forms” in which they lie safely hidden.

In areas where shelter is represented by scattered bushes and a
comparatively thin growth of other vegetation they generally occupy
burrows in the ground. These may be holes deserted by badgers or
prairie-dogs or dug by themselves under a rock or other object.
Hollow logs or natural cavities and crevices among the rocks are also
frequented. When pursued by dogs, hares as a rule rely solely on their
speed for safety, while the cottontails take refuge in the first hole
they can reach.

Everywhere in their territory, as the shades of night approach, the
cottontails come forth from their hiding places and skip merrily about
in open ground on the borders of thickets and similar shelter, where
they search for the tender green vegetation on which they love to feed.
After it becomes too dark to distinguish their forms, the white tail
may be seen twinkling about in the dusk. During the night they are
often revealed in country roads by the head lights of automobiles.

Several litters of from two to six young usually appear during the
spring and summer. These are born blind and practically naked, their
unclad helplessness strongly contrasting with the open-eyed, fully
furred, and alert young of the hares at the same age. This is a
conclusive indication of the close relationship between cottontails and
European rabbits, the young of the latter being similarly, but even
more, undeveloped at birth.

The young of the cottontails are born in nests made of dead grasses
warmly lined with fur from the mother’s body. If above ground the
nest is placed in a little depression and so artfully concealed by a
covering of dead grasses that it can be discovered only by accident.
When caught, young cottontails utter little cries of alarm; the wounded
adults sometimes shriek in terror.

From the early settlement of the United States to the present day
cottontails have been so abundant that they have served as a valuable
source of our game food supply. They are hunted with guns and with
dogs, as well as being snared and trapped. Enormous numbers, running
into the millions, are killed in this country yearly, but they are so
prolific that they hold their own in a surprising degree.

Their abundance in many places, however, has made them a serious pest
to agriculture. They eat growing alfalfa and other forage plants, many
kinds of cultivated vegetables, young grape vines, and nursery stock
and even kill orchard trees by gnawing the bark from the base of the
trunks. As a result those who suffer from their depredations consider
them pests to be destroyed, while others look upon them as desirable
game animals to be protected by law.

As game animals the cottontails furnish some of the most delightful and
interesting sport available to American hunters. The scurrying zigzag
rush of a cottontail for the nearest shelter is so full of energetic
motion that it always excites a pleasurable thrill in the observer, and
even the keenest sportsman has so friendly a feeling for these little
animals that the escape of one of them from an unsuccessful shot nearly
always leaves a feeling of humorous amusement.

The cottontails have a secure place in American literature and
folklore. Who has not read the wonder stories of the adventures of
“Brer Rabbit” and ever after had a warmer feeling of fellowship for his
kind? The presence of cottontails is a source of pleasure to children
of all ages, and their disappearance from the wild life of a locality
creates a more deeply felt blank than would the passing of many a
nobler animal.


=THE MARSH RABBIT= (=Sylvilagus palustris= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 511_)

The marsh rabbit, or “pontoon,” as it is known in Georgia, is a
distinctively American species allied to the cottontails, but
distinguished from them by its more heavily proportioned body, smaller
ears, shorter and slenderer legs and feet, and shorter, nearly
unicolored tail. Its only close relative in the United States is the
swamp rabbit, known in Alabama as the “cane-cutter.”

These two species appear to be members of a Tropical American group
of which other members are the wood rabbits of Mexico, Central and
South America. The distribution of the group was probably at one time
continuous, but a change to arid conditions in northeastern Mexico and
Texas isolated the two species remaining in this country.

The distribution of the marsh rabbit is limited to the southeastern
coastal States from Dismal Swamp, Virginia, to Mobile Bay, Alabama. It
is common in suitable places in Florida. Its larger relative, the swamp
rabbit, ranges west from this area to Texas and up the Mississippi
Valley to Illinois and southeastern Kansas. Swamp rabbits are numerous
in the low, wooded coastal region of Louisiana. They are larger and
longer-legged than marsh rabbits and fleeter of foot.

Among all the rabbits of the world the marsh and swamp rabbits are the
only species which have aquatic habits. Both live mainly in marshes,
wooded swamps, and along the low wooded courses of streams. Other
rabbits and hares are occasionally known to cross water by swimming,
but the marsh and swamp rabbits live about the water and take to it
with all the freedom of a muskrat or mink. The marsh rabbit appears to
be the more aquatic of the two, as the swamp rabbit sometimes lives in
the forest, farther back from the water.

The Tropical wood rabbits are habitants of the dense forests, where
they are well hidden under the rank undergrowth. They are not known
to enter the water, but, like their northern relatives, make runways
through the dense vegetation they frequent. The marsh rabbits live
in cypress or other fresh-water swamps, heavily wooded bottoms, and
fresh water, as well as brackish marshes. They feed on a variety of
vegetation growing in such places and dig up such edible roots as the
wild potato and amaryllis.

Both marsh and swamp rabbits have several litters of from two to six
young each season, beginning in April. The young are born in large,
well-made covered nests, which are built of rushes, grasses, and leaves
and lined with hair from the parents. The nests, which have an entrance
on one side, are usually located in the midst of dense growths of
vegetation or on tussocks, in low, swampy places, and are sometimes
surrounded by water. In the most frequented parts of marsh and swamp
these rabbits make well-trodden trails through the dense vegetation.

When alarmed, marsh rabbits run for the nearest water, into which they
plunge and swim quickly to the shelter of aquatic plants or other
cover. When cut off from escape by water they try to avoid capture by
doubling and turning, but are so short-legged that they are readily
overtaken by a dog. The tracks of these rabbits in the mud differ from
those of the cottontails in showing imprints of the spreading toes.

In South Carolina Bachman once found numerous marsh rabbits in the
thickets about recently flooded rice fields and swamps. When he beat
the bushes the rabbits plunged into the water and swam away so rapidly
that some escaped from a Newfoundland dog which accompanied him.
Several, apparently thinking themselves unnoticed, stopped and remained
motionless about fifteen yards from the shore, with only their eyes and
noses showing above water. Thus concealed in the muddy water, with ears
laid flat on their necks, they were difficult to see. When touched with
a stick they appeared unwilling to move until they saw that they were
discovered, when they quickly swam away.

Later, when the water subsided to its regular channels, where it was
about eight feet deep, many of the rabbits were seen swimming about,
meeting and pursuing one another as if in sport. One which Bachman had
in captivity during warm weather would lie for hours in a trough partly
filled with water, with which the cage was furnished.


=THE PIKA, OR CONY= (=Ochotona princeps= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 511_)

The pika, little chief hare, or cony, as it is variously named, is
among the most attractive and interesting of our mountain animals. It
is about the size and shape of a small guinea-pig, with a short, blunt
head, broad, rounded ears, short legs, practically no tail, and a long,
fluffy coat of fur. While most nearly related to the hares and rabbits,
it has very different habits.

The pikas form a group comprising many species, much alike in general
appearance and distributed among the high mountains, from the Urals
of Russia through Asia and northern North America. In Asia they occur
mainly in the mountains through the middle of the continent south
to the Himalayas. In Pleistocene time they ranged across Europe to
England. In North America they are limited to the western side of the
continent, from the Mount McKinley region of Alaska down the Rocky
Mountains to New Mexico and along the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the
Mount Whitney region, in California.

Giving to these North American animals the appellation “cony” is one of
many instances in which the name of an Old World animal is brought to
America to designate a totally unrelated species. Once fixed in current
use, the misapplied term is certain to persist.

Pikas are among the few mammals which live permanently along the high
crests of the mountains, mainly above timberline, but they also descend
in rock slides among the upper spruces, firs, and pines. The altitude
of their haunts varies with the latitude, being between 8,000 and
13,500 feet in the United States, but in Alaska much lower.

In these cool, alpine regions the little animals live wholly within the
shelter of rock slides and among the crevices of shattered rock masses.
Their distribution is unaccountably broken, and although abundant in
many places, they are absent from many others equally suitable. Their
homes are in the midst of the flower-bedecked glacial valleys and
basins, the haunts of the big marmots and mountain sheep.

They are mainly diurnal in habits, and throughout the day may be heard
their odd little barking, or bleating note, like the syllables “eh-eh”
repeated at intervals in a nasal tone, resembling the sound made by
squeezing a toy dog. Occasionally they may be heard barking at night,
perhaps when disturbed by some prowling enemy. Their notes have a
curiously ventriloquial quality, which renders it difficult to locate
the animals uttering them.

Owing to their dull gray or brownish colors, the pikas blend with their
background so completely that when quietly sitting on a rock they
are extremely difficult to see. Even when running about at a little
distance they are not easily noted. Their movements are quick and they
scamper over the rough surface of a rock slide with surprising agility.

Little is known of their more intimate life history. Their young, three
or four in number, are born usually during the first half of summer and
are out foraging when less than half-grown.

Small, bright eyes and big, rounded ears give pikas an odd and
attractive appearance, unlike that of any other mountain animal. They
are extremely watchful and at the first alarm disappear in the shelter
of their rocky fortresses. Their little bark, however, continues to
come up from their hiding places with constant iteration. If the
observer will sit quietly at some good vantage point his patience will
eventually be rewarded by the appearance of the pika on the top of a
stone near the mouth of its retreat.

After a time, if everything is quiet, it resumes its scampering about
over the rocks or may come to the border of the slide and make little
excursions across the open ground after some of its forage plants.
Skipping nimbly from the border of the slides to neighboring patches of
vegetation, sometimes fifty or more feet away, the pika nips off the
stems of short grasses or other plants and taking them up, like small
bundles, crosswise in its mouth, runs back to add them to its “stacks.”
These sallies are quick little runs, made as though in fear of being
long away from the safety of the rocks. Caution is needful, however,
in a world where lurk such enemies as coyotes, lynxes, foxes, weasels,
hawks, and owls.

During late summer the pikas have the extraordinary habit of gathering
stores of small herbage in piles containing sometimes a bushel each,
usually well sheltered in dry places under the rocks where they live.
Pikas are active all winter, and these little stacks of well-cured hay,
containing a great variety of small plants, serve them as food during
the severe cold season, when at these high altitudes they are buried
under many feet of snow.

In pleasant weather, near the end of summer, visitors to the mountains
of Colorado, Glacier National Park, the high slopes of Mount Shasta, or
of the Sierra Nevada may have the pleasure of watching the pikas hard
at work doing their “haying.” One of their “stacks” in the mountains
of New Mexico contained thirty-four kinds of plants, including many
flowers. No one who once becomes acquainted with these unique and
gentle little animals will ever cease to remember them with friendly
interest.

[Illustration: THE TRAIL OF A FIELD OR MEADOW MOUSE

When compared with that of the deermouse, one notes the absence of the
tail mark and the rarity of the fore feet being paired (see pages 505
and 522).]


=THE PORCUPINE= (=Erethizon dorsatum= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 514_)

The porcupine is one of the most grotesque of the smaller North
American mammals. With a weight of from fifteen to twenty pounds, its
heavy body is supported on short legs, the feet resting flat on the
ground like those of the raccoon, instead of on the toes, as in most
small animals.

Its strongest peculiarity is the specialized development of most of
the fur into rigid, sharp-pointed spines or “quills” from half an inch
to over three inches in length. That the spines represent the underfur
of ordinary mammals is evident from the fact that they are overlaid by
long, coarse guard hairs, sometimes several times their length.

The spiny armament usually lies flat on the body, but when the animal
is excited or alarmed it may be raised, by special muscles on the
underside of the skin, into a bristling array of barbed points. The
spines are so slightly attached that when their points enter the skin
of an enemy they at once become free at the base. The points firmly
set in the skin of another animal, the spines can be withdrawn only
with considerable effort, and if left will gradually work deeper and
may traverse a considerable part of the victim’s body before finally
becoming encysted.

When assailed the porcupine turns down its head, arches its back,
and, on firmly planted feet with all its spines erected into a
bristling cover, awaits the enemy. The instant its body is touched the
club-shaped tail, armed with a multitude of spines, is swung vigorously
around and the animal so incautious as to receive the blow is pierced
by a host of stinging darts which, freed from the porcupine, remain
to torment the aggressor. This swift and effective sweep of the tail
has probably given rise to the idea that the porcupine can “shoot” its
quills when defending itself.

Despite its defensive powers, however, the porcupine is, on occasion,
successfully attacked by various enemies, including the mountain lion,
bobcat, fisher, and even the eagle and great horned owl. The fisher is
said habitually to kill and feed upon them, and the encysted quills are
commonly found under its skin.

The frightful effect of an ill-judged attack on a porcupine is shown
by inexperienced dogs after their first encounter with this strange
beast. That such an attack is a dangerous venture, even by the
craftiest and most powerful of its enemies, is well demonstrated by
occasional fatalities among large carnivores which result from the
great mass of spines imbedded in their heads and bodies.

The North American porcupine is a northern animal belonging mainly
to coniferous forests, and ranges from sea level to timberline. It
originally occupied nearly all the forested parts of the continent
south to West Virginia, southern Illinois, the Davis Mountains of
western Texas, and the southern end of the Sierra Nevada in California,
but was absent from the Southeastern States and the lower Mississippi
Valley.

While characteristically a woodland animal, at times it wanders from
forest shelters and has been found prowling about above timberline on
high mountains, and among alder thickets beyond the limit of trees in
the far North. They are usually silent, but at times utter a curious
squealing cry, and in addition have a variety of snuffing, growling,
and chattering noises.

In the forests of tropical America, from Mexico to Brazil, other and
shorter-quilled porcupines occur, characterized by smaller size and
slenderer bodies with a long tail, the terminal half of which is naked
and prehensile like that of an opossum. These animals inhabit forests
where no conifers grow, and are much more arboreal in habits than their
northern relatives. Still other and even more strikingly different
porcupines occur in Europe, Asia, and Africa, some of the African
animals having heavy spines more than twelve inches long.

All porcupines are true rodents, and the name hedgehog is erroneously
used when applied to any of them. Hedgehogs are small Old World
insect-eating mammals, which have their backs covered with
porcupine-like spines, but are in no way related to the porcupines.

The American porcupines are mainly nocturnal, although they sometimes
wander about by day. While largely arboreal in habits, they pass much
of their time on the ground and commonly have their dens in caves at
the bases of cliffs, under the shelter of large rocks, logs, piles of
brush, or in hollows at the bases of trees. They are sluggish, stupid
animals, with poor sight, and are unable to move rapidly, either in a
tree or on the ground.

Although on the ground they are extremely deliberate, in the treetops
they are even more sluggish and can be compared only with the sloth.
In consequence they are practically helpless in the presence of an
enemy except for the defense afforded by their spiny armor. That in
most cases this is effective is evidenced by their continued presence
throughout a large part of their original range where forests still
exist.

Porcupines are solitary animals, totally devoid of any qualities of
good fellowship with their kind, but the attraction of woodland camps
often brings a number together. They are exceedingly fond of salt and
persistently return to camps to gnaw logs, boards, or any other object
having a salty flavor.

They appear to be practically omnivorous so far as vegetable matter
is concerned and feed upon the bark and twigs of spruces, hemlocks,
several species of pines, cottonwoods, alders, and other trees and
bushes. In orchards and gardens near their haunts they eat apples,
turnips, and other fruits and vegetables and visit the shores of ponds
for waterlily pads and other aquatic plants growing within reach.

Ordinarily they eat patches of bark from the tree trunks, but sometimes
girdle the tree or at times denude the entire trunk. They often remain
for weeks in the top of a single tree, even in the severest winter
weather. I had a practical illustration of this on one occasion when
stormbound in a fur trader’s cabin at the head of Norton Bay, on the
north coast of Bering Sea, where a belt of spruces reached down from
the interior. We were short of meat, and when one of the Eskimos
reported that some time before he had seen a porcupine in a spruce tree
he was sent to look for it. A few hours later he returned bringing
the game, having found it in the very same tree where he had seen it
many days before, although we had just experienced a period of severe
weather, with temperatures well under 40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
It was on this occasion that I first learned the palatable qualities of
porcupine flesh.

Little is known definitely concerning the family life of these animals.
The young, from one to four in number, are amazingly large at birth and
appear fully armed with spines. Even before they are half grown they
adopt the solitary habit of the adults and wander forth to care for
themselves.

Porcupine’s have an intimate connection with the romantic side of
early Indian life in eastern America. Their white quills were colored
in bright hues by vegetable dyes known to the Indians and served to
make beautiful embroidery on belts, moccasins, and other articles of
aboriginal clothing until primitive art gave way to the more tawdry
effects of trade goods.


=THE JUMPING MOUSE= (=Zapus hudsonius= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 514_)

In several ways the jumping mouse is unique among American mammals.
Its strongest characteristics are a dull, rusty yellowish color, a
slender body about three inches long, a remarkably slender tail about
five inches in length, and long hind legs and feet, which are specially
developed for jumping, like those of a little kangaroo. In addition it
is provided with cheek pouches, one on each side of the mouth, in which
it gathers food to be carried to its hidden stores.

The long tail serves as a balance during its extraordinary leaps, some
of which in a single bound cover a distance of about ten feet. If by
accident one of these animals loses its tail, whenever it jumps it is
thrown into a series of somersaults, turning helplessly over and over
in the air.

The jumping mice form a small group of species and geographic
races closely similar in general appearance. They are the sole
representatives in North America of the Old World jerboas and are
themselves represented elsewhere by a single species occurring in the
interior of China. The jerboa family contains in addition many larger
and curiously diverse species distributed over a large part of Asia,
Africa, and southern Europe. Many Old World jerboas are desert animals,
some of them exact reproductions in shape and color of the kangaroo
rats of arid regions in the Western and Southwestern States and Mexico,
although they are in no way related to those animals.

Jumping mice are distributed over most of the northern parts of North
America from the Atlantic coast of Labrador to the Bering Sea coast
of Alaska, and southward to North Carolina, Illinois, New Mexico,
and California. They are nocturnal in habits and live in or near the
borders of forests, in thickets of weeds or brushwood, and in meadows
adjoining woodland areas or forest lakes. In prairie country they
occupy belts of woody growth bordering streams. In congenial locations
they range from sea level up to an altitude of 8,000 feet or more.

For winter homes they dig burrows two or three feet deep, in the lower
parts of which they excavate oval chambers and fill them with fine
grass and other soft material to make a warm nest. Other chambers
opening from these burrows serve as store-rooms for berries, seeds, and
nuts of various kinds, among which beechnuts are a favorite.

The nests occupied as summer homes are placed in shallow burrows a few
inches below the surface of the ground, or they may be in a hollow
tree, under a piece of bark, in a dense tussock of grass, or in other
makeshift shelter. In these nests the young, varying from two to
eight in number, are born at varying times between May and September,
indicating the probability that more than one litter is produced each
season.

When suddenly startled from her nest the female often flees with
several of the young clinging to her teats. She runs swiftly through
the grass, and if hard pressed will take a long leap, still carrying
the pendant young. It is surprising that such delicately formed animals
can make long leaps in thickly grown places and apparently land safely,
especially when carrying their young. In the flights of the mother some
of the young must be jarred loose, but when the alarm is over no doubt
she returns to find and rescue any that may be missing.

In the northeastern States jumping mice are common habitants of
meadows. They are equally at home in the rocky meadows of New England,
on the flower-spangled borders of rushing trout streams in the Sierra
Nevada of California, and the boggy glades of subarctic Alaska.

My first acquaintance with them was made many years ago, during haying
time, in northern New York. Hidden under a haycock, as the last forkful
was raised one of them was often revealed, and its startling leaps
always resulted in an exciting chase, which usually ended in the escape
of the strange little beast.

Unlike most of their small fellows of meadow and thicket, jumping mice
regularly hibernate, occupying the nests near the bottoms of the winter
burrows. They usually become fat on the abundance of food at the end of
summer, and in September or October, with the approach of cool weather,
enter their winter quarters and sink into the long, hibernating
lethargy. Sometimes two of them are found hibernating in the same nest.

During hibernation they are coiled up in little furry balls, the nose
resting on the abdomen, the hind feet on each side of the head, and
the tail wound around the body. The winter sleep usually lasts until
spring, but may be broken at any time by mild weather.

When hibernating the mice appear cold and lifeless, but if one is
carried into a warm house or even held a long time in the captor’s
hands it will slowly awaken and may become as lively as in summer. When
returned to a low temperature, however, it soon resumes its mysterious
seasonal sleep.


=THE SILKY POCKET MICE= (=Perognathus flavus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 515_)

Soft, shining fur, delicate coloring, and graceful form distinguish the
silky pocket mice from others of their kind. The family of which they
are members consists of rodents peculiar to America and includes many
other species of pocket mice and kangaroo rats. All are provided with
little pouches on each side of the mouth for gathering and carrying
food, have proportionately long tails, and hind legs and feet more or
less developed for jumping. Only in the most remote way, however, are
they related to the jumping mice of the jerboa family.

The silky pocket mice vary in size from the tiny yellow species
pictured on the accompanying plate, which weighs much less than an
ounce, to forms considerably larger than the common house mouse. The
little yellow pocket mouse is one of the smallest mammals in the world,
and in addition is one of the most beautiful of our small species. Its
bright eyes and the delicacy of its form and color, combined with the
readiness with which, in most instances, it appears to lose all fear
when caught and gently handled, render it extremely attractive.

As with the majority of other pocket mice, the silky-haired species
are limited to the more arid parts of North America, and range from
the Great Plains west of the Mississippi Valley to the eastern base
of the Cascades, to the Sierra Nevada, and farther southward to the
Pacific coast, and from the Canadian border to the Valley of Mexico.
Vertically, the range of these mice extends from sea level to an
altitude of more than 7,000 feet.

As with the majority of our wild mammals, little accurate information
is available concerning their life history. They are habitants mainly
of desert regions, where they prefer the areas of sandy loam, which
produce an abundance of scattered desert vegetation. They are nocturnal
and by day are seen only when driven from their nests. Their rather
shallow burrows are made in soft soil, the situation varying a little
with the species. Some species burrow only under the shelter of bushes
or other vegetation; others out in the bare ground.

Each burrow commonly has grouped in a small area several entrance
holes, which lead through tunnels to the central passageway, the nest,
and the storage chambers. Usually there is a little pile of loose dirt
thrown out on one side of a hole, or a group of holes may be in a
little mound of earth. The entrances are usually stopped from within
by loose earth, and if a person quietly thrusts in a short stick so
as to remove the earthy plug and let in the light he may see the dirt
suddenly returned to its place in little jets, as the occupant promptly
kicks the door closed again.

The young, varying from two to six in a litter, are born in these
little dens in warm nests of dried grasses. They have been found at all
times between April and September, thus making it apparent that several
litters are produced each season.

The silky, as well as the other kinds of desert pocket mice, do not
drink water, and, as has been shown by experiments, they may be kept
for months in thoroughly dry sand and fed on dried seeds without any
resulting discomfort. Through the long pressure of desert environment
they have developed the power to produce sufficient water for their
physiological processes by chemical changes in the starch in their
food, which are effected in the digestive tract.

Representatives of this group of mice are almost everywhere in the
arid parts of their range, and in many sandy localities are extremely
numerous and active at night, as shown by the multitude of little
tracks in the dust at sunrise each morning. Their presence in the
desert is indicated also by the many little conical pits half an inch
or an inch deep, where they have located small seeds and dug them up.

They lie close in their burrows during cold or stormy weather,
depending on their stores for food, but are not known to hibernate,
although in the northern part of their range they are confined to their
burrows for long periods.

At one of my camps in the desert of Lower California I found the
silky and other pocket mice excessively numerous and so short of food
that they swarmed about us at night with amazing lack of fear. My
experiences with them are given in the accompanying account of the
spiny pocket mice.

The silky and other pocket mice have many enemies, among the worst of
which are the handsome little desert fox and the coyote. Others which
continually prey upon them are the badger, skunk, and bobcat, as well
as many owls.


=THE SPINY POCKET MICE= (=Perognathus hispidus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 515_)

Pocket mice are divided into several natural groups of species, all
having certain characters in common, as a pointed head, lengthened hind
feet and legs, and external cheek pouches for carrying food. The spiny
group contains numerous species, the smallest of which is about the
size of a house mouse and the largest nearly twice that size.

They are more slenderly built than the silky species and have longer
tails, with the hairs lengthened along the terminal half, thus giving a
slightly brushy or tufted appearance. Their most striking character is
the distinctly coarser hair with long scattered guard hairs, like small
bristles, which conspicuously overlie the fur on the hinder parts of
the body and from which the common name is derived.

The distribution of the spiny forms, although nearly the same as that
of the silky ones, is a little more restricted. All belong to the arid
or desert parts of the West and Southwest, from South Dakota and middle
California southward to Michoacan, near the southern end of the Mexican
tableland, and throughout Lower California.

Some species inhabit the scattered growth of plants in sandy areas, but
they are more generally characteristic of harder and more rock-strewn
soil, rocky mesas, and foothill slopes. There a few species make
burrows in open ground, sometimes with a single hole, but most of them
make their nests under rocks, in crevices, or in burrows sheltered
by such desert bushes as Covillea, Bursera, Olneya, Cercidium, and
mesquites.

In these shelters pocket mice make little mounds a few inches high
and ten or fifteen inches across. The mounds have several entrances
on different sides, one of which generally shows signs of recent use,
although by day it is kept closed from within by loose earth. Each of
the many-entranced dens is occupied by a single animal. Early in the
morning, before the wind fills them with dust, tiny trails are to be
seen leading from these doorways toward the nearest feeding grounds and
all about their haunts.

The spiny and the silky pocket mice, sharing much the same arid region,
have the same food plants and are preyed upon by the same enemies.
The food of these mice consists mainly of small seeds, including the
wild morning glory, wild sunflowers, wild parsnips, and a multitude of
others characteristic of the various areas they occupy.

Pocket mice are strictly nocturnal or crepuscular in habits and appear
by day only when disturbed. If the plugged entrance to a burrow is
opened, however, it will probably be quickly stopped up again from
within by the annoyed householder.

The young, in litters of from two to eight, are born at irregular times
according to the latitude and general weather conditions. In the south
at least several litters appear to be born each year, the young being
noted almost every month.

When camping alone for a few days in the desert near San Ignacio,
in the middle of the peninsula of Lower California, I had a unique
opportunity to learn something of the peculiarities of the various
pocket mice. Three species were abundantly represented, including both
the silky and the spiny kinds. They quickly learned that good hunting
could be found in and about the tents for the rice grains and other
scattered food and promptly took advantage of it.

As soon as approaching darkness began to render objects indistinct,
from their burrows among the surrounding bushes they swarmed into camp
and were busy throughout the night minutely searching the ground under
the shelter tent for every particle of food. In order to see these
interesting visitors to better advantage I placed a candle on a small
box in the middle of the tent.

Five or six individuals, representing three species, often came
within the circle of light at the same time. At first all were shy
and when I made any sudden movement would leap in every direction,
like grasshoppers, and quickly vanish. The smallest of the species, a
member of the silky group, was the shyest of all and remained timid and
reserved.

The two larger species, representing both the spiny and the silky
groups, were much more bold and quickly became confiding and
delightfully friendly. Their attention was promptly attracted to rolled
oats which I scattered on the ground in a spot well lighted by the
candle.

Sitting quietly close by the bait where the visitors congregated I soon
had evidence that among themselves these little beasts are extremely
pugnacious. The first to reach the food would fiercely charge the next
comer and always try to leap upon its back, at the same time delivering
a vicious downward kick with its strong hind feet. Occasionally the
newcomer would charge the one already at the food.

When five or six were trying to secure sole possession of the small
food pile there was lively skirmishing about the premises, as they
alternately attacked and pursued one another over the sand and among
the boxes and other camp gear scattered about. Amazingly quick in
movements, they would leap now forward, now sidewise, now straight up a
foot or more in the air, with almost equal celerity; and the direction
of their movements when attacked was often unexpected. When running
about on the level sand they had a steady, swiftly gliding motion,
which their tracks showed was the result of a series of little jumps.

Both the spiny and the silky pocket mice became so confiding the first
night that when I put my hand on the ground palm up with a little
rolled oats in it the nearest pocket mouse would run to it, stop for an
instant to smell the finger-tips, and then mount and sit quietly on
the palm and fill its cheek pouches.

At such times the mice showed no uneasiness, even when raised in my
hand to within a few inches of my eyes in order that I might observe
their movements more closely. The motions of their front feet when
putting food into the pouches were so rapid that it was impossible to
follow them. The nose was held just over the food pile, and the cheek
pouches would slowly but visibly swell as they were filled until they
stood out like little bladders on each side of the head.

As soon as they were full the mice became uneasy to get away and would
run from one side of my hand to the other peering down the abysmal
depth of three feet to the ground without daring to leap. As soon as
my hand was lowered to the ground the mouse darted away to carry the
food to its store in the bushes twenty to thirty yards away, quickly to
return with empty pouches.

The mice soon became so tame that while they were on my hand or on the
ground I could with one finger of the other hand stroke gently the
tops of their heads and backs and even pick them up by their tails and
suspend them head down. When thus held they remained motionless, their
tiny front feet like little closed hands held against their breasts.
When lowered and released they would immediately resume the filling of
their pouches as though nothing had happened. Several individuals of
the dozen or more which made free of the tent had lost part of their
tails, so that they could be readily distinguished.

One of these little bobtails was so gentle and confiding that I became
much attached to it. It would permit all manner of familiar treatment,
such as being picked up by one foot or by the tail, or being turned on
its back. With this confidence came a sense of proprietorship in the
good things here so suddenly and mysteriously plentiful, as was shown
by his attitude toward his fellows.

Again and again when he was filling his pouches from a pile of rolled
oats in my hand I lowered it in a gently sloping position within ten
or fifteen inches of another mouse gathering food on the ground.
Thereupon the little bobtail in my hand would invariably leave the task
of filling his pouches and without hesitation leap down on the back
of the one on the ground. The surprised animal thus assailed from an
unexpected quarter always fled in terror.

After a short pursuit the bobtailed one would come running back and
instead of going to the equally inviting pile of food on the ground
would come straight to my hand and complete his task. The industry
of the little animals appeared to be tireless, as working swiftly
they made trip after trip with pouchloads of food to their stores and
quickly returned. One night I watched this strenuous work for two hours
until I retired.

The abundance and boldness of pocket mice and kangaroo rats at this
place led me to believe that there had been a former abundance
of their food here, resulting in a large increase in the rodent
population, but that it was then becoming scarce through a failure of
rain to renew the seed harvest. The invariable outcome in such cases is
for the small rodents dependent on seeds and fruits to be reduced by
famine until they become rare, where previously they existed in great
numbers. This is one of Nature’s processes whereby the danger of the
overwhelming increase of any species is automatically prevented.

[Illustration:

  Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton

YOUNG RED SQUIRRELS AND THEIR NEST

These cute little chaps were found cozily at rest in their nest in
a pine. They were routed out, however, long enough to have their
portraits taken. An effort was made to include the mother, but without
success (see page 556).]


=THE POCKET GOPHERS= (=Geomys bursarius= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 515_)

With the exception of the moles no other extensive group of American
land mammals is so highly specialized for a peculiarly restricted mode
of life as the pocket gophers. They form a strongly marked family, the
Geomyidæ, which includes various genera and many species, all very
similar in external form, but varying from the size of a large mouse to
a massively formed animal equalling a large house rat in weight.

Without exception they are powerfully built for their size, the head
and front half of the body being extraordinarily muscled to meet the
demands of their mode of life. The broad blunt head is joined almost
directly on the body. The eyes are small and have the restricted vision
to be expected from animals living underground. The ears are reduced
to little fleshy rims about the openings, and the short naked tail is
provided with nerves, which render it useful as an organ of touch.

The front teeth are broad, cutting chisels, and on each side of the
mouth is a large pocket in the skin used for gathering and carrying
food. On the front feet are long claws, which, when not being used to
dig or handle earth, are doubled under, against the soles of the feet,
so that the gopher walks on the back of them much as the ant-eater
walks on its folded claws.

Peculiar to North America, pocket gophers occupy a great area extending
from Illinois, Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific coast,
and from the plains of the Saskatchewan, in Canada, southward to
Panama. Their vertical range within these limits extends from sea level
to timber-line, at above 13,000 feet on some of the high volcanoes of
Mexico. The family attains its greatest development in that wonderful
region of plains and volcanoes lying about the southern end of the
Mexican table-land.

In the United States these animals are best known as “gophers,” but
in the range they occupy in the Southeastern States they are called
“salamanders” and in Mexico are widely known as “tuzas.” As a rule they
frequent treeless areas, but are found also in many types of forests
from among the palms and other trees of the tropical lowlands to the
oaks, pines, and firs on the mountain sides.

All members of the family live wholly underground, in many-branched
horizontal tunnels, which they are continually extending in winding and
erratic courses about their haunts. The tunnels are from two to about
five inches in diameter, according to the size of the animal, and while
usually less than six inches below the surface, the approaches to the
nest and storage chambers sometimes drop abruptly two or three feet
below the regular working tunnels to the level of the living quarters.
At intervals along the tunnels short side branches are used as sanitary
conveniences, thus enabling the occupant to keep the main passageways
in a habitable condition.

The courses of the underground workings are roughly indicated on the
surface by series of piles of loose earth brought up through short
side passages as the tunnels are extended. These little miners’ dumps
of earth vary with the size of the animal, sometimes containing more
than two bushels. The outlets of the passages leading to the surface
are kept plugged with loose earth. When these animals are numerous the
ground is thickly dotted in all directions with earth piles, and the
caving caused by the network of tunnels just below the surface renders
walking difficult. The perpetual industry of these rodent miners
outclasses that of the proverbial beaver.

Gophers are both diurnal and nocturnal, the gloom of their tunnels
scarcely varying except when one of the outlets is temporarily opened.
They are averse to light, and if the plug to a freshly made opening
is removed the observer may soon catch a glimpse of the owner as he
suddenly thrusts his head into view for a moment before again plugging
the door with earth.

Gophers dig their tunnels by using their teeth and the strong claws on
the front feet. The loose earth is pushed along the tunnel by the head,
the palms of the front feet, and the breast in little jerky movements
until it is ejected on the surface dump.

Owing to their poor sight, heavy bodies, and short legs, gophers are
clumsy and deliberate in their movements and peculiarly helpless in
the open. Apparently appreciating this, they rarely venture from their
underground shelter by day except when in grain fields or similar
sheltering vegetation. Here they sometimes run out two or three feet to
cut down a succulent stalk and drag it hastily within the entrance of
the tunnel, where it is cut into short sections and placed in the cheek
pouches if to be used as food or left on the dump if the object of the
cutting is finally to secure the seeds or head of ripening grain.

During the mating season in spring pocket gophers run about clumsily
from one burrow to another and may often be seen on the surface by the
light of the rising sun. Most of their short trips above ground are
made at night, when they sometimes swarm out and wander over a limited
territory. Their night wanderings are proved in California by the many
bodies which the morning light often reveals in the sticky crude oil
on newly oiled roads which the gophers have tried to cross.

From one to seven young are born in a litter, but whether there is more
than one litter in a season or not is unknown. The young when about
half grown migrate to unoccupied ground sometimes one or two hundred
yards from the home location and make tunnels of their own.

The food of pocket gophers consists mainly of tubers, bulbs, and other
roots, including many of a more woody fiber. Whole rows of potatoes or
other root crops are cleaned up by the extension of tunnels along them.
Sometimes the animals follow a row of fruit trees, cutting the roots
and killing tree after tree. In grain and alfalfa fields they are great
pests, and in irrigated country their burrows in ditch banks often
cause disastrous breaks.

The big tropical species sometimes exist in such numbers as to render
successful agriculture very difficult. Sugar-cane planters in many
parts of Mexico and Central America are compelled to wage unremitting
war on them to avoid ruin. I know of an instance on a plantation
in Vera Cruz in which thousands were killed during a single season
without stopping the damage from these pests, which swarmed in from the
adjacent area.

The large external cheek pouches of pocket gophers are used solely for
gathering such food supplies as seeds, small bulbs, and sections of
edible roots or plant stems and transporting them to storage chambers
located along the sides of the tunnels. Food is placed in the pouches
by deft sidewise movements of the front feet used like hands, and so
quick are they that the motions of the feet can scarcely be detected.
The pockets are emptied by placing the front feet on the back ends
of the pouches and pushing forward, thus forcing out the contents.
In their tunnels gophers run backward and forward with almost equal
facility, the sensitive naked tail serving to guide their backward
movements.

Pocket gophers are stupid solitary little beasts, with surly
dispositions, and fight viciously when captured or brought to bay. This
attitude toward the world is justified by the host of enemies ever
ready to destroy them. Among their more active foes are snakes and
weasels, which pursue them into their tunnels; and badgers, which dig
them out of their runways.

They are also persistently hunted day and night by foxes and coyotes.
Moreover, by day various kinds of hawks watch for them to appear at the
entrances of their dens, and by night the owls, ever alert, capture
many.

When one gopher intrudes into the tunnel of another the owner at once
fiercely attacks it. In some places I have seen Mexicans take advantage
of this characteristic pugnacity by fastening the end of a long string
about the body of a captured gopher and then turning it into an
occupied tunnel, through a recently made opening. The owner, scenting
the intruder, would immediately attack him, the combatants locking
their great incisors in a bulldog grip.

The movements of the string would give notice of the encounter, and
by pulling it out steadily both animals could be drawn forth and the
enraged owner of the burrow dispatched. In this manner I have known an
Indian to catch more than a dozen gophers in a few hours.

Pocket gophers are active throughout the winter even in the coldest
parts of their range, but in many places must rely largely on food
accumulated in their storage chambers.

Melting snow in the mountains and in the North reveals the remains of
many tunnels made through it along the surface of the ground. These
snow tunnels are often filled for long distances with loose earth
brought up from underground, and after the snow disappears in spring
the curious branching earth forms left, winding snakelike through the
meadows, are a great puzzle to those who do not know their origin.

In a state of nature pocket gophers are constantly bringing the subsoil
to the surface and burying humus. Over an enormous area they exist in
such countless thousands that their work, like that of angleworms,
is often of the most beneficial character. On bare slopes, however,
their work is highly injurious, as it greatly increases erosion of the
fertile surface soil and thus has its direct influence in changing
world contours.

When civilized man arrives in their haunts and upsets natural
conditions with cultivated crops the new food supply stimulates an
increase in the gopher population and their activities immediately
become excessively destructive and necessitate unremitting warfare
against them.


=THE KANGAROO RATS= (=Dipodomys spectabilis= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 518_)

The desert regions of western North America have developed several
peculiar types of mammals, and among them are none handsomer or more
interesting than the kangaroo rats. These rodents, despite their name,
are neither kangaroos nor rats, but are near relatives of the pocket
mice, which share their desert haunts.

All are characterized by a kangaroo-like form, including small fore
legs and feet, long hind legs and feet for jumping, and a tail longer
than the body to serve as a balance. In addition, they have large,
prominent eyes and are provided with skin pouches on each side of the
mouth for use in holding food to be carried to their store chambers.

The color pattern, like the form, of the kangaroo rats is practically
uniform throughout the group. Both are well shown in the accompanying
plate of _Dipodomys spectabilis_, the largest and most strongly marked
species. Its total length is from 12 to 14 inches; most of the other
species are much smaller.

Kangaroo rats of many species are distributed over most of the arid
and semiarid regions of the United States and Mexico, from Nebraska,
Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast of Texas west to the Pacific coast,
and from Montana and Washington southward to the Valley of Mexico
and throughout Lower California. They are especially numerous in the
southwestern deserts, where they are the oddest and most picturesque of
animals.

Although they have no near relatives in the Old World, some of the
African and Asiatic jerboas are externally almost perfect replicas of
the kangaroo rats in every detail of form, color, and color pattern,
even to the tail markings. This extraordinary likeness in appearance of
two widely separated and unrelated animals is made doubly significant
by the fact that both live in deserts and have similar habits.

Peculiarly desert animals, kangaroo rats live like the pocket mice,
without drinking, but obtain the necessary water through their
digestive processes. They are most numerous in sandy areas, and there
the earth is sometimes so riddled by their burrows as to render
horseback riding difficult.

Kangaroo rats are nocturnal and always live in burrows dug by
themselves. As a rule they prefer soft or sandy ground, but some
species occupy areas where the earth is hard and rocky. The burrows
of some species have only one or two entrances with a small amount of
earth thrown out, but others make little mounds with several openings,
entering usually nearly on a level or at a slight incline. These
openings are nearly always conspicuous, and while frequently near
bushes, no effort appears ever to be made to conceal them, and a little
trail often leads away through the soft earth.

The large _Dipodomys spectabilis_, which lives mainly in New Mexico
and Arizona, constructs the most notable of all the dwelling places of
these animals. From its underground workings it throws up large mounds
of earth, which gradually increase in size with the length of time
they are occupied until they are sometimes more than 3 feet high and
15 feet or more in diameter. From three to a dozen burrows enter these
mounds, usually at the surface level of the ground, but some are on the
slopes of the mound. The mounds, usually located in open ground, with
their round entrance holes from four to five inches in diameter, are
extremely conspicuous.

Although generally scattered at varying distances from one another, the
mounds are sometimes grouped in colonies. Well-worn trails three or
four inches broad lead away from the entrances, some to other mounds
showing neighborly intercourse and others far away to the feeding
grounds, sometimes 200 or 300 yards distant. One of the openings at
the side of the mound is usually the main entrance, and by day this is
ordinarily kept stopped with fresh earth. Within the mound and farther
under ground are dug a series of ramifying passages, among which are
located roomy nest chambers and store-rooms for food.

Kangaroo rats are not known to hibernate in any part of their range.
They lay up food for temporary purposes at least and do not go abroad
in stormy or cold weather. The northern species and those on the
colder mountain slopes must make large store against the winter needs.
Their food consists mainly of seeds, leaves of several plants, and of
little plants just appearing above ground. Tiny cactus plants and the
saline fleshy leaves of _Sarcobatus_ are often among the kinds gathered
for food.

The big _Dipodomys spectabilis_ appears to be more social than most of
its kind, as several may be caught in a single mound, and, as already
said, well-worn trails lead from mound to mound. A little noise made
just outside one of these mounds usually brings a reply or challenge
in the form of a low drumming or thudding noise, no doubt made by the
animal rapidly striking the ground with its hind feet like a rabbit or
wood rat.

When caught they at first struggle to escape, but, like a rabbit, do
not offer to bite, and soon become quiet. They have from two to six
young, which may be born at any season. Nothing appears to be known
concerning the number of litters in a year.

When in camp at San Ignacio, in the middle of the desert peninsula
of Lower California, I had an unusual opportunity to learn something
of the habits of one of the smaller species of kangaroo rat abundant
there. The moon was at its full, and in the clear desert air its
radiance rendered objects near at hand almost as distinct as by day.
Scattered grains of rice and fragments of food on the ground about the
cook tent attracted many kangaroo rats and pocket mice.

During several nights I passed hours watching at close range the habits
of these curious animals. As I sat quietly on a mess box in their
midst both the kangaroo rats and the mice would forage all about with
swift gliding movements, repeatedly running across my bare feet. Any
sudden movement startled them and all would dart away for a moment, but
quickly return.

Although the kangaroo rats did not become so fearless and friendly as
the pocket mice, they were so intent on the food that at times I had
no difficulty in reaching slowly down and closing my hand over their
backs. I did this dozens of times, and after a slight struggle they
always became quiet until again placed on the ground, when they at once
renewed their search for food as though no interruption had occurred.

One night, to observe them better, I spilled a small heap of rice on
the sand between my feet. Within two or three minutes half a dozen
kangaroo rats had discovered it and were busily at work filling their
cheek pouches with the grains and carrying them away to their store
chambers.

While occupied in this rivalry for food they became surprisingly
pugnacious. If one was working at the rice pile and another rat or a
pocket mouse approached, it immediately darted at the intruder and
drove it away. The mode of attack was to rush at an intruder and,
leaping upon its back, give a vigorous downward kick with its strong
hind feet. Once I saw a pocket mouse kicked in this way. It was knocked
over and for a minute or more afterwards ran about in an erratic
course, squeaking loudly as though in much pain.

Sometimes the pursuit of one kangaroo rat by another continued for
twenty yards or more. By the time the pursuer returned another would
be at the rice pile and it would immediately dash at the victor of
the former fray and drive him away. In this way there was a constant
succession of amusing skirmishes.

Sometimes an intruder, bolder than the others, would run only two or
three yards and then suddenly turn and face the pursuer, sitting up on
its hind feet like a little kangaroo. The pursuer at once assumed the
same nearly upright position, with its fore feet close to its breast.
Both would then begin to hop about watching for an opening. Suddenly
one would leap at the other, striking with its hind feet exactly like
a game cock. When the kick landed fairly on the opponent there was a
distinct little thump and the victim rolled over on the ground. After
receiving two or three kicks the weaker of the combatants would run
away.

The thump made by the kick when they were fighting solved the mystery
which had covered this sound heard repeatedly during my nights at this
camp. The morning light revealed a multitude of little paired tracks
made by the combatants in these battles. Such tracks in the sand have
been referred to as the “fairy dances” of these beautiful little
animals, but the truth revealed proves them to be really “war dances.”


=THE BANDED LEMMING= (=Dicrostonyx nelsoni= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 519_)

Banded lemmings are unique among the mouse tribe in their change from
the rufous brown, or gray summer coat to pure white in winter. With
the assumption of the white winter fur a thick, horny, padlike growth
develops on the underside of the two middle claws of the front feet,
which is molted in spring when the winter coat is lost. For an animal
living in the far North the usefulness of a white coat in winter is
evident, but no good reason is apparent for these curious claw-pads.

The summer coat varies remarkably in color and color pattern, and many
of the lemmings in their beautiful shades of chestnut, browns, or grays
are very handsome. They are more heavily proportioned than field mice
and the very long fluffy fur, which completely conceals the rudimentary
ears and tail, tends to exaggerate their size.

The banded lemmings form a strongly marked group, containing a number
of species inhabiting circumpolar regions. In North America they
occur nearly everywhere in the arctic and subarctic parts, including
Greenland, most of northern Canada, including the Arctic islands, and a
large part of Alaska, including some of the Aleutian Islands.

They range as far northward as vegetation affords them a proper food
supply and have been well known to many of the explorers of those
stern northern wilds. To the southward they extend into the subarctic
northern forests, where they usually keep to the open barren areas.

Not much is known of their life histories on this continent. They are
mainly nocturnal and live in burrows from two to three feet long,
ending with a nest chamber four or five inches in diameter, warmly
lined with grass and moss. Near the nest there is usually a branch
burrow a foot or more long which is used for sanitary purposes and as a
place of refuge when the main burrow is invaded.

In the nests during early summer litters generally containing about
three young are brought forth. Ordinarily the burrows open in
unsheltered places, but in wooded regions may be under a log or beneath
a bush or the roots of a tree. No runways lead out from the burrows as
is customary with many of their relatives. They are active throughout
the winter, making many tunnels along the surface of the ground under
the snow, which are revealed when it melts in spring.

These surface tunnels are their foraging roads, safe from most of the
fierce storms which rage overhead. At times, however, the snowy shelter
is blown away or some other cause brings the lemmings to the surface,
where they blunder aimlessly about, soon to be captured by some enemy
or to perish from the cold. As their infrequent appearance on top of
the snow is usually during storms, the Alaskan Eskimos have a legend
that these white lemmings live in the land above the stars and descend
in a spiral course to the earth during snowstorms.

Although banded lemmings never become so extraordinarily numerous over
great areas as the brown species, they become very abundant at times in
the barren grounds of Canada and the Arctic islands and migrate from
one part of their range to another. The best observation in regard to
this was made by Rae in June at the mouth of the Coppermine River. On
the west bank of the river north of the Arctic Circle he encountered
thousands of them speeding northward.

The ice on some of the smaller streams had broken up and he was amused
to see the little animals running back and forth along the banks
looking for a smooth place in the stream, indicating a slow current,
where they could swim across. Having found such a place, they at once
jumped in and swam quickly to the opposite side, where they climbed out
and, after shaking themselves like dogs, continued their journey as
though nothing had happened.

During the years I lived in northern Alaska the advent of winter was
marked by invasion of the storehouses by many brown lemmings and other
mice, but banded lemmings rarely appeared. When occasionally captured
alive, the old ones fought viciously, but the young were gentle and
quickly became tame and interesting pets. Their skins were highly
prized by the little Eskimo girls to make garments and robes for their
walrus ivory dolls.


=THE BROWN LEMMING= (=Lemmus alascensis= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 579_)

Few small mammals are so well known in far northern lands as the brown
lemmings. They form a small group of species having a close general
resemblance to some of the field mice, from which, however, they may
at once be distinguished by their much heavier proportions, extremely
short tails, and the remarkable length of the hair on their backs and
rumps.

They inhabit most of the arctic and subarctic lands of both Old and New
Worlds. In North America they are known from the northernmost lands,
beyond 83° north latitude, to the southern end of Hudson Bay, and
throughout most of northern Canada and all of Alaska, including the
islands of Bering Sea.

The extraordinary migrations of these lemmings have attracted attention
far back in the early history of northern Europe. At intervals, through
favorable conditions, they become superabundant over a large area,
and then a sudden resistless desire to migrate in a certain direction
appears to seize the entire lemming population. The little beasts start
in a swarming horde, sometimes containing millions, and traverse the
country.

In their travels they appear indifferent to all obstacles and
with dogged and unwavering persistence swim the streams and lakes
encountered on their way. Similar migrations have been observed at
various points in Arctic America, several of them in Alaska, where the
lemmings abound on the open tundras.

These migrations sometimes continue for more than one season, the
animals meanwhile being killed in countless numbers by disease, by
accident in field and flood, and, in addition, through the heavy toll
taken from their numbers by their winged and four-footed foes, which
always gather in numbers to accompany them.

The migrations sometimes wear out through the diminution in numbers,
and sometimes when they reach the sea, as in Norway, they are said to
enter the water and swim offshore until they perish. When one of these
swarms of rodents passes through a farming district it cleans up the
crops and other surface vegetation like a visitation of locusts.

These lemmings do not hibernate, but, active throughout the severest
winters, are abroad almost equally by day and by night. Their burrows
consist of winding tunnels, often many-branched and with more than one
opening. A dry bed of peat or a dense growth of moss is often pierced
by a network of them. Well-defined runways often lead away from the
burrows or from the entrance of one burrow to that of another.

Their tunnels run everywhere under the snow, with occasional passages
leading to the surface. When fierce gales blow away the snow or a
winter rain melts it, many lemmings lose touch with their burrows and
wander about until they perish from cold or are caught by some enemy.
They are sometimes found several miles from shore, where they have
strayed out on the sea ice.

In winter in the fur countries, in company with field mice, they invade
storehouses and habitations in search of food. Among their enemies are
ravens and all northern hawks and owls, as well as foxes, weasels,
lynxes, bears, and other beasts of prey of all degree.

Within their underground tunnels and often in dense vegetation on the
surface lemmings make warmly lined nests of grass and moss in which
their young, from two to eight in number, are born. The young appear at
varying times, thus indicating several litters each year.

When taken alive, the old ones are fierce and courageous, growling and
fighting savagely; but several half-grown young brought me during my
residence in Alaska proved to be most amusing and inoffensive little
creatures. From the first they permitted me to handle them without
offering to bite and showed no signs of fear.

They were kept in a deep tin box, from which they made continual
efforts to escape. When I extended one finger near the bottom of the
box they would stand erect on their hind feet and reach up toward
it, using their forepaws like little hands. If my finger was lowered
sufficiently they would climb up into my hand and thence to my
shoulder, showing no sign of haste, but much curiosity, continually
sniffing with their noses and peering at everything with their bright
beadlike eyes.

They were curiously expert in walking on their hind feet, holding the
body in an upright position and taking short steps. If anything was
held just out of reach above their heads, as the point of my finger,
they would continue in an erect position for a considerable time. At
such times they would reach up with their front paws and often spring
up on their hind feet for half an inch above the floor trying to
touch it. When eating they sat upright on their haunches, like little
marmots, and held the food in their front paws.


=THE COMMON FIELD MOUSE, OR MEADOW MOUSE= (=Microtus
pennsylvanicus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 522_)

The Pennsylvania meadow mouse is a small species about as long in body
as the house mouse, but much more heavily proportioned. Its head is
rounded, the eyes small and beadlike, the legs and tail are short, and
the comparatively coarse fur is so long that it almost conceals the
short, rounded ears.

It is a typical representative of a group of small mammals commonly
known as field mice, or “bear mice,” which includes a great number of
species closely similar in general appearance, but varying much in
size. In England they are termed voles, and large species living about
the water in England and northern Europe are known as “water rats.”

Field mice are circumpolar in distribution and abound from the
Arctic barrens, beyond the limit of trees, to southern Europe and the
Himalayas, in the Old World, and to the southern United States and
along high mountains through Mexico and Guatemala, in Central America.
They occur in most parts of the United States except in some of the
hotter and more arid sections.

As a rule field mice prefer low-lying fertile land, as grassy meadows,
but the banks of streams, the rank growths of swamps and marshes, the
borders of damp woodlands, the grassy places on Arctic tundras, or the
dwarfed vegetation of glacial slopes and valleys above timber-line on
high mountains furnish homes for one species or another.

Two, and even three, species of field mice are sometimes found in the
same locality, but each kind usually occupies a situation differing in
some way from that chosen by the others. Some occupy comparatively dry
ground and others, like the European water rat, live in marshes and are
almost as aquatic as the muskrat. Most species living about the water
are expert in diving and in swimming, even under water. In streams
inhabited by large trout they are often caught and eaten by the fish.

The presence of field mice is nearly always indicated by smoothly worn
little roads or runways about an inch in width, which form a network
among the vegetation in their haunts. These runways lead away from the
entrances of their burrows and wind through the vegetation to their
feeding grounds. They are kept clean and free from straws and other
small obstructions, so that the owners when alarmed may run swiftly to
the shelter of their burrows. Fully conscious of their helplessness,
meadow mice are as cautious as the necessities of existence will permit.

Their burrows are often in the midst of grassy meadows, as well as
under the shelter of logs, rocks, tussocks of grass, or roots of trees,
and lead to underground chambers filled with large nests of dry grass,
which shelter the owner in winter and often in summer. The summer nests
in many places, especially in damp meadows or marshes, are made in
little hollows in the surface or in tussocks of grass. In these nests
several litters containing from four to eleven young are born each year.

It is rarely that an observer is located where he can study the
every-day lives of little animals like the meadow mice and at the same
time go on with his regular occupation. At one of my mountain camps in
Mexico I fortunately pitched my tent on a patch of lawn-like grass in
front of the ruins of an abandoned hut. Runways of field mice formed a
network everywhere in the surrounding growth of grass and weeds.

[Illustration: ANTELOPE JACK RABBIT

_Lepus alleni_]

For hours at a time as I worked quietly in the tent the many mice,
unconscious of my presence, came silently along their little roads
through the tall vegetation to the border of the short grass. Just
within the shelter of the tall growth they would each time stop and
remain watchfully immovable for a half minute, and then, if everything
was quiet, make a swift run two or three feet into the open, bite
off a tender little grass blade and dash back to the sheltered road.
There they would sit up squirrel-like, holding the grass blades in
their forepaws and eating them rapidly, or would sometimes carry the
food back to the burrows.

[Illustration: CALIFORNIA JACK RABBIT

_Lepus californicus_]

[Illustration: VARYING HARE, or SNOWSHOE RABBIT

_Lepus americanus_]

Occasionally as the mice darted into the open I made a slight squeaking
noise and perhaps two or three in sight at the time would instantly
turn and dash back into the sheltered road, sometimes not reappearing
for a long time. Again and again I saw them come into the open for
food, and before securing it suddenly scamper back in a panic without
apparent cause for alarm.

Eternal vigilance is the only defense such animals have, and despite
their watchfulness myriads of them are devoured daily by a large number
of rapacious birds and mammals, including even such huge beasts as
the great Alaskan brown and grizzly bears, which dig them from their
burrows on grassy northern mountain sides.

Despite their numerous natural enemies field mice are so prolific they
continue among the most destructive of agricultural pests. They are so
obscure and the damage by a single mouse appears so insignificant, that
it requires a knowledge of their habits, their wide distribution, and
their enormous numbers to appreciate what a serious drain they are on
the farmer’s income, even when in their normal numbers.

In summer they feed on growing grass, clover, alfalfa, and grain,
seeds, bulbs, root crops, and garden vegetables. In fall they
congregate under shocks to feed on the grain, and in winter often do
enormous injury to young or even well-grown fruit and other trees by
gnawing off the bark on the base of the trunk and roots, sometimes in
this way destroying entire orchards and nurseries.

One species in California destroys large quantities of raisins drying
in the field by carrying them off to some shelter, where they cut out
the seeds and leave the rest of the fruit. I have seen half a pound of
raisins under a piece of board, the result of the night’s work of a
single mouse.

While field mice are always destructive, at intervals they have sudden
and mysterious accelerations of increase and become so excessively
abundant that they are a veritable plague. Many instances of this are
on record in the Old World, where they have become so numerous as to
call forth governmental intervention.

The most notable recent outbreak of this kind in the United States took
place in the Humboldt Valley, Nevada, where, during the winters from
1906 to 1908, they swarmed over the cultivated parts of the valley and
completely destroyed 18,000 acres of alfalfa, even devouring the roots
of the plants. During this outbreak the mice in the alfalfa fields were
estimated to number as high as 12,000 to the acre.

Whenever field mice become over-abundant notice appears to go out among
their natural enemies, and in extraordinary numbers hawks, owls, crows,
ravens, sea gulls, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, weasels, and other animals
appear to prey upon them.

At no season of the year are they free from their foes, for they remain
active throughout the winter, and most species apparently lay up no
winter store of food. They travel to winter feeding places through
series of tunnels under the snow, and it is mainly at this season that
they do the most serious damage to orchards and shrubbery.

In the far North at the beginning of winter they gather in large
numbers about the fur-trading stations and other habitations, where
they persistently invade the food supplies.

Some of the northern mice, however, gather stores of food for winter. A
species living along the coast of the Bering Sea and elsewhere on the
Arctic tundra of Alaska accumulates a quart or more of little bulbous
grass roots, which are delicious when boiled. They are hidden in nests
of grass and moss among the surface vegetation, and before the first
snowfall I have seen the Eskimo women searching for them by prodding
likely places with a long stick. The roots thus taken from the mice are
kept to be served as a delicacy to guests during winter festivals.


=THE PINE MOUSE= (=Pitymys pinetorum= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 522_)

The pine mice form a small group of species peculiar to North America
and closely related to the field mice. They are similar in form to the
common field mice of the Eastern States, but are usually smaller, with
much shorter tails and shorter, finer, and more glossy fur.

Most of the pine mice are limited to the wooded region of the States
between the Atlantic coast and the eastern border of the Great Plains,
and from the Hudson River valley and the border of the Great Lakes
south to the Gulf coast. Strangely enough, one species lives in a
restricted belt covered with tropical forest along the middle eastern
slope of the Cordillera, which forms the eastern wall of the Mexican
tableland, on the border between the States of Vera Cruz and Puebla.

Pine mice occupy the borders of thin forests and brushy areas, from
which they work out into the open borderlands, especially in orchards
or other places where there are scattered trees amid a rank growth of
weeds. Instead of making their runways among growing vegetation on the
surface of the ground like field mice, they live in little underground
tunnels or burrows which extend in all directions through their haunts.
These tunnels are closely like those of the common mole except that
they are smaller and have frequent openings to the surface, through
which the owners make short excursions for food. They often utilize the
tunnels of moles when conveniently located for their purposes.

The tunnels are often so near the surface that the ground is slightly
uplifted or broken as by a mole, or they are made under the fallen
leaves and other small decaying vegetable matter covering the ground
under the trees. Occasionally, when the surface soil becomes dry and
hard, the burrows are deeper, so that no surface indications can
be discovered. On account of the similarity of their burrows the
depredations of pine mice are commonly attributed to moles.

Several inches below the surface pine mice excavate oval chambers to
be used for nests or for storage purposes. The nest chambers have
several entrances from ramifying tunnels and are filled with short fine
pieces of grass, making a warm nest-ball. Here the several litters of
young are born each year. Pine mice are less prolific than field mice,
however, and the litters contain only from one to four young.

The food chambers are larger than the nest chambers, and when full of
stores are kept closed with earth. In these are stored short sections
of green or dry grasses, bulbous grass roots, and short sections of
other edible roots. One such store contained about three quarts of the
fleshy roots of a morning glory cut into short sections.

Pine mice obtain much of their food from the bark about the bases and
roots of trees, including both coniferous and deciduous species. They
kill many small trees and shrubs by girdling, or by cutting the roots
below the surface, and in this way frequently inflict severe damage in
orchards and nurseries. Owing to their underground habits they are much
more dangerous to orchards than field mice. They also do much damage by
burrowing along rows of potatoes and other root crops, upon which they
feed.

Both pine mice and field mice are serious pests to agriculture and
only by vigilant care can they be prevented from steadily reducing
the returns from farm and orchard. A mouse appears so insignificant
an enemy that the general inclination among farmers is to ignore it,
but both field and pine mice exist in such enormous numbers and are so
generally distributed that the aggregate annual losses from them are
great.

Clean cultivation in orchards, especially for some distance immediately
about the trees, is an excellent protective measure against both of
these mice. The shrubbery and fruit trees of orchards, lawns, and
gardens may be protected by the use of poisoned baits and traps as soon
as signs of pine mice or field mice are observed.


=THE RED-BACKED MOUSE= (=Evotomys gapperi= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 523_)

With the exception of the banded lemmings the red-backed mice are the
most brightly colored of the smaller northern rodents. They are close
relatives of the common field mice, which they about equal in size,
but from which they are distinguished externally by rufous coloration,
finer and more glossy pelage, larger ears, and proportionately longer
tails.

The red-backed mice form a group containing a considerable number
of species distributed throughout the northern circumpolar lands,
except on the barren islands of the Arctic Sea. In North America they
occur from the Arctic tundras north of the limit of trees southward
throughout Alaska and Canada to the northern United States. With other
northern species of mammals, birds, and plants they follow the high
mountain ranges still farther southward to North Carolina, New Mexico,
and middle California.

It is true that in the far North they are numerous on the moss-grown
tundras, and in the South range above timber-line on high mountains.
As a general rule, however, they are woodland animals, whether among
the spruces, birches, and aspens of the North or farther south in the
United States in the cool fir and aspen-clad slopes of mountains. They
also frequent old, half-cleared fields, brush-grown or rocky areas, and
similar places where cover is abundant.

Although so closely related to the field mice, the red-backed species
are not known to become excessively abundant nor seriously to injure
crops. One reason for their harmlessness in this respect may be their
strong preference for forest haunts.

I once found them numerous in the grass-grown streets and yards of an
abandoned mining camp in the forest at the head of Owens River, in the
Sierra Nevada, of California. The mice were making free use of the
congenial shelter afforded by the old log cabins, and their runways and
entrances to burrows were all about under scattered boards and similar
cover.

They are abroad equally by day and by night, and for this reason are
better known to woodsmen than most of the small woodland animals. When
foraging by day among the fallen leaves and deep green vegetation they
present a most graceful and attractive sight, now moving about with
quick and pretty ways, now pausing to sit up squirrel-like to eat
some tid-bit held in the front paws and then on the alert to detect a
suspected danger and poised in quivering readiness for instant flight.

Red-backed mice usually live in underground burrows similar to those of
field mice, but generally located with more care in dry situations, the
entrances sheltered by a stump, old log, root of a tree, rock, or other
object. Ordinarily they do not make such well-defined runways as do
many field mice, and sometimes no trace of a trail can be found leading
away from their burrows. But where they travel about through small
dense vegetation, under logs and about stumps and rocks they often make
well-marked trails.

Their nests are bulky and formed of a mass of fine dry grass, moss,
and other soft material, which is sometimes located in an underground
chamber opening off the burrow and sometimes in hollow stumps and logs
or under other surface shelters. But little is known about the home
life of these mice except that they are prolific, and between April and
October have several litters containing from three to eight young in
each.

[Illustration: ARCTIC HARE

_Lepus arcticus_]

[Illustration: COTTONTAIL RABBIT

_Sylvilagus floridanus_]

[Illustration: MARSH RABBIT

_Sylvilagus palustris_]

[Illustration: PIKA, LITTLE CHIEF HARE, or CONY

_Ochotona princeps_]

They feed upon a great variety of seeds, fruits, roots, and succulent
vegetable matter and lay up stores for winter in underground chambers
or in hollow logs and similar places above ground.

With the coming of winter they gather about cabins and other
habitations in their territory and become as persistent as house mice
in searching out and raiding food supplies of all kinds. When the more
appreciated kinds of food fail they resort to gnawing the bark from
roots and bases of trunks of small deciduous trees of various kinds.

During my sledge journeys in the region about Bering Strait I found
the skins of many red-backed mice among the Eskimo children. The small
boys kept them with lemming skins as evidences of their prowess with
miniature dead-fall traps and blunt-pointed arrows, and the little
girls kept them as prized robes for the dolls carved by their fathers
from wood or walrus ivory.


=THE RUFOUS TREE MOUSE= (=Phenacomys longicaudus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 523_)

The genus Phenacomys, to which the rufous tree mouse belongs, includes
a number of species closely similar in size and external appearance
to some of the well-known field mice. The structure of their teeth,
however, shows that they form a distinct group of animals.

So far as known, the living members of the genus are confined to the
Boreal parts of North America, where they range from the Atlantic
to the Pacific in Canada, and southward along the mountains to New
Hampshire, New Mexico, and northern California. The discovery of fossil
representatives of the genus in Hungary and England indicates that it
was formerly circumpolar in distribution.

All but one species of the genus live on the ground, inhabit burrows,
make runways through the small vegetation, and feed on grasses and
other herbage--all in close conformity with the habits of the meadow
mice.

The tree mouse, however, is a strongly aberrant member of the group. It
differs from all the others, and from all field mice, not only in its
rufous color and longer tail, but in its remarkable mode of life. It is
restricted to the humid region of magnificent forests in western Oregon
and northwestern California, where it often spends its life in the tops
of such noble trees as the Sitka spruce, the Douglas fir, and the coast
redwood. Such an amazing departure from the habits of its kind lends
unusual interest to this little animal.

Its nests are generally located high up in the trees, sometimes 100
feet from the ground, in forests where the branches of neighboring
trees interlace so that it can pass from one to another and inhabit
a world of its own, free from the ordinary four-footed enemies which
prowl below.

The nests vary in size, structure, and location. In Oregon they have
been found only in large trees at elevations varying from 30 to 100
feet. On the seashore near Eureka, California, they are placed on the
branches of small second-growth myrtle and redwood trees. Farther
inland in the same region many are in small trees, within a few yards
of the ground, on the border of heavy redwood forests.

The higher nests of the tree mice are often the deserted and remodeled
homes of the big gray tree squirrel of that region (_Sciurus griseus_)
and contain a foundation of coarser sticks than in the nests wholly
built by the mice. The larger proportion of the nests are built by the
mice and are usually composed of small twigs, fragments of a netlike
lichen, skeletons of fir, spruce, or other coniferous leaves, and the
droppings of the mice themselves. They vary from small oval structures
a few inches in diameter, located well out on the branches, to great
masses close against and sometimes entirely surrounding the tree
trunks, supported on several branches, and measuring three feet long
and two or three feet high.

The interior of these large structures is pierced with numerous
passageways and sometimes as many as five separate nest chambers are
scattered through one. Tunnels run out along each of the limbs on which
the mass rests, and if it extends all the way round one main tunnel
encircles the trunk from which these hallways branch.

Such great nests have evidently been used for a long period and have
grown with the steady accumulation of material. This has gradually
decayed and become a solid mass of earthy humus. The large nests are
usually the abodes of a single female, the homes of the males having
been found to be small and more often located away from the trunk of
the tree. The food of the red tree mouse, so far as known, consists
entirely of the fleshy parts of fir and spruce needles and the bark
from coniferous twigs.

Tree mice appear to breed throughout most of the year and have from
one to four young in a litter. They are mainly nocturnal, and when
driven from their nests by day appear rather slow and uncertain in
their movements. Those living in highly placed nests usually escape
by running out on the limbs, and pass from one tree to another if
necessary. Those in small trees usually drop quickly from limb to limb
until they reach the ground, when they run to the nearest shelter.

That these mice sometimes descend to the ground of their own volition
is probable, but the fact that the stomach of every individual so far
examined has contained only the fleshy parts of coniferous leaves
indicate that their food habits have become so fixed as to make
arboreal life a necessity.

The modification of the habits of a member of a group of
ground-frequenting animals, with a structure adapted to such an
existence, to those of a strictly arboreal animal is so strange as to
make the question of cause a puzzling one.

In the Hawaiian Islands the introduction of the mongoose has made the
common house rat arboreal in habits, and possibly in the remote past
the pressure of some ground-frequenting enemy thus affected the lives
of the red tree mouse. An animal rarely makes an abrupt change in its
habits without direct pressure from some source, and then only as a
matter of self-preservation.


=THE MUSKRAT= (=Fiber zibethicus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 526_)

The muskrat, or “musquash,” as it is widely known in the northern fur
country, is three or four times the size of the common house rat, to
which it bears a superficial resemblance. It has a compactly formed
body, short legs, and strong hind feet partly webbed and otherwise
modified for swimming. The long, nearly naked, and scaly tail is
strongly flattened vertically and in the water serves well as a rudder.
The fur is nearly as fine and dense as that of the beaver and, as in
that animal, protects its owner from the cold water in which so much of
its life is spent.

Muskrats are peculiar to North America, where they exist in great
numbers. Aquatic in habits, they have a wide distribution along streams
of all sizes and among marshes, ponds, and lakes from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and from a little beyond the limit of trees on the Arctic
barrens south throughout most of the United States. They reach our
southern border at the delta of the Mississippi and the delta of the
Colorado, at the head of the Gulf of California.

Within this vast area they have been modified by their environment into
several species and geographic races, none of which differ much in
appearance from the well-known animal of the Eastern States.

The nearest kin of the muskrats are the short-tailed field mice, so
numerous in our damp meadows. Like the latter, the muskrat has several
litters of young each season. The young are born blind, naked, and
helpless, and number from three to thirteen to a litter. This great
fecundity has enabled the muskrats to hold their own through years of
persistent trapping.

They still occupy practically all their original range and yield a
steady toll of valuable fur each season. In 1914 more than 10,000,000
of their skins were sold in London, and other millions were handled
in America. The aggregate returns on muskrat skins are so great as to
constitute it our most valuable fur-bearer. The furriers make its skins
up in its natural color or dress and dye it and give it the trade names
of “Hudson seal,” “river mink,” or “ondatra mink.”

In suitable marshes, as on the eastern shore of Maryland, muskrats
become extremely abundant and render such areas valuable as natural
“fur farms.” One Maryland marsh containing 1,300 acres has yielded
from $2,000 to $7,000 worth of skins a year. Not only are the skins of
value, but the flesh is palatable, and is sold readily under the trade
name of “marsh rabbit” in the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
elsewhere.

There is little doubt that owners of favorably situated marshes could
derive from them a steady revenue by keeping them stocked with proper
food plants and protecting the muskrats from their enemies. The value
of these fur-bearers is becoming more and more appreciated and many
States have laws restricting the trapping season to a period in fall
and winter when the fur is prime.

In marshes about shallow lakes or bordering sluggish rivers muskrats
build roughly conical lodges or “houses,” three to four feet high, with
bases, usually in shallow water, several feet broader. These houses
are made of roots and stems of plants with a mixture of mud. An oval
chamber is left in the interior, well above the water level, to which
entrance is gained by one or more passageways opening under water.
These shelters are mainly for winter use, but the young are sometimes
born in them as well as in large grass nests among dense marsh
vegetation.

The curious conical lodges are familiar objects about marshes in the
Eastern and Northern States, and I remember seeing, a few years ago, a
specially well-formed muskrat house close to the historic bridge, at
Concord, and others along the Concord River. Within ten years muskrat
houses were common in marshy ponds in Potomac Park, Washington, where
the Lincoln Memorial Building now stands.

Where the banks of streams or lakes rise abruptly, the muskrats make
their home in dry chambers in the banks above water level at the end of
a tunnel opening either under water or close to the water level. Worn
trails lead up the banks about such places and well-marked runways are
made through the heavy reeds and marsh grasses in their haunts.

Muskrats are mainly nocturnal animals, but often move about during the
day. I have seen them repeatedly swimming close to the bank of the
Potomac a short distance above Washington. They like to carry their
food to slightly elevated points where they can overlook the water
along shore, such as the top of a projecting log, large stone, or
earthen bank, from which they plunge headlong at the first alarm. Many
a solitary canoeman gliding silently along the shore of stream or pond
at night has been startled by the disproportionately loud splash made
by a muskrat diving from its resting place.

Their food consists mainly of the roots and stems of succulent plants
varied with fresh-water clams, an occasional fish, and even by
cultivated vegetables grown in places readily accessible from their
haunts. They store up roots and other vegetable matter for winter use
and remain active throughout that season. The roots of which their
“houses” are built are frequently those used for food and sometimes
serve as winter supplies.

[Illustration: PORCUPINE

_Erethizon dorsatum_]

[Illustration: JUMPING MOUSE

_Zapus hudsonius_]

As a rule, muskrats keep near their homes in winter, making excursions
here and there beneath the ice. Sometimes the water rises and forces
them out and they wander widely in search of new locations. When
encountered at such times they show extraordinary courage and fiercely
attack man or beast. The first muskrat I ever saw was one which a
farmer met in midwinter in a snowy road in northern New York. As soon
as the man drew near, the animal rushed at him with bared teeth and
fought savagely until killed.

[Illustration: SILKY POCKET MOUSE

_Perognathus flavus_

SPINY POCKET MOUSE

_Perognathus hispidus_]

[Illustration: POCKET GOPHER

_Geomys bursarius_]

Muskrats are usually harmless animals and their presence in marshes
and along watercourses lends a pleasant touch of primitive wildness to
the most commonplace situations. They appear to have so adapted their
habits to the presence of men that they go on with their affairs with
curious indifference to their human neighbors. In irrigated country
or elsewhere where banked ditches are built their habits render them
serious pests, as their burrows and tunnels drain ponds or cause
destructive washouts.

An interesting chapter in the history of these animals began in 1905,
when four Canadian muskrats were introduced on a nobleman’s estate
in Bohemia. Since then they have increased rapidly and spread over a
large area in Bohemia and beyond its borders. The streams in the region
they occupy are controlled by grassy banks, and dams are built to form
ponds for fish culture, which is a large industry there. The muskrats
persistently tunnel into the banks and dams, causing them to give way,
thus causing heavy losses to the owners.

They also work havoc among river crabs and mussels, which have great
economic value, and interfere with the fish and their spawning beds.
To cap the climax of their misdeeds, they are reported to feed on
grain and vegetables and to destroy the eggs of domestic poultry and
of wild-fowl. It is reported also that these expatriates in their
foreign environment have become larger animals than their ancestors,
and that their fur has greatly deteriorated in quality. The measures
prescribed by the Agricultural Council of the Kingdom of Bohemia for
their control are apparently without much success. This instance is a
good illustration of the danger attending the introduction of an animal
from its native habitat into a new region.


=THE WOODRAT= (=Neotoma albigula= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 526_)

In the East known as woodrats, in the West, where much more numerous
and better known, these animals are called “mountain rats” or
“trade rats.” Despite a certain superficial resemblance in size and
appearance, woodrats are not related to those exotic parasites,
the house rats, with coarse hair and bare tails, but are far more
attractive and handsome animals, clothed in fine soft fur, delicately
colored above in soft shades of gray, buffy, or ferruginous, while
below they are usually snowy white or buffy. The tail is fully haired
and in some species almost as broad and bushy as that of a squirrel.
Their prominent black eyes and large ears give them an air of vivacious
intelligence which their habits appear to confirm.

Woodrats are peculiar to North America, where they occur from
Pennsylvania and Illinois to the Gulf coast, spreading thence to the
Pacific and as far north as the headwaters of the Yukon, and south
through Mexico and Central America to Nicaragua. They are not plentiful
in the southern Mississippi Valley and eastward, where they live among
cliffs and broken ledges of rock in the deciduous forests, and well
deserve their common name. In this region their presence is rarely
suspected except by hunters or others familiar with woodland life.

Far more numerous and widely known in the Western States and throughout
most of Mexico, they have adapted themselves to life under every
climatic condition, from the most sun-scorched deserts of the southwest
and the splendid redwood forests of the humid coastal region in
northern California to the tropical lowlands farther south.

They live nearly everywhere on the mountain slopes, even to timber-line
at 13,800 feet on Mount Orizaba. They thrive in an extraordinary
variety of situations, not only where they may find shelter among
rocks, but also where they must seek safety in nests made on the
surface of the ground or in burrows dug by themselves. They are
prolific animals and each year have several litters containing from two
to five young.

The presence of woodrats is generally indicated by accumulations of
odds and ends filling the crevices of the rocks about their retreats
or piled about the entrances of their burrows, such accumulations
including small sticks, pieces of bark, leaves, cactus burrs, bones,
stones, and any other small objects which may be found in the vicinity.

Sometimes these piles of fragments seem to be made merely for amusement
or to work off surplus energy, as they form useless gatherings, such as
heaps of small stones, frequently containing a bushel or more, piled
on the rounded tops of small protruding boulders in open desert areas,
or small heaps of sticks and other material scattered aimlessly about
their haunts.

In the desert where cactuses of many kinds abound woodrats’ nests are
often made at the bases of these or other thorny plants and are covered
with such a protective coating of cactus burrs as to deter the most
insistent enemy. In the heavy forests of northern California woodrats
build huge conical nests of sticks several feet in diameter on the
ground, rising to a height of five feet or more.

In southern California and elsewhere some species make great nests
of sticks eight to twenty feet from the ground in live oaks and
other trees. The stick-pile nests on the ground usually have several
entrances, with trails leading from them, and the underground burrows
usually have two or more openings.

As may be surmised from their habits, woodrats are skillful climbers,
both in trees and on the rough rock walls of the cliffs they inhabit.
Their only notes appear to be shrill squeaks and squeals when
quarreling among themselves at night. They also express annoyance or
alarm by a rapid drumming on the ground with their hind feet, just as
is done by some of the hares and rabbits.

On Santa Margarita Island, in Lower California, I found the most
curiously located habitations of these animals I have seen, the bulky
stick nests being placed well back in the midst of a mangrove thicket
growing in a tidal lagoon. At high tide the mangroves were isolated
from shore by several rods of water, so that only at low tide were the
rats able to go ashore. In going back and forth they followed certain
lines of nearly horizontal mangrove stems, the discoloration on the
bark plainly indicating the routes which finally led to dry land by
little trampled roads across the muddy ground bordering the shore.

Back a little way from shore others of the same species were living
in burrows guarded by orthodox stick and trash-pile nests among the
cactuses.

Woodrats, especially in northern localities, gather stores of pinyon or
other nuts, potatoes, corn, and any other non-perishable food available
to meet the season of storms and scarcity, concealing these supplies in
cavities in the nests either above or below the ground. They eat many
kinds of fruits, seeds, leaves, and other parts of plants, sometimes
including bark of shrubs or small trees and even cactus pads.

As a rule each nest is occupied by a single rat, but sometimes several
may be found in one, and the well-worn trails that so often connect
the entrances of neighboring nests bear evidence that woodrats have
a social disposition. In most localities woodrats are distributed
sparingly, but occasionally become so abundant in favorable places on
brushy plains that colonies containing hundreds of nests may be found
in limited areas. They sometimes become so plentiful about ranches as
to make serious inroads on grain and other crops. They also give the
Forest Service much trouble by digging up the pine seeds planted in
their great reforesting nurseries.

Woodrats are mainly nocturnal in habits and appear to be extremely
active throughout the night. Each morning in the vicinity of their
nests the light soil shows a multitude of tracks, and in places I have
seen little roads in the sand several hundred yards long which they had
made by repeated trips to a feeding ground.

No sooner is a cabin built in the mountains than they move in and
establish themselves under the floor, or locate a nest near by and use
the house as their nocturnal resort. Throughout the night the patter of
their busy feet may be heard as they race about on the floor or rustle
about the roof, and often over the sleeping forms of their unwilling
hosts.

Their activities are sources of mingled amusement and vexation. Small,
loose articles, including table knives, forks, and spoons, vanish and
all manner of trash, including horse droppings, are brought in, thus
establishing their title to the cognomen of “trade rats.” If the owner
of a cabin leaves it for a few days, he may find on his return that the
rats have taken possession and during his absence have tried to fill
it with trash of all kinds, in order to make a comfortable home for
themselves.

At one cabin in the mountains of New Mexico where I lived one summer
several mountain rats made free of the place and at night persistently
tried to add our shoes to their nest under the floor. An hour or so
after retiring we would hear our shoes scrape slowly across the floor,
and in the morning they would be found stuck toe down in the broad
crack where the floor ended near the wall. In the woodrat country when
small articles are missed from camp it is always worth the trouble to
investigate the nearest rats’ nests.

Woodrats are plentiful on the Mexican table-land, making their nests
under cactuses or thorny agaves, where they are persistently hunted as
game by the natives, who prize them as a special delicacy. I saw them
regularly sold in the markets of the cities of San Luis Potosi and
Aguas Calientes, where the method of marketing them was unique. As soon
as they were dug from their nests, their lower incisors were broken off
close to the jaw to render them powerless to bite, and then the rats
were placed alive in a strong sack and carried to town.

The vendor would sit on a curb at the market and either kill and dress
them there or shout his wares by telling every one who passed that he
had “country rats; very delicious; live ones; fat ones; very delicious;
very cheap.” The natives all praised their delicate flavor and one I
had served me as a special courtesy was really good, tasting like young
rabbit.


=THE HARVEST MOUSE= (=Reithrodontomys megalotis= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 527_)

In size, proportions, and color the harvest mice, of all our American
species, most closely resembles the common house mouse. Many of them
are decidedly smaller than that animal and they rarely, if ever, exceed
it in size. They may be distinguished from the house mouse by their
browner colors, more hairy tail and especially by a little groove which
extends down the front of each upper incisor.

The mice of this group include many species and have a wide
distribution ranging from Virginia, in the eastern United States, to
the Pacific, and from North Dakota, Montana, and Washington southward
through Mexico and Central America to northern South America.

They reach their greatest development in number and diversity of
species in the region about the southern end of the Mexican table-land,
where I have caught them from the tropical lowlands, near sea level, up
to an altitude of 13,500 feet, at timber-line, on Mount Iztaccihuatl.

[Illustration: KANGAROO RAT

_Dipodomys spectabilis_]

These delicately proportioned and graceful little beasts are habitants
of grassy, weed-grown, and brushy locations, mainly in the open
country. They are equally at home, however, in the beautiful grassy
open forests of oak, pine, and firs which clothe the slopes of the
great continental mountain system of Mexico and Central America.

[Illustration: BANDED LEMMING (_Dicrostonyx nelsoni_)

  Summer      Winter]

[Illustration: BROWN LEMMING

_Lemmus alascensis_]

In general they prefer comparatively dry situations, if there is
sufficient moisture to produce the needed vegetation, but some species
inhabit swamps and even salt and fresh water marshes. Although as
a rule not very numerous, at times they are very abundant and make
well-worn trails through the small vegetation in their haunts. They are
active throughout the year, and in the North, like some other mice,
burrow through the winter snows along the surface of the ground in
search of food.

So far as man is concerned, most of the harvest mice are among the
least offensive of mammals. There are exceptions, however, and,
although they rarely approach habitations and as a rule take but slight
toll from grain fields and meadows, yet in some areas they become so
numerous as to do considerable damage.

Their food includes a great variety of seeds, small fruits and
succulent matter mainly from wild plants of no economic value. They lay
up stores of seeds in their nests and in little special storage places
for severe or inclement weather.

Some of the species dig burrows in the ground where their nests are
hidden. Most of them, however, build globular nests of grass and other
vegetable matter several inches in diameter in dense grass close to the
ground, or up in the midst of rank growths of weeds, or even as high as
eight or ten feet from the ground in bushes and low trees.

Sometimes they take possession of convenient sites already provided,
such as old woodpecker holes, cavities in fence posts, knot holes,
and deserted birds’ nests, including the nests of the cactus wren and
orchard oriole, which they remodel to suit themselves. Their nests are
lined with fine downy material such as the pappus of the milkweed or
the cattail flag, and have from one to three small openings usually
located on the underside. In these neat homes they have several litters
of from one to seven young each year.

Some of their bush nests three or four feet from the ground were found
when I was hunting on El Mirador coffee plantation in Vera Cruz. Often
on approaching them, the single occupant would dive headlong into the
grassy cover below and disappear. But sometimes when disturbed they
would come out and run about through the tops of the bushes, leaping
from branch to branch with all the agility and graceful abandon of
pigmy squirrels. Several times they were seen to stop and sit crosswise
on the branches with their tails hanging straight down. When they move
about among the branches they sometimes coil the tail around the twig
as an opossum might, to give them a more certain hold.

While harvest mice may be seen at their nests by day, they are mainly
crepuscular and nocturnal, and so retiring in habits that their
presence may be entirely overlooked unless special search is made to
locate them. Where found their pretty ways well repay the observer who
has the patience to spend a little time with them.


=THE GRASSHOPPER MOUSE= (=Onychomys leucogaster= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 527_)

The grasshopper mice are notable for the delicate coloring and velvety
quality of their fur. While closely resembling some of the white-footed
mice, they may readily be distinguished from them by more robust form,
short, thick tail, and the character of the fur.

Only two species, each with numerous geographic races, are known and
both are peculiar to North America. Characteristic animals of the
arid and semi-arid treeless plains, plateaus, and foothills of the
West, their known range extends from Minnesota and Kansas west to
the Cascades and to the Pacific coast of southern California, and in
the North, from the plains of the Saskatchewan southward to San Luis
Potosi, on the tableland of Mexico.

Some races live on the grassy plains west of the Mississippi, but
the majority prefer the looser soil and sandy areas of the more arid
Great Basin and the even more desert Southwest, where the vegetation
is characterized by a scattered growth of woody plants, including many
species of cactuses, yuccas, agaves, sagebrush, greasewood, mesquites,
acacias, and other picturesque types.

Like other small mammals of the open plains, the grasshopper mice live
in burrows. When opportunity offers they evade the labor of digging
these for themselves by occupying the deserted holes of mice, kangaroo
rats, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, badgers, and other animals. In
these retreats they have nests of soft vegetable matter and each season
bring forth several litters containing from two to six young.

They are active throughout the year, but nothing appears to be known as
to the kind and amount of stores they lay up for winter use. As many
live far enough north to experience a long period of cold, with snow
covering the earth, there is little doubt that they exercise the same
provision in providing stores to meet the need as do many other small
mammals.

Many species of mice eat insects or meat and even on occasion devour
one of their own kind. The grasshopper mice go far beyond this and are
often not only as fierce flesh eaters as real carnivores, but make
their diet, at least during the summer season, mainly of insects and
other small invertebrates. Their bill of fare includes a miscellaneous
assortment of several species of mice, including their own kind caught
in traps, small dead birds, lizards, frogs, cutworms, scorpions, mole
crickets, ordinary crickets, grasshoppers, moths, flies, and beetles,
including the “potato bug.”

In addition they eat many kinds of seeds, fruit, and other vegetable
matter. Where obtainable, grasshoppers are one of their favorite foods,
and from this they receive their common name. In Colorado, from their
fondness for scorpions, they are sometimes called “scorpion mice.”

Vernon Bailey’s observations of a grasshopper mouse he had in captivity
are illuminating as to their habits, and indicate that their presence
in numbers about cultivated land must be of distinct economic value.
When undisturbed and well fed the captive was entirely nocturnal,
sleeping all day and becoming very active at night. While usually
quiet, sometimes jumping with all his force he tried furiously to
escape from his small prison box. His favorite food consisted of
crickets, grasshoppers ranking next. Among other things he ate were a
black beetle, ladybirds, a potato beetle, spiders, bugs, and dragon
flies.

In feeding he sat upright on his haunches and held the insects in his
front paws, eating them head first. Large grasshoppers, their tails
resting on the ground, were held head up by a paw on each shoulder. A
grasshopper would sometimes kick so vigorously as to tip the mouse off
its balance, but was never relinquished until decapitated.

The mouse promptly killed and ate a small frog placed in his box and
was expert at catching flies. He ate many kinds of insects, including a
live wasp, but appeared terror-stricken if a few ants were put in with
him. When a dozen or more crickets and grasshoppers were put into his
box at the same time he at once proceeded to bite off all their heads
before beginning to feast upon them.

A dead white-footed mouse was dropped in and “he pounced upon it like a
cat, caught it by the side of the head near the ear, and began biting
it with all the ferocity of a coon dog.” The bones could be heard
cracking and after the little beast appeared satisfied that his prey
was really dead he ceased worrying it and an examination showed that
he had bitten through its skull deep into the brain. Afterward he tore
off and ate fragments of flesh from its head, neck, and shoulders. The
ferocious certainty with which he seized the white-footed mouse by the
head and bit through its skull indicated that in relation to small
mammals he, probably like all his kind, had the predatory instincts and
habits of the carnivores.

One morning he ate 12 crickets and a spider in seven minutes and
during a single day devoured 53 insects--2 beetles, 8 grasshoppers, 28
crickets, and 15 flies--and appeared ready to take more.

Oddly enough, this grasshopper mouse, so fierce toward small game,
never offered to bite when captured or when handled freely, but
continued throughout his captivity to have the same friendly confidence
in his captor. Others caught in various parts of their range have shown
the same characteristics.

At night, especially early in the evening, grasshopper mice utter a
fine shrill whistling call note. This habit appears peculiar to them
among all the mice and may be likened to that of many of the large
beasts of prey in uttering their hunting call as they sally forth for
the night’s foray.


=THE WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE= (=Peromyscus leucopus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 530_)

Few of our smaller wild mammals are so generally known as the
white-footed mice. Usually a little larger and proportionately shorter
bodied than the house mice, they may at once be distinguished from them
by the contrast between the delicate shades of fawn color, brown, or
gray of the upper parts of the body, and the snowy white feet and under
parts. Like other members of the genus, they have cheek pouches inside
the mouth for gathering and carrying food to their stores.

Their exceedingly quick and graceful movements and their beauty of form
and color would make them generally attractive were it not for the
prejudice against all their kind resulting from the offensive ways of
the house mouse.

Mice of the genus Peromyscus, to which the white-footed mice belong,
are peculiar to North and South America and include more species
and geographic races than any other American genus of mammals. The
white-footed mice are limited to North America. Readily responsive to
the influences of environment, they have developed numerous species and
a large number of geographic races.

These are spread over most of the continent from the northern limit of
trees to the tropical shores of Yucatan. One form has the distinction
of living up to an altitude of from 15,000 to 16,000 feet on Mount
Orizaba, Mexico, where I found its tracks in the volcanic ashes at the
extreme limit of vegetation. This is the highest record for any North
American mammal.

White-footed mice are active throughout the year and thrive in every
variety of situation. In winter from the Northern States to the Arctic
circle the snowshoer traversing the forest will note their lace-work
patterns of tiny tracks leading across the snow from log to log or
tree to tree. At sunrise on the southwestern deserts their tracks made
during the night often form a fine network in the dust, but disappear
with the first breath of the morning breeze.

They not only live everywhere in the wilderness, but are prompt to
swarm about camps and other habitations, where they make free with the
food supplies. Few frequenters of forest camps in the Northern States
and Canada have failed to see the bright eyes of these pretty little
animals peering at them from some crevice, or the mice scurrying along
the log wall like little squirrels.

[Illustration: FIELD, or MEADOW, MOUSE

_Microtus pennsylvanicus_]

[Illustration: PINE MOUSE

_Pitymys pinetorum_]

They are industrious workers and once in a cabin quickly locate some
cozy nook in a box or other secluded place to construct a warm nest
of any soft fibrous vegetable material available. This completed,
they set busily at work nights to raid the food supply of the owner and
hide it in suitable storage places, such as a crevice among boxes, an
old shoe or a pocket in a garment hung on the wall. Their depredations
usually cause so much exasperation that the camper overlooks the grace
and beauty of his visitors and makes every effort to destroy them. If
the occupants of such camps would keep their supplies in mouse-proof
containers and would then feed their woodland friends, they would find
them quickly responsive and most attractive guests.

[Illustration: RED-BACKED MOUSE

_Evotomys gapperi_]

[Illustration: RUFOUS TREE MOUSE

_Phenacomys longicaudus_]

In their native haunts these mice have habits varying with varying
conditions. On brushy plains they burrow in the ground, while in the
woods they sometimes burrow under rocks, stumps, and logs, or live in
hollows in stumps and trees. As nimble in climbing as squirrels, many
live in hollow trees sometimes more than fifty feet above the ground.

That our inability to see at night prevents more than an occasional
glimpse at the doings of the small animals which often swarm all about
us was impressed on me at one of my camps in the desert of Lower
California. My blankets were spread under a small leafless tree growing
near the base of a rocky ledge, in the crevices of which many relatives
of the white-footed mice were living. The first morning in camp I awoke
as the sky began to pale and color with the approach of day. The dry
branches of the tree a few feet overhead became sharply silhouetted
against the sky, revealing several of the mice running up and down
them and leaping from twig to twig with all the active grace of tiny
squirrels.

The mice appeared to be racing about in pure playful enjoyment of the
exercise, and when the light had increased sufficiently to render
objects on the ground distinct they suddenly ran down the tree trunk
and vanished in a crevice in the rocks. This game was repeated on
several succeeding mornings and is no doubt commonly indulged in where
conditions are favorable.

White-footed mice feed mainly on many kinds of seeds and nuts and vary
this diet with snails, insects, and sometimes with the flesh of dead
birds or other mice. As they do not hibernate they lay up abundant
stores of grain and seeds of many kinds in addition to a variety of
nuts, as acorns, beech nuts, pine nuts, maple seeds, and others,
according to the locality. The stores are hidden in hollows in logs,
stumps, trees, or in the ground. When in captivity they have shown
themselves expert in catching flies, sometimes capturing them with
their teeth and again with their front paws used with all the dexterity
of little hands.

Several litters of young containing from three to seven each are
born, the first usually appearing in spring and the last in fall. The
young are blind and helpless at birth, and in this condition cling so
tenaciously to the mother’s teats that when she is frightened from the
nest they are often carried off attached to her.

Some individuals at least of the white-footed mice, like others of the
genus Peromyscus, are known to have a prolonged and musical song. It
is a fine warbling ditty, a little like the song of a canary. A number
of good observers have recorded these performances, but they appear to
be so infrequent that most people with woodland experience have never
heard them.

The lives of these mice are passed in constant fear of a host of
enemies. Hawks and owls, bluejays, and shrikes in the bird world are
ever on the alert to capture them, while skunks, weasels, minks, foxes,
and snakes persistently seek them in their retreats.


=THE BEACH MOUSE= (=Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris= and
its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 530_)

The beach mouse is a beautiful, velvety-furred little creature about
the size of a house mouse and one of the smallest species of the
genus Peromyscus. Its back is colored with delicate shades of pale
vinaceous-buffy and its underparts, including the feet, are snowy white.

The species _Peromyscus polionotus_, of which the beach mouse is one
of several geographic races, or subspecies, occupies a comparatively
restricted range in the lowland region of Alabama and Georgia and
thence through a large part of Florida.

It presents an unusually convincing illustration of the influence of
changing environment upon the physical characters of animals. Among
the cotton fields of Alabama and Georgia _Peromyscus polionotus_ is
rather dark grayish brown, but on the lighter-colored soil of Florida
the color responds and becomes paler in perfect correspondence with
the change in soil until the white sand-dunes and beaches of the coast
are reached. There, in strong contrast with the color of the northern
members of the species, it is so modified that the pale representatives
of this area are recognized under the name _niveiventris_, as a
geographic race, or subspecies.

Changes in environment affect both great and small mammals in a variety
of ways, sometimes in shades of color, sometimes in relative size,
and sometimes in proportions. Exceptions to the rule are to be found,
however, and some species of mammals have a wide range under a great
variety of conditions, with scarcely an appreciable sign of variation.

The beach mouse is abundant on the sand-dunes and beaches of peninsular
Florida, especially from Palm Beach to Mosquito Inlet, wherever there
is a growth of sea oats (_Uniola_), which appears to be its principal
food plant. It is a nocturnal animal and its nightly activities may be
read, early in the morning, from the multitude of tiny tracks which
lead in all directions and often form a network on the sand. A single
track sometimes extends for a hundred yards or more from a burrow, and
with all its windings may aggregate several hundred yards of travel,
showing the activity of this small worker during many hours.

Tracks are most plentiful immediately about growths of sea oats,
patches of saw palmetto, or scrubby bushes. The homes of these mice
are usually in short burrows sheltered by growing vegetation or under
fallen palm fronds.

As in the case of many of our mammals, we have scanty information
concerning the life of these attractive little animals, and it is
suggested that here lies a pleasant subject for investigation by some
nature lover wintering in Florida.


=THE BIG-EARED ROCK MOUSE= (=Peromyscus truei= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 531_)

The numerous species of mice of the genus Peromyscus in North
America include a great variety of little beasts, many of which are
distinguished by beauty of form and color. One of the most striking and
picturesque individualities among these is found in the big-eared rock
mouse, which is characterized by its great ears, a thick, soft coat
of buffy brown fur, and a long, well-haired tail. In size it exceeds
the common house mouse and even the white-footed mice which share its
haunts.

This rock mouse is indigenous to the mountainous regions of the West,
from Colorado and New Mexico to the Pacific and south to the Cape
Region of Lower California, and down the Sierra Madre of Mexico to
Oaxaca. Within this area it divides into several not very strongly
marked geographic races.

As implied by its common name, it is a characteristic dweller among
cliffs and ledges along the mountain slopes or rocky canyon walls,
where it occupies the many crevices and little caves. In California it
ranges from near sea-level up on the mountains to above 10,000 feet
altitude. Although showing a distinct preference for rocky places,
when available, some races of this mouse adapt themselves to other
conditions and may be found on brush-grown flats, where they live in
brush heaps, old wood-rat nests, and similar shelter.

That they make their homes in places other than cliffs in New Mexico
was evidenced by a thick, soft nest made almost entirely of wool, found
in a hollow juniper. They have several litters of from two to six young
each year, the breeding period extending from spring to fall.

In Arizona and New Mexico I found the rock mouse most numerous in the
belt of junipers and pinyons and in the adjacent yellow-pine forest.
The crevices of cliffs about the Moki and Zuni Indian pueblos and in
all the rocky wilderness of that region, including the Grand Canyon,
are abundantly populated with them.

They search every nook about their haunts and often visit cabins or
temporary camps for food, but do not usually take up their abode in
them as do the white-footed mice. When foraging their movements are
quick, and when startled they make surprisingly long leaps. Like others
of their kind, they eat a great variety of seeds and small nuts,
quantities of which they lay up in winter stores. Pinyon nuts, and
especially juniper seeds, are their favorite food.

While of nocturnal habits, rock mice at times wander forth in sheltered
spots by day, and on the few occasions I have seen them I have been
delighted with their grace and beauty, their great ears and prominent
shining black eyes lending them an attractive air of alert intelligence.

Throughout their lives they are in deadly peril from predatory foes.
Hawks and owls glide shadowlike along the faces of their rocky homes
ready to pick them up whenever they venture into open view, while
bobcats, skunks, and weasels prowl about by night hunting their furry
victims.


=THE BROWN RAT= (=Rattus norvegicus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 531_)

It is safe to assume that few readers need an introduction to that
world-wide pest variously known as the brown rat, house rat, wharf rat,
or Norway rat. Two European relatives, the black rat and the roof rat,
preceded the brown rat to the New World and became widely distributed.
They resemble the brown rat, but are much smaller and are soon killed,
driven away, or reduced to a secondary status by their larger and
fiercer cousin, which averages about sixteen inches in length, although
large individuals attain a length of more than twenty inches and a
weight of more than two pounds. The black rat has nearly disappeared
from most of its former haunts in the United States and the roof rat is
mainly restricted to southern localities with a mild climate.

Neither the brown, black, nor roof rat has any near relatives among
native rats of America, and all may be distinguished from our native
animals by their coarser hair and long, naked tails.

The brown rat is believed to have first invaded Europe from Asia in
1727, when hordes of them swam the Volga River, and about the same year
it arrived in England on ships from the Orient. Since then, traveling
by ships and by inland commercial routes, it has spread to nearly all
parts of the globe. In America it is now established in human abodes
throughout the length and breadth of the continents from Greenland to
Patagonia.

Wherever it goes the fierce and aggressive spirit with which it is
endowed qualifies the brown rat more than to hold its own against all
rivals, while its mental adroitness and its fecundity have largely
nullified the constant warfare being waged against it by all mankind.
Not content with infesting ships, dwellings, stores, warehouses, and
even the refrigerating rooms of cold-storage plants in many areas, it
has established itself as an extremely destructive pest in the open
fields.

[Illustration: MUSKRAT

_Fiber zibethicus_]

[Illustration: WOOD RAT

_Neotoma albigula_]

In towns it hides among stored merchandise, in the hollow walls of
buildings, in sewers and other underground passages, or, as in the
fields, in burrows which it digs in the ground. Its nests are
soft, warm masses of fibrous material which is secured by raids on
any available supply of cotton, wool, or fabrics, which they cut into
shreds for the purpose.

[Illustration: HARVEST MOUSE

_Reithrodontomys megalotis_]

[Illustration: GRASSHOPPER MOUSE

_Onychomys leucogaster_]

In these retreats it has several litters a year, averaging about ten
young, but exceptional cases of more than twenty young have been
recorded. The young begin to breed when less than six months old. The
size and number of litters increase with the food supply, and under
favorable conditions rats soon become intolerable pests.

In Jamaica and the Hawaiian Islands rats became so numerous that
sugar-cane and other plantations were at one time threatened with
complete destruction. To save the crops the mongoose was introduced,
but after checking the rats in Jamaica these curious little mammals in
turn became a pest which it appears hopeless to control.

In the Hawaiian Islands the mongoose reduced the number of rats, but
the survivors promptly took up their abodes in the tree tops, where
they now live as completely arboreal lives as squirrels, safe from
their ground-inhabiting enemy.

During a two weeks’ campaign against rats in the sewers of Paris
600,000 were killed, and on a rice plantation of about 1,200 acres in
Georgia 30,000 were destroyed in one season. In Illinois 3,435 were
killed on a farm in one month.

One of the most curious chapters in the life of this hardy beast is
now developing in the far island of South Georgia, on the border of
the Antarctic, east of Cape Horn. On this island, which has a cold
and stormy summer and nine months of rigorous winter, several whaling
stations have been established. For years great numbers of whale
carcasses have drifted ashore each season and, half rotting, half
refrigerated, have furnished a never-failing food supply for brown
rats that have landed from the ships. With such abundant food they are
reported to have increased until they now exist there literally in
millions. They make their nests in the tussocks of grass and peat and
swarm along well-marked trails they have made on the mountain sides.

In the trenches along the battle front in France they have become
extremely abundant and troublesome, and in England have multiplied
until the Board of Agriculture is recommending efforts to destroy them
as a menace to the public welfare through their waste of food supplies.

On farms, in addition to destroying growing and stored crops, they kill
great numbers of young chickens, turkeys, and other poultry, and create
havoc with such ground-frequenting game as pheasants. At all times
brown rats are more or less carnivorous, and when several are confined
in a cage the stronger will soon kill and devour the weaker.

In city department stores and large hotels they often cause thousands
of dollars damage yearly in single establishments. An English
organization for their destruction estimated in 1908 that, outside the
towns and shipping, in Great Britain and Ireland they caused annual
losses of about $73,000,000.

When there is a sudden diminution in the food supply, an abundance
of which has caused a great increase in the rat population, the rats
migrate into other districts, sometimes in enormous numbers. These
migrations usually occur at night, and many are matters of history in
Europe and in the United States.

A witness of one of these migrations in Illinois in 1903 reported
that one moonlight night as he was passing along the roads he heard a
rustling in a field near by and soon saw crossing the road in front of
him a multitude of rats extending as far as he could see. The following
year the invaders became a plague in that district. At times of food
scarcity rats become extremely bold and aggressive. Without hesitation
they swim streams encountered in their wanderings and at times will
even attack man.

Owing to their great numbers, universal distribution, and
destructiveness, brown rats are the worst mammal pest known to
mankind. Through their habit of living in sewers, among the offal
of slaughter-houses, and in garbage heaps, from which they invade
dwellings and storehouses, they pollute and spoil even more foodstuffs
than they eat.

In addition, they are known carriers of some of the worst and most
dreaded diseases, as bubonic plague, trichinosis, and septic pneumonia;
while there is little doubt that they spread scarlet fever, typhoid,
diphtheria, and other contagious maladies. Bubonic plague is mainly
dependent upon rats for its dissemination and has been carried by
them to more than fifty countries, including the United States. In
India more than two million people have died in one year from this
rat-conveyed disease.

Although rats are abhorred by man, yet they have been for ages so
closely associated with most of his activities that they have long
had their place in Old World literature. Among other instances, many
readers will recall Victor Hugo’s gruesome account of Jean Valjean’s
fight with the rats in the sewers of Paris. In England and on the
continent rat catching has been a regular trade and dogs have been
specially bred for use in their pursuit.

Rats are loathsome vermin which civilized man should eliminate with the
other evils of his semi-barbaric days which he is leaving behind. One
might still wish that in many places a modern “Pied Piper of Hamelin”
would appear and rid the people of these pests. This is not necessary,
however, if the public will cease to take their presence as a matter
of course. Their exclusion from buildings and destruction are merely
matters of good housekeeping, both personal and communal.

Rats can be banished by removing or destroying trash heaps and similar
harboring places and by the simple expedient of rat-proofing buildings,
especially dwellings, granaries, warehouses, and other places where
food supplies are stored.

These precautionary measures should be supplemented by trapping
or poisoning in open places. Campaigns of this kind can be fully
successful only when engaged in by the community at large. The returns
from the investment for such a purpose will be large, not only in the
vast money values of property saved, but in the reduction of the death
rate and in the great improvement of the public health.


THE HOUSE MOUSE (Mus musculus)

(_For illustration, see page 531_)

The familiar house mouse is of Old World origin and may be
distinguished from most of our native mice by its proportionately
slenderer body, long hairless tail, and the nearly uniform color on the
upper and under parts of the body. Like the house rat, wandering an
alien from its original home in Asia, and transported by ship and by
inland commerce, it has gained permanent foothold and thrives in lands
of the most diverse climatic conditions, except those of the frigid
polar regions.

For centuries the house mouse has been parasitic about the habitations
of man, and in many places in America has spread into the surrounding
country, where it holds its own in the struggle for existence with
many of our native species. It is probable that its ability to live
in houses also infested by the fierce brown rat is due wholly to its
agility, and to the small size, which enables it to retreat through
crevices too small for the rat.

In buildings it hides its warm nests in obscure nooks and crannies,
making them of scraps of wool, cotton, or other soft fibrous material,
often cut from fabrics. Out in the fields, like any other hardy
vagabond, it adapts itself to whatever cover may be available on the
surface or in crevices and the deserted burrows of other mammals.

It has several litters of from four to nine young each year. The young
are born blind, naked, and helpless, but are soon able to run about,
often following the mother on her foraging expeditions. When a little
more than half grown they usually scatter from the home nest and seek
locations of their own.

Throughout most of its world-wide range the house mouse has the same
general appearance, but in some localities the effect of changed
environment is developing appreciable differences, which appear
destined to result in marked geographic races. The representatives of
these mice I caught in weedy fields on the coast of Chiapas, near the
border of Guatemala, have an appreciable rusty shade on the back in
place of the ordinary dull gray.

The success of both the house mouse and the house rat in establishing
themselves so successfully in all parts of the world, in the face of
the antagonism of mankind, affords marvelous examples of physical and
mental adaptability not equaled elsewhere among mammals.

From early days the domestic mouse has been a familiar member of the
household with people of all degree, and the housewife has had to match
her wits against the cunning persistence of this small marauder in
order to safeguard the family supplies of food and clothing.

Despite the antagonism excited by its destructive habits the mouse is
so small and often so amusing in its ways that it has commonly been
regarded with a half hostile, half friendly, interest. This is apparent
by frequent references to it in proverbs, nursery rhymes, fables, and
folklore, as well as in more serious literature.

Many cases of singing house mice have been recorded, their notes being
a series of continuous musical chirps, trills, and warblings, rising
and falling about an octave and slightly resembling the song of a
canary. It has been claimed that this singing is due to an affection of
the songster’s breathing organs, but this can scarcely account for its
being uttered at definite times and places and ceasing at the volition
of the performer.

In one instance the song had been heard in a china closet and an
observer sat by the open door to locate the singer. After patient
waiting “a mouse peered out from behind the plates, climbed up a little
way on the brackets, and after looking around several times, began to
sing.” This mouse continued to sing in the same place at intervals for
several weeks and became accustomed to the presence of people during
its performances; then it suddenly disappeared, probably a victim to
one of the dangers which constantly beset its kind.


=THE MOUNTAIN-BEAVER= (=Aplodontia rufa phaea= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 534_)

The first adventurous fur traders who penetrated the Oregon wilds
found the Chinook Indians provided with robes made of skins of the
mountain-beaver. From that time until recently but little accurate
information has been available concerning the habits of this curious
animal. Locally it is known by several other names, including
“Sewellel,” “mountain boomer,” “boomer,” and, in the Olympic mountains,
“chehalis.”

The genus of mountain-beavers contains only a single species with
several subspecies, all having a close superficial likeness in size
and form to a tailless muskrat, except for their coarse, harsh fur.
It is an exclusively North American type and, aside from a remote
relationship to the squirrel family, has no kin among living mammals.
It appears to be a sole survivor from some former age. As with the
pocket gophers, its mode of life has developed powerful muscles about
the head, front legs, and forepart of the body.

The distribution of the mountain-beaver in Tertiary times extended
through the Great Basin to North Dakota, but at present is closely
restricted to the humid region between the crests of the Cascades and
the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific coast, and from the lower Fraser
River, British Columbia, south to the latitude of San Francisco Bay,
California.

[Illustration: WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE (Adult and Young)

_Peromyscus leucopus_]

[Illustration: BEACH MOUSE

_Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris_]

Within this superbly forested region this animal delights in
locations that are cool and oozing with water, where, under the dense
shade of an almost tropical undergrowth of shrubs, ferns, and other
herbage, it constructs numberless tunnels and trails. These are
sometimes in flats, but much more often along canyons and mountain
slopes, among willow, alder, aspen, or other thickets, or even in the
heavy coniferous forest.

[Illustration: BIG-EARED ROCK MOUSE

_Peromyscus truei_]

[Illustration: BROWN RAT

_Rattus norvegicus_

HOUSE MOUSE

_Mus musculus_]

Veritable colonies inhabit certain areas and the ground is honeycombed
with burrows six to eight inches in diameter and covered with a network
of surface trails. The irregular branching tunnels are sometimes two
or three hundred feet in length and have at frequent intervals side
passages through which the earth mined in extending the burrow may be
ejected in small dumps. The tunnels appear in a large measure built for
the safety of the owner in traveling, since they repeatedly come to the
surface at the end of a log, where an open, neatly kept trail extends
under its shelter the entire length, the tunnel being resumed at the
far end of the log.

All surface runways connecting tunnel entrances or leading through the
thick surface vegetation are well kept and free of all obstructions.
The ground in these haunts is commonly so saturated with water that the
tunnels form drainage channels down which run little streams.

Nest chambers discovered by T. H. Scheffer in the Olympic Mountains
were located in tunnels two feet underground. They were oval in form
and one measured eighteen inches in horizontal diameter and seventeen
in height. Here three storage chambers opened directly from the nest
chamber, one of which contained two quarts or more of sections of fern
roots, which had been kept so long they were spoiled, and another was
partly filled with freshly cut leaves of nettles and twigs of cedar
and fir. At the far end an opening dropped six inches into a small
drainage basin partly filled with water, out of which led two passages.
The roofs of the chambers were lined with a thin layer of clay, which
appeared to have been packed in place by the owner.

In the upper and drier part of the nest, which was made of dried fronds
of ferns, grasses, and small twigs, were found three young less than
a week old, with coats of fine fur, but with eyes still closed. Like
burrowing animals generally, the mountain-beaver is cleanly in its
housekeeping, and offal, loose dirt, and debris of all kinds are pushed
out by the forefeet and head to the dumps at the less-used openings.

In winter much of the mountain-beaver country is buried under several
feet of snow, but this does not stop the activities of this hardy
animal. Between the entrances to its burrows and out along the surface
of the ground it tunnels through the snow in various directions in
search of forage.

At this time it cuts twigs from bushes and gnaws the bark from the
trunks and roots of the smaller trees, sometimes completely girdling
and killing trees more than two feet in diameter. Its underground
tunnels are also extended at this season, the soils being pushed up
in dumps under the snow and parts of the snow tunnels are packed full
of it for some distance, so that when the snow disappears the curious
earth-forms remain like those of the pocket gopher.

The mountain-beaver lives a monotonous existence and correspondingly
lacks the mental vivacity of many other species which have a greater
freedom of movement. When one is caught it shows little fear, but
struggles to escape, growling, clattering its teeth, and biting
viciously at anything within reach. Its desire for food, however,
appears to control its emotions, and very soon after being captured it
will eat any green vegetation offered, as unconcernedly as though free.

That the mountain-beaver possesses social instincts is evident, as a
pair is often found occupying one set of tunnels, and in many favorable
places a number will have their burrows closely grouped and connected
with a network of communicating surface trails.

Although mainly nocturnal, the animals are active early in the morning
and late in the afternoon, as well as throughout dark days. Those kept
in captivity would show periods of restless activity at night and have
alternating periods of sleep and wakefulness during the day. Sometimes
they would sleep coiled with the head turned under the body and again
flat on their backs. During these periods their sleep is often so
profound that they may be handled without being awakened.

One captive animal is reported to have uttered a curious quavering note
resembling that of a screech-owl. They have a strong musky odor, which
is very evident when they are first caught, and which is frequently
apparent about the burrows.

Careful and repeated efforts to keep these animals in captivity
under as near normal conditions as possible in regard to food and
surroundings in the vicinity of where they were captured have, up to
the present time, resulted in failure. In every case the animals failed
to thrive and soon died.

The mating occurs about the middle of March, and a month later litters
of two or three young are born. The young grow slowly, not attaining
full size for a year or more, and do not breed until the second year,
but they leave the shelter of the home nest and scatter to occupy
burrows of their own at the end of the first two or three months.

The mountain-beaver feeds upon nearly all small vegetation growing in
its haunts, including, in addition to small herbage, shrubs, the bark
of trees and bushes, ferns, and fern roots. More than thirty species of
native plants have been found among its “hay” piles at the mouths of
burrows. Since its country has become increasingly occupied by farmers,
it has developed a fondness for cultivated crops that, in many places,
is rendering it a pest. It appears to have a special taste for cabbage,
potato, and onion tops, and other garden produce.

When gathering its food it sits up squirrel-like and grasps the plant
stem with one hand, a long projecting tubercle on the “heel” of the
hand opposing the fingers like a thumb and giving a good grasp, so that
it can pull plants down to be bitten off with the sharp front teeth.
Sometimes it climbs up a few feet into a bush or small branching tree
after succulent shoots.

The mountain-beaver has the interesting habit of gathering stores of
green plant food much like that of the cony on the mountain tops,
but appears to be more methodical in its ways, gathering the stems
of such plants as grasses, ferns, and lupins, as well as twigs of
various bushes and carrying them in bundles as large as can be held in
the mouth, the butts of the stems neatly laid together. These little
bundles of “hay” are placed side by side about the entrances of the
burrows, with the butts all parallel on sticks or other support to keep
them as clear as possible from the ground. They are left thus for a day
or more to cure before being carried into the subterranean store-rooms.

Chief among the four-footed enemies of the mountain-beaver are the
fisher and bobcat, and an eagle has been seen keeping close watch at
the entrance of their burrows.


=THE COMMON WOODCHUCK, OR AMERICAN MARMOT= (=Marmota monax=
and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 534_)

The woodchuck or “groundhog” is a typical marmot, with coarse hair,
heavy body, short neck, short, bushy tail, powerful legs, and feet
armed with strong claws for digging. When fully grown it averages about
ten pounds in weight. Its usual color is a grizzled brown, but in some
districts black, or melanistic, individuals are not uncommon.

Marmots are common to Europe, Asia, and North America. The group
contains many species and geographic races varying in size and color.
The Alpine marmot of Europe is probably the most familiar of the Old
World species and the woodchuck the best known in America.

North America contains several species of marmots, their joint
territory extending from coast to coast over the northern parts of the
continent and from southern Labrador, the southern shores of Hudson Bay
and Great Slave Lake, and central Alaska southward to northern Alabama,
and along the high mountains to New Mexico and the southern Sierra
Nevada of California. The common woodchuck is well known to every
dweller in the countryside of the Eastern States and Canada, where it
occurs from sea-level to near the tops of the highest mountains, at
altitudes of over 4,000 feet.

It is a familiar habitant of fields and grassy hillsides, especially
where bordering woodland offers safe retreat. In such places it digs
burrows under stone walls, rocks, ledges, old stumps, or even out in
the open grass-grown fields. It commonly lives in the midst of the
forest, where its dens are located in a variety of situations. The
burrows are marked by little mounds of earth at the entrances and
ordinarily contain from twenty to forty feet of branching galleries,
one or more of which end in a rounded chamber about a foot in diameter,
well lined with dry grass and leaves.

Within these warm nests the females bring forth from three to nine
blind and helpless young about the last of April or early in May. A few
weeks later the young appear about the entrance of the burrows sunning
themselves and playing with one another, but usually ready to disappear
at the first alarm. At times, however, they are surprisingly stupid
and may be captured with ease. Woodchucks have practically no economic
value. Their flesh, while occasionally eaten, is little esteemed, and
their coarsely haired pelts are worthless as fur.

The woodchuck is a sluggish and stupid animal, which does not
ordinarily go far from its burrow, but at certain seasons, especially
in spring, wanders widely, as though looking over its territory before
locating for the summer. It has much curiosity and often sits upright
on its hind feet to look about, remaining for a long time as motionless
as a statue. When one is driven into its burrow, if a person approaches
quietly and whistles, it will often raise its head in the entrance and
look about to satisfy its curiosity.

Its only note is a short shrill whistle, which it utters explosively at
frequent intervals when much alarmed. At such times it also chatters
its teeth with a rattling sound as owls sometimes clatter their beaks.

Owing to their mainly diurnal habits and persistence in living in and
about the borders of fields, woodchucks are among the most widely known
of our smaller mammals, and have long been the favorite game of the
country boy and his dog. When cornered they will fight savagely and
with their strong incisors inflict severe wounds.

They feed on grasses, clover, and other succulent plants, including
various cultivated crops, especially vegetables in field and garden,
where they sometimes do much damage. The holes and earth mounds they
make in fields, in addition to feeding on and trampling down grasses
or grain, excite a strong feeling against them, and farmers everywhere
look upon them as a nuisance. In New Hampshire so great was the
prejudice against them that in 1883 a law was passed placing a bounty
of ten cents each on them: “_Provided_, That no bounty shall be paid
for any woodchuck killed on Sunday.”

Unlike many rodents, the woodchucks do not lay up stores of food
for winter. As summer draws to an end they feed heavily and become
excessively fat. On the approach of cold weather they become more
and more sluggish, appearing above ground with decreasing frequency
until from the end of September to the first of November, according to
locality, they retire to their burrows and begin the long hibernating
sleep which continues until the approach of spring.

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN-BEAVER

_Aplodontia rufa phaea_]

[Illustration: COMMON WOODCHUCK, or AMERICAN MARMOT

_Marmota monax_]

[Illustration: HOARY MARMOT, or WHISTLER

_Marmota caligata_]

Some time between February and April, according to latitude, they
come forth to resume their seasonal activities. In the northern parts
of their range they usually come out several weeks before the snow
disappears and may be tracked in it as they wander about searching for
food or a new location.

The prominence of the groundhog as a popular figure in the country lore
of the Eastern States is shown by his having been given a place with
the Saints on the calendar, February 2 being widely known as “Groundhog
Day.” It is claimed that on this date the groundhog wakes from his
long winter sleep and appears at the mouth of his burrow to look about
and survey the weather. If the sun shines so that he can see his
shadow, bad weather is indicated and he retires to resume his sleep for
another six weeks. Otherwise, the winter is broken and mild weather is
predicted. Even on the outskirts of Washington some of the countrymen
still appraise the character of the coming spring by the weather on
“Groundhog Day.”


=THE HOARY MARMOT, OR WHISTLER= (=Marmota caligata= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 535_)

The whistler is the largest and handsomest of the American marmots. It
is similar in proportions to the common woodchuck, but averages nearly
twice its weight. Its fur, far thicker and of a better quality, might
have a value in the fur trade if enough of the skins were available. As
it is, the skins are used only for robes and sometimes for clothing by
the Indians.

The distribution of this characteristic animal of the northern Rocky
Mountains and outlying ranges extends from the Endicott Mountains,
fronting the Arctic coast of Alaska, and the peninsula of Alaska,
southeasterly to the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, Mount Rainier,
the Olympics of Washington, and Vancouver Island. In the North its
range extends from above timber-line down over hare slopes and through
glacial valleys to the sea-level along the southern coast of Alaska. To
the southward it is limited wholly to the higher elevations, usually
above timber-line.

Owing to variations in climatic conditions and to isolation in
different parts of its range, several geographic races of the whistler
have been developed. In the mountains to the southward of its range
other marmots occur as far as New Mexico and California.

When the French-Canadian voyageurs on their fur-trading expeditions
first visited the Rocky Mountains they encountered the hoary marmots
and applied to them the name “siffleur,” or whistler, which they had
already given the common woodchuck of eastern Canada. The shrill note
of the hoary marmot, under favorable circumstances, may be heard more
than a mile and justifies the restriction of the name whistler to it.

The whistler lives in such remote and unfrequented districts that
little is known of its life history. It is diurnal in habits and loves
the free open spaces of the high mountain ridges. There its loud,
oft-repeated call note, striking colors, together with its habit of
running about on the snowbanks, render it unusually conspicuous.

High in the mountains it usually inhabits rock slides, the tumbled rock
masses of glacial moraines, or rocky points, but sometimes takes up its
abode on open earth slopes or in the bottoms of little glacial valleys.
Ordinarily the dens are hidden in the rock slides and broken-down
ledges, or burrows are dug under the shelter of large boulders and even
in open ground away from any rocky shelter.

During the sunny days of summer the whistler regularly frequents the
top of some conspicuous boulder or projecting rocky point, from which
it commands a sweeping view of all its surroundings. Its sight and
hearing are extraordinarily keen, and when perched on its lookout it is
difficult to stalk. When one has its burrow located in an open place it
often sits upright on its haunches to look watchfully about, and at the
first alarm disappears into its den. This watchfulness is necessary,
for even in the remote alpine highlands it occupies, the whistler is
beset by enemies. The most formidable of these are the great brown and
grizzly bears of the North, which dig it from its burrow. In addition
prowling wolves, Canada lynxes, wolverines, and eagles take occasional
toll from its numbers.

Toward the end of summer, when the high alpine slopes are thickly grown
with small flowering herbage, the whistler feeds heavily on many of the
plants and, like the woodchuck at this season, becomes excessively fat.
Before the arrival of winter it retires to the shelter of its den and
begins the long hibernating sleep which may last six months or more. In
spring, before the snowy mantle is gone from the mountains, it is out,
ready to welcome the approaching summer. A few weeks later the three or
four young are born. They remain with the mother throughout the season
and during their first winter may hibernate in the home den.

The unspoiled wilderness of remote northern mountain slopes and ridges
where the whistler lives is also the home of the mountain sheep,
caribou, and huge northern bears. As the hardy sportsmen roam these
inspiring heights in search of game their attention is constantly
attracted to the marmots, whose presence and shrill call notes lend a
pleasing touch of life to many an otherwise harsh and forbidding scene.


=THE PRAIRIE-DOG= (=Cynomys ludovicianus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 538_)

Prairie-dogs are not “dogs,” but typical rodents, first cousins to the
ground squirrels, or spermophiles. As a rule, they may be distinguished
from the ground squirrels by their larger size, proportionately
shorter and heavier bodies, and shorter tails. In length they vary from
fourteen to over seventeen inches, and in weight from one and one-half
to more than three pounds.

These rodents are limited to the interior of North America and form
a small group of five species and several geographic races. Although
closely alike in general form and habits, the species are divided into
two sets: one, the most widely distributed and best known, having the
tails tipped with black, and the other having the tails tipped with
white.

On the treeless western plains and valleys from North Dakota and
Montana to Texas and thence west across the Rocky Mountains to Utah
and Arizona, they are one of the most numerous and characteristic
animals. Southward they range into northwestern Chihuahua and one
species occupies an isolated area on the Mexican table-land in southern
Coahuila and northern San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Their vertical range
varies from about 2,000 feet on the plains to above 10,000 feet in the
mountainous parts of Colorado and Arizona.

Owing to their diurnal habits, their exceeding abundance over vast
areas, and their interesting mode of living in colonies, prairie-dogs
have always attracted the attention of travelers and have become one
of the most widely known of our smaller mammals. All who have lived
in the West, or who have merely traversed the Great Plains on the
transcontinental railroads, have had their interest excited by these
plump little animals sitting bolt upright by the mounds which mark the
entrances to their burrows, or scampering panicstricken for shelter as
the train roars through their “towns.”

So strong is the gregarious instinct in prairie-dogs that they
customarily make their burrows within short distances of each other,
varying from a few yards to a few rods apart. The inhabitants of these
communities, or “towns,” as they have often been termed, vary in number
from a few individuals to millions. In western Texas one continuous
colony is about 250 miles long and 100 miles wide. In the entire State
of Texas 90,000 square miles are occupied by prairie-dogs, and the
number of these animals within this area runs into the hundreds of
millions. The extent to which they occupy parts of their territory is
well illustrated by one situation in a mountain valley, containing
about a square mile, in eastern Arizona, which by actual count
contained 7,200 of their burrows.

The burrows, from four to five inches in diameter, are usually located
on flat or gently sloping ground. They descend abruptly from eight to
sixteen feet, then turn at a sharp angle and extend ten to twenty-five
feet in a horizontal or slightly upward course. The tunnel at the end
of the steep descending shaft is always more or less irregular in
course, and branches in various directions, the branches often ending,
in a rounded nest or storage chamber, but sometimes forming a loop back
to the main passageway. Not infrequently two entrances some distance
apart lead to these deep workings. A little niche is ingeniously dug
on one side of the steep entrance shaft, four to six feet below the
surface, to which on the approach of danger the owner retires to listen
and determine whether it may or may not be necessary to seek safety
in the depth of the den. It is from these vantage points that the
resentful voices of the habitants come to an intruder in a prairie-dog
“town” as he passes.

The black-tailed prairie-dog, which is so numerous on the Great Plains,
surrounds the entrance to its burrow with a crater-shaped pyramid
of soil varying from a few inches to nearly two feet in height and
serving perfectly as a dike to keep out the water. The owners keep the
funnel-shaped inner slopes of the rims about the entrances in good
condition by setting briskly to work to reshape them at the end of a
rain-storm, digging and pushing the earth in place with their feet and
molding it into a more compact mass by pressing it in with their blunt
noses.

The white-tailed prairie-dogs pile the dirt from their excavations out
on one side of the entrance, as in the case of most other burrowing
animals. Sometimes the dirt in these piles amounts to from ten to
twenty bushels, thus indicating extended underground workings.

The vivacity and hearty enjoyment of life by the occupants of a
prairie-dog “town” is most entertaining to an observer. With the first
peep of the sun above the horizon they are out on the mounds at the
entrances of their burrows, first sitting erect on their hind feet
and looking sharply about for any prowling enemy. If all is well they
begin to run about from one hole to another, as though to pass the
compliments of the day, and scatter through the adjacent grassy feeding
ground.

The favorite food of prairie-dogs consists of the stems and roots of
gramma grass and other richly nutritious forage plants. In addition
they eat any native fruits, such as that of the pear-leaved cactus
(_Opuntia_) and are extremely destructive to grain, alfalfa, and
other cultivated crops. In addition to ordinary vegetation, they eat
grasshoppers and are fond of flesh, sometimes being caught far from
their homes in traps set for carnivores. They keep the grass and other
vegetation cut down or entirely dug out over much of the “town” and
especially in a circle about each entrance mound, apparently for the
purpose of obtaining a clear view as a safeguard against the approach
of any of their many four-footed enemies. This habit is exceedingly
injurious to the cattle ranges and often results in much erosion of the
fertile surface soil.

[Illustration: PRAIRIE-DOG

_Cynomys ludovicianius_]

[Illustration: STRIPED GROUND SQUIRREL

_Citellus tridecemlineatus_]

The vast numbers of prairie-dogs over so large a part of the grazing
areas of the West take a heavy toll from the forage and other crops.
As a consequence a campaign of destruction is being waged against them
as the country becomes more and more settled, and they will eventually
disappear from much of their present range. However detrimental
they may be from an economic point of view, they are among our most
interesting species, and when taken young their playful disposition and
intelligence render them most entertaining captives.

[Illustration: CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL

_Citellus beecheyi_]

[Illustration: ANTELOPE CHIPMUNK

_Ammospermophilus leucurus_]

Owing to the constant danger to which they are subject from coyotes,
foxes, bobcats, badgers, and black-footed ferrets, in addition to
eagles and other birds of prey, prairie-dogs are constantly on the
alert. At any suspicious occurrence the first to observe it runs to
his entrance mound, if the danger is not pressing, but otherwise to
the nearest mound, where he sits up at his full height, “barking” and
vibrating his tail, ready, if necessary, to disappear instantly. At the
same time the “town” is alive with scurrying figures of the habitants
rushing panic-stricken for their homes, and the air is filled with a
chorus of their little barking cries. When all have been frightened to
cover barking continues in the burrows, but an hour or more may pass
before a “dog” will reappear.

I once stalked a solitary antelope by creeping flat on the ground
through a prairie-dog “town.” As I drew near the first burrows, the
“dogs” all rushed to their mounds, sitting there and barking at the
queer and unknown animal thus invading their precincts. The strange
sight excited as much curiosity among them as alarm. As I approached
one mound after another the owners would become almost hysterical in
their excitement and would sit first on all fours and then stand up
at full height on their hind feet, the tail all the time vibrating as
though worked by some mechanism, while the barking continued at the
intruder as rapidly and explosively as possible. When I came within
six or eight feet the “dog” would dive down his hole, sputtering barks
from the depths as he went, but often would pop up again to take
another look before finally disappearing. In this way I passed ten or a
dozen mounds while the dozens of “dogs” off my line of progress worked
themselves into a frenzy of curiosity and protest. When the stalk was
finished I passed back through the “town” and my upright figure was
promptly recognized by the habitants as that of an enemy and every one
disappeared before I was within fifty yards of the first mound.

The common note of the black-tailed prairie-dogs is a squeaking “bark,”
much like that produced by squeezing a toy dog; in addition, there is a
rapid chattering note, often given as the “dogs” vanish down the hole.
The white-tailed species have a shriller, more chirping note. In both
species the odd vibrating motion of the tail, held stiffly close to the
back, is characteristic.

Prairie-dogs hibernate in severe weather, those living in high,
snow-covered mountains or in the far north sometimes sleeping through
five or six months. In many places their hibernation is irregular, and
near the southern border of their range is limited to a few inclement
days now and then. In Wyoming they come out the last of March or early
in April, sometimes when there is a foot or two of snow on the ground
and the temperature ranges far below zero. Under such conditions they
run about over the snow during the middle of the day, feeding on
projecting tips of vegetation or digging to the ground.

Beginning near the southern border of their range and proceeding north,
the single litter of the season, containing from four to six young,
are born in March, April, or May, and a month later, when scarcely
larger than chipmunks, may be seen playing about the entrance mound.
When danger appears the mother sends the young helter-skelter for
the refuge of the burrow, and should any be slow about going in she
rushes at them, driving them to cover with shrill barks of alarm. When
about half-grown the young scatter and prepare burrows of their own.
Sometimes as many as six to nine of these animals may be found in a
single burrow, in which, no doubt, they have taken refuge, or it may be
a reunion of the season’s family.

On warm sunny days, especially at a time when nights are frosty,
these fat little animals will often lie flat on the bare ground about
their mounds, with legs outstretched, basking in the grateful rays.
As their colonies expand by the rapid increase of their numbers, many
individuals wander far in search of new locations. On the mountain
plateaus of northern Arizona I know of instances where they have
traversed several miles of pine and fir forest to locate in an isolated
mountain park, and new colonies were established as far as six miles
from their nearest neighbors.

The flesh of prairie-dogs is not unpalatable, and Navajo and Pueblo
Indians are extremely fond of it. The Indians take advantage of heavy
rains and turn the temporary rush of water down the holes to drown out
the “dogs,” and thus capture many of them.

It is inevitable that many popular misconceptions should grow up about
such numerous and interesting animals as the prairie-dogs. In the West
many people believe that the burrows go down to water. In reality,
like many other rodents, these animals have acquired the ability by
chemical action in the stomach to transform the starchy food into
water. I have seen dog towns located on a few feet of soil resting on
a waterless lava bed miles in extent and more than 100 feet thick, as
shown by canyons cut through it, thus proving the impossibility of the
prairie-dog-well legend.

Another popular belief is that the rattlesnakes and burrowing owls
living in prairie-dog towns unite as a kind of happy family in the
burrows of the dogs. The truth is that the owls live and breed in
deserted dog holes, while the rattlesnakes visit the occupied holes to
feed on the unfortunate occupants.


=THE STRIPED GROUND SQUIRREL= (=Citellus tridecemlineatus=
and its subspecies)

(_For illustration, see page 538_)

Small size and a series of thirteen narrow, well-defined stripes, or
lines, marking the upperparts of the striped ground squirrel serve to
distinguish it from all its relatives. Its total length is about eleven
inches and its form is nearly as slender as that of the weasel. Its
brightly colored markings blend so well with the brown earth and plant
stems in its haunts that when quiet it is difficult to distinguish.
This protective coloration is of vital service to a small animal
sought by all the diurnal birds of prey, as well as by coyotes, foxes,
bobcats, badgers, skunks, weasels, and snakes.

The striped ground squirrel, also known as the “gopher” or “striped
gopher,” is restricted to middle North America, where it is distributed
from southern Michigan and northern Indiana west to Utah, and from
about latitude 55 degrees in northern Alberta south nearly to the
Gulf coast of Texas. It ranges from near sea level in Texas up nearly
to 10,000 feet in Colorado. Within these limits the varying climatic
conditions have modified it into several geographic races, all having a
close general resemblance.

Like most members of the squirrel family, the striped ground squirrels
are diurnal in habits and well known wherever they occur. I first
learned the ways of these odd little mammals as a boy on the prairies
outside the city of Chicago, and later observed them in a high
mountain valley in Arizona. In both regions they had the same habits.
By preference they occupy grassy prairies, old fields, and similar
situations. In many areas they are serious pests, owing to their
abundance and their destructiveness to grain crops, but where the land
is generally cultivated, the sheltering vegetation and their shallow
burrows are destroyed by the plow, thus causing a decrease in their
numbers.

The lives of the striped ground squirrels are so beset with peril that
they always move abroad with watchful hesitation, pausing to listen,
retreating toward their burrows at the slightest suspicious sound or
movement, or rising bolt upright on their hind feet and remaining
motionless as a small statue until satisfied that there is nothing to
fear. They call to one another with a chirping note as well as with
a shrill trilling whistle, and when alarmed by the presence of some
enemy their warning call notes are heard on all sides as the alarm is
passed, and all are on the alert to disappear down their burrows at the
slightest suspicious movement.

When they have vanished their trilling notes are often heard from
the depths of their burrows; but curiosity is one of their strongest
traits, and if no disturbance follows one will almost immediately pop
up its head to see the cause of the alarm. Boys, taking advantage of
this habit, place an open slipping noose at the end of a long string
around the entrance of the burrow, and, waiting developments, lie
quietly a few yards to one side. The ensuing silence is too much for
the ground squirrel to endure and soon its head appears above ground,
the boy pulls the string, and the victim is dragged forth with the
noose about its neck.

The entrance to the burrow of these ground squirrels is about two
inches in diameter. It is usually located in the midst of grass or
weedy growths, and has little or no fresh earth about it. The burrow
descends for several inches almost vertically and then turns almost
horizontally in a sinuous and erratic course, with numerous branches
and side passages leading up to the surface. Most of these side
entrances are kept plugged with soft earth. Opening off the main tunnel
is a large nest chamber filled with fine dry grasses and other soft
vegetable matter, and also one or more large storage chambers in which
the owner lays up his garnered supplies of grain or other seeds for use
during inclement weather.

These squirrels hibernate throughout their range, entering their long
sleep in an excessively fat condition the last of September or in
October. In the North they remain in a torpid state for six months or
more.

Soon after they appear in spring they mate and the single litter of
the year, containing from five to thirteen young, is born the last of
May or early in June. The young are in an extremely undeveloped state
at birth, being blind, hairless, and with the ears scarcely showing.
They develop slowly and remain with the mother until toward fall, when,
nearly grown, they scatter to care for themselves.

The striped ground squirrels are among the most carnivorous of rodents.
Although they devote much time to gathering grain, seeds of various
kinds, and even acorns and other nuts, which may be eaten on the spot
or carried in their cheek pouches to their underground storage rooms,
in addition they are known to eat insects and flesh whenever occasion
offers. In fact, during seasons when such insect food as grasshoppers,
caterpillars, and grubs is plentiful, these ground squirrels frequently
feed mainly upon it. They are known to kill and devour mice and young
birds, and when confined in a cage will sometimes kill and partly
devour their own kind. When caught they fight fiercely, biting and
struggling to escape. In captivity they show little of the gentleness
and intelligence which are such pleasing characteristics of chipmunks
and true squirrels.


=THE CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL= (=Citellus beecheyi= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 539_)

Owing to its habits, the California ground squirrel is known locally as
the digger-, rock-, or ground-squirrel. Its prominent ears, bushy tail,
color, and form give it the general appearance of a heavy-bodied gray
tree squirrel, but in reality it is a true, spermophile and close kin
to the marmots.

[Illustration: GOLDEN CHIPMUNK

_Callospermophilus lateralis chrysodeirus_]

[Illustration: EASTERN CHIPMUNK

_Tamias striatus_]

Spermophiles are nearly circumpolar in distribution, ranging through
northern lands from central Europe across Bering Strait to the Great
Lakes in North America. Many species exist in North America, varying
greatly in form, size, and color. They occur mainly in the western
part of the continent from the Arctic coast of Alaska to the southern
end of the Mexican table-land. Some species are represented by enormous
numbers and do great injury to cultivated crops. Among the larger and
best known of the injurious species, the California ground squirrel,
with its several geographic races, occupies most of the Pacific coast
region from Oregon to Lower California. It has a broad vertical
distribution, extending from the seashore to about 10,000 feet altitude
on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, and thrives
under contrasting climatic conditions, as the humid northwest coast
region and the most arid deserts of Lower California.

[Illustration: OREGON CHIPMUNK

_Eutamias townsendi_]

[Illustration: PAINTED CHIPMUNK

_Eutamias minimus pictus_]

In California, where they are generally distributed and extremely
numerous over great areas, these ground squirrels are most at home
among the wild oats and scattered live oaks on the open slopes of the
rocky foothills and thence up through the dense chaparral, scrub oaks,
piñon pines, and junipers. Above this they populate many beautiful
little valleys in colonies, as well as parts of the splendid open
forests of pine and fir. Below they spread out from the foothills among
the ranches in the great valleys. Wherever they occur they take heavy
toll from the native forage plants, and in cultivated areas their
devastations of crops place these spermophiles among the most serious
of mammal pests.

They are omnivorous, eating insects and flesh on occasion, but
feeding mainly on seeds, fruits, and many kinds of plants. The native
vegetation in their haunts contains a wonderful variety of food plants,
from humble weeds in the valleys to the lordly pines of the Sierra,
but most attractive to these rodents are the rich food-bearers brought
by the cultivators of the soil. The squirrels gather in great numbers
about farms, and in feeding upon alfalfa, wheat, and other grains,
grapes, peaches, apricots, almonds, prunes, pomegranates, and a variety
of other crops, cause an annual loss to the farmers of California
probably exceeding $20,000,000. So serious are their depredations that
great sums have been spent in attempts to destroy them with poison. The
Kern County Land Company, with vast holdings in the southern end of the
San Joaquin Valley, in 1911 spent more than $40,000 for this purpose.
This company estimated that the ground squirrels destroyed 20 per cent
of the grain crop in great areas, and that twenty of them would destroy
enough forage to support a cow through the year.

Ground squirrels by choice locate their burrows among slide rock, in
crevices among cliffs, under boulders and roots of trees, in ditch or
dry creek banks, or under stone walls, fences, or building, but in the
parks of the high Sierra, as in the foothills and lowland valleys, they
dig holes out in the open with conspicuous mounds at the entrances much
like those of prairie-dogs.

Well-worn trails lead from one of their burrows to another and away to
a distance through the wild oats in the foothills, or in the grain
and forage crops of the valleys, and along these the animals travel
when foraging or paying social visits. Whenever a large rock, stump,
or other prominent object is convenient, they spend hours on the top
sunning themselves and keeping a sharp lookout over their surroundings.
From these lookout points when they suspect danger they utter a short,
shrill, whistling note which may be heard at a long distance and which
sends all their neighbors scurrying for shelter. They also have a lower
chattering note, uttered about the burrow when resenting an intrusion
or when otherwise displeased.

Ground squirrels are agile climbers on cliffs and among rocks as well
as in fruit trees, live oaks, and other low trees, but I have never
seen them far from the ground in large trees. When on the ground they
run in a series of bounds like tree squirrels. The long, bushy tail is
carried almost straight out behind when they scamper off in alarm, but
at other times is curved and undulating, much as in the tree squirrels.
They gather and manipulate food with their front paws, sitting upright
on their haunches to eat or look about. On one occasion when I came to
a foot-bridge over a broad irrigating ditch across which a number of
ground squirrels were raiding an orchard, they did not hesitate to dash
at full speed into the swiftly running water and swam quickly across to
seek refuge in their holes on the far side.

Like other spermophiles, the California ground squirrels hibernate
for months in the cold, snow-covered parts of their winter range, but
remain active throughout the year in the warmer areas, where no snow
falls. Throughout their range they gather stores of seeds, grain,
and acorns and other nuts, carrying them in their cheek pouches to
underground store-rooms for use in bad weather. In the valleys of
California they lie hidden in their burrows for days at a time during
cold winter rains, but are out as soon as the sun reappears. One or
more litters, each containing from six to twelve young, are born from
March to late in summer, according to the locality. The young leave the
nest and care for themselves when about half grown.

The swarming abundance of the California ground squirrel on foothill
slopes and in fertile valley bottoms equals the congregations of
prairie-dogs in their most populous districts. This abundance of small
animal life supports a great variety of predatory species, as coyotes,
foxes, bobcats, several kinds of hawks, and the golden eagle. Owing to
its predilection for ground squirrels, the golden eagle is protected
by law in California, where many of them build their nests in low live
oaks only a few yards from the ground.

When house rats brought the bubonic plague to San Francisco a few years
ago they also carried it across the bay and passed it on to the ground
squirrels living in the foothills back of Oakland. Thence the disease
spread among these animals through parts of several surrounding
counties. The United States Public Health Service and the local
authorities in a vigorous campaign stopped the spread of this malady,
but not until the potential ability of these rodents as plague-carriers
had been well established. This fact and the wide distribution of
the California and other ground squirrels over a large part of the
continent should not be overlooked in connection with possible
future outbreaks of the plague. Fortunately, investigation and field
experiments on a large scale have shown that these spermophiles may be
destroyed by poison over great areas at a relatively small cost.


=THE ANTELOPE CHIPMUNK= (=Ammospermophilus leucurus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 539_)

Commonly known as the antelope, or white-tailed, chipmunk, this
handsome little mammal is in reality a species of spermophile, or
ground squirrel. The misnomer is due, no doubt, to its small size,
striped back, and sprightly ways. From the true chipmunks it may be
distinguished by its heavier proportions, and from both chipmunks and
all other spermophiles by its odd, upturned tail, carried closely
recurved along the top of the rump. This character renders the species
unmistakable at a glance and gives it an amusing air of jaunty
self-confidence.

The antelope chipmunk is characteristic of the arid plains and lower
mountain slopes of the Southwest from western Colorado through Utah,
northern Arizona, Nevada, the southern half of California, and all of
Lower California, and down the Rio Grande Valley through New Mexico to
western Texas.

Within this area it occupies a wide variety of situations. It inhabits
the intensely hot desert plains near sea level in Lower California,
where the temperature rises to more than 125 degrees Fahrenheit in the
shade and the vegetation is characterized by such picturesque forms
of plant life as cactuses of many species, yuccas, fouquerias, palo
verdes, ironwood, and creosote bushes; it is found also above 7,000
feet altitude on the cool plateaus and mountain slopes of Arizona and
Colorado, among sage brush, greasewood, junipers, and piñon pines. It
appears equally at home skipping nimbly over rocky slopes or among
slide rock in arid canyons and scurrying through the brushy growth on
broad sandy plains devoid of rocks.

The antelope chipmunk has the most vivacious and pleasing personality
of all the numerous ground squirrels within our borders. During the
many months I have camped and traveled on horseback in their haunts I
have never lost interest in them. They were forever skirmishing among
the bushes or dashing away down trails or over the rocks of canyon
slopes, their white tails curled impudently over their backs like flags
of derision at my cumbersome advance.

Their burrows are dug in a variety of places. In the open flats they
enter the ground almost vertically, and often several entrances are
grouped within a few yards. In some places a little mound of loose
dirt is heaped up at one side of the entrance and at others there is
no trace of it. Frequently, when the ground is soft, little trails
lead in different directions from the entrances, and often between
holes 100 yards or more apart, as though they made many social visits.
The deserted burrows of other mammals are sometimes utilized to save
the trouble of digging. The burrows are often under the shelter of
cactuses, bushes, and great boulders or may be among crevices in the
rocks.

Antelope chipmunks are extraordinarily active and continually wander
far from home in search of food or in a spirit of restless inquiry. As
the traveler on horseback rides slowly along he will see them racing
away in front of him, sometimes climbing to the top of a bush 100
or 200 yards in advance for a better look at the wayfarer and then
scuttling down and racing on again. In this way I have seen them keep
ahead of me sometimes for several hundred yards instead of hiding in
some hole or shelter, as they might easily do. At other times they were
so unsuspicious they would permit me to pass within a few yards with
slight signs of alarm. They have a chirping call, often uttered when
watching from the top of a bush, and also a prolonged twittering or
trilling note, diminishing toward the end.

In the higher and colder parts of their range, where snow lies long on
the ground, these spermophiles hibernate for several months, but in the
warmer areas they are active throughout the year. Wherever they occur
they gather food and carry it to their underground store-rooms in their
cheek pouches. Like most ground squirrels, they eat many kinds of seeds
and fruits as well as flesh and insects when occasion offers. About
cultivated lands they are sometimes abundant and destructive, digging
up corn or other grain as soon as it is planted and also taking toll of
the ripening grain until they become a pest. In the desert they often
gather about camps to pick up the grain scattered about when the horses
are fed.

It is well for them that they are prolific, having one or more litters
during spring and summer, with from four to twelve in each, as they
have many enemies. Snakes and weasels pursue them into their burrows,
while foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, and many kinds of hawks,
constantly reduce their numbers.


=THE GOLDEN CHIPMUNK= (=Callospermophilus lateralis
chrysodeirus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 542_)

[Illustration: RED SQUIRREL

_Sciurus hudsonicus_]

[Illustration: DOUGLAS SQUIRREL

_Sciurus douglasi_]

The golden chipmunk, or calico squirrel, as it is named in Oregon, is
the most richly colored of the several geographic races of a widely
known species, _Callospermophilus lateralis_, abundant among the open
forests of yellow pines and firs of the western ranges, including
the Rocky Mountains, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada. Although commonly
known as a chipmunk, this handsome animal is a ground squirrel,
or spermophile, distinguished from all its kind by heavy stripes,
resembling those of a chipmunk, along the sides of its back. From the
chipmunks it may be distinguished at a glance by its thick-set and
often almost obese proportions, which render its movements much slower
and less graceful than they are with those nimble sprites. It occurs
from northeastern British Columbia to New Mexico, southern California,
and even in an area in the high Sierra Madre of southern Chihuahua,
where an isolated representative occupies a limited range.

[Illustration: GRAY SQUIRREL (and black phase)

_Sciurus carolinensis_]

[Illustration: RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL

_Sciurus niger rufiventer_

FOX SQUIRREL

_Sciurus niger_]

Their vertical distribution extends from a moderate elevation above the
sea in Oregon to above 11,000 feet in southern California. They are
common in the Yellowstone and other national parks, where their size,
bright markings, and activities render them conspicuous.

Everywhere their habits resemble those of the various species of true
chipmunks with which they associate. They live in burrows, which they
dig under the shelter of logs, rocks, stumps, roots of trees, or even
in open ground, as well as in the ready-made shelter of rock slides,
with conies, at timberline. Their burrows at times have several
entrances within a small area. Often they occupy the burrows of other
animals, including pocket gophers. They excavate burrows under cabins
or barns in clearings, and abandoned mining camps or old sawmill sites
frequently abound with them. Nests and storage chambers are excavated
off the passageways. The nests are usually made of leaves and other
soft vegetable material, but in the sheep country wool, which they find
in scattered tufts, is often used.

A camping party in their haunts is certain to attract them, and, as
about barns, it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on them to prevent
their robbing grain sacks or other supplies. When they once locate an
accessible supply of grain their industry is remarkable. I have seen
a dozen or more working throughout the day, making continuous hurried
trips, with loaded cheek pouches, to their dens, sometimes two hundred
yards away. On approach of autumn they become continually active,
gathering their winter supplies.

The length of their hibernation varies with the severity of the
climate, but is rarely under five months. It is said to run through
seven months on the higher mountains of southern California. They
usually go into winter quarters in September or early in October, but
occasionally one may be seen out as late as December. At this time they
have become so fat that their movements are very sluggish. One kept as
a pet for eleven years at Klamath Falls, Oregon, is reported to have
hibernated regularly each winter. In Montana they retire to their dens
in September and come out in March. They mate soon after they appear in
spring and the young, four to seven in number, are half grown the last
of May.

Like true chipmunks, these spermophiles are fond of weedy clearings or
other openings in the forest, where stumps, logs, rocks, and old fences
offer plentiful shelter and many elevated vantage points where they may
sit by the hour watching the doings of their small world. They have a
sharp whistling or chirping call note, usually uttered as a warning
cry, but sometimes as a social call. They do not like gloomy or stormy
weather and generally lie hidden at such times, but on sunny days are
so actively engaged in foraging, running along the tops of logs, or
perching on the tops of stumps and large rocks that they add greatly
to the pleasant animation of the forests where they live. When running
they usually carry the tail elevated like a chipmunk.

They sun themselves for hours on elevated points, sometimes lying
quiescent and again sitting bolt upright, but always watchful and ready
to disappear at the slightest alarm. This watchfulness is necessary,
for their enemies are abroad at all hours. They are the prey of
bobcats, foxes, coyotes, weasels, snakes, and hawks.

The golden chipmunk and its related subspecies are omnivorous feeders.
They show a strong predilection for bacon when looting camp stores and
eat any kind of meat with avidity. Young birds and birds’ eggs are
devoured whenever found, as are also grasshoppers, beetles, flies,
larvæ, and many other insects. The number of kinds of seeds eaten is
almost endless and includes chinquapin and pine nuts, rhus, alfileria,
violet, lupine, ceanothus, and others. They also eat roses and other
flowers, green leaves, wild currants, gooseberries and other fruit, and
small tuberous roots. They often climb bushes and low trees, at least
30 feet from the ground, after nuts and berries. The capacity of their
cheek pouches is shown by one instance, when one animal was loaded with
750 serviceberry seeds. The pouches of another contained 360 grains of
barley, another 357 of oats. Bold and persistent camp robbers, their
depredations cover all articles of food, including bread and cake, and
they sometimes do considerable injury to small mountain grain fields.

I had the pleasure of living in the mountains of New Mexico and
Arizona for several years where these attractive ground squirrels were
numerous, and vividly remember them as among the most interesting of
the woodland folk. Their friendliness about forest cabins is notable
and with a little encouragement they become extremely confiding and
amusing visitors.

The young are playful, pursuing one another in apparent games of “tag”
over rocks, stumps, and logs. When partly grown they have all the
heedlessness of youth and on one occasion an observer saw the mother
repeatedly push the young back into crevices in a rock slide with her
front feet, as they persisted in trying to come out to look at the
strange intruder in their haunts.


=THE EASTERN CHIPMUNK= (=Tamias striatus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 542_)

The chipmunks are close relatives of the tree squirrels, but live
mainly on the ground, are provided with cheek pouches for carrying
food to their hidden stores, and have many ways similar to those of
the spermophiles, or ground squirrels. They are nearly circumpolar
in distribution, ranging through eastern Europe and northern Asia as
well as from the Atlantic to the Pacific in North America. On this
continent they are far more numerous in species and individuals than
in the Old World, and their center of abundance appears to lie in the
mountainous western half of the United States. Their extreme range
extends from near the Arctic Circle in Canada to Durango and Middle
Lower California, Mexico.

As a group the chipmunks are widely known for their grace, beauty of
coloration, and sprightly ways. Among the handsomest and most familiar
is the common chipmunk of Canada and the United States east of the
Great Plains. Within this area it is divided into several geographic
races, of which the best known is the brightly colored animal occupying
all the wooded region from the Great Lakes to Nova Scotia and New
England, which is the subject of the accompanying illustration. Its
vertical distribution extends from sea level to the summit of Mount
Washington, where it may be seen on pleasant summer days.

The eastern chipmunks, like most of their kind, belong to the forest
and its immediate environment. Favorite haunts are rocky ledges covered
with vines and brush, half-cleared land, the brushy borders of old
pasture fences, stone walls, and similar situations. In early days
they were so plentiful in places that they made serious inroads on
the scanty crops of the settlers, and bounties were offered for their
destruction.

No one who visits the woods of the eastern States or Canada can fail
to observe with pleasure the alert, attractive ways of these little
squirrel-like animals. They are everywhere, including the vicinity of
summer camps in the forest, and, if encouraged, prove most attractive
and friendly neighbors. To such small beasts the world is peopled with
enemies against which the only safeguard is eternal watchfulness. This
accounts for the hesitating advances and retreats so characteristic of
these chipmunks, which at the first sudden movement of any suspicious
object, or loud noise, disappear like a flash. They soon learn to
recognize a friend and in many places come regularly into camp
buildings to receive food. I doubt, however, if they ever become quite
so friendly as some squirrels under similar conditions.

Like most of the squirrel tribe, they are endowed with much curiosity,
and at the appearance of anything unusual, but not too alarming, they
seek some safe vantage point from which to peer at it with every sign
of interest. They are extremely timid and wary, however, and if
doubtful move by little cautious runs, stopping to sit up and look
about, often mounting a stump, log, or a side of a tree trunk for the
purpose, the tail all the time moving with slow undulations. If alarmed
they dash away to the nearest shelter, the tail held nearly or quite
erect and sometimes quivering excitedly. When running to shelter they
often utter chattering cries of alarm. Their principal enemies are
cats, weasels, martens, foxes, snakes, birds of prey, and the untamed
small boy with his dog. Weasels, the supreme terror of their existence,
follow them to the depths of their burrows and kill them ruthlessly.

These chipmunks are sociable and playful, often pursuing one another,
first one and then the other being the pursuer, as though in a game.
They race along fence tops and old logs and up stumps and even the
lower parts of tree trunks. Lovers of bright, sunny weather, they
usually remain hidden in their burrows during stormy days. If they
venture out at such times they are quiet and show none of the mercurial
liveliness which characterizes them when the weather is pleasant.

Their food includes a great variety of cultivated and wild plants, as
wheat, buckwheat, corn, grass seed, ragweed seed, hazelnuts, acorns,
beechnuts, strawberries, blueberries, wintergreen berries, mushrooms,
and many others. In addition they eat May beetles and other insects and
insect larvæ, snails, occasional frogs, salamanders, small snakes, and
many young birds and eggs.

At all seasons they fill their cheek pouches with food to be carried
away to their dens, but toward the end of summer or early fall they
work industriously laying up stores of seeds and nuts. Sometimes these
stores, hidden in chambers excavated for the purpose or in hollow logs
and similar places, contain several quarts of beechnuts or other nuts
or seeds. Small quantities of such food are hidden here and there under
the leaves or in shallow pits in the ground. Store-rooms in one burrow
contained a peck of chestnuts, cherry pits, and dogwood berries, and
another had a half bushel of hickory nuts.

[Illustration: ABERT SQUIRREL

_Sciurus aberti_

KAIBAB SQUIRREL

_Sciurus kaibabensis_]

While at a summer camp I once saw one of these chipmunks give an
exhibition of the exquisitely keen power of scent which must be
necessary to recover scattered stores. The chipmunk had been coming
repeatedly down a wooded slope in full view for twenty-five yards or
more to the floor of the porch for food supplied by the campers. While
it was absent carrying food to its burrow I placed a few nut meats on
the flat top of a stump about fifteen feet to one side of the porch
and farther away than the point where the chipmunk was being fed bread
crumbs. On its return several minutes later, instead of going as usual
to the porch, it ran directly to the stump, climbed up it, and promptly
made off with the nuts, which it had evidently located from afar. They
sometimes climb beeches and other trees to gather nuts even to a height
of fifty or sixty feet, and are commonly seen on low limbs and in
bushes.

[Illustration: FLYING SQUIRREL

_Glaucomys volans_]

[Illustration: BLACK-FOOTED FERRET

_Mustela nigripes_]

The entrances to the burrows are usually under logs, roots, or rocks,
or the den may be in a hollow log, stump or base of a tree, or even
under a cabin in the woods. The burrows in the ground are commonly a
series of tunnels some yards in length, with an oval nest and storage
chamber two or three feet underground, and with branches from the main
passageway. The nest chamber, a foot or more in diameter, is filled
with fragments of dry leaves and other soft vegetable material. One
chamber is usually used for sanitary purposes. The used entrance hole
is commonly without a sign of dug earth about it, the loose soil from
the burrow and its chambers apparently having been thrown out at
another opening, which appears to be used for this purpose only and is
kept plugged with earth.

Throughout most of the northern half of its range these chipmunks
usually hibernate from some time in October until March. Their
hibernation is far less profound than that of the woodchuck and they
not infrequently appear above ground during periods of mild weather,
even in midwinter. The hibernating period is shorter in the southern
part of the range.

They vary much in numbers from year to year and at times appear to
increase suddenly in localities where food is plentiful, indicating a
probable food migration. The young, numbering from four to six in a
litter, are born at varying times between the last of April and late
summer, indicating the possibility of more than one litter a season.

The most characteristic note of this chipmunk is a throaty _chuck,
chuck_, which is ordinarily used as a call note, but which in spring is
uttered many times in rapid succession to express the seasonal feeling
of joy and well being, thus taking on the character of a song. Such
joyful notes may be heard on every hand in places where the little
songsters are numerous. In addition, they have a high-pitched, chirping
note and a small churring whistle when much alarmed.


=THE OREGON CHIPMUNK= (=Eutamias townsendi= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 543_)

The resident species of birds and mammals in the humid coastal region
of Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia are strikingly
characterized by their darker and browner colors in comparison with
closely related species in more arid districts.

The Oregon chipmunk is one of the common species showing marked
response to these local climatic conditions and is the darkest of all
the many species of chipmunks in the Western States. This chipmunk is
one of several geographic races into which the species is divided by
changing environment. The species, as a whole, ranges along the west
coast from British Columbia to Lower California, and the races at the
extremes of the line differ much in color.

As befits a habitant of the humid forested region, the Oregon chipmunk
is robustly built and distinctly larger than the other chipmunks of
the Western States. It is common and generally distributed throughout
this region, occurring from among the drift logs along the ocean beach
to above timberline on the Cascade Mountains. Within these limits
it frequents almost every variety of situation. It occurs in the
midst of gloomy forests of giant spruces, cedars, and firs, but is
particularly fond of old fences and brush patches on the borders of
farm clearings in the valleys as well as the vicinity of rocky ledges,
brush piles, and fallen timber, where the low thickets offer a variety
of food-bearing plants and ready shelter.

On the mountains it is most numerous about rock slides and “burns” or
other openings in the forest. Several pairs usually haunt the vicinity
of old sawmills and of mountain cabins. Like others of their kind, they
are alert and vivacious, varying in mood from day to day, but always
interesting. At times they are excessively shy and retiring, and a
person might spend a day in their haunts without seeing or hearing one,
although it is safe to say that the intruder had been seen and every
foot of his progress noted by the chipmunks. On another day, perhaps
because the sun shines more brightly and nature is in a happier mood,
the animals appear on all sides. Their slowly repeated sociable _chuck,
chuck_, is heard from the depths of the brushy covert as well as from
the tops of stumps, logs, rocks, or other lookout points where they sit
to view their surroundings. If alarmed they utter a sharp, birdlike
chirping note as they vanish in the nearest shelter. As one moves
about in their haunts he may now and then see one appear for a moment
above the undergrowth in a tall bush, on top of a stump, and sometimes
even mounting a few yards up a tree trunk to observe the cause of the
disturbance, only to vanish quickly.

They are always skirmishing for food, and carrying it in their cheek
pouches to hidden stores. On the approach of winter this activity
becomes very marked. A surprising variety of fruits and seeds are eaten
and stored, among them the salmonberry, red elderberry, black-capped
raspberry, thimble berry, blackberry, blueberry, gooseberry, thistle
seed, dogwood seed, hazelnuts, acorns, and others. They have favorite
feeding places, such as the top of a stone or stump or the shelter of
a log where they carry nuts or other seeds. These places are always
marked by little piles of empty shells or chaff from seeds. About
ranches they raid grain fields and other crops, sometimes in numbers
sufficient to do considerable damage.

In sheltered spots they make underground burrows with nest chamber
and store-rooms excavated along the passages. They usually retire
to these dens to hibernate during the last of September or first of
October, and appear again about March or April, often long before the
snow disappears. During fall and early winter they are sometimes seen
running about over newly fallen snow. One which was dug from its winter
quarters in British Columbia the last of November would move about
slowly and sleepily if teased, but when left undisturbed would curl
up and go to sleep again. This indicates the difference between the
light and often broken hibernation of chipmunks and the deep lethargy
which possesses ground squirrels in the North at this time. Toward
the southern end of their ranges neither chipmunk nor ground squirrel
hibernates. They mate soon after they awake from their winter sleep,
and the young, two to five or six in number, are born from April to
June. Whether more than one litter is born during a season, is, like
many other details concerning the lives of these attractive animals,
still to be learned.


=THE PAINTED CHIPMUNK= (=Eutamias minimus pictus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 543_)

The preceding sketch tells how the Oregon chipmunk, living under a
cool, humid climate, in a region of great forests, has responded to
its environment by developing dark colors and a robust physique. The
painted chipmunk of the Great Basin has given an equally perfect
response to entirely different conditions. It is one of the geographic
races of a species peculiar to the sagebrush-covered plains and hills
from the Dakotas across the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin region
to the east slope of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada. Its home is on
treeless plains, in a climate characterized by brilliant sunshine and
clear, dry air. In this environment the painted chipmunk has developed
a smaller and slenderer body than the Oregon species, and strikingly
paler colors.

These differences in physique are accompanied by equal differences in
mental and physical expression. These little animals are exceedingly
alert and agile, darting through dense growths of bushes with all
the easy grace of weasels. When running they hold the tail stiffly
erect. When alarmed they utter a shrill chippering cry, especially
when darting into shelter. They also have a chucking call, uttered at
intervals, which may be used merely as a note of sociability or to put
their neighbors on the alert.

Although one of the most distinctive animals of the sagebrush plains,
this chipmunk also ranges into the borders of open forests on the
mountain sides. It is most numerous on flats and foothill slopes among
heavy growths of sage and rabbit brush. When its territory is invaded
by settlers it does not hesitate to gather about the borders of fields
and even to raid barns in search of grain and other food. Its burrows
are dug under large sagebrush and other bushes and under rocks and
similar shelter.

As with others of their kind, painted chipmunks habitually gather
seeds of many plants and carry them in their cheek pouches to their
underground dens. In addition to seeds and green vegetation, they eat
any fruits growing in their haunts, and also many insects, especially
grasshoppers and larvae. In one locality in Nevada during June and July
more than half their food consisted of a web worm and its chrysalids
with which the sage bushes swarmed. The chipmunks climbed into the
bushes and pulled the larvæ from the webs. As half the bushes were
infested, the work of the many chipmunks had a material effect in
reducing the numbers of this pest. The vegetable food eaten includes
the seeds of _Ribes_, _Kuntzia_, _Sarcobatus_, pigweed, and many other
weeds, serviceberry, various grasses, oats, wheat, and the seeds of
small cactuses. They regularly climb into the tops of large sage and
other bushes for their seeds and the ground beneath is often covered
with the small sections of twigs cut by them. They climb readily and
often travel from bush to bush through tall thickets like squirrels in
tree-tops. On warm mornings after frosty nights they may be seen in the
tops of the bushes basking in the sun.

Throughout most of their range they begin hibernation in September or
October, and reappear early in spring. The young appear a month or more
later, and litters containing from two to six may be born throughout
the summer, indicating the possibility that several litters may be born
to the same pair in a season.

So alert and shy are they that even a person in their haunts day
after day will see but few of them. Their hearing is extremely acute,
and even at a great distance the footsteps of an intruder sets them
all on the alert. On every side they run swiftly to cover before the
observer has opportunity to see them. In such places a large setting
of baited traps will reveal their presence in surprising numbers. In
one locality, during a brief visit, traps set among the brush for other
small mammals yielded more than forty chipmunks.

On stormy and cloudy days, especially if the weather is cool, painted
chipmunks remain in their dens, but on mild sunny days they frisk about
with amazingly quick darting movements. A horseman riding along a road
leading through a sagebrush flat will frequently see them racing across
the road often several hundred yards away, the sound of the horse’s
footfalls having alarmed the chipmunks over a wide area. Here and there
one may be seen climbing hastily to the top of a tall bush to take a
look at the cause of alarm before finally seeking concealment. When
pursued among the bushes they often run considerable distances before
taking refuge in a burrow. When hard pressed they will enter the first
opening encountered, but if it is not its own home the fugitive soon
comes out and scampers away, apparently fearful of the return of the
owner or perhaps owing to his presence.

[Illustration:

  Winter      Summer

LEAST WEASEL

_Mustela rixosa_]

[Illustration: LARGE WEASEL, or STOAT (Winter and Summer)

_Mustela arcticus_] Apparently, as in the case of many other desert
mammals, the painted chipmunk, with its related races, is able to
subsist without drinking, since it is often seen far out on arid
plains many miles from the nearest water.

[Illustration: MARTEN, or AMERICAN SABLE

_Martes americana_]

[Illustration: AMERICAN MINK

_Mustela vison_]

As with all its kind, the world of the painted chipmunk is filled with
imminent peril of sudden death. Overhead, gliding on silent pinions,
are hawks of several species, while on the ground snakes, weasels,
badgers, bobcats, foxes, and coyotes are ever searching for them as
prey.


=THE RED SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus hudsonicus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 546_)

Every one who has visited the forests of Canada and northeastern
United States knows the vivacious, rollicking, and frequently impudent
red squirrel. This entertaining little beast, known also as the
pine squirrel and chickaree, has little of that woodland shyness so
characteristic of most forest animals. It often searches out the human
visitor to its haunts and from a low branch or tree trunk sputters,
barks, and scolds the intruder, working itself into a frenzy of
excitement. This habit, combined with the rusty red color and small
size of the animal, about half that of the gray squirrel, renders its
identity unmistakable. It has distinct winter and summer coats, but
in both the rusty red prevails. The winter dress is distinguished,
however, by small tufts on the ears.

The red squirrel, with its related small species, occupying most of
the wooded parts of North America north of Mexico, forms a strongly
characterized group, with no near kin among the squirrels of the Old
World. In its geographic races it ranges through the forests of all
Alaska and Canada and south to Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Wisconsin,
northern Indiana, all the Northeastern States to the District of
Columbia, and along the Alleghenies to South Carolina. Owing to its
small size, this animal, like the chipmunk, is considered too small
for game, although occasionally hunted for sport. As a consequence its
increase or decrease is usually governed by the available food supply,
although man interferes locally when it becomes too destructive.

This squirrel shows a strong preference for coniferous forests, whether
of hemlock, spruce, fir, or pine, but may be common in woods where
conifers are few and widely scattered. Although usually diurnal and
busily occupied from sunrise until sunset, it sometimes continues its
activities during moonlight nights, especially when nuts are ripe and
it is time to gather winter stores. During warm, pleasant days in
spring and fall, when the nights are cool, it often lies at full length
along the tops of large branches during the middle of the day, basking
in the grateful warmth of the sun.

The nests, which are located in a variety of situations, are made of
twigs, leaves, or moss, and lined with fibrous bark and other soft
material. Some are in knot-holes or other hollows in trees, others
may be built outside on limbs near the trunk, and still others are
in burrows made in the ground under roots, stumps, logs, brush heaps,
or other cover offering secure refuge. Apparently several litters, of
young, containing from four to six, are born each season, as they have
been found from April to September.

They do not hibernate, but are active throughout the year, except
during some of the coldest and most inclement weather. To provide
against the season of scarcity, they accumulate at the base of a tree,
under the shelter of a log, or other cover, great stores of pine,
spruce, or other cones, sometimes in heaps containing from six to
ten bushels. They also hide scattered cones here and there and place
stores of beechnuts, corn, and other seeds in hollows or underground
store-rooms. They are fond of edible mushrooms and sometimes lay up
half a bushel of them among the branches of trees or bushes to dry for
winter use. In the western mountains their great stores of pine cones
are often robbed by seed-gatherers for forestry nurseries. In winter
they tunnel through the snow to their hidden stores and sometimes
continue the tunnels from one store to another.

Each squirrel makes its home for a long period in or about a certain
tree. There he carries his cones to extract the seeds, and on the
ground beneath it the accumulation of fallen scales and centers of
cones sometimes amounts to fifteen or twenty bushels. In addition to
the seeds of the various conifers, red squirrels eat many kinds of
fruits and seeds; they also raid cornfields and orchards and even make
nests in barns and woodsheds to be near the food supply which some
farmer’s industry has collected.

Red squirrels have the interesting habit of voluntarily swimming
streams and lakes, including such bodies of water as Lake George and
even the broadest parts of Lake Champlain. When they thus cross the
water and make their migrations, there is little doubt that they are
usually in search of a better feeding ground.

The red squirrels and related species have the greatest variety
of notes possessed by any of the American members of the squirrel
family. In addition to the barking, scolding, chattering notes already
mentioned, they have a real song, which is one of the most attractive
of woodland notes. It is a long-drawn series of musical rolling or
churring notes, varied at times by cadences and having a ventriloquial
quality rendering it difficult to locate. These notes never fail to
awaken pleasurable emotions and to recall to me my early boyhood in the
Adirondacks, where the spring songs of the chickarees were among the
first calls which awakened me to the marvelous beauties of nature.

The worst trait of the red squirrel and one which largely overbalances
all his many attractive qualities is his thoroughly proved habit of
eating the eggs and young of small birds. During the breeding season
he spends a large part of his time in predatory nest hunting, and
the number of useful and beautiful birds he thus destroys must be
almost incalculable. The number of red squirrels is very great over
a continental area, and one close observer believes each squirrel
destroys 200 birds a season. Practically all species of northern
warblers, vireos, thrushes, chickadees, nuthatches, and others are
numbered among their victims. The notable scarcity of birds in northern
forests may be largely due to these handsome but vicious marauders.

In the fur country these squirrels are much disliked by the trappers
for their constant interference with meat-baited traps. Many fall
victims to their carnivorous desires, but their places are soon taken
by others.

The energy and unfailing variety in the performances of red squirrels
always keep the attention of their human neighbors. Among other
interesting activities, their pursuit of one another up and down and
around the trunks of trees, over the ground, along logs, back and forth
in the most reckless abandon, is most entertaining to watch. These
pursuits among the young are playful and harmless, but among the males
in spring are of the most deadly character. I have seen the victim go
up and down tree after tree, shrieking in fear and agony and leaving a
trail of blood on the snow as he tried to escape his truculent pursuer.

Such scenes as this, combined with our knowledge of its bird-killing
habits, appear belied by the exquisite grace and beauty of this
squirrel as it sits on a branch and sends its musical cadences trilling
through the primeval forest. So confirmed are red squirrels in the
destruction of bird life, however, they should not be permitted to
become very numerous anywhere and it may eventually become necessary to
outlaw them wherever found.


=THE DOUGLAS SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus douglasi= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 546_)

In all details of size, form, notes, and habits the Douglas squirrel
gives testimony to its descent from the same ancestral stock as the
common red squirrel (_Sciurus hudsonicus_). The typical Douglas
squirrel, represented in the accompanying illustration, is one of
several geographic races of a species which ranges from the Cascades
and Sierra Nevada to the Pacific, and from British Columbia south to
the San Pedro Martir Mountains of Lower California. The home of the
Douglas squirrel is amid the wonderful coniferous forests of western
Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia. As in other mammals
of this extremely humid region, the colors of its upperparts are dark
brown, in strong contrast to the much paler and grayer colors of
the closely related subspecies living in the clearer and more arid
climate of the Sierra Nevada in California. These squirrels are known
locally by a variety of common names, including pine squirrel, redwood
squirrel, and “drummer.”

Although usually not quite so noisy and self-assertive as the
irrepressible little red blusterer of eastern forests, the Douglas
squirrel is also notable for its rollicking, chattering character and
sometimes cannot be outdone in its amusing displays of aggressive
impudence. When the animals are numerous the air at times resounds with
their call notes or songs, one answering the other, now near and now
far, until the somber depths of the mighty forest seems peopled with a
multitude of these joyous furry sprites. Their song, resembling that
of the red squirrel, is a rapid trilling or bubbling series of notes,
long drawn out and sometimes varied by cadences. It is so musical that
it seems more like the song of some strange bird than of a mammal. When
these squirrels are not common they are much less given to song and
seem subdued and shy, as though impressed by the vast loneliness of
their deep forest haunts.

At mating time, early in spring, they are especially noisy, and again
in summer when the first litter of young are out trying their youthful
pipes in expression of their cheerful well being. They frequently come
down on a low branch or on the trunk of a tree and chatter, bark, and
scold at man, dog, or other intruder, now rushing up and down, or
making little dashes around the tree trunk, their necks outstretched
and tails flirting with a great show of anger and contempt highly
entertaining to see. They are restlessly active at all seasons of
the year and habitually chase one another through the forest with an
appearance of rollicking fun which may many times be in more deadly
earnest than appears to the casual observer.

In winter their tracks in the snow lead from tree to tree, along the
tops of logs and fences, and in all directions to hidden stores of
food, which they appear to be able to locate with unerring certainty
under the snow. An adventurous spirit leads them to race away from the
forest, along fence-tops, to pay visits to ranch buildings and even
to villages and small towns. Like their eastern relative, the Douglas
squirrels are omnivorous, feeding on the seeds of all the conifers in
their range, including spruces, firs, pines, and redwoods, and also
upon acorns, and a great variety of other seeds, fruits, and mushrooms,
insects, birds’ eggs, young birds, and any other meat they can find.
Owing to their habit of interfering with meat-baited traps, they are
a nuisance to trappers. They frequently visit orchards and carry off
apples and pears, from which they extract the seeds. They have been
seen also to visit the wounds made on a willow trunk by sapsuckers to
drink the flowing sap. Their feet and the fur about their mouths are
often much gummed with pitch from working on pine cones.

[Illustration: LITTLE SPOTTED SKUNK

_Spilogale putorius_]

[Illustration: COMMON SKUNK

_Mephitis mephitis_]

In many places the soft, moist earth in the woods is riddled with
little pits dug by these squirrels apparently when they are after larvæ
or perhaps edible roots. Throughout the summer, but especially during
the last half of the season, and in autumn Douglas squirrels work with
persistent energy to amass great stores of seed-bearing cones, which
they heap, sometimes bushels of them, about the bases of trees, stumps,
and the upturned roots of fallen trees or under other shelter. Cones
are also buried here and there in the loose leaves and humus. In winter
many holes in the snow with piles of cone scales at the entrances show
where the owners have dug down to their stores.

[Illustration: HOG-NOSED SKUNK

_Conepatus mesoleucus_]

[Illustration: NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO

_Dasypus novemcincta_]

Some of their nests are constructed in hollow trees, many others on
branches near their junction with the trunks, and still others in
underground dens under roots, logs, or stumps. In winter when alarmed
these squirrels sometimes race down the tree trunks and take refuge in
holes leading through the snow to their food caches and underground
burrows. The nests built in tree-tops are usually rather bulky,
measuring a foot or more in diameter, and are made of small twigs, dry
leaves, moss, grass, and fibrous bark. They are commonly lined with
such soft material as feathers and fur. The young, numbering three to
seven at a litter, are born at any time between April and October.

The extraordinary intelligence and sense of prevision possessed by
squirrels of this group is well illustrated by certain local food
migrations. These have been observed in eastern Oregon in years when
the cone crop has failed and nothing was available to lay up for
winter. Under such conditions to remain in the mountain forests would
mean death by starvation before winter had fairly begun. In 1910 and
1913 failure of the cone crop occurred in eastern Oregon and these
squirrels promptly left the mountain forests in September and descended
along creek courses to the open sagebrush plains as much as seven or
more miles from the border of their ordinary haunts. In this open
country they wintered successfully, raiding the farmers’ grain bins,
root cellars, and other stores, and otherwise showing their supreme
fitness to survive in the struggle for existence. With the coming
again of summer they promptly returned to their abandoned homes in the
pines. It appears to be one of the marvels of animal intelligence that
under such circumstances as those named above the entire body of the
squirrels on the mountains should have known what to do, especially as
a great percentage of their number could never have had any previous
experience as a guide.


=THE GRAY SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus carolinensis= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 547_)

The gray squirrel is so well known to everyone in the Eastern States
that it scarcely needs an introduction. Many who have not seen it in
its native haunts are familiar with it as a graceful and charming
resident of parks in many cities. It is about twice as large as the
red squirrel and intermediate in size between that species and the fox
squirrel. Although sharing some of the range of both the species named,
the color of the gray squirrel at once distinguishes it.

The gray squirrel is a North American species with no near relative in
the Old World; on the Pacific coast, in the mountains of the Southwest,
and in Mexico are other squirrels having much the same gray-colored
body, but with no close relationship to it. Its range covers the
deciduous forests of the Eastern States and southern Canada from Nova
Scotia to Florida, and westward to the border of the treeless Great
Plains. Wherever they occur these squirrels are an attractive element
in the woodland life, their barking and chattering, their graceful
forms, and their activity adding greatly to the cheerful animation of
the forest. They are far less vociferous than red squirrels, but their
notes are varied and serve to express a variety of meanings.

During the early settlement of the country west of the States bordering
the coast, gray squirrels existed in great numbers and often made
ruinous inroads on the pioneer corn and wheat fields. In 1749 they
invaded Pennsylvania in such hosts that a bounty of three pence each
was put on their scalps. Eight thousand pounds sterling was paid on
this account, which involved the killing of 640,000 squirrels. In 1808
a law in force in Ohio required that each free white male deliver 100
squirrel scalps a year or pay $3 in cash. Records of the ravages of
these squirrels in corn fields are extant also from Kentucky, Missouri,
and other States.

Enormous migrations of gray squirrels from one part of the country
to another occurred in those days, caused apparently by the failure
of food supplies in the deserted areas. Some impulse to move in one
general direction at the same time appeared to affect the squirrels and
they swarmed across country in amazing numbers, carrying devastation
to any farms crossed on the way. When engaged in such movements they
appeared indifferent to obstacles and without hesitation swam lakes
and streams even as large as the Hudson and the Ohio. Amusing legends
grew up concerning these migrations, one of which avers that when the
squirrels arrived on a river bank each dragged a large chip or piece of
bark into the water and mounting it raised its bushy tail in the breeze
and was wafted safely to the other shore! As a fact, many were drowned
in crossing large streams and others arrived exhausted from their
exertions.

The gray and fox squirrels were favorite targets for pioneer marksmen.
The early chronicles tell of the ability of Daniel Boone and other
riflemen to “bark” a squirrel, which meant so to cut the bark of the
branch on which the squirrel sat as to bring it to the ground stunned
without hitting the animal. With the clearing away of the forests,
the general occupation of the country, and the decrease of larger
animals, gray squirrels have been deprived of most of their haunts and
have become such desirable game that they have decreased to a point
requiring stringent legal protection to save them from extermination.

Gray squirrels are more thoroughly arboreal than red squirrels and
make their nests either in hollow trunks or build them in the tops of
trees. These outside nests are common and much like a crow’s nest in
appearance except that they are generally more bulky and show more dead
leaves. They are built on a foundation of small sticks with a rounded
top of leaves, and are lined with shreds of bark, moss, and similar
soft material. In the extreme northern part of their range they live
mainly in hollow trees, but farther south many winter in outside nests.
During severe cold and in stormy weather they remain hidden, sometimes
for days at a time.

They have two litters of four to six young a year, the first usually
being born in March or April. The old squirrel is a devoted mother and
if the nest is disturbed she will at once carry the young to some safer
retreat.

In many parts of their range black, or melanistic, individuals are born
in litters otherwise of the ordinary gray color. In some districts the
number of the black squirrels equals or exceeds the gray ones.

Gray squirrels range through such a variety of climatic conditions
that their food varies greatly. They eat practically all available
nuts, including acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, hickory-nuts, and pecans,
besides numberless seeds, many small fruits, and mushrooms. They raid
fields for corn and wheat, and steal apples, pears, and quinces from
orchards to eat the seeds. Like most other small rodents, they are fond
of larvæ and insects and also destroy many birds’ eggs and young birds.
They are far less serious offenders, however, in destroying birds than
the red squirrel.

On the approach of winter they lay up stores of seeds and nuts in
holes in trees and in little hiding places on the ground. Many nuts
are hidden away singly. In the public parks of Washington, where many
gray squirrels exist, I have repeatedly seen them dig a little pit
two or three inches deep, then push a nut well down it cover it with
earth, which they press firmly in place with the front feet, and then
pull loose grass over the spot. One squirrel will have many such hidden
nuts, and with nothing to mark the location it appears impossible that
they could be recovered. That the squirrels knew what they were doing
I have had repeated evidence in winter, even with several inches of
snow on the ground, when they have been seen sniffing along the top of
the snow, suddenly stop, dig down and unearth a nut with a precision
that demonstrates the marvelous delicacy of their sense of smell.
Although mainly diurnal, they are sometimes abroad on moonlight nights,
especially when gathering stores of food for winter.

Wherever they are, these squirrels are extremely graceful, moving
along the ground by curving bounds, the long fluffy tail undulating
as they go, or running through the tree-tops, leaping from branch to
branch with an ease and certainty beautiful to see. When pressed they
make amazing leaps from tree to tree or even from a high tree-top to
the ground without injury. They are extremely cunning at concealing
themselves by lying flat on top of branches or by gliding around tree
trunks, keeping them interposed between themselves and the pursuer.

Gray squirrels are so responsive to protection that they may continue
to grace our remaining forests if we properly guard them. In addition
to their beauty, they are interesting game animals which should
continue to afford a moderate amount of sport--sufficient to prevent
them from becoming overabundant and destructive. Now introduced in
many city parks throughout the United States and in parts of England,
including London, their ready acceptance of people as friends renders
them charming animals in such places; but natural food is so scarce
under these artificial conditions that care must be taken to feed them
at all seasons, especially in winter.


=THE FOX SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus niger= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 547_)


THE RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL (Sciurus niger rufiventer)

(_For illustration, see page 547_)

Three species of tree squirrels inhabit the varied forests of eastern
North America, each having its marked individuality expressed in color,
size, and habits. All occupy a wide territory with varying climatic
conditions, to which each species has responded by becoming modified
into a series of geographic races, or subspecies. The red and the gray
squirrels have already been described and it remains to give an account
of the largest and in some respects the most remarkable of the three,
the fox squirrel.

No other species of North American mammal can show such an
extraordinary contrast in color among its subspecies as that between
the rusty yellowish animal of the Ohio and upper Mississippi Valleys,
and the handsome blackish one of the Southeastern States, both of which
are pictured in the accompanying illustration.

The distribution of the fox squirrel is limited to the forested parts
of the Eastern States. There it ranges from the Atlantic coast to the
border of the Great Plains, and from southern New York and the upper
Mississippi Valley southward to Florida, the Gulf coast, and across the
lower Rio Grande into extreme northeastern Mexico.

Variations in the character of the haunts of the different subspecies
of this squirrel almost equal their differences in color. In the
upper Mississippi and Ohio Valleys the rusty-colored race frequents
the upland woods, where the nut-bearing hickory trees characterize
the forests. In the South the dark-colored squirrels have more varied
homes, either amid the live oaks draped in long Spanish moss, in the
mysterious cypress forests of the swamps, or out in the uplands among
the southern pines.

[Illustration: RING-TAILED CAT

_Bassariscus astutus_]

[Illustration: OREGON MOLE

_Scapanus townsendi_]

[Illustration: STAR-NOSED MOLE

_Condylura cristata_]

In early days fox squirrels were plentiful, but never equaled the
numbers of the gray squirrel. They appear always to have been more
closely attached to their own district, for we have no records of the
great migrations so notable in the other species.

Fox squirrels are not only distinguished from gray squirrels by their
color, but are also nearly twice their size, commonly attaining a
weight of two and sometimes nearly three pounds. They are the strongest
and most heavily proportioned of all American squirrels. A deliberation
of movement going with heaviness of body is in marked contrast to the
graceful agility of most other tree squirrels. On the ground they walk
with a curiously awkward, waddling gait, and even when hard pressed
climb trees with none of the dashing quickness shown by other species.
They often move about on the ground by a series of bounds, and at such
times, with broad, feathery tails undulating in the air, present a most
graceful and attractive sight.

Fox and gray squirrels occupy the same districts throughout most of
their ranges, but often become so segregated locally that the grays may
be found almost exclusively along bottom-lands and the fox squirrels on
the higher ridges, but there is no hard and fast separation of haunts
and the two forms usually share the same woodlands.

Much time is spent by fox squirrels on the ground searching for food.
When danger approaches, in place of promptly taking refuge in a tree,
as is a common habit with most tree squirrels, they retreat along
the ground, mounting a stump or log now and then, to look back at a
suspected intruder, whose footsteps they can hear at a long distance.
If the hunter is without a dog they may run away and be lost. A
dog soon forces them up a tree and if a knot-hole or other hollow
is available they at once take refuge in it. Otherwise they hide
skillfully in bunches of leaves high in the top or lie flat on a limb
or against the trunk, slyly moving to keep on the opposite side as the
hunter draws near. In the Mississippi Valley during the crisp days
when the hickory nuts are falling and the trees are decked in all the
glories of autumn foliage, few sports afield yield more pleasurable
sensations than fox-squirrel hunting.

The fox squirrels become fatter than most of their kind and their flesh
is not so dry, although all furnish appetizing meat. Owing to their
size and the quality of their flesh, they have been such desirable game
animals that with the constantly growing number of hunters and the
destruction of forests they have already disappeared from large areas
where formerly abundant and are in real danger of extermination in the
not-distant future. They are among the most notable and attractive of
the forest animals in the Eastern States, and before it is too late
every effort should be made to protect them from overshooting. With
reasonable conservation they will continue to thrive and keep some of
the old-time primitive spirit in our woods. Formerly they had the same
predilection as the gray squirrel for the farmers’ corn fields and were
under the ban, but their numbers are now so reduced that they give
little trouble in this way. In some city parks where they have been
introduced, they soon become tame and do well, except that in losing
their fear of man they become subject to many accidents.

Fox squirrels, like many others of their kind, have homes both in
knot-holes or other hollows in tree trunks, and in bulky nests of
sticks and leaves high up among the branches. Both kinds of nesting
places are often located in the same tree, the owner living in the
outside nest in warm weather and retiring to the shelter of the hollow
trunk in severe weather or to escape an enemy. The young, two to four
in number, are usually born in March or April, and it is not definitely
known whether there is a second litter. These squirrels have a barking
call as well as several other rather deep-toned chucking notes.

They are as omnivorous as any of their kind, eating many kinds of
nuts, seeds, fruits, mushrooms, insects, birds, birds’ eggs, and other
flesh food when available. The principal nuts in their haunts are
hickory-nuts, beechnuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, and the seeds of pines
and cypresses. Toward the end of summer and in fall they work busily
gathering and storing food for winter in hollow trees, in old logs,
about the roots of trees, and in any other snug place where it may be
kept safely until needed. Many single nuts are buried here and there in
little pits three or four inches deep dug in the soft surface of the
earth under the trees. These scattered stores are located when needed
by the acute sense of smell which the owners possess.


=THE ABERT SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus aberti= and its subspecies)

(_For illustration, see page 550_)


THE KAIBAB SQUIRREL (Sciurus kaibabensis)

(_For illustration, see page 550_)

Among the many kinds of squirrels which lend animation and charm to
the forests of North and South America, none equal in beauty the
subjects of this sketch--the Abert and the Kaibab squirrels. These are
the only American squirrels endowed with conspicuous ear tufts, which
character they share with the squirrels occupying the forests in the
northern parts of the Old World from England to Japan. In weight they
about equal a large gray squirrel, but are shorter and distinctly more
heavily proportioned, with broader and more feathery tails.

Their range covers the pine-forested region of the southern Rocky
Mountains in the United States and the Sierra Madre of western Mexico.
The Abert squirrel and its several subspecies is the more widely
distributed, being found from northern Colorado, south through New
Mexico, Arizona, Chihuahua, and Durango. The Kaibab squirrel, which
is even more beautiful than its relative, shows marked differences in
appearance and yet is evidently derived from the same species.

The typical Abert squirrel lives in the pine forests along the southern
rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona, and the Kaibab squirrel
lives in the pines visible on the northern rim of the canyon less than
15 miles away. It is confined to an islandlike area of pine forest
above 70 miles long by 35 miles wide, on the north side of the canyon,
on the Kaibab and Powell plateaus, directly across from the end of
the railroad at the Grand Canyon Hotel. The two species live under
practically identical conditions as to vegetation and climate.

In these sketches of our mammal life I have repeatedly noted the effect
of changing environment in modifying the animals subject to it. In
the present case the change in the squirrels on the north side of the
Grand Canyon has evidently been brought about by that powerful factor
in evolution known as isolation. Cut off from their fellows by the
deepening canyon of the Colorado, Kaibab squirrels have occupied a
forest island ever since, with the resulting change in characters we
now have in evidence.

The home of both the Abert and the Kaibab squirrels is almost entirely
between 6,000 and 9,500 feet altitude, on the mountain slopes and high
plateaus overgrown with a splendid open forest of yellow pine mixed in
many places with firs and aspens. Occasionally, as food becomes scarce
in their ordinary haunts, they range up into the firs or down into the
oaks and piñon pines. In winter their haunts are buried in snow, but
in summer on every hand present lovely vistas among the massive tree
trunks, varied here and there by gemlike parks. Everywhere the ground
is covered with grasses and multitudes of flowering plants. In the
wilder parts of this fascinating wilderness roam bears, mountain lions,
wolves, deer, and wild turkeys, and only a few decades ago still wilder
men, belonging to some of our most dreaded Indian tribes.

Although these squirrels commonly make use of large knot-holes or other
hollows in trees, they regularly build high up in the branches bulky
nests of leaves, pine needles, and twigs and line them with soft grass
and shredded bark. Sometimes several full-grown squirrels may be found
occupying one of these outside nests, probably members of one family.
They are active throughout the year, but remain in their nests during
storms and severe winter weather. In northern Arizona I have known them
to stay under cover for a week or two at a time in midwinter.

The young appear to be born at varying times between April and
September. Although not definitely known, it seems probable that they
have two litters of from three to four young each season.

The seeds and the tender bark from the terminal twigs of the yellow
pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) furnish their principal food supply. During
periods when pine seeds are not available the squirrels cut the ends
of pine twigs, letting the terminal part bearing the leaves fall to
the ground, while the stem, several inches in length, is stripped of
bark. Often at times of food scarcity the bark will be eaten for a
considerable distance along the outer branches, almost like the work of
porcupines. The ground under the pines where the squirrels are at work
is sometimes almost covered with the freshly dropped tips of branches.

The Abert squirrels also eat the seeds of Douglas spruce, of the piñon
pine, acorns, many seeds, roots, green vegetation, mushrooms, birds’
eggs, and young birds. Now and then they rob cornfields planted in
clearings, but they do little damage to crops. Some years they are
extremely numerous and are in evidence everywhere; again they become
scarce and so wary that it is difficult to see one, even where its
fresh workings are in evidence.

Both these squirrels have a deep churring or chucking call, sometimes
becoming a barking note resembling that of the fox squirrel. They also
have a variety of chattering and scolding notes when excited or angry.
At times they become almost as aggressive as the red squirrel and come
down the tree trunk or to a lower branch, whence they scold and berate
the object of their disapproval.

When much alarmed they are expert at hiding among tufts of leaves near
the ends of branches, on tops of large limbs, or behind trunks. They
will remain hidden in this way for an hour or more, patiently waiting
for the danger to disappear, but one is often betrayed by the wind
blowing the feathery tip of its tail into view.

On the ground the tail is usually carried upraised in graceful curves.
Here these squirrels spend much time among fallen cones and in digging
for roots and other food. When they walk they have an awkward waddling
gait, but when they are alarmed, or desire to move more rapidly for any
cause, they progress in a series of extremely graceful bounds, which
show the plumelike tail to good advantage. When the Kaibab squirrel
is moving about on the ground its great white tail is extraordinarily
conspicuous in the sunshine. This repeatedly drew my attention to these
squirrels, even at such long distances that they would otherwise have
been overlooked.

[Illustration: SHORT-TAILED SHREW

_Blarina brevicauda_

COMMON SHREW

_Sorex personatus_]

[Illustration: HOARY BAT

_Nycteris cinereus_

RED BAT

_Nycteris borealis_]

Although so heavily built, these squirrels are adept in leaping from
branch to branch and from tree to tree. On one occasion a branch on
which an Abert squirrel was standing near the top of a pine tree was
struck by a rifle ball; the squirrel promptly ran to the end of a
large branch about fifty feet from the ground, and although no tree
was anywhere near on that side, leaped straight out into the air, with
its legs outspread just as in a flying squirrel. It came down in a
horizontal position and struck the ground flat on its under side and
the rebound raised it several inches. Without an instant’s delay it was
running at full speed across a little open park and disappeared in the
forest on the other side. I was standing only a few yards to one
side of the falling squirrel and the widely spread feet and legs were
perfectly outlined against the sky. It was evident that this squirrel
and probably all of its kind appreciate that such an attitude will
help break the force of the descent. This suggested the possibility of
a similar habit having influenced the origin of the flying squirrel’s
membranes.

[Illustration: BIG-EARED DESERT BAT

_Antrozous pallidus_]

[Illustration: MEXICAN BAT

_Nyctinomus mexicanus_]

One summer day in the Sierra Madre of western Durango I sat on a
mountain slope watching for game. Below me stood the hollow-topped stub
of an oak, the top being on a level with my eyes and about twenty yards
away. Soon after I arrived the heads of four half-grown squirrels of
the Abert family appeared in a row at the upper border of the opening,
their bright eyes turning on all sides. Suddenly a hawk glided by, one
of its wing tips almost brushing the noses of the squirrels. Instantly
they vanished from sight and a noise of scratching and frightened
chattering continued for several minutes, as though they were burying
themselves under the nest. About twenty minutes later the boldest of
the family showed the tip of his nose at an opening in a hollow branch
near the top of the stub, but it required another ten minutes for him
to venture forth his head. Finally, becoming confident that no danger
threatened, he came out on the limb and deliberately stretched himself,
yawning as widely as his little mouth would permit, after which he
flirted his tail and frisked over to the trunk of the stub, where he
began frolicking about with all the abandon of a kitten at play. When I
departed his more timorous companions were still peering fearfully out
of the hole, anticipating the return of the dreaded hawk.


=THE FLYING SQUIRREL= (=Glaucomys volans= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 551_)

No one can see one of our small flying squirrels in life without
being charmed by its delicate grace of form and velvety fur, nor fail
to note the large black eyes which give it a pleasing air of lively
intelligence. Flying squirrels are distinguished from all other members
of the squirrel family by extensions of the skin along the sides, which
unite the front and hind legs, so that when the animal leaps from some
elevated point with legs outspread the membrane and the underside of
the body present a broad, flat surface to the air. This enables it to
glide swiftly down in a diagonal course toward a tree trunk or other
vertical surface on which it desires to alight. It is able to control
its movements and to turn with ease to one side or the other, or upward
before alighting. When gliding down a wooded hillside or through thick
growths of timber, it is thus able to avoid obstacles and alight on the
desired place.

Flying squirrels are circumpolar in distribution. In the Old World they
occupy forested areas in eastern Europe, and nearly all of Asia. In
the New World they are peculiar to North America, where they frequent
nearly all the wooded parts from the Arctic Circle to the Mexican
border, and in forests in Mexico along the eastern border of the
highlands as well as through Chiapas and Guatemala. In Asia, the center
of development of these interesting rodents, many extraordinary forms
occur. Some are giants of their kind, measuring nearly four feet in
total length. In America there are two groups of species, the smaller
and better known of which, the subject of this sketch, occupies the
eastern United States and southward. The northern and western animals
are larger, some of them more than twice the weight of the eastern
species.

In many parts of the United States flying squirrels are common and
even abundant, but their habits are so strictly nocturnal that they
are infrequently seen. They make their homes in woodpecker holes,
knot-holes, and hollows in limbs, and trunks of trees and stubs. In
addition they take possession of many odd places for residence, among
which may be mentioned bird-boxes, dove-cotes, attics, cupboards,
boxes, and other nooks in occupied or unoccupied houses that are
located within or at the borders of woods.

They also make nests of leaves, lining them with fine fibrous bark,
grass, moss, fur, or other soft material placed securely in the
branches or in forks in trees. They often remodel old bird or squirrel
nests into snug homes for themselves. The size and construction of
these outside nests vary according to the locality and the material
available.

As a rule, the nests are small and accommodate only a single pair with
their young, and sometimes hold only a single individual, but numerous
exceptions to this have been observed. In southern Illinois fifty
flying squirrels were discovered in one nest in a tree; in Indiana
fifteen were found in a hollow stump; and near Philadelphia thirty were
evicted from a martin box they had usurped.

In the southern part of their range flying squirrels are active
throughout the year, but in the North they become more or less sluggish
if they do not actually reach the stage of real hibernation during the
severest weather.

Their food is extremely varied and includes whatever nuts grow in their
haunts, as beechnuts, pecans, acorns, and others, with many kinds of
seeds, including corn gathered in the field, and buds, and fruits of
many kinds. They also eat many insects, larvæ, birds and their eggs,
and meat. Taking advantage of their known liking for bird flesh, they
may frequently be caught by concealing a trap on top of a log in the
woods and scattering bird feathers over and about it. Trappers for
marten and other forest fur-bearers are much annoyed in winter by the
persistence with which the flying squirrels search out their traps
and become caught in them, thus forestalling a more valued capture.
Trappers in Montana who run long lines of traps for marten through
the mountain forests capture hundreds of these squirrels in a single
season.

Flying squirrels have several notes, one of which is an ordinary
_chuck, chuck_, much like that of other squirrels. They also utter
sharp squeaks and squeals when angry or much alarmed, and a clear
musical chirping note, birdlike in character, which is frequently
repeated for several minutes in succession and is undoubtedly a song.

[Illustration: THE TRAIL OF THE MUSKRAT

The usual gait of the muskrat on land is a slow walk. The tail mark is
always very strongly shown (see pages 513 and 526).]

These beautiful little animals become the most delightful of pets,
as they are notable for extraordinary playfulness and a readiness to
accept man as a friend. Many interesting accounts have been published
concerning the affectionate attachment they form for their human hosts
and the amusing and tireless activity they show at night. By day they
remain sound asleep, rolled up in a furry ball in some dark corner.

They are known to have a litter of from two to six young in April, and
young are born at various times throughout the summer, but it is still
unsettled whether there is more than one litter a year. The mother is
devoted to the young, and if driven from them will keep close by at the
risk of her life, showing much anxiety and readiness to do what she can
to protect them. One instance well illustrates this maternal care. From
a nest in a hollow stub the helpless young were taken and placed on the
ground at its base, while the despoiler of the home stood by to observe
the result. The mother soon returned and not finding her family in the
nest promptly located them on the ground. Quickly descending, she took
one in her mouth, carried it to the top of the stub and, launching
into the air, sailed to a tree thirty feet away, up which she carried
her baby and placed it safely in a knot-hole. The trip was quickly
repeated until the family was reunited in its new location.

[Illustration: THE TRACKS OF A GRASSHOPPER MOUSE

The anatomy of the foot is fairly well shown in the track--the
insignificant thumb and the tubercles on the soles. The placing of the
fore feet, one behind the other, indicates that the creature cannot
climb a tree. The tail seldom or never shows. The original of this was
in fine dust. The small tracks to the right show the style usually
seen. There are many species of grasshopper mouse, but the tracks are
not distinguishable from each other. The exact species is determined by
locality, size, etc. (see pages 520 and 527).]

At night the curiosity of flying squirrels about strange things and
their mischievous activities are often most entertaining, and sometimes
exasperating. Whatever is accessible within their territory is certain
to be thoroughly explored. A large apartment building, seven stories
high, in Washington stands on the border of the woods of the Zoological
Park. During one summer night a friend occupying an apartment on the
seventh floor of this building, fronting the park, observed some
movement on one of his window sills and by later observation and
by inquiry among the other residents learned that flying squirrels
were habitually climbing all about the high walls to the top of this
building, using it and some of the rooms as a nightly playground.
Several occupants of apartments in different parts of the building
regularly placed nuts of various kinds on the window ledges for
them, and now and then were amused to find that during the night the
squirrels had carried away some of their nuts, but had replaced them
with other kinds, sometimes brought from a window at a considerable
distance on another side of the building. The presence of these
squirrels was warmly welcomed and furnished much interest to their
hosts.

The constant activity of these little animals at night enables owls and
cats to capture many, but their small size and the shelter of their
homes by day will prevent their serious decrease in numbers so long as
suitable forests remain to supply their needs.


=THE BLACK-FOOTED FERRET= (=Mustela nigripes= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 551_)

Of all the varied forms of mammalian life in America, the black-footed
ferret has always impressed me as one of the strangest and most
like a stranded exotic. It is about the size of a mink, but, as the
illustration shows, is entirely different in appearance and has the
general form of a giant weasel. It has no close relative in America,
but bears an extraordinarily close resemblance in size, form, and color
to the Siberian ferret (_Mustela eversmanni_).

The black-footed ferret occurs only in the interior of the United
States, closely restricted to the area inhabited by prairie-dogs,
from the Rocky Mountains eastward and from Montana and the Dakotas to
western Texas. It is known also west of the mountains in Colorado. Like
others of the weasel tribe, it must have a wandering disposition, since
one was captured at 9,800 feet altitude, and another was found drowned
at 10,250 feet in Lake Moraine, Colorado.

These ferrets exist as parasites in the prairie-dog colonies, making
their homes in deserted burrows and feeding on the hapless colonists.
In Kansas their presence in certain localities appears to have been
effective in exterminating prairie-dogs, and similar activities may
account for the deserted “dog towns” which are not infrequently
observed on the plains with no apparent reason for the absence of the
habitants.

They do not appear to be numerous in any part of their range and little
is known concerning their habits. Now and then they are seen moving
about prairie-dog “towns,” passing in and out of the burrows at all
hours of the day, but it is probable that they are mainly nocturnal.
This probability is strengthened by the extreme restlessness shown at
night by captive animals. With the occupation of the country and the
inevitable extinction of the prairie-dog over nearly or quite all of
its range, the black-footed ferret is practically certain to disappear
with its host species.

It has the same bold, inquisitive character shown by the weasel, and
when its interest is excited will stand up on its hind legs and stretch
its long neck to one side and another in an effort to satisfy its
curiosity. When surprised in a “dog town” it commonly retreats to a
burrow, but promptly turns and raises its head high out of the hole to
observe the visitor. As a result ferrets are readily killed by hunters.
When one is captured it will at first hiss and spit like a cat and
fight viciously, but is not difficult to tame.

Although mainly dependent upon prairie-dogs for food, there is little
doubt that ferrets, after the manner of their kind, also kill rabbits
and other rodents in addition to taking whatever birds and birds’ eggs
may be secured. In one instance a black-footed ferret lived for several
days under a wooden sidewalk in the border town of Hays, Kansas, where
it killed the rats harboring there.

[Illustration: TRACK OF A COMMON PIG

Pig and deer tracks are often found in the same places and to a casual
glance may be mistaken for each other, but the bluntness of the pig
track distinguishes it and the clouts or hind hoofs do not show on
level ground, but do in one or two inches of snow or mud.]

[Illustration: FOOTPRINTS OF A WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE

When reduced to scale, the large tracks on the left side are life size,
showing the animal making the ordinary bounds of about 3 inches between
each set of tracks. In speeding, the space may increase to 12 inches.
The tail usually shows in the deermouse track, and this, with the
pairing of the fore paws, is a strong characteristic (see pages 521 and
530).]


=THE LARGE WEASELS, OR STOATS= (=Mustela arcticus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 554_)

The weasel family includes not only the true weasels, but numerous
other carnivores, as the sable or marten, mink, ferret, skunk, and land
and sea otters, all of which rank among our highly valued fur-bearers.
The large weasel may be distinguished from others of its family by
the small size and the snakelike proportions of the flattened and
pointed head, combined with a long, extremely slender neck and body
and a comparatively long tail. The best known of these animals are the
stoat of the northern parts of the Old World (_Mustela erminea_) and
its close relative in northern North America (_Mustela arcticus_), the
winter skins of which furnish the famed ermine, once sacred to the
trappings of royalty.

The northern weasels are strongly marked by their habit of changing
their brown coat to one of snowy white at the beginning of winter.
To the south the change becomes less complete as the winter snows
decrease, and south of the limit of snow the brown coat is retained
throughout the year. The time of change depends on the coming of the
snow and varies with the year, and the time of resumption of the
brown coat in spring depends in the same way on the season. The white
winter coat of the larger and medium-sized species is accompanied by a
strongly contrasting jet black tip to the tail.

Weasels are circumpolar in distribution and occupy nearly all parts
of Europe, Asia, and North and South America, the greatest number and
variety of species occurring in North America. Surprisingly enough, the
largest of these eminently northern animals is found in the forests
of the American tropics. The Arctic weasel ranges to the northernmost
polar lands of North America, where its presence has been recorded many
times by ice-bound explorers. Other species are more or less generally
distributed over the remainder of the continent. In Mexico I have found
them from sea level to above timberline, at more that 13,000 feet
altitude on the high volcanoes.

The strong personality of the weasels as a group is based mainly on
their extraordinary celerity of movement, their courage, and their
insatiable desire to kill. They are not satisfied with supplying the
call for food, but whenever opportunity arises kill from sheer lust of
slaughter.

Their slender forms enable them to follow their prey to the remotest
depths of their retreats, and that all rodents have an abiding horror
of them is shown by the effect of a weasel’s appearance. Rabbits,
although many times their size, become easy victims, and in one
instance when a large rat, which had fought its human captor viciously,
was put in a cage with a weasel, it at once lost all its courage and
permitted itself to be killed without an effort at defense.

Weasels are wonderfully endowed for their predatory work and are
undoubtedly the most perfectly organized machines for killing that
have been developed among mammals. Their keen eyes are constantly alert
to observe everything about them, their ears are attuned to catch the
faintest squeak of a mouse or cry of any other small animal, and their
powers of scent are very great. When hunting they dart in and out of
the holes of rodents, among crevices in the rocks, or through brush
piles, pausing now and then to stand upright on their hind feet, the
head swaying to and fro as they peer about. The squeak of a mouse
starts them instantly in search of it, and like a dog they trail
rabbits and other rodents by scent.

As a rule, weasels are terrestrial, but in wooded country they climb
trees and leap from branch to branch with all the ease of squirrels. In
most localities they are not common, but now and then, where conditions
are peculiarly favorable, they become numerous. At one naturalist’s
camp in the upper Yukon they were surprisingly abundant, so much so
that more than forty were caught in a few days in traps set among
broken rocks. There they were extremely bold, hunting for their prey
among the rocks within a few feet of the trappers.

The prey of weasels includes almost every kind of small rodent
and bird living within their territory. They feed especially upon
northern hares, cottontails, conies, ground squirrels, chipmunks, tree
squirrels, wood rats, mice, lemmings, quail, ptarmigan, spruce and
ruffed grouse, ducks, and numberless other small species. They are also
very destructive to domestic fowl, often killing thirty or forty in a
night. They unhesitatingly attack rodents many times their own weight.

Once when hunting on the open plain near the southern end of the
Mexican table-land, I saw at some distance what appeared to be a brown
ball rolling about on the ground. This was soon determined to be a
weasel fastened to one of the large and powerful pocket gophers of
that region. The weasel had its teeth set in the back of the neck of
the gopher, while the latter was blindly trying to tear itself loose.
I fired an ineffectual shot at the weasel and it vanished like a flash
in the open tunnel of the gopher. As I drew near, the gopher, still in
fighting mood, faced me with bared teeth. Later, when I removed its
skin, I found that the weasel had torn loose the attachment of the
heavy neck muscles to the back of the skull until only a thin layer
remained to protect the spinal column. This had been accomplished
without breaking the thin, but extremely tough, skin of the gopher.

When a weasel is attacking an animal which resists, like a large ground
squirrel, it raises its head and sways its long neck back and forth,
its eyes glittering with excitement as it watches for an opening to
spring forward and seize its prey. Its attack is always aimed at a
vital point, commonly the brain, the back of the neck, or the jugular
vein on the side.

Weasels dig their own burrows under the shelter of slide rock, ledges,
stone walls, stumps, and outbuildings, or they occupy hollow trees and
the deserted burrows of other animals. In nests thus safely located
they have one litter containing an average of from four to six, but
sometimes numbering up to twelve, young a year. They are born at any
time from April to June, according to the latitude. The number of
young in a litter is enough to render weasels very abundant, but this
is rarely the case, and raises the question as to the influence which
holds their number in check.

They are both nocturnal and diurnal, apparently in almost equal degree,
since they are frequently observed hunting in the middle of the
day, while their nocturnal raids on poultry houses testify to their
activities at night. When hunting they appear like sinister shadows and
are persistent in pursuit. The young commonly remain with the female
until nearly or quite grown and follow her closely on hunting-trips. It
is interesting to see a pack of these deadly carnivores working, the
mother leading and the young skirmishing on all sides, now spreading
out, now closing in, like a pack of miniature hounds. On these family
hunting parties, however, they usually keep close to the rocks, logs,
brush, or other cover.

Themselves subject to the law of fang and claw, weasels are killed and
eaten by wolves, coyotes, foxes, and various birds of prey. Their very
lack of fear perhaps in many cases leads to their destruction.

These representatives of the primitive woodland life continue to occupy
practically all of their original range. They visit farms in all parts
of the country and I have seen them near the outskirts of Washington.

It is well that weasels are not abundant, for beasts with such innate
ferocity and love of killing would otherwise be a menace to the
existence of many useful species of birds and mammals, especially the
game birds. In many places they live almost entirely on mice, and
there they should be left unmolested; but whenever they locate in
the vicinity of a chicken yard the owner will do well to take proper
measures for protection.


=THE LEAST WEASEL= (=Mustela rixosus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 554_)

In addition to the larger members of the tribe briefly described in the
foregoing sketch, the true weasels include another group of species, so
small they may appropriately be termed the dwarfs of their kind. They
vary from a half to less than a fourth the size of the larger weasels,
but have the same characteristic form and proportions, except that
the tail is very short and never tipped with black. Like the larger
species, they change their brown summer coat for white at the beginning
of winter and back again in spring.

The least weasels are also circumpolar in distribution, but are limited
to the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. In England
and other parts of the Old World the group is represented by the
well-known species _Mustela vulgaris_. In North America several species
are known which, between them, share all the continent from the Arctic
coast south to Nebraska and Pennsylvania. On the desolate islands
extending from the mainland far toward the Pole their place seems to be
taken by the ermine.

[Illustration: THE COMMON BROWN RAT

The large series shows the ordinary foraging gait; the smaller one, to
the right, shows the travel at low speed. In all, the tail mark is a
strong feature (see pages 525 and 531).]

The dwarf weasels appear to be less numerous and, as a consequence,
less known in most parts of America than in England and northern
Europe. Our most northern species, _Mustela rixosa_, sometimes called
the “mouse weasel,” occupies Alaska and northern Canada and has the
distinction of being the smallest known species of carnivore in the
world. In this connection it is interesting to note that in Alaska we
have associated on the same ground the least weasel and the great brown
bear, the smallest and the largest living carnivores.

Least weasels are characterized by the same swift alertness and
boldness so marked in the larger species. In fact they are, if
possible, even quicker in their movements. Once when camping in
spring among scattered snowbanks on the coast of Bering Sea, I had an
excellent opportunity to witness their almost incredible quickness.
Early in the morning one suddenly appeared on the margin of a snowbank
within a few feet, and after craning its neck one way and the other,
as though to get a better view of me, it vanished, and then appeared
so abruptly on a snowbank three or four yards away that it was almost
impossible to follow it with the eye. It was beginning to take on its
summer coat of brown and was extremely difficult to locate amid the
scattered patches of snow and bare moss of the tundra. Certainly no
other mammal can have such flash-like powers of movement.

They feed mainly on mice, lemmings, shrews, small birds, their eggs and
young, and insects. Mice furnish a large proportion of their prey and
weasels have often been seen following the runways of field mice. Their
small size enables them to pursue mice into their underground workings
as readily as a ferret enters a rabbit burrow. They also climb trees
and bushes with great agility, although nearly always seeking their
victims on the ground. The mice upon which they prey are often so much
larger than the weasels that they cannot be dragged into the dens. The
weasels continue in full activity throughout the winter and constantly
burrow into the snow in search of their prey. In the snow or in the
ground the holes of this animal are about the diameter of one’s finger.

In the Old World the small weasels are reported to have several litters
in a season, each containing five or six young. At Point Barrow,
Alaska, a female captured on June 12 still contained twelve embryos.
This indicates that only one litter a year would be born there, and
that _Mustela rixosa_ is more prolific than its European representative.

In the more southern latitude least weasels live in forests and about
farms, sheltering themselves under logs, brush piles, stone walls,
and similar cover. They are always restless and filled with curiosity
regarding anything of unusual appearance. When one encounters a man
it shows no fear, but slyly moving from one shelter to another, now
advancing and now retreating, examines the stranger carefully before
going on its way. As they devote practically their entire lives to the
destruction of field mice, they are valuable friends of the farmer
and should have his good will and protection. Unfortunately for these
weasels, no discrimination is shown between them and their larger
relatives of more injurious habits.

Among the natives of Alaska all weasels are looked upon with great
respect on account of their prowess as hunters. I found this feeling
peculiarly strong among the Eskimos, whose existence for ages has
depended so largely on the products of the chase. Among them the
capture of a weasel meant good luck to the hunter, and to take the
rarer least weasel was considered a happy omen. The head and entire
skin of the least weasel was highly prized for wearing as an amulet or
fetich. Young men eagerly purchased them, paying the full value of a
prime marten skin in order to wear them as a personal adornment, that
they might thus become endowed with the hunting prowess of this fierce
little carnivore. Fathers often bought them to attach to the belts of
their small sons, so that the youthful hunters might become imbued with
the spirit of this “little chief” among mammals.


=THE AMERICAN MINK= (=Mustela vison= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 555_)

In the American mink we have one of the most widely known and valuable
fur-bearers of the weasel family. It is a long-bodied animal, but
more heavily proportioned than the weasel, and attains a weight of
from one and one-half to more than two pounds. It has short legs and
walks slowly and rather clumsily with the back arched. When desiring
to travel rapidly it moves in a series of rapid easy bounds which it
appears able to continue tirelessly.

[Illustration: THE TRACK OF A FOX

The size, the small pads, and the set of all feet nearly in one line
are strong features, as also is the tail touch.]

The minks form a small group of species circumpolar in distribution,
and well known in Europe, northern Asia, and in North America. The
European animal is closely similar to the North American species and
all have the same amphibious habits. The American minks include several
different geographic races, which are distributed over all the northern
part of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the
mouths of the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers to the Gulf coast in the
United States. They are absent from the arid Southwestern States.

Few species are more perfectly adapted to a double mode of life
than the mink. It is equally at home slyly searching thickets and
bottom-land forests for prey or seeking it with otter-like prowess
beneath the water. It is a restless animal, active both by day and by
night, although mainly nocturnal.

While usually having definite dens to which they return, minks wander
widely and for so small an animal hunt over a large territory and pass
from one body of water to another. Their wanderings are most pronounced
in fall and again during the mating in spring. They are solitary, their
companionship with one another not outliving the mating period.

Mink dens are located wherever a safe and convenient shelter is
available, and may be a hole in a bank, made by a muskrat or other
animal, a cavity under the roots of a tree, a hollow log, a hollow
stump, or other place. The nest is made of grass and leaves lined with
feathers, hair, and other soft material. A single litter of from four
to twelve small and naked young is born during April or May.

The young remain with the mother throughout the summer, and do not
leave her to establish themselves until fall, when they are nearly
grown. When captured at an early age they are playful and become
attached to the person who cares for them. When caught in a trap they
become fiercely aggressive, often uttering squalling shrieks, baring
their teeth, and fronting their captor with a truculent air of savage
rage. The adults have scent sacs located under the tail like those
of a skunk. When angry or much excited they can emit from these an
exceedingly acrid and offensive odor, but have no power to eject it
forcibly at an enemy.

Minks are bold and courageous in their attitude toward other animals,
and attack and kill for food species heavier than themselves, like
the varying hare and the muskrat. On land they are persistent
hunters, trailing their prey skillfully by scent. They eat mice,
rats, chipmunks, squirrels, and birds and birds’ eggs of many kinds,
including waterfowl, oven-birds, and other ground-frequenting species.
About the waterside they vary this diet by capturing fish of many
kinds, which they pursue in the water, snakes, frogs, salamanders,
insects, crustaceans, and mussels.

Their prowess is shown by their raids on chicken-houses, where they
often kill many grown fowls in a night, and sometimes drag birds
heavier than themselves long distances to their dens. A remarkable
indication of the varied menu of the mink was exhibited in a nest found
by Dr. C. H. Merriam, where the owner had gathered the bodies of a
muskrat, a red squirrel, and a downy woodpecker.

The value of the mink’s furry coat has led to its steady pursuit by
trappers in all climes, from the coast of Florida to the borders of
sluggish streams on Arctic tundras. Millions of them have fallen
victims to this warfare and their skins have gone to adorn mankind. In
spite of this the mink today occupies all its original territory, and
each year yields a fresh harvest of furs.

The mink by preference is a forest animal, living along the wooded
bottom-lands of rivers or the thicket-grown borders of small streams,
where the rich vegetation gives abundance of shelter and at the same
time attracts a wealth of small mammals and birds on which it may prey.
From these secure coverts it wanders through the surrounding country at
night, visiting many chicken-houses on farms and leaving devastation
behind. It is persistent and bold in such forays and in locations near
its haunts great care must be exercised to guard against it. Minks have
repeatedly raided the enclosures of the National Zoological Park in
Washington.

Now and then, on the banks of some wild stream, one will try to
appropriate the catch lying at the very feet of a lone fisherman.
A naturalist fishing on a stream in northern Canada, seeing a mink
making free with his catch, set a small steel trap on the bare ground,
and holding the attached chain in one hand raised and slowly drew
toward him the fish upon which the mink was feeding. The mink, without
hesitation, followed the fish and was caught in the trap.

An abundance of food may modify the preference of the mink for wooded
or partly wooded country. The marshy and treeless tundra lying near
sea-level in the triangle between the coast of Bering Sea, and the
lower parts of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers offers such an attractive
situation differing from their usual haunts. The sluggish streams and
numberless ponds abound with small fish four to five inches long. Minks
swarm in this area to such an extent that the Eskimos who inhabit the
district are known among the natives of the surrounding region as the
“mink people.” Steel traps are used there, but a primitive method is
even more successful. A wicker fence is built across a narrow stream
and a small fyke fish-trap placed in it. In swimming along the stream
minks pass into the trap like fish, and I knew of from 10 to 15 being
thus taken in one day.

During my residence in that region from 10,000 to 15,000 mink skins
were caught in this tundra district annually, and the supply appeared
to be inexhaustible. With the growing occupation of the continent and
the increasing demand for furs, however, the numbers of the mink must
surely decrease. To forestall the shortage of furs that seems imminent,
efforts are now being made to establish fur farming to replace the
declining supply of wild furs with those grown under domestication. The
mink appears to be well adapted to successful breeding in captivity.
The main question to solve is the relation of the cost of caring for
the animals to the value of its pelt in the market.


=THE MARTEN, OR AMERICAN SABLE= (=Martes americana= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 555_)

Wild animals possess an endless variety of mental traits which endow
them in many instances with marked individualities. Few are more
strongly characterized in this respect than the marten. One of the
most graceful and beautiful of our forest animals, it frequents the
more inaccessible parts of the wilderness and retires shyly before the
inroads of the settler’s ax. Its rich brown coat, so highly prized
that the pursuit of it goes on winter after winter in all the remote
forests of the North, is a source of danger threatening the existence
of the species. The full-grown animal weighs five or six pounds and
measures nearly three feet in length.

The martens are circumpolar in distribution, and the several species
occupy northern lands from England, Europe, and northern Asia to North
America. Of the Old World species, the Siberian sable is best known on
account of the beauty of its fine, rich fur, which renders it the most
valued of all in the fur markets of the world.

The North American marten is a close relative of the Siberian species,
and occupies all the wooded parts of North America from the northern
limit of trees southward in the forested mountains to Pennsylvania, New
Mexico, and the southern part of the Sierra Nevada in California.

Like other members of the weasel tribe, the marten is a fierce and
merciless creature of rapine, but unlike the mink and weasel, it avoids
the abodes of man and loves the remotest depths of the wilderness.

Martens are endowed with an exceedingly nervous and excitable
temperament, combined with all the flashing quickness of weasels. They
are more restless than any other among the larger species of their
notably restless tribe, and couple with this extraordinary and tireless
vigor. This is admirably shown in captivity, when by the hour they
dart back and forth, up and down and around their cages with almost
incredible speed.

In the forest they climb trees and jump from branch to branch with
all the agility of a squirrel--in fact, they pursue and capture red
squirrels in fair chase, and have been seen in pursuit of the big
California gray squirrel (_Sciurus griseus_). On the ground they move
about quickly, hunting weasel-like, under brush piles and other cover.

Practically every living thing within their power falls victim to their
rapacity. They eat minks, weasels, squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats,
mice of many kinds, conies, snowshoe hares, ruffed and spruce grouse,
and smaller birds of all kinds and their eggs, as well as frogs, fish,
beetles, crickets, beechnuts, and a variety of small wild fruits.
Unlike minks and weasels, they are not known to kill wantonly more than
they need for food.

They make nests of grass, moss, and leaves in hollow trees, under logs,
among rocks, and in holes in the ground. Sometimes they have been found
in possession of a red squirrel’s nest, probably after having slain and
devoured the owner.

The young, varying from one to eight in number, are born in April
or May. At first they are naked and helpless, but when large enough
accompany the mother on her search for food. This period of schooling
lasts until they are forced to take up their separate lives with the
approach of winter. Thenceforth they are among the most solitary of
animals, showing fierce antagonism toward one another whenever they
meet, and associating only during a brief period in the mating season
in February or March. Martens show a cold-blooded ferocity toward one
another that often renders it dangerous to put two or more in the same
cage. When placed in a cage together the male very commonly kills the
female by biting her through the skull. At times they utter a loud,
shrill squall or shriek, and in traps hiss, growl, and sometimes bark.

Among the dense forests of spruce and lodge-pole pine high up in
the mountains of Colorado, martens are sometimes hunted on skis in
midwinter, an exciting and often, on these rugged slopes, a dangerous
sport. They are not wary about traps and are readily caught by
deadfalls and other rude contrivances as well as by steel traps. In
Colorado and Montana hundreds of their skins are taken by trappers
every winter.

In Siberia the sable has been exterminated by hunting in many
districts, and before the present war began had become so scarce in
others that the Russian Government closed the season for them for a
period of years over nearly all of their range. The same reduction in
the numbers of our marten has occurred in most parts of Alaska and
elsewhere in its range, and its only hope against extermination lies in
stringent protection. Protective regulations are already in force in
Alaska.

During the early fur-trading days in northern Canada the number
of martens varied between comparative abundance and rarity. These
variations were said to occur about every ten years. Some claimed the
decrease was due to a migration which the martens were believed to make
from one region to another, just as was believed of the lynx. The lack
of a corresponding increase in surrounding districts, where trading
posts were located, effectually disproved the migration theory. There
is little doubt that the increase of martens was due to a reproductive
response to a plentiful food supply during years when mice or snowshoe
hares were abundant and their decrease was due to a lessening of the
numbers of these food animals.

Efforts are being made to domesticate martens and raise them for their
skins on fur farms. The main difficulty so far encountered lies in
the fiendish manner in which the old males kill the females and the
younger males. Although always nervous, they are not difficult to tame,
and will be most entertaining and attractive animals to rear if their
savage natures can be sufficiently overcome.


=THE LITTLE SPOTTED SKUNK= (=Spilogale putorius= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 558_)

The skunks form a distinct section of the weasel family, limited to
North and South America. The group is divided into three well-marked
sections. One of these, the little spotted skunks, is distinguished
from all other mammals by the curious and pleasing symmetry of the
black and white markings of the animals. Few more beautiful fur
garments are made than those from the skins of these animals in their
natural colors. These skunks are smaller than any members of the other
groups, varying from a little larger than a large chipmunk to the size
of a fox squirrel.

[Illustration: THE COMMON WOODCHUCK, OR AMERICAN MARMOT (SEE PAGES
533-534)

Its track shows this animal’s kinship with the squirrels. The small
series, to the left, show the ordinary ambling pace. When speeding,
it sets its feet much like the little, or eastern, chipmunk (see page
580).]

Little spotted skunks include several species and geographic races. All
are limited to North America and are rather irregularly distributed
from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Virginia, Minnesota,
Wyoming, and southern British Columbia southward to the Gulf coast, to
the end of Lower California, and through Mexico and Central America to
Costa Rica. They inhabit a variety of climatic conditions, from the
rocky ledges high up on the slopes of the western mountains to the hot
desert plains of the Southwest, and to partly forested regions in both
temperate and tropical lands. In different parts of the United States
they have several other names, including “civet,” “civet cat,” and
“hydrophobia skunk.”

The spotted skunks make their homes in whatever shelter is most
convenient, whether it be clefts in rocky ledges, slide rock, hollows
in logs or stumps, holes dug by themselves in banks or under the
shelter of cactuses or other thorny vegetation, the deserted holes of
burrowing owls in Florida, or the old dens of various kinds of mammals
elsewhere. Thickets, open woods, ocean beaches, and the vicinity of
deserted or even occupied buildings on ranches are equally welcome
haunts. On the plains of Arizona they have been known to live inside
the mummified carcass of a cow, the sun-dried hide of which made an
impregnable cover. They have a single litter of from two to six young
each year.

Their diet is fully as varied as that of others of the weasel kind, but
is made up mainly of insects and other forms injurious to agriculture,
including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, and larvæ of many kinds.
They feed also on flesh whenever possible and prey on wood rats, mice
of many kinds, small ground squirrels, small birds and their eggs,
young chickens, lizards, salamanders, and crawfish. This carnivorous
diet is further varied with mushrooms, peanuts, persimmons, cactus
fruit, and other small fruits. Sometimes the animals locate about
occupied habitations in primitive communities, where they give good
service by killing the house rats, mice, and cockroaches on the
premises. On one occasion a spotted skunk was detected cunningly
removing the downy chicks from under a brooding hen without disturbing
her.

In comparison with the other skunks these little animals are extremely
agile. They are strictly nocturnal and when pursued at night by dogs
will climb to safety in a tree like a squirrel. When caught in a trap
they struggle and fight far more vigorously than their big relatives.
They usually carry the tail in a somewhat elevated position, but when
danger threatens hold it upright like a warning signal. If the enemy
fails to take heed they shoot two little spraylike jets of liquid
bearing the usual offensive skunk odor, and the victim retires without
honor.

In writing of these skunks about the Valley of Mexico, in 1628, Dr.
Hernandez tells us that “the powerful arm which they use when in
peril is the insupportable gas they throw out behind which condenses
the surrounding atmosphere so that, as one grave missionary says, it
appears as though one could feel it.”

That the little spotted skunk is subject to rabies and has communicated
it to many men in the West is unquestionable. It usually bites men who
are sleeping on the ground in its haunts, as they commonly do on the
western stock ranges.

I have personally known of several instances in northern Arizona of
men being bitten by them. The head, face, and hands, being uncovered,
are the points attacked. One man in the mountains south of Winslow,
Arizona, was bitten on the top of his head in April, 1910, but paid no
attention to the slight wound until two months later when he began to
have spasms. He then hurried to town and died in great agony the next
day. The year following a man in the same district was bitten in the
face, and seizing the animal threw it from him in such a manner that it
fell on his brother and bit him before he awakened. Both men were given
the Pasteur treatment and had no further trouble.

On New Year’s night of 1906, while I was at the village of Cape
San Lucas, at the extreme southern end of the Peninsula of Lower
California, a large-sized old male spotted skunk entered the open door
of a neighboring house and bit through the upper lip of a little girl
sleeping on the floor. Her screams brought her father to the rescue,
and with a well-aimed blow he killed the offender. The next morning the
skunk was brought to me and added to my collection. As I left a few
days later I never learned the result of this bite, but while there
was informed that a man had died the previous year from a similar
bite. The occasional instances of this kind are remembered and appear
more numerous than they are in fact. For years many men have slept in
the open where these animals abound, without being molested. It is
interesting to find that when the voyager Duhaut-Cilly visited the Cape
in 1826, the natives feared these skunks because they entered houses at
night, biting people and infecting them with hydrophobia.

The little spotted skunks have extremely animated, playful natures,
as I have had several occasions to observe. Two instances serve to
illustrate this. Once at the mouth of a canyon at the southern end of
the San Joaquin Valley, California, I camped several days at a deserted
ranch. At night I spread my blankets on the bare floor of the house,
from which the doors were gone. Under it led several burrows of some
animal which I at first supposed to be a ground squirrel. Each night
while there I was awakened by the sound of little footfalls padding
rapidly about over the floor on which I was sleeping, and in the dim
light from the moon could see two or three little spotted skunks
pursuing one another around me like playful kittens. At the slightest
movement on my part they dashed out the door and into their dens under
the house. As there was no food of any kind in this room, it was
evident that the little fellows were there for a frolic on the smooth
board floor.

On another occasion in the mountains of San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican
table-land, I found a spring to which bears were coming for water at
night. As the bears here appeared to be strictly nocturnal. I ensconced
myself in the evening with a dark lantern, amid some small bushes,
against a large pine log which sloped downward to the bottom of the
gulch near the spring, with the plan to welcome any bears which might
come in. An hour or more after dark the clinking rattle of small stones
on the far side of the gulch indicated the presence of some animal. The
light from the lantern was flashed on the spot and the rifle lowered
with exasperation as, running back and forth, turning over stones in
search of insects, a spotted skunk was revealed. The movements of this
unwelcome visitor were extremely light and graceful, and in my interest
in watching them, for a time I forgot the bear. Two or three hours
passed and the skunk tired of the hillside and came down to the spring,
where he found the offal from a deer which I had placed there for bait.
This gave him more to do, and after I had listened to him worry the
meat for awhile, I turned on the light and was entertained by the sight
thus revealed. The skunk appeared to have a persistent desire to drag
away the offal many times his weight. He would seize the edge of one of
the lungs and after a hard struggle would get it up on one edge, when
the burden would turn over with a flap, whirling the skunk flat on his
back each time. Immediately scrambling to his feet, he would give the
meat a fierce shake of resentment and repeat the performance.

After a long time the moon arose and the skunk could be plainly seen
running back and forth playfully, now biting at the meat and now
turning over stones apparently in sheer exuberance of spirit. Then he
suddenly mounted the lower end of the log and came galloping up it
until he was close to my shoulder. There he stopped and, coming as near
as possible, extended his nose within a few inches of my face, and
for minute or more stood trying to satisfy himself about this strange
object. Satisfied at last, he turned and galloped back down the log
and resumed his antics in the gulch, finally working close to the
bank three or four yards below me. There he found many small stones
and had a fine time rattling them about until I decided that with
this disturbing presence I should have little chance for other game.
Finding a convenient stone, and locating the skunk as well as possible
from the sounds, I tossed it over to try and frighten him away. My
aim was too true, for the characteristic skunk retort filled the air
with suffocating fumes and I immediately lost interest in further bear
hunting.

[Illustration: THE TRAIL OF THE EASTERN CHIPMUNK

The track is much like that of the fox squirrel, but usually the fore
feet are a little, or quite, one behind the other and, of course, much
smaller. No tail mark is ever seen (see pages 542 and 549).]


=THE COMMON SKUNK= (=Mephitis mephitis= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 558_)

Probably no American mammal is more generally known and less popular
than the skunk. This current odium is due wholly to its possession
of a scent sac of malodorous fluid, which it distributes with prompt
accuracy when annoyed. The possession of this method of defense is
common to all skunks. The term “pole-cat,” sometimes given to all kinds
of skunks, is the misuse of a name given Old World martens of several
species and to the Cape pole-cat, a South African animal which in form
and markings, including the plumelike tail, is remarkably like some of
our smaller skunks.

In the preceding article an account was given of the spotted skunks,
smallest of the three groups into which these animals are divided. The
common skunk and its relatives form another group, which contains some
of the larger species of their kind, some of them weighing up to ten
pounds or more. These are the typical skunks, so familiar in most parts
of the United States, and distinguished by the disproportionately large
size of the posterior half of the body and the long, plumelike tail.

The common skunk, with its closely related species, is generally
distributed in all varieties of country, except in deep forests and
on waterless desert plains. It ranges from the Atlantic coast to the
Pacific and from Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake southward to the
highlands of Guatemala. The vertical range extends from sea-level up to
above timberline in Mexico, where I found one living in a burrow it had
dug under a rock at 13,800 feet altitude on the Cofre de Perote, Vera
Cruz.

Skunks are most common in areas of mixed woodland and fields, in valley
bottoms, and along the brushy borders of creeks and rocky canyons.
One of their marked characteristics is a fondness for the vicinity of
man. They frequently visit his premises, taking up quarters beneath
outbuildings or even under the house itself.

Any convenient shelter appears to satisfy them for a home, and they
will occupy the deserted burrows of other animals, small cavities among
the rocks, a hollow log, or a hole dug by themselves. A warm nest
of grass and leaves is made at the end of the den, where the single
litter of young, containing from four to ten, is born in April or May.
As soon as the young are old enough they follow the mother, keeping
close behind her, often in a long single file along a trail. They are
mainly nocturnal, but in summer the mother frequently starts out on
an excursion with her young an hour or two before sunset and they may
remain abroad all night.

The young family remains united through the following winter, which
accounts for finding at times from eight to a dozen in a den. In all
the northern parts of their range they hibernate during the two to
four months of severest cold weather, coming out sometimes during mild
periods. When the season of hibernation ends the family scatters and
mating begins. One solitary skunk was found in Canada hibernating in
the same burrow, but in a separate chamber, with a woodchuck, evidently
an unbidden guest.

[Illustration: THE TRACKS OF A RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL AND FOX SQUIRREL

The exaggerated pads of the squirrel foot are a strong feature of this
track. It is typical in the pairing of the fore feet, much more so than
that of the gray squirrel. There is never a tail mark in this track
(see pages 547 and 561).]

As in the case of their relatives, the common skunks are omnivorous,
but feed mainly upon insects and rodents injurious to agriculture. They
are known to eat great quantities of grasshoppers, besides crickets,
cicadas, May beetles, wasps, and larvæ of many kinds. One killed in New
Mexico had its stomach crammed with honey bees. Wherever possible they
prey upon small rodents, as mice, wood rats, and small spermophiles. To
these may be added ground-nesting birds and their eggs, lizards, turtle
eggs, snakes, frogs, salamanders, fish, crustaceans, and numerous small
fruits. Now and then they visit the farmers’ chicken yards with such
disastrous consequences that in many country districts the animals are
killed at sight.

It is pleasing to record that a more intelligent view of their real
value to farmers, through their destruction of farm pests, is rapidly
gaining ground, and they are now being protected in many States. One
of their worst traits is their destructiveness to breeding game birds,
both upland species, and especially the waterfowl.

Skunks walk on the soles of their feet instead of on their toes, as
do so many mammals. The common skunks are wholly terrestrial and move
with the deliberation of one without fear of personal violence or of
having his dignity assailed. Long experience has taught them that the
right of way is theirs. As they amble slowly along, the tail is carried
slightly elevated, and when the owner is suspicious of attack, it is
raised and the hairs hang drooping like a great plume, conspicuous and
unmistakable. If the disturber still refuses to take the hint, a rear
view is promptly presented and a discharge made that puts most enemies
to flight. Some have thought that the odorous liquid is scattered by
the long hairs of the tail, but in fact it is ejected in fine jets from
two little tubes connected with the scent sacs on each side of the vent.

[Illustration: A FULL SIZE RENDERING OF A FOX SQUIRREL TRACK

Illustrations of the arrangement of this track when the animal is
foraging and traveling are shown on page 581.]

When mildly annoyed the big skunks stamp their front feet on the ground
and utter little growls of displeasure. By some effort they can be
urged into a retreat which may take the form of a clumsy gallop. They
are known occasionally to swim streams voluntarily, and even to cross
rivers, probably urged by the instinct that so often forces animals of
all kinds to move to new feeding grounds.

Although usually safe from annoyance through the protective armament,
many skunks, especially the young, each year fall victim to natural
enemies, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, badgers, and great horned
owls.

The flesh of the skunk is a favorite food among certain tribes of
Canadian Indians, and many white men have pronounced it exceedingly
palatable, even claiming its superiority over the flesh of domestic
fowls. In the narrative of his expedition through the Canadian
wilderness many years ago, the naturalist Drummond recorded that when
the party was about a day’s journey from Carleton House it had the good
fortune to kill a skunk, “which afforded us a comfortable meal.” In the
Valley of Mexico I found the natives prize the flesh of these animals
as a cure for a certain loathsome disease.

It is well known that large skunks are often extremely fat. The oil
produced from them is clear and is said to have unusually penetrating
qualities. For many years there was a demand for this oil for various
medicinal purposes.

During recent years the fur of skunks has come into great demand, and
good prices are paid for prime skins. The animals are so numerous and
the catch is so large that they now rank among the most valuable of our
fur-bearers. They are gentle animals which readily become domesticated
and breed freely in confinement, and many efforts are being made to
establish skunk farms. Success in such farming depends wholly on the
outlay for upkeep. Skunk farming will probably pay better as a side
line, like chickens on the ordinary farm, than to establish regular fur
farms. The scent sac may be removed by a slight surgical operation, so
there need be no trouble from that source. Common skunks when taken
young make affectionate and entertaining pets. They become as tame and
playful as kittens, and are vastly more intelligent and interesting.


=THE HOG-NOSED SKUNK= (=Conepatus mesoleucus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 559_)

The third and last group of skunks contains a number of species showing
well-marked differences from the two groups already described. The
species vary in size, but among them is included the largest of all
skunks. All are characterized by comparatively short hair, especially
on the tail, and this appendage lacks the plumelike appearance observed
in other skunks. The nose is prolonged into a distinct “snout,” naked
on the top and sides and evidently used for rooting in the earth after
the manner of a pig. In addition, the front feet are armed with long,
heavy claws, and the front legs and shoulders are provided with a
strong muscular development for digging, as in a badger. This likeness
has led to the use in some places of the appropriate name “badger
skunk” for these animals. The single white stripe along the back, and
including the tail, is a common pattern with these skunks, but this
marking is considerably varied, as in the common species.

[Illustration: WOLVERINE

Its weasel kinship is seen in the wolverine track. Occasionally, not
always, its fifth toe shows. The track is not plantigrade, and a single
track is easily mistaken for that of a wolf.]

The hog-nosed skunks are the only representatives of the skunk tribe
in South America, where various species occupy a large part of the
continent. They appear to form a South American group of mammals which
has extended its range northward through Central America, Mexico, and
across the border of the United States to central Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona. In Mexico they range from sea-level to above 10,000 feet
altitude on the mountains of the interior.

The hair on these skunks is coarse and harsh, lacking the qualities
which render the coats of their northern relatives so valuable. Where
their range coincides with that of the common skunks, the local
distribution of the two is practically the same. They live along the
bottom-lands of watercourses, where vegetation is abundant and the
supply of food most plentiful, or in canyons and on rocky mountain
slopes.

For shelter they dig their own burrows, usually in a bank, or under a
rock, or the roots of a tree, but do not hesitate to take possession
of the deserted burrows of other animals, or of natural cavities among
the rocks. Owing to their strictly nocturnal habits, they are much less
frequently seen than the common skunks, even in localities where they
are numerous. In fact it is only within the last few years that their
presence in many parts of the southwestern border has become known.

[Illustration: THE TRACK OF THE WEASEL

The unusual space between the fore and hind feet in the middle of
the left series is often seen. Sometimes the tail mark is there and
sometimes not. Sometimes the trail is like that of a small mink. The
toes seldom show (see pages 554 and 572).]

Although both the little spotted and common skunks live mainly on
insects, the hog-nosed skunks are even more insectivorous in their
feeding habits. The bare snout appears to be used constantly for the
purpose of rooting out beetles, grubs, and larvæ of various kinds from
the ground.

On the highlands of Mexico I have many times camped in localities where
patches of ground were rooted up nightly by these skunks to a depth
of two or three inches as thoroughly as might have been done by small
pigs. In such places I repeatedly failed to capture them by traps
baited with meat, the insects and grubs they were finding apparently
being more attractive food. I have had similar failures in trapping for
coyotes with meat bait in localities where they were feeding fat on
swarms of large beetles and crickets. The persistence with which the
hog-nosed skunks hunt insects renders them a valuable aid to farmers.

In addition to grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, flies, grubs, and other
larvæ, and many other insects, they are known to eat wood rats, mice,
and the small fruit of cactuses and other plants. The stomach of one of
these skunks examined in Texas contained about 400 beetles.

One Texas naturalist writes that he has lost a number of young kids
which had their noses bitten off, and in one instance caught one of
these skunks mutilating a kid in this manner. He also states that they
pull down and eat corn when it is in the “roasting-ear” stage.

Far less is known concerning the habits of hog-nosed skunks than of
the other species of these animals. The number of young appears to be
small, judging from the record of a single embryo found in one animal
and in another instance of two young found in a nest located in a
hollow stump. They have a curiously stupid, sluggish manner and have
even less vivacity than the somewhat sedate common skunk. No use is
made of their skins in this country or in Mexico, but the gigantic
natives of Patagonia make robes of them which are worn like great
cloaks.


=THE NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO= (=Dasypus novemcincta= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 559_)

Armadillos are distinguished from other mammals by having the nearly,
or quite, hairless skin developed into a bony armor covering the
upperparts of the head and body and all of the tail. They lack teeth in
the front of both upper and lower jaws, and are members of the group of
toothless animals which includes the ant-eaters. The insects they feed
on are licked up by the sticky surface of their extensile tongues.

In the remote past many species of armadillos, some of gigantic size,
roamed the plains of South America, and a number of small species
still exist there. These animals are peculiar to America and have their
center of abundance in the southern continent.

The nine-banded species ranges over an enormous territory and is
subdivided into a number of geographic races, living from southern
Texas through Mexico and Central America to Argentina. In Mexico its
vertical distribution extends from sea-level up to an altitude of about
10,000 feet on the mountains of the interior. Like the hog-nosed skunk,
it no doubt originated as a member of the South American fauna and has
spread northward to its present limits. It is one of the larger of the
living representatives of this curious group of animals and reaches a
weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds.

As might be surmised from its appearance, the armadillo is a stupid
animal, living a monotonous life of restricted activities. Its sight
and hearing are poor, and the armored skin gives it a stiff-legged
gait and immobile body. From these characteristics, combined with the
small head hung low on a short neck, it has in life an odd resemblance
in both form and motion to a small pig; it jogs along in its trails or
from one feeding place to another with the same little stiff trotting
gait and self-centered air. If alarmed it will break into a clumsy
gallop, but moves so slowly that it may be overtaken by a man on foot.
So poor is its eyesight that a person may approach openly within about
thirty yards before being noticed.

When alarmed the armadillo immediately runs to the shelter of its
burrow, but may easily be caught in one’s hands, especially if
intercepted on the way to its den. When caught it will struggle to
escape, and while it may coil up in a ball in the presence of a dog
or other mammal foe, I never saw one try to protect itself in this
way. While presumably serving for protective purposes, the armor is
flexible on the sides of the body, and I have found the remains of many
armadillos where they had been killed and eaten by coyotes or other
predatory beasts. The armor would no doubt be sufficient protection to
enable them to escape to cover from the attack of birds of prey. They
are mainly nocturnal animals, but are frequently seen abroad by day and
in some places appear to be out equally by day or night.

This armadillo lives by preference amid the cover afforded by forests,
brushy jungle, tall grass, or other vegetation. In the midst of such
shelter it usually digs its own burrow a few yards deep in a bank or
hill slope, beneath a stump, under the roots of a tree, or a rock, or
even on level ground. It will also occupy small caves in limestone
rock. At times it shows a piglike fondness for a mud bath, and the
prints of its armor may be found where it has wallowed in miry spots.

Well-beaten and conspicuous trails lead from the burrows often for half
a mile or more, frequently branching through the thickets in various
directions. Armadillo burrows sometimes accommodate strange neighbors,
as was shown by one in Texas which was dug out, and in addition to
containing the owner in his den at the end, was found to be occupied by
a four-foot rattlesnake and a half-grown cottontail rabbit, each in a
side chamber of its own.

The food of the armadillo consists almost entirely of many species
of insects, among which ants appear to predominate. When searching
for food the animals become so intent that they may be cautiously
approached and closely observed or captured by hand. They root about
among fallen leaves and other loose vegetation and soft earth, now
and then digging up some hidden grub or beetle. At night they visit
newly plowed fields in their haunts, rooting in the mellow earth. They
are accused of digging up plants in gardens during their nocturnal
wanderings, and in Texas have been charged with robbing hens’ nests of
eggs, and of reducing the supply of wild turkeys and quail by breaking
up the nests, all of which needs confirmation. Their method of feeding
appears to vary considerably, as they have been seen rising on their
hind legs to secure small caterpillars infesting large weeds.

The insect food eaten by the nine-banded armadillo in Texas, as
known from examination of stomach contents, covers a wide range of
insect and other small life, including many species of grasshoppers,
crickets, roaches, caterpillars, beetles, ants, spiders, centipedes,
and earthworms. As the list includes also wireworms and other noxious
species, these inoffensive animals deserve thorough protection as a
most useful aid to the farmer.

Some time from February to April each year, litters of from four to
eight young are born. They have their eyes open at birth, and the armor
is soft and flexible like fine leather. The hardening of the skin into
a bony armor is progressive, continuing until after the animal fully
completes its growth. As soon as the young are able to travel they trot
along with the old one during her foraging trips.

Early one afternoon, when riding along a trail in the heavy forest of
southern Oaxaca, accompanied by an Indian boy and a pack of dogs, I
suddenly came upon an old armadillo and eight young about two-thirds
grown. They had heard our approach and stood motionless in a compact
little group half hidden in the grass. I had barely time to stop my
horse when the dogs spied them and made a rush. The armadillos darted
into the undergrowth in every direction like a litter of pigs, and with
the exception of two caught by the dogs gained safe refuge in their
burrow. This we found dug in the level ground about fifty yards from
where we encountered them.

The Maya Indians of the Peninsula of Yucatan have a legend that the
black-headed vulture (_Catharista atrata_) in old age changes into an
armadillo. The tale runs, that when a vulture becomes very, very old
it notifies its companions that the time has come and alights before a
hole in the ground that resembles the den of an armadillo. The other
vultures bring food and the old one remains there for a long time.
Its wings disappear, the feathers are lost, and when the change is
complete the newly created armadillo enters the hole and begins its new
life. If skepticism is expressed as to this metamorphosis, the Indians
point out as proof of the legend the similarity between the appearance
of the bald pate of the vulture and that of the armadillo.

[Illustration: AMERICAN MINK TRACKS, SHOWING VARIOUS ARRANGEMENTS AND
TAIL MARKS

The typical track of a mink is as in the bottom set at the left, which
also illustrates the tail mark. Twelve to twenty-four inches are
usually cleared at each bound. This illustration is greatly reduced
from natural size (see opposite page and pages 555 and 575).]


=THE RING-TAILED CAT= (=Bassariscus astutus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 562_)

The mild climate and the proximity of the Southwestern States to Mexico
and the tropics brings within our borders numerous strange types of
wild life. Of these the ring-tailed cat is one of the most strikingly
marked and interesting. In the United States it is known by several
other names, including “civet cat,” “coon cat,” and “band-tailed cat.”
In Mexico it still bears the old Aztec name cacomixtle, except in Lower
California, where it is the “babisuri.” It is about the size of a large
cat but with proportionately longer and slenderer body, shorter legs,
and longer tail. The alternating bands of black and white on the tail
proclaim its relationship, not to the cat, to which it has no kinship,
but to the raccoon, which has a tail similarly marked. Few mammals
possess such a beautifully formed head and face, and its large, mild
eyes give it a vivid expression of intelligence.

The ring-tailed cat occupies areas under such differing climates as
to produce geographic races, but none of them vary strikingly from
the typical animal here illustrated. They range from Oregon, Nevada,
southern Utah, Colorado, and Texas south to Costa Rica. In Mexico they
occur from near sealevel up to an altitude of about 10,000 feet. While
chiefly rock-inhabiting species, they sometimes live in the forests and
as a rule make their dens in caves and deep crevices, but sometimes
in hollow trees or about houses. Their young, from three to four in
number, are born in May or June.

In the Southwest they frequent some of the ruined cliff dwellings,
and I have found them haunting many of the ancient ruins of Mexico.
Their presence in little caves and other sheltered spots along cliffs
and rock walls bordering canyons or on mountain slopes may usually be
known by an examination of the fine dust which accumulates in sheltered
places. Whenever present their delicate cat-like tracks will be found
where they have been hunting mice or other small game.

Strictly nocturnal, they do not sally forth from their dens until
darkness is complete. During the night they are restless and frequently
wander far and wide in search of food, and apparently at times merely
to satisfy a spirit of inquiry. Their inquisitive nature frequently
leads them to explore the streets of towns and cities on the Mexican
table-land, filled though these places are with dogs. At daybreak,
tracks left in the dusty streets tell the story of their wanderings, as
they often do also in the case of opossums.

[Illustration: AMERICAN MINK TRACK NEARLY NATURAL SIZE

Although this animal has five toes on each foot, only four appear in
each track. This illustration, which is practically natural size, shows
the usual arrangement of the track. The hind feet are, of course, in
advance. Variations of arrangement are shown on the opposite page (see
also pages 555 and 575).]

One morning in February, 1893, soon after sunrise, I chanced to pass
through a little wooded square in the City of Mexico and saw a lot of
boys pursue and capture one of these animals which, having overstayed
his time, had been surprised by daybreak. This wanderer might have
had its den in some house in the neighborhood, since one of its known
habits is to take up its abode about houses, even in the midst of
towns. A friend living in the City of Mexico informed me that after
having been annoyed for some time by noises on the roof at night, he
investigated and discovered a female cacomixtle with partly grown young
snugly located in a nest placed in a narrow space between the tile roof
and the ceiling. In southern Texas the animals live on the brush-grown
plains under conditions very different from those usually chosen.

Like its relative the raccoon, the cacomixtle, with a taste for a
varied fare, takes whatever edibles come its way. It stalks wood rats,
mice, and even bats amid their rocky haunts and birds in bushes and
low trees. About the southern end of the Mexican table-land it is much
disliked for its robberies of chicken roosts, especially when these
are located in trees. Insects of many kinds, larvæ, and centipedes are
eaten, as well as a great variety of fruits, including that of the
pear-leaved cactus, and dates, figs, and green corn.

Ring-tailed cats regularly locate among rocky ledges, neighboring
orchards, or other cultivated areas where they may gather some of the
bounty provided by man. I found them more plentiful among the broken
lava cliffs bordering date palm orchards in Lower California than in
any other place. When the dates were ripening they prowled about under
the palms after dark with gray foxes and spotted skunks to pick up the
fallen fruit. They sometimes uttered a complaining cry and when caught
in a trap would bark almost like a little dog, or occasionally utter a
vicious scream of mixed fear and rage.

Being an intelligent animal, the cacomixtle is readily tamed and makes
a most interesting pet. During the early years of gold mining in
California, when many men were living in rude cabins in the mountains,
the prevalence of mice often attracted these “cats” to take up their
residence there. Often the owner of the premises and the mouser struck
up a friendly relationship and the cacomixtle, becoming as free and
friendly about the place as a real cat, kept it entirely clear from
mice. I have had first-hand accounts of these tame individuals from
miners who had harbored them in this way for months. These accounts
always gave the impression that the animal was somewhat playful and
mischievous and most attractive to have about the premises. All agreed
that it was extremely fond of sugar.

[Illustration: TRACK OF THE OPOSSUM

The hand-like paws are unmistakable. The tail mark appears. The absence
of claw on the thumb of the hind foot is usually seen.]


=THE OREGON MOLE= (=Scapanus townsendi= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 563_)

The effect on mammals of a narrowly specialized mode of life is well
illustrated in the mole. It is an expertly constructed living mechanism
for tunneling through the earth. The pointed nose, short neck,
compactly and powerfully built cylindrical body, with ribs strongly
braced to withstand pressure, and the short, paddlelike hands armed
with strong claws for digging are all fitted for a single purpose. Eyes
and ears are of little service in an underground life, so they have
become practically obsolete; the fur has been modified to a compact
velvety coat which will lie either front or back with equal facility
and thus relieve any friction from the walls of the tunneled roads, no
matter which way the animal travels.

Moles are circumpolar in distribution, being found from England to
Japan in the Old World and on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
of the New World, where they occur only in North America. On this
continent they are limited mainly to the United States and southern
Canada, extending across the Mexican border only in two limited areas
at the extreme east and west. Their distribution is not continuous
across the continent, but is broken by a broad unoccupied belt formed
by the arid interior, including the Great Basin. The home of the
Oregon mole lies in the humid area west of the Cascade Mountains in
Washington, Oregon, and extreme northwestern California. Closely
related forms range from eastern Oregon southward through California to
the San Pedro Martir Mountains in Lower California, and others north
into British Columbia.

The Oregon mole is the largest and handsomest member of the group in
America and perhaps in the world. Its skin, a velvety coat of nearly
black fur, often with a purplish sheen, now brings a higher price in
the market than that of any other species. Its size and the beauty of
its dark coat distinguish it from any other mole.

Where the soil is loose the mole practically swims through it, urged
forward by powerful impulses of its “hands” and feet. This is the
common mode of travel near the top of the ground, where the course is
marked by the lightly upheaved and broken surface. When working at a
greater depth and in more compact soil the mole must dig its way and
dispose of the loose earth by pushing it along the tunnel to an outlet
at the surface through which it is thrust to form a mound similar to
the “dumps” of that other great miner, the pocket gopher.

On account of this similarity in mode of life, moles and pocket gophers
are sometimes confused by persons not familiar with the two animals.
The resemblance ends in this apparent likeness, for the pocket gophers
belong to the great order Rodentia, or gnawing animals, while the moles
are of the Insectivora, or insect-eaters.

The superbly forested region inhabited by Oregon moles is so well
watered that few places, even on high mountain slopes, are too dry for
them to occupy. These animals are generally distributed, and their
hills may be seen in the midst of the great coniferous forests as well
as in the open valleys.

They are most abundant in open grassy areas, especially in meadows and
in the bottoms of canyons and similar places, where the damp rich soil
affords a plentiful supply of earthworms, grubs, and insects on which
to feed. Like other moles, they lead lives of great activity and almost
constant hard labor. During damp weather they work near the surface,
but in dry periods as the upper soil hardens they follow their prey
to lower levels. A hard shower, however, always brings an outburst of
activity as they reoccupy the upper soil and throw up a multitude of
new mounds. They have the habit of regularly coming to the surface
to hunt food during the night. This is no doubt coincident with the
swarming up to the surface of earthworms on which the moles feed. At
such times many are captured by owls, cats, and other beasts of prey.

The runways of moles close along the surface, shown by well-marked
ridges, are for hunting purposes, and the lower tunnels, from which
the earth in the mounds is brought, are for traveling and lead to the
nest chamber. The deep tunnels of the Oregon mole sometimes extend
considerable distances along fences, or other surface cover, which
afford more or less protection. Such tunnels are a kind of highway
often used by several moles and also by shrews and field mice. The
system of tunnels of the moles over a considerable area often intersect
and are used more or less in common. As a result more than twenty moles
have been trapped at a single point in one of these underground roads.

They make an intricate system of many-branched tunnels, the courses
of which are usually marked by series of mounds varying from four to
ten inches high and five to twenty inches wide and often scattered
over meadows or other fields from two to six feet apart. Owing to
the persistence with which the moles raise their mounds everywhere
in the occupied parts of their territory, they have become a serious
and costly pest. In meadows the knives of mowing machines are dulled
by them, and in towns lawns are disfigured by their undesirable
activities. As a consequence they have now fallen under the ban and
are classed with other mammals which have shown their lack of ability
to fit in satisfactorily with the changed conditions brought to their
ancient territory by civilized man. Under natural conditions their
activities were undoubtedly entirely beneficial.

They appear to have but a single litter of young, numbering from one
to four, each year. These are born in March and grow so rapidly that
by the last of May they are working in the tunnels and are scarcely
distinguishable from the adults.

The recent discovery that the Oregon moleskin is valuable for its fur
will give such an incentive to trapping that there is little doubt the
boys of the State within a few years will reduce the numbers of the
animal and thus control its injury to agriculture. The market for the
skins appears practically unlimited, judging by trade reports, one
dealer in Brooklyn stating that he dressed 4,000,000 imported European
moleskins in 1916.


THE STAR-NOSED MOLE (Condylura cristata)

(_For illustration, see page 563_)

The star-nosed mole, known in parts of Maine as the “gopher,” is
peculiar among the moles in having a fringe around the end of its nose
formed by twenty-two short fleshy tentacles. A less-marked character
is in the proportionately long tail, which becomes greatly enlarged in
fall and remains in this condition during the winter months. Otherwise
the external appearance of this species is much like that of the common
moles of America and the Old World.

The star-nosed mole is found from southern Labrador, the southern end
of Hudson Bay, and southeastern Manitoba south along the Atlantic coast
to Georgia and in the interior down the Alleghenies to North Carolina
and to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Throughout
this area it ranges irregularly and much yet remains to be learned
about the details of its distribution and habits.

Ordinarily solitary, these moles at times are so numerous in limited
areas that they appear to form colonies. Such gatherings probably mean
an unusually rich feeding ground, which makes it unnecessary for the
young to disperse to outlying locations, as is the habit of moles and
most other mammals.

The star-nosed mole has a strong preference for damp and even marshy
or swampy locations. It frequents low-lying meadows, the borders of
streams, and grassy swamps, where its underground burrows alternate
with open surface runways among grass roots and other matted
vegetation. It spends far more time above ground than the other
moles, and not infrequently swims among flooded cat-tails and other
vegetation and in winter has been seen swimming under the ice.

[Illustration: A RACCOON’S TRACK

The track of the raccoon is very distinctive and usually easy to find,
because it frequents the mud by the water side. Sometimes, to a casual
glance, the track of a small coon is taken for that of a large muskrat,
but their differences are very obvious.]

Like others of its kind, this mole is amazingly powerful in proportion
to its size. It persistently adds to its surface ridges, and in
constantly extending its deeper tunnels must dig loose earth and
dispose of it by forcing it up through an outlet to form the mounds
which mark the course of its travels. Where the soil is loose it
readily forces it aside with its compact body and paddle-shaped hands.
In pushing up the little piles of earth and in the ridges raised when
burrowing close to the surface it sometimes injures meadows and other
cultivated land. Occasionally it wanders away from the fields and
invades lawns and gardens, where the only injury it does is in the
disturbance of the soil.

Its nests are compact little balls of fine grass, weeds, or leaves in
dry underground chambers excavated in its burrows. The nests are a foot
or two underground, but above the level of the water, sometimes under
a stump and again in a knoll or bank. One nest containing five young
was found in Maryland in an old woodshed under several inches of chips.
This location and its choice of a site for its nest under a stump in a
field or in a dry knoll are clear indications of a kind of intelligence
which even the lowliest animals appear to have in caring for their
young.

The star-nosed mole is full of the restless energy so necessary in
a mammal which must come across its food by more or less haphazard
tunneling through the soil. It is active both summer and winter. In dry
weather as the moisture near the surface decreases the soil hardens
and earthworms and other subterranean life seek deeper levels. The
mole follows them, only to return with them nearer the surface with a
renewal of the moisture. In winter it sometimes comes out and travels
slowly about on top of the snow, ready to burrow out of sight at once,
however, at the sound of approaching footsteps.

The food of the star-nose, like that of most other moles, is made up
mainly of earthworms, white grubs, cutworms, wireworms, and other
underground insects. In captivity, before eating a worm or other flesh
food offered, it first feels of it with the little raylike organs of
touch on its nose. It is difficult to surmise the real value of these
“feelers,” for it would seem that the acute sense of smell so common to
mammals should do better service.

Aside from its disturbance of the surface soil by its ridges and
mounds, the star-nosed mole does no direct injury, and its life is
largely passed in the useful task of searching out and destroying
insects. Indirectly it causes some injury to root crops, plants of
various kinds, and fruit trees, by providing tunnels along which meadow
and pine mice travel to commit the ravages which on circumstantial
evidence are charged to the mole.


=THE COMMON SHREW= (=Sorex personatus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 566_)

Many interesting small mammals are nocturnal or lead such obscure and
hidden lives that they are rarely observed except by naturalists. Of
these are the numerous species of shrews, which include the smallest
mammals in the world. These tiny beasts all live among the vegetation
and debris on the surface of the ground or in little burrows below.
With the moles they are members of the order Insectivora and depend
mainly on insects and meat for food. Despite their minute size, they
are possessed of an indomitable courage and ferocity, which leads them
without hesitation to attack and kill mice many times their own weight.

The genus _Sorex_, of which the common shrew is a member, is
circumpolar in distribution, the various species ranging through
England, the European mainland, Asia, and North America as far south as
Guatemala.

The common shrew is a purely North American animal, occupying all
the northern part of the continent from the Arctic shores of Alaska
and Canada south to northern Nevada, South Dakota, Illinois, and
Pennsylvania, and along the Allegheny and high Rocky Mountains to North
Carolina and New Mexico. Its vertical range extends from the seacoast
up to timberline in the Rocky Mountains.

The common shrew is the smallest of the mammals in all the northern
parts of this continent, and one marvels at the possibility of such a
tiny morsel of flesh and blood withstanding the rigors of the arctic
winters. It measures about four inches in total length and weighs about
forty-five grains; the body and tail are slender, the nose long and
sharp, and the rim of the ears shows a little above the dense velvety
fur. By these characters it may be distinguished from the larger, more
heavily proportioned (and darker-colored) short-tailed shrews which
abound with it in certain parts of its range. Its smaller size and
grayish brown color are the main superficial differences between it and
other American members of the same genus. The climatic differences in
its wide range have developed several geographic races, none of which,
however, show strongly marked characters.

This shrew appears to have a most catholic taste, so far as its
surroundings are concerned, for it appears to frequent every type of
situation where shelter and food can be found. It abounds among the
peat beds and sphagnum mosses of the desolate barrens bordering on
the Arctic coast, as well as amid the rotten stumps, old logs, fallen
leaves, and other vegetable debris on the floor of the forests farther
south. It will be found also in the rank matted vegetation about
marshes, in old fields and occasional sphagnum swamps in the southern
parts of its range.

The little tunneled runways of these shrews form a network in the
beds of moss in a sphagnum swamp near Washington. In the forest the
animals always seek the cover afforded by fallen logs, slabs of bark,
or anything else that will give protection. On the coast of New Jersey
they live so near the sea that an extra high tide forces them to mount
the drift logs on the salt meadows for safety. They often make little
burrows in the soft earth under the roots of a tree, a stump, or a log.

[Illustration: THE TRAIL OF THE COMMON SKUNK

The hind foot of the skunk rarely shows the claws in the track. The
diagonal set during the gallop is characteristic (see pages 558 and
580).]

Their nests are small balls of dry leaves, grasses, or other soft
vegetable material placed snugly under a log or in a hollow stump,
burrow, or other good retreat, where they appear to have two or more
litters of from six to ten young during the summer and fall.

As in the other shrews, the food of the common species consists mainly
of insects, larvæ, worms, and obtainable flesh; but in winter and
possibly at other seasons many kinds of food are eaten, including
insects, meat, fat, flour, and seeds. During the years I passed at St.
Michael, on the coast of Bering Sea, the beginning of winter always
brought into the storehouses and dwellings a swarm of field mice,
lemmings, and these shrews. The food requirements of all appeared to be
the same, and all fed freely on the flour and other accessible stores.
Dozen of the shrews were killed in the houses every winter.

Occasionally I caught and kept one captive for a time to observe its
habits. It would be extremely restless and equally active by day
or night. The small eyes appeared of little service, but the long,
flexible snout was used constantly and served as the main reliance of
the little beast for information as to the outside world.

Wherever they travel these shrews utilize the runways of the field mice
or other small animals and make little runs of their own only where
necessary. Aside from a faint squeak, I have never heard them utter a
sound, but other observers credit them with series of fine twittering
notes apparently uttered as a song.

The common shrew is a solitary animal of so morose a disposition that
if two are placed in a cage together they almost immediately fall upon
one another with tooth and nail, and the victor devours the body of its
companion at a single meal. The digestion of shrews is so rapid and the
call for food so incessant that it requires constant activity to keep
the demand satisfied.

After the winter snow arrived in the North I found many tunnels of
these shrews running just under its surface and raising it a little
in a slight but distinctly rounded ridge. Such tunnels wandered widely
and on the ice of the Yukon River I traced one of them more than a
mile and repeatedly saw them crossing the river from bank to bank. It
was surprising to note the ability of the little travelers under the
surface to keep in so nearly a direct line for long distances.

At times these little adventurers make similar tunnels in the snow far
out on the sea ice. The mythology of the Eskimos contains accounts of
many supernatural animals which a lone hunter may meet and which have
the power to do him deadly harm. Among these the “sea shrew” is one of
the most malignant. Its appearance is described as exactly like that of
the common land shrew, but it is said to live on the ice at sea, and if
it sees a hunter to dart at him through the air, pierce the skin, and,
after running all through the body with incredible rapidity, to enter
the man’s heart and kill him. In consequence of this belief the Eskimo
hunters were in mortal terror if they chanced to encounter a stray
shrew on the sea ice. I knew one hunter who suddenly meeting one on the
ice stood motionless for hours until the shrew wandered out of sight.
He then hastened home and all the other hunters agreed he had had a
lucky escape.

[Illustration: LITTLE SKUNK, POLECAT, OR SPILOGALE

This trail combines the characteristics of the skunk with those of a
squirrel. At first it looks like the track of a stubby-toed squirrel,
but the five-inch toe on the front foot is plainly seen. The frequent
pairing of the fore paws is important. There is no tail mark (see pages
558 and 576).]


=THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW= (=Blarina brevicauda= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 566_)

Several groups of species or genera of the little mouselike animals
known as shrews are peculiar to North America. Of these one of the most
numerous and best known is the short-tailed shrew. It is a dark-colored
animal much more heavily proportioned, larger, and with a shorter tail
than the common shrew. Its fur is so thick and velvety that it is
confused by many people with the mole, despite its smaller size.

The short-tailed shrews, sometimes called mole shrews, of the genus
Blarina belong to a single species with several geographic races
occupying eastern Canada and the United States, from Nova Scotia,
southern Quebec, Ontario, Minnesota, and North Dakota southward to
Florida and the Gulf coast as far as eastern Texas. Vertically they
range from sea-level up to the tops of the Alleghenies. Another
group of American shrews, containing numerous species belonging to
the genus _Cryptotis_, occupies the mountains of the Western States,
and ranges south to northern South America. In external form it is
indistinguishable from the short-tailed species.

Probably no mammal is more numerous in the eastern United States than
the short-tailed shrew. It occurs everywhere--in forests, in brushy
areas, in old fields, and along grassy banks. Within the city of
Washington it is common in Rock Creek Park, where it lives in covered
runs which it makes among the grass and fallen leaves. These shrews
drink frequently, and this may in part account for their abundance near
streams or other water, although it may be the desirable moist soil
conditions which draw them to such situations.

[Illustration: THE TRACK OF A COMMON COW (A SMALL ONE)

It is well to take the tracks of domestic animals as standards in
identifying tracks of wild big game. The roundness of the front foot
and the narrowness of the hind are general characteristics, though not
always so pronounced as here. But note that the hind foot is set ahead,
beside, or behind the trail of the front foot, but rarely exactly on
it. This peculiarity is commonly seen in animals that are accustomed to
walk on bogs. Note also the toes are set pointing a little outward, not
straight forward. The clouts, or accessory hoofs, rarely show; only in
deep, soft ground.]

The runways of these shrews are scarcely half an inch wide, usually
partly sunken in the mold or rotting surface vegetation. These are not
made by digging, but by pushing aside the loose mold, and they cross
and re-cross in an irregular network. They lead to the entrances to
burrows which generally drop nearly straight down. The burrows are
sometimes amid the leaves, but usually under the shelter of a root,
stump, old log, or other cover. In addition to their own runways, the
shrews make free use of the runs of meadow mice and even traverse the
tunnels of the pine mice and moles in their restless search for prey.

Small rounded chambers opening off their underground runways are filled
with fine grass, pieces of leaves, and other soft matter for a nest.
One nest examined was made entirely from the hair of meadow mice,
probably the spoils of war from the bodies of victims. As a rule,
shrews are extremely unsocial, but a pair of this species is sometimes
found occupying the same nest, no doubt a temporary arrangement.
Several litters, containing from four to six each, appear to be born
through the summer and fall, usually beginning in June.

While equally active by day and by night, the eyes of these shrews seem
to be of little use except to distinguish between light and dark, but
their senses of hearing and smell are highly developed, as is also the
sense of touch in their long hairs, or “whiskers,” about the nose.
In captivity an extreme sensitiveness is exhibited to sudden sounds,
especially such as those of a bird’s wings, indicating an instinctive
fear born of age-long persecution by birds of prey. Food is located
by smell, and as the flexible end of the snout is moved continually
from side to side, odors are caught which may register conceptions as
definite in the minds of these small animals as sight does in more
favored beasts. All shrews are provided with musk glands and on account
of these are apparently nauseous to most other animals, as they are
rarely eaten by beasts of prey. These musky secretions must be of great
service to facilitate them in locating one another.

[Illustration: THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW, OR BLARINA

The curious grooved track in the snow with the tail mark is seen on the
left (see pages 566 and 593).]

Like other shrews and the moles, their digestion appears to be very
rapid and they will eat two or three times their own weight in a
day. This necessitates great activity on their part during much of
the time in order to find the required food. They prefer insects and
meat, but are practically omnivorous, feeding not only upon many kinds
of insects, but on earthworms, slow-worms, sow-bugs, snails, slugs,
mice, shrews, and the young of ground-nesting birds, as well as such
vegetable food as beechnuts, seeds, bread, and oatmeal.

The instinct of prevision against the season of winter scarcity appears
to be developed in them, as one in captivity buried beechnuts in the
earth, and they are known to store living snails in small piles and to
gather disabled beetles in store-rooms in their tunnels.

The courage and blind ferocity of the short-tailed shrews when they
are placed near captive mice far larger than themselves, is amazing
to all who witness their encounters. They attack instantly, spreading
their front feet to gain a firmer footing and moving forward in
little rushes. Mice larger and much more powerful than the shrew are
persistently attacked and, finally giving out, are pounced upon and the
flesh torn from their heads and necks with ravening eagerness. One day
a passing observer heard a loud squealing on a railroad bank where an
examination revealed a short-tailed shrew dragging away a nearly dead
pine mouse, though the mouse was much the heavier. The notes of shrews
are a fine tremulous squeak which becomes a longer, harsher, and more
twittering or chattering cry when they are angry.

[Illustration: DOG GALLOPING IN SNOW

Showing the curious change whereby the right front ceases to take first
place; no doubt this rests the muscles a little. This is typical of
many animals (see page 597).]

No cessation of their activity occurs in winter. When the cold weather
begins many gather about barns and houses located near woods or old
fields, and thus with the field mice take advantage of the garnered
food supplies and shelter. Others remain in their regular haunts, where
they frequently burrow long distances in the snow, making networks of
tunnels and traveling long distances just below the surface, leaving
little raised ridges like the track of a mole on the ground. Their
journeys upon and under the surface of the snow appear to be in search
of food, as they burrow down to old logs and stumps which make good
feeding grounds. Their movements are very active, as they go about
either at a walk or quick trot.

These fierce and truculent little hunters are wholly beneficial in
their habits and should be encouraged in place of being killed on sight
indiscriminately, as one of the ordinary mouse tribe.


THE RED BAT (Nycteris borealis)

(_For illustration, see page 566_)

Bats reach their greatest development in the tropics, where a marvelous
variety of these curious mammals exist. To the northward the number
of species gradually decreases, until eventually, in northern Canada
and Alaska, a single species represents the group. The United States,
occupying the middle latitudes, has a considerable number of different
kinds. Some of these remain throughout the year, hibernating in caves
during the period of cold, when insects are not to be had; others wing
their way southward like birds on the approach of winter and return in
spring.

All bats are nocturnal, although individuals of some species
occasionally fly about for a time by day and many come out just before
or soon after sunset. In this country practically all species are
insectivorous, but in Mexico and the West Indies many are fruit-eaters
and a few true vampires or blood-suckers.

As a rule, bats are clothed in dull colors, but richly tinted coats
give a few a more attractive appearance. Of these none has a more
striking adornment than that presented by the soft covering of glossy
orange-red fur of the red bat. Its large size, about four inches in
total length, with a spread of wings amounting to twelve inches,
combined with its color, suffices to distinguish it at once from any
other northern species.

The range of the red bat extends from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific
and from Ontario and Alberta in southern Canada south throughout most
of the United States to the Gulf coast and southern California; also
beyond our limits to Lower California and Costa Rica. The genus to
which this bat belongs ranges more widely in other parts of North
America; also to South America and across the eastern Pacific to the
Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands.

The red bat rarely or never seeks shelter in gloomy caves and crevices,
but hangs to the small twigs or leaf stems on trees and bushes in the
full light of the sun. One observer in Texas on July 4 found four of
them hanging in a cluster from a twig on a peach tree, with the sun
shining full on them, although the temperature in the shade was 82
degrees Fahrenheit. I have found them in northern Illinois in the
glaring sunlight of May, hanging from leaves in the tops of oak trees.
This unusual tolerance of light in a member of the bat tribe is further
shown by its habit of beginning to hunt through the air for insects
earlier in the afternoon than other species in its range.

[Illustration: BIG DOG TROTTING

This track of a big dog trotting in about two and a half inches of snow
is singular in the perfect register it shows. The hind foot drops each
time into the track of the front foot. This correct style is more usual
with wild than with tame animals. Compare with track of dog galloping,
page 596.]

[Illustration: A COMMON DOG

The hind feet are, as usual, narrower, though nearly as long as the
front. The dog is a loose walker. Sometimes the hind foot is on the
track of the front, sometimes ahead, and often behind. The claws show.
The dragging of the front feet is another slovenly habit, an evidence
of overdomestication.]

Long, narrow wings and swift, powerful flight characterize the red bats
in the air. They have marvelous control in darting and turning here and
there, and no birds, except possibly the chimney swifts, can equal them
in their extraordinary gyrations.

Red bats are known to migrate from the northern part of their range
in September or October and to return in May. They have been seen
going south at Cape Cod the last of August and in September; and late
in October Dr. E. A. Mearns has recorded great flights of them down
the Hudson Valley, lasting throughout the day. That they share the
vicissitudes of migrating birds is indicated by observation on the New
Jersey coast of stray individuals coming in from the sea exhausted
early on September mornings.

They are among the most solitary of their kind, usually being found
hanging singly on a tree or bush, sometimes within a few feet of the
ground. On occasion they gather in clusters as mentioned above, and in
one instance in Maryland more than a dozen were hanging in a compact
ball, which suddenly exploded into its winged parts when disturbed.

One of the most unusual characteristics of the red bat is found in the
number of young it bears. Usually other species, except the hoary bat,
have one or two young, but at varying dates between May and July each
year the red bat produces from two to four, the average being three or
four. The young when very small are carried clinging to the body of
the mother in her flights. She continues to take them from place to
place in this manner until their combined weight exceeds her own. The
strength of the maternal feeling in this species is well illustrated by
an instance in Philadelphia where a boy caught a half-grown red bat in
a city square and carried it home. In the evening, three hours later,
he crossed the same square, carrying the young bat in his hand, when
the old one came circling about him and finally in her deep anxiety
alighted on his breast. Both were brought in, the young one clinging to
its mother’s teat. The devoted mother received injuries when she was
captured, from which she died two days later.

In the contact between mankind and bats, man, the invariable aggressor,
finds the bats baring their teeth, biting viciously, squeaking, and
behaving altogether like little fiends. A gentler side is sometimes
exhibited, however, and one observer who caught a partly grown red
bat found that it became tame, showed intelligence, and developed a
friendly feeling for its captor.


THE HOARY BAT (Nycteris cinereus)

The hoary bat is a close relative of the red bat described above, but
is larger, about five inches long, and, as its name implies, is of a
different color. It is widely distributed over a large part of North
America, where it is known to breed from Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and
the southern shore of Great Slave Lake south practically throughout
the United States. It is one of our larger species and is remarkable
for its power and skill on the wing. The wings are long and narrow and
carry their owner through the air in a bewildering series of swoops,
curves, and zigzag turns remarkable even in a group of animals so
notable for their powers of flight.

With the approach of cold weather the hoary bat migrates from the
northern parts of its range to the milder southern districts. It is a
late migrant, not leaving its northern home until the last of September
or October and returning in May. Some individuals appear to remain in
the North all winter, as one has been taken in Connecticut in December.
In its southern flight it wanders as far as Jalisco, near the southern
end of the Mexican table-land, to Lower California, and to the Bermuda
Islands. To reach the Bermudas it is evident the bat must make a
continuous flight from the nearest point on our shores of at least 580
miles--a good tribute to its wing power.

Like the red bat, it lives in the open, hanging from twigs and leaves
in the tops of trees or bushes in the broad light of day rather than in
the dark, stifling crevices where so many of its kind pass their lives.
It appears to hang up indifferently on any convenient tree or bush,
including conifers, aspens, or willows. During the day it has a curious
lack of alertness, and as it is not rarely attached to low branches or
bushes within a few feet of the ground it may be readily approached
and taken in the hand. I once captured a fine specimen the middle of
May, in southern California, hanging on a bush about four feet from the
ground. It appeared to be sound asleep until taken by the skin on the
back of the neck, when it became very much alive and, struggling in a
fury, uttered grating shrieks of rage, baring its sharp, white teeth
and trying desperately to bite.

Its food is made up entirely of insects, which it appears to hunt
higher up than most bats, sweeping over the tops of the forest and in
and out about the trees. It appears to be of even more solitary habits
than the red bat and is nowhere so common. Another reason for our lack
of information concerning it is found in its strictly nocturnal habits,
for it rarely appears until shortly before the approaching night hides
it from view.

The hoary bat shares with the red species the distinction of bearing
from two to four young each year. The young are born in June and are
carried attached to the underside of the mother’s body until they
become too heavy a burden. They hang to the teats with the greatest
tenacity and apparently rely mainly on this hold to prevent being
dropped as they are carried on the wild aërial hunting excursions. With
the unusual fecundity indicated by the number of young, it is difficult
to account for the scarcity of these bats unless their habit of hanging
in the open, exposed to the elements and to other dangers, may cause a
heavy mortality among them.

NOTE.--The attention of the reader is called to an error on
page 566, where the Little Brown Bat, _Myotis lucifugus_, on the tree
trunk, a common species throughout most of North America, is labeled
“Hoary Bat, _Nycteris cinereus_,” which is a much larger and very
different animal.

[Illustration: THE TRACK OF A COYOTE

This track cannot be distinguished with certainty from that of a small
dog (see pages 596 and 597). The greater size of the side toes in
the hind track I have often noticed, but there is no corresponding
disproportion in the animal’s foot.]


=THE MEXICAN BAT= (=Nyctinomus mexicanus= and its subspecies)

(_For illustration, see page 567_)

Reference has been made in several preceding sketches of this series to
the mammals of tropical origin which have invaded our southern border.
The Mexican bat is a notable member of this class. It differs in many
curious ways from the bats with which it associates in temperate
regions. It is smaller than any of the other three bats treated here
and is strongly characterized by a flattening of the head and body
which enables it to creep into a surprisingly narrow crevice in the
rocks or elsewhere. The ears are broad and flaring and extend forward
over the eyes like the visor of a cap, and the end of the tail is not
confined within the membrane extending between the hind legs, but
projects from it. Another pronounced characteristic of this bat and
one highly disagreeable is the rank musky odor which it gives out.
This pollutes the air about its harboring places, rendering it a most
unwelcome guest.

Whoever has visited the Southern and Southwestern States or Mexico must
have noted the offensive odor in many places about the verandas of
houses and especially about old churches and other public buildings.
This is the sign of occupancy placed on the premises by the Mexican
bats, which, to the number of a few dozens or actually by thousands, as
conditions permit, may lie snugly hidden in cracks and dark openings
of all kinds about the roof and walls. No other bat in Mexico or the
United States is provided with so strong an odor.

[Illustration: MUSK-OX

Drawn from the tracks of a big bull in the barren grounds of Canada.
Much like the track of a common cow (see page 594), but more rounded
and less deeply cloven; also, I think, less often sprawling--in other
words, more often hind foot on front track; for the musk-ox is more of
an upland creature.]

The Mexican bat is extremely abundant, probably exceeding in numbers
any other species within its territory. It ranges throughout the
tropical and lower temperate parts of Guatemala, Mexico, and across our
border, throughout most of Texas, and east as far as Florida and South
Carolina; in the West it also abounds both in town and country in the
warmer parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Closely allied relatives of the Mexican bat abound throughout the
warmer parts of Central and South America to beyond Brazil. The genus
to which this species belongs is represented in the warmer parts of
both hemispheres. It extends north in the Old World to southern Europe
and also is found in the Philippines.

The abundance of the Mexican bat in some favorable places is almost
incredible. At Tucson, Arizona, I once saw them, a short time before
dark, issuing from a small window in the gable of a church in such
numbers that in the half light they gave the appearance of smoke
pouring out of the opening. At times they occupy houses in such numbers
that their presence and accompanying offensive odor render the places
uninhabitable. At the town of Patzcuaro, near the southern end of the
Mexican table-land, I saw two rooms in an old adobe house occupied by
as many of them as could possibly hang from the rough ceiling. The
owner considered their presence a valuable asset, as he collected and
sold the guano for more than the rooms would have brought in rent. The
bats congregate in even greater numbers in large caves. So numerous are
they in certain caves in Texas that the owner reports an annual income
of about $7,000 from the guano.

They are very plentiful by day in the thin crevices about the roof and
walls of caves in the celebrated Ixtapalapa, or “Hill of the Star,”
beyond the floating gardens at the City of Mexico, and I also found
them living in many of the marvelous ruins of Mexico, including
Chichen-Itza, in Yucatan. Wherever they occur in numbers they may be
heard frequently by day shuffling uneasily about and squeaking shrilly
at one another.

[Illustration: BADGER

The huge fore claws are a strong feature. The hind claws rarely show
in the track. The broad spread of the tracks in the lower trail
corresponds with the low, thick form of the animal.]

When they first come out after sunset they usually fly away in a great
stream, nearly all in the same direction, as though migrating. This
course will probably be found leading to water, where they scoop up
a drink from the surface before beginning their wonderfully erratic
zigzags through the air in pursuit of insects.

From the colder northern parts of their range they migrate southward to
milder climatic conditions or descend to lower altitudes. In Mexico,
where they live up to above 8,000 feet altitude, they move down from
one to two thousand feet. Their young, one at a birth, are born from
April to May.

It has been claimed that the Mexican bat brings bedbugs to infest
houses. This is untrue of this or any other bat. These animals have
certain small parasites, some of which, resembling small bedbugs, have
probably given rise to the belief mentioned. These parasites live only
on the bats.

[Illustration: THE TRACK OF A BIG BULL MOOSE WALKING ON HARD GROUND

The great size, the pointed shape, and the long stride usually
distinguish it from the track of a domestic cow. Ordinarily, the clouts
do not show. The dung pellets, however, are very important diagnostics.
They are cylindrical, about ⅝ inch through and 1¼ inches long.
Probabilities of time and place must always be considered. Oftentimes
the hind foot is set far ahead of the front-foot track. The excessive
spreading of the hoofs is a strong character of moose tracks.]

[Illustration: TRACK OF A COW MOOSE WALKING IN THREE OR FOUR INCHES OF
MUD

In this the clouts show clearly. The excessive pointedness of the cow’s
track is not a fixed character. The hoofs of a moose in swamp country
are larger and more pointed than those in a rocky country, because less
worn. The cow track, in this case, was sketched in a land of swamps, so
that it is longer and sharper than the average.]

Within a few years considerable publicity has been given to the
supposed possibility of utilizing bats to destroy mosquitoes and
thus eliminate malaria from infested areas. One or more bat houses
have been built at San Antonio, Texas, for the purpose of assembling
bats in large numbers, and many untenable claims have been put forth
concerning the benefit to be derived from their services. The Mexican
bat is the species which abounds above all others at San Antonio and is
the principal species which has occupied the bat houses near town. It
is definitely known that bats often fly miles from their roosts when
feeding and do not concentrate on any one kind of insect. Examination
of the contents of the stomachs of Mexican bats shows that they feed
on beetles and numerous other insects, but rarely upon mosquitoes. I
have visited many Mexican towns and villages in which every house was
haunted by numbers of these bats and where malaria was perennial. The
evidence against these animals serving any useful purpose in checking
malaria is conclusive.

It may be repeated here, however, that all of our bats are of high
utility as insect-destroyers and should be protected. Among the many
species of varying habits which exist in the United States, a few make
their homes about houses in annoying numbers. In place of killing
them to abate the nuisance, it would be better to exclude them from
buildings by closing the entrance ways promptly after all have left
in the evening, and thus by quiet eviction cause them to find abiding
places elsewhere. The destruction of forests, and the consequent
absence of the hollow trees where they formerly lived, is mainly
responsible for bats and chimney swifts coming to houses for harbor.


=THE BIG-EARED DESERT BAT= (=Antrozous pallidus= and its
relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 567_)

The marvelous variations in structure of the ears and other organs
about the heads of insect-eating bats serve probably as microphones
by which the flight of their prey may be detected and its direction
located with instantaneous certainty. The beautiful accuracy with
which this hearing mechanism works must be evident to any one who will
take a position where he may have the evening glow of the western sky
as a background for flights of bats. It is certain that the small
and ineffective eyes these animals possess could never locate their
minute flying game and enable them to secure it in the whirling, zigzag
courses they pursue, often at a speed and under a control which few, if
any, birds could rival.

The great ears of the big-eared desert bats illustrate one form
of a highly developed hearing apparatus and give these animals a
handsome and strikingly picturesque appearance. This character at once
distinguishes them from others of their kind in the United States.

The distribution of this species lies mainly in the arid parts of
the Southwestern States and Mexico. It extends from western Texas,
southern Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon, south to Queretaro, on the
Mexican table-land, and to the southern end of the peninsula of Lower
California. The vertical distribution extends from sea-level up to at
least 5,000 feet altitude.

By day these desert bats live in crevices and caves in cliffs, in old
mining tunnels, hollows in trees, and in sheltered places about the
roofs and walls of houses, barns, or other buildings. Their presence
in dark hiding places may sometimes be detected by occasional grating
squeaks. They appear to lack any musky odor which characterizes so
many bats. About the 1st of June each year either one or two young are
born, and for a time these cling to the mother’s breast and are carried
during her swift flights in pursuit of insect prey.

Often when camping at desert waterholes, I have seen them come in just
before dark to drink, scooping up water from the surface while in
flight, and then circling back and forth over the damp ground at an
elevation of a few yards for the capture of some of the insects common
in such places. At such times, with the distant hills mantled with a
deepening purple haze and the pulsating heat of the day replaced by
the milder temperature of approaching night, these bats could often be
seen sharply outlined against the rich orange afterglow of the departed
sun. Here and there in the still air flickered and zigzagged multitudes
of tiny bats, like black butterflies, and among them the occasional
big-eared bats on broad wings appeared huge in contrast. Their wing
strokes were slower and shorter than those of the smaller species and
impelled them forward in a swift, gliding movement which gave their
evolutions a sweeping grace beautiful to see.

In August several years ago, during a visit to the Indian School at
Tuba, in the Painted Desert of northern Arizona, I found these bats
living in considerable numbers about the buildings. Just before dark
they swarmed out and hunted about the surrounding orchards and small
fields. One evening my collector shot at one as it circled over a
potato field in a small orchard. It continued its flight, circling low
among the apple trees as though unhurt, when suddenly it dropped to the
ground. Supposing the bat to be wounded, it was cautiously approached
and covered with a hat, when, without a struggle, it permitted itself
to be picked up by the nape. It then became evident that the bat was
unhurt from the shot. The reason for its sudden descent was revealed in
the person of a large, fat mole cricket (_Stenopalmatus fuscus_) which
it was holding firmly in its jaws, and so ferociously intent was it in
biting and worrying its luscious prey that it paid not the slightest
attention to its captor. Finally it was killed by having its chest
compressed and died with its bull-dog grip on its prey unbroken.

These bats, like the other members of the tribe in the United States,
are fully as beneficial to the farmer as the best of our insect-eating
birds and deserve equal protection in place of the general persecution
from which they now suffer.

[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT

Kinship with sheep and antelope is reflected in the track of the goat.
Its heel-pads are so large and rubber-like that the track is rarely
so sharp as here shown. “Although marvelously surefooted and fearless
in traversing the faces of high precipitous slopes, goats lack the
springy grace and vivacity of mountain sheep and move with comparative
deliberation.”]

[Illustration: BIGHORN

The general style of a bighorn track is like that of deer, but the
toes are finished off more squarely and the hollow in the outer edge
of each hoof is a strong characteristic. Sometimes the tracks are in
correct register. The clouts rarely show. The dung pellets are like
those of the deer, but rounder. The track is that of a ewe; the ram’s
is similar, but larger.]

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN LION, OR COUGAR

The track of a mountain lion is much like that of a house cat,
differing only in size. Sometimes, as in the cat, the hind foot is set
exactly on the track of the front foot.]

[Illustration: GRAY WOLF

The track is that of a large wolf. There is no certain way of
distinguishing it from that of a dog (see page 597). Size and
probabilities must be considered.]

[Illustration: WHITE-TAILED DEER WALKING

The track of the white-tail is ideal--a starting point to study all the
tracks. Sometimes the hind foot fits on the front track, but sometimes
not.]

[Illustration: WHITE-TAILED DEER BOUNDING

In these the clouts are clearly shown. Note the resemblance to the
tracks of the moose (see page 602), which differ chiefly in their
greater size.]

[Illustration: WHITE-TAILED DOE WALKING

This track differs from that of the buck in being smaller, slimmer, and
in having the toes pointing forward or inward--rarely outward.]

[Illustration: ELK

This shows the track of a large male walking. Each hoof-mark is about
4½ inches long. Had it been five inches it would have meant a very
large bull. The track is strictly deer-like in type, but has a little
of the roundness of point that is so marked in the domestic cow. At the
upper end of the drawing is snow one inch deep. Here no clouts show; at
the lower end it is three inches deep, so the clout-marks are clear.
Size is essential in distinguishing the track. The dung pellets, about
⅝ × ⅛ inch, are also important.]

[Illustration: MULE DEER

The mule deer tread cannot be distinguished with certainty from that
of white-tailed or coast deer; yet it averages larger than either
of these, and the curious close set together of all four feet while
it does its peculiar bounding is quite unlike what we see in the
white-tail track. “These deer are not good runners in the open. On
level country in Arizona I have ridden after and readily overtaken
parties of them within a mile. The moment rough country was reached,
however, with amazing celerity a series of mighty leaps carries them
away” (see page 456).]

[Illustration: GRIZZLY BEAR

The great size and the immense claws are the chief characteristics of
the grizzly’s track. All five toes usually show in each track. “The
strongest and most distinctive characteristic of the grizzlies is the
long, proportionately slender and slightly curved claws of the front
feet, sometimes more than three inches long” (see pages 440 and 442).]

[Illustration: BLACK BEAR

The plantigrade foot is clearly shown in the bear track. That of a
black bear differs from that of a grizzly, first in size, second in the
shortness of the claws. Usually no claws show, and the fifth toe, which
is well developed on both front and hind paws, leaves little sign and
often none at all. Frequently the hind foot is set on the track of the
front foot in correct register.]

[Illustration: THE HUMAN FOOTPRINTS

The footprints of the human animal are included in this series of
sketches for the purpose of comparison. Especially interesting is the
similarity to be noted between the tracks made by man and those of
the grizzly and the black bear (see page 608). The tracks shown on
the left half of this page present the moccasin-shod footprints of a
Sioux Indian compared with the shoe tracks of a white man. On the right
are shown: (A) a woman’s foot which has been much pinched by tight
shoes; (B) a sturdy boy’s foot, somewhat too flat to be normal; (C)
the footprint of a slender man, and (D) the imprint of a robust man’s
foot.]

[Illustration: THE HORSE

A hunter needs to know horse tracks as much as those of wild game. The
greater size and roundness of horse tracks distinguish them from those
of mules and asses. When shod the toe calks are a strong feature; when
without shoes the unbroken front edge is distinctive. Some horses walk
in correct register; some do not. Mules are more exact than horses.
When trotting the arrangement is much as in walking, but the spaces
are longer and the hind-feet track farther ahead of the front feet. In
galloping the arrangement is much as in the white-tailed deer.]

[Illustration: BARREN GROUND CARIBOU

The caribou track is distinguished by its great spread and the fact
that the clouts or hind hoofs touch the ground, even on a hard surface.
I know of no difference but size between the tracks of the various
caribou and reindeer. The probabilities of time and locality help in
determining the species, but it need never be mistaken for that of any
other type of deer. In winter the caribou’s tracks in the snow show
that its feet, instead of being raised high at each step, like those of
a Virginia or mule deer, drag through the snow like those of domestic
cattle.]

[Illustration: COAST BLACK-TAILED DOE

I know of nothing but probabilities to distinguish the walking tracks
of the coast deer from those of nearly related species. This track of a
bounding female shows a peculiar grouping that corresponds fairly with
the bounding action characteristic of the species.]

[Illustration: ANTELOPE

The different styles of front and back feet is a marked character of
the antelope’s track and is best seen in the walk. In galloping all
of these animals leave the hind tracks ahead of the fore tracks, but
disturb the ground, so that almost no characteristic marks are to be
seen.]

[Illustration: CANADA LYNX

This track I sketched on the Athabasca River. In summer the track of a
lynx shows the toe-pads faintly; in winter all are muffled in hair and
the track is much larger. “The feet in winter are so broad that they
serve admirably for support in deep snow” (see page 409).]

[Illustration: TEXAN WILDCAT

This track, while akin to that of a cat (see page 487), has some very
well-marked characteristics. The complicated outline of the heel-pads
is striking. This, with its large size, will distinguish it from the
track of a house cat. The claws do not show.]

[_Reprinted from_ SCIENCE, _N. S., Vol. XLVIII., No. 1248,
Pages 547-549, November 29, 1918_]


    _Wild Animals of North America_: Intimate Studies of Big and Little
    Creatures of the Mammal Kingdom. By EDWARD W. NELSON.
    Natural-Color Portraits from Paintings by LOUIS AGASSIZ
    FUERTES. Track Sketches by ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.
    Published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.
    C., U. S. A.; 8vo, pp. + 385-612, folded frontispiece, 108
    colored illustrations on text paper (not plates), 85 halftone
    illustrations. [This is essentially a reprint of two articles which
    appeared in the _National Geographic Magazine_, for November, 1916,
    and May, 1918. The changes comprise repaging beyond page 472,
    the readjustment of the matter on pages 473-475, the replacement
    of a half-tone on page 475, the rectification of page references
    to illustrations to accord with the new paging where needed, and
    readjustment of the matter from page 571 on, so as to admit 32 new
    illustrations of footprints and the captions to these.]

This is a work which meets to a gratifying degree the need for an
essentially non-technical treatise upon the natural history of the
mammals of North America. No living person is better equipped to carry
to a successful conclusion such an undertaking than is its author.
Nelson has contributed in the field of vertebrate zoology now for
over forty years, to be explicit, beginning in July, 1876 (_Bulletin
Nuttall Ornithological Club_, Vol. 1, p. 39). With a background of long
experience in the field, and with further years of official connection
with the United States Biological Survey and its unique resources in
mammalogy, he has made available a brochure of pleasing amplitude and
satisfying authoritativeness.

Between the colored pictures and the written sketches the public can
gain from this contribution a better idea of our principal mammals than
from any other available publication. It should awaken a generally
greater interest in our native mammals, and this will help build up a
desire for the conservation of the harmless and useful species such as
has resulted from the public education in relation to our bird life. On
the other hand it is important to be able to distinguish those mammals,
chiefly of the order Rodentia, which are thoroughly inimical to human
interests. People at large must know how to cope with these enemies. It
would seem that a full knowledge of the natural history of such animals
is essential to determining the most successful means of controlling
them and to applying these means properly to the varying conditions
throughout the country. Nelson’s accounts of our injurious mammals are
full of stimulative suggestions along these lines, and while the work
as a whole can not be considered as an “economic” publication, its
influence will go far to secure adequate popular consideration of these
matters.

The species are taken up in groups, in so far as this can be done
safely. Each biography, of which there are 119, is, as a rule, a
composite applying to a number of near-related forms, thus simplifying
matters of presentation, and avoiding repetition. A marked feature of
the book is the degree of concentration attained; there is no trace
of padding, and no room for baseless speculation, sentimentalizing or
humanizing, such as characterize many current “nature” books. At the
same time the style is animated and thoroughly entertaining, a gift of
composition which Nelson has exercised in many preceding contributions.
Here is an instance, unfortunately a rare one, in which a man who
really knows the field has put out a popular book on a natural history
subject.

Many are the portrayals which are evidently based on Nelson’s own
personal field knowledge, some of them involving facts here for the
first time made known to science. His account of the behavior of
kangaroo rats in Lower California is particularly apt in illustration
of the above statement.

    During several nights I passed hours watching at close range the
    habits of these curious animals. As I sat quietly on a mess box in
    their midst ... [they] would forage all about with swift gliding
    movements, repeatedly running across my bare feet. Any sudden
    movement startled them and all would dart away for a moment, but
    quickly return.... They were so intent on the food [grains of rice
    put out for them] that at times I had no difficulty in reaching
    slowly down and closing my hand over their backs. I did this
    dozens of times, and after a slight struggle they always became
    quiet until again placed on the ground, when they at once renewed
    their search for food as though no interruption had occurred....
    While occupied in this rivalry for food they became surprisingly
    pugnacious. If one was working at the rice pile and another rat or
    a pocket mouse approached, it immediately darted at the intruder
    and drove it away. The mode of attack was to rush at an intruder
    and, leaping upon its back, give a vigorous downward kick with its
    strong hind feet.... Sometimes an intruder, bolder than the others,
    would run only two or three yards and then suddenly turn and face
    the pursuer, sitting up on its hind feet like a little kangaroo.
    The pursuer at once assumed the same nearly upright position,
    with its fore feet close to its breast. Both would then begin to
    hop about watching for an opening. Suddenly one would leap at the
    other, striking with its hind feet, ... [producing] a distinct
    little thump and the victim rolled over on the ground. After
    receiving two or three kicks the weaker of the combatants would run
    away. The thump made by the kick when they were fighting solved the
    mystery which had covered this sound heard repeatedly during my
    nights at this camp.

The brilliantly coated paper used throughout this book although hard
on sensitive eyes, is necessary to the handling of the halftone
illustrations. The printing of both the colored and uncolored pictures
in all the copies we have seen has been done with pronounced success.
The color drawings by Fuertes are admirable and we are astonished at
the success with which this noted bird artist was able to turn to
mammals, the drawings of which in this contribution mark as far as we
know his first efforts in the new field.

A critical reviewer might succeed in finding a number of small points
to elaborate upon and of which to complain. For instance: It is trite
to say that an Alaska brown bear is no more an _animal_ than is a house
fly. Yet here we have the title, “Wild Animals of North America,”
though there is an evident effort made in the subtitle to remedy
the matter by using the expression, “_mammal kingdom_.” But here a
taxonomic blunder is tumbled into! We can hardly believe that Nelson
himself had anything final to say with regard to the title page of this
book, but that the editor of the _National Geographic Magazine_ got in
his work here in the belief so characteristic of editors of popular
magazines that their public must be talked _down_ to.

But to pin the attention of the reader of this review upon such really
minute defects would do violence to the facts in the case, which are
that, according to the convictions of the reviewer, Nelson’s “Wild
Animals of North America” is more uniformly accurate and at the same
time replete with information along many lines than any preceding
book on American mammals. And even more, it may be declared with
confidence that this book is by far the most important contribution of
a non-systematic nature that has appeared in its field in America.

  JOSEPH GRINNELL

  MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY,
  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA


[Transcriber’s Note:

Obvious printer errors corrected silently.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]