♦ ANIMAL ♦ 
 COMPETITORS 
 
 FINEST'- INGRES OLL 
 
3LU- 
 
 Book 
 GopyriglitW 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
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THE YOUNG FARMER'S PRACTICAL LIBRARY 
 
 EDITED BY ERNEST INGERSOLL 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 ERNEST INGERSOLL 
 
The Young Farmer's Practical 
 Library 
 
 EDITED BY ERNEST INGERSOLL 
 Cloth i6mo Illustrated each 75 cents net. 
 
 From Kitchen to G-arret. 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. 
 
 The Farm Mechanic. By L. W. Chase, 
 Professor of Farm Mechanics in the 
 University of Nebraska. 
 
 The Satisfactions of Country Life. By 
 
 Dr. James W. Robertson, Principal of 
 Macdonald College, Quebec. 
 
 Roads, Paths and Bridges. By L. W. 
 Page, Chief of the Office of Public 
 Roads, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
 
 Health on the Farm. By Dr. L. F. 
 
 Harris, Secretary Georgia State Board 
 of Health. 
 
 Electricity on the Farm. By Frederick 
 M. Con lee. 
 
 Co-operation Among Farmers. By John 
 Lee. Coulter. 
 
n w 
 
ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 PROFIT AND LOSS FROM THE WILD 
 
 FOUR-FOOTED TENANTS 
 
 OF THE FARM 
 
 BY 
 ERNEST INGERSOLL 
 
 EDITOR OF THE YOUNG FARMER'S PRACTICAL LIBRARY, AND AUTHOR 
 
 OF " THE LIFE OF MAMMALS," " WIT OF THE WILD," 
 
 " WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD," ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Ittew 32orft 
 
 STURGIS & WALTON 
 
 COMPANY 
 
 1911 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
$v 
 
 
 Copyright 1911 
 By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1911 
 
 ©CLA269699 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY THE GENERAL 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. 
 
 v 
 
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 
 
INTEODUCTION 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. 
 
PEEFATOEY 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, 
 
PBEFATORY 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 EL 
 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-farming 
 
 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 COMPETITOES 
 
ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE PEST OF RATS 
 
 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 EATS 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 mammae 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 Eussia 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 RATS 9 
 
 that as lie 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 EATS 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 number 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 RATS 15 
 
 of feedstuff s, 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. 
 Rats 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. 
 
 Rats 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. 
 
 Bestructiveness 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 
 
 dieted 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. 
 
 Rats 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 
 mined. 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 
 years. 
 
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 16th 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. Hence 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 
 be lawful for the Beadle or any other person to kill 
 the 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 RATS 21 
 
 made in favor of any "dogge of aceompte. " 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 
 
22 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 bed-bug, may do this ; but the most common 
 agent is the flea. 
 
 Another fact is that the rat seems especially 
 susceptible to the disease ; arid, indeed, it is be- 
 
 MOUTH-PARTS OF A RAT-FLEA, SHOWING WHERE BACILLI MAY 
 CLING AND BE CARRIED 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. Rats abound m fleas, and, as is the 
 case with most furry or feathered animals, 
 have a species peculiar to their race. This 
 
THE PEST OF RATS 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 trichinous, then, only when swine eat 
 the flesh of infected rats or hogs. Country 
 slaughter-houses, where rats are abundant and 
 swine are fed on offal, are the chief sources of 
 trichinous 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. 
 
 Rats 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 RATS 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 nsed to advantage; and in the 
 last chapter of this book will be fonnd descrip- 
 tions of various forms and directions for bait- 
 ing and setting them. 
 
 Poisoning will clear ont 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 EATS 29 
 
 filling the space between the sheathing and the 
 lath for about a foot with concrete. 
 
 Eats 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. Eats 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. 
 
THE PEST OF EATS 33 
 
 "For effective work," says one who knows, 
 ' l 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. Thus 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, 
 
CHAPTEE 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 ears, half an inch long, very small eyes, and 
 long naked tail, are nnlike those of any native 
 mouse. Its total length is about 7 inches, 31^ 
 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 hlack 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 PANTRY 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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, w T e 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 
 Eev. 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 quite 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 meadow-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 ivulilmause. 
 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. ochrog aster.) 
 
 3. Pine-mouse (M. pinetorum.) 
 
52 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 The common meadow-mouse (No. 1) is 6y 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 denned 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, and 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. pennsylv aniens. 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 (No. 3) is found only in the Carolinas and 
 Georgia, but several varieties widen the specific 
 range from southern New York to Oklahoma, 
 south of the latitude of Lake Erie. The typical 
 Georgian pine mouse has glossy, mole-like fur 
 of a bright russet-brown color. The variety of 
 the blue-grass region is darker and very glossy, 
 while that of the states west of the Mississippi, 
 between southern Iowa and northern Texas, 
 is deep chestnut. In all, the skull is wide and 
 flat, and the fur short, dense and glossy. 
 
 Owing to their peculiar habits, pine mice are 
 not so well known as are the northern meadow- 
 mice. Their natural habitat is the forest, al- 
 though they are by no means restricted to pine- 
 woods or forested areas. The life of the 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 the 
 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 bring 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 Microtus, as is shown by 
 the small number of mammae ; but this is coun- 
 terbalanced by the safer underground exist- 
 ence; so that within their range pine mice are 
 about as abundant as other field-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. 
 
 
 ' ■.■.'i;;:vr 
 '•■■■■: ' " ;: ■■■■■: v ; 
 
 mmmm 
 
 IlitgHMj 
 
 >.:;'■ 4-}'---y4;; r - -:■% 
 
 'Wm 
 
 m 
 
 •AN alfaxfa field devoured and honeycombed by 
 
 FIELD-MICE. 
 
 In 1907-8 an outbreak of field-mice in Ne- 
 vada, Utah and northeast California, threat- 
 
60 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- 
 tias 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 the 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 prolificacy in other localities. In 
 March several hundred females were examined in 
 Humboldt 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 sncli " plagues " in- 
 creases with the spread of settlement and 
 cultivation. i i 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 
 

 . 
 
 
 
 
 mm 
 
 
 63 
 
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 wild mice. Beturning 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-mice 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 
 fto 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- 
 thus), harvest-mice (Reithrodontomys) , 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. 
 
 1 ' 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 
 
72 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 protectors, and tarred paper is a favorite with 
 some horticulturists. The wire cloth or paper 
 
 AN APPLE-TEEE 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. 
 
 Eeports 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. 
 
 Winter 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. Lime 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 GUILLOTINE TRAP. 
 
 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 lo^ver 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 
 
PROFIT FROM THE MUSKRAT 81 
 
 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. 
 
 "Roast 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 dore 
 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 COMPETITOBS 
 
 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 MUSKRAT 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 COMPETITOKS 
 
 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 
 
 
PKOFIT 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 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-f arming ought to be a very profitable 
 enterprise in many places. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 CAN THE BEAVER BE SAVED? 
 
 Heke, 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 BEAVEB, BE SAVED 
 
 95 
 
 BEAVER-DAM NEAR LAKE TEMISCAMING, ONTARIO. 
 
 From a Photograph by George S. Bryan. 
 
 A BEAVEK-DAMj on. the upper && 
 
96 ANIMAL COMPETITOKS 
 
 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. While 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-RATS, PACK-RATS, COTTON- 
 RATS, 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 home, as he met with them 
 in Florida almost 150 years ago. 
 
 "They are singular," he says, "with respect to 
 their ingenuity and great labor in the construction 
 
WOOD-RATS, PACK-RATS, ETC. 99 
 
 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. "Where the houses are located near the edges 
 of fields, grain, fruits, and vegetables are sometimes 
 
 FIELD-NEST OF BAILEY'S WOOD-KAT. 
 
 From Warren's "Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P. 
 
 Putnam's Sons. Photo by H. 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-EATS, 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 has been known to carry off even sticks 
 of dynamite. 
 
 Its nests are frequently lined by shredding 
 gunny-sacking or clothing. Rolled 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," lie writes, "and on opening 
 the door, his head, with its big round eyes and great 
 round ears, 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 weeks. ' ' 
 
 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-RATS, 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 were 
 originally stored in different parts of the house. 
 
104 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 1 ' 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-RAT. 
 
 From Warren's "Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P. 
 
 Putnam's Sons. Photo by H. 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-RATS, 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 feave » 
 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 caftin, and( 
 in it was found the missing money, as well as the? 
 tobacco and other articles supposed to have beeni 
 stolen." 
 
 The destructive cotton-mi* 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 
 WQod-monse (Peromyscus) which, in its vari- 
 ous species and subspecies, is scattered all over 
 the continent;; hut few of them have sufficient 
 economic interest to justify it. There are times 
 when any or ail may become dangerous by 
 
106 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 overmultiplication ; but the 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% 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 i i 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 lias 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 
 and 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 Zapodidce, — all in- 
 teresting and beautiful little animals but not 
 requiring much attention here, because their 
 
IOg ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 presence affects humanity iti 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-RATS, PACK-RATS, 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 
 
Ill) ANIMAL COMPETITOKS 
 
 is light sand-color over the upper parts and 
 pure white 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. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 THE GRAY GOPHERS 
 
 This brings lis to another group of burrow- 
 ing arid pouched rodents, which, however, are 
 farSrom harmless — the gophers. This term is 
 : giv%n in the Gulf States to a burrowing turtle, 
 aftd 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 GeomyidcB. 
 
 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 
 bur sarius ) , 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 (Cratogeomys castanops), occur- 
 ring from Colorado southwestward ; and the 
 
 NORTHERN GRAY GOPHER (TIIOMOMYS TALPOIDES). 
 Photographed by H. K. Job, and reproduced by permission. 
 
 smaller northern gray gopher, or mole-go- 
 pher (Thomomys talpoicles), which is the fa- 
 miliar of the Dakotas, Wyoming and the Cana- 
 
114 ANIMAL COMPETITOKS 
 
 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 Eiver 
 valley, and T. bottce (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 poivers. 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 he 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 GOPHERS 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 in the far West they burrow in 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. 
 
THE GRAY GOPHERS 
 
 119 
 
 The rapidity with which the animal works 
 is amazing. In his rare monograph on the fam- 
 ily Merriam 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- 
 j3her 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 ANIMAL COMPETITOBS 
 
 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. C. 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 work, Life His- 
 tories of the 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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. 
 
CHAPTEE 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 NORTHWESTERN RED SQUIRREL. 
 From a Photograph by 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 
 
SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 127 
 
 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. . . ." 
 
 How 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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: * 
 
 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. . . . 
 
 i 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 Alleglienies, 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 flying-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 COMPETITOKS 
 
 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 '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 below 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 mess-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, 
 
148 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 gopher and spermophile. A 
 variety of this species, the sage-chipmunk of 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ ^ ■%-." '=.->• 
 
 ! 
 
 f . p 
 
 
 
 
 Kjg 
 
 
 
 
 
 * ^ ■ . 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 »"Z 'ir ir *** ' " 
 
 ';."** "**•' ' ' '• • - ' 
 
 
 ^^**S§i#** 
 
 ^.^ \^%»s 
 
 TWO SPECIES OF ROCKY-MOUNTAIN CHIPMUNKS. 
 
 From Warren's "Mammals of Colorado." By Permission of G. P. 
 
 Putnam's Sons. Photo by H. 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 
 
GEOUND-SQUIERELS 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 dim- 
 
150 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 culty. Referring to this matter Dr. Merriam 
 made the following appealing remarks in a re- 
 cent paper on these pests in California: 
 
 Striped spermophiles exist along the grassy 
 eastern border of the plains right down to the 
 Gnlf of Mexico; and Texas has, besides, a 
 beantifnl 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 spermophiles 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 the 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 the 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- 
 squirr el-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 COMPETITOES 
 
 and southern California (Clitellus beecheyi) 
 has 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. Eu- 
 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 
 
154 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITOES 
 
 southward into Mexico. This animal is some- 
 times confused towards the north with the 
 
 A. Mound/ 
 
 2>. Funnel jha/ted entrance to burrow 
 
 C. Mam/nassaqz4''2 inch uvdutmettr 
 _ about 15 fe&ut length' , , ., 
 D.jforuontal/iajsay&tfeelcnknyt/i,. 
 
 E. Unused nesUfdUdu/Uh earUu re/use. 
 
 F. Unused/tart of/toruontal/tassaqe 
 /Med with cca-Ut etc ( 4- tet Urny) 
 
 G .NuJ^larqc avouaklar one prairie daej 
 
 H./ltestoJ ' grcUS(ltt,nchinduaMxettrby9 
 
 ches itfkeic/M) 
 d. Absorbent mailer carryuiy bual/thide 
 
 of carbon. 
 K.Poiitipn ofn-curiedo<is as found after 
 
 use ofbuidjilude of -carbon 
 LjJejtili of horuontal pcusaqe. Wfut 
 
 7 inches 
 
 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 tower 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 clown 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 San 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 
 
 iww» 
 
 £*\.\ gf 
 
 : 
 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 
 Wj% _. . ; ■-:■ >^ ; 
 
 . ' 
 
 \&?~~ ' r : -. • ' ' J: jS 
 
 
 
 WsS^r^^S&^^r- ', - r: S . 
 
 ¥?-^*r-£&&-''* 
 
 SCENES IN PRAIRIE-DOG LIFE. 
 
PBAIRIE-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 
 warning, they are in reality a big, plump, burrow- 
 ing squirrel of irreproachable habits as regards food 
 and 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 woodchucks. 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 "woodchucks" 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 
 
PKAIRIE-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 Eockies 
 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 
 
PEAIRIE-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, USEFUL AND INJURIOUS 
 
 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 yon 
 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 
 
RABBITS 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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. 
 
 Eabbit 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- 
 
RABBITS 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 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 COMPETITOBS 
 
 ing the animals. In some Western States they 
 are regarded with snch 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, 1% inch mesh, from 
 2. to 3 feet high, with the lower edge sunk a 
 
172 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
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-TKEE 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 
 
176 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 Avriter 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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- 
 
EABBITS 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% 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 hole, 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. 
 
 Eabbits 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" raooits together near the top are the Silver Grey (dark), the Silver Cream (middle), and the 
 Polish. The big rabbit with the eaf9 standing quite erect Is the Flemish Giant, and the one nest tt, hiding 
 behind the tree, Ja a PatagorJao. Hext come the two black-and-white, rabbits, which are Dutch. The Hg rabbit 
 with very long ears is a lop-eared rabbit, and the white one beside it is an Angora. The last is a Himalayan. 
 
RABBITS 183 
 
 shorts; and a supply should always be kept 
 within their reach. 
 
 Directions for breeding. Rabbits 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. 
 
 Rabbits are subject to various diseases, but 
 these can usually be prevented by good care. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 SUPPRESSION OF RODENTS AS PESTS 
 
 Interesting 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 
 
SUPPRESSION OF EODENTS 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- 
 
SUPPRESSION 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 (Pituophis catenifer), 
 
SUPPEESSION OF KODENTS 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 fumes 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 
 
SUPPRESSION OF RODENTS 191 
 
 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, Ca'L, 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 COMPETITOBS 
 
 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. 
 
SUPPRESSION 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 npon 
 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-kill." 
 
 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 Avail, 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 sues its prey at a safe depth. It does not hi- 
 bernate but 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 with 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 Chiroptera), 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 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 
 
204 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 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 npon 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 
 quite 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 habits, from 
 our point of view, because their fare consists 
 wholly of flying insects, most of which are in 
 some way injurious or annoying to us. It is 
 delightful to watch their dancing flight in 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-FABMING 207 
 
 YARDS, WITH FOX-KENNELS. 
 
 mm*®® 
 
 A CORNER, "WITH STONES TO PREVENT THE FOXES DIGGING 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: 
 
 " 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-FARMING 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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. Eeturning 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-FARMING 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 frnit 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-FABMING 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. Kesults 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 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-FARMING 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 mnch 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-FAKMING 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 Here a wide outer court is provided, separating 
 
 the smaller enclosures in which the foxes are 
 actually kept from the unfenced area possibly 
 
 1 b 40 Ft 
 
 -'l:l 
 
 to 
 
 S/2 Ft- 
 
 If 
 
 1? 
 
 ■4-OFf- 
 
 POX P/iOTECT/ON FROM fttTPl/DEftS 
 
 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-FARMING 221 
 
 even their 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-FARMING 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 COMPETITORS 
 
 little or no cost, and find them satisfactory. 
 Take care that the stronger, quicker foxes do 
 not rob and starve their fellows. 
 
 Reproduction, mid 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, 
 
 "* /,, *.'l-^^ 
 
 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-F ARMING 225 
 
 male sometimes has 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-FARMING 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. 
 
 BEEEDING FOE IMPEOVED 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-FABMING 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 
 -tail 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-FARMING 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. 
 
CHAPTEE 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 
 
GRAY 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 Kexburg, 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 [1904-5], 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 Eussian wolf- 
 hounds or greyhounds. 
 
240 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 Fencing against other wild animals. Fen- 
 cing as a means of protection against wild an- 
 imals has for several years been in nse 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-BEARERS 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 
 Mustelidce. "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 fnr 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 sconrge 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." 
 
CULTUEE OF FUR-BEARERS 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 
 
246 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITOES 
 
 
 3iiftililiii? : ,ir" 
 
 
 atfii 
 
 ■Bill 
 
CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 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. 
 
 i '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 valu- 
 able in the market. It comes to market from 
 Alaska, northern Canada and sub-arctic Rus- 
 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 FUR-BEARERS 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 Lysteri, 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 T amice; 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 depreciations. 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 ol 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 his 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 Field-Mice is given 
 a letter from a farmer in Waukegan, 111., who 
 writes : 
 
 "Two years ago a pair of weasels 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 the 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 lmnters 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 small an animal, and has 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 
 
 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 MinJc cultivation 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 IN 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-BEARERS 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 l( 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- 
 
CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 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 Coues 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- 
 
CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 267 
 
 ually 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 COMPETITOBS 
 
 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 Eio 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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. ' ' 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 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 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 wapiti 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 DEER 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 ivhitetail 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 Angbra-goat 
 industry state that within the United States 
 
RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 279 
 
 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 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 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- 
 
RAISING DEER FOR PROFIT 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 mush-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 Rio 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 than the returns would be 
 worth in the present state of the meat-market. 
 
 The beautiful Eocky 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. 
 
 Pronghomed 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 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
 
 was set aside by Act of Congress as one of the 
 two National Game Refuges 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 Grame 
 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 
 Refuges 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 Refuge 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 should be remembered, however, that in most 
 states laws exist relative to the putting ont 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 TRAPPING 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 Strychnos 
 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 TKAPPING 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 
 
 i "In ease 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 COMPETITOES 
 
 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 1% 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) ; 
 
 % 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 
 
POISONING AND TRAPPING 301 
 
 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 beecheyi) 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 TBAPPING 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 ANIMAL COMPETITOES 
 
 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 TKAPPING 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. 
 
 
 7 
 
 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 TBAPPING 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. — Babbits 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 ; 28% inches of wire to serve for the 
 door; 22 inches of wire for the trigger; four 
 small staples; and nails. 
 
POISONING AND TRAPPING 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, 
 
 265 ; prehistoric plowing, 
 
 267; aids the farmer, 268. 
 Bailey, Vernon, 96, 99, 157, 
 
 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. 
 Bowen, 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 
 
316 
 
 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, 114; destruc- 
 tive to crops, 117; enemies 
 to orchards and forests, 
 118; tap irrigating ditches, 
 121; as soil makers, 122; 
 traps for, 307. 
 
 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 seq.; 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 et 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. 
 
 Pine-marten, 242. 
 
 Pine-mouse, 51, 53; food hab- 
 its, 55. 
 
 Piper, Stanley E., 60. 
 
 Pocket-mouse, 68. 
 
 Poisoning and trapping, direc- 
 tions, 288 et 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, 29*; 
 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. 
 
 Rat, 3 et seq.; brown house- 
 rat, 3; black rat, 4; habits, 
 5; history, 6; fecundity, 8; 
 cost, 10; destructiveness in 
 fields, 12; destructiveness 
 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 for 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. 
 Wolverine, 243. 
 Wolves, 232 et seq.; poison 
 
 for, 303. 
 
 Yerkes, Prof. Robert M., 39. 
 
JN 
 
 13 «'» 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
 
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