F./IR.ME,R;S

4- ANIMAL

- INGEI\SOLL

THE YOUNG FARMER'S PRACTICAL LIBRARY

EDITED BY ERNEST JNGERSOLL

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ERNEST INGERSOLL

The Farmer's Practical Library

EDITED BY ERNEST INGERSOLL
Cloth i6mo Illustrated

From Kitchen to Garret. By VIRGINIA

TERHUNE VAN DE WATER.
Neighborhood Entertainments. By RENEE

B. STERN, of the Congressional Library.

Home Waterworks. By CARLETON J.

LYNDE, Professor of Physics in Mac-

donald College, Quebec.
Animal Competitors. By ERNEST INGERSOLL.
Health on the Farm. By DR. H. F.

HARRIS, Secretary Georgia State Board

of Health.

Co-operation Among Farmers. By JOHN
LEE COULTER.

Roads, Paths and Bridges. By L. W.
PAGE, Chief of the Office of Public
Roads, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

roems of Country Life. Bv GEORGE
BEYAN.

Electricity on the Farm. By FRANK

KOESTER.

The Satisfactions of Country Life. By
DR. JAMES W. ROBERTSON, Principal of
Macdonald College, Quebec. In prep-
aration.

The Farm Mechanic. By L. W. CHASE,
Professor of Farm Mechanics in the
University of Nebraska. In prepara-
tion.

Village Improvement. By PARRIS T.
In preparation.

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

PROFIT AND LOSS FROM THE WILD

FOUR-FOOTED TENANTS

OF THE FARM

BY
ERNEST INGERSOLL

EDITOR OF THE YOUKG FARMER'S PRACTICAL LIBRARY, AND AUTHOR

OF " THE LIFE OF MAMMALS," " WIT OF THE WILD,"

" WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

A

STURGIS & WALTON

COMPANY

1913

All rights reserved

Copyright 1911
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY

Set up and electrotypcd. Published April. 1911
Reprinted April, 1913.

INTRODUCTION

BY THE GEXEKAL EDITOR

This is the day of the small book. There is
much to be done. Time is short. Information
is earnestly desired, but it is wanted in compact
form, confined directly to the subject in view,
authenticated by real knowledge, and, withal,
gracefully delivered. It is to fulfill these con-
ditions that the present series has been pro-
jected to lend real assistance to those who are
looking about for new tools and fresh ideas.

It is addressed especially to the man and
woman at a distance from the libraries, exhibi-
tions, and daily notes of progress, which are
the main advantage, to a studious mind, of liv-
ing in or near a large city. The editor has had
in view, especially, the farmer and villager
who is striving to make the life of himself and
his family broader and brighter, as well as to
increase his bank account; and it is therefore
in the humane, rather than in a commercial di-
rection, that the Library has been planned,

y

vi INTRODUCTION

The average American little needs advice on
the conduct of his farm or business ; or, if he
thinks he does, a large supply of such help in
farming and trading as books and periodicals
can give, is available to him. But many a man
who is well to do and knows how to continue
to make money, is ignorant how to spend it in
a way to bring to himself, and confer upon his
wife and children, those conveniences, comforts
and niceties which alone make money worth
acquiring and life worth living. He hardly
realizes that they are within his reach.

For suggestion and guidance in this direction
there is a real call, to which this series is an
answer. It proposes to tell its readers how
they can make work easier, health more secure,
and the home more enjoyable and tenacious
of the whole family. No evil in American rural
life is so great as the tendency of the young
people to leave the farm and the village. The
only way to overcome this evil is to make rural
life less hard and sordid; more comfortable and
attractive. It is to the solving of that problem
that these books are addressed. Their central
idea is to show how country life may be made

INTRODUCTION vii

richer in interest, broader in its activities and
its outlook, and sweeter to the taste.

To this end men and women who have given
each a lifetime of study and thought to his or
her speciality, will contribute to the Library,
and it is safe to promise that each volume will
join with its eminently practical information a
still more valuable stimulation of thought.

ERNEST INGERSOLL.

PREFATORY NOTE

The writer could hardly claim much original-
ity for this book, were he so disposed. His
aim has not been a literary one, but rather to
compose a useful handbook of the mammals
the wild four-footed tenants of our American
farm-lands, from the point of view of the
agriculturist, orchardist and ranchman. The
United States Department of Agriculture,
through its various departments and publica-
tions, has from time to time issued information
vast in its sum in respect to economic
zoology ; and most of the Agricultural Colleges
and Experiment Stations in the several States
have repeated and supplemented this exten-
sively. The bulk of this proffered matter, how-
ever, relates to the ravages of injurious insects,
or to the beauty and usefulness of birds sub-
jects which may receive attention in future
volumes in this Library.

The economic importance of the mammals
ix

x PEEFATOEY NOTE

the rats, field-mice, rabbits, gophers, ground-
squirrels, muskrats, etc.; the fox, the wolves
and the fur-bearers; the deer and their kin
have been appreciated by very few; yet the
harm done annually by one unchecked class of
them entails a vast waste, while the benefit
which might be obtained from another class is
lost because their lives are little cared for and
their capabilities for profitable exploitation al-
most wholly neglected.

It is hoped that this book will lead to a re-
versal of this wasteful and negligent state of
affairs; and that by its help the farmer's
friends among the wild animals about him may
be encouraged and his foes subdued. Thus the
account of the agriculturist with his four-
footed competitors may be changed from a need-
lessly heavy balance on the loss side, to one of
profit, reckoned partly in savings and partly in
"new business."

My sources of statistical information, espe-
cially for the West, have been largely reports
of investigations conducted by the Biological
Survey. These reports, it is true, have been
widely distributed during the past ten years,

PREFATORY NOTE xi

but they have gone out as chapters in forbid-
ding public documents, or else separately in
loose pamphlets which in most cases have been
speedily lost. It is impracticable for the or-
dinary man to get copies of them now if he
tries, and their usefulness has therefore come
to an untimely end. Among them are original
and valuable essays by Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
Chief of the Biological Survey until his resig-
nation in 1910, when H. W. Henshaw succeeded
to his office; Vernon Bailey, the assistant in
charge of field investigations ; David E. Lantz,
Wilfred H. Osgood, E. W. Palmer, Stanley E,
Piper, E. "W. Nelson, Edward A. Goldman, and
others attached to the Department.

Knowing the accuracy and importance of this
half-lost material, and also aware that nothing
better could be furnished in its stead, I have
not hesitated to make liberal use of it, often
in its own well-chosen language. It was writ-
ten for the benefit of the public ; and I am con-
fident the gentlemen above mentioned will
gladly see it renew its usefulness in the per-
manent form a bound book affords, and rejoice
in the greater force their facts and recommen-

xii PREFATORY NOTE

dations will obtain by being associated in an
orderly array. To them belongs credit for
the larger part of the facts presented in the
pages that follow. I have simply arranged and
enforced the material anew in the most suitable
form I could devise.

Attention may be called, further, to one novel
feature in the book, namely, the detailed in-
structions as to the cultivation of certain wild
animals in captivity as an industry. Among
those recommended for this purpose are the
deer, for sale alive to parks, and to furnish
venison to market; the muskrat for food and
skins; the silver fox for its costly pelt, and
such other fur-bearers as the mink and skunk.
All over the country young men are so situated
as to be able to add one or more of these enter-
prises to their year 's work, and to derive from
them an attractive addition to the annual in-
come, while contributing in no small degree to
the general wealth and welfare of the country.

New York, Jan. 1, 1911,

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
THE PEST OF RATS

PAGE

Varieties of rats Cost of their board Destructiveness
Carriers of disease Breeders of bubonic plague Pre-
cautions and suppression Need of cooperation . . 3

CHAPTER II
THE PANTRY MOUSE

Dancing mice Rapid increase Carrying diseases Musi-
cal mice 37

CHAPTER III
THE MEADOW-MOUSE AND ITS MISCHIEF

American voles Prairie-mice and Pine-mice Multiplica-
tion into plagues Prevention of plagues Damage to
crops considered Protection of young trees ... 48

CHAPTER IV
PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT

Damage by muskrats Excellence of muskrat flesh Fur
in demand Methods of trapping Cultivation of
muskrats 76

CHAPTER V

CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED?
Possibilities and difficulties of rearing captive beavers . 94

xiii

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI
WOOD-RATS, PACK-RATS, COTTON-RATS, ETC.

PAGE

Habits and architecture of wood-rats Pilfering extraor-
dinary Destruction by the cotton-rat 'Jumping-mice
Kangaroo-rats, etc 98

CHAPTER VII
THE GRAY GOPHERS

Characteristics Burrowing powers Injury to crops and
young trees Boring in ditch-banks Gophers as soil-
makers 112

CHAPTER VIII
SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD

Habits- and food of red squirrels Winter storage of

food Larger squirrels The flying-squirrel . . . 125

CHAPTER IX
GROUND-SQUIRRELS AND PRAIRIE-DOGS

Chipmunks and their homes Striped gophers and spermo-
philes Ground-squirrels as carriers of disease
Prairie-dogs 144

CHAPTER X
RABBITS, USEFUL AND INJURIOUS

Rabbit-flesh good food Breeding habits Damage to gar-
dens and orchards Protection of trees Pet stock . 164

CHAPTER XI
SUPPRESSION OF RODENTS AS PESTS

Unwise destruction of natural enemies Poisoning and

Fumigation Difficulties to be overcome .... 184

CONTENTS xv

CHAPTER XII
MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS

PAGE

Moles misunderstood Trapping moles and shrews Bats

and their guano deposits 194

CHAPTER XIII

FOXES AND FOX-FAKMING

American foxes Varieties of fox-fur Arrangement of a
fox-rearing establishment Care of captive foxes Im-
proving the stock 206

CHAPTER XIV
GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES

Wolf traits Good and bad food-habits The coyote a pest
to sheep-ranches Directions for fencing .... 232

CHAPTER XV
THE FUR-BEARERS AND THEIR CULTURE

North American fur-bearers Ermine weasels The weasel
as a mouser Value of the mink Rearing minks in
captivity The otter, badger and skunk Skunk-farm-
ing 242

CHAPTER XVI
RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT

Native deer Domestication and breeding Venison and

buckskin Wild horses, bighorn, antelopes, etc. . . 273

CHAPTER XVII
DIRECTIONS FOR POISONING AND TRAPPING

Waste of effort and money Formulas for preparing ani-
mal poisons Trapping in various ways and places . 288

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

CHAPTER I
THE PEST OF EATS

WE have in the United States three foreign
rats, all injurious to health and property.

1. The brown house-rat (Mus norvegicus),
called also gray rat, house-rat, barn-rat,
wharf-rat and Norway rat, and, in England,
Hanoverian rat. Its average total length is
about 16.4 inches, of which 7 inches belongs to
the tail, and it usually weighs less than a pound,
though specimens have been known so much
larger as to weigh 24 to 28 ounces. The gen-
eral color is grayish-brown above and whitish
below, the long overhairs of the back having
black tips. The head is shorter, the muzzle
more blunt, the ears smaller and the tail rela-
tively shorter than in the other species. It is

3

4 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

spread all over the continent, except the Utah
basin.

2. The black rat (Mus rattus), smaller than
the brown rat, and sooty or slaty black, paler
on the under parts. Like the brown rat, it
is of Oriental origin and seems to have pre-
ceded the former in its immigration into
western Europe and thence to this continent.
It was carried from Europe to Spanish Amer-
ica about three and a half centuries ago, and
thence spread northward to the English col-
onies. Upon the arrival of the brown rat in
North America toward the end of the 18th
century it began to decrease, and is now rare,
surviving only in scattered colonies, but re-
main numerous in many parts of the West
Indies, Middle and South America, Hawaii,
etc.

3. The roof-rat (Mus alexandrinus), simi-
lar to the brown rat in form and habits, but
grayer above, and yellowish white on the feet
and abdomen. Its history is much like that of
the black rat, but it has held its own better
against the dominance of the brown rat, in-
habits sea-going ships, and has established

THE PEST OF RATS 5

itself in all the warmer parts of the world. It
is still prevalent in our South Atlantic States,
in the West Indies and in South America. The
tame white rats sold as pets are mostly of this
and the black species.

In habits these three rats are similar, with
the important exception that the black rat and
the roof-rat (which some zoologists consider
merely varieties of one species), do not bur-
row under foundations, etc., as does the brown
rat. On the other hand they are far more
agile and addicted to climbing, a decided ad-
vantage in the tropics where a large part of
their food is obtained from trees, in whose
branches they frequently lodge their nests ; and
are less able to withstand cold than the brown
rat, which survives arctic winters in whaling
ships, apparently without distress. They are
also less prolific, having only ten mammaB to
the brown rat's twelve, and bearing on the
average only about five young at a birth to the
other's eight. This difference in prolificacy
alone would account for the great dominance
of the brown rat, at least in North America;
and it is to that species the rat, par excellence

6 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

that we devote our attention in considering
the relation it bears to human welfare, espe-
cially on the farm.

"The rat," says Lantz, succinctly, "is the
worst mammalian pest known to man. Its
depredations throughout the world result in
losses amounting to hundreds of millions of
dollars annually. But these losses, great as
they are, are of less importance than the fact
that rats carry from house to house and from
seaport to seaport the germs of the dreaded
plague."

This enormous evil can be cured only by be-
ing prevented ; and it is not only to the personal
interest of every man, but a part of his public
duty, to do all in his power to stamp out a pest
which is not only costing the country many
millions of dollars in damages annually, but is
constantly threatening each of us with horrid
diseases.

History. In order to destroy the rats we
have, and to guard against their increase
on our own premises, at least, we must become
acquainted with the haunts and habits of the
animal.

THE PEST OF RATS 7

The early history of the brown rat is prac-
tically unknown. Various modern writers have
asserted that it came originally from Persia
or India; but W. T. Blanford, a leading zoolo-
gist of British India, states that it is at pres-
ent unknown in Persia, and that, as concerns
India, the black rat is the generally distributed
species, while the brown rat is found only
along the coast and the navigable rivers. This
seems to imply that the latter is a compara-
tively recent immigrant into India; and other
evidence seems to show that its original home
was northward of the Himalayan ranges. Its
resistance to cold supports this hypothesis.
It seems to have entered Europe first by cross-
ing the Volga into Russia in hunger-driven
hordes in 1727, but it reached England from
some eastern port a year or two later, coinci-
dent with the accession of George I to the
British throne. The general, but erroneous, be-
lief in Great Britain that it was introduced
from Norwegian timber-ships gives it the name
"Norway" rat there, as I explained in my Life
of Mammals. "It reached our eastern ports in
1775 and was popularly credited to the hated

8 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Hessian soldiers, a queer echo of the London
idea that it came there with the Hanoverian
train of the present reigning house. By 1830
it had reached the Mississippi, and by 1857,
at least, was numerous in California." Now
no part of the country save the western deserts
is free from these pests ; and competent judges
estimate their numbers as at least five times
that of the human population, with which they
more than keep pace as widening civilization
more and more favors their support and in-
crease.

Fecundity of the rat. A consequence is that
from time to time there is an overflow of rats
from one locality or region to another which
gives us a glimpse of the unseen crowd in the
midst of which we live. "In 1903, a multi-
tude of migrating rats spread over several
counties of western Illinois. They were no-
ticed especially in Mercer and Eock Island
counties. For several years prior to this in-
vasion no abnormal numbers were seen, and
their coming was remarkably sudden. An eye-
witness to the phenomenon informed the writer

THE PEST OF EATS 9

that as he was returning to his home by moon-
light he heard a general rustling in the field
near by, and soon a vast army of rats crossed
the road in front of him, all going in one direc-
tion. The mass stretched away as far as could
be seen in the dim light. These animals re-
mained on the farms and in the villages of
the surrounding country, and during the winter
and summer of 1904 were a veritable plague.
A local newspaper stated that between March 20
and April 20, 1904, Mr. F. U. Montgomery of
Preemption, Mercer county, killed 3,435 rats
on his farm."

This enormous multiplication is due to the
animal's adaptability to climate, its omnivo-
rousness, its habit of burrowing, its strength
and cunning in withstanding and outwitting
enemies, and, most of all, to its astonishing
fecundity, especially where food is abundant.

This rat breeds in the temperate parts of this
country from three to five times a year, the
female bringing forth each time from 6 to 20
young. Mr. Lantz concludes from such data
as are available that in the vicinity of Wash-

10 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ington the average litter is 10. A pair and
their progeny breeding three times a year
would, thus, if all remained alive, produce a
population of more than 20,000,000. "Of
course, such results never occur in nature.
Apparently not nearly half the rats born are
females ; at least, among mature rats the males
greatly predominate. Then, too, the life of
young rats, as well as that of the old, is a con-
tinuous struggle for existence. Disease, the
elements, natural enemies, the devices and cun-
ning of man, and even cannibalism are contin-
ually at work to reduce their numbers. ' '

The young are born, after a gestation period
of 21 days, in a burrow dug in the ground under
buildings, piles of lumber or wood, beneath
strawstacks, etc., or simply bored into a stream-
bank. They are naked and blind at birth, but
develop with great rapidity.

What it costs to board our rats. The dam-
age done by rats over so great an area as
the United States or Canada, is incalculable.
David E. Lantz, in the document from which
I am quoting freely, summarizes their destruc-
tion thus :

THE PEST OF BATS 11

''The brown rat is practically omnivorous. The
statement applies as well to the black rat and the
roof rat. Their bill of fare includes seeds and grains
of all kinds, flour, meal, and food products made
from them; fruits and garden vegetables; mush-
rooms; bark of growing trees; bulbs, roots, stems,
leaves, and flowers of herbaceous plants ; eggs, chicks,
ducklings, young pigeons, and young rabbits; milk,
butter, and cheese ; fresh meat and carrion ; mice,
rats, fish, frogs, and mussels. This great variety of
food explains the ease with which rats adapt them-
selves to almost every environment.

"Experiments show that the average quantity of
grain consumed by a full-grown rat is fully 2 ounces
daily. A half-grown rat eats about as much as an
adult. Fed on grain, a rat eats 45 to 50 pounds a
year, worth about 60 cents if wheat, or $1.80 if oat-
meal. Fed on beefsteaks worth 25 cents a pound,
or on young chicks or squabs with a much higher
prospective value, the cost of maintaining a rat is
proportionately increased. Granted that more than
half the food of our rats is waste, the average cost
of keeping one rat is still upward of 25 cents a
year.

"If an accurate census of the rats of the United
States were possible, a reasonably correct calculation
of the minimum cost of feeding them could be made
from the above data. If the lyimber of rats sup-
ported by the people throughout the United States
were equal to the number of domestic animals on the
farms horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs the minimum

12 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

cost of feeding them on grain would be upward of
$100,000,000 a year. To some such enormous total
every farmer, and indeed every householder who has
rats upon his premises, contributes a share.

"But the actual depredations of rats are by no
means confined to what they eat. They destroy fully
as much grain as they consume, and they pollute and
render unfit for human consumption a much larger
proportion of all other food materials that they at-
tack. In addition, the damage they do to property
of other kinds is often as great as that done to food
supplies."

Destructiveness of rats in the fields. The
rat in America is usually thought of as vermin
in the house and barn, so that little notice is
taken of its destructiveness in the fields which
Europeans understand very well. Cultivated
grains may be regarded as the favorite food.
The animals dig the seed from the ground as
soon as sown, eat the tender sprouts when they
appear, and later feast upon the maturing crop.
After harvest they attack grain in shock, stack,
and mow, and when thrashing is over, in crib,
granary, elevator, mill, and warehouse. In-
dian corn seems especially to suffer from their
depredations. They climb the stalks and strip
the cobs of the milky kernels; and if cut corn

THE PEST OF RATS 13

is left in shocks, especially near drains or other
rat-harbors, it is likely to be ruined.

Shortly after the settlement of the Bermudas by
the British, the colony was infested with rats, which,
in the space of two years, had increased so alarm-
ingly that none of the islands were free from them,
and even fish were taken with rats in their bellies.
A writer in the Academy recalls some of the horrors
of this plague of rats. The rats, we are told, had
nests in almost every tree, and burrowed in most
places in the ground like rabbits. They devoured
everything that came in the way fruits, plants, and
even trees. Where corn was sown they would come by
troops in the night and scratch it out of the ground ;
'nay,' writes a contemporary chronicler, 'they so de-
voured the fruits of the earth that the people were des-
titute of bread for a year or two.' Every expedient
was tried to destroy them. Dogs were trained to hunt
them, who would kill a score or more in an hour.
Cats, both wild and tame, were employed in large
numbers for the same purpose; poisons and traps
every man having to set twelve traps were brought
into requisition; and even woods were set on fire, to
help to exterminate them. Every letter written at
this period by the plague-stricken colonists contains
some account of the dreadful scourge. 'Our great
enemies the rats threaten the subversion of the plan-
tation,' writes one colonist in July, 1616. 'Rats are a
great judgment of God upon us,' wrote another a
year later. ' At last it pleased God, but by what

14 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

means is not well known, to take them away, inso-
much that the wild cats and many dogs that lived
on them were famished.' There was universal joy at
the sudden removal of such destructive vermin; and
the all but despairing planters were enabled once
more to resume their neglected occupations with spirit
and energy.

Much more recently, rats became such a plague
in the sugar-plantations of the West Indies, and
especially in Jamaica, that the East Indian mungoos
a fierce, weasel-like civet was introduced. This ani-
mal cleared out the rats, but speedily became in other
directions such a nuisance that its destruction had
to be effected in order to save the poultry and birds
of the Island.

Eats often damage corn in cribs. Too fre-
quently these receptacles for grain are built
close to the ground, and rats live under the
floor, and soon get access to the grain. They
shell the corn, eating the softer part of the
kernel and wasting much more than they con-
sume. They carry the grain to subterranean
burrows and bring up into the crib moist soil,
which induces mold. Similarly they eat the
small grains in the field and take toll of the
granary and feed-box, often 5 to 10 per cent.

THE PEST OF EATS 15

of feedstuffs, malt and the like; while no pest
of the sugar-cane is much more to be feared.

The damage done by rats to fruits and vege-
tables while stored in cellars and pits is well
known. They attack ripe tomatoes, melons,
cantaloupes, squashes, pumpkins, sweet corn,
and many other vegetables in the field, and the
depredations are often attributed to rabbits.
Eats are fond of nearly all small fruits, even
climbing grape-vines, blackberry-canes, and
currant-bushes to obtain the ripe fruit; and
often feed upon ripe apples, pears, cherries,
and so forth.

Eats are recognized pests of the greenhouse
and the plant-propagating pit, where they at-
tack seeds, bulbs, leaves, stems and flowers.
Of flowering bulbs the tulip suffers most and
hyacinths also are eaten, while narcissus bulbs
are apparently immune, to attack. Carnations
seem especially liable to destruction.

Destructiveness to poultry and game. Very
serious is the loss due to rats entering badly
constructed hen and pigeon houses, probably
greater, in Mr. Lantz's opinion, than that in-

16 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

flicted by foxes, minks, weasels, skunks, hawks
and owls combined; but mostly one or all of
these are made to take the blame.

"Not long since, in a published account of depre-
dations on poultry, the damage was attributed to a
skunk. The statement was made that both eggs and
young chicks were taken from under a sitting hen
without disturbing her. This is a trick peculiar to
the rat, and it is evident that a mistake was made
as to the identity of the thief.

"Where rats are numerous in springtime, they
often prey upon young chicks, capturing them in the
nest and in and around the coops. I have known
them to take nearly all the chicks on a large poultry
ranch, and, in the same neighborhood and over a
large territory, to destroy nearly 50 per cent, of the
season's hatching. Young ducks, turkeys, and pi-
geons are equally liable to attack, and where rats are
numerous are safe only in rat-proof coops.

"A writer in a western agricultural paper states
that in 1904 rats robbed him of an entire summer's
hatching of three or four hundred chicks. A cor-
respondent of another journal says, 'Eats destroyed
enough grain and poultry on this place in one season
to pay our taxes for three years.' When it is re-
membered that the poultry and eggs produced each
year from the farms of the United States have a
value of over $600,000,000, it will be seen that even
a small percentage of loss aggregates a large sum."

THE PEST OF RATS 17

In Europe the rat is the bane of gamekeepers
who try to preserve broods of pheasants and
other game. Our wild game-birds are less
molested and perhaps better able to protect
themselves; yet our grouse and quail must
suffer, for rats eat the eggs of ground-nesting
song-birds, but the real offender is seldom even
suspected.

Bats often gnaw the hoofs of horses until
the feet bleed. Brushing -the hoofs with dilute-
carbolic acid is a preventive. They have been
known to kill young lambs and pigs, and to at-
tack very fat hogs and eat holes in their bodies,
causing death. Farrowing sows have been
killed by rats gnawing their teats until blood
poisoning resulted.

Rats damage buildings and stored goods.
Interest in the damage done to stored goods
and merchandise belongs more to the city ware-
houseman than to the countryman, but the
latter is well aware that old harness and gear
of all sorts with leather about it, any grain-
bags and similar articles must be protected
from rats. Damage to houses and barns is,

18 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

however, a matter of grave interest to inhabit-
ants of the village as well as of the city. Quot-
ing Lantz again,

"The damage to houses and furniture by rats con-
stitutes a large item. They burrow under founda-
tions or through the plaster in a stone wall and
admit streams of water that eventually weaken or
undermine the structure itself. They seem to be
able to penetrate almost everything except stone,
brick, cement, glass, and iron. They gnaw into a
grain bin, or through a wainscoting, a floor, or a door
in a single night In the same way they enter chests,
wardrobes, bookcases, closets, barrels, and boxes for
the stores within. Almost every old dwelling in the
country bears abundant evidence of its former or
present occupancy by rats. Rats gnaw through lead
pipes or wooden tanks to obtain water, and sometimes
before the leak is discovered, ceilings, wall decora-
tions, and floor coverings are flooded and practically
ruined. All this is waste of a tangible kind and a
constant drain on the prosperity of the people."

Then there is the ever-menacing devastation
from fires due to rats carrying matches into
their nests and there igniting them by chewing
them, or simply by overheating; or due to their
gnawing the insulation from electric wires a
surprisingly frequent origin of fires of late
vears.

THE PEST OF RATS 19

Rats as carriers of disease. Finally, rats are
always a menace to health, and may become
the agents of the dissemination of the most
dreadful and virulent of diseases the Asiatic
plague, which has more than once decimated
the civilized world. It has been calculated that
25,000,000 of persons perished in an epidemic
of this character which swept over the world
in the 14th century; and it did not require the
literary genius of a De Foe to perpetuate the
memory of the awful visitation which almost
depopulated London and set all Europe in
mourning toward the end of the IGth century.
Even then, in the cloud of mystery, supersti-
tion and horror of fear which made most men
blind and helpless, the truth was dimly recog-
nized by a few, namely that it was not the
wrath of God nor the malignancy of some evil
spirit nor a miasm from earth or sea that
struck men down, but the communication of
disease from the sick to the well. This, it was
observed, could be effected not only by contact
with human victims, but that the contagion was
caught and passed on by all the small animals
about a house. TTence orders were issued that

20 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

not only rats, mice, and small vermin of all
sorts should be killed, but also dogs and cats.
An ordinance by the authorities at Winchester,
England, in 1583, is typical of many others
issued in British towns, viz.:

"That if any house within this cytie shall happen
to be infected with the Plague, that thene every per-
sone to keepe within his or her house every his or
her dogg, and not to suffer them to goo at large.
And if any dogge be then founde at large, it shall
he lawful for the Beadle or any other person to kill
Hie same dogg, and that any owner .of such dogg
going at large shall lose six shillings."

Among the records of King's Lynn, under
May, 1585, appears this :

"For as muche as it hath pleased Allmightie God
to begynn to send us his visitacion with sickness
amongst us, and that dogges and cattes are thought
verie unfitt to be suffered in this tyme. Therefore
Mr. Maior, aldermen, and common councell have or-
dered and decreed that every inhabitant within the
same Towne shall forthwith take all their dogges and
yappes and hange them or kill them and carrye them
to some out-place and burye them for breadings of a
great annoyance. And likewise for cattes, if there be
any nigh unto any house or houses visited with sick-
ness. ... It is ordered that the cattes shall furth-
with be killed in all such places." An exception was

THE PEST OF BATS 21

made in favor of any "dogge of accompte. " Such
a one was allowed to be kept if "kenelled or tied
up or led in a lease."

As often happens, a fact was clearly per-
ceived and acted upon beneficially long before
the philosophy of it was comprehended.

Rats responsible, for the plague. It was
not until the very end of the last century
scarcely a dozen years ago, that the suspected
truth of the real nature of the plague was dis-
covered through scientific studies of the disease
which then appeared in a most threatening
form in India. It was determined that of the
several phases of plague the most common is
that which produces swellings or "buboes"
on the body of the victim, and hence is called
bubonic plague. This is rarely communicated
direct from man to man, but through the me-
dium of insects which suck the patient's blood
and then, filled with the diseased blood in which
are floating the deadly bacilli (Bacillus pestis)
which produce the disturbance, pierce the skin
of some other creature and leave more or less
of these plague-germs in the puncture.

Any blood-sucking bug, as, for example, the

2'2 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

bed-bug 1 , may do this; but the most common
agent is the flea.

Another fact is that the rat seems especially
susceptible to the disease; and, indeed, it is be-

MOUTII-PARTS OF A HAT-FLEA, SHOWING WHERE HACILLI MAY

CI.1XO! AND BE CAKHIEl) INTO THE NEXT WOUND.

From Doane's "Insects and Disease." By Permission of Henry

Holt & Co.

lieved that it was originally a disease of this
rodent. Bats abound in fleas, and, as is the
case with most furry or feathered animals,
have a species peculiar to their race. This

23

rat-flea will bite and communicate the disease
from rat to rat, and an outbreak of plague
among men is usually preceded by an epidemic
among the rats. The rat-flea does not bite
man; but those which live on human beings
will thrive on rats and may return from an in-
fected rat to a human host if opportunity offers.
The fleas of dogs and cats will temporarily live
on the skin of both rodents and human beings,
and may thus take a part in the transmission
of plague. The fleas usually leave a rat or
other animal as soon as it dies, and, with their
stomachs full of plague-bacilli, with others
clinging to their proboscis and sucking lips,
they seek new hosts. The new host, whether
rat, or some other animal, or perchance a
human being, is soon bitten with these infected
mouths, and thus receives the germs of the
malady.

Those who wish to pursue the study of this
matter in further detail will find a very full
exposition of it, and of the general relations of
insects to common diseases, in R. W. Doane's
Insects and Disease (New York, Holt, 1910).

24 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

It is now understood that the first thing to
do when a case of plague is brought to some
port in a ship sailing from the Orient is to
exterminate the rats of the locality; and the
best preventive against this and other afflictions
getting a foothold anywhere, is to keep the rats
down. The Japanese were quick to take ad-
vantage of the new knowledge, and by the fierce
crusade they waged against the wharf-rats in
their ports prevented a spread of bubonic
plague, always threatening them, in the armies
they sent into Manchuria. In this way, too, by
a vigorous crusade against the animal in Cali-
fornia, in which many hundreds of thousands
were trapped or poisoned, the plague was re-
cently eradicated in San Francisco before it
had reached alarming proportions.

Rats and trichina. But rats disseminate
diseases other than bubonic plague. Trich-
inosis among swine is probably perpetuated
entirely by rats, since trichinae in the hog can
result only from its eating the flesh of animals
infested with the parasite. The only two an-
imals of the farm known to be subject to this

THE PEST OF EATS 25

parasite are the rat and the hog itself. Pork
becomes tricliinous, then, only when swine eat
the flesh of infected rats or hogs. Country
slaughter-houses, w T here rats are abundant and
swine are fed on offal, are the chief sources of
tricliinous pork. That the danger from this
source has not been confined to the rural
slaughtering-places alone, is shown by the in-
vestigation conducted by the Biological Survey
in 1909 into the "rat-nuisance," said to exist
about the great packing-houses in Chicago and
St. Louis. The older establishments were
found to be infested with rats, causing a se-
rious aggregate loss, and endangering both the
health of the workmen and the wholesomeness
of the product; but this state of things has
been greatly improved, and new buildings are
designed to be rat-proof.

Eats creep through drains and step about
in all sorts of filth; and to their feet and fur
clings slime which may be loaded with germs
of typhoid, diptheria and any other of the
malignant list of diseases due to bacilli that
develop in darkness and filth. Consequently

26 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

no household is safe into which rats may wan-
der and leave the seeds of disease brought from
the gutter.

In view of these facts it would seem impor-
tant that every man should attempt to free his
property of these undesirable tenants, which,
so far as we can see, make no return whatever
for the damage and depredation of which they
are guilty.

Methods of suppression. It is perhaps too
late to get rid of the rat altogether, but it is
not too late to subdue him and prevent a great
part, of the evils that follow his presence.
How shall it be done?

First, try to destroy or drive away those rats
you have. Seek out their holes, runways and
lodging-places, clean them out and stop them
up so far as you are able. The cunning of
the rascals is great and they will shift their
quarters or invent new means of access and
ways of attack with discouraging ingenuity
and persistence, which you must endeavor to
match. Untiring watchfulness and work will
win.

Trapping, if intelligently pursued, will cap-

THE PEST OF EATS 27

ture a great many. The old-fashioned figure-4
trap, dropping a box, or better, a deadfall, is
often highly effective. Several sorts of steel
traps may be used to advantage; and in the
last chapter of this book will be found descrip-
tions of various forms and directions for bait-
ing and setting them.

Poisoning will clear out the creatures more
rapidly and effectively but can hardly be used
except about barns and out-buildings, and even
there should be done intelligently and with cer-
tain precautions. Therefore instructions as to
the best means and methods of poisoning will
also be found in the last chapter.

While endeavoring to kill off the rats by
these various methods, precautions should be
taken against their return. Their runways
and harboring places must be sought out and
made untenable. The wisdom of stopping up
all holes by which they enter houses, barns or
cellars, need hardly be mentioned to common-
sense readers. Freshly slaked lime placed in
their dry burrows and runs is effective; or
fresh thin whitewash to be poured into them.
A strong solution of copperas is good, and gas-

28 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

tar daubed about their holes, as also is caustic
potash. Where burrows are discovered in
banks or fields the inmates may be suffocated
by pushing into the holes wads of rags satu-
rated with bisulphide of carbon, as is practiced
against gophers; but this is of little use in
buildings, for it escapes too easily.

Rat-proof construction. All new or recon-
structed buildings should be made rat-proof.
This is best done by the use of cement. Even
then, when foundations and walls are made of
tight concrete, care must be taken lest drains
and other openings admit them. Outer doors,
especially those that give upon alleys, should
not be left open. Basement and cellar win-
dows of barns, stables, chicken-houses, etc.,
should be screened with wire, so that they may
be left ajar for ventilation without danger.
Inner doors to vestibules are of great assist-
ance. Even old cellars may be made rat-proof
by the use of cement at small expense.

When wooden walls are built upon proper
foundations, the building may be made proof
against these and other noxious visitors by

THE PEST OF BATS 29

filling the space between the sheathing and the
lath for about a foot with concrete.

Bats frequently enter houses from sewers by
way of soil-pipes leading into water-closets, but
this can be guarded against by care in construc-
tion and the use of water-traps.

"Almost everywhere, in country, village, and city,
the wooden floors of sidewalks, areas, and porches
are commonly laid upon timbers resting upon the
ground. Under these floors rats are safe from most
of their enemies. Only municipal action can com-
pletely remedy these conditions, but all such rat-har-
bors should be destroyed and replaced by cement
floors. Considering durability, healthfulness, and
other advantages, this material is the cheapest that
can be used. The floors of wooden porches should
always be well above the ground. Rats often under-
mine brick walks or areas.

"Granaries, corncribs, and poultry-houses may be
made rat-proof by a liberal use of concrete in the
foundations and floors; or the floors may be of wood
resting upon concrete. Objection has been urged
against the use of concrete floors for horses, cattle,
and poultry, because the material is too good a con-
ductor of heat, and the health of the animals suffers
from contact with floors of this kind. In poultry-
houses, dry soil or sand may be used as a covering
for the cement floor; and in stables, a wooden floor

30 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

resting on the concrete is just as satisfactory so far
as the exclusion of rats is concerned."

Keeping food from rats. The general rat-
proofing of buildings is the most important step
in limiting the food supply of rats. The effect
of an abundance of food on the breeding of
rodents has already been mentioned. Well-fed
rats mature quickly, breed often, and have large
litters of young. Besides limiting reproduc-
tion, scarcity of food will make the measures
to destroy the animals by traps, poisons, or
bacterial cultures far more effective. But
since much of the animals' food consists of
garbage and other waste materials, offal of any
kind must be so disposed of that rats can not
obtain it. The best method is by burning it.
The management of slaughter-houses in the
country, in particular, needs reform. It is a
common practice to leave offal of slaughtered
animals to be eaten by both rats and swine.
Such places are not only centers of rat-propaga-
tion, but are the chief means of perpetuating
trichinae in pork. All this should be changed in
fact and by law. The offal should be promptly
cremated or otherwise disposed of. There is

THE PEST OF RATS 31

no reason why country slaughter-houses should
not be as cleanly as are the abattoirs of a
modern city.

Disposal of dead rats. Finally, the bodies
of dead rats should never be handled with the
bare fingers, or thrown out to be eaten by dogs
or pigs or other animals ; for they may con-
tain, as has been shown, the germs of dreadful
diseases. They should be burned, or else
turned to account by being buried at the foot
of grape-vines or young trees, for which they
will make an excellent fertilizer.

Four-footed enemies of the rat. A word as
to the assistance animals may give in killing
off and keeping down the rats. How greatly
the increase of all rodents is due to the destruc-
tion of the various wild mammals, birds and
reptiles, that prey upon them, will be shown
hereafter. Hawks, owls, weasels and skunks
dispose of a great number of rats in rural dis-
tricts, and might take many more if they were
permitted. Skunks in particular are a most
valuable help in this direction both the large
northern skunks and the small spotted species
of the South and West and will, if allowed,

32 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

speedily clear a place of its rats and mice. Un-
fortunately they are seldom allowed to tenant
the premises without being molested by either
dogs or men. When thus disturbed, the skunks
emit the characteristic secretion, which is al-
most their only defense against enemies. Un-
disturbed, they are quite inoffensive and will
stay about the farm-buildings until rats and
mice are no longer to be had. Skunks usually
hunt by night, and hence poultry properly
housed is safe from them. It is the loose, un-
cared-for hens that suffer.

The same may be said of weasels, which will
follow a rat into its burrow, and seem to take
such delight in slaughtering it that no rats
can be found shortly after a weasel or two have
taken up their quarters in the place. The
drawback to their good work is, that they are
fond of poultry and clever in getting it. The
same may be said of minks ; but a rat-proof
hen-house is also weasel-proof.

Farm ferrets, like weasels (of which they are
a larger cousin) are inveterate foes of rats,
but their value under ordinary circumstances is
overestimated.

33

"For effective work," says one who knows,
' ' they require experienced handling and the ad-
ditional services of a dog or two. Dogs and
ferrets must be thoroughly accustomed to each
other, and the former must be quiet and steady
instead of noisy and excitable. The ferret is
used only to bolt the rats, which are killed by
the dogs. If unmuzzled ferrets are sent into
rat retreats, they are apt to make a kill and
then lie up after sucking the blood of their vic-
tim. Sometimes they remain for hours in the
burrows or escape by other exits and are lost.
There is danger that these lost ferrets may
adapt themselves to wild conditions and become
a pest by preying upon poultry and birds."

Cats, as a rule, are not of much use. Most
of them are too well-fed, and will be afraid of,
or not take the trouble to pursue rats, although
they may be excellent mousers.

A couple of good terriers, however, will work
wonders in freeing one's premises if trained
to rat-catching. The ordinary farmer's big
cur is of no use for this purpose and little for
any other; but a Scotch, Irish or fox terrier,
properly taught, will take pride in the work,

34 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

and catch a surprising number of victims until
all are frightened away.

Cooperation necessary to subdue the pest.
Little that is really effective can be done, how-
ever, without cooperation in each district. 1
To destroy the animals on the premises of a
single farmer in a community has little perma-
nent value, since they are soon replaced from
near-by farms. If, however, the farmers of
an entire township or county unite in efforts to
get rid of rats, much more lasting results may
be attained. Such organized efforts repeated
with reasonable frequency are very effective.

Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have
taken various forms in different localities. In
cities municipal employes have occasionally
been set at work hunting rats from their re-
treats with at least temporary benefit to the
community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, Eng-
land, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the
corporation employes, helped by dogs, in three
days killed 1,645 rats. A better example is re-
ported from India, where cooperative work

1 See Cooperation among Farmers, by Prof. John Lee Coul-
ter. In this Library, 1911, 75 cents.

THE PEST OF RATS 35

has prevailed over large districts. Tims in
the Punjab more than 625 centers of popula-
tion, including large towns, were systematically
cleared of rats in 1908, the actual number
known to have been destroyed reaching 4,116,-
334, while large numbers were poisoned and
escaped to die. The result in diminution of
the endemic plague and other diseases was
most marked.

Side-hunts in which rats are the only animals
that count in the contest have sometimes been
organized and successfully carried out. At
New Burlington, Ohio, a rat-hunt took place
November 26, 1866, in which each of the two
sides killed over 8,000 rats, the beaten party
serving a Thanksgiving banquet to the winners.

At about the same period county agricultural
societies sometimes offered prizes to the family
presenting the largest number of rats' tails as
evidence that the animals had been destroyed.
Even as late as May 2, 1907, in one of the coun-
ties of Kentucky, by general consent, the day
was set apart for killing rats, and, according to
newspaper report, was quite generally observed.

There is danger that organized rat-hunts will

36 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

be followed by long intervals of indifference
and inaction. This may be prevented by offer-
ing prizes covering a definite period of effort.
Such prizes accomplish more than municipal
bounties, because they secure a friendly rivalry
which stimulates the contestants to do their
utmost to win.

In England and some of its colonies contests
for prizes have been organized to promote the
destruction of the European house-sparrow, but
many of the so-called " sparrow clubs" are
really sparrow and rat clubs, for the destruc-
tion of both pests are avowed objects of the or-
ganization. A sparrow club in Kent, England,
secured the destruction of 28,000 sparrows and
16,000 rats in three seasons, by the annual ex-
penditure of but $29.20 in prize money. Had
ordinary bounties been paid for this destruc-
tion, the tax on the community would have been
about $1,200.

CHAPTER II
THE PANTRY MOUSE

THE house-mouse (Mus musculus) needs no
description. The only native species with
which it can be confused is the harvest-mouse,
from which it may be readily distinguished by
its larger size and by the plain or ungrooved
upper incisors. Like the rat it is a native of
the Old World, very fertile, adaptable and
hardy, and from time immemorial has followed
civilization so closely that it soon becomes es-
tablished in any settled region. It is therefore
a world-wide nuisance, but by no means so
great or difficult a one as is the rat.

Characteristics. The little house-mouse can
hardly be confused with any other, for its ash-
gray coat, becoming gradually lighter and
often yellowish on the under parts, has fur-
nished the language with a distinctive term,
"mouse-color"; and its pointed nose, large

37

38 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ears, half an inch long, very small eyes, and-
long naked tail, are unlike those of any native
mouse. Its total length is about 7 inches, 3^>
of which belong to the tail. Its molar teeth
have each three tubercles, instead of two, as
in our own wood-mice; and its incisors are un-
grooved, by which, at any rate with the aid of
a magnifying glass, the marks of its biting are
readily identified.

Its gray protective coat has seemed satis-
factory under all circumstances, for there is no
perceptible difference between representatives
of the species in the four quarters of the globe.
In general the type seems singularly invariable,
only one or two varieties having arisen, such as
the queer rhinoceros mice which appeared in
England some years ago, and took their name
from their hairless, deeply-folded skin which
gave them the appearance of miniature rhinos.
This fixity of type may be due in part to the
fact that every country has received a con-
stant immigration of fresh blood by means of
ships and other conveyances.

Japanese dancing-mice. One strange vari-
ety, however, has arisen, probably in China

THE PANTRY MOUSE 39

from which it spread long ago to Japan, whence
we have lately derived the specimens now com-
monly sold in the animal-stores of our cities
under the name of dancing or waltzing mice.
They are small in size, pied black and white
in a great variety of patterns, and are ex-
tremely agile and amusing. Their distinguish-
ing peculiarity, however, is their constant
whirling about, so that a lot of them together
seem like a company of dancers waltzing busily
to some music unheard by us.

The origin and extraordinary behavior of
this astonishing race of mice has been the sub-
ject of much study, which has been summed up
and extensively added to by Prof. Robert M.
Yerkes of Harvard University in a book en-
titled The Dancing Mouse, a Study in Animal
Behavior (New York, 1907). He regards it as
highly probable that the Chinese took advan-
tage of some deviation in captive mice from the
usual form to develop a special race by means
of careful and patient natural selection. "The
dancing tendency is such in nature as to unfit
an individual for the usual conditions of mouse
existence, hence, in all probability, human care

40 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

alone could have produced and preserved the
race of dancers."

That it originated in a "freak" seems very
likely, since mere cultivation of the familiar
white mice (albinos), beloved of children, never
develops into a habit of whirling. A German
naturalist inbred albino mice for 28 generations
without producing any hint of such a pecul-
iarity.

Prevalence of mice. House-mice are very
prolific. They will begin to produce young
when only three months old, and continue to
breed at intervals of two or three months all
the year round. It is not known whether any
proper pairing takes place probably not.
The period of gestation is 25 days, five to ten
young are produced at a birth minute, pink,
blind, hairless things and are weaned after
about two weeks.

There are few houses or barns in which mice
do not make themselves at home, racing from
cellar to garret in the hollow walls and par-
titions, and gnawing passageways wherever
they think it worth while. Too often they
penetrate where food is kept, and besides what

THE PANTRY MOUSE 41

they eat spoil large quantities by trampling
and dragging their tails over or through it,
and leaving their acrid-smelling traces. Where
they are numerous, this becomes a very serious
pest; and it is only the most slovenly house-
keepers who will permit their presence. A
good cat, kept hungry enough to make her
eager to go a-mousing, is probably the best
safeguard; but traps are useful especially the
cheap and handy little guillotine traps de-
scribed in the last chapter. Of course a wise
person will stop up all holes, clean out the
nests which may be found in an extraordinary
variety of snug places, and make the little
beasts as unwelcome as possible. They carry
fleas and other parasites; and are often sorely
afflicted with warbles; but it is not known that
they transport the flea which communicates the
microbe of the plague. However, their pretty
feet often dabble in filth and may bring into
the house dangerous germs, so that it is not
well to permit them the freedom of your
kitchen or pantry.

Mice carrying pathogenic bacilli. In a re-
port of an investigation of the transmission of

42 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

disease by house-mice made by Dr. P. Bara-
baschi, and published in an Italian medical
journal in 1909 (see Experiment Station
Record, Vol. XXII, No. 7), it is stated that Dr.
Barabaschi has found many bacilli within their
bodies and excreta. Among these were the
pneumococcus to which croupous pneumonia
is due, the bacillus of anthrax, that of ery-
sipelas, those to be found in abcesses, boils,
etc., and other pathogenic germs. The mice
with the pneumococcus were caught in private
houses where there had recently been pneu-
monia. The excreta of the mice "mice dirt"
drying and scattering in dust, may transmit
infection even without more direct contact.
The greatest danger from this source is in-
curred by persons working in granaries, etc.,
where mice abound and their droppings are
scattered over the substances handled. It may
be added that an American physician asserts
that the microbe of measles comes from mice.
In houses left untenanted for a time mice
frequently do considerable damage by tearing
holes in blankets, bedding and clothing, to get
material for their nests. The writer has him-

THE PANTEY MOUSE 43

self suffered decidedly from their work in a
summer bungalow while it was unoccupied
during the winter, finding beautiful nests
among the bed-clothing, made from his blan-
kets.

Apart from their mischief and dirt, mice are
pretty little creatures and make interesting
pets for the little folks. Caught young they
are easily kept alive and comfortable in a
roomy cage and exhibit many interesting ways.
Rolled oats are a favorite food, and they like
to nibble at grain and at pieces of bone with
shreds of meat left on them; they also catch
flies and other insects. Mr. Cram is of the
opinion that, in cold weather at least, most of
the house-mice live almost wholly upon insects,
as flies, spiders, wasps and the like, that have
packed themselves away snugly for the winter
in secret crannies between the boards, some-
times hundreds of them closely huddled to-
gether.

Musical mice. One of the most curious and
remarkable facts in the history of the house-
mouse is its so-called singing. Many instances
are on record, of which the following related in

44 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

The Scientific American some years ago is typ-
ical:

"A few winters since, while one of his family was
amusing herself at the piano, a mouse made his ap-
pearance on the threshold of the apartment, and, un-
dismayed by the light or the presence of the family,
chirped and carolled with intense satisfaction to
itself, and to the great delight of its audience. Fre-
quently afterward, but always in the evening, the
rare songster repeated his performance. The piano
keys were never struck that the mouse did not fol-
low; but when the instrument was not touched, the
music from the mouse would come, as if for a re-
minder. Sometimes the little animal made himself
visible and sometimes was hidden in the pantry
which, for reasons obvious to housekeepers, he, she,
or it had selected as an abode. One evening the
mouse was traced to the stairway. Under the carpet
sat the little creature, throwing his soul into his song.
A lamp was placed beside him, and the family stood
and looked and listened for half an hour or more.
His head was up, and the movements of the muscles
of his throat were plainly visible. Unfortunately our
correspondent undertook to capture the singer. Many
mice were caught and each was given twenty-four
hours grace to sing for its life. But never after
the treachery of the trap was the sound of the
mouse's carol heard. If caught he died and made no
sign."

THE PANTRY MOUSE 45

More lately (1909), a gentleman at Hamilton,
Ontario, sent me the following account of a sim-
ilar case:

"Some months ago in one of the current magazines
there appeared an article on "A Singing Mouse."
The story related told of a gentleman whose atten-
tion was attracted by a peculiar little singing noise,
heard in one place, then in another part of his house.
Curiosity led him to make a search, which ended, as
he told his readers, in the finding in the wood-shed
of one or more mice, which, no doubt, were the guilty
parties. . . .

' ' Some few nights ago, in our own house, we heard
a peculiar noise. At first we believed it due to some
mischievous boys playing the old-time trick of "Tick-
a-tack' on the window, as the sound proceeded from
that part of the room. The sound resembled it some-
what. The following evening the same sounds pro-
ceeded from another part of the house. I was not
present, but those who heard it dwelt on the musical
quality of the thing, and declared the noise consisted
of distinct notes, and ventured to add that it was
pretty. "Well, we were becoming interested. The
third night I was home, and, filled with a bold de-
termination to do or die, went at an investigation.

"The noise proceeded from the kitchen, and one
declared it came from beneath the sink. Upon re-
moving a brush in the corner, on the floor, a little
mouse ran out. The story in the magazine at once

46 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

came to my mind. I was satisfied as to the 'singing
mouse' being a reality.

"The next appearance of our little singer was a
night or so after the sink episode, when in the pantry,
I and another saw it under a shelf, and it did not
show much fear at our presence. It is not unlike
other gray mice, only in the song it sings. This even-
ing it was heard in the pantry. ' '

Many other instances might be quoted, some
from writings more than a century old. Dr.
Elliott Coues wrote an extensive article about
these singing mice several years ago in The
American Naturalist. His conclusion was that
the sound was due to an asthmatic affection of
the throat and vocal organs. An interesting
narrative of various exhibitions of this faculty
is also included in Dr. Merriam's admirable
book on the mammals of the Adirondacks
(Trans. Linnaean Soc. of N. Y., Vol. II.) ; and
in Vol. V. of The American Naturalist, the late
Rev. Samuel Lockwood gave a most pleasing
history of a white-footed (wild) mouse which
was kept in a cage, and was a persistent and
prolonged singer, having two or more regular
tunes, the music of which he gives. The sim-
ilar performance of a captive house-mouse is

THE PANTEY MOUSE 47

related in Vol. V. of The Standard Natural
History. All observers speak of the trilling,
warbling, bird-like character of the notes.

"It was not much of a song," writes a Detroit
lady, "as songs go, but still a distinct musical effort.
Sometimes it would run up an octave and end with
a decided attempt at a trill. Sometimes it would try
to trill all the notes. ... Its favorite position
when singing was an erect one, standing on its hind
feet, and holding by its forward ones to the wall or
a bracket, almost invariably turning its face towards
us. It remained with us several weeks, and at length
became so familiar as to appear to enjoy company,
seemingly putting forth all its strength to amuse us
with its little song, which improved daily in tone and
volume, but not in compass. Its voice became so
clear that we could frequently hear it in the parlor
that opened out of the dining room."

Most persons regard this singing as not due
to disease, but qnite natural. "There seems
good reason for believing," in the language of
Ernest Thompson Seton, "that house-mice,
and, indeed, all mice, will at times express their
sense of well-being in a series of complicated
sounds that correspond in every way with the
singing of birds."

CHAPTER III

THE MEADOW-MOUSE AND ITS
MISCHIEF

WHILE the alien rats and mice are working
costly mischief about the house, stable, and
granary, their native cousins, the wild mice,
are doing vast harm in garden, orchard and
field. Naturalists count 200 or more species of
these animals in North America, but we need
concern ourselves with only certain types,
since, from the farmer's point of view, the ac-
tions of all are much alike, and the principal
damage is caused by those of a single group
the short-tailed meadow-mice of the genus
Microtus. To this genus alone David E. Lantz
has devoted a treatise of 64 pages in the pub-
lications (Bulletin 31) of the U. S. Biological
Survey from which, as before, I shall quote
freely. He prefaces this treatise with the
statement that the mice of this genus alone
cause an average annual damage to American
farmers of not less than $3,000,000. It is this

48

49

50 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

kind of mouse which now and then in this
country, and still more frequently in eastern
Europe, appears suddenly in such vast num-
bers as to constitute a veritable plague, ruining
the produce of the year in all directions.

Sometimes wild animals increase in numbers
so suddenly that the change has been likened
to a tidal wave, and ignorant people have re-
garded the invasion as of miraculous origin.
The belief that crickets, locusts, frogs, and even
mice sometimes fall from the clouds is still held
in many countries.

"The careful observer, however, sees little mystery
in the phenomena mentioned. He has studied the
general habits of animals their food, their powers
of reproduction, their migrations, the checks on their
increase due to natural enemies, disease, and varying
climate and consequently he attributes sudden
changes in their numbers to known causes. In such
changes he recognizes, especially, the influence of
man, both direct and indirect, and his responsibility
for interferences that greatly modify the operations
of nature."

American voles or meadoiv-mice. The mice
of the genus Microtus (formerly Arvicola) rep-
resent a group which embraces a large number

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 51

of forms of small and very similar rodents
which in some respects resemble true mice, but
are readily distinguished by the robust body,
thick head, very short ears, blunt muzzle and
short, hairy tail.

There seems to be no entirely appropriate
vernacular name for these mice. The French
call them campagnols, the Germans wiihlmause.
English-speaking people outside the United
States call them voles. In the United States
they are variously designated as meadow-mice
or field-mice, and locally as bear-mice, bull-
mice, buck-tailed mice, mole-mice, and so forth.
Meadoiv-mice would do very well if it were not
that several of our four-score species belong to
the high dry plains of the West. As, however,
the typical meadow-mouse of the east ranges
over nearly the whole country, its name may
well be adopted for the whole genus.

The three species most frequently met with
in connection with damage are:

1. Common meadow-mouse (Microtus penn-
sylvanicus.)

2. Prairie-mouse (M. ochrogaster.)

3. Pine-mouse (M. pinetorum.)

52 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

The common meadow-mouse (No. 1) is 6 l /2
inches long, of which the tail takes 1% inches ;
and has eight teats. Its fur is long, overlain
with coarse black hairs, and in winter almost
conceals the ears. The usual color above is a
dark brown, against which the black hairs are
not conspicuous. This shades off gradually
into gray or tawny on the under parts. This
species may be said to inhabit the whole con-
tinent, though in the mountainous parts of the
West other species are more numerous and
conspicuous.

This mouse has its natural habitat in moist
meadows and grassy borders of swamps, but it
habitually extends its range into neighboring
cultivated fields and waste lands. Nearly all
meadows are full of the animals. On parting
the thick grass almost anywhere one can find
the smooth trails, and where the grass is thin
they are often plainly visible. After the melt-
ing of deep snow, or where the dry grass has
been, burned, the network of runways is espe-
cially conspicuous to the eye. In swamps the
paths- cross soft mud, and where a green scum
of minute floating plants covers stagnant

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 53

water, the trails are often defined across it by
streaks where the animals swim from side to
side.

The normal number of young averages about
six, brought forth in an underground burrow.

Prairie and pine mice. The prairie-mouse
(No. 2) differs only slightly from No. 1. It is
a little smaller, the rough tail is shorter, its
two colors are more sharply contrasted, arid the
general pelage coarser. The color of the under
parts shades into a buff or cinnamon, and in
winter becomes gray. It is confined to the
central Mississippi valley, where is produced
more than half the corn, oats and winter wheat
of the country; and two closely related species
extend the range of mischief to the dry plains
west and northwest. These prairie-mice have
an especially fine opportunity for damage, and
in the winter are more destructive to trees than
the M. pennsylvanicus. Fortunately, there-
fore, they are less productive, having usually
only three or four young at a time, and the long
summer droughts and extreme winters of the
interior West further limit reproduction.

The typical pine mouse or red-backed mouse

54 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

(No. '.)) is found only in the Carolinas arid
(jleor^ia, hut, several varieties widen the specific
ran^c from soutljcrn Xevv York to Oklahoma,
south of the latitude of Lake Krie. The typical
Georgian pine mouse has glossy, mole-like fur
of a height russet- brown color. The variety of
the blue ^rass region is darker- and very glossy,
while that of the states west of the Mississippi,
between southern Iowa and northern Texas,
is (Jeep chestnut. In all, the skull is wide and
flat, and the fur short, dense arid glossy.

Owin,^ to their peculiar habits, pine mice are
not so well known as are the northern rneadow-
mice. Their natural habitat is the forest, al-
though they are by no means restricted to pine-
woods or forested areas. The life of UK; pine
mice is largely spent in underground tunnels,
which so closely resemble those of the mole that
generally they are mistaken for the work of
that animal; but the; inner diameter of tlie
mouse tunnels is less. When moles and pine
mice live in the same; vicinity, the mice often
use the runways made by the former and this
habit has helped to brintf moles into disrepute
with farmers.

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 55

From their intricate tunnels under the leaf-
mold frequent burrows descend into the soil,
some of which are utilized as nesting places.
Nests are built also at the surface of the
ground, under fallen logs, brush-heaps, flat
stones, fences, or other shelter. The number
of young at a birth evidently averages less than
is usual in the genus -Micro! n$, as is shown by
the small number of mamnuv; but this is coun-
terbalanced by the safer underground exist-
ence; so that within their range pine mice are
about as abundant as other tield-mice.

Quick and Butler, writing of the food-habits
of the pine mouse in Indiana, state that it lives
upon the tender roots of young hickories, the
young sprouts of white clover, the fruit of the
red haw, and the tuberous roots of the wild
violet. These writers found all but the fruit
buried, some in deposits of a gallon in a burrow,
and the caches sometimes extending 18 inches
below the surface of the ground. Violet roots
predominated in these stores. Kennicott also
states that pine mice store acorns and nuts in
burrows for winter use.

Living in concealment neither their presence

56 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

nor the injury they inflict is suspected. Bulbs
planted hopefully in autumn, appear not at all
in spring, or only in the shape of sickly plants.
Nursery and orchard trees fail without reason
until their roots are examined and the work of
this hidden nibbler is disclosed.

General wild habits. It appears then that in
habits there is considerable variety among the
mice of this group (Microtince), but least in the
matter of diet. While some species have a
vastly widespread range, others are confined to
very limited localities. Some species prefer
high and dry ground, while others live in low,
moist places. Except in cold weather, nearly
all species can temporarily adapt themselves to
moist surroundings; but a few seem to be al-
most as aquatic as the nearly-allied muskrat.
Some dwell in forests, others in the open
prairies ; some burrow under the ground like
moles, while others make smooth paths or trails
upon its surface.

The nests of meadow-mice are compact
bunches or globes, composed chiefly of grass
blades and other dry vegetable fibers. They
are placed in depressions in the ground, in

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 57

shallow burrows, or supported on grass stems
or brush-piles above the ground. Sometimes
they are placed under flat stones or logs or
under shocks of grain. The structures are so
slight that a day's sunshine will dry them out
after a storm, and yet they are so compact that
the animals pass the coldest weather snugly
housed in them under the snow. The young of
most kinds are born in underground nests and
are at first hairless and blind. When discov-
ered in the nest the mother vole slips noise-
lessly away, sometimes carrying the young at-
tached to her mammae.

The breeding-season includes most months
of the year, except mid-winter in cold latitudes
and periods of long-continued drought. The
number of litters in a year thus depends on
climate, and especially upon the character and
length of the winter. In temperate latitudes
in normal seasons from four to six litters are
produced ; but the variation in the same species
is remarkable, and depends partly upon climate,
but probably more on the scarcity or abundance
of food. The period of gestation is about
twenty days.

58 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

These mice, like their European relatives, the
voles and lemmings, at times increase, in num-
bers abnormally, but the causes are little un-
derstood. At such times they multiply with
amazing rapidity, and begin breeding when
only six months old.

"If a thousand pairs of field-mice," remarks
Mr. Lantz, "survive the winter in any neigh-
borhood, the potential conditions for a vole
plague are present. If, now, instead of normal
reproduction, circumstances bring about a con-
siderable increase both in the number of young
at a time and in the number of litters in a sea-
son, the probability of a plague is greatly in-
creased."

Plagues of field-mice. Swarms of mice dev-
astating the fields have been seen by very
few American farmers, though occasional se-
vere outbreaks of this kind are on record in
Nova Scotia and in various eastern states.
They have been all too frequent in all parts of
the. Old World from the earliest times, and used
to be regarded superstitiously as punishments
sent from on high. The valley of the Danube
and the plains of southern Russia seem to have

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 59

been especially subject to these devastations,
which have occurred most terribly even within
the past few years.

AN ALFALFA FIELD DEVOURED AND HONEYCOMBED BY
FIELD-MICE.

In 1907-8 an outbreak of field-mice in Ne-
vada, Utah and northeast California, threat-

GO ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ened to develop into a plague as great as any
recorded, and the facts concerning it have been
studied and preserved in a pamphlet by Stan-
ley E. Piper of the Biological Survey. The
species was the black or Carson mouse (Micro-
tits montanus), which is widely prevalent west
of the Rocky Mountains.

"The greatest loss occurred in the rich fields of
alfalfa bordering Humboldt River for the last ten
or twelve miles of its course. Noticeable here through
gradually increasing damage during 1906, the field-
mice appeared early in the summer of 1907 in alarm-
ing numbers. By November they had overrun a
large part of the cultivated area, and on many large
ranches were estimated to number from 8,000 to
12,000 to the acre. Fields were literally honey-
combed by their holes, which numbered about 24,000
to the acre. During the summer they ruined one-
third of the alfalfa, destroyed three-fourths of the
potatoes, and severely injured root-crops, as beets and
carrots. Upon the disappearance of green food in
the fall they attacked the roots of alfalfa, so as to
render many alfalfa fields a total loss. They girdled
and killed most of the young shade-trees planted
along ditches and about the borders of fields, while
small orchards suffered severely."

Decline of tlic- visitation. By January, 1908,
the ravages had extended over considerably

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 61

more of the district, and the main body of mice
was gradually progressing to fresh fields.
From this time, however, the abatement of the
plague was rapid. By March 15, the invasion
of fresh lands had ceased, though mice contin-
ued considerably in excess of normal abundance
until May. By August they had practically
disappeared from the valley. This scourge left
a dismal scene of destruction over four-fifths
of the cultivated area in the district. Of 20,-
000 acres in alfalfa, 15,000 were so completely
destroyed as to require replanting. Consider-
ing the actual losses in crops and the cost of
restoring the alfalfa fields, and allowing for the
value of the wheat which replaced alfalfa in
most of the ruined fields for the season of 1908,
Mr. Piper estimates the loss in this district at
$250,000.

Some interesting particulars are recorded
as to the diminution of the horde, which was
preyed upon by a gathered crowd of predatory
birds, mammals and reptiles, as well as ex-
tensively poisoned, yet succumbed at last
mainly to natural mortality, not to any spe-
cific bacterial disease.

62 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

"In the spring," Mr. Piper relates, "the mice in
this locality failed to reproduce, while the same spe-
cies was breeding prolifically in other localities. In
March several hundred females were examined in
Ilumholdt Valley, of which very few were pregnant.
Moreover, the mice themselves presented a different
appearance from those seen when the plague was at
its height a fact noted by many ranchmen in the
valley. During the fall of 1907 larger and much
more vigorous individuals predominated, while in
the spring of 1908 scarcely any of these remained.
They continued in destructive numbers until . . .
May. But they did not noticeably breed with the
return of favorable weather and by August had
practically disappeared. ' '

Prevention of plagues of mice. Unfortu-
nately the liability to such "plagues" in-
creases with the spread of settlement and
cultivation. "Agricultural development dis-
tinctly increases the danger by furthering the
destruction of their natural enemies, by furnish-
ing a great abundance of food, and by increas-
ing the area in which they find favorable
homes." On the other hand, the prevention
of plagues is comparatively easy. Systematic
poisoning must be relied upon to repress them
when they are obviously on the increase, but

64 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

there are many inexpensive methods for pre-
venting this increase. The destruction of rank
grasses and weeds along fences and ditches,
and particularly, in the West, the pasturing off
of the last growth of alfalfa in fall, thus ex-
posing the mice to the sight of predaceous en-
emies, are important. Winter-burning of dry
vegetation on wild hay lands, on strips border-
ing fields, and on swampy or otherwise waste
areas in and about cultivated fields, will aid
materially in controlling them. The survivors
may invade cultivated fields, but there they can
be more readily poisoned. Flooding the fields
in cold winter weather, when the mice quickly
perish from exposure, is an effective method
in irrigated lands. Plows turn out the bur-
rows and nests of practically all the mice pres-
ent and render them easy victims for dogs,
which when trained to kill mice can not be too
highly recommended as effective and inexpen-
sive aids in controlling the pests. That hawks,
owls, gulls, crows, ravens, and herons among
birds, and skunks, weasels, foxes, and badgers
among mammals, are persistent enemies of
field-mice and other rodent pests has been often

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 65

pointed out. The protection and encourage-
ment of these valuable allies of the farmer can
not be too strongly advocated.

Trapping, systematically continued, is of
great service; and advice upon it is given at
the end of this book, as also for poisoning these
small pests.

Food of ivild mice. Returning now to a
further consideration of the mice in the normal
numbers which are always with us, an under-
standing of their feeding is most important as
a preliminary to repressive measures.

In summer the principal food is green vege-
tation and unripe seeds of grain and grasses.
As the season advances, ripe grain and seeds
take the place of the immature; and in winter
bulbous and other roots are in part substituted
for stems and leaves. It is mainly in winter
that apple orchards and young forest trees suf-
fer, for meadow-mice invade cleanly cultivated
fields only under shelter of snow. Unlike the
foreign voles, our American species do not, as
a rule, lay up winter-stores in any considerable
quantities, as do some other American mice
the deer-mice, for instance. Instead, our mead-

66 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ow-rnice are active all winter not hibernating,
but gathering food from day to day and wan-
dering widely. Yet in the far North the climate
has compelled habits of winter provision in the
tundra vole (Microtus operarius) which is
small, inhabits the mossy tundras of western
Alaska, and gathers stores of small bulbous
roots, sometimes placing a peck or more in a
single cavity just below the surface on a mossy
knoll or slope. In autumn, shortly before the
first snowfall, the Eskimo women and children
discover these stores by means of pointed
sticks. In this way considerable quantities of
food are gathered, which are boiled and eaten
as a delicacy. "The boiled roots have a flavor
like a boiled unripe sweet potato, and are very
palatable during the long winter fare of meat
and fish," according to E. W. Nelson.

Damage from murine voracity. Complaints
of damage to meadows and pastures have been
steadily increasing, with occasional reports of
the total ruin of a red-clover field. More grass
is cut down and left than -is eaten. In winter,
haystacks are attacked and sometimes so rid-
dled as to be spoiled for market.

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 67

Growing grain of all kinds is destroyed.

Field-mice injure early peas and other vege-
tables, and pine mice often destroy potatoes
in the ground. In the fall vegetables piled on
the ground or stored in pits are liable to at-
tack, and especially celery. Apples, pears, and
other fruits are eaten also, including melons.

Blackberries, raspberries, grapes, currants,
gooseberries, and strawberries are often badly
damaged by field-mice, and when the animals
are abundant whole plantations are ruined.
Strawberries are especially liable to injury be-
cause of winter mulching and also because the
plants themselves furnish excellent food and
shelter for the animals. Winter mulching of
small fruits increases the damage unless care-
fully guarded by clean surrounding areas.

Damage to standing nursery stock is done
usually under cover of snow; and in addition,
to girdling trees above the surface meadow-
mice sometimes dig down and attack the roots.
Pine mice usually begin their evil work with
the sprouting grain, and, in the case of fall-
sown wheat and rye, continue it during the en-
tire winter. Much greater damage is done

68 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

when the grain is nearly mature, as stalks are
then cut down; and after harvest the animals
attack the shocked grain. In shocks and stacks
the mice are perfectly at home, and multiply
with such rapidity that within a few weeks a
pair and their progeny may totally ruin an
entire shock of wheat, oats or corn. In view
of this situation it is a question whether the
farmer who hastens to market his crop is not,
on the whole, a gainer over his neighbor who
waits for more favorable prices.

In these and other ways the annual de-
struction of grain and forage throughout the
country is enormous; nor is the injury all
done by the short-tailed meadow-mice. Deer-
mice (Peromyscus), pocket-mice (Perogna-
tlius), harvest-mice (Reithrodontowiys), and
ordinary house-mice are also concerned in the
damage. Throughout the country the brown
rat and in the Southwest the cotton-rat (Sig-
modon) are serious field-pests.

General preventive measures. The forego-
ing testimony sufficiently shows the noxious
character of these small rodents; and suggests
the query: "How shall it be stopped?"

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 69

In view of their wide distribution, the nature
of their habits and the abundance of shelter
and food everywhere in America, it is impos-
sible to get rid of them; but it is not hopeless
to reduce their ability for damage to a negligi-
ble quantity. Thorough and clean cultivation,
with frequent plowing, is perhaps the most
effective general remedy, and where this is done
throughout a group of adjoining farms, and the
roadside weeds and fence-tangles are regularly
cut, or burned over, little trouble will be ex-
perienced within the district.

Next to this is the preservation of the birds
and other animals which prey upon mice, and
which have been so ruthlessly killed off in most
rural districts, partly through the insane tend-
ency to kill every living thing which animates
many country boys and men, and partly
through mistaken ideas as to the harm such an-
imals do. Even persons who ought to know
better engage in this miscellaneous destruction
of the best friends a farmer can have, proof
of which will appear later in this book.

"One of the most common mistakes made by sports-
men in the supposed interests of game protection,"

70 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

remarks D. E. Lantz, "is the offer of prizes for the
destruction of alleged 'game-destroying' mammals
and birds. In one instance nine competitors for a
club's prizes destroyed during twelve months 184
weasels, 48 foxes, 54 minks, 343 skunks, 15 great
horned owls, 6 'common owls,' and 148 hawks. The
fact that only 21 owls were killed in an entire year
by nine men trying for a record reveals a scarcity
of these useful birds that is not complimentary to
the intelligence of the community. The large num-
ber of skunks killed indicates ignorance or disregard
of the usefulness of that animal in destroying insects
and mice. Apparently, too, there was no discrim-
ination as to the species of hawks destroyed, and it is
probably safe to say that field-mice in a single year
have damaged the farmers of the region concerned
a hundredfold more than the value of all the game
and poultry saved through the offer of prizes."

Protection of orchards and nurseries. In-
jury to orchards and nurseries by field-mice
may generally be prevented by forethought and
the exercise of ordinary care. Of first impor-
tance, always, is clean tillage. No grass or
weeds should be left in or near the nursery.
So well is this understood by the majority of
experienced nurserymen that by clean tillage
they secure practical immunity from the rav-
ages of mice except in winters of deep and long-

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 71

lying snow. Unfortunately, nurserymen can
not control the lands which environ their trees,
and when snow falls to a considerable depth
prompt measures are sometimes necessary to
keep mice from destroying them.

This can be accomplished most readily by
dragging a heavy log several times around each
block of trees, packing the snow so firmly that
mice cannot tunnel under it. If this be done
promptly after the first snowfall, subsequent
falls will require little attention. Under no
circumstances should matted grass or litter be
allowed around the trunks of trees or along the
borders of the orchard. In the absence of
snow a cleared space of about 18 inches radius
about each trunk is enough to prevent damage.
This space should be as smooth and clean as
possible.

Tree-protectors and washes considered. If
any part of the orchard is so located as to be
subject to snowdrifts, and mice are abundant
in the vicinity, tree-protectors should be used.
These may be had of dealers for 60 to 75
cents per hundred, or they may be made by the
farmer. Strips of wire cloth make excellent

7-2

AN I M AL COMPETITORS

protectors, and tarred paper is a favorite with
some horticulturists. The wire cloth or paper

AN APPLE-TREE GNAWED BY MEADOW-MICE.

is cut into strips about 7 inches wide and at
least 15 inches long. A strip is secured around

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 73

each tree with wire or cord. Tarred paper
should never be used on very young trees, and
when used on others should not be left in place
during the summer, since it may injure the
growing tree.

Various paints and washes have been recom-
mended to prevent attacks of mice and rabbits
in orchards. The majority of these are with-
out merit and some of them are liable to kill
young trees. Some of the washes require re-
newal after every hard rain. In experiments
with a wash of whale-oil soap, crude carbolic
acid, and water, for apple trees, it was found
that in about forty-eight hours the carbolic acid
had so far evaporated that mice renewed their
work upon the bark. Blood and grease, said to
give immunity from rabbit attacks, would invite
the attention of field-mice.

Reports recently received by the Biological
Survey seem to indicate that the ordinary lime-
and-sulphur wash, recommended for the winter
spraying of trees to destroy the San Jose scale,
is an effective preventive of the attacks of both
mice and rabbits. The wash is very cheap
(from 1 to 2 cents a gallon when prepared in

74 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

45 to 50 gallon quantities) and is easily applied
to the trunks of trees either in the form of a
spray or by the use of a brush. One thorough
application in November would probably be ef-
fective for the entire winter. The ingredients
of the wash are 20 pounds of unslaked lime,
15 pounds flowers of sulphur, and water to
make 45 to 50 gallons. The mixture should be
boiled in an iron kettle at least an hour and
applied to the trees while warm.

AVinter mulching of trees is dangerous, un-
less the neighborhood is known to be free from
mice. Mulch containing straw may be placed
in the orchard in spring, but it should be re-
moved before the approach of cold weather.
Fine, thoroughly rotted manure may be used in
the orchard with but little danger. Lima or
ashes about the trunks of trees has some value
in keeping off mice, but clean cultivation is
equally or more effective.

Remedies for injured trees. When trees
are girdled by mice, portions of the inner bark
(cambium layer) are often left, partly cover-
ing the hard wood below. If sunlight and wind
have free access to the injury, the remaining

MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 75

bark dries up and the tree dies. If light and
air are excluded, new bark will form and the
wound quickly heal over. To facilitate the
healing process, it is important that wounds be
covered as soon as possible. All that is needed
is to mound up the soil about the trunk of the
tree high enough to cover the wound, and the
covering should remain all summer.

MOUSE CAUGHT IN A GUILLOTINK TUAP.

This is the simplest, cheapest, most humane, and on the
whole most effective trap for catching and killing rats, wild
mice or house-mice.

CHAPTER IV
PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT

IN Europe some of the best-known species of
meadow-mouse are large and aquatic, as, for
example, the common water-rat of England.
Of the same sort, on a larger scale, is our
American muskrat a huge, water-dwelling
vole with a tail compressed into a sculling-oar,
whose appearance and manner of life are fa-
miliar to most of us.

Mischief done by muskrats. In the Eastern
States muskrats do little damage, although
everywhere abundant, except occasionally by
opening a dike that protects a New England
salt-meadow from high tides. West of the Al-
leghanies, however, they often cause great an-
noyance to the owners of canals and reservoirs
by their burrowing; and frequently enter gar-
dens near the water-side and devour fruit and
vegetables to a considerable extent, while corn-
fields sometimes suffer much when the corn

76

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 77

is in the roasting-ear stage. At times, also,
they have ruined ornamental ponds by eating
out of them the lilies and similar plants of
whose bulbs they are fond. But this sort of
destruction is rarely noticed except in the
neighborhood of extensive marshes.

Far more serious, however, is the trouble and
loss the busy animals occasion by perforating
the dams and embankments of mill-ponds,
ice-ponds, irrigation ditches and reservoirs.
Every canal suffers breaks due to them, as well
as to brown rats, gophers, mice, crayfish and
moles. In the rice plantations of the Gulf coast
they are a serious nuisance by cutting the em-
bankments and flooding or draining the rice-
fields at the wrong time; and this has resulted

in Louisiana in laws protecting the alligators
in some parishes because they kill the rats.
So serious was the situation in Plaquemine
Parish, La., in 1908-9, that a general slaughter
of muskrats took place, and fully half a million
are said to have been killed. The sale of their
pelts produced about $100,000.

Trapping, shooting and poisoning may all be
made effective to a certain extent against

78 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

muskrats, but should only be employed in ex-
ceptional circumstances. The most valuable
works open to their attacks should be con-
structed of or faced with rubble or concrete to
a proper depth.

Muskrats worth far more than the damage
they do. As a matter of fact the harm done by
muskrats is, on the whole, far outbalanced by
their value in fur, so that in Canada, and in
many states of the Union, the animal is pro-
tected during a close season (April to Novem-
ber), when its young are being nurtured and
the fur is not " prime," i. e., in good condition
for market. These states are Delaware, Illi-
nois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland (coast counties),
Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina (coast counties), South Dakota,
Virginia (coast counties) and Wisconsin. This
protection, however, ends too early in the fall.
The open season should not begin in the United
States before December 15, and should close by
March 15 ; in Canada it may be slightly pro-
longed.

The muskrat supplies one of the most useful
and dependable sources of fur for clothing, and

80 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

also a good flesh-food which is not utilized to
the extent it deserves.

Excellence of muskrat flesh. The Indian
aborigines habitually ate this flesh, especially
in winter, and taught the colonists how to cook
it, boiled with corn, into a toothsome dish. The
early western hunters and explorers were glad
to get it, liking it roasted over a slow fire.
Lantz tells us that in the retail markets of
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wilmington and other
cities, these animals are sold as " marsh rab-
bits," but no attempt is made to conceal the
fact that they are muskrats.

"They are bought and eaten both by well-to-do
citizens and by the poorer people who seldom indulge
in high-priced game. The animals are trapped pri-
marily for their pelts, but after they are skinned,
the additional labor of preparing the meat for mar-
ket is so slight that they can be sold very cheaply.

"In the Baltimore markets, February 21, 1908, I
found muskrats for sale at various stalls. The retail
price was 10 cents each. At the commission houses
I learned that several firms receive them regularly
from the lower Chesapeake. . . .

"In February, 1907, the Philadelphia Record
stated that a single dealer on Dock street in that city
sold about 3,000 muskrats a week for food. The chief

source of this supply was stated to be in the vicinity
of Salem, N. J. The Saginaw (Mich.) Courier-Her-
ald states that in the season of 1907-8 dressed musk-
rats at that place retailed at from 15 to 20 cents each,
and that dealers had ready sale for all they could
provide. Muskrat is said to be a favorite dish at
dinners given by church societies in Delaware and
Maryland, and annual muskrat banquets are a fea-
ture with certain gun clubs in the West. Those of
the Monroe (Mich.) Marsh Club have been celebrated
for many years. Nearly a dozen years ago, when the
club desired the enactment of a law to protect the
muskrat on the marshes adjoining the Great Lakes,
they went to Lansing, taking with them their own
chefs, and invited the entire Legislature to partake
of their hospitality. . . . The law was passed
without opposition. . . .

"The flesh of the muskrat is dark red in color, but
fine-grained and tender. Unfavorable opinions as to
its flavor arise, probably, from lack of skill in cook-
ing or from carelessness in skinning the animal. In
the usual method of skinning, the hair-side of the
pelts does not come in contact with the flesh, the
musk-glands often come off with, the skin, and only
in summer does the musky odor pervade the flesh.
An unskilled person is more likely to leave some of
the odor, but in winter it may all be removed by
washing [as, also, the gamey flavor, when too strong
for one's taste, by soaking in salt water.] The novice
should be careful to keep the fur from touching the
flesh, to avoid cutting into the musk-glands, and to

82 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

trim off any subcutaneous glands that may adhere to
the meat."

The following published recipes for cooking
muskrat are credited to George T. Bowen, a
caterer of Baltimore, Md. :

"Fried Muskrat. Wash the meat thoroughly and
cut in quarters. Let it lie in salt water for an hour
or more, then wash, dry with a cloth, and season.
Dip the pieces in a prepared egg-batter and dust them
with flour or meal. Place the lard in a frying-pan
and let it get hot. Then put in the muskrat and fry
very slowly for an hour. Prepare a gravy of milk,
butter, flour, and parsley, and season it to taste.
After it thickens pour it over the cooked muskrat.

"lioast Muskrat. Wash the meat thoroughly, let it
lie for an hour or more in salt water, and then wash
again. Put it in a pan with water, salt, pepper,
butter, and a little onion; sprinkle flour over it, and
baste it until it is thoroughly done.

"Stewed Muskrat. Wash the meat thoroughly, cut
it in pieces, and let it lie in salt water for an hour.
Then wash again, put it in a saucepan, and season
with butter, salt, and pepper to taste. Let it simmer
slowly, and when nearly done put parsley and a lit-
tle chopped onion into it. When entirely done
thicken with a gravy of flour and water, as for stewed
chicken."

Steady demand for muskrat fur. It is, how-
ever, for its pelt that the muskrat is chiefly

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 83

valued, and should be preserved and cultivated
under properly restrictive conditions. Com-
pared with most other furs of small size, musk-
rat furs are of excellent quality and durability ;
their cheapness is chiefly the result of their
abundance. Properly dyed and made up, they
are difficult to distinguish from sealskin, but
their wearing qualities are greatly inferior.
The modern dresser and dyer have found means
of imitating nearly all the more costly furs with
that of this animal, and have thus created a
continuous demand for the pelts.

Notwithstanding that during the past 150
years nearly 250 millions of muskrats have
been trapped, vast numbers of these pelts reach
market annually. The sales at the great Lon-
don auctions (which determine prices for the
world) for 1909 were 3,771,000, at higher prices
than at any time previously. Many fur-buying
establishments advertise most alluringly, in
order to induce consignments from local deal-
ers, or from individual trappers ; but in many
cases they grade the furs so low that the re-
turns are far below expectation. It is prob-
ably better policy, as a rule, for the amateur

84 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

rural trapper to sell his pelts to a local buyer
whom he knows and trusts than to ship them to
a distant dealer. In any event he ought to un-
derstand the points of quality by which his furs
are graded, and keep himself informed as to
current prices.

Trapping the muskrat. Muskrats are not
suspicious and are easily trapped. They take
any suitable bait readily, especially in winter
and early spring, when green food is scarce.
A strong steel trap breaks the leg bone and in
struggling the animal is apt to tear loose, leav-
ing a foot, or part of it, in the trap. For this
reason the traps should be set so that the cap-
tives will quickly drown. The best baits are
carrots, sweet apples, parsnips, turnips, or
pieces of squash. Many trappers use scent to
attract the animals, but the practice is of doubt-
ful utility.

Most muskrat trappers use the ordinary steel
trap (No. 1). The manner of setting it depends
upon the situation, and the skill of the trapper
is best displayed in selecting this. Muskrat
trails may be found along the banks of all
streams and ponds which they inhabit, and the

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 85

practiced eye can often trace them into shallow
water. Sink the trap in the trail, partly in the
mud or sand where the water is two or three
inches deep, and fasten the chain to a stake, or,
better still, to a slender pole, reaching into deep
water. Fasten the bait to a stick set in the
mud, so that the bait is about a foot above the
pan of the trap. The animal in reaching for
the bait sets the hind foot upon the pan and is
caught more securely than if taken by the fore
foot. It immediately plunges into deep water,
sliding the chain along the pole as far as it will
go, and soon drowns. If the chain is fastened
to a stake, it should be planted in water a foot
or more in depth, so that the animal will drown.

Besides this water-set for the steel trap,
other situations will suggest themselves to the
intelligent trapper. One of the best is in the
opening of the animal's burrow in the bank.
Here no bait is required. Sometimes a spade
is needed to cut out a piece of turf and make
room for the trap, the top of which should be
at least two inches under water.

When ponds are frozen over, traps are often
set in the muskrat houses, the trapper going

86 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

to them on the ice; but this practice destroys
the houses and is not to be commended. Trap-
ping near the houses in open water is far
better. When the houses are not far from the
bank, a long plank may be used advantageously
as a support for traps. It is moored to the
shore by a wire passed through a staple driven
into one end of the plank, while the other end
projects into the pond or rests against the side
of the muskrat house. Light cleats are nailed
to the upper side of the plank at intervals of a
foot with space enough between them to hold
a trap when set. The ring at the end of each
trap chain is fastened to the plank by a staple.
Baits of carrot or apple may be scattered along
the plank; but they are not necessary, since the
animals will use such a plank as a highway to
the shore, and are almost sure to be caught.
Most of the occupants of a house may some-
times be taken on one plank in a single night.

"The box trap is a favorite with some trappers.
They use a long wooden box whose cross section inside
is about 6 by 6 inches and which has a gate at each
end. The gates are of wire and arranged to swing in-
ward but not outward. The box is set just under water
with one end at the entrance to a muskrat burrow.

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKEAT 87

The animal lifts the gate on leaving the burrow and
is imprisoned and drowned. Others follow until per-
haps all the occupants of the burrow are caught. A
similar trap may be made entirely of heavy wire net-
ting of half-inch mesh, bent to shape. These traps
are well adapted to very narrow streams or ditches
favorite runways of the animals.

"An open barrel sunk near the bank of the stream
or pond frequented by muskrats is said to be an ef-
fective trap. The top of the barrel should be level
with the surface of the ground. The barrel is half
full of water, upon which pieces of carrot or apple
are floating. A piece of board about 8 inches square,
or a few floating chips, will delude the animals into
jumping into the barrel to secure the food. Musk-
rats taken alive should be killed by a sharp blow
across the back of the head.

"A floating barrel is said to be a good substitute
for a sunken barrel. A hole 8 to 12 inches square
is sawed in the side of a barrel having both ends in-
tact. A strong cleat is nailed across each end, pro-
jecting 6 or 8 inches on the sides. Upon the
projecting cleats boards as long or somewhat longer
than the barrel are nailed. Enough water is placed
in the barrel to make it float with the outer platform
level with the surface of the pond say, with about
one-third of the surface of the barrel exposed.

"Another way of taking the muskrat is to spear
it inside its winter house. This is a common Indian
method ; but it should not be encouraged. Not only
are the pelts injured by the spear, but when the

88 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ponds are ice-bound, the animals that escape the spear
often perish after their houses are destroyed."

Trapping was at one time a popular calling
in the United States ; but fur-bearing animals
have so decreased in numbers that nowadays
few persons earn a livelihood by trapping alone.
A large part of the supply of muskrat fur is
taken by boys, who adopt this method of earn-
ing a little extra spending money. They often
attend school, and look after the traps in the
morning and evening.

Preparation of the pelt. Muskrat skins in-
tended for market should be "cased," not
opened along the belly. In skinning begin at
the heel and slit up the middle of one hind
leg to the tail, around it, and then down the
other leg to the heel. The skin may then be
easily (but gently) turned back over the body,
leaving the fur side inward. Next, cut closely
and cautiously around ears, nose and lips, and
scrape off adhering bits of flesh. The skin,
inside out, is then stretched over a thin board
shaped like a rifle-cartridge, and a tack or two
is inserted to keep it in position until dry,
the drying should be in the open air, not before

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 89

a fire or in the sun, and not exposed to rain.
Formerly many of these skins were dressed at
home, but the process is complicated and diffi-
cult.

Cultivation of muskrats. In view of the real
value, continuous demand, growing difficulty of
obtaining prime pelts and consequent steady
enhancement of price, it has occurred to many
persons that the rearing of muskrats in pro-
tected marshes and under favoring conditions
would be profitable. Some of the experiments
already tried in this direction have succeeded
well, but they are in reality little more than a
cooperative protection of certain extensive
haunts against over-trapping as well as
against poaching. Large tracts of marshes at
the western end of Lake Erie, controlled by
sporting clubs, are thus governed and yield a
substantial revenue under wise management.

In this way a new value has been given to
extensive areas of marsh, liable to tidal over-
flow, along the western margin of Chesapeake
Bay, where landowners now lease the trapping
privilege, and trappers and owners unite to
protect the marshes from poaching. The owner

90 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

receives half the fur caught, while the trapper
gets the other half and all he can realize from
the sale of the meat. In the short season of
seventy-four days, January 1 to March 15, dur-
ing 1908 and 1909, trappers easily made from
$400 to $900 each.

The demand for the meat is growing, and all
of it is utilized. The Baltimore market takes
about 30,000 animals during a season, the bulk
of which come from Dorchester County, Va.

The editor of the Cambridge Record, a local
newspaper, stated (1909) that the muskrat in-
dustry of Dorchester brings into the county
about $100,000 annually. This would indicate
that about a quarter-million of the animals are
trapped each season. The danger of exhaust-
ing the supply by continued close trapping has
been discussed in Dorchester County, but trap-
pers there maintain that with the long closed
season, March 15 to January 1, little ground for
anxiety on this score exists. However, it is
worth keeping in mind.

Possibilities of this business. There are
many places in all the eastern half of the
United States where a similar industry might

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 91

be developed, even though on a smaller scale;
and it is a very suitable investment and occupa-
tion for men and boys who might organize
small local companies to carry it on effectively.
As it is winter work, little time useful for any-
thing else would be needed. The chief require-
ments are protection for the animals during a
close season, and from poaching in winter ; and
a suitable limitation of the number taken, based
upon local circumstances.

In their natural haunts no feeding is re-
quired ; and it may often be advisable in places
to enlarge the area suitable to the animals by
damming the outlet so as to flood a wider area.
The rats increase rapidly when encouraged,
though the varying testimony on the subject
seems to show that they differ in this respect
in different parts of the country. Seton says
that in Manitoba there are commonly said to be
three litters a year, of four to nine each, and
that the first litter of the year themselves have
young in the autumn. The period of gestation
is about 30 days.

Suitable places and proper care. There are
few swamps and marshy streams in which

92 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

these rodents are not naturally numerous, and
they persist in the midst of civilized districts
in a marvelous way. There would seem to be
no difficulty then in colonizing a new artificial
marsh or pond for the sake of rearing them.
Such a place, however, must have a natural or
planted growth of suitable food-plants lilies,
arums, sedges, etc. whose roots form their
winter subsistence. Among the principal of
these plants are yellow and white pond-lilies,
the golden clubhead or river-bulrush, a large
sedge whose fleshy tubers are nutritious, and
the lotus (Nelumbo). In summer they feed
upon a far more extensive list of aquatic plants
and shore grasses, vegetables and fruits, and
also largely on mussels, snails, crayfish, caddis-
worms, sluggish fish, like carp, and now and
then catch ducks and other small animals.
The feeding-habits of the wild muskrats of the
locality should be carefully considered.

The highest usefulness of a "muskrat-farm"
would be gained, however, by improving the
stock in size and color. To do this selective
breeding should be attempted. The larger and
blacker the pelt the higher price it will bring.

PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 93

It would be well, then, to trap as many of the
year's crop as possible alive, and to put back
any notably large or very black ones to act
as breeders, while the small and light-colored
examples were steadily weeded out. In this
way only a few years would be required, in a
restricted community, to produce a notable im-
provement in your muskrats.

As little expense or trouble is required,
muskrat-farming ought to be a very profitable
enterprise in many places.

CHAPTER V
CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED!

HERE, too, may be considered the beaver, with
reference to the possibility of preserving it
from extinction, and cultivating it for fur. In
most of our states and provinces this animal
is more or less under legal protection, and
scattered colonies flourish throughout the moun-
tainous parts of the West, while several zoolog-
ical parks and some private estates have
colonies. These thrive, and increase so fast
that from time to time it is necessary to thin
out the band. A newspaper reports that about
100 were in this way culled out of the colony
in Algonkin Park, a national reserve in north-
ern Ontario, during 1909.

It would seem entirely feasible, then, for any-
one having a favorable place on his estate to
rear beavers. A swampy valley is usually of
little usefulness otherwise. The cost of con-
fining and protecting the colony would, how-

94

CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED? 95

A BEAVER-DAM NEAR LAKE TEMISCAMING, ONTARIO.

From a- Photograph by George S. Bryan.

A BEAVER-D'AM JOIJ THE UPPER CACI'ATCIIKWAN

96

ever, be considerable in most situations. A
strong iron or wire fence which would resist
their jaws, and which would also keep out bad
dogs, would be a large item if it enclosed an
area spacious enough for extensive operations.
Only a short time would elapse before the
beavers had cut down and used up all the trees
and bushes which were not jacketed with stout
wire higher than they could reach; and after
that it would be needful to feed them with fresh
tree-limbs of suitable kinds. Lastly, if the
colony amounted to anything it would doubtless
be necessary in most places to guard it well
against human marauders who would kill the
animals for their valuable pelts. It is to be
noted that these animals will not eat the bark
of evergreen (coniferous) trees of any kind.

It is proper also to add a caution quoted
from Vernon Bailey's notes on Texas mammals
(N. A. Fauna, No. 25.)

"In talking with John Seavel, an old beaver trap-
per, I asked him why it would not pay to protect the
beaver in a pond like that above Pecos bridge (over
the Rio Grande), and let them multiply. The idea
was not new to him, for he had talked it over with
other trappers and all agreed that it was not worth

CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED? 97

trying because they considered the beaver naturally
ferocious, to a great extent solitary and a slow
breeder. Seavel says that two old beavers rarely live
together in one house or even in one small pond; that
they fight and chase away any newcomers; that if a
family grows up and is undisturbed in a pond or a
deep bend of the river, its members keep all others
of the species away, and that they attack and kill
any one of their number that is found in a trap or
sick or crippled. AVhile he thinks that systematic
breeding for fur is out of the question, he admits that
the beaver should be protected all over the country
until the few that remain increase and restock the
streams. ' '

If this is generally true, it may be found that
the most profitable course for a beaver-culti-
vator is to acquire control of a stream already
tenanted by beaver, and guard them there in
their natural life, taking only a proper propor-
tion each year.

CHAPTER VI

WOOD-EATS, PACK-HATS, COTTON-
EATS, ETC.

IN the South and West are to be found a
great number of species of rodents called wood-
rats (Neotoma) which are pretty, interesting
and amusing rather than harmful in their mag-
pie-like mischief. They are rat-like in form,
with long, scantily-haired tails, but squirrel-like
in agility and climbing power; and more in-
clined to go abroad in the dusk of evening and
morning than during the brighter hours of the
day.

Florida and Texas species. One species is
well known in wooded country from New Jersey
southward, and is 13 inches long, including a
5-inch tail, brownish gray, the sides tawny, the
belly and feet all white. Bartram described
the animal and its borne, as he met with them
in Florida almost 150 years ago.

"They are singular," lie says, "with respect to
their ingenuity and great labor in the construction

98

WOOD-RATS, PACK-EATS, ETC. 9<J

of their habitations, which are conical pyramids
about three feet high, constructed with dry branches,
which they collect with great labor and perseverance,
and pile up without any apparent order; yet they
are so interwoven with one another, that it would
take a bear or wildcat some time to pull one of these
castles to pieces."

"The very playful character of this species," re-
marked Audubon, "its cleanly habits, its mild, promi-
nent and bright eyes; together with its fine form and
easy susceptibility of domestication, would render it
a far more interesting pet than many others."

West and southwest of the Plains live many
closely related species, some of which inhabit
the mountains, others only timbered valleys,
while still others are restricted to* desert val-
leys. All erect more or less elaborate and
often conspicuous houses, sometimes in the
branches of trees a safer place than on the
ground.

Vernon Bailey discusses upon them thus :

"For houses they heap up a bushel or more of sticks,
stones, cow-chips, cactus, bones, or other materials
which the animals can carry and pile up as a protect-
ing cover for their nests and burrows in the ground be-
neath. Cactus- and thorny branches, if available, are
always a conspicuous part of the building material.
The house is usually occupied by one old rat, a pair, or

100

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

a family, but never by a colony. Wood-rats are social
and visit back and forth from one house to another
until well-worn trails often connect the houses and
lead to the feeding grounds. The food of these ani-
mals is mainly seeds, berries, and many kinds of green
foliage. "\Yhere the houses are located near the edges
of fields, grain, fruits, and vegetables are sometimes

FIELD-NEST OF BAILEY'S WOOD-RAT.

Prom Warren's ''Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Photo by II. W. Nash.

eaten or carried away and stored up for food, but
fortunately the rats are never sufficiently numerous
to do serious damage. Their houses are easily de-
stroyed and the occupants captured by a few min-
utes' work with a shovel, or the rats can readily be
trapped or poisoned. They frequently enter cabins

WOOD-RATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. 101

or camps not permanently occupied and eat or carry
away provisions. They sometimes cause great annoy-
ance by cutting leather harnesses or saddles. There
is rarely more than one animal responsible for the
mischief in a camp, however, and a rat-trap will
usually prevent further trouble. It is unfortunate
that the odious name of rat has become attached to
these bright and interesting little animals, as other-
wise they might become a table delicacy. They are
cleanly in habits and are strictly vegetarian in diet.
Their flesh is as white and delicate as that of the
quail and finer in flavor than that of the squirrel or
rabbit. ' '

The mountain pack-rat. The best-known of
these wood-rats is that yellowish-gray one of
the Rocky Mountain region, with the very
bushy tail, known as pack-rat, trade-rat or
bush-rat (Neotoma cinerea), and its reputa-
tion is an evil one. As Warren remarks:
"While the warm weather lasts (in Colorado),
they do not trouble habitations very much, but
when in the mountains the weather begins to
get colder the rat looks out for a warm place
for his winter residence, and often selects the
miner's cabin or some ranch-house." It soon
makes its presence known by carrying away any
portable articles, and it makes no difference

102 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

whether they are of any use to the animal or
not. It lias been known to carry off even sticks
of dynamite.

Its nests are frequently lined by shredding
gunny-sacking or clothing. Polled or folded
blankets have been completely riddled by them
in their search for stuff to make their beds,
which often are placed in queer situations. A
correspondent in British Columbia tells of one
which inhabited a letter-box nailed against a
tree in a lonely locality.

"I visited him often," he writes, "and on opening
the door, his head, with its big round eyes and great
round oars, would appear out of his warm bed with
an expression of inquiry, but with no sign of fear.
He had brought everything in through a knot hole,
apparently too small to admit even his body. Before;
his nest was stored a pile of Oregon grapes and green
leaves, but I could not discover that he ate any of
them, although occupying the box for some \veeks."

On the Pacific coast they are fond of estab-
lishing themselves in the sod roofs of log cabins
or used to be, when such structures were
more common than nowadays and become a
nuisance.

A capable thief. The following account,

WOOD-EATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. 103

communicated in 1877 to The American Journal
of Science by A. W. Chase, shows what the an-
imal is capable of in the way of mischief. The
tale relates to a dwelling-house near a disused
sawmill in Oregon:

"This house was left uninhabited for two years,
and, being at some distance from the little settlement,
it was frequently broken into by tramps who sought
a shelter for the night. When I entered this house
I was astonished to see an immense rat's nest on the
empty stove. On examining this nest, which was
about five feet in height, and occupied the whole top
of the stove (a large range), I found the outside to
be composed entirely of spikes, all laid with sym-
metry, so as to present the points of the nails out-
ward. In the center of this mass was the nest, com-
posed of finely divided fibers of the hemp packing.
Interlaced with the spikes we found the following:
About three dozen knives, forks and spoons, all the
butcher knives, three in number, a large carving knife,
fork and steel, several large plugs of tobacco ; the
outer casing of a silver watch was disposed in one
part of the pile, the glass of the same watch in
another, and the works in still another ; an old purse
containing some silver, matches and tobacco ; nearly
all the small tools from the tool closets, among them
several large augers. Altogether it was a very curi-
ous mixture of different articles, all of which must
have been transported some distance, as they w r ere
originally stored in different parts of the house.

104

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

"The ingenuity and skill displayed in the construc-
tion of this nest, and the curious taste for articles of
iron, many of them heavy, for component parts,
struck me with surprise. The articles of value were,

A ROCKY-MOUNTAIN PACK-BAT.

From Warren's ''Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Photo }>y II. W. Nash.

I think, stolen from the men who had broken into
the house for temporary lodging. I have preserved
a sketch of this iron-clad nest, which I think unique
in natural history.

"Many curious facts have since been related to me

WOOD-EATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. 105

concerning the habits of this little creature. A miner
told me the following: He once, during the mining
excitement in Siskiyou County, became, in California
parlance, 'dead broke,' and applied for and obtained
employment in a mining camp, where the owner's
hands and all slept in the same cabin. Shortly after
his arrival small articles commenced to disappear; if
a whole plug of tobacco were left on the table it would
be gone in the morning. Finally a bag, containing
one hundred dollars or more in gold dust, was taken
from a small table at the head of a bunk in which
one of the proprietors of the claim slept. Suspicion
fell on the newcomer, and he would perhaps have
fared hardly, for with those rough miners punish-
ment is short and sharp ; but just in time a large rat's
nest was discovered in the garret of the cabin, and
in it was found the missing money, as well as the
tobacco and other articles supposed to have been
stolen."

The destructive cotton-rat. It would be pos-
sible to write extensively, and perhaps enter-
tainingly of a long list of other wild mice and
rats, such as our very pretty, white-footed
wood-mouse (Peromyscus) which, in its vari-
ous species and subspecies, is scattered all over
the continent; but few of them have sufficient
economic interest to justify it. There are times
when any or all may become dangerous by

106 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

overran] tiplication; but tlie only sort now of
importance in that direction is the southern
cotton-rat (genus Sigmodon.) The common
species (S. hispidum) is typically a denizen of
the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to
Florida, but its varieties extend the specific
range westward to Mexico. The total length
is 10-10 !/o inches, two-fifths of which belongs
to the tail. The color varies a good deal, but
in general is a yellowish grizzle above, and
ashy to whitish below.

Their natural habits much resemble those
of their neighbors, the pine mice, and like
them they have not only surface runways but
long galleries and nesting-places under the soil.
They may be very numerous without attracting
much attention because of this cryptic manner
of life, and still more because they rarely come
abroad until after dark. There have been
times, as in 1889 in western-central Texas,
when they swarmed in a regular "plague," and
played havoc with the corn-crop. They are
especially numerous, always, along the borders
of cotton-fields, and Bailey records that in
Texas their runways are often fairly lined with

WOOD-RATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. 107

cotton that has been pulled from the bolls and
dragged under cover where its seeds can be
eaten with safety, while a small amount is car-
ried away for bedding. Considering the great
area of the cotton-growing country, all infested
with these busy pilferers, the aggregate loss of
cotton must represent a large sum.

"A simple and effective remedy," as Bailey
reminds the planter, "would be to clean out the
borders of fields by burning the weeds, grass
and rubbish accumulating along the fences
year after year as a harbor for various rodent
arid insect pests and a perennial source of sup-
ply for weed-seeds. If these borders were
burned yearly, mowed and raked, treated with
oil or chemicals to prevent weed-growth, closely
pastured or thoroughly cultivated, the hawks
and owls would quickly dispose of the rodents
which would then have no protecting cover."

Jumping-mice, Allied to the true or murine
mice, and even more nearly to the Old World
jerboas, are the jumping-mice, pocket-mice and
kangaroo-rats of the family Zapodldcc, all in-
teresting and beautiful little animals but not
requiring much attention here, because their

108 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

presence affects humanity in a very trifling de-
gree.

The only representative in the East is the
common tawny-red, large-eared jumping-mouse,
often seen rushing away from under foot in
amazing leaps. The hind legs and feet are
tremendously developed, while the fore pair are
exceedingly small and delicate. The nose is
pointed, and the hairless tail very long, meas-
uring 5 inches from root to tip, while the
length of the body is only 3 inches. They sub-
sist almost exclusively on weed-seeds, and go
early to bed in warm grass-nests underground,
where they remain in deep hibernation until
late in the spring.

In the arid West and in Mexico live numer-
ous small cousins of the genus Perognathus,
whose hind legs are less lengthened, and which
have fur-lined pockets in their cheeks, tiny
ears, gray or yellowish coats, pure white feet
and under parts, and tails about the length of
their bodies. They are rarely seen, because
nocturnal; burrow in dry ground; and lay up
stores of small seeds. They are easily caught
in small traps baited with rolled oats (of which

WOOD-EATS, PACK-EATS, ETC. 109

all mice are extremely fond) ; and " unless as
the result of a great reduction of mouse-hunt-
ing birds and mammals, they will never be a
pest." They are styled kangaroo-mice, or elf-
mice.

Western kangaroo-rats. A third group is
that of the kangaroo-rats, found in all the
arid valleys west of the Plains and south of
northern Idaho and the Sacramento river.
While not even remotely related to either kan-
garoos or rats, they have been thus named on
account of their long hind legs and tails, small
hands, and their method of progressing by
hops. One species, the desert kangaroo-rat,
(Dipodomys) is distinguished by its large size,
about twice that of the others (Perodipus).

This large four-toed kangaroo-rat of the
Great Basin and southern California is the one
of most interest. It is about 5 inches from tip
of nose to base of tail, and the tail is about 8
inches long. Its legs and hind feet are dispro-
portionately long, in striking contrast to the
tiny front feet, or hands. The large head,
prominent black eyes, and short ears give the
animal a quaint appearance. The glossy coat

110 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

is light sand-color over the upper parts and
pure while below. The tail is white along the
sides and for an inch at the tip. The fur-lined
cheek-pouches are large enough to admit the tip
of the little finger.

These, and the smaller kangaroo-rats, are
common, over the drier parts of the valley coun-
try, especially in the mellowest and sandiest
soil; and Ernest Thompson Seton has made
them the subject of one of his most accurate
and charming descriptions of animal life. They
are strictly nocturnal and are rarely seen alive,
but their round burrows are conspicuous, and
the paired tracks of their long hind feet may be
seen every morning on the naked sands. The
manner of traveling is by hops, or long leaps
on the hind feet, while the tail serves as a
balance and rudder, the tiny front paws being
used only as hands. The burrows usually en-
ter the side of a sandy hillock, dune, or embank-
ment, and often extend 10 or 20 feet. They do
not go deep into the ground, but if started at
the base of an embankment they may penetrate
through it below the water-level and tap the
ditches, mischief wholly accidental. Usually

WOOD-EATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. Ill

on entering the burrow before daylight in the
morning they securely close the opening behind
them by packing it full of fresh sand, doubtless
to keep out snakes, weasels, and other unwel-
come intruders.

Their food consists mainly of the small seeds
of native desert plants, but also includes a little
grain. A part of the food is carried into their
burrows for future use. They are never suffi-
ciently abundant to seriously injure crops, but
a year or two ago were found damaging vine-
yards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California,
by biting off fruit-buds. The trouble was easily
disposed of by scattering poisoned grain near
their burrows. This course will always free a
locality from them whenever they may become
a little harmful.

CHAPTER VII
THE GRAY GOPHERS

THIS brings us to another group of burrow-
ing and pouched rodents, which, however, are
far from harmless the gophers. This term is
given in the Gulf States to a burrowing turtle,
and in the Northwest to a striped ground-
squirrel, but those here in view are the chunked,
short-legged, blunt-nosed, short-tailed ground-
diggers of the family Geomyidcc.

They inhabit nearly the whole of the open
country west of the Mississippi river not lifted
into mountain ranges, and one species, locally
called salamander (Geomys tuza), occupies
large areas in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
The western plains are the home of two promi-
nent species, the dark "common" one (Geomys
bursarius), formerly spread as far east of the
Mississippi as the prairies extended and now
dwelling between that river and the Rocky
Mountains from near the Canadian line to the

112

THE GRAY GOPHERS

113

Gulf coast; the yellower, larger, chestnut-
faced gopher (Cratogcomys castanops), occur-
ring from Colorado southwestward ; and the

NORTHERN GRAY GOPHER (TIIOMOMYS TAT.POIDES).
Photographed by II. K. Job, and reproduced by permission.

smaller northern gray gopher, or mole-go-
pher (Tliomomys talpoides), which is. the fa-
miliar of the Dakotas, Wyoming and the Cana-

11.4 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

dian plains. "West of the Rockies occur a large
number of species, some very difficult to dis-
tinguish from one another, of which the reddish
Thomomys douglasi of the Columbia River
valley, and T. bottcc (chestnut above, reddish
brown below) of central and southern Cali-
fornia, are most notable. In many regions
they have increased rather than diminished
with civilization, owing to the destruction of
their natural enemies, to the loosening of the
soil by plowing and to the vast increase of food
afforded them by orchards, gardens and crops.
Though several genera and species are sepa-
rated by zoologists, from the farmer's point of
view there is a substantial likeness, not only in
their yellowish-gray or brownish, unmarked
coats ; their big, thick heads ; their short strong
legs ; their almost invisible ears and eyes ; the
massive incisors and capacious furry cheek-
pouches, opening outside the mouth; but in
the constant and fearful damage they work in
the field, orchard and nursery.

Burrowing powers. The pocket-gopher digs
as long as he lives, and generally all winter, for
he does not hibernate, even at the coldest. All

THE GRAY GOPHERS 115

his life is passed underground, except when for
an instant lie emerges into the air to push a
load of earth from a freshly opened hole. Ex-
cept for one month of the year, the mating sea-
son, all pocket-gophers live an entirely solitary
life ; and like most other hermits, they are of an
extremely surly disposition. They will fight
viciously on all occasions, and they have for-
midable weapons.

In tunneling in the earth, they use their long
and powerful front teeth as a pick to loosen the
ground. At the same time the forefeet, which
are armed with long curved claws, the sides
of the toes being lined in turn with bristles
which prevent the dirt from passing between
them, are hard at work both in digging and
in pressing the dirt back under the body.
There the hind feet take it and push it farther
back.

When earth enough has been accumulated be-
hind the gopher, he whirls about, and by bring-
ing his wrists together under the chin, with the
palms of the hands held vertically, he pushes
the earth out in front. He will move backward
as rapidly as forward, and can push dirt either

116 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

way. His movement in digging often seems as
rapid and automatic as that of a shuttle.

Except in times of deep frost, the burrows
are seldom more than a foot underground, and
generally about six inches. At intervals, often
within a few feet, the gopher comes to the sur-
face to throw up a little hill of dirt; but the
opening which he makes is closed by being

DIAGRAM OF A GOPHER'S BURROWING.

packed so full of dirt that no trace of the tunnel
is visible except the little mound.

The gopher goes on digging in winter as
well as in summer ; but if the frost prevents him
from coming to the surface, he uses a cross
section of his tunnel into which to pack the
earth which he has dug for his new excavations.
These tightly packed cylinders of earth are
often turned up by the plow.

Pocket-gophers apparently breed only once a

THE GRAY GOPHERS 117

year, in the spring, when two to six young are
produced in a litter in some roomy central
chamber made comfortable with dry grass.

Destructive to crops. "Throughout their
range pocket-gophers are very destructive to
crops. They eat the roots of fruit trees and
in this way sometimes ruin whole orchards.
They eat both roots and tops of clover, alfalfa,
grasses, grains, and vegetables, and are espe-
cially harmful to potatoes and other tuberous
crops. Besides this, they throw up innumer-
able mounds of earth in meadows, pastures, and
grain fields, which cover and destroy far more
of the crop than is eaten by the animals or
killed by having the roots cut off. These
mounds also prevent close mowing, so that
much of the hay crop is lost, and the pebbles
they contain often break or injure farm ma-
chinery. The loss due to gopher mounds in the
clover and alfalfa fields in some of the Western
States has been conservatively estimated at
one-tenth of the entire crop. In many of the
fertile valleys where they abound the animals
are by far the most formidable of the farmer's
mammalian enemies. In addition to all this,

118 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

in the far West they burrow iu the banks of
irrigation ditches and thus cause extensive
breaks, the repair of which results in the ex-
penditure of much time and money." (Lantz.)

An enemy to orchard and forest. Re-
cently, attention has been especially called to
the injury done to orchards and nursery stock,
often before the owner becomes aware of the
presence of the animal, and it is evident that
great watchfulness should be maintained by
tree planters in gopher-infested country. This
watchfulness should be especially alert where
the orchardist, in order to prepare the soil, first
raises and turns down crops of alfalfa, clover
or cowpeas, sweet potatoes or sugar-beets.
Any of these attract the rodents, and make
their attacks more than likely upon the newly
planted saplings.

A gopher which in tunneling comes to a tree
root attacks and eats through it. If the root
is relished, it is followed and eaten close up to
the tree trunk. Then another root is destroyed,
and so on until the entire root system is gnawed
away, wood and bark alike, leaving the trunk
loose in the ground.

119

The rapidity with which the animal works
is amazing. In his rare monograph on the fam-
ily Merriarn assures us that a pocket-gopher
can make two hundred complete strokes with
his teeth in a minute. Its jaws are so arranged
that thirty-eight distinct single cuts are made

SOUTHERN POCKET GOPHER (GEOMYS BURSARIUS).
From a Painting by E. T. Seton.

by the forward stroke of the jaw and twenty-
eight by the backward stroke. Thus, the little
creature's jaws may make a grand total of
13,200 cut a minute when in active opera-
tion!

Large trees are sometimes entirely girdled

120 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

just below the ground, the gopher cutting deep
into the wood, causing immediate death. The
girdling of large roots is also common. In
California the fig seems to suffer most, but
orange, lemon, apricot and all other fruit-trees
are attacked.

Complaints from western nurserymen of
injury to their stock by pocket-gophers are
frequent. The trees in nursery-rows are set
small and close together. Consequently a go-
pher by following the rows can in a short time
kill many trees. Such injury is usually done
in late fall or winter, and the nurseryman is
often unaware of it until spring. The gopher
takes the entire root, not merely the bark, cuts
it into short pieces, packs them into its enor-
mous cheek-pouches, and carries them away to
its food-caches, which sometimes contain half
a bushel of such provender. Plantations of
young trees for wind-breaks or ornament, or
to afforest a district, are equally hurt; in fact
the gophers are worse than rabbits, because
they work unseen and almost invariably kill in-
stead of merely injuring the trees. Wherever
they abound orchards are almost an impossi-
bility.

THE GRAY GOPHERS 121

Tapping irrigation-ditches. Another most
serious mischief, in regions depending on irri-
gation, is the destruction of ditch-banks. Some-
times the animals are forced out of irrigated
land and take up new quarters in the dry ditch-
banks, or in course of the regular extension of
their tunnels a ditch is encountered and the
bank is followed in search of a crossing-place.
In either case the burrow is almost sure sooner
or later to penetrate below the water-line and
start a leak that cuts out the bank and empties
the ditch. Altogether, it has been estimated by
the Biological Survey that the loss due to go-
phers in the western United States is not less
than a million dollars a month.

"No animals," the Survey declares, at the
same time, "are more easily controlled on a
small farm or along ditches than gophers.
They are readily trapped or poisoned, and once
cleared out of a field others do not come in at
once. Their mode of travel, which is princi-
pally by extending their burrows, is of ne-
cessity slow; and if occasionally caught or
poisoned around the edge of fields or along
ditches, they can be effectually controlled."

122

This implies that the damage done is largely
the result of neglect on the farmer's part.

The gopher as a soil-maker. In view of
this record of harmfulness (due, of course,
simply to mankind trying to modify nature for
his own ends in the path of the animal's natural
way of living, so that from nature's point of
view the cultivator is the aggressor and the
gopher merely defending himself and living off
the enemy), it is only fair to point out how the
animal, throughout the history of the species,
has been laying the present farmer and ranch-
man under his debt.

"For unknown ages," declares Dr. 0. Hart
Merriam, in the monograph already referred
to, "the gophers have been steadily at work
plowing the ground, covering deeper and
deeper the vegetable matter, loosening the soil,
draining the land, and slowly but surely cul-
tivating and enriching it."

Ernest Thompson Seton illustrates this
statement very forcibly by the example of
Manitoba, one of the richest soil-areas in the
world where, as elsewhere in northwestern

THE GRAY GOPHERS 123

Canada, there are no earthworms to act as pre-
historic cultivators. The black loam there is
from one to two feet thick, and is a thoroughly
mixed soil of both mineral and vegetable par-
ticles. There is no doubt that, in the absence
of earth worms, this mixing is done by burrow-
ing animals, by far the most important of which
is our subject. In his great w r ork, Life His-
tories of tlie Northern Animals, Seton shows by
text and drawings what an astonishing number
of active gophers there are (or were) over
every square mile of that and other regions;
and the still more astonishing bulk of soil
brought to the surface from deep layers day
by day. He cites a district in California with
an estimated average of 6,000 hills to the acre,
and enough soil heaved out each summer to
cover the whole with an inch of new earth; and
other similar cases elsewhere. "If the fertility
of tens of millions of acres of land in the North-
west, and consequently their value, has been
mainly the work of moles [pocket-gophers],"
declares Dr. Robert Bell, the Canadian geol-
ogist, after giving proof for his thesis, "these

124

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

apparently insignificant little creatures may
be regarded as the most important of the native
animals of the country."

If Mr. Gopher could speak he would probably
remind the agriculturist of this, and ask
whether the delayed fees he was now exacting
were too large for the service.,

//

CHAPTER VIII
SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD

A view of our tree-squirrels. The badge
of the true squirrel is his plume-like tail, which,
though it seems to our eyes only an elegant
ornament, is to him a balancing-pole assist-
ing his agile bounds from branch to branch,
an umbrella by day, and a blanket when he
withdraws to his hole for the night. No better
type of this delightful group can be found than
the red squirrel, the genius of the American
woods. He is exceedingly common, not at all
shy, and recognized by almost everybody, yet
few persons know really much about him.
There is practically only one species on the
continent, but local varieties differ much in
size and colors. Those in the South are larger
and redder, for example than those of Canada ;
and on the Pacific coast, where they are called
pine-squirrels, their coats are almost brown.
Their colors vary also with the seasons, the

125

126 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

winter coat being paler and lacking the black
side-stripe which so handsomely borders in
summer the rufous mantle of the back.

Red squirrels at home. The red squirrel's
home is properly in some hollow of a tree or

A NORTH WESTERN RED SQUIRREL.
From a Photograph ly James A. Donaghy, Elphinstone, Manitoba.

stump, sometimes low down and hence danger-
ously exposed to foxes, weasels and snakes.
Frequently he chooses to live in a hole beneath
tree-roots or some old stone wall, adapting to
his purpose an abandoned chipmunk burrow

or the hollow left by a rotting root, and extend-
ing it into various connecting chambers. In
the evergreen forests of northern New Eng-
land and Canada, however, he often constructs
a winter nest among the dense foliage of a
spruce or cedar, which is a marvel of work-
manship. "When convenient," to quote
Cram's account of those familiar to him, "he
chooses the nest of some large bird for a foun-
dation, and in this builds a structure of moss,
bark, pine-needles, and dead leaves, with walls
several inches in thickness, and a soft nest of
dry grass and feathers inside. The bark used
is of two sorts, the rough outer bark of dif-
ferent trees broken into small pieces, and what
appears to be the inner bark of the red cedar,
torn into narrow strips or ribbons to bind the
whole together. It is put together with re-
markable solidity, and usually freezes hard
early in the winter, furnishing a thorough de-
fense against the cold or any other enemy from
without. The narrow opening at one side is
provided with a hanging curtain."

These tree-houses are, however, abandoned
in the spring, when they become soaked with

128 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

rain, and a hollow tree is sought and furnished
with clean bedding of moss, lichens, etc. Here
the young are born rather early in the season,
five or six of them, and there they remain
together until fully grown.

"The young squirrels," to quote again Mr. Cram's
delightful history, "are most absurd looking little
beasts at first, like miniature pug-dogs, blind and
naked, with enormous heads. In a few days their
fur begins to show like the down on a peach, and as a
fringe of short hair along each side of the tail, which
at length assumes something of the flattened aspect
of that worn by their elders, but without displaying
much of the fluffy, shadowy quality of the ideal squir-
rel tail until late in the following autumn. . . .
Although they do not remain long in the nest, they
are seldom seen abroad until fully grown, or very
nearly so, at least, which is rather remarkable when
you come to consider the number that are brought
up each summer in every pine grove or thicket where
these squirrels are abundant. . . ."

Hoiv a red squirrel fares. The red squir-
rel eats almost anything he can lay his teeth
to, but his chief diet, of course, consists of
berries, nuts, acorns and similar hard fruits,
especially the seeds found in the cones of ever-
green trees the mainstay of those living in

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 129

the far northern woods. In the early spring
he must often content himself with buds, pre-
ferring those of the maple and elm ; and it is a
pretty sight to see him and his friends dangling
from the tips of the swaying branches, peril-
ously high, reaching for the bursting buds. In
March he taps the maples for sap, cutting out
little cups in the bark, in which the sugary
liquid gathers and is lapped up, for he drinks
like a cat. He climbs rotten stubs and, like
the woodpecker, listens for noise made by in-
sect larvae, which are quickly dug out. He
searches for haws of the rose and thorn-trees,
and hunts through the orchard for old apples
now thawed soft.

A little later, I am sorry to say, he is on the
lookout for birds' eggs and young, of which
he destroys far more than any other squirrel.
No nest is safe from his inquisitive eye and
eager appetite, even the Baltimore oriole's, but
he is often driven away by the owners. Nest-
lings are more to his taste than eggs, even ; and
now and then he is able to catch small birds,
or even mice and little snakes, while grass-
hoppers and fat larvae are a regular part of

130 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

his bill of fare. Few animals, remarks Manly
Hardy, are more fond of meat :

"They will eat any kind of meat or fish as quickly
as a cat and will live on it days when a chance offers.
I have often had them eat each other when one was
in a trap. Around camps where provisions are stored
they are great pests. Their sense of smell must be
very acute, as I have seen where one gnawed a large
hole through a new overcoat to get at a bottle of
coffee which one of my men had rolled up inside to
keep it warm. The squirrel must have smelled it
through all the folds of the thick cloth. "Where not
troubled they soon become very tame, often coming
into a camp and stealing biscuit or gingerbread from
the table. I have seen those which certainly could
tell one person from another, as they would let one
who had never molested them come very near, while,
when a person who had stoned them appeared, they
would instantly dodge into a hole."

As summer advances the red squirrel finds
ripe berries and fruit to his taste, and in July
begins, in the northern coniferous woods, to
attack the green cones, especially of the white
pine, cutting them off "and burying them, half
a dozen in a place, under the pine needles, to
be dug up in the winter and spring, and opened
for the seeds they contain." At this season,

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 131

too, he bites into many mushrooms, especially
those which grow upon old wood; and certain
of these he stows away in dry places for future
reference.

Preparing for the winter. This squirrel is
a hard worker at all times, the merriest
sprite of the woods, yet always industrious and
thrifty ; but his busiest time is in autumn when
the ripening nuts must be harvested. In the
forests of the southerly portions of his range,
butternuts, hickorynuts, and those of the
chestnut, pecan, hazel and beech, with acorns
and chinkapins, are most important. Their
substance is not very nourishing, but they
supply in abundance the fat which is so neces-
sary for animals to accumulate in the autumn
as a fuel to keep the fires of life burning dur-
ing the winter. In the Southern States the
winters are so mild that there is not the need
to lay up the large food-supply required in the
North, and methods vary, too.

Instead of having a single storehouse, as do
most other provident rodents, the red squirrels
bury a part of their gains, one or a few nuts in
a place, and hide the rest in a variety of nooks

132 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

and crannies. It is thus difficult to judge what
this scattered accumulation amounts to in the
aggregate, but it is probably a good deal more
than one animal wants. The little rascals seem
to recognize no property rights in these sav-
ings, but during the winter seize anything they
can find, so that fierce fights are always happen-
ing, in which the thievish grays take a full
share. With a short account by Mr. Hardy of
the cone-saving squirrels of the northern woods
I will conclude this part of the subject: 1

Storing pine-cones. "With us [in Maine] he lays
up large stores of the cones of pine and spruce and
knows the exact season when they are fit to cut for
his use. If cut too early they will be sealed closely
with pitch ; if cut too late the winged seeds will have
escaped. The red squirrel cuts them by the hundreds
the last of September, just when the sticky covering
has hardened into drops of stiff pitch and just before
the cones have opened. One who is in the pine woods
then will hear the dull, heavy thud as they fall, and
if he gets a close view of the squirrel, will see that
his paws and face are smeared with pitch. . . .

1 A full discussion of the meaning of this custom of storing
food against a coming time of scarcity; and of its probable
origin and development through the influence of natural selec-
tion, will be found in the chapter entitled " A Squirrel's
Thrift," in my Wit of the Wild, 2d edition, Dodd, Mead & Co.,
New York, 1911.

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 133

"The squirrel knows exactly how to get the seed
with the least labor. A squirrel wishing to eat a
cone, sits up on his hind feet, standing the cone up
before him on its small end. Then he cuts off the
upper scale at the butt of the cone. These scales do
not run in straight lines, but are arranged spirally,
with a seed under each scale. The seeds in a white
pine-cone are about the size and shape of a small
apple-seed; those of a spruce, about as large as seeds
of turnip or mustard. Both kinds have a wing which
serves to carry the seed often to long distances, when
it falls naturally from the cone. The squirrel eats
the first seed, then gives the cone a slight turn and
cuts the next scale, and so keeps turning and eating
until the central pith is in his way, when he cuts it
off and continues eating until near the end of the
cone, which he always leaves, as he knows that the
seeds there are too small and poor to be of use to
him."

Gray squirrels and fox-squirrels. The red
squirrel has been given so much space because
his life is typical of that of the tribe, and be-
cause he is not accurately known although so
widespread and numerous.

More familiar to most readers are the large
"gray" and "fox" squirrels, both of which are
very variable. Thus the northern gray squir-
rels are at their best a clear silvery tint, while

134 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

southward they become yellowish or rusty, and
in some localities a black variety is prevalent.
Well-grown specimens of this species are about
18 inches long, including the splendid feather
of the tail. West of the Alleghenies, to the
border of the Plains, and as far north as South
Dakota, lives the northern fox- or cat-squir-
rel, which is larger (23.5 to 25'.5 in.), and in
general tint foxy red; but the species is ex-
tremely variable, one large southern variety
being wholly black save the white nose and ears,
and a good deal of black and orange are likely
to appear on any specimen, north or south.
It may be mentioned here that Mexico has
among its many species and races of squirrels
perhaps the most beautiful of any in America,
the red-bellied. "Its upper surface is pale
grizzled gray, and its under parts bright rusty
red; it inhabits the forests of eastern Mexico,
ascending the high mountains to an elevation
of 8,000 feet."

It is only in the Appalachian region that the
gray and the fox-squirrels meet. They are
much alike in habits, and both have become
bold acquaintances of civilized man, and are

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 135

public pets in a thousand villages and urban
parks. In some places, indeed, they are so
numerous and bold as to injure gardens, and
to work ruin in roofs and cornices by digging
through them to make their nests inside. As
pets in captivity they, like the reds, are not
very desirable, since they grow cross with age,
and if more than one is kept in a cage the
strongest will probably kill or injure the others.
If allowed the freedom of a room they will work
havoc, and prove practically untamable.

It is as easy and much better, however, to
domiciliate them in the trees about the house,
by placing high among the branches cabins
(short sections of hollow logs are best), and
protecting and feeding their tenants. They
will come to a window-sill where you place
regularly cracked nuts, grains of corn or bits
of cracker, and you will enjoy their society
much more in their free shy activity than if they
were immured in a small wire jail. A good
plan, if you like their visits to your window-
sill, is to provide them with a pole-bridge from
the nearest tree, as they are shy of going upon
the ground where dogs and cats may be.

136 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Peculiarities of these larger squirrels. In
one or two respects the gray and the fox-squir-
rels differ decidedly from their smaller rela-
tives. Instead of retiring to holes under-
ground, they dwell in winter in holes in trees,
coming out nearly every day to hunt and gambol
about. They make great summer nests of leafy
twigs in which the mother and young reside
while the male squirrels lead a bachelor ex-
istence, often with far wanderings. Their
food is substantially the same as that of the
reds, but they rarely rob the nests of birds,
or are thievish of meat ; and their only method
of storing food is by burying it, one nut or
acorn in a place. That months later, when
wind-blown leaves and perhaps deep snow cover
the ground, they can recover these treasures
is truly remarkable ; but they seem to know pre-
cisely where each nut is buried, and go directly
to it, then dive down through the snow and
presently reappear with the morsel in their
teeth. It would seem improbable that this is
an effort of memory, and more likely that a cer-
tain amount of memory is aided by the faculty
of smell. Often after finding one buried nut

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 137

they bore their way beneath the snow here and
there in search of others, and so get a whole
meal.

These squirrels are so large and toothsome
that they have always been reckoned among
our game animals, and years ago were to be
seen in every market in the land. Now this is
less common, because they have become scarce
in many parts of the country. No longer, then,
are they accused by farmers of being a pest;
but a century ago they certainly were so all
along the frontier. That was the time when
occasionally vast migrations descended upon
the fields of corn in the milk, ruining the crop ;
and for years great sums in bounties were paid
for their destruction in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
A very full account of this matter, and of the
gray squirrel generally, may be found in the
first chapter of my Wild Neighbors.

The gray squirrel of California is a separate
species, larger and brighter than the eastern
gray. Along the Mexican border occur several
allied species, more or less marked with yellow
and reddish, of which the handsomest is
Abert's, which has a band of chestnut along the

138 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

spine, side-stripes of black, white underparts
and feet, and tufted ears. It is also found in
the mountains of Colorado.

The squirrel that flies. All squirrels are
clever at falling. They often slip at great
heights, and when 'they can not clutch a lower
branch will turn in the air, spread out their
legs and usually alight without harm. The
skin is loose, and is pulled far out when the
legs are widely stretched; and in one sort the
side fold is so ample as to form a regular para-
chute, enabling the animal to make long slides
through the air; it becomes, in fact, a living
aeroplane. This is the flying-squirrel, the
prettiest fourfoot in the American woods.

There are two species. One dwells in north-
ern Canada, measuring 14 inches in length,
and is cinnamon-brown above (sooty in winter),
with a black ring around the eye, and the fur
of the whitish underparts gray near the roots.
A smaller variety occurs in the St. Lawrence
Valley. The other species is the common one
of the eastern and southern half of the Union,
which is only about 9.5 inches in length. Its
fur is dense and exquisitely soft, with the tail

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 139

almost as flat as a feather; the color is drab
above, irregularly tinged with russet, while the
hair of the underparts is pure white to the
roots. Cram notes the "protective" similarity
of their clouded cream-buff colors, to the lichens
on the trees to whose bark they often cling
motionless for long periods. They are not
much exposed to any but nocturnal enemies,
such as owls and the weasel tribe, however, so
that this similitude cannot have much practical
importance. They are forest folk, haunting
the hardwood groves, and few farmers suspect
how many of these tenants profit by the old
stubs left along the edges of their clearings.
Really they are tenants of the woodpeckers, who
are good enough not to occupy one of their care-
fully dug nesting-holes twice, but to leave it to
the occupancy, rent-free, of squirrels, chick-
adees, little owls and other feebler neighbors.
The squirrels are capable, however, of carving
out a deep hole for themselves, or will take
possession of some natural cavity, and in it
arrange a luxurious bed of shredded bark, etc.,
mingled with the fur they shed plentifully in
the fall. Sometimes many will room together

140 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

in a large cavity. Now and then a pair will
form an outdoor ball-like home in some old
bird's-nest; or will even invade the garret of
the farmhouse.

Charm of the flying-squirrel. Strike one of
these tall stubs a smart blow with an ax or stone
and the squirrels will come pouring out of their
hole and go sailing away to neighboring trees
like birds. They alight near the bases of the
trunks and scamper upward to prepare for an-
other glide, but unless sharply pursued will
quickly turn to have a curious look at their dis-
turber. Their "flights" are made upon the
parachute of loose skin which extends in a furry
fold down to the feet, and is further supported
by a slender curved bone hinged to the back of
the wrist, while the flat tail acts as both balancer
and rudder as in a bird. When starting from
a high perch, and going down hill, they may
sail 200 or 300 yards; but have little or no
power of deviating from the straight line of the
intended leap, yet make a quick upward curve
as they alight. Audubon and Bachman have
given a delightful account of their gambols on

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 141

summer evenings near Philadelphia, about
1840:

' ' During the half -hour before sunset nature seemed
to be in a state of silence and repose. The birds had
retired to the shelter of the forest. The night-hawk
had already commenced its low evening flight, and
here and there the common red bat was on the wing;
still for some time not a flying-squirrel made its
appearance. Suddenly, however, one emerged from
its hole and ran up to the top of a tree ; another soon
followed, and ere long dozens came forth and com-
menced their graceful flights from some upper branch
to a lower bough. . . . Crowds of these little
creatures joined in these sportive gambols; there
could not have been less than 200. Scores of them
would leave each tree at the same moment, and cross
each other, gliding like spirits through the air, seem-
ing to have no other object in view than to indulge a
playful propensity."

Family life of the fly ing -squirrel. Not very
much is known of the winter life of the
ordinary or southern flying-squirrels, but they
seem to retire to their warm nests as soon as
cold weather comes, and to stay there until
spring. This would mean hibernation, or else
the storing of food in their holes; and that
the latter is their habit would seem indicated

142 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

by the actions of captives to be mentioned
presently; but if so it presents a curious
anomaly to the rule, for it is certain that the
large northern species, although dwelling in
much colder regions, where proper food is ap-
parently scarcer, does neither, but goes abroad
every evening, no matter how severe may be
the cold, to get its subsistence, and fares well.
The young are born in early spring, and when
about six weeks old begin to appear at the door
of their house, playing about like kittens under
the watchful care of their mother.

"And what a lovely little mother she is! She
takes the greatest care of them from the time they
are born. She tucks them under her, pulls the cedar
bark over them and blocks up the entrance on cold
days to keep them warm. If you put your finger
into the hole she will rake all the babies out of harm's
way with her front paws, and then with her nose she
will make a determined effort to push your finger
out of the hole again. Failing in that, she will not
bite you, as a red squirrel would have done at the
beginning, but she will probably take your finger
gently in her teeth, as though to ask you please to
be a gentleman and refrain from causing her any
further annoyance.

' ' Even if you remove the young ones from the nest
she will not bite you, but she will come out after

SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 143

them at once in evident distress. If they are near
the mouth of the hole, so that she can reach them
without leaving the nest entirely, she puts out her
head, seizes the youngsters by the neck or back with
her teeth and pulls them in after her, one by one.
But if she has to leave the nest altogether she picks
the children up, turns around and pushes them into
the hole before her. A flying-squirrel once disturbed
in this way is not likely to allow the matter to pass
unheeded. She is almost sure to remove her family
to a new home at the first opportunity."

Taken young, and fed on milk and vegetables
until they get their growth, they form delight-
ful pets, though mischievous ones, unless
their activity is curbed. It is from captive
specimens, indeed, that we have learned most
that we know as to the habits, tastes and dispo-
sitions of these secretive little creatures.

CHAPTER IX

GROUND-SQUIRRELS AND PRAIRIE-
DOGS

We come now to the ground-squirrels, which
are of small size, have flat and comparatively
short tails, and keep near the earth, living be-
neath it and deriving their food from weeds
and low bushes for the most part. There are
scores of species which fall into two groups,
the striped chipmunks of the eastern and north-
ern woods, and the unstriped spermophiles of
the western plains.

The chipmunks. Our familiar chipmunk is
the only eastern representative of this large
group, and is seen everywhere. In size and
manners he is much like the saucy red squirrel,
but the five black stripes alternating with two
whitish ones on his chestnut coat (fading
through yellowish on the sides into a white,
vest), distinguish him in an instant. His race
extends clear across the continent and to
Alaska, wherever timber grows, but the western

144

GROUND-SQUIRRELS 145

varieties differ so much in size and tint that
the early naturalists made several species.

"This squirrel," to quote the pleasant
phrases of Dr. Godman, "is most generally
seen scudding along the lower rails of the com-
mon zigzag or i Virginia' fences, which afford
him at once a pleasant and secure path, as, in
a few turns, he finds a safe hiding place be-
hind the projecting angles, or enters his burrow
undiscovered. When . . . his retreat is
cut off he ... runs up the nearest tree,
uttering a very shrill cry or whistle, indicative
of his distress, and it is in this situation that
he is most frequently made captive by his per-
secuting enemies, the mischievous schoolboys."

No animal is better prepared than the chip-
munk to withstand the cold and hunger of a
northern winter, for he has learned how to con-
struct a model home and to provision it well.

The burrow and its furniture. This is a
burrow which usually begins beside a stone or
among the roots of a tree where it will not at-
tract notice, moreover all the earth that is taken
from the hole is scattered at a distance in order
not to betray the excavation. It is first carried

146 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

straight down in a narrow shaft helow the frost
line, then turns and winds away horizontally,
and as the tunnels are used year after year,
with continual enlargements, old ones may
reach to a great length, with branches and
chambers accommodating several pairs, and
secret exits. In the autumn one of the under-
ground chambers is furnished with soft bedding
and becomes the living-room of a family, while
other chambers are stored with provender or
set apart as receptacles for refuse. Now the
chipmunk becomes exceedingly busy, fattening
himself upon the ripening nuts and seeds, not
only, but upon many tuberous roots, mushrooms
and green corn. On each side of his mouth,
separated from it by thin partitions of muscu-
lar skin, are large cavities or pouches, opening
behind the teeth, which are as useful to him as
are our baskets and wheelbarrows to us. He
brings to the surface in them the material ex-
cavated from the distant ends of his burrow,
and after packing them full of seeds or nuts he
returns to empty their loads perhaps half a
pint at a time in one of his storehouses. All
the ground-squirrels have such cheek-pouches;

GROUND-SQUIRRELS 147

and so they can speedily gather, while they are
plenty, the large stores they need to preserve
life during the long season of famine ahead;
and snug in their warm nests deep under the
sod, they doze away the winter, now and then
emerging when the February sun tempts them
out, but for the most part lying close, yet not
in complete dormancy.

Taking the freedom of the camp. These
cheerful little fellows, and especially the four-
striped Rocky Mountain kind, are extremely
numerous in the rougher parts of the West, and
are amusing visitors at every camp and cabin
until they wear out their welcome by misbe-
havior. In some of the national forests they
have proved a great nuisance by digging up
newly planted tree-seeds.

"In camp," writes an explorer of Mt. Shasta, "they
made frequent visits to the iness-box, which they
clearly regarded as public property, approaching it
boldly and without suspicion, and showing no concern
at our presence in marked contrast to the golden-
mantled squirrels, which approached silently, stealth-
ily, and by a circuitous route, in constant fear of
detection. If disturbed while stuffing their cheek-
pouches with bits of bread, pancake, or other eatables,

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

each chipmunk usually seized a large piece in its
mouth and scampered off, returning as soon as we
withdrew. In fact they made themselves perfectly
at home in camp."

The striped goplier and spermophile. A
variety of this species, tlie sage-chipmunk of

TWO SPECIES OF HOCKY-MOUXTAIN CHIPMUNKS.

From Warren's "Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Photo by II. W. Nash.

the Great Basin, is the smallest and sprightliest
of the race. It lives mainly in the sage-brush,
scrambling about these diminutive bushes or
scampering from one to the other, and often
sitting on the top of a sage-bush eating the
little seeds from its hands; but, like other

GROUND-SQUIRRELS 149

squirrels they vary their seed-diet with insects.
It is a relative of these chipmunks, marked by
thirteen stripes, dark brown on rusty yellow,
which is known throughout the Northwest, from
Lake Michigan to Alberta, as the " striped
gopher," and as a pest to farmers on account
of the grain it steals and the runways for water
its burrows make. Still worse are several
other northwestern ground-squirrels which
have plain yellowish-gray coats and are known
as "gray gophers," though the term "gopher"
should be restricted to the Geomys; the most
familiar is Franklin's spermophile.

This graceful animal was originally abundant
as far south as central Missouri and Illinois,
but long ago disappeared before the civilizing
of its prairie home, and now remains numerous
only in the wilder districts of the Dakotas and
northward. It is pretty and interesting, but
too much of an impediment to good agriculture
to permit the farmer to tolerate it; yet the an-
imal increases so rapidly under the protective
and food-supplying conditions which the hu-
man settlement of the country brings it, that
its extermination will be a matter of great diffi-

150 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

cully. Referring to this matter Dr. Merriam
made the following appealing remarks in a re-
cent paper on these pests in California:

Striped spermopliiles exist along the grassy
eastern border of the plains right down to the
Gulf of Mexico; and Texas has, besides, a
beautiful little "sand-squirrel," spotted with
white on a yellowish ground, relieved by black
markings. It is a shy, inconspicuous little
creature, rarely noticed until it attracts atten-
tion by a fine trilling bird-like whistle. These
and other spermopliiles are most numerous
where the mesquit grows, for its seeds afford
them good food. They are fond, too, of the
fruit of the small prickly pear, the sand-bur,
and other shrubs and weeds, and eat many
grasshoppers and other insects. The graceful
antelope-squirrel, taking its name from its col-
ors, is another species conspicuous for its
beauty, carrying its short, wide, white-lined tail
curled over its back like a plume. All these
burrow at the edge of thickets and cactus
clumps and apparently hibernate. Sometimes
they do much damage by boring through the
banks of irrigating ditches. Another south-

GROUND-SQUIRRELS 151

western group includes tlie rock-squirrels,
which are never seen far from cliffs or broken
ledges. Bailey tells us that they climb the trees
for acorns and berries, but when surprised al-
ways rush to the ground and scamper away to
the nearest rock-pile. They are extremely
wary. "Like most of the smaller ground-
squirrels of tlie arid regions they usually bur-
row under a cactus or some low thorny bush,
where they obtain shade and the protection of
thorny cover. They apparently do not hiber-
nate, but during the cold weather have the un-
squirrel-like habit of closing their burrows and
remaining inside, as a protection against en-
emies, and especially snakes. . . . Like
other members of the genus, these ground-
squirrels feed on seeds, grain, fruit, green
foliage, lizards, and numerous insects, and
often gather around gardens and green fields,
where they do considerable damage in spring
by digging up corn, melons, beans and various
sprouting seeds, and, in summer and fall, by
feeding on the ripening grain."

Squirrels and bubonic plague. One of these
ground-squirrels, that most common in central

152 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

and southern California (Clitellus beecheyi)
lias special prominence in onr list because it
shares with the rat the bad distinction of being
a dangerous carrier of plague-germs. It was
observed as early as 1903, as we learn from Pro-
fessor Doane's book previously alluded to, that
an epidemic was killing these ground-squirrels
in the neighborhood of San Francisco bay.
The matter was at once investigated by Dr. Ru-
pert Blue, of the U. S. Public Health and
Marine Hospital Service, who speedily ascer-
tained that the disease was bubonic plague,
which had probably been caught from the town
rats which at harvest time wander into the
country in large numbers and make free use of
the holes and runways of the field-squirrels.
A single infected rat might sow the seeds, for
its fleas, escaping, from its dead body, would
readily attach themselves to a squirrel and
multiply and spread among them. Among the
tens of thousands killed and examined a con-
siderable number of infected ones have been
found; and several instances are recorded in
which human cases of plague in California
resulted from handling infected squirrels.

PRAIRIE-DOGS 153

Whether the disease has been exterminated
among these wild rodents, remains to be seen.
The fact that the Beechey ground-squirrels
have shown themselves receptive to the fleas
which are peculiar to brown rats, and to the
disease, led to observations and experiments as
to other rodents. It is found that rock-squir-
rels are quite readily infected, mice and
pouched gophers less so, but wood-rats and
prairie-dogs succumbed at once. There seems
no reason to suppose that any rodent may not
carry the fleas about in its fur a short time, if
not permanently; or that any rodent is immune
against the plague if punctured by an infected
flea. A ray of light is shed upon this dark as-
pect of the case by the announcement that along
with the fleas goes a small staphylinid beetle
which exists as a parasite on both rats and
squirrels, and feeds ravenously on the fleas.

Importance of the prairie-dog. But of all
the ground-squirrels none equals the prairie-
dog in interest or importance.

It is a denizen of the dry plains east of
the Rockies, while two or three other species
inhabit the mountains, the Utah basin, and

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

southward into Mexico. This animal is some-
times confused towards the north with the

A. Mound,

B. Funrul

enhance, to burrow

C. Mcutvnassaqt4?i mc/i in/diameter
ab-OW 15 fed m Until h-
'

F.Untaed./tart of 'horizontal ftajtaye
G .fficftf larqe motiqhsfw one prairie dt
H . Natofgr&U (Hutch uidMrnitcrty 9u
rymq b

J. Absorbent matter

of carbon.
\\Jbutipn otPmiritdpqi as found after

use olbuu-lfiludi ol-tarbm

of/wnionlai/vajsaqt. 14 tut

DIAGRAM OF A PRAIRIE-DOG'S BURROW.

larger gray gophers, especially the Columbian
and Franklin's, so that we wrongly hear of

PRAIRIE-DOGS 155

"prairie-dogs" on the Canadian plains; it is to
be distinguished by its slightly larger size, dis-
tinctly brownish color, and very short tail
(two inches), which is flat and black toward the
end.

The prairie-dog is about a foot long, and
robust, with strong limbs and claws. It dwells
in colonies, whose permanent "towns" of bur-
rows, each marked by a hillock of earth about
the entrance, spread densely over many acres
under the natural prehistoric conditions, but
now sometimes cover hundreds of square miles.
The burrows are deep and extensive, and at
first go down at a very steep slope to a depth
of twelve to fifteen feet, when they turn hori-
zontally, and here and there branch into cham-
bers, some of which are family rooms, while in
others fodder is stored, or refuse and dung are
deposited. The mound about the hole is
packed hard, not only by the tramping of the
animals, but by crowding it down with their
noses ; this hillock prevents water from running
into the burrows when the plain is flooded by
heavy rains, and also serves as a lower of ob-
servation.

156 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

"The prairie dogs feed upon grass and herbage,
which is soon exhausted near the burrows, compelling
the animals to go farther and farther away for food.
This they dislike to do, as it exposes them to attack
from enemies; and after a time they prefer to dig a
new burrow nearer a supply of food. Thus a 'town'
is always spreading and contains many empty bur-
rows. Like other animals habituated to desert re-
gions, they do not drink at all. . . . The animals
are diurnal and most active morning and evening.
They come out daily during the winter, except when
it is very stormy; but this practice varies with the
latitude and climate.

"They are prolific, especially in the southern half
of their territory, and would multiply with excessive
rapidity were it not for numerous enemies, especially
rattlesnakes and other serpents. These are coura-
geously resisted by the prairie dogs, who sound the
alarm the moment a snake enters a hole, gather, and
proceed to fill the entrance with earth, packing it
down, thereby sometimes entombing the snake for-
ever. Probably few snakes go down the passages,
which are so steep they could with difficulty climb
out, but depend upon lying hidden in the grass and
striking down the young squirrels when out at play
or in search of food. This is the method of the
coyote, kit-fox, wildcat, hawks, and owls, who find
the dog-towns a profitable hunting-ground. Badgers,
however, can, if they will, easily dig up a burrow
and devour the helpless family. The worst enemy is
the black-footed ferret, a weasel of the plains, which

PRAIRIE-DOGS 157

easily penetrates the burrows, and against whose
ferocity and skill the squirrels can make little defense.
' ' All these conditions together served in the natural
state of things to hold the prairie-dogs in check, but
the changes brought about by civilization have been so
favorable to these little animals, by the reduction of
their enemies on the one hand, and the augmentation
on the other hand of their food supplies by the farm-
ers' plantations of meadow grass, alfalfa, and grain,
that they have increased into a very serious pest."

A serious pest-problem. How serious this
pest lias become in the grazing regions of
western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, may be
inferred from the information furnished by
Vernon Bailey in his report upon the condi-
tions in Texas in 1905.

"Usually," he states, "they are found in scattered
colonies, or 'dog-towns,' varying in extent from a
few acres to a few square miles, but over an extensive
area lying just east of the Staked Plains they cover
the country in an almost continuous and thickly in-
habited dog-town, extending from Sari Angelo north
to Clarendon in a strip approximately 100 miles wide
by 250 miles long. Adding to this area of about 25,-
000 square miles the other areas covered by them,
they cover approximately 90,000 square miles of the
State, wholly within the grazing district. It has been
roughly estimated that the 25,000-square-miles colony
contains 400,000,000 prairie-dogs. If the remaining

158 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

,-.. 'V-.jr. -: ':

^Sx-i 5 -*"-*,'' "l .-'<*
B^r,:^> ^^^

^il^S^'H-'.

jff|^ ;: ;.,rf

B01NES IN" PRAIKIK-DOG LIFK.

PRAIRIE-DOGS 159

65,000 square miles of their scattered range in the
State contains, as seems probable, an equal number,
the State of Texas supports 800,000,000 prairie-dogs.
According to the formula for determining the relative
amount of food consumed by animals of different
sizes, this number of prairie-dogs would require as
much grass as 3,125,000 cattle.

''In many places the prairie-dogs are increasing
and spreading over new territory, but on most of the
ranches they are kept down by the use of poison, or
bisulphid of carbon, or, better, by a combination of
the two. As a Texas cattle ranch usually covers from
10,000 to 100,000 acres, the expense of destroying the
prairie-dogs in the most economical manner often
means an outlay of several thousand dollars to begin
with and a considerable sum each year to keep them
down. The increase of prairie-dogs is clearly due to
the destruction of their natural enemies. . . .

"In autumn the prairie-dogs become fat, but in
Texas they do not hibernate as they do to some extent
in the North. If their fur should become fashionable,
or roast prairie-dog an epicurean dish, the problem
of keeping them in check would be settled, and there
is no reason, save their name, for not counting them,
properly prepared and cooked, a delicacy. While
owing their name to a chirping or 'barking' note of
w r arning, they are in reality a big, plump, burrow-
ing squirrel of irreproachable habits as regards food
arid cleanliness. An old stage driver expressed the
idea in graphic words one day: 'If them things was
called by their right name, there would not be one

160 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

left in this country. They are just as good as squir-
rel, and I don't believe they are any relation to
dogs.' "

Since the citation above was written the pub-
lic suppressive measures taken in Kansas have
reduced the pest to negligible proportions ex-
cept in the remote northwestern counties.

The woodcliucks. These large ground-squir-
rels bridge the gap between the true squirrels
and the marmots, as they are called in the Old
World, known to us ^woodcliucks" or " ground-
hogs." They are stout, short-legged, inactive
animals, with short tails and closely appressed
ears, whose dense fur is grizzled gray, in-
clined to chestnut or blackish, and whose habits
are distinctly terrestrial. Our eastern wood-
chuck is found everywhere east of the Plains
in all open woodlands, prairies or cultivated
regions, for he thrives in the midst of civil-
ization, whose cleared fields are to his liking,
while he is furnished an abundance of food
by the raising of field and garden crops.
Few animals are so familiar to the country
boy, who early becomes acquainted with its
burrows in the hillsides, but rarely has the

PRAIRIE-DOGS 161

courage to dig the owner out of their tortuous
depth. In the West are other similar species;
and all the high mountains from the Rockies
westward, and far to the North, have a larger
one which dwells near timber-line, and is known
as the siffleur (whistler) on account of its clear
sharp call. The food of all these marmots con-
sists of herbage and succulent roots, and they
do great damage in gardens where not re-
strained. They do not store any of this food,
however, but in the early autumn retire to their
burrows, very fat, and pass the winter in a
state of complete torpor, during the continu-
ance of which their fatness decreases, being ab-
sorbed to sustain the trifling exertion of life
caused by the continued slow beating of the
heart. When, therefore, they emerge early in
the spring, they are lean and very weak, but
soon recuperate on the fresh grass and herbage.
Their fur is of little value, and their flesh poor,
so that as game they are attractive only to the
boy and his dog, or, in the West, to hungry In-
dians.

Food-value of the porcupine. Here, if any-
where, should be said a few words about the

162 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

sluggish, stupid northern porcupine, whose re-
lation to man is far more to the good than to
the bad. It is true that he strips a few forest
trees of their foliage, and occasionally inad-
vertently girdles one ; but his flesh is excellent
eating and large in quantity. His nature and
habits make it possible to approach him with-
out difficulty and to kill him with a club.
Hence he has always been a reliance of the
forest-dwelling Indians and white fur-hunters
for winter food, and now it is of so much impor-
tance in the great forested regions of the
Northern States, and in Canada, that timber-
cruisers and others whose business takes them
into the wilderness should be able to find a
porcupine in such emergencies as are always
likely to arise in their adventurous lives, espe-
cially in winter, that the animal is protected
by law; and this law is well lived up to by the
frontier folks for they appreciate its impor-
tance.

At the same time it must be confessed that
porcupines make themselves very troublesome
in camps or about houses in the woods which
are left alone for a time, as often happens

PRAIRIE-DOGS 163

among loggers and miners amid the western
mountains. The porcupines at once make
themselves at home, and if they can get inside
will demolish nearly every wooden thing in their
search for food, and their enjoyment of nib-
bling anything salty. As salt pork and bacon
enter largely into the provisions of these
people, their tables, cupboards and utensils are
likely to be more or less spotted if not satu-
rated with salty grease; and the porcupine
knows no reason why he should not get to the
last taste.

CHAPTER X

RABBITS hold a prominent place among the
obstacles to success met with by both the
farmer and the orchardist. They number many
species, and one or more is present in any
habitable part of the continent to which you
may refer. The East has in its middle and
southern part the familiar and widely distrib-
uted gray rabbit or Molly Cottontail, which ex-
tends westward to the plains; and the smaller,
and redder swamp-rabbit of the South; while
in our northeastern States and in eastern
Canada the larger American or varying-hare,
which turns white in winter, is present, and con-
stitutes the principal winter fare of such
worthy animals as the lynx, wolf, fox and vari-
ous martens, and of some hawks and owls. In
the West the great jack-rabbits abound, and in
the far North the arctic' white hares.

Excellence of rabbit-flesh. To the native
164

BABBITS 165

people of our forests and plains rabbits were
of the utmost importance as food, especially in
winter. The early pioneers everywhere re-
lied largely on them. Their thick fur too, was,
and is, a precious resource to the Indians, es-
pecially those of the Northwest, who make from
it artistic as well as substantial garments and
coverings.

The smaller American rabbits have long been
esteemed as game. While their flesh is less
tender than that of the domesticated species
it is of much finer flavor, and when properly
prepared for the table is much more desirable
as food. With the same care in dressing and
handling bestowed upon the rabbit in English
markets, our cottontail rabbit would stand
much higher in popular flavor. The jack-rab-
bits are not so good, yet many reach the
market.

A strong prejudice against eating jack-rab-
bits often exists because occasional individuals
are infested by warbles and the tapeworm
larva. Unless badly affected, however, the flesh
is not injured by these parasites, and there is
no good reason why the animals should not be

166 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

extensively used as food. The half-grown or
nearly full-grown young of the year are usually
healthy and very good eating when properly
cooked. Those not needed for the table may
be fed to dogs and poultry, but should be
cooked. The principal natural enemies of
jack-rabbits are coyotes, foxes, bobcats, hawks,
owls, and eagles. When rabbits become abun-
dant these enemies gather to feast on them, and
then at least should be afforded protection.

Rabbit fur is not in demand in this country
except for trimmings, since it is brittle, has no
underfur, and does not wear well ; but from one
and a half to two million skins are bought an-
nually to be made into felt for hats and similar
purposes, and it might be well for farm-boys to
enquire whether they could not profitably trap
.or shoot in their neighborhood for this and the
flesh market.

General breeding-habits. Our American rab-
bits are not so prolific as the common Euro-
pean species. Some of them produce three or
four litters of young in a season, while others
seem to breed but twice. The period of gesta-
tion is about thirty days, and the breeding sea-

BABBITS 167

son is from April to September or even later.
The young are produced in natural depressions
under rocks, stumps, or weeds, or in shallow
burrows made by other animals. When these
are lacking, the female scratches a shallow hole
under a bunch of grass or weeds, makes a nest
of leaves or grasses and lines it with fur from
her own body. Here the young, averaging in
most of our species about four, are produced;
they are fully furred and have their eyes open
when born.

The female, while caring for her young, re-
mains in the vicinity of the nest. If enemies
approach, she runs away for a short distance;
but when the young are attacked and cry out,
she has been known to fight desperately in their
defense, and even to vanquish such a formidable
foe as a cat or a snake. When attacking, she
jumps and strikes the enemy with her hind
feet members capable of a powerful blow, as
many a boy who has captured a live rabbit can
testify.

Young rabbits are attended and suckled in
the nest for about three weeks, after which they
are left to shift for themselves. Since sue-

168 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

culent food is usually abundant, this is not a
difficult task, and they soon adapt themselves
to an independent life. Apparently the mother
takes no further interest in the career of her
offspring. The male parent is probably never
concerned in the care of the young.

Injury to gardens and orchards. The cot-
tontail is fond of frequenting farms and planta-
tions, and having taken up its residence in some
chosen fence-corner or thicket remains near it,
feeding upon the succulent vegetables in the
farmer's garden, or the clover, turnips, or corn
in his fields. In the fall it feasts upon apples,
cabbages, turnips, and the like left exposed in
garden and orchard, and in winter, when all
else is frozen hard or covered with snow, it
turns its attention to twigs and bark of woody
plants. The other rabbits have similar habits,
varying with the environment. In the West
some of the smaller kinds live largely in the
abandoned burrows of prairie-dogs, badgers,
and other animals.

Rabbits feed upon nearly all growing crops,
but the damage to small grains is usually so
slight as to pass unnoticed. Clover and al-

BABBITS 169

falfa are favorites. In the Southwest they are
quick to seize upon garden-patches, and in
parts of Texas cantaloupes cannot be grown
unless well fenced.

Babbits, however, are most feared by tree-
planters. They injure trees and shrubs in two
ways by cutting off the ends of branches
and twigs, and by tearing away the bark, often
until the tree is entirely girdled. The differ-
ence between the work of rabbits and that of
field-mice may easily be detected by the large
tooth-marks of the former, and by the height
(16 to 18 inches above the ground) of the
wound.

Newly planted orchards are especially liable
to injury from rabbits, and few are now set out
without provisions for winter protection from
these animals. The losses of orchard and nur-
sery stock in one neighborhood in Arkansas
during the mild winter of 1905-6 were reported
at $50,000.

Laws protecting the rabbit. In New Eng-
land and the Middle Atlantic States the rabbit
is protected, while throughout most of the West
and South no restrictions are placed on hunt-

170 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ing the animals. In some Western States they
are regarded with such disfavor that bounties
have been paid for their destruction. 1 In States
where they are most abundant, protection is
rarely afforded. In sections of the country
where a close season on rabbits is accompanied
by a strict enforcement of laws against tres-
pass by hunters, rabbits have often become a
nuisance.

On the whole, in America shooting has been
the most effective means for keeping down the
number of rabbits.

Ferreting usually is impracticable, since few
of our native rabbits take refuge in burrows.
Moreover, the use of ferrets is forbidden by

i The bounty on rabbit ears paid by Gray County, recalls
the bounty paid on gophers in Wallace and Greeley counties
[Kansas] in 1894. The former county paid the bounty on
scalps, while Greeley County paid it on gopher tails. The
boys along the county line traded gopher tails for scalps, and
realized 10 cents on each gopher. A five-cent bounty was
paid on rabbit ears also, and rabbits and gophers were so
plentiful that many families made their living from hunting.
So much bounty money was claimed that Wallace County
resorted to scrip payment, and this became so plentiful that
its value dropped to 50 cents on the dollar. The county
finally tried to repudiate the scrip, and in suits fought to
the highest court, it succeeded after five or six years of ex-
pensive litigation. Kansas telegram to New York Times, Jan.
2, 1911.

BABBITS 171

law in some States which protect the rabbit.
Coursing with greyhounds has many advocates
and is popular in the West, where the swifter
jack-rabbits abound. Smaller rabbits are often
chased with fox-hounds, but the beagle is rap-
idly taking precedence as a favorite for rabbit-
hunting, the gun being depended upon for
securing the game. All of these are most ex-
hilarating sports.

Where the country is sufficiently open for the
purpose, one of the most successful methods
of reducing the numbers of rabbits is the or-
ganized hunt, known as the "drive." This
method has been tried in many localities in the
West and in Australia with satisfactory re-
sults, the number of rabbits killed in a single
drive reaching as high as 10,000 or even
20,000.

Complete extermination of rabbits in any
part of the United States is not desirable, as
has been remarked, even if it were possible.
In most cases where protection seems neces-
sary a rabbit-proof fence may be cheaply con-
structed of wire netting, I 1 /, inch mesh, from
2 to 3 feet high, with the lower edge sunk a

172

ANIMAL COMPETITOES

BABBITS 173

little, or a furrow plowed against it to prevent
an occasional disposition to dig under.

Protecting trees against rabbits. The de-
vices that have been recommended for protect-
ing trees from rabbits are too numerous for
separate mention. The majority consist of
paints, washes, or smears supposed to be dis-
tasteful to the animals. Unfortunately, those
that are sufficiently permanent to afford pro-
tection for an entire winter often injure or even
kill the trees to which they are applied. Coal
tar, pine tar, tarred paper, and various oils are
likely to kill young trees. Blood and animal
fats when freshly applied will protect from
rabbits, but are objectionable, since they are
highly attractive to the destructive short-
tailed field-mice. Carbolic acid and other vol-
atile substances afford only temporary protec-
tion, and must be renewed too often to justify
their use. Bitter substances, like commercial
aloes, or quassia, are useless against rabbits.

Among the most promising washes that have
been recommended for tree protection is the
"lime-and-sulphur" wash, so effective in win-
ter for the destruction of the San Jose scale.

174 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

If this cheap method of controlling our worst
insect pest of the orchard has further value in
protecting trees from rodents, the fact can not

AN APPLE-TREE KILLED BY RABBITS.

be too widely advertised. The results of per-
sonal observation by the Survey seem to fully
warrant its recommendation, and its cheapness

BABBITS 175

makes the method worthy of general trial by
orchardists.

The formula for the wash, reduced to the
basis of the capacity of the ordinary kerosene
barrel commonly used in the preparation, is :

Unslaked lime 20 pounds

Flowers of sulphur 15 pounds

Water to make 45-50 gallons

A little salt may be added to increase the
adhesive property of the mixture. The lime,
sulphur, and about a third of the water are
boiled together for at least one hour, and the
full quantity of water is then added. For San
Jose scale the wash in the form of a spray is
applied to the entire surface of the trees. For
protection from mice and rabbits the trunks
only require treatment, and the wash may be
applied with a brush. One application in No-
vember should last the entire winter.

Mechanical contrivances for protecting young
orchard trees are many. The following are
recommendations :

"Where protection from rabbits only is required,
woven wire netting is recommended. This should be
made of No. 20 galvanized wire, 1-inch mesh, such as is

17G ANIMAL COMPETITORS

often used for poultry netting. For cottontail rabbits
rolls 18 inches wide are recommended, but as a protec-
tion against jack rabbits wider material is safer. The
wire is cut into 1-foot lengths, and one of these sec-
tions is rolled into shape about the trunk of each tree,
the ends being brought together and fastened at sev-
eral places by means of the wire ends. No other
fastening is needed. The wire is not in contact with
the trunk and may be left on the tree permanently.
It will probably last as long as the tree requires pro-
tection, and the cost of material need not be over 1%
cents for each tree. For young evergreens, material
of the same kind 1 foot wide and cut in l^-foot
lengths will give excellent protection.

' ' If trees are to be protected from both rabbits and
mice, materials of closer mesh must be used. Wire
window-screen netting is excellent for the purpose,
and the cost, when permanence of protection is con-
sidered, is not great.

"Veneer and other forms of wood protectors are
popular and have several advantages. When left
permanently upon the trees, however, they furnish
retreats for insect pests. For this reason they should
be removed each spring and laid away until cold
weather. While the labor of removing and replacing
them is considerable, they have the advantage, when
pressed well into the soil, of protecting from both
mice and rabbits. They cost from 60 cents per hun-
dred upward, and are much superior to building
paper or newspaper wrappings. The writer has
known instances where rabbits tore wrappings of

BABBITS 177

building paper from the apple trees and in a single
night injured hundreds of them. 'Gunny-sack' and
other cloth wrappings, well tied on, are effective pro-
tectors. Cornstalks also furnish a cheap material for
orchard protection. They are cut into lengths of 18
to 20 inches, split, and tied with the flat side against
the tree, so as fully to cover the trunk. ' '

BABBITS AS PETS.

It hardly falls within the scope of this book
to treat the subject of rabbits as pets; but
some brief directions for keeping them may not
be amiss.

All the various forms of pet rabbits, includ-
ing what is called the Belgian hare, are varie-
ties of the wild European rabbit brought about
by selective breeding in domestication. That
under favorable circumstances they would
thrive and multiply wild here, or in any tem-
perate part of the world, is shown by the hordes
of them which became a formidable pest in
Australia. A vast amount of time and work
and money have been expended in trying to
get rid of them, and it has been found that
the best plan has been to fence them out of
the farm-lands and sheep-pastures where they

178 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

were so undesirable. Lately, they have been
turned to account as food, enormous numbers
of their frozen carcases being shipped to Eu-
rope; and also great quantities of canned rab-
bit-flesh.

I am not aware that in this country any
really wild colony has been permitted to grow
except one near Belleville, Ontario, on a rocky
point covered with cedars, which jutted into
the Bay of Quinte. The increase in only two
years was astonishing. Undoubtedly an en-
closed space of waste land, where the creatures
might burrow easily, if devoted to a colony
would shortly produce a large annual crop
for market with a minimum of expense and
trouble; but whether regular sale for them
could be found is another question which would
depend for its answer largely on local circum-
stances.

A few years ago an effort was made by the
Department of Agriculture to arouse an in-
terest in breeding and eating the large variety,
known as Belgian or Dutch hare, which orig-
inated in the Netherlands fifty or sixty years
ago, but it did not succeed. These large rab-

BABBITS 179

bits may still be purchased of dealers in pet
stock, and are the best for practical rabbit-
culture.

Advisable for children. No pets are more
interesting for young children than rabbits,
and if attended to gently and properly they
become very tame. The ordinary scrub is good
enough to begin with; and after the youngster
has learned the lesson of regularity and care
in keeping and breeding them, he will want
and may be trusted with fancy varieties, such
as the lop-ear or angora, which are the aristo-
crats of their kind.

Hutches. Although the hutches may be
built out of rough materials, such as an old
box, it is a mistake to suppose that any sort
of a kennel will do. The hutch should be tight
and warm, protecting the animals well from
rain, cold drafts and a burning sun.

Each hutch should consist of two parts,
an inner and an outer compartment. The in-
ner one, or bedroom, should be about 2 1 /* feet
square and high, and have a solid floor. It
should also have a hinged door in order to per-
mit of cleaning it, and also a little low door,

180 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

or bole, giving access to the outer, or dining-
room. This outer apartment should be some-
what larger and consist of a stout framework
covered with chicken-wire on all sides, in-
cluding the floor. Then, in fine weather, the
hutch may be moved about the yard, and the
rabbits will be able to eat the grass through
the wire flooring; when the forage has been
eaten in one spot, the affair may easily be
lifted and set down in another. However, in
wet or chilly weather, a board floor should be
provided, either within or beneath the cage.
Dampness and chill are always to be avoided;
hence the roof ought to slant so as to shed
water, and the hutch ordinarily be raised above
wet ground by supports, such as a brick under
each corner.

A few gimlet holes should be bored in the
floor of the bedroom for drainage, and also
near its ceiling for ventilation. Other than
this there should be no windows or cracks, as
it is necessary that this room should be tight
and dark, like a burrow. Its only furniture
should be a little dry hay, changed as often
as it becomes soiled. The feeding and water-

BABBITS 181

ing pans should also be kept very clean; and
these ought to be of pottery or iron, as wooden
ones are ruined by nibbling. The hutch should
be cleaned regularly ; in fact, it is a good thing
to make a practice of raking out the refuse
every morning and giving the rabbits a bed of
fresh straw.

Babbits should be fed regularly twice a day.
Almost anything in the way of fresh vegetables
is good for them green grass, lettuce, cab-
bage-leaves, roots, such as carrots, sweet apples,
and vegetable parings from the kitchen. A
regular daily ration, however, should be a
small quantity of grain, half oats and half
bran, or something similar, and in the winter
good hay. Many recommend in winter, warm
tea-leaves and dandelion as an occasional treat,
good for their health, and boiled potato-parings
given warm. One experienced man warns us
against giving cabbage-leaves to the young;
and also warns us that all green stuff offered
must be quite dry or it is likely to "pad" the
animals give them cholera morbus. They do
not need much water when fed on juicy food,
but drink a good deal when living on hay and

_-.

The three' raoolts togethw oeaf tbe Wp re the Silver Grey (dark), the Silver Cream (middle), and the
Polish. The big rabbit with thb ears standing quite erect U the Flemish Giant, and the one next K, hiding-
behind the tree, is a PaUgonlao. Next come the two black-and-white rabbit*, which are Dutch. The big rabbit
with very long ears U a lop-eared rabbit, and the white one beside it 1s an Angora. The last U a Himalayan.

BABBITS 183

shorts; and a supply should always be kept
within their reach.

Directions for breeding. Babbits will mate
and breed every two months or so. When the
doe desires the buck, as the male rabbit is
called, she will announce it by stamping with
her feet and behaving restlessly. The period
of gestation is four weeks, and when the young
are about to be born the mother will tear fur
from her breast and form a soft bed for them.
She should then be given a hutch quite to her-
self, and left undisturbed. Your curiosity will
be great to see the little ones, but it is better
to restrain it until, a fortnight later, they be-
gin to be brought out for air. They mature
rapidly, but should be left with the mother five
or six weeks, unless she shows by fighting them
away that she is weaning them earlier. The
young should not be given as fresh, rich food
as the old rabbits, but selected and somewhat
dry and wilted food. The first litter is some-
times lost, by bad mothering, but rarely a sec-
ond or subsequent one.

Babbits are subject to various diseases, but
these can usually be prevented by good care.

CHAPTER XI

SUPPRESSION OF RODENTS AS PESTS

INTEKESTING and beautiful as most of the
rodents may be regarded, and beneficial to
mankind in much of their work, there are un-
doubtedly many times and places when, owing
to their excessive numbers and activity, they
constitute a serious nuisance and must be sup-
pressed.

Foolish destruction of rodents' enemies.
Prominent among the recognized causes for the
great increase of rodent pests in recent years
is the persistent destruction of the birds, mam-
mals, and snakes that habitually prey upon
them. Even farmers have joined in the war-
fare against the so-called "vermin," and too
often have sought to get ill-advised legislation
against mammals and birds that are beneficial.

Among the wild mammals of North Amer-
ica known to feed upon field-mice and their
burrowing relatives are bears, wolves, foxes,

184

SUPPEESSION OF RODENTS 185

wildcats, all the weasel-tribe, and the brown rat,
one of his few commendable traits.

Bears, the puma and the wildcats, foxes and
wolves, all subsist largely on mice and ground-
squirrels. Dogs frequently follow their mas-
ters to the field at plowing and harvesting,
ready to pounce upon every mouse or gopher
uncovered; and they sometimes become very
fond of both the prey and the sport and hunt
independently. Some cats are good mousers,
and in places live largely on wild game; but
unfortunately they also learn to destroy song-
birds and game-birds, and their nests. The
ordinary farm cat is a terrifically destructive
animal, and when it develops hunting pro-
clivities it should either be reformed, or belled
or killed. Rats kill many mice, in the fields,
as well as about houses, forcing their way into
their burrows. Even the ferocious little shrews
may do so, dashing fearlessly at one twice the
shrew's size.

The weasel tribe the best police. The most
efficient check upon the over-production of ro-
dents, however, so far as mammals are con-
cerned, is furnished by the tireless hunting of

186 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

the skunks, badgers, minks, ferrets and similar
animals of the weasel family, albeit they do
other things which are less pleasing to the
farmer. The smaller weasels easily traverse
the surface-runways of the larger species of
Microtus, and even follow them into under-
ground burrows. The larger weasels feed
upon pocket-gophers, prairie-dogs, ground-
squirrels, and various kinds of mice and rats.
While occasionally they capture game- or song-
birds, as well as poultry, their principal food
consists of injurious rodents.

This general statement applies to minks,
skunks and badgers, as we shall see when we
come to speak of these animals more particu-
larly; and nothing could be more unwise than
to kill these animals or allow anyone else to
kill them upon farm or ranch, except in the oc-
casional case where one is known to have ac-
quired the habit of taking eggs or poultry.
In most cases the blame is placed on the wrong
head. Almost all skunks leave birds entirely
alone, as also does the badger, which in the
gopher country ought to be protected with the
utmost solicitude. It has been repeatedly no-

SUPPEESSION OF RODENTS 187

ticeable that when white weasel-skins are
high-priced, and, consequently, many of these
animals are trapped in winter, the following
season will be one of excessive mischief by all
the smaller rodents.

L. C. Cummins, of Riverside, Cal., writing to
the Biological Survey, February 12, 1892, says :

At one nursery we were bothered with gophers; all
at once the gopher became scarce and from one to five
weasels could be seen nearly every day running
through the nursery stock and over an adjoining hill.
They completely drove away and killed all the
gophers.

Useful aid by birds of prey. A similar ac-
count might be made of the birds not only
birds of prey, of which the owls and the marsh-
hawk are to be put foremost, but shrikes
(butcher-birds), crows, jays, roadrunners, gulls
and several of the heron tribe. Bitterns, egrets,
cranes and the like, search steadily for mead-
ow-mice. In California the great blue heron is
protected on many ranches in realization of
valuable service. A letter to The Pacific Rural
Press, Oct. 23, 1897, from W. M. Bistoe, re-
lated that a neighbor found barn-owls had

188 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

made their home in his pigeon-house. Think-
ing they were after the pigeons he shot the
male and the next day trapped the female. On
investigation he found four young owls in the
nest, together with the remains of ten pocket-
gophers. He immediately released the cap-
tured mother, with his apologies. This owl is
so regular in its daily capture of these pests
that it might well be named the gopher-owl.

Serpents devour mice and gophers. Snakes
must be included among the natural enemies
of field-mice. The larger bull-snakes (Pituo-
pliis), blacksnakes (Callopeltis), and rattle-
snakes (Crotalus) feed largely upon rabbits,
prairie-dogs, pocket-gophers, and ground-squir-
rels, as well as different species of rats and
mice. Blacksnakes and bull-snakes probably
kill more field-mice than the others ; but black-
snakes destroy also a considerable number of
nestling birds and birds' eggs, so that part of
their beneficial work is offset by this injurious
habit. A nurseryman in Pennsylvania reports
that he secured immunity from mice in his nur-
sery by turning loose in it 50 blacksnakes.

The Pacific bull-snake (Pituopliis catenifer),

SUPPRESSION OF EODENTS 189

because of its habit of killing pocket-gophers,
is quite generally called the gopher-snake. A
writer in The Pacific Rural Press for May 12,

1888, says of the reptile :

It is an act of insane folly to destroy them, for
they are the most active and efficient allies of the
nurseryman, farmer, and fruit raiser in the destruc-
tion of those most pernicious pests, the gopher and
the squirrel. They destroy more gophers than all
the appliances that man can bring to bear in the shape
of traps, poisons, and gases.

On the whole, snakes, except the venomous
species, are deserving of the farmers' protec-
tion. Like the toad, the smaller kinds feed
almost wholly upon insects; but an inherent
prejudice induces thoughtless people at every
opportunity to destroy these friends of agri-
culture.

Poisoning and fumigation. Undoubtedly the
most effective methods of getting rid of ro-
dent pests of all kinds is by poisoning them,
and by trapping them. Directions for doing
this applicable to the various kinds will be
found in the last chapter, and need not be
dwelt upon here.

190 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

Fumigation is a method of despatch which
has proven effective with prairie-dogs and
ground-squirrels, but is of little use in the case
of gophers or moles, because the latter dig so
fast and so quickly close their tunnels against
the fumes as to escape its effects. Machines
have been invented for blowing the furnes of
burning sulphur down the burrows. Better
results, however, are gained with carbon disul-
phide. This is an antiseptic liquid which may
be bought in quart-bottles, and is very useful
in general for killing vermin, protecting stuffed
birds, etc., in museum cases or in boxes, and
similar purposes ; but must be kept away from
fire as it is easily inflammable and explosive.
It evaporates rapidly, making pungent fumes
in a closed place. The method to be used is
to carry it, corked, to the mouth of a burrow,
pour a small quantity upon a little wad of rags
or corn-husk, or a ball of horse-dung, and push
it quickly as far as you can down a burrow
and immediately close the entrance with packed
earth. Unless the soil is very dry and the bur-
row extensive the animals at home will be
smothered. In the case of prairie-dogs, the

field should first be gone over with poison, and
the bulk of the animals thus destroyed.

Flooding the burrows. Where available,
water is one of the best means of combatting
pocket-gophers. Flooding the land in winter
is especially effective, as it wets the animals
and drives them to the surface, where they soon
succumb to the cold. In warm weather the
method can be made effective if men and dogs
are on hand to kill the animals as they seek
refuge on the embankments. S. E. Piper, of
the Biological Survey, reports that about the
middle of April, 1909, at Modesto, Cal., he saw
some boys killing pocket-gophers that had been
driven from an alfalfa patch by flooding. A
hundred gophers, more than half of them young
of the year, were killed from a three-acre tract.

Difficulties of extermination. Much hope has
been entertained that a bacterial disease fatal
to rodents, and particularly to rats, might be
found, but thus far has been disappointed.
It was thought that a bacillus (B. typhimur-
ium) given to the field-mice which over-ran
Thessaly in 1892-3 had put an end to the
plague, but it is now thought it did little to

192 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

hasten the end. Experiments with similar or-
ganisms have been reported successful since in
Eussia and in France; but none of the like at-
tempts made during the mouse-plague in Ne-
vada in 1908 had an appreciable effect.
As Mr. Lantz says:

"The destruction of noxious mammals is a more
complicated problem than that of insect destruction.
The farmer who fights these higher forms deals
with instincts and intelligence well adapted to cope
with his own in the struggle for existence. It is
not enough that he place poisoned food or traps
in the way of the creatures he desires to destroy;
he must make the baits attractive and allay the
natural suspicion of the animals by ridding traps
of all. suggestion of their real nature. He must
know the traits of the animals and take advantage
of any habit that will enable him to circumvent and
destroy them."

Furthermore :

"In warfare against any rodent pest little per-
manent good can be accomplished except by coop-
erative effort. Although it always pays the indi-
vidual farmer or fruit grower to exterminate pocket-
gophers from his own lands, yet if he can not se-
cure cooperation of the whole community he must
constantly guard against a return of the pests and be
ever ready to renew offensive operations against them.

SUPPEESSION OF RODENTS 193

"With united effort the animals can be completely
exterminated over entire townships, or even counties,
and when this is accomplished immunity from the
pest will continue indefinitely."

CHAPTER XII
MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS

UNDER this caption might be written a long
list of American insectivores, animals which
are to be thought of not merely as feeding upon
insects, but as belonging to the Order In-
sectivora. This order is a group of small,
slender, plantigrade animals, having fine sharp
teeth and digestive organs especially suited to
a diet of worms and insects. They are found
all over the world, except in South America and
Australasia; and are of particular interest to
the zoologist because much evidence allies them
with the earliest known type of mammal, so
that the insectivores seem to represent, with
little alteration, the most ancient mammalian
stock. They are most nearly related to the
lemurs and the bats.

The moles under the lawn. Our insecti-
vores are all small and inconspicuous, and pop-
ular interest is attached only to the moles

194

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 195

which disfigure our lawns and flower-beds. It
is commonly believed that the mole bites off
roots and eats such things as lily-bulbs and
sweet potatoes ; but all the harm it does is now
and then to upset a plant or disarrange a bit
of grass-plot. It is in search of worms, grubs
and burrowing insects, that the mole pushes
his way beneath our feet ; and he devours a vast
number of these, which do prey upon the roots
and stems of grasses and other plants. The
real mischief occasionally observed is due to
the field-mice which sometimes follow his track.
The mole has become extraordinarily well
fitted for his underground work. His body is
a loosely filled sack which will stand a lot of
bending and squeezing, and his head is like a
round wedge with a flexible point, really an
exquisitely sensitive nose and a mouth filled
with capable teeth. Within that sack are the
most massive shoulders and forearms for their
size in the animal kingdom, the latter terminat-
ing in broad, strongly webbed hands, armed
with long, sharp claws, like a shovel ending in
five pick-blades. These great hands are twisted
so that their palms are outward, thumbs down,

196 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

and the thumb is braced by an extra wrist-
bone, and armed with a horny outgrowth of
skin with a knife-like edge. The accompany-
ing muscles are enormous. As the creature
goes through the soil he stretches these instru-
ments ahead of his nose, drives the claws into
the soil, then sweeps them outward, and so
progresses by a swimming motion, kicking the
loose soil behind him, and now and then throw-
ing it out upon the surface in a "mole-hill."

The strength required for this is prodigious,
as may be tested when a mole is placed among
movable objects. Godman describes one which,
after a fall from a mantel-piece, hurried to the
wall and then began to travel around the room.

"Whenever," he says, "its course was impeded by
the feet of the chairs, which were of large size, it
would not go around them, but wedging itself be-
tween them and the wall, pushed them with apparent
ease far enough to obtain a free passage, and it thus
continued to move several in succession. What was
more astonishing, it passed in a similar manner be-
hind the legs of a small mahogany breakfast table,
and pushed it aside in the same way it had done the
chairs, finally hiding itself behind a pile of quarto
volumes, more than two feet high, which it also moved
out from the wall."

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 197

Dr. Merriam. worked out the dynamics of this
last feat, and found it equivalent to a man's
exerting a pressure of 12,000 pounds !

Methods of the garden mole. In loose old
cultivated ground, where earthworms and grubs
are numerous, moles travel in every direc-
tion just beneath the surface, and often never
return on their tracks ; but many of their sub-
terranean paths are regular galleries or run-
ways, intersecting with others and centering in
a home nest which seems to be occupied year
after year, and often by several pairs or fam-
ilies. This nest and the runways are kept in
excellent repair. "When the shrew-mole en-
counters a rock or an old log, or stump, in the
course of his subterranean wanderings," re-
marks Merriam, "instead of avoiding it he
takes great pains to burrow beneath, making
extensive excavations in contact with its under
surface. The reason is obvious, for he knows
. . . that in such places are to be found
many slugs, ants with their eggs, and other
tender insects."

As winter comes on the mole sinks below the
frost-line, as do the earthworms, and so pur-

198 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

sues its prey at a safe depth. It does not hi-
bernate Imt is much less active than in summer,
and doubtless is made so drowsy by the chill
and the scarcity of air beneath the frozen top-
soil that it sleeps most of the time. In sum-
mer these little creatures have a curious habit
of coming to the surface precisely at noon,
and peering out, or even taking air and sun-
shine in a little walk. They are not blind, but
their eyes are hardly larger than mustard
seeds, so that vision must be restricted to little
more than the perception of light.

A closely related but smaller northeastern
species is Brewer's or the hairy- tailed mole;
and the Pacific coast has Townsend's and other
species.

The mole ivith the rosette. The star-nosed
mole is a very interesting one, common in the
Great Lakes region and on the Atlantic slope.
It is larger than the garden mole, has a longer
tail, a blackish-brown coat impervious to water,
and particularly a rosette of pinkish fleshy
feelers around the end of its pig-like proboscis.
It lives by choice in swamps and wet meadows,
where its burrows often open in some stream-

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 199

bank below the water. It can swim and dive
excellently, and no doubt adds to its fare of
worms and grubs many small creatures and
their eggs caught in the water and on the
stream-bed. It seems to be more active in win-
ter than the others, frequently moving about
under the snow or on its surface.

Moles are hardy, easily tamed and supported
on shreds of meat, and exhibit intelligence as
well as an ugly temper. When two or more
are confined together the murder and eating of
the weaker is likely to follow, until one cannibal
is left.

Shrews and their ways. The shrews are
relatives of the moles, which do not tunnel, but
are so small, secretive and nocturnal, that few
persons suspect their presence, although they
are numerous and of many sorts all over the
country, even very far to the north. Our
eastern long-tailed shrew is the smallest known
mammal and could curl up in a walnut husk,
yet it exists at the Arctic Circle and runs about
in the snow of a Canadian winter. They are
mouse-like animals, extremely swift and agile
in their movements, but instantly separable

200 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

by their long, flexible, trunk-like noses, be-
whiskered noses, minute eyes and ears, and
red-pointed teeth, which, of course, are not in
the least like those of a mouse. As I have
written elsewhere :

"All the shrews are ceaselessly active, wandering
about underneath leaves, old grass, and logs, and bor-
ing their way into loose loam or the punky wood of
decayed stumps, in search of earthworms, grubs,
beetles, slugs, and similar prey, including young mice
and the fledglings of ground-nesting birds, and vary-
ing this fare by bites from soft-shelled beechnuts,
tuberous roots, etc. They are astonishingly quick of
hearing; are bold, pugnacious, and fierce, often kill-
ing and eating other shrews; difficult to keep alive
in captivity, utterly untamable, and easily frightened
to death. All kinds exhale from glands near their
armpits a musky odor which no doubt is protective,
since most hawks, cats, foxes, etc., do not eat them
unless excessively hungry; but owls and weasels ap-
pear to be well pleased with such flavors, and catch
and devour them in large numbers."

We have a large number of shrews, some of
which are aquatic, and the variety of color and
size is considerable. Cuba and Hayti each
also possesses a large sort of insectivore, called
almiqui and looking like a shrew as big as a rat.

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 201

Little is known of the habits of either, and they
are chiefly notable because closely related to
certain insectivores of Madagascar, the tenrecs,
indicating descent from a common and ex-
tremely primitive source, as the only explana-
tion of their now living in two so widely sepa-
rated regions.

American bats. These insect-eating mam-
mals of the air constitute a distinct group
(Order CMroptera), characterized by the pos-
session of leathery wings, and other features
which separate them from the terrestrial in-
sectivores. North America has about twenty
species, nearly all of the world-wide family
Vespertilionidce, in which the nostrils are
without those membranous appendages called
a nose-leaf, and the ears are of moderate
size and shape. On our southwestern border,
however, occurs a true nose-leafed, fruit-eat-
ing bat or two, representing families numerous
in Mexico, Central America and the West In-
dies, to one of which belongs the dreaded
vampire, the blood-sucker of equatorial South
America. Most of the North American bats
are confined to the warm South, but half a

202 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

dozen kinds are spread all over the Northern
States and southern Canada, some regularly
migrating southward in winter and returning
in spring like birds.

The commonest ones are the little brown bat,
which is glossy brown above and paler below;
the very similar, but more southern pipistrelle;
the silvery bat, whose fur is dark brown with
white tips ; and the rusty or foxy-gray red bat.
All these are small (3.4 to 4.4 in. long). A
larger dark brown kind, the Carolina bat (4.6
in.) is common in all the Southern States;
while the North has the big hoary bat (5.4 in.
long, grizzled above, white below), a long-
winged, swift-flying denizen of forests, rarely
seen and a winter migrant. Other species are
locally well known in California and along the
Mexican border, especially the little "free-
tailed" Texan bat (Nyctinomus), which repre-
sents a tropical group in which the tail is free
from the membrane stretched between the hind
legs.

All these bats are similar in habits, sleeping
in some dark and sheltered place during the
day, and hibernating more or less completely

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 203

in winter. At twilight they come squeaking out
to hunt in swift zigzag flight for small flying
insects, thus destroying hordes of gnats and
mosquitoes ; and in the early morning they take
another meal before disappearing. In this
business their sharp eyesight is aided by an
inconceivably delicate sense of touch in their
wings and elsewhere. Where caves or rocky
crevices abound they often cluster on their
walls in great numbers, or elsewhere throng
in hollow trees; but they are quick to resort
to buildings, finding their way into barns, gar-
rets, broken eaves, belfries and like places, and
sometimes becoming a nuisance by their noise
and dirt and abominable smell, but otherwise
they are harmless. The superstitious fear of
them felt by some persons is only a part of
the nonsense that has come-down to us from the
Dark Ages, when all nocturnal animals were
supposed to be somehow connected with the so-
called "powers of darkness."

The bats breed annually, usually producing
twins in early summer, which are born naked
and cling to the mother's body, where they may
be suckled wrapped in her wings as she hangs

head downward in her dark retreat or carried
safely as she flies abroad. Extreme care and
affection are shown by the little mothers, and
their babies are long dependent upon them.
No animals seem to prey on our bats, but they
are quarrelsome and pugnacious among them-
selves, and captives are not easily tamed.

Relations to humanity. Bats are not of
much economic interest in this country not
as much as in the eastern tropics, where it is
* te impossible, in some places, to raise soft
tree-fruits unless the trees are carefully and
strongly screened against the big fruit-eating
fox-bats. Our species, on the other hand are
wholly beneficial in their feeding habi fc from
our point of view, because their fare ccri ists
wholly of flying insects, most of which ay< in
some way injurious or annoying to us. ' is
delightful to watch their dancing flight ir the
twilight the more so when we try to count the
number of mosquitoes they catch ; and it is per-
fectly foolish for any one to be afraid of them
as some women and girls pretend they are. It
is also charged that they carry bedbugs and
introduce them into houses. In common with

MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS 205

most animals the bat acts as host to a few small
insect parasites, one of which is a relative of
the bedbug and somewhat resembles it. It is
possible that at rare intervals one may be
found carrying a true bedbug, which is not one
of its natural parasites, and might drop it in
some garret; but the danger from this is slight.
Bats are naturally cave-dwellers, and certain
caves favorably situated in wild regions have
been tenanted by them in enormous numbers
and for an untold length of time. In such
caverns, discovered in various parts of world,
thick deposits of guano have been found, and
have to some extent been utilized, being ex-
ceedingly strong in nitrogenous elements and
unimpaired, in their protected situation by the
washing away of the soluble elements in which
their virtue largely lies.

CHAPTER XIII
FOXES AND FOX-FARMING

WE have in North America several different
sorts of foxes. The red fox is the most wide-
spread and important of these. A large form
of it dwells in southern Alaska, and another
variety, or species, is peculiar to Newfound-
land. Then, in the West, are two small foxes,
the kit or swift fox of the central plains, and
the big-eared swift of southern California and
Arizona.

The kit-foxes of the west. These last are
handsome grizzled-gray and yellowish little
animals, with keen, interesting faces, tall, alert
ears, and the ability to run like a streak. Each
has a full measure of the cunning of its harried
race, and makes a good living during all the
warmer half of the year at the expense of mice,
spermophiles and gophers, but in winter, when
most of these are safe under ground, it must
have a harder time, and resort to various foxy

206

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 207

YARDS, WITH FOX-KENNELS.

A CORNER, WITH STONES TO PREVENT THE FOXES DTOGING OUT.

208 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

tricks to catch snow-birds and grouse, espe-
cially in the far North.

It is quite harmless to man, and would prob-
ably increase rather than diminish as ranching
and civilization gradually overspread its once
lonely haunts, did it not so often fall a victim
to the poisoned baits laid out for coyotes.
This is unfortunate, especially in prairie-dog
regions, for it is an indefatigable and skillful
hunter of these troublesome burrowers.

The gray fox. Throughout the Southern
States occurs a rather small fox differing in
color, for it is prevailingly gray and also in
habits, from the northern red foxes. This
gray fox seems to have less sharpness, adapta-
bility and fearlessness than the red; and it is
also less fecund, its young rarely exceeding
four or five annually, whereas the litter of the
red often numbers seven or eight. Otherwise
the gray fox seems to have several advantages,
as I have pointed out in my Life of Mammals:

11 It is decidedly smaller and less conspicuous, being
silver-gray, darker on the back, and tinged with
rufous on the ears, sides of the neck, breast, and un-
der parts, while the tips of the ears, top of the nose,

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 209

chin, and feet are black. It is a woodlander, and
seems incapable of adapting itself to the cleared dis-
tricts in which the red fox so easily makes itself at
home; climbs trees almost like a cat, and takes to
them naturally for safety or to get grapes and per-
simmons to eat. There, too, it makes its home in a
hollow stump or log, not digging a burrow, for the
weather of its southerly habitat, and the later date
of its breeding, do not require for its young the
warmth of an underground nursery ; and all the year
round it can supply itself with food by its own cun-
ning tricks, while the red fox must wander over many
miles of country. The ground-breeding birds and
waterfowl and their eggs form its principal fare,
perhaps in summer, when hens or turkeys straying
in the woods are likely to be seized; but rarely is
the poultry disturbed on the home roost, nor can.
such worse depredations as killing young pigs, lambs,
etc., be laid at its door. Audubon, whose account of
this to him very familiar animal is circumstantial,
speaks of it as a 'pilfering thief and of the red fox
as a 'daring and cunning plunderer.' Gray foxes
will run before hounds only a short distance, doubling
constantly and for a short time, when they either
' hole ' in a tree or climb one ; while a red fox may run
straight eight or ten miles away and then back in a
parallel course.

"Extremely interesting is the arctic fox, of the
polar regions right round the world. It is a shy,
swift little beast with blunt nose, short rounded ears,
a very long bushy tail, and the soles of its feet well

210 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

shod with moccasins of hair, giving them a firm hold
on the slippery rocks, snow, and ice, over which it
leaves its tiny tracks from Labrador to the Lincoln
Sea. Every arctic explorer from Steller down has
had much to say of this animal, the accounts given
by Richardson, Feilden, and Nelson being especially
full and good. The most remarkable feature of its
history relates to its varying phases of coloration.
During the short arctic summer its dress is brown
with the under parts lighter, often drab. In autumn
this coat is replaced by one of pure white, beneath
which is a fine wool; and this warm, white dress,
invisible against the snow, is the normal winter hue
of the great majority of arctic foxes. A small pro-
portion, however, are never either white or dark
brown, but are slate-gray all the year round. This
double phase may occur anywhere, one or two, per-
haps, arising from a litter that becomes white; but
in some rather southerly places the 'blues' prevail,
forming a local race. Such is the case in Greenland,
Iceland, and in the Aleutian Islands, where blue
foxes are now carefully preserved and cared for in a
semidomestic condition, for the sake of their highly
valuable fur, a certain number being killed an-
nually. ' '

The American red fox. Returning now to
the common or red fox, it appears that this is
one of the most widely distributed of animals,
for it is hard to distinguish more than such

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 211

local varieties as might easily arise in different
climates and from local peculiarities of food
throughout the whole northern world. It is
convenient to name them as species, but it is
practically the same "Reynard the Fox" right
around the globe.

"Our American form," to quote again from my
Life of . . .Mammals heretofore mentioned, "seems
especially variable since its typical yellowish red,
darkest on the back and shoulders, may be very bright
or very pale ; or may have the markings on the spine
and withers very dark and distinct, making it a
'cross fox,' or be totally black with a white-tipped
tail ; or black, with the tips of most of the hairs white,
giving the fur a frosted or 'silver' appearance. . . .

"Foxes everywhere are naturally burrowers and
nocturnal hunters of ground-nesting birds from ducks
and geese to sparrows, and of their eggs; rodents of
every sort, frogs, lizards, insects, and in summer and
autumn fruit and berries. Some of the prey is got
by running it down, for the fox is fleet; some by
digging it out of* its underground holes; some by
stalking it with crafty caution; some by lying appar-
ently dead until the victim approaches near enough
to be seized by a catlike pounce. These are the es-
sential tactics of its food getting in all lands, the fare
and the method varying with the country; and end-
less stratagems match the native precautions of the
small quarry. All the larger cats and wolves are its

212 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

enemies in the wilderness, and the skill in avoiding
them inherited from innumerable ancestors serves it
well when in civilized lands the fox finds troops of
dogs set upon its track.

"Standard works are supplemented by admirable
essays on the American fox by Thoreau, Burroughs,
Lottridge, Robinson, Seton, and others who know him
well ; none is more complete and intimate than the
history given by Mr. Cram, who asserts that in New
England, at least, the foxes in cultivated districts
are far more highly developed in intellect than are
those of the outlying parts, or than were the foxes
of a century ago. They are the most bold, skillful,
and inveterate of poultry thieves, and will sometimes
take as many as 'thirty pullets in a single night';
and often half or more of the booty of such a raid
will be found in a pile in some hiding-place, which
goes to show that the foxes of all cold regions prob-
ably store surplus food. In return for levying upon
his chickens (or, in Europe, upon the pheasants and
other treasures of the gamekeeper) the animal aids
the farmer by destroying numberless rats, mice,
gophers, and similar pests."

Value of fox fur. Of all the products de-
rived from wild animals furs are the most
useful and valuable. Indispensable to primi-
tive man, they are scarcely less important to
the most civilized, for in warmth, beauty and
durability, no manufactured fabrics excel them

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING- 213

But expanding civilization is steadily diminish-
ing the supply of furs, and the animals which
bear them are proportionately decreasing, es-
pecially those whose coats are of high quality.
The growing demand may be met partly by
stricter enforcement of the game laws, but it
is evident that it is becoming necessary to
propagate fur-bearers in confinement, and by
this means an important and new industry will
presently be developed. This has already been
the subject of no little thought and experiment,
but mainly in reference to the smaller and less
valuable animals, such as skunks and minks, as
we shall see. Results of considerable impor-
tance have been obtained recently with Alaskan
blue foxes, and a good deal has been done
quietly in experimental cultivation of the Cana-
dian silver fox.

This last industry has recently been made
the subject of official investigation by Mr. W.
H. Osgood, of the United States Department of
Agriculture, from whose report the present
article is mainly compiled. More persons have
engaged in it than the public generally is aware
of, for they have been disposed to keep their

214 ANIMAL COMPETITOES

experiments quiet and their results a secret;
but a recent investigation pursued by W. H.
Osgood of the Biological Survey has gathered
many facts as to method, of which I shall avail
myself liberally.

Variability of the red fox. The common
fox, as has been said, varies from red to black,
and these extremes, with the gradations be-
tween them, form four more or less distinct
phases, respectively known as red, cross (or
patch), silver, and black.

In the red phase the animal is entirely rich
fulvous, except restricted black markings on
the feet and ears, a white area at the end of the
tail, and certain white-tipped hairs on the back
and rump. From this phase to the next the
black increases in extent until, in the typical
''cross" fox, the black predominates on the
feet, legs and underparts, while fulvous over-
lying black covers most of the head, shoulders
and back. A gradual increase of the black and
elimination of the fulvous, or its replacement
by white, brings us to the next phase, the "sil-
ver, " or " silver-gray, ' ' in which no fulvous ap-
pears, the entire pelage being dark at the base

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 215

and heavily or lightly overlain with grayish-
white. Silver foxes vary from those in which
the color is entirely grizzled to those in which
it is entirely black, except a few white-tipped
hairs on the back and rump. Finally, in the
black phase, the white is absent from all parts
except the tip of the tail.

The red phase is much more abundant than
the others, but the three interbreed freely, and
wherever one occurs occasional examples of the
others also may be expected. In general, the
cross fox is fairly common, the silver-gray is
comparatively scarce, and the pure black is
excessively rare. The prices usually paid for
skins of the different phases vary according to
the relative scarcity of the animals. Thus red
skins command only a moderate price ($1.50 to
$3.50), cross foxes are somewhat higher ($4 to
$8), silver foxes are several times higher ($50
to $250), and pure black skins are exceedingly
valuable, being higher priced than any other
fur except sea-otter $1,000 to $2,000.

Area suited for fox-farming. The natural
habitat of this fox includes the greater part of
North America, from the central United States

216 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

northward to and including the border of the
treeless tundra. The red phase inhabits nearly
all this region, but the silver phase, although
known in most parts of it, is very irregularly
distributed. In general it is much more com-
mon in northern localities than in southern,
and seems especially numerous in Newfound-
land and on the interior heights of Labrador.
Altogether, it appears likely that the area
suitable for rearing silver foxes successfully is
confined to Canada, and a small strip of coun-
try south of it, including the higher parts of
the Alleghenies. Prince Edward Island has
already about 100 breeders, and can supply good
breeding-stock.

Arrangement of breeding-quarters. It is a
mistake to suppose that a great space is re-
quired for rearing silver foxes, or a rough area
approximating natural conditions of fox-life.
Indeed, this is disadvantageous, for it tends to
keep the animals so wild as to be unmanage-
able. The endeavor should always be to tame
the captives as much as possible, and to do this
a small and uniform area is necessary. Foxes
thrive in enclosures not more than 40 feet

FOXES AND FOX-FARMING 217

square. These may be but a few rods from a
farm-house, or, if visitors are excluded, in a
quiet place on the outskirts of a village. A
half-acre will accommodate about six pairs of
foxes, which is quite as many as a beginner
should attempt to handle. The selection of
ground may depend upon circumstances, but ef-
fort should be made to include a few trees or
small shrubs. These afford shade and a feel-
ing of seclusion and security to the animals.

Inclosures for foxes are made with woven-
wire fencing, but the mesh should be not greater
than 2-inch, for young foxes are able to wriggle
through an opening three inches square. The
fencing should be about 10 feet high and sunk
into the ground two feet. The foxes try to
escape, when first placed in the pen, by digging
at the edge of the wire, and abandon the effort
when they find themselves stopped near the
surface. The top of the fence, however, must
have an inward overhang of two feet to prevent
the animals climbing out.

Form of enclosures. In the arrangement of
sub-divisions the general plan should conform
to that shown in the accompanying diagram.

218

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Here a wide outer court is provided, separating
the smaller enclosures in which the foxes are
actually kept from the unfenced area possibly

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PLAN OF FOX-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT.

open to the public. The court shown in the
diagram is only 40 feet wide, but it might well
be much wider, since its object is not so much

FOXES AND FOX-FABMING 219

to give additional security as to prevent curi-
ous visitors or stray dogs, etc., from annoying
the foxes. Seclusion, indeed, is of prime im-
portance, hence no one ought to be permitted
inside it except the regular keeper, to whom the
prisoners are accustomed. Any means which
will effect the desired seclusion, as hedges or a
high-board fence, may be used instead of this
outer wire enclosure.

The inner enclosures are of two kinds, most
of them small and designed for single animals
or pairs, but one or more are larger and in-
tended to accommodate a number of foxes at
one time. Every compartment should be pro-
vided with doors so arranged that animals may
be transferred from one to another readily.
The beginner with only one pair of foxes may
start with two of the small compartments, and
add others as needed, keeping in mind a con-
venient general plan. The small compart-
ments should be at least 30 feet square. Those
shown in the diagram are 30 by 40 feet, and the
larger runs 75 by 40 feet. Passageways giving
free access to all the compartments should be
4 to 6 feet wide.

220 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Each compartment should contain a small
house or shelter-box, for, although the foxes
often dig natural dens in the ground, they usu-
ally accustom themselves readily to artificial
shelters. A common form of these is much like
a dog-kennel and about the same size. They
are ordinarily made four or five feet square
and two or three feet high, with an entrance
about six inches square. No nesting material
is needed inside the boxes, as the old foxes
either do without or provide themselves from
refuse in their enclosure.

Foxes easy to keep. The mere keeping of
foxes in confinement is a simple matter. They
do not, as a rule, however, become very tame,
even after several generations. They seem
contented and happy in their cages, and rarely
make determined efforts to escape. Several
cases are recorded where captive silver foxes,
having climbed out of their enclosures in win-
ter, when high drifts of snow gave them a
chance to reach the top of the fence, have re-
turned voluntarily to their home.

Although in general suspicious of mankind
and inclined all their lives to snap at or bite

FOXES AND FOX-FAKMING 221

even tlieir best known and kindest attendants,
these foxes do not quarrel much among them-
selves, especially where properly fed.

So far as known, fatal disease has been so
rare as to be negligible in any general con-
sideration of fox-raising. Here and there an
animal has died of some unknown internal
complaint, but no particular disease has mani-
fested itself. Nothing in the nature of an epi-
demic has thus far appeared, and even minor
diseases have been exceedingly few. Fleas
occasionally have proved troublesome, and, no
doubt, foxes may contract mange and other
diseases to which dogs are subject, but if kept
in cleanly quarters and fed properly they are
reasonably safe.

Cold weather has no terrors for them, and
they delight in snow, but should not be per-
mitted to lie upon it when it is alternately
freezing and thawing, as their fur, by freezing
to the crust and then being torn loose, will be
injured.

Food and feeding rules. Wild foxes eat a
great variety of food, including mice, rabbits,
birds, and insects, such as grasshoppers, crick-

222 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

ets and beetles. At certain seasons berries
are eaten in large quantities. Meat, therefore,
is only a part of their natural diet, and if fed
exclusively is likely to have ultimately a bad
effect. It is much better to supply the foxes
with a mixed diet, including, besides meat, such
food as bread, milk, table-scraps or dog-bis-
cuits, all of which are relished. There is less
danger in any particular food than in too large
quantities at irregular intervals. Over-feed-
ing produces fat, sluggish animals, that do not
breed well, and it has been responsible for some
expensive failures. The normal weight of a
fox is from six to nine pounds, so animals
weighing over ten pounds are too fat. A reg-
ular daily ration is the proper method, both for
the sake of their stomachs and because it tends
to a more constant and friendly relation be-
tween the keeper and his charge. It is a good
plan, nevertheless, to give them bones with lit-
tle meat on them, now and then, upon which
they may gnaw indefinitely. Occasionally they
may be regaled with tidbits consisting of small
wild mammals, as rabbits, woodchucks, rats,
mice and other animals likely to be captured

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 223

about the farm. Fresh drinking-water, of
course, should be supplied regularly. If a
spring or other natural supply can be included
within the yards much labor is saved.

A daily allowance for each fox, according to
the experts consulted by Osgood, is one-fourth
of a pound of meat and a small handful of
miscellaneous scraps. One of the most success-
ful breeders feeds a quarter of a pound of meat
and a quart of skim milk daily. Another varies
the meat-diet with a sort of hoecake made of
corn meal and sour milk. The meat used is
beef or mutton in the form of butchers' scraps,
unsalable parts, and the like or, most com-
monly, horse-meat procured especially for the
purpose.

In the producing season, November to
March, feed must be restricted to just the right
quantity and carefully chosen. In the summer
less caution is required. Two eggs should be
given daily to a nursing mother for a month
after the pups are born; and fresh milk three
times a day. When located on the seacoast
near fishing settlements fox-raisers supply fish,
lobsters, and other sea-foods to their foxes at

224

ANIMAL COMPETITOES

little or no cost, and find them satisfactory.
Take care that the stronger, quicker foxes do
not rob and starve their fellows.

Reproduction, and treatment of young.
Foxes breed only once a year, beginning when
a little less than a year old, but the first litter
will be small. The mating or rutting season
includes the months of February and March,

ONE FORM OF BREEDING KENNEL.

A barrel, with a similar elbowed entrance might easily take
the place of this box.

and the young are born in April and May.
The number of young in a litter varies from
two to eight, the average number born to
adult parents being five.

In the wild state foxes are monogamous.
The male has only one consort, at least only
one in a season. In confinement, however, one

FOXES AND FOX-FARMING 225

male sometimes lias been mated successfully
with two or even three females. In certain
cases this may be desirable, and at an advanced
stage of the business may offer no difficulties,
but at first it is advisable to handle the animals
in pairs. It is possible, also, as proved in a
number of instances, to allow male and female
to remain together throughout the year with-
out bad results, but it is much better to keep
them separate, except during the mating sea-
son. They may be paired in December or Jan-
uary and separated in March or April. The
females should be kept in the small enclosures
continuously and the young removed when
weaned.

The separation of the sexes is not, as many
suppose, to prevent the male from viciously
killing the young; for, unless suffering from
hunger, he usually is a model parent. But the
presence of the male often results in injury to
the female during pregnancy, resulting in abor-
tion; or it excites her unduly after the young
are born, leading to rougher treatment than
they are able to stand.

Some foxes are much better breeders than

226 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

others ; some can never be induced to mate, and
others mate, but do not produce young. They
are constantly in a state of fear, and this fear
is probably the chief cause of the failure to
breed regularly. It may cause the female to
refuse the attentions of the male, or, having re-
ceived them, she may prove infertile, or she
may become excited so as to injure herself and
give birth prematurely. But, worst of all,
even after producing a litter of healthy young,
she may be so solicitous for their safety that
in her effort to get them out of imaginary
harm's way she maltreats or kills them.

When born the young are small and weak,
but if all is well they grow rapidly, and when
about six weeks old begin to come out to play
and to lap a little milk or to take an occasional
bit of solid food. If allowed to do so, they will
continue to nurse for nearly six months.

Importance of good care. Keeping the foxes
in a secluded place free from visitors is not
sufficient alone to overcome these difficulties.
Although strangers should be kept away, a
regular attendant should visit the animals
daily and use every effort to gain their confi-

FOXES AND FOX-FABMING 227

dence. This is not easy, and a great deal de-
pends upon the personality of the man in
charge. One not thoroughly interested or not
naturally fond of animals, and therefore slow
to understand their ways, is not likely to suc-
ceed. Careful observation and a faculty of
intuition enables a good keeper to anticipate
the moods of the animals, and to interpret their
actions at critical times, so as to act quickly
and without violence. He knows just when the
foxes are getting too much food, just when the
sexes should be brought together or separated,
when the female becomes pregnant, when the
young should be born, when they need special
attention, and when they may safely be left to
the exclusive care of the mother. He is not
over-inquisitive as to the number of young that
are born, and seldom needs to disturb the anx-
ious parent, relying on her actions to show
whether the little ones are thriving.

BREEDING FOR IMPROVED STOCK.

Hope for increased profits in fox-raising lies
almost entirely in improving the stock, and
successively getting better and blacker coats, by

228 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

selective breeding. The darker the animal the
more valuable its pelt. Hence the object of
every breeder should be to produce pure black
foxes, or as nearly pure 'black as possible. To
do this he must retain his darkest and most
valuable animals for breeding, selling only the
poorer ones. The temptation to sell animals
of high value is often very great, but in the
long run such animals are likely to be more
profitable if kept for breeding. The possibil-
ities of modification and improvement by selec-
tion are fully as great with wild animals as
with domestic, and already have been demon-
strated in the case of foxes. Some of the high-
est-priced fox-skins ever put on the market
have been from animals reared in confinement
and improved by selective breeding.

Breeding for disposition is perhaps fully as
important as breeding for color. So far this
has not been attempted to any extent, but in
Mr. Osgood's opinion it may be of great im-
portance in overcoming some of the princi-
pal difficulties now encountered. By selecting
those animals which show the least aversion to
man, due regard being paid to other qualities,

FOXES AND FOX-FARMING 229

such as prolificness, a strain may be obtained
which will breed with the certainty of our do-
mestic animals. This in time should produce
a thoroughly domesticated race of foxes, a re-
sult of inestimable value, amply justifying the
utmost efforts. Although it may not be fully
accomplished by those who begin it, every
breeder should keep its importance in mind, for
every slight improvement will be to his ad-
vantage, and in the end the unqualified success
of the business will be assured.

Slight improvement of individual male an-
imals not intended for breeding may be ob-
tained by castration. This has been tried with
red foxes, and found to yield an animal of
somewhat increased size. In buying a young
breeding-pair of silver foxes great care is nec-
essary. Try to see the parents of the proposed
purchase. October is the best month for buy-
ing, and examination should be made in bright
sunshine. An experienced breeder advises the
use of a magnifying-glass in examining the fur
to see if it is thick and glossy with a long dark
under-fur and no trace of red, especially inside
the ears.

230 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Preparation of skins. The preparation of
skins requires some care, but no special imple-
ments or preservatives. The opening and only
cut is made with a sharp-pointed knife, begin-
ning on the bottom of one hind foot and extend-
ing up to the hind side of the leg to the vent
and thence down the other leg to the foot. The
entire body is removed through this opening,
using the knife to separate the skin when
necessary, and proceeding down over the head
to the lips, where the final cuts are made. Thus
the skin is turned completely inside out. The
iail bone must be carefully withdrawn, prefer-
ably by the use as a vise of two firmly-held
sticks (or a split stick), through which the bone
is passed. To facilitate this it may sometimes
be necessary to slit the tail on the under-side.
The skin is then carefully fleshed that is, all
the fats and bits of flesh adhering to it are re-
moved. To dry the skin it is slightly stretched
on a long, narrow, somewhat tapering board
with a blunt, rounded end. After slipping
over the board (hair side in) it should be hung
in a cool, dry place, and allowed to dry gradu-
ally. Ordinarily no preservative is necessary,

FOXES AND FOX-F ARMING 231

and the drying should not be hastened by ex-
posure to the sun or artificial heat.

Expectation of profit. Every silver-fox
raised is likely to yield a pelt having a market
value of over $100. Even pale skins bring this
figure, and darker ones much more. Pure black
skins command prices ranging from $500 to
$2,000. It is, therefore, evident that a moder-
ate income may be derived by raising compara-
tively few foxes. In the present stage of the
business the sale of foxes for breeding-stock is
very profitable, as the live animals in good con-
dition often bring fully twice as much as their
cured skins. In fact, good, live, silver foxes
seldom can be obtained for less than $500 per
pair, and much higher prices have been paid.

The high prices paid for silver-fox skins are
due to the rarity of the animals, and the ex-
tensive production of such skins would neces-
sarily tend to a reduction in price. Increasing
population and wealth, however, insure a large
future demand for fine furs, and no great de-
crease in prices is likely to occur until produc-
tion reaches large proportions.

CHAPTER XIV
GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES

THE time has gone by when the farmer in the
eastern half of the United States has to guard
his stock and perhaps his family against wolves
as in the days of his forefathers. In the north-
ern parts of Canada, however, in the forested
parts of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and:
Minnesota, and in scattered localities through-
out the whole Northwest, and thence northward
to the Arctic regions, the great gray or timber
wolf is still a menace to the ranchman if not
to the cultivator of fields. It also causes the
destruction of great numbers of game espe-
cially deer, which can ill be spared; and now
and then attacks travelers or their horses when
picketed out at night.

Consequently ranchmen are everywhere mak-
ing determined cooperative efforts, aided by
the government, to kill them off, by breaking
up their dens and trapping and poisoning the

232

GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES 233

old ones. The most effectual method is by
searching out and destroying the dens and pups,
of which six to ten are usually born in a litter
to a pair of gray wolves. These are produced
early in spring in some rocky niche or cave or
sheltered hollow in the open country, and in a
hollow log or stump when the region is forested.
Both parents continue in company, caring for
the young, until the latter are well-grown.

Character of the coyote. The smaller-red-
dish prairie-wolves or coyotes (coy-yo-teh) are
far more widespread, numerous and annoying,
though rarely dangerous ; and if farming oper-
ations, with their attending domestic animals
and poultry, are to be carried on in the plains
country or mountain valleys of the West ; and if
sheep-farming is ever to be made productive
there, these keen and pertinacious little wolves
must be subdued. At the same time it must
not be forgotten that they perform a most
excellent service by killing a vast number of
noxious mice, gophers, prairie-dogs, rabbits
and other pests. If it were possible, then, to
keep the coyote as a harmless ranger of the
plains, a sort of Cossack that freed the fron-

234 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

tiers of marauders while doing no damage to
human arts and interests it would be a most
advantageous arrangement; and it is toward
this solution of the problem that efforts should
be concentrated. The following general ac-
count of the animal and its habits is by David
E. Lantz:

"While in general denizens of the higher open
plains, coyotes are found also on the low tropical
coasts of Mexico and Texas and in the higher moun-
tain ranges of the interior. In the northern and
northeastern parts of their range they inhabit par-
tially wooded country, and even on the plains they
are partial to broken and hilly sections.

"Coyotes breed once a year. The mating season
is late in January or early in February. The period
of gestation is about sixty-three days. The young
are produced in dens and number from four to eight
or even more. The dens are usually enlarged from
those made by badgers or smaller animals, and are
often among rocks or in washed-out places along
banks of streams. Probably at times they are made
entirely by the coyotes. They are rarely far below
the surface, but sometimes of considerable extent,
and with two or more openings. Little attempt is
made to provide nests for the young. In the Central
West these are born early in April, and usually may
be heard in the dens during May. In June they come
out to play around the mouths of the burrows, which

GEAY WOLVES AND COYOTES 235

are finally deserted during July. By August 1 the
young are left by the parents to shift for themselves.

' ' In the earlier descriptions the prairie wolves were
usually said to hunt in packs. Lewis and Clark, Say,
Richardson, and others so reported, but the Prince
of Wied met them only singly. It is probable that
they hunt in numbers only when the quarry is large,
as in the case of deer and antelope, and as many as
three have been known to pursue a single jack-rabbit.

"Coyotes feed chiefly upon animal matter, but
when such food is scarce they freely eat peaches,
apricots, grapes, and other fruits, and even melons,
usually destroying more than they eat. In certain
areas they feed largely on juniper berries, manzanita
berries, and the fruit of the prickly pear. . . .
Horned toads and other lizards are eaten, and, on
the low, tropical coast of eastern Mexico and Texas,
coyotes have been seen searching the beach for crabs,
fish and turtle-eggs.

"Beneficial food-habits. Coyotes destroy many in-
jurious species of mammals, and in this way are
of positive benefit to farming interests. The various
species of jack-rabbit are often included in their diet,
and the smaller rabbits are habitually eaten. The
constant warfare of the coyote upon these rodents
has much influence in keeping down their numbers,
and the growing abundance of rabbits in some sec-
tions of the West has been attributed to the destruc-
tion of coyotes as the result of high bounties offered
for them.

"Prairie-dogs also are a staple coyote food. The

236 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

coyote usually captures them by hiding behind
clumps of weeds or bunches of grass at some distance
from the burrows, and when, in feeding, the unsus-
pecting rodent approaches near enough a few leaps
enable the coyote to capture it. It is probably the
fear of the coyote that causes the prairie-dogs to crop
off all the tall, growing grass and weeds near their
burrows.

"In addition to rabbits and prairie-dogs the food
of the coyote includes rice-rats, kangaroo-rats, wood-
rats, ground-squirrels, woodchucks, pocket-gophers,
chipmunks, and pocket-mice. All of these are harm-
ful to agriculture, and the coyote in preying upon
them performs a valuable service to man. This
service is not spasmodic, but lasts throughout the
year and throughout the life of the coyote, and has
an important influence in helping maintain the 'bal-
ance of nature.'

"The coyote is useful also as a scavenger. In the
prairie country, especially in winter, it comes into
towns at night searching for garbage. Here it finds
remnants of meat from the table, offal, and similar
prizes. When hungry it rejects no animal food, not
even carrion. The slaughter-houses near the towns
are favorite feeding places, and the animals are often
shot there. On the ranges they soon consume dead
horses and cattle, leaving the bones clean.

"Injurious food-habits. Considerable game is de-
stroyed by coyotes, including quail, grouse, and
wild ducks, and their eggs. . . . hens, ducks,
geese, and turkeys. Its usual method of capturing

GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES 237

them in daytime is to lurk behind weeds or bushes
until the fowls are within reach. Turkeys, which
range far afield in search of grasshoppers and other
insects, are frequent victims. At night the coyote
captures poultry from the roost unless care is taken
to guard against its entrance. A correspondent of
the Biological Survey wrote from Rexburg, Idaho,
that one neighbor lost 60 chickens and another 30 in
one night by coyotes. A correspondent in Mayer,
Ariz., wrote that he had lost about a hundred chick-
ens by coyotes, but that, although they destroyed
poultry, he believed them to be beneficial, as they
kept down the rabbit pest.

"In approaching ranch buildings, either by day or
by night, the coyote comes from the leeward side and
with great caution; but once satisfied that no danger
lurks in the shadows, it becomes very bold."

The coyote as a pest. Few of the mammals
of the farm are exempt from the raids of this
enterprising little wolf, whose record of mis-
deeds includes the capture and death of young
colts, calves, pigs, lambs and goats. The
coyote watches until the little ones are left un-
guarded a moment by their mothers, then rushes
in. Under exceptional circumstances old ani-
mals may be pulled down. It is especially,
however, as an enemy of sheep that this hardy
wolf becomes important in its relation to human

238 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

industry. In many parts of the West the rais-
ing of sheep has been greatly deterred on this
account; and woeful stories of destruction are
on record. It was this state of affairs that led
the Biological Survey a few years ago to make
special studies of the coyote situation.

"It is evident that the wealth of any State can be
materially increased if it is possible everywhere to
keep small flocks of sheep. Flocks increase rapidly
under favorable conditions and good management,
and the cost of keeping is small when herders can
be dispensed with. The double product, wool and
mutton, usually places the profit of handling sheep
above that of cattle or horses. The gains also come
oftener, since sheep mature in a year, while cattle
and horses require three.

"In the region about Seguin, Tex., according to
Vernon Bailey, chief field-naturalist of the Biological
Survey, no sheep are kept, because of the abundance
of coyotes. The farmers admit the advantage of in-
troducing sheep, but the fear of coyotes deters them
from the experiment. Similar conditions prevail
over large areas in many parts of the West. The
number of sheep in the United States has been de-
creasing during the past two years [19045], while
the price of wool has been excellent and the demand
for mutton steadily increasing. Montana, with an
area of 146,000 square miles, leads the States in the
number of sheep kept, which is 5,638,967. Yet Eng-

GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES 239

land, with an area of only 50,867 square miles, has
about five times as many as Montana. In Montana
sheep are herded in immense flocks ; in England every
landowner and farmer keeps a small flock.

"The advantage of sheep upon the farm as weed-
destroyers is not usually appreciated in America.
The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station reports
that out of 600 species of grasses and weeds, cattle
are known to eat only 50, horses 82, while sheep eat
550. "With abundance of pasturage, favorable cli-
mate, good prices for wool and mutton, and increased
fertility and productiveness of the soil upon which
sheep are grazed, there should be a decided advance
in the sheep industry.

' ' The chief discouragement seems to lie in the dep-
redations of worthless dogs and coyotes. The evil of
worthless dogs can be best remedied by a resort to
taxation. Dogs should be regarded as property and
taxed sufficiently to put all of the dangerous and
worthless curs out of existence."

The methods which have and may be used to
lessen this pest by traps and poison are dis-
cussed in the final chapter. Here it may be said
that none of them are as satisfactory as fenc-
ing, in spite of the stimulation of bounties by
States and counties, and of the encourage-
ment of hunting coyotes as a sport and good
sport it is when one rides to Russian wolf-
hounds or greyhounds.

240 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Fencing against other ivild animals. Fen-
cing as a means of protection against wild an-
imals has for several years been in use in the
Australian colonies and in South Africa. In
Australia wire nettings are used successfully to
keep rabbits, dingoes, and some species of kan-
garoos out of pastures and crops. In Cape
Colony jackals are a great hindrance to sheep-
and ostrich-farming, and have been successfully
checked only by wire-fencing they could not get
over, nor under nor through. The expense of
such fencing in our own plains country would
probably be $250 a mile; but it would pay for'
itself, according to the South African experi-
ence, in the increased number of lambs reared,
fleece secured, health of the stock, improved
pasturage and less cost of herding.

To those interested these arguments do not
need expanding nor expounding ; nor is it need-
ful to explain and discuss the recommenda-
tions for various designs of fence. The follow-
ing summary of recommendations made by
Special Agent Lantz, of the Biological Survey,
in 1905, are good for to-day, and have stood
the test of experience:

GRAY WOLVES AND COYOTES 241

"Summary of Conclusions. (1) Prairie coyotes
will not willingly jump over a fence above 30 inches
in height.

"(2) They will readily climb over fences built of
horizontal rails or crossbars, especially in order to
escape from captivity.

"(3) Barbed wires do not deter them from crawl-
ing through a fence to escape.

"(4) Woven-wire fences should have meshes, when
rectangular, less than 6 by 6 inches to keep out
coyotes. For such fences triangular meshes are much
better than square ones.

" (5) In fencing against coyotes with woven fences
care must be used to see that there are no openings
at the ground through which the animals can force
themselves, since they are more likely to crawl under
a fence than to jump over it.

" (6) It seems reasonably certain that a fence con-
structed of woven wire with a triangular mesh not
over 6 inches across and having a height of 28 to 42
inches, supplemented by two or three tightly stretched
barbed wires, would prove to be coyote-proof. It is
difficult to make exact estimates of the cost. Woven
fences differ in weight, price, and durability, and
freight charges on materials depend on the distance
from distributing points. The cost of posts and labor
varies much. An estimate based on so many variable
factors is of little value, but an average of $200 per
mile would probably allow the use of the best ma-
terials."

CHAPTER XV

THE FUR-BEAKERS AND THEIR
CULTURE

THEKE now present themselves a company of
small carnivores of unusual interest in every
aspect the martens, ermines, wolverines, bad-
gers, skunks, etc., all of the weasel family
Mustelidcc. "They constitute," as I have
written elsewhere, "an army of sharp-toothed,
keen-witted, bloodthirsty devourers of the
small life of the world, doing in the North
the police work which in the Oriental tropics is
committed to the civet-cats and mungooses.
These are the animals whose coats, acquired to
keep themselves warm amid arctic frosts, make
our most beautiful furs, as sable, marten, mink,
ermine, and the rest. The sable is Siberian,
the marten is North-European, and its Ameri-
can brother is the pine-marten, or 'sable' of the
Canadian forests. The three are scarcely dis-
tinguishable, each averaging about eighteen in-
ches in length, plus seven or eight inches of tail,

242

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 243

and are brown, somewhat lighter below (throat
and breast-spot orange in the Canadian sable),
and variable according to age, sex, and season.
The winter fur is thick, soft, an inch and a half
deep, of richest hue, and has scattered through
it coarse black hairs which the furrier pulls
out; the tail is somewhat bushy. . . ."

Canadian fur-bearers. For two hundred
and fifty years the Canadian marten has sup-
plied, as had the sable for perhaps as many
centuries, the most valuable furs sent to
market, excepting a few rarities like sea-
otter.

North America also contains the giant of the
tribe in Pennant's marten, named by the early
French Canadians pekan, and by modern trap-
pers "fisher," "black cat," or "black fox,"- it
being none of the three! It is remarkable for
its great size 24 inches, plus 13 inches of tail
and for its dog-like head. A third still
larger relative is the wolverine or "carcajou,"
an uncommonly large, clumsy, shaggy marten,
of great strength, and displaying extreme per-
severance and sagacity in procuring food
where the supply is limited and precarious.

244 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

All these, in early times common enough
throughout all our northern forests, have been
destroyed, or have retreated before civilization
until now few are seen south of the wilds of
northern Canada, where they still yield their
furs to the Indian and the wandering trapper.
This brings us to the more familiar weasels,
minks and ferrets.

"Slender, lithe, perfectly toothed, sharp-clawed,
secretively colored, and endowed with strength, speed,
cleverness, and indomitable courage, the weasels are
the scourge and terror of all the small ground-keep-
ing animals, and do more than any other class of
agents to restrain mice, gophers, and .similar nui-
sances. Some or all can climb, but their preference
for the ground distinguishes them from the martens,
as also do the comparatively short tail, close fur,
three instead of four premolar teeth, and the pres-
ence of anal glands whence they may discharge a
fetid odor. This musky, nauseous secretion is most
copious and evident in the large European polecat,
but most distressing to human nostrils in an old mink ;
and ordinarily it is not very noticeable in a weasel.
Its emission is under control, and becomes perceivable
mainly when the animal is excited or alarmed. Its
service seems to be that of attracting the sexes ; and
trappers save it to put upon their bait as an addi-
tional allurement."

CULTUKE OF FUR-BEAKERS 245

The ermine and his family. Naturalists
distinguish over 20 species and subspecies
of weasel in North America. Most of them,
however, belong to the West and far North,
and they differ little in general character;
such peculiarities as belong to each Dr. C.
Hart Merriam, their monographer, connects
with their food. Thus he finds that the group
represented by our common eastern species
(Putorius cicognani) flourishes only in the
country where the meadow-mice abound; the
large western weasel (P. longicauda), does not
range much outside of the region inhabited by
the pocket-gophers ; the black-footed one (P. ni-
gripes) frequents only the prairie-dog country
southward; and "in the far North, where
the frozen tundras are inhabited by lemmings
as well as voles, two weasels are present: the
tiny, narrow-skulled 'rixosus,' which feeds
mainly on mice, and the large, broad-skulled
/arcticus' (analogue of the true ermine) on
lemmings and rabbits." "With these fine points
of classification we need not here concern our-
selves. A weasel, in the Old World or in the

ANIMAL COMPETITORS

.

CULTUEE OF FUE-BEAEEES 247

New, in Labrador, or Florida, or Mexico, on
the Yukon as on the Hudson, is substantially
the same, a keen, agile, relentless, indomitable
hunter, within his powers a being of the high-
est type of effectiveness.

"The weasel's head is small and trim,
An' he is little an' long an : slim,
An' quick of motion an' nimble of limb.

An' ef you'll be advised by me,
Keep wide awake when you're catchin' him."

The weasel turns white in winter in all cold,
snowy latitudes that is, when the brown sum-
mer-coat is shed in the fall it is replaced by a
white one, which in turn is lost in the spring
and replaced by the soft brown again. The
tip of the tail, however, always remains black.
In this white winter dress with the black-
tipped tail every weasel is an "ermine"; and
it is only in this coat that his fur becomes valur
able in the market. It comes to market from
Alaska, northern Canada and sub-arctic Eus-
sia, and is used mainly for trimmings of
garments. In old times it was reserved exclu-
sively for the wearing of royalty, and of cer-
tain officers of high rank. It was especially

248 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

prominent in England in the regalia of judges ;
whence our figurative expression "the ermine"
as a symbol of the judicial office.

Large, purely white ermine skins are still
valuable in the fur-market, so that the animal
is well worth the attention of trappers; but
it is chiefly in its other relations that it now
interests us.

Weasels and chickens. Weasels of one sort
or another are more or less common in all parts
of the country, even to the suburbs of the
cities; and they are so swift, secretive, alert
and wise that they remain everywhere numer-
ous in spite of the constant efforts of the aver-
age countryman to kill them off.

This enmity is due mainly to the animal's
delight in killing chickens, at which it is ex-
ceedingly expert and bold, often invading a
barn-yard in full daylight; and when one or
more usually a pair has acquired the habit
of chicken-killing it is likely to murder the
whole flock in a short time if not prevented.
This bloodthirst is only a natural outcome of
its habit of preying on wild birds, especially
those which keep to the ground ; and in places

CULTURE OF FUE-BEAEEES 249

where quail or game is preserved the animal
often does great harm.

It does not appear, however, that every
weasel kills chickens, nor that the same weasel
devotes its whole energies to this end, as a
man-eating tiger will do when once it learns
how easy it is to secure human prey. It seems,
rather, that an occasional weasel now and then
seizes a pullet or duck. The worst of it is,
however, that when it has done so its ferocity
is likely to be so fired by the taste or smell of
blood that it goes on massacring the fowls
after the manner of a wolf or a puma in a
sheep-fold, as though in a rage of blood intoxi-
cation.

The weasel as a mouser. There is another
side to the account, however, and that is the
ceaseless and extensive beneficial work of these
ferocious little creatures in pursuit of the ro-
dents which year by year destroy more grain
and young trees than all the poultry loss of
a year amounts to a hundred times over. In
the West they are the determined and inde-
fatigable enemies of ground-squirrels, gophers
and all sorts of mice, which they follow to the

250 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

uttermost ends of their burrows if necessary.
Mr. Osgood says of the small Arizona weasels :
"They are the most effective enemy of pocket-
gophers. ... In a narrow valley where an
old weasel had her young I found it impos-
sible to secure a single pocket-gopher. A
single weasel will effectually keep down the go-
phers and meadow-mice on a field or small
ranch. Except in very rare cases they should
be protected with the greatest care." The
black-footed "ferret" (a true weasel) is rarely
found away from prairie-dog towns, where it
plays the bandit unceasingly. The writings
of naturalists abound in evidence of the same
sort. A notable instance may be found in the
great work on American mammals, The Quad-
rupeds of North America, published half a
century ago by Audubon and Bachman, a few
paragraphs from which may well be quoted :

"Whenever an ermine has taken up its residence
the mice in its vicinity for half a mile around have
been found rapidly to diminish in number. Their
active little enemy is able to force its thin vermiform
body into the burrows, it follows them to the end
of their galleries, and destroys whole families. We
have on several occasions, after a light snow, followed

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 251

the trail of this weasel through fields and meadows,
and witnessed the immense destruction which it occa-
sioned in a single night. It enters every hole under
stumps, logs, stone heaps and fences, and evidences
of its bloody deeds are seen in the mutilated remains
of the mice scattered on the snow. The little chip-
ping or ground squirrel, Tamias Lysieri, takes up its
residence in the vicinity of the grain-fields and is
known to carry off in its cheek-pouches vast quanti-
ties of wheat and buckwheat, to serve as winter stores.
The ermine instinctively discovers these snug retreats,
and in the space of a few minutes destroys a whole
family of these beautiful little Tarn-ice; without even
resting awhile until it has consumed its now abundant
food, its appetite craving for more blood, as if im-
pelled by an irresistible destiny, it proceeds in search
of other objects on which it may glut its insatiable
vampire-like thirst. The Norway rat and the com-
mon house mouse take possession of our barns, wheat
stacks, and granaries, and destroy vast quantities of
grain. In some instances the farmer is reluctantly
compelled to pay even more than a tithe in contribu-
tions towards the support of these pests. Let, how-
ever, an ermine find its way into these barns and
granaries, and there take up its winter residence, and
the havoc which is made among the rats and mice will
soon be observable. The ermine pursues them to their
farthest retreats, and in a few weeks the premises are
entirely free from their depredations. We once
placed a half-domesticated ermine in an outhouse
infested with rats, shutting up the holes on the

252 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

outside to prevent their escape. The little animal
soon commenced his work of destruction. The squeak-
ing of the rats was heard throughout the day. In the
evening, it came out licking its mouth, and seemed like
a hound after a long chase, much fatigued. A board
of the floor was raised to enable us to ascertain the
result of our experiment, and an immense number of
rats were observed, which, although they had been
killed in different parts of the building, had been
dragged together, forming a compact heap.

"The ermine is then of immense benefit to the
farmer. We are of the opinion that it has been over-
hated and too indiscriminately persecuted."

Again, in another place, Dr. Bachman returns

to the weasel's abilities as follows:

"We have traced the footsteps of this bloodsucking
little animal on the snow, pursuing the trail of the
American rabbit, and although it could not overtake
its prey by superior speed, yet the timid hare soon
took refuge in the hollow of a tree, or in a hole dug
by the marmot or skunk. Thither it was pursued
by the ermine and destroyed, the skin and other re-
mains at the mouth of the burrow bearing evidence
of the fact. We observed an ermine, after having
captured a hare of the above species, first behead it
and then drag the, body some twenty yards over the
fresh fallen snow, beneath which it was concealed, and
the snow lightly pressed down over it; the little
prowler displaying thereby a habit of which we be-
came aware for the first time on that occasion. To

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 253

avoid a dog that was in close pursuit, it mounted a
tree and laid itself flat on a limb about twenty feet
from the ground, from which it was finally shot. We
have ascertained by successful experiments, repeated
more than a hundred times, that the ermine can be
employed, in the manner of the ferret of Europe, in
driving our American rabbit from the burrow into
which it has retreated. In one instance the ermine
employed had been captured only a few days before,
and its canine teeth were filed, in order to prevent
its destroying the rabbit; a cord was placed around
its neck to secure its return. It pursued the hare
through all the windings of its burrow, and forced
it to the mouth, where it could be taken in a net, or
by the hand."

Seton, in liis magnificent work on Northern
Mammals, relates many instances of the wea-
sel's work in Canada, mentioning among other
facts its persistent preying upon rabbits. In
Lantz's Economic Study of Fidel-Mice is given
a letter from a farmer in Waukegan, 111., who
writes :

"Two years ago a pair of Aveasels took up their
abode in our tree-cellar, breeding there last year.
They kept most of the mice killed off. In the sum-
mer we saw the old one quite often carrying mice to
its young from outside th>3 shed."

254 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

Weasels are extraordinarily fearless of man-
kind, and will soon become so regardless of him
as to be positively tame. In the West miners
and hunters often welcome them to their cabins
and establish very friendly relations with them,
recognizing that they keep the premises free
from the wild mice, which otherwise would in-
fest the houses and play havoc with supplies
brought in at great expense and labor. This is
only a return to a very ancient practice, for,
as I have shown in my Life of Mammals, the
household mouser of the Greeks was not a cat,
but a weasel the European stone-marten.

Life of the mink. The mink is a semi-
aquatic weasel. It inhabits the whole of the
United States, excepting the arid regions,
which are unfitted for its habits of life. It is
a species of great economic importance, both
on account of the value of its fur and on ac-
count of its injurious habits. As an enemy to
the poultry yard it ranks ahead of all other
North-American mammals. Furthermore, it
kills large numbers of fish, as it not only swims
and dives with facility, but can remain long
under water, pursuing and capturing its prey

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 255

by following it below the surface. Oftentimes
its destructiveness in this respect renders it a
serious obstacle to the industry of fish-culture.
Though amphibious, and commonly inhabiting
the borders of ponds and streams, it makes
long excursions, and is frequently found in

THE AMERICAN MINK.

places remote from water-courses. It often
takes up its abode in or near the poultry-yard
or duck-pond, remaining there for weeks. Its
small size and nocturnal habits help to conceal
its movements, and the daily loss of a fowl is
commonly attributed to the skunk, fox, weasel,
or owl. The mink is remarkably strong for so

256 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

small an animal, and lias been known to drag
a mallard duck more than a mile in order to
get to its hole, where it was joined by its mate.

Value of the mink. Such is the farmer's
view of the mink, but the picture is not with-
out a brighter side. His loss of chickens and
eggs is largely due to his own slovenly way of
keeping his property, or rather of trusting it
to keep itself. The depredations of the mink
are almost wholly made at night. A tight
poultry-house will keep him out, even a wire-
fence of small mesh around the yard will do
so. If the chickens are allowed to roost in
trees or in any old shed it is foolish to com-
plain when they are seized by rats, weasels,
minks, skunks or, 'coons.

In its natural life the mink habitually feeds
upon small mammals, birds and their eggs,
fish, frogs, turtles' eggs, crayfish, earthworms
and the like. It is one of the busiest hunters
of injurious rodents, particularly muskrats
and common rats and mice. Hence it is a pub-
lic benefactor in localities where muskrats
damage dikes, canals, irrigating ditches, and
ponds ; and day by day it seeks out the runways

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 257

of the wild mice and devours their families.
If you catch sight of a prowling mink, some
day, along the brookside, squeak like a mouse,
and see how interested he will at once become.
Indeed, a mink or a weasel which takes up its
abode under a barn will soon clear out the rats.

Good mink-skins have always fetched a fair
price, and this price is rising. As they are
abundant, and among the most easily trapped
of our wild animals they have ever been one
of the sources of pocket-money to the lads of
the rural parts of the country.

"The old-fashioned deadfall is the trap that
should be used," Seton advises, "as it does not
injure the fur and it kills the animal instantly,
so that there is no unnecessary suffering.
The box-trap is effectual and humane if visited
regularly. It should have, at the back, a
window covered with %-inch-mesh wire netting.
It has the advantage of protecting its catch
from passing marauders. The steel trap, if
used, should be visited often. The less the
creatures suffer the better the fur." The pelt
should be stripped and cased in the same man-
ner as that of the ermine or the muskrat.

258

AXTMAL COMPETITORS

Mini cultiratioii for profit. The raising of
captive mink for the sake of the fur has been
tried very often, and succeeds well where one

HOME OF A MINK FAMILY IX A STUMP IN NORTHERN ONTARIO.

pays proper attention to it, and the expenses
can be kept low enough to ensure a profit from

CULTURE OF FUR-BEAKERS 259

the results. Such establishments are known
as "minkeries," and have been described in
many publications.

It frequently happens that a pair of young
minks are caught; or a full-grown male and
one or more females may be bought from deal-
ers who advertise their wares in journals de-
voted to sport or to trapping. One male will
suffice for five or six females. The breeding
season is February, when the females all come
into heat, and for three or four weeks the male
should be allowed to associate with them freely.
Their behavior will indicate when they no
longer need his attentions. The period of
gestation is 42 days, so that births will occur
early in April. They number five or six, as a
rule, sometimes ten, are blind, almost naked,
and remain hidden in the nest for five or six
weeks, when they begin to come out; but they
stay with the mother, and are the object of her
tender solicitude and brave defense until the
end of the summer. If taken in hand when
they first appear they will become as tame,
gentle and playful as kittens, provided they are
kept entirely away from the mother. Res-

260 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

seque, a mink-breeder whose experience and
methods are described particularly in Elliot
Coues's Fur-bearing Animals, admits, how-
ever, that they become exceedingly mischiev-
ous, prying into all sorts of food receptacles,
etc., and can hardly be recommended as house-
hold pets. Merriam trained some in his pos-
session to be excellent ratters, following the
rats into their holes and soon clearing all the
premises of this pest.

Care of captive minks. In planning a
minkery a yard say 50 feet square should be
set apart and enclosed by a tight board fence
7 or 8 feet high, which should rest upon a stone
or cement foundation sunk 2 feet into the
ground ; or else a close and strong wire netting
must be deeply sunk along the bottom, for
minks are good diggers. The top of the fence
should have an inward overhang of tin, zinc
or galvanized iron at least 2 feet wide, and still
broader at the corners, or else the animals will
climb out. Of course the best way would be
to pave the whole interior with, and base the
fence upon, concrete, but this is costly ; if it is

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 261

done the cement floor should be covered with a
deep layer of earth.

At one end of this enclosure should be built
of strong, close meshed wire netting, a series
of cages, resting on a tight wooden floor, each
about 3 feet high, 8 or 10 feet long and about
4 feet wide. These are for the use of the
breeding females, one to each cage. In the
front of each should be a door large enough to
pass in and out a nesting-box about the size of
a raisin-box, with a small hole for admittance
of the animal, closed by a sliding door so that
she may be shut in if desirable.

The remainder of the enclosure should be
divided in the middle by a fence of close wire
netting, guarded from digging and climbing
like the outer fence, forming two courts or
yards for exercise, etc. A small low door will
afford communication between these yards.
Water must be supplied in abundance run-
ning water if possible. There should be a
trough for each breeding-cage and a large
swimming tank which may be accessible from
both yards. The cost of such an outfit will

262 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

vary with circumstances, but may easily be cal-
culated.

"Mink," says Seton, "may be fed exactly as
one would feed a house-cat table-scraps va-
ried with meat two or three times a week.
Fish is very much to their liking, and may be
given nearly every day if other things are used.
Bread and milk, johnny-cake, etc., should be
added for variety ; even raw liver may be given
sparingly at intervals, but cooked food, as a
rule, is safer. Two light meals, morning and
night, or one substantial meal, late in the day,
is sufficient; and at all times an abundance of
clean water. ... A fast-day once in two
weeks is a good thing for fat animals."

Each old animal should have a cage to itself
and be kept in it except in the breeding month
(February), when a male and four, five or six
females may be turned out together in one of
the yards; but persistently bad-tempered ones
should be taken away from the band. No bad
smell will be made if general cleanliness is
maintained, the yard-soil being frequently
raked and overturned to remove droppings and
air it. If their cages are kept clean the ani-

CULTUEE OF FUE-BEABEES 263

mals are likely to remain perfectly neat and
healthy and they will breed regularly and grow
fine coats. The best should always be kept for
breeding, and so the stock will be steadily
improved.

The beautiful otter. The noble and beauti-
ful otter has become so rare south of the north-
ern wilderness, or outside of large tracts of
southern swamp-lands, that it has little claim
to inclusion in a book devoted to the industrial
aspects of our wild quadrupeds. The food of
otters is mainly fish ; and in a preserved stream
they may do vast damage to the angler's
treasures by devouring numberless trout.
They also catch and kill many muskrats.
Merriam, in his natural history of the Adiron-
dacks, and Seton in his Northern Mammals,
give extensive biographies of this most inter-
esting and most intelligent of the mustelid
race.

This brings us to the related group of fur-
bearers which includes the badgers and skunks.

The misunderstood badger. Our badger is
very similar to the European one, and formerly
occurred wherever west of the Alleghanies un-

264 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

forested country gave it the conditions it liked.
Its general habits, so far as they can be ob-
served in so shy, secretive and well-hidden a
creature, are interesting, as I have shown in
the chapter "A Badger and his Kin" in my
Wild Neighbors. These cannot be dwelt upon
here, but they show that none of our small
mammals has been more misunderstood or
mistakenly and wastefully persecuted. As a
result the badger is now restricted in its dis-
tribution to the arid region, although scattered
pairs linger "here and there even in Wisconsin
and Minnesota. And yet, its disappearance
has not been wholly due to reckless destruction,
for it seems unable to endure the forestation
and cultivation of lands as they are settled.
This may be due to the sedentary nature of the
little beast, which is by no means a wanderer
or even a traveler. Seton remarks that prob-
ably a badger never in his whole life goes a
mile from the home in which he was born. The
consequence is that when a family has been ex-
terminated another is not likely to take its
place. It is for this reason that a man should
be careful how he wastes the life of a badger

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 265

on his property, for not only is he putting out
of business a most useful ally in his contest
with nature, but is destroying one which will
not easily be replaced.

Apart from that wanton, thoughtless disposi-
tion to kill any and every wild creature met
with, which possesses the ruder sort of men,
and most boys who have not been taught to
restrain the innate savagery of the human an-
imal, the excuses made for killing badgers are
usually either that its fur is wanted or that it
digs bad holes in the ground.

As to the pelt it is now of no great value,
and its use is mainly to furnish hairs for art-
ists' pencils and for the making of shaving-
brushes. The hide is strong, however, and
good overcoats and carriage-robes may be made
of it.

Badger-holes as man-traps. The second ex-
cuse is that it digs holes in the land which may
be dangerous pitfalls for horses and cattle, and
which furnish runways for water that some-
times, after heavy storms, develop into bad
gullies.

That this charge was originally well-founded

266 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

I know by my own observation in the North-
west, as well as by reading. In the buffalo-coun-
try, where gophers and spermophiles dwelt in
countless numbers, badger-holes were in old
times extraordinarily numerous. "I do not
see how they could well be more numerous any-
where," wrote Dr. Elliott Cones of the region
of the Upper Missouri as he saw it in 1875.

"In some favorite stretches of sandy, sterile soil,
their burrows are everywhere, together with those
of kit-foxes, prairie-dogs and spermophiles, and, as
already stated, these holes are a source of annoyance
and even danger to the traveler. In ordinary jour-
neying one has to keep constant lookout lest his horse
suddenly goes down under him, with a foreleg deep
in a badger-hole; and part of the training of the
western horse is to make him look out for and avoid
these pitfalls. In the buffalo country particularly,
badgers live in extraordinary numbers, attracted and
retained by the surety of abundant food-supply.

' ' The burrows of the badger are known from those
of the prairie-dog and other spermophiles by their
greater dimensions ; besides, they differ from the for-
mer in never being built up around the entrance
into the regular mound or circular buttress which
usually surmounts the well-kept domicile of Cynomys.
From the holes of kit-foxes and coyotes they are not
distinguishable with any certainty ; in fact it is prob-
able that these animals frequently or almost habit-

CULTUKE OF FUE-BEAKERS 267

n ally occupy deserted burrows of the badger, re-
modeled, if need be, to suit their convenience.

"But it must not be supposed that all the in-
numerable badger-diggings are the residences of these
animals. The badger, too slow of foot to capture
the nimble rodents which form its principal food,
perpetually seeks them in their own retreats; and it
is the work of a few minutes for this vigorous miner
to so far enlarge their burrows that it can enter
and reach the deepest recesses. In places where the
badgers and spermophiles most abound, the continual
excavation of the soil by these animals fairly under-
mines and honeycombs the ground."

Prehistoric plowing. The conditions above
described existed mainly in regions of little use
for agriculture, and as fast as civilization was
extended into the badger country the animals
lessened rapidly, for one reason or another, and
their holes became filled up. This is illustrated
by experience in Manitoba, where, as Seton in-
formed us, "the work of the badger is now con-
fined largely to the strips of prairie that exist
along the road-allowances, where it can do but
little harm."

As an offset to these troublesome habits
(from man's point of view) it must be remem-
bered that by the incessant and multitudinous

268 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

upheaval of the ground in his digging opera-
tions, the badger has been for centuries assist-
ing in that work of preparing the soil for man's
cultivation which is the valuable heritage of the
present from the small plains-animals of the
past. Ever since the glaciers of the great Ice
Cap left the surface of northern America an
expanse of smooth rock and lifeless gravels
they have been fallowing the soil of that great
field which stretches from the Ohio to the Co-
lumbia, and from the Bio Grande to the Sas-
katchewan, and rendering it fruitful for the
pasturage first of large game, next of the ranch-
man's herds and finally for the farmer's fat
stock and for the planting of his grain and
fruits.

How the badger aids the farmer. It must
be remembered that the badger's food consists
almost wholly of those insects and animals
which prey upon crops and young orchards, and
in this his services have been and are of im-
mense and constant value. Wherever he goes
he picks up insects, and in Kansas is noted to
have lived very largely on the dreaded grass-
hoppers. Beetles and their grubs are taken,

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 269

and now and then a snake or frog, a nest of
ground-building birds, or even a settler's young
chickens when they wandered too far afield; but
he rarely if ever raids a poultry-yard. These,
however, are incidents of his carnivorous pur-
suits, which are mainly nocturnal. The bulk of
his food is found in the small and always mis-
chievous rodents. As Osgood says :

"Almost the whole life of the badger is spent in
digging out the various rodents that constitute its
food. It requires two or three fat ground squirrels
a day, or a few gophers and a dozen mice, to keep a
badger in good condition. ... In case of pocket-
gophers the badger digs down in several places along
the line of the burrow and sometimes succeeds in
cornering and capturing the occupant. Mice are
easily unearthed, and a nest of young mice is a special
delicacy. . . . When in pursuit of a gopher, a
badger may dig into and endanger ditch-banks, but
in most cases the gopher, if left alone, would do far
more mischief.

"Practically the only enemy of the badger is man,
and it seems incomprehensible that men of intelli-
gence should wantonly destroy on every possible oc-
casion the most useful and least harmful of all our
native mammals. So generally, however, are badgers
killed that after a valley has been settled for some
time they become extremely scarce, and are really in
danger of local extermination. As a result one of

270 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

the most important checks on the increase of ground
squirrels, mice, and gophers is removed, and these
animals occasionally surprise the farmer by taking
his whole crop."

Skunks and skunk-farming. A similar plea
may be made for skunks. These animals are
far more widespread, equally harmless and
quite as beneficial; and, like badgers, should
everywhere be protected in country districts
except in special cases. As for chicken-steal-
ing, there is none of his race so little to be
feared. The skunk is not as a rule a chicken-
thief ; he is too large to creep through the small
crevices that admit rats or minks, and he can't
climb well. It is only needful to have a fairly
well-fenced yard and tight coop to be quite safe
from him.

I have many times been asked to advise as to
skunk-farming, and my advice has almost al-
ways been No. This was due to the fact first
that with wild skunks so numerous and easily
trapped, and consequently skunk-pelts so cheap
as is the case at present, little or no profit could
be hoped for. Yet if done intelligently and on
a large scale several hundreds of skunks sys-

CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 271

tematically looked after the enterprise would
probably turn out a fair investment.

The general directions as to housing, feeding,
cleanliness and health would be substantially
the same as those given for a mink-farm.
Skunks, however, need much more room for

A DOG-PROOF FENCE.

wandering about, picking up insects, etc., so
that several yards of an acre or so each should
be provided for a large systematic skunkery,
with 50 or so animals assigned to each. They
are capable diggers, and the fences must be
made secure at the bottom, but need be tall

272 ANIMAL COMPETITOKS

enough only to keep out dogs and other dis-
turbers. The breeding-cages should have hol-
low logs or underground vaults of stone or con-
crete as nesting-dens ; and all retiring-quarters
must be roofed with a stout wire mesh to pro-
tect the occupants from great horned owls the
skunk's worst enemy big dogs and other ma-
rauders.

If the skunks are not frightened by rough
treatment there is little or no danger from the
musk-gun an instrument kept as a last resort ;
in fact captive skunks easily become docile and
often affectionate and amusing pets. The best
way to kill them, when that sad necessity arises,
is by smothering with illuminating gas or some
similar agent, or by drowning. The finest,
blackest specimens should be selected for keep-
ing as breeders, the less white on a pelt the
more valuable it is. It might be possible, in a
few generations, to get a strain that should be
wholly black.

CHAPTER XVI
RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT

A CHAPTER remains to be written on the wild
hoofed animals of North America in their re-
lation to the farmer and stock-breeder. This
group includes the various deer, the almost
extinct bison (buffalo), the antelope, the wild
sheep (bighorn), the white goat, the peccary
and the herds of escaped horses. Of these the
most important, from our point of view, are the
deer, the rearing of which, for profit, may be-
come an industry in which the first-comers will
reap a great harvest.

Native American deer. Many forms of
deer are native to the United States and Can-
ada. The moose (substantially identical with
the European elk) ; the caribou in several forms
identical with or very similar to the European
reindeer; the wapiti, which we erroneously call
"elk," and which is the American form of the
red deer of Europe and its Asiatic analogues

273

274 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

from the Caucasus to Kamchatka; the widely
spread Virginia or white-tailed deer; the mule
or jumping deer of the West; the blacktail of
the Pacific coast, and many intermediate sub-
species.

All these are now protected by law as the
only means of saving the several species from
total extinction by men who, to say the least,
are utterly selfish; and there seems no good
reason why some of them should not be cul-
tivated, so as to form herds whose flesh and
skins may be regularly sold as are those of
cattle and sheep. This is doubly desirable as
an economic movement, since it will not only
add to the food-resources of the nation but may
be a means of utilizing tracts of rough sterile
land which otherwise will continue to lie idle.

That venison is good food needs no proof,
but it is not generally understood that besides
having a most attractive flavor, and lending
itself well to various methods of cooking, it is
in composition and nutrient quality very sim-
ilar to beef, and exceeds mutton in food-value,
while quite as easily digestible. Venison is in
constant demand far greater demand than

RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 275

can be supplied; and this will always be true;
while the price is correspondingly high. The
skins and horns of deer are also steadily salable
at remunerative rates.

Capability of domestication. It has been
shown by centuries of experience in parks that
deer of all kinds are susceptible of cultiva-
tion, thriving and breeding readily in captivity
under reasonable conditions, yet few attempts
have been made to rear or domesticate them un-
der intelligent management. Foremost among
the exceptions to this negligence must be men-
tioned the work of the Duke of Bedford in
his park at "Woburn Abbey, England, where a
large number of species are assembled under
the most favorable arrangement for their in-
crease.

"But raising deer for profit does not neces-
sarily imply their complete domestication," as
Mr. Lantz remarks in a Bulletin on this subject
issued by the U. S. Department of Agriculture
in 1908. i i They may be kept in large preserves
with surroundings as nearly natural as pos-
sible and their domestication entirely ignored.
Thus the breeder may reap nearly all the profit

276

that could be expected from a domestic herd,
while the animals escape most of the dangers
incident to close captivity. But the breeder
who aims at the ultimate domestication of the
animals, and whose herd approaches nearest to
true domesticity, will in the end be most suc-
cessful."

Rearing ivapiti for profit. Of the various
kinds of deer, native and foreign, with which
one might stock a range or park, the most prof-
itable, at any rate in the eastern or central
parts of the country, would be elk (wapiti) and
white-tailed deer. Breeding-stock of both these
species is most easy to get, both are hardy in
various climates and each has been tried by ob-
servant experimenters.

The best ground for an enterprise of this
kind is precisely that of least value otherwise,
a rough tract, well watered and having some
high nut-bearing timber and much brush with
grassy spaces among it. Deer are both brows-
ers and grazers the elk eating grass much
more freely than the whitetail. (Of course
the two would not be herded together.) Where
deep snow does not cover the ground for long

RAISING DEEE FOR PROFIT 277

periods both deer will subsist very well in win-
ter, the whitetail on browse, and the elk by
pawing away light snow and eating the grass;
but even where not required by the severity of
the season regular winter feeding is advised.
"Hay and cornf odder are excellent winter
forage; but alfalfa hay has proved to be the
best dry food for both elk and deer. A little
oats or corn whole or chopped may be fed
each day. Elk are fond of corn, and feeding it
affords excellent opportunities for winning
their confidence and taming them. The same
may be said of salt, which should be furnished
liberally to all deer kept in enclosures. Run-
ning water, although not essential, is of great
importance in maintaining elk in good condi-
tion." If not closely confined elk do not gnaw
the bark from trees nor eat evergreen foliage;
but, like goats, they do clear out the thickets.

The providing of a buck and a few does to
start with is not very expensive; but a rather
costly item of preparation is the fencing. Or-
dinarily a five-foot fence is sufficient, especially
in the case of elk, which are less inclined to
jump than are other deer, Old bucks, and

278 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

even the young ones in the rutting season, are
highly excitable, if not really vicious, and for
these must be provided small and strong en-
closures. It is, indeed, unsafe to let a male
elk over four years old run at large, especially
if he has once shown viciousness. The remedy
for this is castration, which not only makes
him docile but improves the venison; and all
except the small breeding stud, frequently
changed, should be so treated when young.

"We find from long experience," writes a man
who has made a business of deer-farming in the Ozark
Mountains of Arkansas, ' ' that cattle, sheep and goats
can be grazed in the same lots with elk, providing,
however, that the lots or enclosures are not small;
the larger the area the better. . . . An elk is the
natural enemy of dogs and wolves. We suffered
great losses to our flocks until we learned this fact;
since then we have had no loss. A few elk in a thou-
sand-acre pasture will absolutely protect the flocks
therein.

The wMtetail as an investment. Virginia
deer are even better adapted than elk to rocky
forested places, such as are so numerous in the
Alleghenies. " Advocates of the Angora-goat
industry state that within the United States

there are 250,000,000 acres of land not suited
to tillage or to the pasture of cattle, horses
or sheep, which are well adapted to goats."
Much of this land, it has been well suggested,
is suited also to deer, and can be utilized for
these animals with less injury to the forest-
cover than would result from the browsing of
goats.

A herd of whitetail favorably located and
properly cared for will increase in a steady and
rapid ratio. The rutting season is in Novem-
ber, and the fawns are born in May and June.
A doe will breed when 18 months old, and at
first produces only a single fawn, but after-
ward usually two fawns. Certain diseases, es-
pecially "black tongue," are to be feared, but
an annual increase of 60 or 70 per cent, may be
confidently looked for. Like elk the whitetails
require a certain amount of winter feed; and
also should have shelter provided against the
winter storms. A stack of clover or pea hay to
which they may have free access in winter is
recommended; and they need plenty of water
a stream or pond being especially good for
them.

280

In selecting herd-bucks an intelligent owner
will naturally seek the best in all respects ; and
if this were carried out generally a greatly im-
proved breed of deer would presently be de-
veloped.

The great hindrance in the way of instituting
profitable enterprises in this much-to-be de-
sired direction is the present condition of the
laws relating to deer and venison, which have
been made wholly with reference to sportsmen
and pot-hunters. These laws vary locally, but
in every state, probably, must be modified to
admit of deer-farming and the sale of its prod-
ucts. Such modifications will probably take
the form of licensing private deer-parks and
breeding-farms, with a method of tagging the
venison so that it can be easily identified.
Some progress in this direction has already
been made, and more will follow as the industry
grows.

A pest of wild horses. In some parts of the
West bands of wild horses, derived from es-
caped stock, roam over the thinly settled plains
and hills, and threaten to become a serious nui-
sance. The United States Forest Service re-

281

cently stated that there are fifteen thousand of
these untamed beasts upon the Toiyabe, To-
quina and Monitor forest reserves in Landor
County, Nevada, alone, and many more in
neighboring districts. No fence is strong
enough to stop these horses, and when they ap-
pear in force they have even been known to
knock down and kill cows and calves. After
each visitation from a herd the ranchman is
likely to mourn the loss of his domestic horses,
and it requires only a few days' association
with their new companions for the best-broken
animals to become as wild as their nomadic
comrades.

The Legislature of Nevada passed a law
many years ago allowing hunters to shoot wild
horses and to sell their hides. The law opened
the way to a new and profitable industry, and
one which had the added zest of sport. Pres-
ently, however, hide-hunters began to kill also
branded and shod horses, and this caused a
quick repeal of the law. This left the animals
free to increase, and now they have become a
serious pest.

On the ranges of many of the national forests

282 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

the supervisors have been trying for several
years to devise a method to meet the difficulty
in the face of the prohibitions enacted by local
laws. The solution of the problem remains to
be worked out.

Texan musk-hogs. The small wild pig of
western Texas, known in books as collared
peccary, and to Texans as javelin or musk-
hog, is more interesting than important. Once
spread as far north as Arkansas, these pigs
now abound only in the sandy, rocky districts
along the lower Eio Grande, where they are
extremely wary, hiding during the day in
swamps, thorny thickets or among rocks, so
that it is difficult to get near them without the
aid of dogs and horses. Occasionally sports-
men attempt to utilize this game for "pig-stick-
ing" after East-Indian methods, but the sport
usually involves severe injury to the horses
before the tough little boar succumbs. They
have formidable tusks in both jaws, those of
the upper jaw being turned downward instead
of upward as in typical swine, and all four as
keen as knives. They run, when chased in
open ground, with great fleetness, but will

RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 283

squat and dodge like a rabbit, and it is at these
quick turns that the horses get gashed.

At night the javelins sally forth to dig roots,
mushrooms, etc., and to feed upon nuts and
acorns, the latter now forming their chief- fare
in Texas. They also kill and eat snakes, liz-
ards, frogs, and any other small animals they
can catch. Near settlements they are, or used
to be, a nuisance by entering and damaging
gardens and planted fields. These animals are
to be seen in most zoological gardens where
they thrive and grow tame; but they have few
qualities to recommend them in a practical
way.

Bighorn and mountain goat. The bighorn
is easily domesticated and would doubtless
flourish in any dry and elevated part of the
country, but it appears to be of no practical
value except for its flesh, and the gamy quality
of that, which now recommends it, would prob-
ably disappear in animals raised in a corral and
fed an unvaried pasture or lowland fodder.
The same may be said of the pronghorn ante-
lope. Its flesh is a better " venison" than that
of the sheep; but is difficult to adapt to cap-

284 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

tivity, and would make more expense and
trouble for its owner tlian the returns would be
worth in the present state of the meat-market.

The beautiful Rocky Mountain white goat,
like the bighorn, is chiefly interesting and of
value as an object of sport. Its flesh is very
poor eating, and its pelt worthless, but its thick
white hair and wool have been used by the
Pacific Coast Indians from time immemorial
for making robes, etc., and could enough of this
fine soft coat be obtained doubtless civilized
skill would transform it into beautiful fabrics.
Perhaps the rearing of these goats may at
some future time become an industry of Alaska
and the Yukon Territory, where a large fixed
population will slowly but surely be accumu-
lated.

Pronglwrned antelope and bison. Anything
for the preservation of this beautiful prong-
horn, once so abundant in the West, must
be done quickly. Late in 1910 eight head
of this antelope, selected from the National
herd in Yellowstone Park, were placed in the
Wichita National Game Refuge in Oklahoma,
through the generosity of members of the

RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 285

Boone and Crockett Club of New York, who
bore the expenses of the transfer.

The pronghorn is unlike any other antelope
on the face of the earth, and has so many pe-
culiarities that naturalists class it in a family
by itself. Formerly existing by thousands on
our open western plains, it has now been so
reduced in numbers that its absolute extinction
is certain in the very near future unless pro-
tection is given to the few remaining. It does
not do well east of the Mississippi river, and
can not be successfully bred in captivity; but
it thrives if allowed to roam practically free
within large enclosures and under conditions
closely approaching the natural ones. In 1908
the Biological Survey estimated that the total
number of antelope in the United States had
been reduced to 17,000. Of these about 10,000
were in Montana, Wyoming, and the Yellow-
stone National Park, and the remaining 7,000
were distributed in 12 other states. On the
Wichita Game Refuge it is hoped that the ante-
lope will find themselves in surroundings suited
to their increase.

The Wichita is really a National Forest, but

286

was set aside by Act of Congress as one of the
two National Game Eefuges because of its
especial suitability as a breeding-place for the
wild creatures of the plains. This does not
mean that outside of these refuges the game
on the National Forests is not protected, for
the officers of the Forest Service are uniformly
instructed to see that the game laws of the
various states are observed on their forests,
in so far as they can do this in justice to
their other duties. Many of the Forest officers
are regularly appointed Deputy State Game
Wardens, and it is the policy of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture to encourage their acting
in this capacity when they can do so without
prejudice to their work as Forest officers. In
the Wichita and the Grand Canyon Game
Eefuges the Government has not left the mat-
ter of caring for game protection wholly to
the States, but has established national reser-
vations on which an attempt will be made to
breed game.

The Wichita Eefuge is further notable for
the fact that it has a small herd of buffalo
upon it, donated by the American Bison So-

RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 287

ciety and shipped from the New York Zoolog-
ical Garden in 1908. They then numbered 15,
and in two years had been increased by the
addition of 10 calves; but two of the original
herd had died.

The bison seems destined to remain with us
only as an object of curious interest, and a
reminder of the vast herds which so short a
time ago pastured on our western plains. ''In-
teresting as have been the experiments made
by Mr. C. J. Jones and others, in the cross-
breeding of buffaloes with domestic cattle," de-
clares W. T. Hornaday, than whom none is
more fitted to render a verdict, "it is now quite
time that all such experiments should cease.
It has been proven conclusively that it is im-
possible to introduce and maintain a tangible
strain of buffalo blood into the mass of western
range-cattle. ' '

CHAPTER XVII

DIRECTIONS FOR POISONING AND
TRAPPING

THE most effective method of warfare
against the multitude of rodent pests of the
granary, garden, field and orchard, and the
wolf-enemies of the sheepfold, is undoubtedly
by the use of poison. The employment of this
agent requires knowledge and care, however,
since it is equally dangerous to animals that
the farmer has no desire to kill, and to himself
and his family. Fortunately for us, therefore,
we can now avail ourselves of the results of
much experience and of carefully formulated
advice prepared by experts.

Waste of effort. We are met at the outset
by the startling statement from the Biological
Survey that "at present fully half the expendi-
ture in the United States for rodent poisons is
wasted." As it is added that "in the West the
people of a single county sometimes expend
$25,000 to $30,000 a year for poisons for de-

288

POISONING AND TRAPPING 289

stroying rodent pests," and as insecticides and
other poisons for the entire country cost many
millions of dollars annually, the saving of waste
in this item of agricultural expense is seen to
be important.

Probably the buyer of proprietary poisons
has the greatest cause for complaint. Often
one or two cents' worth of material is retailed
at from 25 cents to a dollar. The difference be-
tween the cost of the material and the selling
price represents the manufacturer's profit and
the retailer's profit. Such large returns enable
proprietors to spend much money in advertis-
ing or otherwise exploiting their wares, which,
if not worthless, are never so good as an intel-
ligent man may compound for himself at a
small fraction of their price. It is to enable
the readers of this book to do so that the in-
structions which follow are here given. They
are formulas which have been dictated by scien-
tific knowledge and approved by experience;
and the methods of application recommended
are those which have been found to involve the
least possible danger to man, to domestic stock,
and to valuable wild birds and mammals. It

290 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

should be remembered, however, that in most
states laws exist relative to the putting out of
poisons ; and every man should inform himself
as to these laws in his locality before beginning
operations.

Phosphorus and arsenic. The poisons most
commonly used to destroy mammal pests in
America are phosphorus, arsenic, and strych-
nine.

Yellow phosphorus seems to be the one
most in use for the destruction of rats and
other rodents, but there are several serious ob-
jections to it. First, a fourth of a grain is a
dangerous and sometimes fatal dose for a
human being. 1 Second, its slow, irritant ac-
tion causes needless torture to the animals
killed something we have no right to do.
Third, it is very likely to cause disastrous fires.
This substance is kept and cut under water and
should not be touched with the hands. Its
efficiency depends upon the fineness of its divi-
sion, which is accomplished by first dissolving

i Essence of turpentine is said to be a positive antidote for
phosphorus poison, and a cure for external burns by this
element.

POISONING AND TBAPPING 291

the phosphorus in carbon disulphide, after
which the substance is mixed with any suitable
material, as flour or meal or glucose in the rat
and roach pastes (from 2 to 4 per cent, strong),
or is formed into the waxy sticks offered for
sale. Now its instability in contact with the
oxygen of the air is so great that it is liable
when dry, and has been known, to burst into
flame, setting fire to everything it touched.
Cases have occurred in the West where it has
thus caused fires which destroyed entire fields
of ripe wheat and barley, and buildings in which
prepared phosphorus was stored. Some hazard
attends the use even of carefully prepared phos-
phorus pastes.

Arsenic, in the form of Paris green or Lon-
don purple is widely employed as an insecticide.
It is comparatively cheap, but is by no means
as deadly as phosphorus or strychnine. The
smallest quantity known to have been fatal to
a human being is 2.5 grains. Its action on ro-
dents is exceedingly variable, and there is
ample proof that rats after taking small doses
frequently become entirely immune to its
further effects. Moreover, it is likely to sour

292 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

baits, and so prevent their being readily eaten
by the creatures to be got rid of.

Virtues of strychnine. Strychnine is one of
four alkaloids obtained from nux vomica, the
seed of a tree known to botanists as Stryclmos
nux vomica. The chief supply comes from the
Malabar coast, India. It consists of colorless
crystals or white powder, and of several salts,
chiefly the sulphate and the nitrate, in needle-
like crystals. On account of its solubility the
sulphate is most convenient for poisoning small
animals, and is the one which should always be
used. Strychnine is very bitter, and to disguise
this sugar, honey, or an equivalent of its weight
in saccharine, is mixed with the powdered
poison; but this is not required for rabbits and
field-mice, which are accustomed to bitter foods.

As a poison for noxious animals strychnine
has several advantages over the others com-
monly in use. It kills quickly, without the long
tortures of corrosive poisons. It spite of its
bitterness, baits containing it are rejected less
often than those containing arsenic. If strych-
nine is properly labeled and kept from children,
it is less dangerous to have on the premises

POISONING AND TRAPPING 293

than most other poisons. Should strychnine
be accidentally swallowed by an adult, antidotes
are usually available, and by prompt action a
fatal result may be prevented. 1

Experiments by the Biological Survey show
that strychnine, all things considered, is a
cheaper poison than arsenic. Strychnia sul-
phate may be purchased in bulk at about 75
cents an ounce; white arsenic costs about 15
cents a pound. An ounce of strychnine will
thoroughly poison 60 pounds of wheat intended
for field-mice; a pound of arsenic will poison
only 10 to 12 pounds of the grain for the same
purpose. The cost of preparing the 60 pounds
of wheat, therefore, will be about the same with
either poison; but more of that containing

1 "In case of poisoning by strychnine an emetic should be
promptly given a teaspoonful of mustard in a glass of water
(warm, if available). Another excellent emetic is zinc sul-
phate (10 to 60 grains in tepid water) or apomorphine (4
drops by hypodermic injection). A stomach pump cannot be
used after the first few minutes. As soon as the emetic has
acted, the patient should be put slightly under the influence
of chloroform or ether, and kept so for several hours. He
should be kept in a darkened room and away from noise of
all kinds. Further treatment may be left to the physician,
who should be summoned as soon as the poisoning is dis-
covered." U. S. Dept. Agr., Yearbook, 1909.

294 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

arsenic is required to kill. Actual field experi-
ments show that an ounce of strychnine, if
properly distributed, is enough to kill 4,500
prairie-dogs or large ground-squirrels, or 9,000
field-mice.

Various other poisons, both mineral and
vegetable, have been used, but none is to be
recommended as compared with strychnine,
with the possible exception of barium carbonate
as an agent for killing rats and mice about
buildings. This mineral, which is cheap, has
the advantage of being without taste or smell,
and also that in the small doses fed to rats
and mice it would be harmless to domestic ani-
mals. Its action upon rats is slow, and if exit
is possible, they usually leave the premises in
search of water.

Poisoning rats and house-mice. For the
reasons above given phosphorus and arsenic
are not recommended in poisoning rats and
mice; although powdered white arsenic mixed
with oatmeal and sugar, or made into a paste
of 12 parts of cornmeal and one part of arsenic
with whites of eggs, is often effective.

Barium carbonate may be fed in the form of

POISONING AND TRAPPING 295

dough composed of four parts of meal or flour
and one part of the mineral ; or of oatmeal with
about one-eighth of its bulk of the mineral; or
the barium may be spread upon toasted bread,
etc. A small quantity say a teaspoonful
should be placed in the rat-runs, and repeated
with change of bait until all the rats disappear.
This is probably the best poison for use in
dwelling houses.

Strychnia sulphate is too rapid in action to
make it advisable for use in our houses, since
the animals die and decay in their holes in the
walls and foundations, but for barns, ware-
houses and outer premises generally it is the
most effective agent. The dry crystals may be
inserted in small pieces of raw meat, or toasted
cheese, and these placed in the runs or burrows ;
or oatmeal may be moistened with a strychnine
sirup, and small quantities laid in the same
way.

Strychnine sirup is prepared as follows:
Dissolve a half ounce of strychnia sulphate in
a pint of boiling water; add a pint of thick
sugar sirup and stir thoroughly. A smaller
quantity of the poison may be prepared with

296 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

a proportional quantity of water. In prepar-
ing the bait it is necessary that all the oatmeal
should be moistened with the sirup. Wheat
and corn are excellent alternative baits, but
must be soaked in the sirup over night.

To use this poison in places occupied by
poultry a good plan is to provide two boxes,
one considerably larger than the other and each
having two or more holes in the side, large
enough to admit rats. The poisoned bait
should be placed on the bottom and near the
middle of the smaller box and the larger box
inverted over it. Then fowls cannot get at it
if they try. It must be remembered that old
rats become very wise and wary, and much
caution has to be used if you are to succeed.

Poisoning field-mice. The most effective
poison for the short-tailed field-mice is strych-
nine. In the outbreak of these pests in Ne-
vada, the best baits proved to be alfalfa and
crushed wheat. An ounce of strychnia sulphate
dissolved in 5 or 6 gallons of water will effectu-
ally prepare 30 pounds of chopped dry alfalfa
hay; or, with iy 2 gallons of water, will prepare
45 pounds of green alfalfa cut into short

POISONING AND TRAPPING 297

lengths. The poisoned food is distributed near
or in the mouth of burrows, a small pinch at a
place, especially in cold weather, when the an-
imals do not feed in the open. Green alfalfa
bait should not be put out when the sun is hot.

In the absence of alfalfa, crushed wheat, oat-
meal and corn, among the grains, and seeds of
various plants, as the tomato, dandelion, sun-
flower and others, may be substituted. The
bait should be soaked over night in a poisoned
sirup, a quart of which is enough to poison half
a bushel of grain. If after thorough mixing
the solution is not sufficient to wet all the grain,
add a little water. After standing over night,
if the grain is too wet, a little dry corn-meal
will take up the excess of moisture. If oat-
meal is used as a bait, when the mass is wet
throughout with the sirup, it may be used im-
mediately.

Because of the danger of destroying native
birds, such as quail, the poisoned bait should
be placed only under shelters which will admit
mice but exclude birds. Wide boards lying
upon thin cross-pieces of wood are excellent for
the purpose. For pine mice baits may be

298 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

placed in the underground tunnels. For other
mice pieces of drain tile may be laid along the
trails, and the baits inserted into the tiles with
a long knife or spoon ; old tin cans with flattened
ends or small openings are excellent substitutes
for tiles. One trick of wolf-poisoners in Col-
orado, was to make their strychnine pellets
chiefly of lard so that if not eaten at night
they would melt and soak into the ground, out
of danger, in the next day's warm sun.

Winter is the most favorable season for poi-
soning field-mice, and the best time to set the
poison is in the evening of a mild day. At that
season cut small twigs or suckers from apple-
trees, and either dip them in the strychnine
sirup or apply the sirup to them with a brush.
Scatter the poisoned twigs near the trees to be
protected. This plan is excellent for either
field-mice or rabbits, and it entirely obviates the
danger of poisoning birds or domestic animals.

Poisoning rabbits. Winter has proved to be
the best time for poisoning rabbits, especially
the western jack-rabbits, since there is no green
food to attract them from the prepared
titbits. Pieces of apple, carrot, sweet potato,

POISONING AND TRAPPING 299

melon-rind and the like are favorite baits.
Crystals of strychnine sulphate are inserted in
them and they are left along rabbit-runs, either
on the ground or elevated on short sticks. Arti-
ficial runs may be made in orchards with a drag
or a one-horse scraper. Another excellent bait
is oatmeal soaked in strychnine sirup. In any
case the rabbits must be carefully fenced away
from haystacks, or they may not eat the poi-
soned bait.

Poisoning prairie-dogs and ground-squir-
rels. A few years ago the State of Kansas
carried on extensive operations against prairie-
dogs, destroying them almost completely over
nearly 2,000,000 acres of thickly infested land.
The poison was prepared at the State Agricul-
tural College, and was sold to townships and
individuals at cost, or the formula for prepar-
ing it was given to citizens who asked for it.
A modification was found necessary, however,
when the mixture was to be used in large
quantities and this was perfected by David E.
Lantz, with the following result : For 1 gallon
poisoned sirup, use

300 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

4 ounces powdered strychnia sulphate;

4 ounces potassium cyanid;

4 ounces green coffee ;

6 ounces alcohol;

4 eggs (whites only) ;

!/2 gallon thick sugar sirup.

Mix the coffee and whites of eggs, and let the mix-
ture stand over night. Dissolve the cyanid of potas-
sium in a little less than a quart of hot water, and
let it cool before using. Prepare the sugar sirup
previously, so that it is not hot when used. Pour the
cyanid of potassium solution over the coffee-and-egg
mixture, stir, and then strain into the mixing vessel
through a sieve fine enough to hold the coffee, which
is rejected. Add the sugar sirup and stir thoroughly.
Dissolve the strychnia in a little less than a quart of
boiling water. Pour the alcohol into this solution and
stir. Then add the mixture of strychnine, alcohol and
water to the contents of the mixing vessel and stir
thoroughly. The strychnine will be precipitated by
the cyanid, and when the poison is placed in a can
and allowed to stand will settle at the bottom. The
poison should be kept closely corked until used.

A gallon of this poisoned sirup is enough to
poison two bushels of wheat. Before it is
mixed with the wheat it should be thoroughly
stirred or shaken, and a few pounds of corn-
meal added to make the sirup adhere to the

grain. This preparation may be used immedi-
ately. Another way is to add more water and
leave the wheat over night to absorb the strych-
nine.

Green alfalfa or alfalfa hay for poisoning
prairie-dogs should be chopped into short
lengths and sprinkled with strychnine water or
sirup until thoroughly wet. A large metal
washtub should be used as a mixing vessel.
An ounce of strychnia sulphate dissolved in a
half gallon of water will prepare 30 pounds of
green alfalfa; or the same quantity of strych-
nine dissolved in 3 or 4 gallons of water will
prepare 20 pounds of alfalfa hay.

For the smaller ground-squirrels, use

1 ounce strychnia sulphate,
35 pounds clean wheat,

2 gallons water.

Dissolve the strychnine in the water in a large mix-
ing vessel. Then pour in the wheat and allow all to
simmer for an hour, the vessel being covered. Stir
occasionally. The water will probably be entirely ab-
sorbed by the grain, but if not, a little corn-meal will
take up the extra moisture. If preferred, the strych-
nine may first be dissolved in a pint of boiling water,
the ingredients then mixed in a large vessel, and all

302 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

left over night to absorb the poison. Distribute the
poisoned wheat, a half teaspoonful at a place, at the
mouth of the squirrel-burrows ; do not scatter broad-
cast on account of the danger of killing birds. For
the larger ground-squirrels reduce the quantity of
wheat to 25 pounds and the water in proportion.
Experiments in California in destroying the digger
ground-squirrel (Clitellus bccchcyi) with pieces of
sugar-beets into which crystals of strychnia sulphate
had been inserted with a knife gave good results ; and
even better success has followed the use of poisoned
barley-heads.

Poisoning pocket-gophers. The pocket-go-
phers are readily poisoned by strychnine, espe-
cially in the late fall and early winter. Crys-
tals may be inserted into pieces of potato,
carrot, prunes or raisins, and inserted into the
gopher tunnels several feet from fresh mounds.
Any strong prod will answer to make the holes
into which the baits may be dropped. These
holes need not be closed. When the animals
are in ditch-banks the tunnel should be fol-
lowed by digging with a garden trowel from
the freshest mound to the main runway, the
bait left there, and the opening closed. Car-
bon bisulphide is successful with gophers only
when the soil is moist and packed.

POISONING AND TRAPPING 303

Poisoning wolves. The proper dose for a
wolf is four grains of strychnia sulphate; for
a coyote, two grains. Two sizes of gelatin
capsules may be bought at drug-stores. Fill,
cap, and carefully wipe each capsule to remove
every trace of the drug from its outside. In-
sert this filled capsule into a piece of beef-
suet the size of a walnut and close the cavity.
The baits should be carried in a can or pail,
and not handled except with gloved hands or
with forceps. They should be dropped from
horseback along trails followed regularly by
wolves, or along an artificial trail made by
dragging an old bone or piece of hide well
saturated with some fetid scent. Or they may
be placed about a carcass on which wolves
feed.

Trapping rats and mice. The best of all
traps for this purpose, are the cheap snapping
wire traps called guillotine traps, because they
catch the animal by the neck and choke the life
out of it in a moment. Those made entirely
of metal (see illustration on page 75) are bet-
ter than those with a wooden base.

Guillotine traps, according to Lantz, should

304 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

be baited with small pieces of German sausage
(Wienerwurst) or fried bacon. A small sec-
tion of an ear of corn is an excellent bait if
other grain is not present. The trigger wire
should be bent inward to bring the bait into
proper position to permit the fall to strike the
rat across the neck.

Other excellent baits for rats are oatmeal,
toasted cheese, toasted bread (buttered), fish,
fish offal, fresh liver, raw meat, pine nuts,
apples, carrots, corn, and sunflower, squash,
or pumpkin seeds. Broken fresh eggs are
good bait at all seasons, and ripe tomatoes,
green cucumbers, and other fresh vegetables
are very tempting to the animals in winter.
When seed, grain, or meal is used with a guil-
lotine trap, it is placed on the trigger plate,
or the trigger wire may be bent outward and
the bait sprinkled under it.

The old-fashioned barrel-trap may often be
used to advantage. For several nights rats
are tolled to food placed on the tops of barrels,
or a barrel, covered with stiff brown paper
tied over the top so as to not be displaced or
break under their weight. Then two cross-

POISONING AND TRAPPING 305

slits are cut in the paper, through which the
rats fall, while the corners spring back making
a deceptive surface for the next visitor. One
of many variations of this, is a barrel with a

FORMS OF THE BARREL-TRAP FOR RATS.

The one on the left is covered with stiff paper, sprinkled
with bait (b), and so slit that the rats fall through, while
the corners of the paper fly back into place. The one on the
right has a tipping cover, resting on a cleat (a) at one side.

top swinging on pivots which dumps a rat that
leaps upon it, then rises level again.

When a great many rats are known to have
gathered in a certain place, as under an old
corn-shock (perhaps left and baited for the very
purpose) a wire fence may be thrown around
it, the shock overturned, and the rats killed

306

by men and dogs as they come out into the
enclosure.

One man reports that he has made great
catches with a wire-cage trap, which he sets
inside of a wooden box having a hole in one
end against which the hole in the baited cage-
trap is fitted. The box is then covered with
trash and left. Sometimes several get in at
once; especially if a single rat is left in it,
whose squealing attracts others.

Large cage-traps, another advises, should
be baited and left open for several
nights until the rats are accustomed to enter
them to obtain food. They should then be
closed and freshly baited, when a large catch
may be expected, especially of young rats.

Trapping is a simple way to destroy field-
mice, but it needs to be steadily and systemat-
ically continued to be of much service. It has
special advantages for small areas such as
lawns, gardens, and vegetable or nursery pits
and packing houses, where a limited number
of mice are present, and wherever, for any rea-
son, there are objections to the laying out of
poison. As voles do not readily enter cage-

POISONING AND TRAPPING 307

traps, simple wire traps of the guillotine order,
in which mice are instantly killed, are the
most effective.

Traps without bait may be set across the
runs of the mice, where the animals spring
them by coming in contact with the trigger,
or they may be baited with oat or corn meal.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING A TIP-UP TRAP WITH A BOX.

For trapping pine mice an opening should be
made in the underground tunnel large enough
to receive the trap, which should be set across
the bottom of the runway. The traps may be
baited or not, but the opening should be cov-
ered.

Traps for gophers. Trapping is a success-
ful method when followed intelligently and
persistently. It is especially adapted to small

308 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

fields, orchards, gardens, and irrigation em-
bankments, where only a few gophers are pres-
ent; but in the case of large areas that are
badly infested, the method involves too much
labor. An ordinary No. steel trap may be
employed with success, but there are on the
market several special gopher-traps which are
better adapted for general use.

ONE FORM OF GOPHER-TRAP.

In using the ordinary steel trap, the first
step is to make an opening into the main go-
pher tunnel. The trap should then be sunk
so that the jaws are level with the bottom of
the runway and lightly covered with green clo-
ver, alfalfa grass, or even loose soil, care being
taken that these do not clog under the pan, or
trigger. No bait is required. The hole should

POISONING AND TRAPPING 309

be just large enough to receive the trap and
should be covered so as almost to exclude the
light. Scalding the trap frequently to remove
the animal odor is important.

"A few days' experience will teach one more about
setting traps for gophers than pages of directions
could. He must not be discouraged by failure at
first, but vary the method of setting the trap until he
learns the best way for his locality. While the
method is somewhat slow, persistent trapping steadily
decreases the pests until the last gopher on a farm
may be captured. A correspondent of the Biological
Survey writes that he caught 1,332 of the animals
within 2 miles of his home. A friend of the writer
in Kansas trapped 350 gophers on a 40-acre clover
field in four months. A California newspaper stated
that in the spring of 1901 a man near "Watsonville,
by using 52 traps, caught 233 in twenty-four and
one-half hours. William Burniece, of Bowbells, N.
Dak., trapped more than 1,500 gophers on his quar-
ter section during a single year."

Snares and Traps for Rabbits. Rabbits are
easily trapped or snared, and few farmer-boys
need instruction how to do it. An improve-
ment upon the figure-four and similar traps
is widely used in the West, and known by the
name of its inventor, Fred Wellhouse, of To-

310 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

peka, Kansas. This trap is a box of old six-
inch fencing-boards, two feet or less long and
10 inches square, closed at the back by a door,
but in front by a wire door only, which hangs
from the top and swings inward. The trap is
set and the wire door is kept open by a wire
trigger-rod, held in place by two staples fas-
tened to the top of the box. This trigger is
bent downward near the rear of the trap and
formed into a loop or a figure eight. As the
rabbit enters the trap and crowds into the
back part, it pushes upon the loop, moves the
trigger wire backward, and releases the wire
door. This falls and makes the rabbit a pris-
oner. Bait may be used, but is not necessary,
since the cottontail is constantly looking for
dark places to hide from enemies or cold winds.
Mr. Wellhouse uses about three traps per acre
in young orchards and many among the bear-
ing trees. The materials needed are: Four
boards 1 by 6, 21 inches long ; one piece 1 by 6,
8 inches long for the back ; a short cleat for the
door stop ; 2Sy 2 inches of wire to serve for the
door; 22 inches of wire for the trigger; four
small staples; and nails.

POISONING AND TBAPPING 311

Trapping the wary coyote. All agree that
coyotes are not easily trapped, and what is
said here can be regarded as only a suggestion.
These pestiferous little wolves travel in pretty
well-defined paths and usually hunt against
the wind. Having a keen sense of smell, they
easily detect the tracks of man, and if they
have had previous experience of traps or
guns they are suspicious of danger.

The best No. 4 double-spring trap, with a
heavy, welded wolf-chain, should be used. If
the trap is to be fastened to a stationary ob-
ject the chain should have a swivel at each end ;
if to a drag, such as a forty-pound stone (to
which it must be attached with telegraph wire),
one swivel next the trap is enough. Where it
can be done it is a good plan to bind the trap-
chain to a heavy pole lying on the ground, be-
ing careful not to change its natural position.
If the trap is anchored to a bush or small tree
the chain must be securely fastened with snap
or wire. A stout stake over which the ring
will not slip, driven out of sight into the
ground, is better. Every part of the trap
and chain is covered, and the ground left in as

312 ANIMAL COMPETITORS

natural and undisturbed condition as pos-
sible.

Any kind of fresh meat will do for bait rab-
bits and other small rodents are often used, but
larger baits seem to be more attractive. It
is also of advantage after setting the trap to
make a "drag" of the bait for a quarter to a
half mile, at the end of a rope from the saddle
horn, and finally to fasten it to a bush or stake
close to the trap, or cut it in bits and scatter
all around the trap, so that not all can be
reached by the coyote without walking over
the trap. The skill of the trapper and the
situation of the trap will determine the best
arrangement. The suspicion of the coyote is
lessened apparently after following the bloody
trail of a well-planned drag.

Before setting the traps many trappers rub
their feet and hands on a skin or some strong-
smelling meat or carcass to conceal the human
odor. Oil of anise or rhodium is sometimes
used for the same purpose. Any strong
odor is likely to attract the attention of the
coyote and allay suspicion. Care must be taken
not to spit on the ground or kneel or throw

POISONING AND TRAPPING 313

down any clothing in the vicinity of the trap.
A good plan is to set a line of traps and leave
them for a day or two, and then go the rounds
with a horse and drag and bait the traps with-
out dismounting.

THE END

INDEX

American voles, 50.
Antelope, 273; pronghorned,

284.
Arsenic, use of in destroying

pests, 290.

Bachman, Dr., 252.

Badger, 263 ; badger burrows,

205 ; prehistoric plowing,

207; aids the farmer, 268.
Bailey, Vernon, 96, 99, Io7,

238.

Barabaschi, Dr. P., 42.
Barium carbonate as a poison,

294.
Bats, 201; species of, 202;

economic relations, 204.
Beaver, 94 et seq.
Belgian hare, 177.
Bell, Dr. Robert, 123.
Bighorn, 273, 383.
Bison, 284.
Black fox, 243.
Blanford, W. T., 7.
Bowcn, George T., 82.
Breeding foxes, 227; mink,

259; skunks, 271.
Bristoe, W. M., 187.
Buffalo, 273.

Bull-snakes, 188.
Bush-rat, 101.

Canadian fur-bearers, 243.

Carcajou, 243.

Caribou, 273.

Chase, A. W., 103.

Chipmunk, 144 et seq.; the
burrow and its furniture,
145; familiarity, 147.

Construction, rat-proof, 28.

Cotton-rat, 68, 105; habits,
106.

Coues, Dr, Elliott, 46, 260,
266, 267.

Coyote, 232 et seq.; character
of, 233; beneficial food hab-
its, 235; injurious food,
habits, 236; as a pest, 237;
fencing against, 241; traps
for, 311.

Cultivation of muskrats, 89 ;
of the mink, 258; of
skunks, 270.

Cummins, L. C., 187.

Dancing mice, 38.
Deer, 273 et seq.; native
American, 273; capability

315

INDEX

of domestication, 275; rear-
ing wapiti for profit, 276;
rearing whitetail deer, 278.

Deer-mice, 68.

Doane, Prof. R. W., 23, 152.

Enemies of rodents, 185.

Elk, 273.

Ermine, 242 ; his family, 245 ;

habits, 250 et seq.
Exterminating rodents, 191.

Fencing against wild animals,
240.

Ferrets, 32.

Fisher, 243.

Flying-squirrel, 138 ; charm
of, 140; family life of, 141.

Fox, 206 et seq.; the kit-fox,
206; gray fox, 208; arctic
fox, 209; red fox, 210;
value of fox fur, 212; vari-
ability of the red fox, 214;
fox farming, 214; area
suited for, 215; arrange-
ment of breeding quarters,
216; form of enclosures,
217; easy to keep, 220; food
and feeding rules, 221; re-
production and treatment
of young, 224; importance
of good care, 226; breeding
for improved stock, 227;
preparation of skins, 230;
expectation of profit, 231.

Fox-squirrel, 133; peculiari-
ties of, 136.

Fumigation of rodents, 190.
Fur-bearing animals, 242 et
seq.; Canadian, 243.

Goat, Rocky Mountain white,
284.

Gopher, 112 et seq.; burrow-
ing powers, 1 14 ; destruc-
tive to craps, 117; enemies
to orchards and forests,
118; tap irrigating ditches,
121; as soil makers, 122;
traps for, 3Q7.

Gopher-snake, 189.

Gray squirrel, 133; peculiari-
ties of, 136.

Ground-hog, 160.

Hardy, Manly, 130, 132.
Harvest-mice, 68.
Hornaday, W. T., 287.
Horses, wild, pest of, 280.
House of the wood-rat, 99.

Japanese jumping mice, 38,

107.
Jones, C. T., 287.

Kangaroo rats, 107, 109.

Lantz, David E., 6, 9, 10, 15,
18, 48, 58, 80, 118, 192, 234,
240, 253, 275, 299.

Marten, 242; Canadian, 243;
Pennant's, 243 ; stone-mar-
ten, 254.

INDEX

317

Meadow-mouse, 48 et seq.;
common, 51; general habits,
56; plague of, 58; preven-
tion of plagues, 62 ; food of,
65 ; damage from, 66 ; pre-
vention measures, 68; pro-
tection of orchards against,
70.

Merriam, Dr. C. Hart, 119,
122, 197, 245.

Mink, 242; life of, 254; value
of, 256 ; trapping, 257 ; cul-
tivation for profit, 258 ;
care of, 260.

Minkeries, 259.

Mole-gopher, 113.

Moles, 194; under the lawn,
194; strength of, 196;
methods of, 197; star-nosed
mole, 198.

Montgomery, F. U., 9.

Moose, 273.

Mountain goat, 282.

Mouse, 37 et scq.; pantry-
mouse, 37 ; meadow-mouse,
48 ; Japanese dancing
mouse, 38; prevalence of,
40; carry bacilli, 41; musi-
cal, 43; prairie mouse, 53;
food habits, 55; wild habits,
56; pine mouse, 53; deer
mouse, 68 ; pocket mouse,
68; harvest mouse, 68.

Musk-hog, Texan, 282.

Muskrat, 76 ct seq.; mischief
done by, 76 ; value of, 78 ;
as a food, 80 ; recipe for

cooking, 82; trapping, 84;
preparation of pelt, 88;
cultivation of, 89; possibil-
ities, 90; suitable places
and proper care, 91.

Nelson, E. W., 66.

Orchards, protection of
against mice, 70; against
rabbits, 173.

Osgood, W. H., 213, 250, 269.

Otter, 263.

Peccary, 273.

Pack-rat, 101 et seq.; thiev-
ing propensities, 102.

Pekan, 243.

Pennant's marten, 243.

Pantry-mouse, 37 et seq.

Pest of wild horses, 280.

Phosphorus, use of in destroy-
ing pests, 290.

Pinc-marlen, 242.

Pine-mouse, 51, 53; food hab-
its, 55.

Piper, Stanley E., 60.

Pocket-mouse, 08.

Poisoning nnd trapping, direc-
tions, 288 ct seq.; waste of
effort, 288 ; phosphorus and
arsenic, 290; virtues of
strychnine, 292; poisoning
rats and house mice, 294 ;
poisoning field-mice, 296;
poisoning rabbits, 29S;
poisoning prairie dogs, 299;

318

INDEX

poisoning pocket-gophers,
302; poisoning wolves, 303.

Porcupine, 161.

Prairie-dog, 153; dwellings,
156; a serious pest prob-
lem, 157; poison for, 299.

Prairie-mouse, 51, 53.

Preparation of fox skins, 230.

Rabbit, 164 et seq.; excellence
of flesh, 164; breeding hab-
its, 166; injurious to gar-
dens, 168; laws protecting,
169; bounty on, 170;
hunting, 171; protections
against, 173; as pets, 177;
hutches, 179; feeding, 181;
directions for breeding, 183 ;
traps for, 301.

Eat, 3 et seq.; brown house-
rat, 3; black rat, 4; habits,
5; history, 6; fecundity, 8;
cost, 10; destructiveness in
fields, 12; destructivenesa
to poultry, 15; damage to
buildings and stored goods,
17; carriers of disease, 19;
responsible for the plague,
21; methods of suppression,
26 ; rat-proof construction,
28; keeping food from, 30;
disposal of dead, 31; four-
footed enemies, 31; co-oper-
ation in subduing, 34 ; traps
for, 303.
Rat, cotton, 68.

Recipe for cooking muskrat,
82.

Red-backed mouse, 53.

Red squirrel, 126; home of,
127; food of, 128; prepara-
tions for winter, 131.

Remedies for injured trees,
175.

Rodents, suppression of as
pests, 184; foolish destruc-
tion of their enemies, 184;
weasel tribe best police,
185; useful aid by birds,
187; aid from serpents,
188; poisoning and fumiga-
tion, 189; flooding burrows,
191; difficulty of extermina-
tion, 191.

Sable, 242.

Salamander, 112.

Serpents as destroyers of ro-
dents, 188.

Seton, Ernest Thompson, 47,
110, 122, 253, 262.

Shrews, 199.

Skunks, 270; skunk farming,
271.

Squirrel, 125 et seq.; tree-
squirrel, 125 ; red-squirrel,
126; gray and fox squir-
rels, 133; flying squirrel,
138; ground squirrel, 144;
squirrels and bubonic
plague, 151.
Spermophile, 148.
Star-nosed mole, 198.

INDEX

319

Striped gopher, 148, 150.

Trade-rat, 101.

Traps, for mink, 257 ; for rats
and mice, 303; barrel trap,
305; for gophers, 307; for
rabbits, 309; for coyotes,
311.

Tree-protectors and washes,
71.

Trees, to protect from mice,
70; from rabbits, 173; rem-
edies for injured, 74.

Texan mush-hog, 282.

Vampire, 20.

Vermin, directions for exter-
mination, 288 et seq.
Virginia deer, 278.
Voles, American, 50.

Wapiti, 273; raising for

profit, 276.
Water-rat, 76.

Wash tor protection against
mice, 73; against rabbits,
175.
Weasel, 247; and chickens,

248; as a mouser, 249.
Weasels, enemies of rats, 32;

and rodents, 242.
White tail deer, 279.
Wichita National Game Ref-
uge, 286.
Woodchuck, 160.
Wood-mouse, 105.
Wood-rats, 98.
W T olverine, 243.
Wolves, 232 et seq.; poison
for, 303.

Yerkes, Prof. Robert M., 39.

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