ry
CIE
2
CORNELL
LAB of ORNITHOLOGY
LIBRARY
at Sapsucker Woods
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Illustration of Bank Swallow by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
MMO HK
WILD ANIMALS
OF NORTH AMERICA
INTIMATE STUDIES OF BIG AND LITTLE CREATURES
OF THE MAMMAL KINGDOM
TUNTUUIUVTUU ULI UT AUT UU TTT
LOMUUVIUTAUUUTAU TUTTE TUTTI
BY
EDWARD W. NELSON
Natural-Color Portraits from Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
Track Sketches by Ernest Thompson Seton
HIAIUUUILUIUAAUVULL HUTT
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
U.S. A.
HRVUVUUUAUUUTUUUTUULUUU UCU UT
IIUVUUAAUUUUULUUU LUAU i
SWSbT4
CopyRIGHT, 1918
BY THE
NaTIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
WasuIneton, D.C,”
Press or Jupp & DErwEILer, INC.
INTRODUCTION
N OFFERING THIS VOLUME of “Wild Animals of North America” to mem-
bers of the National Geographic Society, the Editor combines the text and
illustrations of two entire numbers of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MaGa-
ZINE—that of November, 1916, devoted to the Larger Mammals of North
America, and that of May, 1918, in which the Smaller Mammals of our
continent were described and presented pictorially.
Edward W. Nelson, the author of both articles, is one of the foremost
naturalists of our time. For forty years he has been the friend and student
of North America’s wild-folk. He has made his home in forest and desert,
on mountain side and plain, amid the snows of Alaska and the tropic heat
of Central American jungles—wherever Nature’s creatures of infinite variety
were to be observed, their habits noted, and their range defined.
In the whole realm of scientists, the GEOGRAPHIC could not have found
a writer more admirably equipped for the authorship of a book such as ““Wild
Animals of North America” than Mr. Nelson, for, in addition to his excep-
tional scientific training and his standing as Chief of the unique U. S. Biolog-
ical Survey, he possesses the rare quality of the born writer, able to visualize
for the reader the things which he has seen and the experiences which he has
undergone in seeing them. Each of his animal biographies, of which there
are 119 in this volume, is a cameo brochure—concisely and entertainingly
presented, yet never deviating from scientific accuracy.
In Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the National Geographic Society has
secured for Mr. Nelson the same gifted artist collaborator which it provided
for Henry W. Henshaw, author of ‘Common Birds of Town and Country,”
“The Warblers,’ and ‘‘American Game Birds,” all of which were assem-
bled in our ‘Book of Birds.’’ In the present instance Mr. Fuertes has
produced a natural history gallery of paintings of the Larger and Smaller
Mammals of North America which is a notable contribution to wild-animal
portraiture, and the reproductions of these works of art are among the most
effective and lifelike examples of color printing ever produced in this country.
Supplementing the work of Mr. Nelson and Mr. Fuertes is a series of
drawings by the noted naturalist and nature-lover, Ernest Thompson Seton,
showing the tracks of many of the most widely known mammals.
“Wild Animals of North America” provides in compact and permanent
form a natural history for which the National Geographic Society expended
$100,000 in the two issues of the Magazine in which the articles and illustra-
tions originally appeared.
GILBERT GROSVENOR,
Director and Editor.
INDEX TO WILD ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
(The articles and illustrations in this volume are reproduced from the November, 1916, and May, 1918,
National Geographic Magazine.
in the Magazine. ‘The following pages are numbered in sequence. )
Color
Text illustra-
tion
Antelope, Prong-horn...... 451
Armadillo, Nine-banded..... 559
Badger Ui shctiema ye ar stmacamerayernm Oa 419
Bat, 567
Bat, Hod 5
Bat, )
Bat, Red dnd} shanbiioas eye eae Ree Be
Bear, Alaskan Brown (fron-
LS PIEEE).
of the earth one fauna has succeeded an-
other in marvelous procession.
It has been shown also that these
changes in animal life, accompanied by
equal changes in plant life, have been
largely brought about by variations in
climate and by the uplifting and depress-
ing of continental land-masses above or
below the sea. The potency of climatic
influence on animal life is so great that
even a fauna of large mammais will be
practically destroyed over a great area
by a long-continued change of a com-
paratively few degrees (probably less
than ten degrees Fahrenheit) in the mean
daily temperatures.
The distribution of both recent and
t,
ee X
\
: =
§ e
Photograph by Gus A. Swanson
THEIR LIVING LIES BENEATH THE SNOW
All nature loves kindness and trusts the gentle hand.
Contrast these sheep, ready.to fly
at the slightest noise, with those in the picture on page 3096, peacefully feeding in close
proximity to a standing express train.
animal more than the trophy of a dead one!
fossil] mammals shows conclusively that
numberless species have spread from
their original homes across land bridges
to remote unoccupied regions, where they
have become isolated as the bridges dis-
appeared beneath the waves of the sea.
VAST NATURAL MUSEUMS OF EXTINCT
ANIMAL LIFE
For ages Asia appears to have served
as a vast and fecund nursery for new
Every one appreciates a good picture of a living
mammals from which North Temperate
and Arctic America have been supplied.
The last and comparatively recent land
bridge, across which came the ancestors
of our moose, elk, caribou, prong-horned
antelope, mountain goats, mountain sheep,
musk-oxen, bears, and many other mam-
mals, was in the far Northwest, where
Bering Straits now form a shallow chan-
nel only 28 miles wide separating Siberia
from Alaska.
308
The fossil beds of the Great
Plains and other parts of the
West contain eloquent proofs of
the richness and variety of mam-
mal life on this continent at dif-
ferent periods in the past. Per-
haps the most wonderful of all
these ancient faunas was that re-
vealed by the bones of birds and
mamunals which had been trapped
in the asphalt pits recently dis-
covered in the outskirts of Los
Angeles, California. These bones
show that prior to the arrival of
the present fauna the plains of
southern California swarmed
with an astonishing wealth of
strange birds and beasts (see
page 401).
The most notable of these are
saber-toothed tigers, lions much
larger than those of Africa;
giant wolves; several kinds of
bears, including the huge cave
bears, even larger than the gi-
gantic brown bears of Alaska;
large wild horses; camels; bison
(unlike our buffalo) ; tiny ante-
lope, the size of a fox; masto-
dons, mammoths with tusks 15
feet long; and giant ground sloths; in
addition to many other species, large and
small,
With these amazing mammals were
equally strange birds, including, among
numerous birds of prey, a giant vulture-
like species (far larger than any condor),
peacocks, and many others.
DID MAN LIVE THEN?
The geologically recent existence of
this now vanished fauna is evidenced by
the presence in the asphalt pits of bones
of the gray fox, the mountain lion, and
close relatives of the bobcat and coyote,
as well as the condor, which still frequent
that region, and thus link the past with
the present. The only traces of the an-
cient vegetation discovered in these as-
phalt pits are a pine and two species of
juniper, which are members of the exist-
ing flora.
There is reason for believing that prim-
itive man occupied California and other
parts of the West during at least the lat-
ter part of the period when the fauna of
the asphalt pits still flourished. Dr. C.
Hart Merriam informs me that the folk-
“Howdy-do!
“What do I care!
Photograph by L. Peterson
INTRODUCING A LITTLE BLACK BEAR TO A LITTLE
BROWN BEAR A’T SEWARD, ALASKA
I ain't got a bit of use for you!”
You'd better back away, black bear!”
lore of the locally restricted California
Indians contains detailed descriptions of
a beast which is unmistakably a bison,
probably the bison of the asphalt pits.
The discovery in these pits of the bones
of a gigantic vulturelike bird of prey of
far greater size than the condor is even
more startling, since the folk-lore of the
Eskimos and Indians of most of the tribes
from Bering Straits to California and the
Rocky Mountain region abound in tales
of the “thunder-bird”—a gigantic bird of
prey like a mighty eagle, capable of carry-
ing away people in its talons. Two such
coincidences suggest the possibility that
the accounts of the bison and the “thun-
der-bird” are really based on the originals
of the asphalt beds and have been passed
down in legendary history through many
thousands of years.
CAMELS AND HORSES ORIGINATED IN
NORTH AMERICA
Among other marvels our fossil beds
reveal the fact that both camels and
horses originated in North America.
The remains of many widely different
species of both animals have been found
399
in numerous localities extending from
coast to coast in the United States.
Camels and horses, with many species of
antelope closely related to still existing
forms in Africa, abounded over a large
part of this country up to the end of the
geological age immediately preceding the
present era.
Then through imperfectly understood
changes of environment a_ tremendous
mortality among the wild life took place
and destroyed practically all of the splen-
did large mammals, which, however, have
left their records in the asphalt pits of
Photograph by Carl J. Lomen
AS THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN
2 California and other fossil beds through-
= out the country. This original fauna was
g followed by an influx of other species
Bi which made up the fauna when America
2 was discovered.
ot At the time of its discovery by Colum-
a bus this continent had only one domesti-
ye cated mammal—the dog. In most in-
K
stances the ancestors of the Indian dogs
appear to have been the native coyotes
or gray wolves, but the descriptions of
some dogs found by early explorers indi-
cate very different and unknown ancestry.
Unfortunately these strange dogs became
extinct at an early period, and thus left
unsolvable the riddle of their origin.
Before the discovery of America the
people of the Old World had domesti-
cated cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats,
dogs, and cats; but none of these do-
mestic animals, except the dog, existed in
America until brought from Europe by
the invaders of the New World.
The wonderful fauna of the asphalt
y
>
TO I
ARI:
MANY
ALASKA: FAWNS
STIORTLY AFTER THE FAWNING SEASON
# pits had vanished long before America
< was first colonized by white men. and had
a been replaced by another mainly from
8 the Old World, less varied in character,
a but enormously abundant in individuals.
2 Although so many North American mam-
Z mals were derived from Asia, some came
re from South America, while others, as the
es raccoons, originated here.
Vv
FEWER LARGE MAMMALS IN THE ‘TROPICS
It is notable that the fossil beds which
prove the existence of an extraordinary
abundance of large mammals in North
America at various periods in the past,
as well as the enormous aggregation of
mammalian life which occupied this con-
tinent, both on land and at sea, at the time
of its discovery, were confined to the
‘Temperate and Arctic Zones. It is popu-
A REINDEER TERD AT
400
THIS REPRESENTS A SCENE AT THE CALIFORNIA ASPHALT PITS, WITH
eS }
ern Hemisphere”: Macmillan Company
A MIRED
ELEPHANT, TWO GIANT WOLVES, AND A SABER-TOOTHED TIGER (SEE PAGE 399)
larly believed that the tropics possess an
exuberance of life beyond that of other
climes, yet in no tropic lands or seas, ex-
cept in parts of Africa and southern
Asia, has there been developed such an
abundance of large mammal life as these
northern latitudes have repeatedly known.
In temperate and arctic lands such
numbers of large mammals could exist
only where the vegetation not only suf-
ficed for summer needs, but retained its
nourishing qualities through the winter.
In the sea the vast numbers of seals, sea-
lions, walruses, and whales of many kinds
could be maintained only by a limitless
profusion of fishes and other marine life.
From the earliest appearance of mam-
mals on the globe to comparatively recent
times one mammalian fauna has suc-
ceeded another in the regular sequence of
evolution, man appearing late on the
scene and being subject to the same nat-
ural influences as his mammalian kindred.
During the last few centuries, however,
through the development of agriculture,
the invention of new methods of trans-
portation, and of modern firearms, so-
401
called civilized man has spread over and
now dominates most parts of the earth.
As a result, aboriginal man and the
large mammals of continental areas have
been, or are being, swept away and re-
placed by civilized man and his domestic
animals. Orderly evolution of the mar-
velously varied mammal life in a state of
nature is thus being brought to an abrupt
end. Henceforth fossil beds containing
deposits of mammals caught in sink-
holes, and formed by river and other
floods in subarctic, temperate, and trop-
ical parts of the earth, will contain more
and more exclusively the bones of man
and his domesticated horses, cattle, and
sheep.
DESTROYING THE IRRESTORABLE
The splendid mammals which possessed
the earth until man interfered were the
ultimate product of Nature working
through the ages that have elapsed since
the dawn of life. All of them show
myriads of exquisite adaptations to their
environment in color, form, organs, and
habits. The wanton destruction of any
eee SS :
rom a drawing by Charles R. Knight
A PRIMITIVE FOUR-TUSKED ELEPHANT, SEANDING ABOUT SIX FEET AT THE STIOULDER,
TIIAT LIVED AGES AGO IN THE UNITED STATES (TRICOPTIODON MIOCENE )
of these species thus deprives the world
of a marvelous organism which no hu-
man power can ever restore.
Fortunately, although it is too late to
save many notable animals, the leading
nations of the world are rapidly awaken-
ing to a proper appreciation of the value
and significance of wild life. As a con-
sequence, while the superb herds of game
on the limitless plains will vanish, sports-
men and nature lovers, aided by those
who appreciate the practical value of wild
life as an asset, may work successfully to
provide that the wild places shall not be
left wholly untenanted.
Although Americans have been notably
wasteful of wild life, even to the exterm1-
nation of numerous species of birds and
mammals, yet they are now leading the
world in efforts to conserve what is left
of the original fauna. No civilized peo-
ple, with the exception of the South Af-
rican Boers, have been such a nation of
hunters as those of the United States.
Most hunters have a keen appreciation of
nature, and American sportsmen as a
402
class have become ardent supporters of
a.nation-wide movement for the conser-
vation of wild life.
SAVING OUR WILD LIFE
Several strong national organizations
are doing great service in forwarding the
conservation of wild life, as the National
Geographic Society, the National Asso-
ciation of Audubon Societies, American
Bison Society, Boone and Crockett Club,
New York Zodlogical Society, American
Game Protective and Propagation Asso-
ciation, Permanent Wild Life Protective
Fund, and others. In addition, a large
number of unofficial State organizations
have been formed to assist in this work.
Through the authorization by Congress,
the Federal Government is actively en-
gaged in efforts for the protection and in-
crease of our native birds and mammals.
This work is done mainly through the
Bureau of Biological Survey of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, which is in
charge of the several Federal large-game
From a drawing by Charles R. Knight
A GROTESOUE CREATURE THAT ONCK LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES (UERTATIHERIUM
KOCENKE, MIDDLE WYOMING)
It had six horns on the head and, in some species, two long canine teeth projecting down-
ward from the upper jaw.
and teeth resemble nothing on earth today.
preserves and nearly seventy bird reser-
vations.
On the large-game preserves are herds
of buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope. The
Yellowstone National Park, under the
Department of the Interior, is one of the
most wonderfully stocked game preserves
in the world. In this beautiful tract of
forest, lakes, rivers, and mountains live
many moose, elk, deer, antelope, moun-
tain sheep, black and grizzly bears.
wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and
lynxes.
Practically all of the States have game
and fish commissions in one form or an-
other, with a warden service for the pro-
tection of game, and large numbers of
State game preserves have been estab-
lished. The increasing occupation of the
country, the opening up of wild places,
403
The feet were somewhat lke those of an elephant, but the skull
and the destruction of forests are rapidly
restricting available haunts for game.
This renders particularly opportune the
present and increasing wide-spread inter-
est in the welfare of the habitants of the
wilderness.
The national forests offer an unrivaled
opportunity for the protection and in-
crease of game along broad and effective
lines. At present the title to game mam-
mals is vested in the States, among which
great differences in protective laws and
their administration in many cases jeop-
ardize the future game supply.
If a codperative working arrangement
could be effected between the States and
the Department of Agriculture, whereby
the Department would have supervision
and control over the game on the national
forests, so far as concerns its protection
having four well-defined hoofs on the front foot and three on the hind foot.
From a drawing by Charles R. Knight
THE PRIMITIVE FOUR-TOED HORSE (EKOHIPPUS, LOWER EOCENE, WYOMING)
The so-called four-toed horse, a little creature some 12 inches in height at the shoulder,
The animal
is not a true horse, but was undoubtedly an ancestor (more or less direct) of the modern
form.
It must have been a very speedy type, which contributed greatly to the preservation
of the species in an age when (so far as we know) the carnivores were rather slow and
clumsy.
and the designation of hunting areas,
varying the quantity of game to be taken
from definite areas in accordance with its
abundance from season to season, while
the States would control open seasons for
shooting, the issuance of hunting licenses,
and similar local matters, the future wel-
fare of large game in the Western States
would be assured.
Under such an arrangement the game
supply would be handled on _ business
principles. When game becomes scarce
in any restricted area, hunting could be
suspended until the supply becomes re-
newed, while increased hunting could be
allowed in areas where there is sufficient
game to warrant it. In brief, big game
could be handled by the common-sense
methods now used so effectively in the
stock industry on the open range. At
present the lack of a definite general
policy to safeguard our game supply and
the resulting danger to our splendid na-
tive animals are deplorably in evidence.
404
A TRUE HORSE WHICH WAS FOUND IN THE FOSSIL BEDS OF TEXAS: PLEISTOCENE
It is interesting to note that this country was possessed of several species of wild horses,
but these died out ‘long before the advent of the Indian on this continent. The present wild
horses of our western plains are merely stragglers from the herds brought over by the
Spaniards and other settlers. When Columbus discovered America there were no horses
on the continent, though in North America horses and camels originated (see text, page 300).
From drawings by Charles R. Knight
THE FOREST HORSE OF NORTH AMERICA (HYPOHIPPOS MIOCENE)
This animal is supposed to have inhabited heavy undergrowth. It was somewhat off the true
horse ancestry and had three rather stout toes on both the fore and hind feet.
405
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GRIZZLY BEAR
442
AMERICAN BEAVER
443
444
tween individuals and companies, and even
caused jealous rivalries among the Dutch, Eng-
lish, and French colonies.
Disputes over the right to trade in certain
districts often led to bloodshed, and even to
long wars, over great areas, where powerful
rival companies fought for the control of a
new empire. This eager competition among
daring adventurers resulted in the constant ex-
tension of trading posts through the North and
West, until the vanguard of civilization reached
the far borders of the continent on the shores
of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.
Among the fur traders the beaver skin be-
came the unit of value by which barter was
conducted for all sorts of commodities. This
usage extended even throughout northern
Alaska, where it was current among the Amer-
ican fur traders until the discovery of gold
there upset old standards.
Beavers belong to the rodent family—a group
of animals notable for their weak mental pow-
ers. The beaver is the striking exception to
the rule, and its extraordinary intelligence, in-
dustry, and skill have long excited admiration.
It is scarcely entitled to the almost superhu-
man intelligence many endow it with, yet it
certainly possesses surprising ability along cer-
tain lines. Furthermore, it can alter its habits
promptly when a change in environment ren-
ders this advantageous.
In wild places, where rarely disturbed, beavers
are wunsuspicious, but where they are much
trapped they become amazingly alert and can
be taken only by the most skillful trapping.
They are very proficient in building narrow
dams of sticks, mud, and small stones across
small streams for the purpose of backing up
water and making “beaver ponds.” In the border
of these ponds a conical lodge is usually con-
structed of sticks and mud. It is several feet
high and about 8 or ro feet across at the base.
The entrance is usually under water, and a
passageway leads to an interior chamber large
enough to accommodate the pair and their
well-grown young. From the ponds the ani-
mals sometimes dig narrow canals several hun-
dred feet long back through the flats among
the trees. Having short legs and heavy bodies,
and consequently being awkward on land,
beavers save themselves much labor by con-
structing canals for transporting the sticks and
branches needed for food and for repairing
their houses and dams.
Along the Colorado, lower Rio Grande, and
other streams with high banks and variable
water level, beavers usually dig tunnels lead-
ing from an entrance well under water to a
snug chamber in the bank above water level.
Under the varying conditions in different areas
they make homes showing every degree of in-
tergradation between the two types described.
Beavers live almost entirely on twigs and
bark, and their gnawing powers are surpris-
ing. Where small trees less than a foot in
diameter abound they are usually chosen, but
the animals do not hesitate to attack large
trees. On the headwaters of the San Francisco
River, in western New Mexico, I saw a cotton-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
wood nearly 30 inches in diameter that had
been felled so skillfully that it had fallen with
the top in the middle of a small beaver pond,
thus assuring an abundance of food for the
animals at their very door.
In the cold northern parts of their range,
where streams and ponds remain frozen for
months at a time, beavers gather freshly cut
green twigs, sticks, and poles, which they
weight down with mud and stones on the bot-
toms of ponds or streams near their houses, to
be used for food during the shut-in period.
The mud used by beavers in building dams
and houses is scooped up and carried against
the breast, the front feet being used like hands.
The flat tail serves as a rudder when the ani-
mal is swimming or diving, and to strike the
surface of the water a resounding slap as a
danger signal.
Beavers are usually nocturnal, but in dis-
tricts where not disturbed they sometimes come
out to work by day, especially late in the after-
noon. Among the myriads of small streams
and lakes in the great forested area north of
Quebec they are very plentiful; their dams and
houses are everywhere, sometimes four or five
houses about one small lake. Their well-worn
trails lead through the woods near the lake
shores and frequently cross portages between
lakes several hundred yards apart.
Where beavers continue to occupy streams in
settled districts, they often make regular trails
froma slide on the river bank back to neighbor-
ing cornfields, where they feast on the succulent
stalks and green ears. They also injure or-
chards planted near their haunts, by girdling or
felling the trees. Within recent years laws for
their protection have been passed in many
States, and beavers have been reintroduced in
a number of localities. They should not be
colonized .in streams flowing through lands
used for orchards or cornfields, nor where the
available trees are too few to afford a con-
tinuous food supply.
FISHER, OR PEKAN (Mustela pennanti)
The fisher is one of the largest and hand-
somest members of the weasel family. Like
others of this group, it is a long-bodied, short-
legged animal. It attains an extreme length of
from 3 to 3% feet and a weight of 18 or 20
pounds, but the average is decidedly lower than
these figures. In general, it is like a gigantic
marten, and from its size and dark color is
sometimes known locally as the “black cat” or
“black fox.”
It lives in the forested parts of Canada and
the United States, where it originally occurred
from the southern shores of Hudson Bay and
Great Slave Lake south throughout most of
eastern Canada and New England and along
the Alleghanies to Tennessce; also in the Great
Lakes region, south to the southern end of
Lake Michigan; along the Rocky Mountains to
Wyoming, down the Cascades to northern Cal-
ifornia, and from the Atlantic coast of Nova
Scotia and Maine to the Pacific coast of south-
eastern Alaska and British Columbia. They
THE LARGER NORTH
still occur regularly in the Adirondacks of New
York and the Green Mountains of Vermont
and in Maine, but are gone from most of the
southern border of their former range.
Fishers are powerful and agile animals,
probably for their size by far the swiftest and
most deadly of all our forest carnivores. So
swift and dextrous are they in the tree-tops
that they not only capture squirrels without
difficulty, but are able to overtake and kill the
marten, almost an incredible feat. When in
pursuit of their prey or when alarmed, they
make astonishing leaps from tree to tree.
While not so speedy on the ground as some
other animals, they have the tireless persist-
ence of their kind and capture snowshoe hares
in fair chase.
Among the habitants of the forest the fisher
is a fearless and savage marauder, which feeds
on frogs, fish, and nearly every bird and mam-
mal its domain affords, except species so large
that their size protects them. Porcupines are
among its favorite victims and are killed by
being turned over and attacked on their under-
parts. As a consequence of such captures, the
fisher often has many quills imbedded in its
head and the foreparts of its body.
The fisher, like many other predatory ani-
mals, has more or less regular “beats” along
which they make their rounds over the terri-
tory each occupies. These rounds commonly
require several days to accomplish. In winter
they keep mainly along wooded ridges, where
they are trapped.
It follows trap lines like the wolverine and
eats the bait or the captured animal, but, un-
like the wolverine, appears to have no pro-
pensity for further mischief. When overtaken
by dogs or when at war with any of its forest
rivals, it is so active and ferocious that it is
worthy all due respect from antagonists several
times its size.
Although essentially a tree animal, much of
the fisher’s time is spent on the ground. In
summer it appears to be fond of heavy forests
in low-lying situations and the vicinity of
water. Its dens are usually located in a hollow
high up in a large tree, but sometimes in the
shelter of fallen tree trunks or crevices in the
rocks, where, the last of April or early in May,
the young are born. These may number from
one to five, but are usually two or three. The
young begin to follow the mother in her wan-
derings when quite small and do not leave her
guardianship until nearly grown.
The fisher is not a common animal and only
about 8,000 of its skins are marketed each year.
Owing to its size, it is conspicuous, and its
very fearlessness tends to jeopardize its exist-
ence. It is gone from most of the southern
part of its former range and will no doubt
continue steadily to lose ground with the in-
creasing occupation of its haunts.
OTTER (Lutra canadensis and its relatives)
Land otters are common throughout a large
part of the Old World, and when America was
AMERICAN MAMMALS 445
explored the animals were found generally
distributed, and sometimes common, from the
northern limit of trees in North America to
southern South America. Within this great
area a considerable number of species and geo-
graphic races of otters occur, all having a close
general resemblance in appearance and _ habits.
The Canadian otter is the well-known type
throughout the United States, Canada, and
Alaska. It is a slender, dusky brown animal,
from 4 to § feet in length, frequenting streams
and lakes which contain a good supply of fish.
Otters are too short-legged to move easily on
land, but are remarkable for their admirable
grace, agility, and swiftness in the water. AI-
though so poorly adapted to land travel, they
are restless animals, constantly moving up and
down the streams in which they live and often
crossing from one stream to another. In the
far north in midwinter they travel surprising
distances across snow-clad country, following
the banks of streams or passing between them
searching for an entrance to water, whether
through the ice or in open rapids.
In Alaska I saw many otter trails in the
snow crossing the Yukon and through the ad-
jacent forest. In such journeys it was evident
that the animals progressed by a series of long
bounds, each leaving a well-marked, full-length
impression in the snow, so characteristic that
it could not be mistaken. These trails, often
leading for miles across country, always ex-
cited my deepest interest and wonder as to
how these animals could succeed in finding
holes through the ice in this vast snow-bound
waste. Nevertheless they seemed to know full
well, for the trails always appeared to be lead-
ing straight away for some known objective.
Although never very abundant, otters are so
shy and solitary in their habits that they have
managed to retain almost all of their original
range. They occur now and then in the Po-
tomac, near Washington, and in other rivers
throughout the country, where their tracks may
occasionally be detected on sand-bars and in
the muddy shallows along the banks. A sight
of the animals themselves is rare. Their dens
are usually in the banks of streams or lakes
above or below the surface of the water, under
the roots of large trees, or beneath rocky
ledges.
Otters are extremely playful and amuse
themselves by sliding down steep banks into
the water, repeatedly using the same place
until a smooth chute or “slide” is defined.
They usually have two to five young, which
remain with the mother until nearly grown.
While close relatives of the weasel, they are
much more intelligent, have a gentler disposi-
tion, and make playful and most interesting
pets. Their fur is highly prized and always
brings a good price in the market. As a re-
sult, they have been persistently hunted and
trapped since our pioneer days. That the spe-
cies should continue to exist, though in much
diminished numbers, throughout most of. its
original range is a striking evidence of its re-
tiring habits and mental acuteness.
FISHER, OR PEKAN
OTTER
446
; fi 2
im. Ay ae
4, ye Siaiees
Mov Agaric: parler
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP
COLLARED PECCARY, OR MUSKHOG
447
448
COLLARED PECCARY, OR MUSKHOG
(Pecari angulatus)
The numerous and extraordinarily varied
species of wild pigs of the Old World are rep-
resented in America by the peccaries, a special-
ized group containing two species of small pigs
peculiar to North and South America. One of
the many differences between them and their
Old World relatives is their having but two
young. The name muskhog, applied to them, is
based on their possession of a large gland, lo-
cated high up on the middle of the rump, which
emits a powerful odor. The musky odor from
this quickly permeates the flesh of a peccary,
unless it 1s cut out as soon as the animal is
killed.
The collared peccary is the smaller of the
two species, usually weighing less than 75
pounds. It ranges from the southwestern
United States south to Patagonia. Within this
range numerous geographic races have devel-
oped, varying from light grizzled gray to nearly
black. It formerly occurred within our bor-
der north to the Red River of Arkansas, but is
now limited to the southern half of Texas and
the southern parts of New Mexico and Ari-
zona.
In tropical America collared peccaries are
found in dense forests or in low jungles, but in
northern Mexico and the southwestern United
States they are equally at home among scat-
tered thickets of cactus and other thorny plants
on plains and in the foothills. They are strictly
gregarious and live in bands of from a few
individuals up to thirty or more, usually led by
the oldest and most powerful boar. They are
omnivorous, feeding on everything edible, from
roots, fruits, nuts, and other vegetable prod-
ucts to reptiles and any other available animals.
They are specially numerous in many tropical
forests where wild figs, nut palms, and other
fruit-bearing trees provide abundant food. In
the arid northern part of their range dense
thickets of cactus and mesquite afford both
food and shelter. Their presence in a locality
is often indicated by the rooted-up soil where
they have been feeding.
Young pecearies become very tame and make
most intelligent and amusing pets. One moon-
light night cn the coast of Guerrero two of
us, after a bath in the sea by a small Indian
village, strolled along the hard white sand to
enjoy the cool breeze. Suddenly a little pec-
cary, not weighing over cight or ten pounds,
came running to mect us and, after stopping at
our feet to have its head scratched, suddenly
circled about us, away and back again in whirl-
ing zigzags, with all the joyous frenzy of a
playful puppy. Continuing this performance.
it accompanied us for several hundred yards,
until we returned to the village.
Tales of the ferocity of bands of the collared
peccaries and of their treeing hunters who have
disturbed them read well to the novice, but
have little foundation in fact. In reality the
animals are shy and retiring and fight only
when forced to do so for self-protection. When
brought to bay by dogs or other animals, they
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZI
NE
fight viciously, and with their sharp, knife-
edged tusks can inflict serious wounds. Their
natural enemies are mainly the jaguar in the
south and bobcats and coyotes, which prey
upon their young, in the north.
The increasing occupation of our Southwest
has already resulted in the extermination of
peccaries from most of their former range
within our border, and unless active steps are
taken to protect the survivors their days will
be few in the land. They are such unique and
harmless animals that it is hoped interest in
their behalf may be awakened in time to retain
them as a part of our wild life.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Ovis
canadensis and its relatives)
Wild sheep inhabit mountain ranges in both
Old and New Worlds. Northern Africa and
southern Europe have representative species,
but Asia appears to be the true home of the
group. There the greatest variety of species
is found, including such giants as Ovis poli.
In the New World they occur only in North
America, where there are two or three species,
with numerous geographic races. Among these
the sheep inhabiting the main Rocky Mountain
region is best known. It is a heavier animal
than its northern relatives of the Stikine coun-
try and Alaska, with larger and more mas-
sively proportioned horns. It occupies the
main range from south of Peace River and
Lake Babine, in British Columbia, to Colorado,
and possibly northern New Mexico. Closely
related geographic races occur elsewhere in the
mountains of the western United States and
northern Mexico.
The usual conception of wild sheep as hab-
itants of the cold, clear upper world at tim-
berline and above is justified in the case of
the Rocky Mountain sheep. In early spring its
one or two young are born amid these rugged
elevations, where it remains until the heavy
winter snows drive it down, sometimes through
the open timber to the foothills. That wild
sheep thrive equally well under very different
conditions, however, is shown by their abun-
dance on the treeless mountains of our south-
western deserts, among cactuses, yuccas, and
other thorny vegetation, where water is ex-
tremely scarce and summer temperatures rise
high above 100° Fahrenheit in the shade.
The Rocky Mountain sheep, like other spe-
cies, appears to feed on nearly every plant
growing within its domain. In spring many
lambs are killed by bald and golden eagles, and
in winter, when driven down to lower levels by
snow, it becomes easy prey for mountain lions,
wolves, and coyotes. Owing to continuous
hunting, this sheep has disappeared from many
of its former haunts and is decreasing in most
of its range. When effective protection is un-
dertaken in time, however, as in Colorado, the
range is readily restocked.
The sure-footedness with which a band of
these sheep will dash in full flight up or down
seemingly impossible slopes, where a misstep
THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS
would mean death, is amazing. Even the old
rams, with massive sets of horns, bound from
point to point up a steep rock slope with mar-
velous grace and agility. Mountain sheep liv-
ing among the rugged summits of high ranges
possess the courage and prowess of skillful
mountaineers, so admired by all, and the mere
sight of one of these animals in its native
haunts is an adventure achieved by few.
No other big-game animal carries with it the
romantic glamour which surrounds this habit-
ant of the cold, clear upper world. Big-game
hunters prize above all others their mountain-
sheep trophies, which form vivid reminders of
glorious days amid the most inspiring sur-
roundings and evidence their supreme prowess
in the chase.
STONE MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Ovis
stonei)
Owing to its dark, iron gray color, Ovis
Stonet is often called the “black” mountain
sheep. Despite its dark color, the Stone sheep
is probably a geographic race of the pure white
Dall sheep of Alaska. It has the same slender,
gracefully coiled horns, frequently amber col-
ored and extended in a widely spread spiral.
Its range lies in northern British Columbia,
especially about the upper Stikine River and
its tributaries; thence it extends easterly to
Laurier Pass in the Rocky Mountains, north
of Peace River, and south perhaps to Babine
Lake. Unfortunately it appears to have be-
come extinct in the southern border of its
range, so that its real relationship with the
Rocky Mountain sheep farther south may never
be determined.
The sheep occupying the mountains between
the home of typical stonet and that of dalli in
northwestern British Columbia and southeast-
ern Yukon Territory are characterized by hav-
ing white heads, with bodies of a varying shade
of iron gray, thus showing evident intergrada-
tion on a great scale between the white north-
ern sheep and the “black” sheep of the Stikine.
These intermediate animals have been called
the Fannin, or saddle-backed, sheep (Ovis fan-
nint). Hunters report a considerable mingling
of entirely white animals among flocks of these
intergrading animals, and occasionally white
individuals are seen even in flocks of the typi-
cal dark sheep of the Stikine country.
Like the white Alaskan sheep, the Stone
sheep exists in great abundance in many parts
of its range, especially east of Dease Lake. It
usually ranges in flocks, those made up of
ewes and young rams often containing a con-
siderable number. The old bucks, except in
fall, keep by themselves in smaller bands in
separate parts of the range. The Stone sheep
lives in one of the most notable big-game fields
of the continent. Its home above timberline
is shared with the mountain goat and in the
lower open slopes with the caribou, while within
the adjacent forests wander the moose and two
or more species of bear.
Owing to its frequenting remote and sparsely
449
inhabited country, it continues to exist in large
numbers; but if its range becomes more ac-
cessible, only the most stringent protection can
save this splendid animal from the extermina-
tion already accomplished on the southern bor-
der of its range.
DALL MOUNTAIN SHEEP (Ovis dalli)
The only variation in the pure white coat of
the Dall sheep is a mixture of a few black
hairs on the rump, sometimes becoming plen-
tiful enough to form a blackish spot on the
tail and a light brownish stain over the entire
body, due to the slight discoloration at the
tips of the hairs from contact with the earth
in their bedding-down places. ‘Their horns are
usually dull amber yellow and are notable for
their slender proportions and the grace of their
sweeping coils, which sometimes curve close to
the head and again spread in a wide, open
spiral.
As their white coats indicate, the Dall sheep
are the northernmost of their kind in America.
Their home lies mainly in Alaska, where they
were formerly abundant in many mountain
ranges, from those bordering the Arctic coast
south through the interior to the cliffs on Ke-
nai Peninsula, but are now scarce or gone
from some mountains. To the eastward they
are numerous across the border in much of
Yukon territory, nearly to the Mackenzie
River. Their haunts lie amid a wilderness of
peaks and ridges, marked in summer with scat-
tered glaciers and banks of perpetual snow and
in winter exposed to all the rigors of a severe
Arctic climate. They are extraordinarily nu-
merous in some districts, as among the outly-
ing ranges about the base of Mount McKinley.
In their high, bleak homes these sheep have
little to fear from natural enemies, although
the great Canada lynx, the wolf, the wolverine,
and the golden eagle, as overlords of the
range, take occasional toll from their numbers.
Their one devastating enemy is man, with his
modern high-power rifle. Even so long ago as
the summer of 1881, I saw hundreds of their
skins among the Eskimos at Point Barrow,
taken that spring with the use of Winchester
rifles among the mountains lying inland from
the Arctic coast. Of late years the advent of
miners and the establishment of mining camps
and towns have greatly increased the demand
for meat, and this has resulted in the killing
of thousands of these sheep. Large numbers
of these splendid animals have also been killed
to serve as winter dog food.
The advent of thousands of men engaged in
the construction of the government railroad
which, when completed, will pass through the
Mount McKinley region, makes imminent the
danger of extermination that threatens the
mountain sheep, as well as the moose and cari-
bou, in a great area of the finest big-game
country left under our control.
Properly conserved, the game animals of
Alaska will continue indefinitely as one of its
richest resources, but heedless wastefulness
may destroy them forever. All sportsmen and
ue
STONE'S, FANNIN'S, AND DALL'S MOUNTAIN SHEEP
450
PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT
451
452 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
other lovers of wild life should interest them-
selves in an effort to safeguard the future of
Alaskan game animals before it is too late;
for, under the severe climatic conditions pre-
vailing, the restocking of exhausted game fields
in that region will be extremely difficult, 1f not
practically impossible
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT (Oreamnos
montanus and its subspecies)
The numerous wild goats of the Himalayas
and other mountains of Asia are represented
in America solely by the Rocky Mountain goat.
This is one of the most characteristic, but least
graceful in form and action, of our big-game
animals. It is distinguished by a long ungainly
head, ornamented with small black horns; a
heavy body, humped at the shoulders like a
buffalo, and a coat of long shaggy white hair.
The range of these habitants of the cliffs ex-
tends from the head of Cook Inlet, Alaska,
easterly and southerly through the mountains
to Montana and Washington. Unlike moun-
tain sheep, the goats do not appear to dislike
the fogs and saline winds from the sea, and
at various points along the coast of British
Columbia and Alaska they range down pre-
cipitous slopes nearly to the shore.
They are much more closely confined to
rugged slopes and rocky ledges than the moun-
tain sheep, which in winter commonly descend
through the foothills to the border of the
plains. Through summer and winter, goats
find sufficient food in the scanty vegetation
growing among the rocks, and their heavy coats
of hair protect them from the fiercest winter
storms.
Owing to their small horns and unpalatable
flesh they are less sought after by hunters
than mountain sheep, and thus continue to ex-
ist in many accessible places where otherwise
they would long since have become extermi-
nated. They are frequently visible on the high
ledges of a mountain across the bay from the
city of Vancouver and are not difficult to find
in many other coastal localities.
Although marvelously surefooted and fear-
less in traversing the faces of high precipitous
slopes, goats lack the springy grace and vivac-
ity of mountain sheep and move with compara-
tive deliberation. They are reputed to show at
times a stupid obstinacy when encountered on
a narrow ledge, even to the point of disputing
the right of way with the hunter.
Their presence lends interest to many other-
wise grim and forbidding ranges where, amid
a wilderness of glacier-carved escarpments,
they endure the winter gales which for days at
a time roar about their cliffs and send snow
banners streaming from the jagged summits
overhead.
Owing to the character of their haunts,
mountain goats have few natural enemies.
The golden and bald eagles now and then take
toll among their kids, but the lynx and moun-
tain lion, their four-footed foes, are not known
to prey upon them to any considerable extent.
Through overhunting they have vanished from
some of their former haunts, but still hold
their own in many places, and with effective
protection will long continue to occupy their
peculiar place in our fauna.
PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE (Antilocapra
americana and its geographic races)
Unique among the antelope of the world,
among which it has no near relatives, the
prong-horn, because of its beauty of colora-
tion, its grace, and fleetness, claims the atten-
tion of sportsmen and nature lovers alike. It
is a smaller and slenderer animal than the
larger forms of the Virginia deer. Its hair is
coarse and brittle, and the spongy skin lacks
the tough fiber needed to make good buckskin.
Both sexes have horns, those of the doe being
smaller and slenderer. One of the extraordi-
nary peculiarities of this antelope is its habit
of shedding the horns every fall and the de-
veloping new horns over the remaining bony
core.
The rump patch of the prong-horn is formed
of long pure white hairs, which in moments of
excitement or alarm are raised on end to form
two great chrysanthemum-like white rosettes
that produce an astonishingly conspicuous di-
rective color mark. The power to raise these
hairs is exercised by the fawns when only a
few days old. Even when the hairs are not
erected the rump patch is conspicuous as a
flashing white signal to a distance of from
one to two miles as the antelope gallops away.
When the animal whose rump signal has been
plainly visible at a distance suddenly halts and
faces about to look back, as is a common cus-
tom, its general color blends with that of the
background and it vanishes from sight as by
magic.
Early explorers discovered antelope in great
abundance over a vast territory extending from
near the present location of Edmonton, Al-
berta, south to near the Valley of Mexico, and
from central Iowa west to the Pacific coast in
California. They were specially numerous on
the limitless plains of the “Great American
Desert,’ where our pioneers found them in
great bands, containing thousands, among the
vast herds of buffalo. So abundant were they
that it has been estimated that on the Great
Plains they equaled the buffalo in numbers.
Now reduced to a pitiful remnant of their for-
mer numbers, they exist only in widely scat-
tered areas, where they are constantly decreas-
ing. Fortunately they are strictly protected by
law in most of their remaining territory.
The great herds containing thousands of
antelope were usually formed late in fall and
remained together throughout the winter, sep-
arating into numerous smaller parties during
the summer. For years following the comple-
tion of the transcontinental railroads they were
commonly seen from the car windows as trains
crossed the Great Plains. At such times their
bright colors and graceful evolutions, as they
swept here and there in erratic flight or
THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS
wheeled in curiosity to gaze at the passing
train, never failed to excite the deepest interest.
In’ early days prong-horns were noted for
their curiosity and were frequently lured within
gun-shot by waving a red flag or by other de-
vices. I have repeatedly seen them circle or
race a team, or a horseman, crossing their
range. In racing a horseman traveling along
an open road or trail they gradually draw
nearer until finally every member of the band
dashes madly by only a few yards in front and
then straight away across the plains in full
flight.
The prong-horns appear to possess a highly
nervous temperament, which requires for their
welfare the wide free sweep of the open plains.
They do not thrive and increase in inclosures,
even in large game preserves, as do deer, ell,
and buffalo. For this reason, it will require
the greatest care to protect and foster these
attractive members of our fauna to save them
from soon being numbered among the many
wild species which have been destroyed by the
coming of civilized man.
WAPITI, OR AMERICAN ELK (Cervus
canadensis and its relatives)
By a curious transposition of names the
early settlers applied to the American wapiti
the term elk, which belongs to the European
representative of our moose. Our elk is a
close relative of the European stag. It is the
handsomest and, next to the moose, the largest
member of the deer family in America. The
old bulls, weighing more than 800 pounds, bear
superb widely branched antlers, which give
them a picturesque and noble mien. This is
the only American deer which has a well-
marked light rump-patch. The young, num-
bering from one to three, are white spotted,
like the fawns of other deer.
Originally the elk was the most wide ranging
of our hoofed game animals. It occupied all
the continent from north of Peace River, Can-
ada, south to southern New Mexico, and from
central Massachusetts and North Carolina to
the Pacific coast of California. Like the buf-
falo, it appeared to be equally at home in the
forested region east of the Mississippi River
and on the open plains flanking the Rocky
Mountains. Its range also extended from sea-
level to above timberline on lofty mountain
ranges.
Exterminated throughout most of their orig-
inal range, elk still occupy scme of their early
haunts in western Canada, Montana, Wyo-
ming, Colorado, and the Pacific Coast States.
The last elk was killed in Pennsylvania about
60 years ago, and in Michigan and Minnesota
some 20 years later. The main body of the
survivors are now in the Yellowstone Park
region. Their size and the readiness with
which they thrive in captivity has led to serious
consideration of elk farming as an industry.
In the West, before the settlement of their
range crowded the elk back, large numbers
lived throughout the year on the plains and
among the foothills. They have now become
mountain animals, spending the spring and
453
summer largely in the timberline forests and
alpine meadows, where many bands linger until
the heavy snows of early winter force them
down to the foothills and valleys. During the
last days of their abundance in the Rocky
Mountains winter herds numbering thousands
gathered in Estes Park and other foothill
valleys.
Elk are the most polygamous of all our deer,
each bull gathering a small herd of cows dur-
ing the fall. At the beginning of the mating
season the bulls wander widely through the
high forest glades, their musical bugling piere-
ing the silence with some of the most stirring
notes of the wilderness. Amid the wild gran-
deur of these remote mountain fastnesses the
appearance of a full-antlered buck on the sky-
line of some bare ridge presents a noble pic-
ture of wild life.
There are probably over 40,000 ells still left
in the United States, and of these more than
30,000 are located in Wyoming, mainly in and
about Yellowstone National Park.
During the last few years great interest has
been shown in the reintroduction of elk in
parts of their former range, where they had
been exterminated and where conditions are
still suitable for their perpetuation. Such ef-
forts are meeting with much success. Not
only do the animals thrive and increase rapidly,
but local sentiment is almost unanimous in
their favor. This is well shown by the active
interest taken by both cattle and sheep owners
in northern Arizona in regard to a band of elk
introduced a few years ago on their mountain
stock ranges. The stockmen exercise a virtual
wardenship as these animals that insures
them against molestation, and the herd is rap-
idly increasing.
As against this, we have the despicable work
of poachers, who are shooting elk for their
two canine teeth and leaving the body to the
coyotes. Information has been received that
more than 500 elk were ruthlessly slaughtered
for this purpose about the border of Yellow-
stone National Park during the winter of
1915-1916.
MULE DEER (Odocoileus hemionus and
its subspecies)
Mule deer are larger than the common white-
tails, with a heavier, stockier form. ‘Their
strongest characteristics lie in the large doubly
branching antlers, large broad ears, and
rounded whitish tail with a brushlike black
tip. Their common name in this country and
the name “venado burro” in Mexico are de-
rived from the great, donkeylike ears. Their
antlers vary much in size, but in some exam-
ples are almost intermediate between those of
the white-tail and of the elk. Antlers of the
mule deer and of the black-tail agree in hav-
ing the tines all pronged, in contrast with the
single spikes of the white-tails. In summer
these deer have a rich, rusty red coat which js
exchanged in winter for one of grayish brown.
The range of mule deer extends from north-
ern Alberta, Manitoba, and western Towa to
the State of San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican
=
APITI, OR AMERICAN ELK
454
Geek
fe
pas
tes
~¢g
MULE DEER
BLACK-TAILED DEER
455
456
table-land, and west to Lower California and
the coast of California. Within these limits
they inhabit different types of country, from
the deciduous forests alonz streams on the
eastern border of the Great Plains to the open
pine forests of the | gh western mountains, the
chaparral-covered hillsides of southern Cali-
fornia, and the thickets of mesquites, acacias,
and cactuses on the hot and arid plains of
Sonora. Several geographic races of this deer
have resulted from these varied conditions.
In spring in the Rocky Mountains the does
leave the bands with which they have passed
the winter and seek undisturbed retreats among
forest glades or along scantily wooded slopes
of canyons, where they have two or three hand-
somely spotted fawns with which they remain
apart throughout the summer.
The bucks usually keep by themselves during
the summer, in parties rarely exceeding ten. As
their horns lose the velvet and the mating sea-
son draws near, the old bucks gather in bands
of from six to ten.
At this time they are in perfect physical con-
dition, and a band of them in the open forest,
their antlers held proudly aloft and their glossy
coats shining in the sun, presents a superb pic-
ture. They have little of the protective cau-
tion so characteristic of the white-tails, and
when a shot is fired at a band they often begin
a series of extraordinary “buck jumps,” bound-
ing high in the air, facing this way and that,
sometimes not taking flight until after several
additional shots have been fired. These high,
bounding leaps are characteristic of mule deer
and are commonly made when the animals are
suddenly alarmed ard often when they are in
full flight through brushy thickets.
After the mating season, bucks and does join
in bands, sometimes of fifteen or twenty, and
descend to the foothills and sometimes even to
the adjacent plains. Their preference, how-
ever, is for rough and broken country, such as
that of canyon-cut mountains or the deeply
scored badlands of the upper Missouri River.
These deer are not good runners in the open.
On several occasions, on level country in Ari-
zona, I have ridden after and readily overtaken
parties of them within a mile, their heaving
flanks and open mouths showing their distress.
The moment rough country was reached, how-
ever, with amazing celerity a series of mighty
leaps carried them away from me over decliv-
ities impossible for a horse.
The sight of a party of these splendid deer
bounding away through the aisles of a moun-
tain forest always quickens one’s pulse and
gives the finishing touch of wildness to the
scene. Mule deer are characteristic animals of
the beautiful open forests and forest parks of
the Rocky Mountains and the high Sierras,
where they may be perpetuated if given rea-
sonable protection.
BLACK-TAILED DEER (Odocoileus
columbianus and its subspecies)
In general appearance the black-tails have a
close resemblance to the mule deer, but average
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
smaller, They have the same large ears,
forked tines to the antlers, and rather “stocky”
body; but the brushy all-black tail distinguishes
them from any other American deer. In color
they have much the same shade of brown as
the Virginia deer. They have the usual cycle
of annual changes common to most American
deer—assuming a dull coat in fall and losing
their horns in winter, followed by the resump-
tion of a brighter coat in spring and the re-
newal of their horns in summer.
The black-tails have one of the most re-
stricted ranges among our deer. They are
limited to the humid heavily forested belt along
the Pacific coast from Juneau, Alaska, south-
ward to the Coast range in central California.
This coastal belt is characterized by superb
growths of cedars, spruces, and firs in the
north and by redwoods and firs in the south,
uniting to make one of the most magnificent
forest areas in the world. Here the deer live
in the midst of rank undergrowths of gigantic
ferns and other vegetation, as luxuriant in
many places as that of the humid tropics.
Their home on the abruptly rising slopes of
the islands in the Alaskan Archipelago is so
restricted that both in summer and winter they
fall an easy prey to native and white hunters.
It has been reported that there has been much
wasteful killing of the deer on these islands
for commercial purposes. When the heavy
snows of winter on the islands force the deer
down to the shore, great numbers of them are
also killed by wolves.
Black-tails commonly have two or three
young, and this fecundity, combined with the
effective protection given by the dense forest
where many of them live, will aid in their per-
petuation. At the same time they have not
developed the mental alertness of the Virginia
deer, and there is imminent need for prompt
and effective action in safeguarding the deer
in the Alaskan part of their range if their
extermination on some of the islands is to be
prevented. Jn this northern region the black-
tails share their range with strange tribes of
coastal Indians, whose huge sea-going canoes,
totem poles, and artistic carvings are unique
among native Americans.
VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED, DEER
(Odocoileus virginianus and its sub-
species)
The aptness of the name “white-tail” for the
Virginia deer is obvious to any one who has
startled one in the forest and seen it dash away
with the tail upright and flashing vivid white
signals at every leap. The adults have two
strongly contrasted coats each year: brownish
gray in winter and rusty red in summer. The
fawns, usually two in number, are dull rusty
brown, marked with a series of large white
spots, which remain until the gray winter coat
is assumed in the fall. Large bucks sometimes
attain a weight of more than 300 pounds.
The white-tail is the well-known deer of all
the forest areas in eastern North America.
With its close relatives, it ranges from north-
THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS
ern Ontario to Florida and from the Atlantic
coast to the Great Plains; also in the Rocky
Mountains south to New Mexico, and in the
Cascades and Sierra Nevada to northern Cali-
fornia.
The supreme importance of this deer to the
early settlers of the Eastern States is made
plain in all the literature covering the occupa-
tion of that region. Its flesh was one of the
most reliable staples in the food supply, and
not infrequently was the only resource against
starvation. In addition, the tanned skins served
for clothing and the sinews for thread. Many
of the most striking and romantic characters
in our early history appear clad in buckskin,
from fringed hunting shirt to beaded mocca-
sins.
As no other American game animal equaled
the white-tail in economic value to the settlers,
so even to-day it remains the greatest game
asset in many of the Eastern States. Partly
through protective laws and partly through its
acute intelligence and adaptabil ity, the Virginia
deer continues to hold its own in suitable
woodland areas throughout most of its former
range, and in recent years has pushed hundreds
of miles northward into new territory in On-
tario and Quebec.
Even in the oldest and most densely popu-
lated States, as New York and Massachusetts,
white-tails still exist in surprising numbers.
Over 7,000 were killed during the hunting sea-
son of 1915 in Maine, and an average of ‘about
2,800 are killed yearly in Vermont. The great
recreational value of the white-tail to a host of
sportsmen is obvious. To the growing multi-
tude of nature lovers the knowledge that a
forest is inhabited by deer immediately endows
it with a delightful and mysterious charm.
In summer white-tails are usually solitary or
wander through the forest in parties of two
or three. In winter, where the snowfall is
heavy, they gather in parties, sometimes of
considerable size, in dense deciduous growth,
where food is plentiful. There they remain
throughout the season, forming a “yard” by
keeping a network of hard- beaten paths open
through the snow in order to reach the browse
afforded by the bushes and trees.
Ordinarily Virginia deer are shy and elusive
habitants of dense forests, where they evade
the unpracticed intruder like noiseless shadows.
Where they are strictly protected for a period
of years under State laws, they become sur-
prisingly confident and often damage young
orchards and crops on farms near their haunts.
Several States pay for the damage thus done.
Happily this attractive species thrives so well
under protective laws that its continued future
in our forests appears to be assured.
ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER
(Odocoileus couesi)
The Arizona white-tails are slight and grace-
ful animals, like pigmy Virginia deer, so small
that hunters often ride into camp with a full-
grown buck tied back of the saddle. They have
457
two seasonal pelages—gray in winter and more
rusty brown in summer. ‘The antlers, very
small, but in form similar to those of the Vir-
ginia deer, are shed in winter and renewed be-
fore the end of summer.
These handsome little deer, the smallest of
our white-tails, are common in many of the
wooded mountains of middle and southern
Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Texas,
and in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua and
Sonora, Mexico. By a curious coincidence this
area was the ancient home of the Apache In-
dians and has had one of the most tragic his-
tories of our western frontier.
During summer and early fall in the higher
ranges small bands of Arizona white- tails oc-
cupy the lower parts of the yellow-pine forests,
between 6,000 and 9,000 feet altitude, where
they frequent thickets of small deciduous
growth about the heads of canyons and
gulches. As winter approaches and heavy
snowstorms begin, they descend to warm can-
yon slopes to pass the season among an abun-
dant growth of pinyons, junipers, oaks, and a
variety of brushwood.
In the White Mountains of Arizona, between
the years 1883 and 1890, when wild life was
more abundant than at present, I often saw,
on their wintering grounds, large herds of
these graceful deer, numbering from 20 to
more than 100 individuals. Such gatherings
presented the most interesting and exciting
sight, whether the animals were feeding in un-
conscious security or streaming in full flight
along the numberless little trails that lined the
steep slopes. Where these deer live on the
more barren and brush-grown tops of some of
the desert mountains in southwestern Arizona
and Sonora, the snowfall is sc light that their
summer and winter range is practically the
same.
Although far more gregarious than our other
white-tails, the herds of Arizona deer break
up in early spring. At this time one or two
fawns are born, amid early flowers in the
charming vistas of the open forest. Very
young fawns are hidden in rank vegetation
and sometimes left temporarily by their moth-
ers. If a horseman chances by the fawns may
rise and follow innocently at the horse’s heels.
On such occasions I have had difficulty in driv-
ing them back to prevent their becoming lost.
In the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua one sum-
mer I found these little white-tails occupying
“forms,” like rabbits, located in the sheltering
matted tops of fallen pine trees which had been
overthrown by spring storms. In these shel-
ters they rested during the middle of the day,
secure from the wolves and mountain lions
which prowled about the canyon slopes in
search of prey.
With the growing occupation of their terri-
tory by cattle and sheep and the increase in the
number of hunters, these once abundant deer
are rapidly diminishing. It is high time more
careful measures be taken for their conserva-
tion, else extermination awaits them through-
out most of their original haunts.
VIRGINIA, OR WHITE-TAILED,DEER
ARIZONA WHITE-TAILED DEER
458
WOODLAND CARIBOU
459
460
WOODLAND CARIBOU (Rangifer cari-
bou and its subspecies)
The caribou lacks the symmetry and grace
of the true deer. Its large head topped with
irregular antlers, heavy body, and thick, sturdy
legs, ending in large, broad-spreading hoofs,
produce a distinctly ungainly animal. It is the
only member of the deer family in which both
sexes have antlers, those of the female being
smaller and slenderer than those of the male,
It varies in size in different parts of its range,
but large old bulls usually weigh from 300 to
400 pounds. Bm
MUSK-OX
466
FLORIDA MANATI
467
468
mouth. The ends of the flippers are sometimes
used to help convey food to the mouth, like
huge hands in thumbless mittens.
When suckling her young the manati rises
to the surface, her head and shoulders out of
the water, and with her flippers holds the
nursling partly clasped to her breast. This
semi-human attitude, together with the rounded
head and fishlike tail, may have furnished the
basis on which the ancients built their legends
of the mermaids.
KILLER WHALE (Orcinus orca)
The killer whale is a habitant of all oceans
from the border of the Arctic ice fields to the
stormy glacial margin of the Antarctic conti-
nent. So far as definitely known, there appears
to be but a single species. It attains an ex-
treme length of approximately 30 feet and is
mainly black with well-defined white areas on
the sides and underparts of the body. Its
most striking and picturesque characteristic is
the large black fin, several feet long, standing
upright on the midd!z of the back.
The killer usuaiiy travels and hunts in
“schools” or packs of from three to a dozen
or more individuals. Unlike most whales, the
members of these schools do not travel in a
straggling party, but swim side by side, their
movements as regularly timed as those of sol-
diers. A regularly spaced row of advancing
long black fins swiftly cutting the undulating
surface of the sea produces a singularly sinister
effect. The evil impression is well justified,
since killers are the most savage and remorse-
less of whales. The jaws are armed with
rows of effective teeth, with which the animals
attack and devour seals and porpoises, and
even destroy some of the larger whales.
Killers are like giant wolves of the sea, and
their ferocity strikes terror to the other warm-
blooded inhabitants of the deep. The Eskimos
of the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea consider
killers as actual wolves in sea form. They be-
lieve that in the early days, when the world
was young and men and animals could change
their forms at will, land wolves often went to
a edge of the shore ice and changed to killer
hales, and the killers returned to “the edge of
fhe ice and climbed out as wolves, to go raven-
ing over the land. Some of the natives assured
me that even today certain wolves and killers
are still endowed with this power and, on ac-
count of their malignant character, are much
feared by hunters.
Killers are known to swallow small seals and
porpoises entire and attack large whalés by
tearing away their fleshy lips and tongues.
When attacking large prey they work in packs,
with all the unity and fierceness of so many
wolves. The natives of the Aleutian Islands
told me that large skin boats are sometimes
lost in the passes between the islands by sea-
lions leaping upon them in their frenzied ef-
forts to escape the pursuit of killer whales.
The killers are specially detrimental to the
fur-seal industry, owing to their habit of prey-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
ing upon seals during their migrations in the
North Pacific and during the summer in Bering
Sea. They also haunt the waters about the
Fur Seal Islands to continue their depredations
during the summer. It would be a wise con-
servation measure for the Federal Government
to have these destructive beasts persistently
hunted and destroyed each spring and summer
when they congregate on the north side of the
Aleutian passes. Their destruction would not
only save large numbers of fur seals, but would
undoubtedly protect the few sea otters still re-
maining in those waters.
WHITE WHALE, OR BELUGA
(Delphinapterus leucas)
The white whale, or beluga of the Russians,
is a circumpolar species, limited to the ex-
treme northern coasts of the Old and the
New Worlds. The adult is entirely of a milk-
white color, is very conspicuous, and as it
comes up to “blow” presents an interesting
sight. The young beluga is dark slate color,
becoming gradually paler for several years
until it attains its growth. The beluga usually
lives in the shallow waters along shore, and
not only frequents sheltered bays and _ tidal
streams, but ascends rivers for considerable
distances. Plentiful along the coast of Alaska,
especially in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean,
this whale also ascends the Yukon for a long
distance. It also comes down the Atlantic
coast and enters the lower St. Lawrence River.
The white whale is said at times to attain a
Iength of 20 feet, but its ordinary length is
nearer 10 or 12 feet. It travels in irregular
“schools” of from three to ten or fifteen ‘Indi-
viduals and usually rolls high out of water
when it comes up to breathe. It enters shel-
tered bays and the lower courses of streams,
mainly at night, in pursuit of fish, which fur-
nish its main food supply. During the twilight
hours of the Arctic summer night, glowing
with beautiful colors, the ghostly white forms
of these whales breaking the smooth blue-black
surface of a far northern bay add the crown-
ing effect of strange unworldly mystery to the
scene.
When on hunting trips in early autumn, I
camped many times on the banks of narrow
tide channels leading through the coastal tun-
dra, and for hours during the darkness of
night, as the tide was rising, heard the deep-
sighing sound of their blowing, as schools of
belugas fished up and down the current, often
only 15 or 20 feet from where I lay.
The oil and flesh of the white whale is highly
prized by the Eskimos, and they not only pur-
sue it in kyaks with harpoon and float, but set
large-meshed nets of strong seal- skin cords
off projecting points near entrances to bays.
Young or medium-sized animals are often
caught in this manner, but powerful adults
often tear the nets to fragments.
The beluga frequents broken pack ice along
shore, and one trapped alive by the closing ice
north of the Yukon early one winter was re-
THE LARGER NORTH
ported by the Eskimos to have uttered curious
squeaking noises when they attacked and killed
it—an interesting fact, as the beluga is said to
be the only member of the whale family to
make vocal sounds of any kind.
When a school has its curiosity aroused by
the approach of a boat or for any other cause,
the members often raise their heads well out
of water, one after the other, and take a de-
liberate look, then dive and swim to a safe
distance before coming up again.
The small size of the beluga has long saved
it from organized pursuit. Recently it has been
announced that its skin has become valuable
for commercial purposes, and that many are
being killed. If this continues, these harmless
and interesting animals are likely soon to dis-
appear from most of their present haunts,
unless proper measures can be taken to protect
them from undue killing.
GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE, OR
BOWHEAD (Balena mysticetus)
The Greenland right whale is one of the
largest of sea mammals, reaching a length of
from 50 to 60 feet, and has a marvelously
specialized development. Its enormous head
comprises about one-third of the total length,
with a gigantic mouth provided with about 400
long, narrow plates of baleen, or whalebone,
attached at one end and hanging in overlapping
series from the roof of the mouth. These thin
plates of baleen rarely exceed a foot in width
and are from 2 to over Io feet long. One edge
and the free end of each plate is bordered with
a stiff hairlike fringe.
The northern seas frequented by these whales
swarm with small, almost microscopic, crus-
taceans and other minute pelagic life, which is
commonly so abundant that great areas of the
ocean are tinged by them to a deep brown.
These gatherings of small animal life are called
“brit” by the whalers and furnish the food
supply of the bowhead. The whale swims
slowly through the sea with its mouth open,
straining the water through the fringed whale-
bone plates on each side of its mouth, thus re-
taining on its enormous fleshy tongue a mass
of “brit,” which is swallowed through a gullet
extraordinarily small in comparison with the
size of the mouth. Among all the animal life
on the earth there is not a more perfectly de-
veloped apparatus provided for feeding on
highly specialized food than that possessed by
the right whale—one of the hugest of beasts
and feeding on some of the smallest of ani-
mals, untold numbers of which are required
for a single mouthful. ;
The bowhead is a circumpolar species, which
in summer frequents the Arctic ice pack and
its borders, and on the approach of winter mi-
grates to a more southerly latitude. For cen-
turies this huge mammal has formed the main
basis for the whaling industry in far northern
waters, first in the Greenland seas and later
through Bering Straits into the Arctic basin
north of the shores of Siberia and Alaska.
AMERICAN MAMMALS
469
Each large whale is a prize worth winning,
since it may yield as much as 200 barrels of oil
and several thousand pounds of whalebone.
All know of the rise and fall of the whaling
business, on which many fortunes were built
and on which depended the prosperity of sev-
eral New England towns.
Whaling served to train a hardy and cour-
ageous generation of sailors the like of which
can nowhere be found today. They braved the
perils of icy seas in scurvy-ridden ships, and
when fortune favored brought to port full car-
goes of “bone” and oil, which well repaid the
hardships endured in their capture. Many a
ship and crew sailed into the North in pursuit
of these habitants of the icy sea never to re-
turn.
Interest in the brave and romantic life of the
whalers still exists, though the most pictur-
esque quality of their calling passed with the
advent of steam whalers and the “bomb gun,
which shoots an explosive charge into the
whale and kills it without the exciting struggle
which once attended such a capture by open
boats.
It has been well said that no people ever ad-
vanced in the scale of civilization without the
use of some artificial illuminant at night. The
world owes a great debt to the right whale and
its relatives for their contribution to the “mid-
night oil,” which encouraged learning through
the centuries preceding the discovery of min-
eral oil. It also furnished the whalebone which
built up the “stays” so dear to the hearts of
our great-grandmothers.
The female right whale has a single young,
which she suckles and keeps with her for about
a year. She shows much maternal affection,
and a number of cases are recorded in which
the mother persisted in trying to release her
young after it had been harpooned and killed.
Every year, as the pack ice breaks up for the
season, the bowheads move north through
Bering Straits. As late as 1881 Eskimos along
the Arctic coast of Alaska put to sea in walrus-
hide umiaks, armed with primitive bone-pointed
spears, seal-skin floats, and flint-pointed lances
for the capture of these huge beasts. These
fearless sea hunters, with their equipment
handed down from the Stone Age, were suff-
ciently successful in their chase to cause trad-
ing schooners to make a practice of visiting the
villages along the coast to buy their whale-
bone.
From one of the whaling ships encountered
north of Bering Straits the summer of 1881
we secured a harpoon, taken from a bowhead
in those waters, bearing a private mark which
proved that it came from a whaling ship on
the Greenland coast, thus showing conclusively
that these whales in their wanderings make the
“Northwest Passage.”
Persistent hunting through the centuries has
vastly decreased whales of all valued species,
and the modern steam whaler is hastening their
end. Their only hope of survival lies in wise
international action, and it is urgent that this
be secured in time.
KILLER WHALE
WHITE WHALE, OR BELUGA
470
& a scaak
festa sd
GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE, OR BOWHEAD
tl
SPERM WHALE, OR CACHALOT
471
472 THE NATIONAL
SPERM WHALE, OR CACHALOT
(Physeter macrocephalus)
The cachalot is from 40 to 60 feet long, about
equaling the Greenland bowhead whale in size.
It has a huge blunt head, which comprises
about one-third of the entire animal. The
mouth is large and the under jaw is provided
with a row of heavy teeth, consisting of ivory
finer in grain than that from an elephant’s tusk.
The great whaling industry of the last two
centuries was based mainly on the sperm and
the bowhead whales. The largest of the bow-
heads is limited to the cold northern waters,
but the sperm whale frequents the tropic and
subtropic seas around the gloke. The main
hunting area for them lies in the South Pacific,
but they frequently visit more temperate coasts,
especially when seeking sheltered bays, where
their young may be born. The young are
suckled and guarded carefully until old enough
to be left to their own devices. Sperm whales
sometimes occur off both coasts of the United
States, especially off southern California.
The feeding grounds of these whales are
mainly in the deepest parts of the ocean,
where they cruise about in irregular schools
containing a number of individuals. Their
food consists almost entirely of large octopuses
GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
and giant squids, which are swallowed in large
sections.
As befits a gigantic mammal possessing huge
jaws armed with rows of fighting teeth, the
sperm whale is a much more pugnacious ani
mal than the bowhead. There are many rec-
ords of whale-boats being smashed by them,
and several well-authenticated cases of enraged
bull cachalots having charged and crushed in
the sides of whaling ships, causing them speed-
ily to founder.
The sperm whale yields oil of a better quality
than the bowhead. Its huge head always con-
tains a considerable number of barrels of spe-
cially fine-grade oil, which produces the sper-
maceti of commerce. Ambergris, having an
excessively high value for use in the manufac
ture of certain perfumes, is a product occa-
sionally formed in the digestive tract of the
sperm whale.
The name cachalot is one to conjure with
It brings up visions of three-year voyages to
the famed South Seas, palm-bedecked coral
islands, and idyllic days with dusky islanders.
As in the case of the Greenland bowhead, how-
ever, this animal has been hunted until only a
small fraction of its former numbers survives
and the romantic days of its pursuit are gone,
never to return.
THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS
INDEX TO TEXT AND ILLUSTRATION PAGES
Tllus-
Text tration
page. page.
Antelope, § 452 451
Baoan. «ced 5 Sa susan ecess 420 419
peak Al 441
Gear, Blac 437 439
Bear, Cinnamon or Black... . 437 439
Bear, Glacier 437 439
Bear, 440 442
Le 436 438
Beaver, Americé in, 441 443
seluga or White Whale. 463 470
Dison, American, or Buffs alo. 461 463
Bobeat or Bay Lynx Did atasereie tt se erat eat 409 411
Bowhead or Greenland Right Whale.. 469 471
Buffalo or American ison 461 463
Cachalot, or Sperm Whale.. 472 471
Caribou, Barren Ground.... 460 422
Caribou, Woodland g 460 459
Caribou, Peary, or 460 422
Cat, Jaguarundi, or Nyt 413 415
Coyote, Arizona or Mearms.......... 2 423
Coyote, Mearns or Ariz manclebehs tater e 424 423
Coyote, Plains, or Prairie Wolf...... 424 42
Deer, Arizona White-tailed. 457 458
Deer, Black-tailed.. . 456 455
Weer, MWC. s
fA SS fas
(ORES
NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO
Dasypus novemcincta
559
560
of seed-bearing cones, which they heap, some-
times bushels of them, about the bases of trees,
stumps, and the upturned roots of fallen trees
or under other shelter. Cones are also buried
here and there in the loose leaves and humus.
In winter many holes in the snow with piles
of cone scales at the entrances show where the
owners have dug down to their stores.
Some of their nests are constructed in hol-
low trees, many others on branches near their
junction with the trunks, and still others in
underground dens under roots, logs, or stumps.
In winter when alarmed these squirrels some-
times race down the tree trunks and take
refuge in holes leading through the snow to
their food caches and underground burrows.
The nests built in tree-tops are usually rather
bulky, measuring a foot or more in diameter,
and are made of small twigs, dry leaves, moss,
grass, and fibrous bark. They are commonly
lined with such soft material as feathers and
fur. The young, numbering three to seven at
a litter, are born at any time between April
and October.
The extraordinary intelligence and sense of
prevision possessed by squirrels of this group
is well illustrated by certain local food migra-
tions. These have been observed in eastern
Oregon in years when the cone crop has failed
and nothing was available to lay up for winter.
Under such conditions to remain in the moun-
tain forests would mean death by starvation
before winter had fairly begun. In 1910 and
1913 failure of the cone crop occurred in east-
ern Oregon and these squirrels promptly left
the mountain forests in September and de-
scended along creek courses to the open sage-
brush plains as much as seven or more miles
from the border of their ordinary haunts. In
this open country they wintered successfully,
raiding the farmers’ grain bins, root cellars,
and other stores, and otherwise showing their
supreme fitness to survive in the struggle for
existence. With the coming again of summer
they promptly returned to their abandoned
homes in the pines. It appears to be one of
the marvels of animal intelligence that under
such circumstances as those named above the
entire body of the squirrels on the mountains
should have known what to do, especially as
a great percentage of their number could never
have had any previous experience as a guide.
THE GRAY SQUIRREL (Sciurus caro-
linensis and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 547)
The gray squirrel is so well known to everyone
in the Eastern States that it scarcely needs an
introduction. Many who have not seen it in its
native haunts are familiar with it as a graceful
and charming resident of parks in many cities.
It is about twice as large as the red squirrel
and intermediate in size between that species
and the fox squirrel. Although sharing some
of the range of both the species named, the
color of the gray squirrel at once distinguishes it.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
The gray squirrel is a North American
species with no near relative in the Old World;
on the Pacific coast, in the mountains of the
Southwest, and in Mexico are other squirrels
having much the same gray-colored body, but
with no close relationship to it. Its range
covers the deciduous forests of the Eastern
States and southern Canada from Nova Scotia
to Florida, and westward to the border of the
treeless Great Plains. Wherever they occur
these squirrels are an attractive element in the
woodland life, their barking and chattering,
their graceful forms, and their activity adding
greatly to the cheerful animation of the forest.
They are far less vociferous than red squirrels,
but their notes are varied and serve to express
a variety of meanings.
During the early settlement of the country
west of the States bordering the coast, gray
squirrels existed in great numbers and often
made ruinous inroads on the pioneer corn and
wheat fields. In 1749 they invaded Pennsyl-
vania in such hosts that a bounty of three pence
each was put on their scalps. Eight thousand
pounds sterling was paid on this account, which
involved the killing of 640,000 squirrels. In
1808 a law in force in Ohio required that each
free white male deliver 100 squirrel scalps a
year or pay $3 in cash. Records of the ravages
of these squirrels in corn fields are extant also
from Kentucky, Missouri, and other States.
Enormous migrations of gray squirrels from
one part of the country to another occurred in
those days, caused apparently by the failure of
food supplies in the deserted areas. Some im-
pulse to move in one general direction at the
same time appeared to affect the squirrels and
they swarmed across country in amazing num-
bers, carrying devastation to any farms crossed
on the way. When engaged in such move-
ments they appeared indifferent to obstacles
and without hesitation swam lakes and streams
even as large as the Hudson and the Ohio.
Amusing legends grew up concerning these
migrations, one of which avers that when the
squirrels arrived on a river bank each dragged
a large chip or piece of bark into the water
and mounting it raised its bushy tail in the
breeze and was wafted safely to the other
shore! As a fact, many were drowned in cross-
ing large streams and others arrived exhausted
from their exertions.
The gray and fox squirrels were favorite
targets for pioneer marksmen. The early
chronicles tell of the ability of Daniel Boone
and other riflemen to “bark” a squirrel, which
meant so to cut the bark of the branch on which
the squirrel sat as to bring it to the ground
stunned without hitting the animal. With the
clearing away of the forests, the general oc-
cupation of the country, and the decrease of
larger animals, gray squirrels have been de-
prived of most of their haunts and have be-
come such desirable game that they have de-
creased to a point requiring stringent legal
protection to save them from extermination.
Gray squirrels are more thoroughly arboreal
than red squirrels and make their nests either
SMALLER MAMMALS
in hollow trunks or build them in the tops of
trees. These outside nests are common and
much like a crow’s nest in appearance except
that they are generally more bulky and show
more dead leaves. They are built on a founda-
tion of small sticks with a rounded top of
leaves, and are lined with shreds of bark, moss,
and similar soft material. In the extreme
northern part of their range they live mainly
in hollow trees, but farther south many winter
in outside nests. During severe cold and in
stormy weather they remain hidden, sometimes
for days at a time.
They have two litters of four to six young
a year, the first usually being born in March
or April. The old squirrel is a devoted mother
and if the nest is disturbed she will at once
carry the young to some safer retreat.
In many parts of their range black, or melan-
istic, individuals are born in litters otherwise
of the ordinary gray color. In some districts
the number of the black squirrels equals or
exceeds the gray ones.
Gray squirrels range through such a variety
of climatic conditions that their food varies
greatly. They eat practically all available nuts,
including acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, hickory-
nuts, and pecans, besides numberless seeds,
many small fruits, and mushrooms. They raid
fields for corn and wheat, and steal apples, pears,
and quinces from orchards to eat the seeds.
Like most other small rodents, they are fond of
larve and insects and also destroy many birds’
eggs and young birds. They are far less seri-
ous offenders, however, in destroying birds
than the red squirrel.
On the approach of winter they lay up stores
of seeds and nuts in holes in trees and in little
hiding places on the ground. Many nuts are
hidden away singly. In the public parks of
Washington, where many gray squirrels exist,
I have repeatedly seen them dig a little pit
two or three inches deep, then push a nut well
down it cover it with earth, which they press
firmly in place with the front feet, and then
pull loose grass over the spot. One squirrel
will have many such hidden nuts, and with
nothing to mark the location it appears im-
possible that they could be recovered. That
the squirrels knew what they were doing I
have had repeated evidence in winter, even with
several inches of snow on the ground, when
they have been seen sniffing along the top of
the snow, suddenly stop, dig down and un-
earth a nut with a precision that demonstrates
the marvelous delicacy of their sense of smell.
Although mainly diurnal, they are sometimes
abroad on moonlight nights, especially when
gathering stores of food for winter.
Wherever they are, these squirrels are ex-
tremely graceful, moving along the ground by
curving bounds, the long fluffy tail undulating
as they go, or running through the tree-tops,
leaping from branch to branch with an ease
and certainty beautiful to see. When pressed
they make amazing leaps from tree to tree or
even from a high tree-top to the ground with-
out injury. They are extremely cunning at
OF NORTH AMERICA 561
concealing themselves by lying flat on top of
branches or by gliding around tree trunks, keep-
ing them interposed between themselves and
the pursuer.
Gray squirrels are so responsive to protec-
tion that they may continue to grace our re-
maining forests if we properly guard them. In
addition to their beauty, they are interesting
game animals which should continue to afford
a moderate amount of sport—sufficient to pre-
vent them from becoming overabundant and
destructive. Now introduced in many city
parks throughout the United States and in
parts of England, including London, their ready
acceptance of people as friends renders them
charming animals in such places; but natural
food is so scarce under these artificial condi-
tions that care must be taken to feed them at
all seasons, especially in winter.
THE FOX SQUIRREL (Sciurus niger
and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 547)
THE RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL (Sciurus
niger rufiventer)
(For illustration, see page 547)
Three species of tree squirrels inhabit the
varied forests of eastern North America, each
having its marked individuality expressed in
color, size, and habits. All occupy a wide terri-
tory with varying climatic conditions, to which
each species has responded by becoming modi-
fied into a series of geographic races, or sub-
species. The red and the gray squirrels have
already been described and it remains to give
an account of the largest and in some respects
the most remarkable of the three, the fox
squirrel.
No other species of North American mam-
mal can show such an extraordinary contrast
in color among its subspecies as that between
the rusty yellowish animal of the Ohio and
upper Mississippi Valleys, and the handsome
blackish one of the Southeastern States, both
of which are pictured in the accompanying
illustration.
The distribution of the fox squirrel is limited
to the forested parts of the Eastern States.
There it ranges from the Atlantic coast to the
border of the Great Plains, and from southern
New York and the upper Mississippi Valley
southward to Florida, the Gulf coast, and across
the lower Rio Grande into extreme northeast-
ern Mexico.
Variations in the character of the haunts of
the different subspecies of this squirrel almost
equal their differences in color. In the upper
Mississippi and Ohio Valleys the rusty-colored
race frequents the upland woods, where the
nut-bearing hickory trees characterize the for-
ests. In the South the dark-colored squirrels
have more varied homes, either amid the live
oaks draped in long Spanish moss, in the mys-
terious cypress forests of the swamps, or out
in the uplands among the southern pines.
RING-TAILED CAT
Bassariscus astutus
562
OREGON MOLE
Scapanus townsendi
STAR-NOSED MOLE
Condylura cristata
563
564
In early days fox squirrels were plentiful,
but never equaled the numbers of the gray
squirrel. They appear always to have been
more closely attached to their own district, for
we have no records of the great migrations so
notable in the other species.
Fox squirrels are not only distinguished from
gray squirrels by their color, but are also nearly
twice their size, commonly attaining a weight
of two and sometimes nearly three pounds.
They are the strongest and most heavily pro-
portioned of all American squirrels. A de-
liberation of movement going with heaviness
of body is in marked contrast to the graceful
agility of most other tree squirrels. On the
ground they walk with a curiously awkward,
waddling gait, and even when hard pressed
climb trees with none of the dashing quickness
shown by other species. They often move
about on the ground by a series of bounds, and
at such times, with broad, feathery tails undulat-
ing in the air, present a most graceful and at-
tractive sight.
Fox and gray squirrels occupy the same dis-
tricts throughout most of their ranges, but
often become so segregated locally that the
grays may be found almost exclusively along
bottom-lands and the fox squirrels on the higher
ridges, but there is no hard and fast separation
of haunts and the two forms usually share the
same woodlands.
Much time is spent by fox squirrels on the
ground searching for food. When danger ap-
proaches, in place of promptly taking refuge in
a tree, as is a common habit with most tree
squirrels, they retreat along the ground, mount-
ing a stump or log now and then, to look back
at a suspected intruder, whose footsteps they
can hear at a long distance. If the hunter is
without a dog they may run away and be lost.
A dog soon forces them up a tree and if a
knot-hole or other hollow is available they at
once take refuge in it. Otherwise they hide
skillfully in bunches of leaves high in the top
or lie flat on a limb or against the trunk, slyly
moving to keep on the opposite side as the
hunter draws near. In the Mississippi Valley
during the crisp days when the hickory nuts
are falling and the trees are decked in all the
glories of autumn foliage, few sports afield
yield more pleasurable sensations than fox-
squirrel hunting.
The fox squirrels become fatter than most of
their kind and their flesh is not so dry, al-
though all furnish appetizing meat. Owing to
their size and the quality of their flesh, they
have been such desirable game animals that with
the constantly growing number of hunters and
the destruction of forests they have already
disappeared from large areas where formerly
abundant and are in real danger of extermina-
tion in the not-distant future. They are among
the most notable and attractive of the forest
animals in the Fastern States, and before it is
too late every effort should be made to protect
them from overshooting, With reasonable con-
servation they will continue to thrive and keep
some of the old-time primitive spirit in our
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
woods. Formerly they had the same predilec-
tion as the gray squirrel for the farmers’ corn
fields and were under the ban, but their num-
bers are now so reduced that they give little
trouble in this way. In some city parks where
they have been introduced, they soon become
tame and do well, except that in losing their
fear of man they become subject to many ac-
cidents.
Fox squirrels, like many others of their kind,
have homes both in knot-holes or other hollows
in tree trunks, and in bulky nests of sticks and
leaves high up among the branches. Both kinds
of nesting places are often located in the same
tree, the owner living in the outside nest in
warm weather and retiring to the shelter of
the hollow trunk in severe weather or to escape
an enemy. The young, two to four in number,
are usually born in March or April, and it is
not definitely known whether there is a second
litter. These squirrels have a barking call as
well as several other rather deep-toned chuck-
ing notes.
They are as omnivorous as any of their kind,
eating many kinds of nuts, seeds, fruits, mush-
rooms, insects, birds, birds’ eggs, and other
flesh food when available. The principal nuts
in their haunts are hickory-nuts, beechnuts,
walnuts, pecan nuts, and the seeds of pines
and cypresses. Toward the end of summer and
in fall they work busily gathering and storing
food for winter in hollow trees, in old logs,
about the roots of trees, and in any other snug
place where it may be kept safely until needed.
Many single nuts are buried here and there in
little pits three or four inches deep dug in the
soft surface of the earth under the trees. These
scattered stores are located when needed by
the acute sense of smell which the owners
possess.
THE ABERT SQUIRREL (Sciurus aberti
and its subspecies)
(For illustration, see page 550)
THE KAIBAB SQUIRREL (Sciurus
kaibabensis )
(For illustration, see page 550)
Among the many kinds of squirrels which
lend animation and charm to the forests of
North and South America, none equal in beauty
the subjects of this sketech—the Abert and the
Kaibab squirrels. These are the only American
squirrels endowed with conspicuous ear tufts,
which character they share with the squirrels
occupying the forests in the northern parts of
the Old World from England to Japan. In
weight they about equal a large gray squirrel,
but are shorter and distinctly more heavily pro-
portioned, with broader and more feathery tails.
Their range covers the pine-forested region
of the southern Rocky Mountains in the United
States and the Sierra Madre of western Mex-
ico. The Abert squirrel and its several sub-
species is the more widely distributed, being
found from northern Colorado, south through
SMALLER MAMMALS
New Mexico, Arizona, Chihuahua, and Du-
rango. The Kaibab squirrel, which is even
more beautiful than its relative, shows marked
differences in appearance and yet is evidently
derived from the same species.
The typical Abert squirrel lives in the pine
forests along the southern rim of the Grand
Canyon in northern Arizona, and the Kaibab
squirrel lives in the pines visible on the north-
ern rim of the canyon less than 15 miles away.
It is confined to an islandlike area of pine
forest above 70 miles long by 35 miles wide, on
the north side of the canyon, on the Kaibab
and Powell plateaus, directly across from the
end of the railroad at the Grand Canyon Hotel.
The two species live under practically identical
conditions as to vegetation and climate.
In these sketches of our mammal life I have
repeatedly noted the effect of changing environ-
ment in modifying the animals subject to it.
In the present case the change in the squirrels
on the north side of the Grand Canyon has
evidently been brought about by that powerful
factor in evolution known as isolation. Cut off
from their fellows by the deepening canyon of
the Colorado, Kaibab squirrels have occupied
a forest island ever since, with the resulting
change in characters we now have in evidence.
The home of both the Abert and the Kaibab
squirrels is almost entirely between 6,000 and
9,500 feet altitude, on the mountain slopes and
high plateaus overgrown’ with a splendid open
forest of yellow pine mixed in many places
with firs and aspens. Occasionally, as food be-
comes scarce in their ordinary haunts, they
range up into the firs or down into the oaks
and pinon pines. In winter their haunts are
buried in snow, but in summer on every hand
present lovely vistas among the massive tree
trunks, varied here and there by gemlike parks.
Everywhere the ground is covered with grasses
and multitudes of flowering plants. In the
wilder parts of this fascinating wilderness
roam bears, mountain lions, wolves, deer, and
wild turkeys, and only a few decades ago still
wilder men, belonging to some of our most
dreaded Indian tribes.
Although these squirrels commonly make use
of large knot-holes or other hollows in trees,
they regularly build high up in the branches
bulky nests of leaves, pine needles, and twigs
and line them with soft grass and shredded
bark. Sometimes several full-grown squirrels
may be found occupying one of these outside
nests, probably members of one family. They
are active throughout the year, but remain in
their nests during storms and severe winter
weather. In northern Arizona I have known
them to stay under cover for a week or two at
a time in midwinter.
The young appear to be born at varying
times between April and September. Although
not definitely known, it seems probable that they
have two litters of from three to four young
each season.
The seeds and the tender bark from the
terminal twigs of the yellow pine (Pinus pon-
derosa) furnish their principal food supply. Dur-
OF NORTH AMERICA 565
ing periods when pine seeds are not available
the squirrels cut the ends of pine twigs, letting
the terminal part bearing the leaves fall to the
ground, while the stem, several inches in length,
is stripped of bark. Often at times of food
scarcity the bark will be eaten for a consider-
able distance along the outer branches, almost
like the work of porcupines. The ground under
the pines where the squirrels are at work is
sometimes almost covered with the freshly
dropped tips of branches.
The Abert squirrels also eat the seeds of
Douglas spruce, of the pifion pine, acorns, many
seeds, roots, green vegetation, mushrooms,
birds’ eggs, and young birds. Now and then
they rob cornfields planted in clearings, but
they do little damage to crops. Some years
they are extremely numerous and are in evi-
dence everywhere; again they become scarce
and so wary that it is difficult to see one, even
where its fresh workings are in evidence.
Both these squirrels have a deep churring
or chucking call, sometimes becoming a barking
note resembling that of the fox squirrel. They
also have a variety of chattering and scolding
notes when excited or angry. At times they
become almost as aggressive as the red squirrel
and come down the tree trunk or to a lower
branch, whence they scold and berate the object
of their disapproval.
When much alarmed they are expert at hid-
ing among tufts of leaves near the ends of
branches, on tops of large limbs, or behind
trunks. They will remain hidden in this way
for an hour or more, patiently waiting for the
danger to disappear, but one is often betrayed
by the wind blowing the feathery tip of its tail
into view.
On the ground the tail is usually carried up-
raised in graceful curves. Here these squirrels
spend much time among fallen cones and in
digging for roots and other food. When they
walk they have an awkward waddling gait, but
when they are alarmed, or desire to move more
rapidly for any cause, they progress in a series
of extremely graceful bounds, which show the
plumelike tail to good advantage. When the
Kaibab squirrel is moving about on the ground
its great white tail is extraordinarily conspicu-
ous in the sunshine. This repeatedly drew my
attention to these squirrels, even at such long
distances that they would otherwise have been
overlooked.
Although so heavily built, these squirrels are
adept in leaping from branch to branch and
from tree to tree. On one occasion a branch
on which an Abert squirrel was standing near
the top of a pine tree was struck by a rifle ball;
the squirrel promptly ran to the end of a large
branch about fifty feet from the ground, and
although no tree was anywhere near on that
side, leaped straight out into the air, with its
legs outspread just as in a flying squirrel. It
came down in a horizontal position and struck
the ground flat on its under side and the re-
bound raised it several inches. Without an in-
stant’s delay it was running at full speed across
a little open park and disappeared in the forest
SHORT-TAILED SHREW COMMON SHREW
Blarina brevicauda Sorex personatus
HOARY BAT RED BAT
Nycteris cinereus Nycteris borealis
566
BIG-EARED DESERT BAT
Antrozous pallidus
MEXICAN BAT
Nyctinomus meatcanus
567
568
on the other side. I was standing only a few
yards to one side of the falling squirrel and the
widely spread feet and legs were perfectly out-
lined against the sky. It was evident that this
squirrel and probably all of its kind appreciate
that such an attitude will help break the force
of the descent. This suggested the possibility
of a similar habit having influenced the origin
of the flying squirrel’s membranes.
One summer day in the Sierra Madre of
western Durango I sat on a mountain slope
watching for game. Below me stood the hol-
low-topped stub of an oak, the top being on a
level with my eyes and about twenty yards
away. Soon after I arrived the heads of four
half-grown squirrels of the Abert tamily ap-
peared in a row at the upper border of the
opening, their bright eyes turning on all sides.
Suddenly a hawk glided by, one of its wing tips
almost brushing the noses of the squirrels. In-
stantly they vanished from sight and a noise of
scratching and frightened chattering continued
for several minutes, as though they were bury-
ing themselves under the nest. About twenty
minutes later the boldest of the family showed
the tip of his nose at an opening in a hollow
branch near the top of the stub, but it required
another ten minutes for him to venture forth
his head. Finally, becoming confident that no
danger threatened, he came out on the limb
and deliberately stretched himself, yawning as
widely as his little mouth would permit, after
which he flirted his tail and frisked over to the
trunk of the stub, where he began frolicking
about with all the abandon of a kitten at play.
When I departed his more timorous companions
were still peering fearfully out of the hole, an-
ticipating the return of the dreaded hawk.
THE FLYING SQUIRREL (Glaucomys
volans and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 551)
No one can see one of our small flying squir-
rels in life without being charmed by its deli-
cate grace of form and velvety fur, nor fail to
note the large black eyes which give it a pleas-
ing air of lively intelligence. Flying squirrels
are distinguished from all other members of
the squirrel family by extensions of the skin
along the sides, which unite the front and hind
legs, so that when the animal leaps from some
elevated point with legs outspread the mem-
brane and the underside of the body present a
broad, flat surface to the air. This enables it
to glide swiftly down in a diagonal course
toward a tree trunk or other vertical surface
on which it desires to alight. It is able to con-
trol its movements and to turn with ease to one
side or the other, or upward before alighting.
When gliding down a wooded hillside or through
thick growths of timber, it is thus able to avoid
obstacles and alight on the desired place.
Flying squirrels are circumpolar in distribu-
tion. In the Old World they occupy forested
areas in eastern Europe, and nearly all of Asia.
In the New World they are peculiar to North
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
America, where they frequent nearly all the
wooded parts from the Arctic Circle to the
Mexican border, and in forests in Mexico along
the eastern border of the highlands as well as
through Chiapas and Guatemala. In Asia, the
center of development of these interesting ro-
dents, many extraordinary forms occur. Some
are giants of their kind, measuring nearly four
feet in total length. In America there are two
groups of species, the smaller and better known
of which, the subject of this sketch, occupies
the eastern United States and southward. The
northern and western animals are larger, some
of them more than twice the weight of the
eastern species. .
In many parts of the United States flying
squirrels are common and even abundant, but
their habits are so strictly nocturnal that they
are infrequently seen. They make their homes
in woodpecker holes, knot-holes, and hollows in
limbs, and trunks of trees and stubs. In ad-
dition they take possession of many odd places
for residence, among which may be mentioned
bird-boxes, dove-cotes, attics, cupboards, boxes,
and other nooks in occupied or unoccupied
houses that are located within or at the borders
of woods.
They also make nests of leaves, lining them
with fine fibrous bark, grass, moss, fur, or other
soft material placed securely in the branches
or in forks in trees. They often remodel old
bird or squirrel nests into snug homes for
themselves. The size and construction of these
outside nests vary according to the locality and
the material available.
As a rule, the nests are small and accommo-
date only a single pair with their young, and
sometimes hold only a single individual, but nu-
merous exceptions to this have been observed.
In southern Illinois fifty flying squirrels were
discovered in one nest in a tree; in Indiana
fifteen were found in a hollow stump; and
near Philadelphia thirty were evicted from a
martin box they had usurped.
In the southern part of their range flying
squirrels are active throughout the year, but in
the North they become more or less sluggish
if they do not actually reach the stage of real
hibernation during the severest weather.
Their food is extremely varied and includes
whatever nuts grow in their haunts, as beech-
nuts, pecans, acorns, and others, with many kinds
of seeds, including corn gathered in the field,
and buds, and fruits of many kinds. They also
eat many insects, larve, birds and their eggs,
and meat. Taking advantage of their known
liking for bird flesh, they may frequently be
caught by concealing a trap on top of a log in
the woods and scattering bird feathers over
and about it. Trappers for marten and other
forest fur-bearers are much annoyed in winter
by the persistence with which the flying squir-
rels search out their traps and become caught
in them, thus forestalling a more valued cap-
ture. Trappers in Montana who run long lines
of traps for marten through the mountain for-
ests capture hundreds of these squirrels in a
single season.
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
Flying squirrels have
several notes, one of
which is an ordinary
chuck, chuck, much like
that of other squirrels.
They also utter sharp
squeaks and squeals when
angry or much alarmed,
and a clear musical chirp-
ing note, birdlike in char-
acter, which is frequently
repeated for several min-
utes in succession and is
undoubtedly a song.
These beautiful little
animals become the most
delightful of pets, as they
are notable for extraor-
dinary playfulness and a
readiness to accept man
as a friend. Many in-
teresting accounts have
been published concern-
ing the affectionate at-
tachment they form for
their human hosts and
the amusing and tireless
activity they show at
night. By day they re-
main sound asleep, rolled
up in a furry ball in
some dark corner.
They are known to have
a litter of from two to
six young in April, and
young are born at vari-
ous times throughout the
summer, but it is still un-
settled whether there is
more than one litter a
year. The mother is de-
voted to the young, and
if driven from them will
keep close by at the risk
of her life, showing much
anxiety and readiness to
do what she can to pro-
tect them. One instance
well illustrates this ma-
ternal care. From a nest
in a hollow stub the help-
less young were taken
and placed on the ground
at its base, while the de-
spoiler of the home stood
by to observe the result.
The mother soon re-
turned and not finding
her family in the nest
promptly located them on
the ground. Quickly de-
scending, she took one
in her mouth, carried it
to the top of the stub
and, launching into the
air, sailed to a tree thirty
feet away, up which she
carried her baby and
SSE
ARR
Se
Sas
Muskrat
& 73,
THE TRAIL OF THE MUSKRAT
1 17nec
569
The usual gait of the muskrat on land is a slow walk. The tail
mark is always very strongly shown (see pages 513 and 526).
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THE TRACKS OF A GRASSHOPPER MOUSE
The anatomy of the foot is fairly well shown in the track—the
insignificant thumb and the tubercles on the soles. The placing of
the fore feet, one behind the other, indicates that the creature can-
not climb a tree. The tail seldom or never shows. The original of
this was in fine dust. The small tracks to the right show the style
usually seen. There are many species of grasshopper mouse, but the
tracks are not distinguishable from each other. The exact species
is determined by locality, size, etc. (see pages 520 and 527).
placed it safely in a
knot-hole. The trip was
quickly repeated until the
family was reunited in
its new location.
At night the curiosity
of flying squirrels about
strange things and their
mischievous activities are
often most entertaining,
and sometimes exasperat-
ing. Whatever is ac-
cessible within their ter-
ritory is certain to be
thoroughly explored. A
large apartment building,
seven stories high, in
Washington stands on
the border of the woods
of the Zoological Park.
During one summer night
a friend occupying an
apartment on the seventh
floor of this building,
fronting the park, ob-
served some movement
on one of his window
sills and by later obser-
vation and by inquiry
among the other resi-
dents learned that flying
squirrels were habitually
climbing all about the
high walls to the top of
this building, using it
and some of the rooms
as a nightly playground.
Several occupants of
apartments in different
parts of the building
regularly placed nuts of
various kinds on the
window ledges for them,
and now and then were
amused to find that dur-
ing the night the squir-
rels had carried away
some of their nuts, but
had replaced them with
other kinds, sometimes
brought from a window
at a considerable dis-
tance on another side of
the building. The pres-
ence of these squirrels
was warmly welcomed
and furnished much in-
terest to their hosts.
The constant activity
of these little animals at
night enables owls and
cats to capture many, but
their small size and the
shelter of their homes
by day will prevent their
serious decrease in num-
bers so long as suitable
forests remain to supply
their needs.
SMALLER MAMMALS
THE BLACK-FOOTED FERRET
(Mustela nigripes and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 551)
~ Of all the varied forms of mammalian life
in America, the black-footed ferret has always
impressed me as one of the strangest and most
like a stranded exotic. It is about the size of
a mink, but, as the illustration shows, is entirely
different in appearance and has the general
form of a giant weasel. It has no close rela-
tive in America, but bears an extraordinarily
close resemblance in size, form, and color to
the Siberian ferret (Mustela eversmanni).
The black-footed ferret occurs only in the
interior of the United States, closely restricted
to the area inhabited by prairie-dogs, from the
Rocky Mountains eastward and from Montana
and the Dakotas to western Texas. It is
known also west of the mountains in Colorado.
Like others of the weasel tribe, it must have
a wandering disposition, since one was captured
at 9,800 feet altitude, and another was found
drowned at 10,250 feet in Lake Moraine, Colo-
rado.
These ferrets exist as parasites in the prairie-
dog colonies, making their homes in deserted
burrows and feeding on the hapless colonists.
In Kansas their presence in certain localities
appears to have been effective in exterminating
prairie-dogs, and similar activities may account
for the deserted “dog towns” which are not
infrequently observed on the plains with no ap-
parent reason for the absence of the habitants.
They do not appear to be numerous in any
part of their range and little is known con-
cerning their habits. Now and then they are
seen moving about prairie-dog “towns,” passing
in and out of the burrows at all hours of the
day, but it is probable that they are mainly
nocturnal. This probability is strengthened by
the extreme restlessness shown at night by cap-
tive animals. With the occupation of the coun-
try and the inevitable extinction of the prairie-
dog over nearly or quite all of its range, the
black-footed ferret is practically certain to dis-
appear with its host species.
It has the same bold, inquisitive character
shown by the weasel, and when its interest is
excited will stand up on its hind legs and
stretch its long neck to one side and another
in an effort to satisfy its curiosity. When
surprised in a “dog town” it commonly retreats
to a burrow, but promptly turns and raises its
head high out of the hole to observe the visitor.
As a result ferrets are readily killed by hunters.
When one is captured it will at first hiss and
spit like a cat and fight viciously, but is not
difficult to tame.
Although mainly dependent upon prairie-dogs
for food, there is little doubt that ferrets, after
the manner of their kind, also kill rabbits and
other rodents in addition to taking whatever
birds and birds’ eggs may be secured. In one
instance a black-footed ferret lived for several
days under a wooden sidewalk in the border
town of Hays, Kansas, where it killed the rats
harboring there.
OF NORTH AMERICA
here im Sinch mud.
SL a
TRACK OF A COMMON PIG
Pig and deer tracks are often found in the
same places and to a casual glance may be mis-
taken for each other, but the bluntness of the
pig track distinguishes it and the clouts or
hind hoofs do not show on level ground, but
do in one or two inches of snow or mud.
572 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
sitling
vy
Deermovse
Se
FOOTPRINTS OF A WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE
When reduced to scale, the large tracks on
the left side are life size, showing the animal
making the ordinary bounds of about 3 inches
between each set of tracks. In speeding, the
space may increase to 12 inches. The tail usu-
ally shows in the deermouse track, and _ this,
with the pairing of the fore paws, is a strong
characteristic (see pages 521 and 530).
THE LARGE WEASELS, OR STOATS
(Mustela arcticus and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 554)
The weasel family includes not only the true
weasels, but numerous other carnivores, as the
sable or marten, mink, ferret, skunk, and land
and sea otters, all of which rank among our
highly valued fur-bearers. The large weasel
may be distinguished from others of its family
by the small size and the snakelike propor-
tions of the flattened and pointed head, com-
bined with a long, extremely slender neck and
body and a comparatively long tail. The best
known of these animals are the stoat of the
northern parts of the Old World (Mustela
erminea) and its close relative in northern
North America (Mustela arcticus), the winter
skins of which furnish the famed ermine, once
sacred to the trappings of royalty.
The northern weasels are strongly marked by
their habit of changing their brown coat to
one of snowy white at the beginning of winter.
To the south the change becomes less com-
plete as the winter snows decrease, and south
of the limit of snow the brown coat is retained
throughout the year. The time of change de-
pends on the coming of the snow and varies
with the year, and the time of resumption of
the brown coat in spring depends in the same
way on the season. The white winter coat of
the larger and medium-sized species is accom-
panied by a strongly contrasting jet black tip
to the tail.
Weasels are circumpolar in distribution and
occupy nearly all parts of Europe, Asia, and
North and South America, the greatest number
and variety of species occurring in North
America. Surprisingly enough, the largest of
these eminently northern animals is found in
the forests of the American tropics. The Arctic
weasel ranges to the northernmost polar lands
of North America, where its presence has been
recorded many times by ice-bound explorers.
Other species are more or less generally dis-
tributed over the remainder of the continent.
In Mexico I have found them from sea level
to above timberline, at more that 13,000 feet
altitude on the high volcanoes.
The strong personality of the weasels as a
group is based mainly on their extraordinary
celerity of movement, their courage, and their
insatiable desire to kill. They are not satis-
fied with supplying the call for food, but when-
ever opportunity arises kill from sheer lust of
slaughter.
Their slender forms enable them to follow
their prey to the remotest depths of their re-
treats, and that all rodents have an abiding
horror of them is shown by the effect of a
weasel’s appearance. Rabbits, although many
times their size, become easy victims, and in
one instance when a large rat, which had
fought its human captor viciously, was put in
a cage with a weasel, it at once lost all its
courage and permitted itself to be killed with-
out an effort at defense.
Weasels are wonderfully endowed for their
predatory work and are undoubtedly the most
SMALLER MAMMALS
perfectly organized machines for killing that
have been developed among mammals. Their
keen eyes are constantly alert to observe every-
thing about them, their ears are attuned to
catch the faintest squeak of a mouse or cry of
any other small animal, and their powers of
scent are very great. When hunting they dart
in and out of the holes of rodents, among
crevices in the rocks, or through brush piles,
pausing now and then to stand upright on their
hind feet, the head swaying to and fro as they
peer about, The squeak of a mouse starts
them instantly in search of it, and like a dog
they trail rabbits and other rodents by scent.
As a rule, weasels are terrestrial, but in
wooded country they climb trees and leap from
branch to branch with all the ease of squirrels.
In most localities they are not common, but
now and then, where conditions are peculiarly
favorable, they become numerous. At one
naturalist’s camp in the upper Yukon they were
surprisingly abundant, so much so that more
than forty were caught in a few days in traps
set among broken rocks. There they were ex-
tremely bold, hunting for their prey among the
rocks within a few feet of the trappers.
The prey of weasels includes almost every
kind of small rodent and bird living within
their territory. They feed especially upon
northern hares, cottontails, conies, ground
squirrels, chipmunks, tree squirrels, wood rats,
mice, lemmings, quail, ptarmigan, spruce and
ruffed grouse, ducks, and numberless other
small species. They are also very destructive
to domestic fowl, often killing thirty or forty
in a night. They unhesitatingly attack rodents
many times their own weight.
Once when hunting on the open plain near the
southern end of the Mexican table-land, I saw
at some distance what appeared to be a brown
ball rolling about on the ground. This was
soon determined to be a weasel fastened to one
of the large and powerful pocket gophers of
that region. The weasel had its teeth set in the
back of the neck of the gopher, while the latter
was blindly trying to tear itself loose. I fired
an ineffectual shot at the weasel and it vanished
like a flash in the open tunnel of the gopher.
As I drew near, the gopher, still in fighting
mood, faced me with bared teeth. Later, when
I removed its skin, I found that the weasel had
torn loose the attachment of the heavy neck
muscles to the Lack of the skull until only a
thin layer remained to protect the spinal
column. This had been accomplished without
breaking the thin, but extremely tough, skin of
the gopher.
When a weasel is attacking an animal which
resists, like a large ground squirrel, it raises
its head and sways its long neck back and
forth, its eyes glittering with excitement as it
watches for an opening to spring forward and
seize its prey. Its attack is always aimed at
a vital point, commonly the brain, the back of
the neck, or the jugular vein on the side.
Weasels dig their own burrows under the
shelter of slide rock, ledges, stone walls, stumps,
and outbuildings, or they occupy hollow trees
573
OF NORTH AMERICA
and the deserted burrows of other animals. In
nests thus safely located they have one litter
containing an average of from four to six, but
sometimes numbering up to twelve, young a
year. They are born at any time from April
to June, according to the latitude. The number
of young in a litter is enough to render weasels
very abundant, but this is rarely the case, and
raises the question as to the influence which
holds their number in check.
They are both nocturnal and diurnal, ap-
parently in almost equal degree, since they are
frequently observed hunting in the middle of
the day, while their nocturnal raids on poultry
houses testify to their activities at night. When
hunting they appear like sinister shadows and
are persistent in pursuit. The young commonly
remain with the female until nearly or quite
grown and follow her closely on hunting trips.
It is interesting to see a pack of these deadly
carnivores working, the mother leading and the
young skirmishing on all sides, now spreading
out, now closing in, like a pack of miniature
hounds. On these family hunting parties, how-
ever, they usually keep close to the rocks, logs,
brush, or other cover.
Themselves subject to the law of fang and
claw, weasels are killed and eaten by wolves,
coyotes, foxes, and various birds of prey. Their
very lack of fear perhaps in many cases leads
to their destruction.
These representatives of the primitive wood-
land life continue to occupy practically all of
their original range. They visit farms in all
parts of the country and I have seen them near
the outskirts of Washington.
It is well that weasels are not abundant, for
beasts with such innate ferocity and love of
killing would otherwise be a menace to the
existence of many useful species of birds and
mammals, especially the game birds. In many
places they live almost entirely on mice, and
there they should be left unmolested; but
whenever they locate in the vicinity of a chicken
yard the owner will do well to take proper
measures for protection.
THE LEAST WEASEL (Mustela rixosus
and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 554)
In addition to the larger members of the
tribe briefly described in the foregoing sketch,
the true weasels include another group of
species, so small they may appropriately be
termed the dwarfs of their kind. They vary
from a half to less than a fourth the size of
the larger weasels, but have the same char-
acteristic form and proportions, except that the
tail is very short and never tipped with black.
Like the larger species, they change their brown
summer coat for white at the beginning of
winter and back again in spring.
The least weasels are also circumpolar in
distribution, but are limited to the northern
parts of Europe, Asia, and North America.
In England and other parts of the Old World
un A
Y
uv
Pind
oO
ww
oe
>
uli tf
ak wlth
Rat ee
THE COMMON BROWN RAT
The large series shows the ordinary forag-
ing gait; the smaller one, to the right, shows
the travel at low speed. In all, the tail mark
is a strong feature (see pages 525 and 531).
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
the group is represented by the well-known
species Mustela vulgaris. In North America
several species are known which, between them,
share all the continent from the Arctic coast
south to Nebraska and Pennsylvania. On the
desolate islands extending from the mainland
far toward the Pole their place seems to be
taken by the ermine.
The dwarf weasels appear to be less numer-
ous and, as a consequence, less known in most
parts of America than in England and north-
ern Europe. Our most northern species,
AMlustela rixosa, sometimes called the “mouse
weasel,” occupies Alaska and northern Canada
and has the distinction of being the smallest
known species of carnivore in the world. In
this connection it is interesting to note that
in Alaska we have associated on the same
ground the least weasel and the great brown
bear, the smallest and the largest living car-
nivores.
Least weasels are characterized by the same
swift alertness and boldness so marked in the
larger species. In fact they are, if possible,
even quicker in their movements. Once when
camping in spring among scattered snowbanks
on the coast of Bering Sea, I had an excellent
opportunity to witness their almost incredible
quickness. Early in the morning one suddenly
appeared on the margin of a snowbank within
a few feet, and after craning its neck one way
and the other, as though to get a better view
of me, it vanished, and then appeared so
abruptly on a snowbank three or four yards
away that it was almost impossible to follow
it with the eye. It was beginning to take on
its summer coat of brown and was extremely
difficult to locate amid the scattered patches
of snow and bare moss of the tundra. Cer-
tainly no other mammal can have such flash-
like powers of movement.
They feed mainly on mice, lemmings, shrews,
small birds, their eggs and young, and insects.
Mice furnish a large proportion of their prey
and weasels have often been seen following the
runways of field mice. Their small size enables
them to pursue mice into their underground
workings as readily as a ferret enters a rabbit
burrow. They also climb trees and bushes with
great agility, although nearly always seeking
their victims on the ground. The mice upon
which they prey are often so much larger than
the weasels that they cannot be dragged into
the dens. The weasels continue in full activity
throughout the winter and constantly burrow
into the snow in search of their prey. In the
snow or in the ground the holes of this animal
are about the diameter of one’s finger.
In the Old World the small weasels are re-
ported to have several litters in a season, each
containing five or six young. At Point Barrow,
Alaska, a female captured on June 12 still con-
tained twelve embryos. This indicates that
only one litter a year would be born there, and
that Mustela rixosa is more prolific than its
Kuropean representative.
In the more southern latitude least weasels
live in forests and about farms, sheltering
themselves under logs, brush piles, stone walls,
and similar cover. They are always restless
and filled with curiosity regarding anything of
SMALLER MAMMALS
unusual appearance.
When one encounters a
man it shows no fear,
but slyly moving from
one ‘shelter to another,
now advancing and now
retreating, examines the
stranger carefully before
going on its way. As
they devote practically
their entire lives to the
destruction of field mice,
they are valuable friends
of the farmer and should
have his good will and
protection. Unfortunately
for these weasels, no dis-
crimination is shown be-
tween them and_ their
larger relatives of more
injurious. habits.
Among the natives of
Alaska all weasels are
looked upon with great
respect on account of
their prowess as hunters.
I found this feeling pe-
culiarly strong among the
Eskimos, whose existence
Vo, fore
OL
~I
ou
OF NORTH AMERICA
for ages has depended so
largely on the products
of the chase. Among
them the capture of a
weasel meant good luck
to the hunter, and to take
&
the rarer least weasel ee
was considered a happy x
omen. The head and en-
tire skin of the least
weasel was highly prized
for wearing as an amulet
or fetich.
eagerly purchased them,
paying the full value of
a prime marten skin in
order to wear them as a
personal adornment, that
they might thus become endowed with the hunt-
ing prowess of this
Fathers often bought them to attach to the
belts of their small sons, so that the youthful
hunters might become imbued with the spirit
of this “little chief” among mammals.
THE AMERICAN MINK (Mustela vison
and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 555)
In the American mink we have one of the
most widely known and valuable fur-bearers of
the weasel family. It is a long-bodied animal,
but more heavily proportioned than the weasel,
and attains a weight of from one and one-half
to more than two pounds. It has short legs
and walks slowly and rather clumsily with the
back arched. When desiring to travel rapidly
it moves in a series of rapid easy bounds which
it appears able to continue tirelessly.
Young men J
fierce little carnivore.
bg te iG.ind
nm &
t
dv
K
Piet
Fo x eas
THE TRACK OF A FOX
The size, the small pads, and the set of all feet nearly in one line are
strong features, as also is the tail touch
The minks form a small group of species
circumpolar in distribution, and well known in
Europe, northern Asia, and in North America.
The European animal is closely similar to the
North American species and all have the same
amphibious habits. The American minks include
several different geographic races, which are
distributed over all the northern part of the
continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
from the mouths of the Yukon and Mackenzie
Rivers to the Gulf coast in the United States.
They are absent from the arid Southwestern
States.
Few species are more perfectly adapted to a
double mode of life thanthe mink. It is equally
at home slyly searching thickets and bottom-
land forests for prey or seeking it with otter-
like prowess beneath the water. It is a restless
animal, active both by day and by night, al-
though mainly nocturnal.
While usually having definite dens to which
they return, minks wander widely and for so
576
small an animal hunt over a large territory
and pass from one body of water to another.
Their wanderings are most pronounced in fall
and again during the mating in spring. They
are solitary, their companionship with one an-
other not outliving the mating period.
Mink dens are located wherever a safe and
convenient shelter is available, and may be a
hole in a bank, made by a muskrat or other
animal, a cavity under the roots of a tree, a
hollow log, a hollow stump, or other place.
The nest is made of grass and leaves lined
with feathers, hair, and other soft material. A
single litter of from four to twelve small and
naked young is born during April or May.
The young remain with the mother through-
out the summer, and do not leave her to estab-
lish themselves until fall, when they are nearly
grown. When captured at an early age they
are playful and become attached to the person
who cares for them. When caught in a trap
they become fiercely aggressive, often uttering
squalling shrieks, baring their teeth, and front-
ing their captor with a truculent air of savage
rage. The adults have scent sacs located under
the tail like those of a skunk. When angry or
much excited they can emit from these an ex-
ceedingly acrid and offensive odor, but have
no power to eject it forcibly at an enemy.
Minks are bold and courageous in their at-
titude toward other animals, and attack and kill
for food species heavier than themselves, like
the varying hare and the muskrat. On land
they are persistent hunters, trailing their prey
skillfully by scent. They eat mice, rats, chip-
munks, squirrels, and birds and birds’ eggs of
many kinds, including waterfowl, oven-birds,
and other ground-frequenting species. About
the waterside they vary this diet by capturing
fish of many kinds, which they pursue in the
water, snakes, frogs, salamanders, insects, crus-
taceans, and mussels.
Their prowess is shown by their raids on
chicken-houses, where they often kill many
grown fowls in a night, and sometimes drag
birds heavier than themselves long distances to
their dens. A remarkable indication of the
varied menu of the mink was exhibited in a
nest found by Dr. C. H. Merriam, where the
owner had gathered the bodies of a muskrat,
a red squirrel, and a downy woodpecker.
The value of the mink’s furry coat has led
to its steady pursuit by trappers in all climes,
from the coast of Florida to the borders of
sluggish streams on Arctic tundras. Millions
of them have fallen victims to this warfare
and their skins have gone to adorn mankind.
In spite of this the mink today occupies all its
original territory, and each year yields a fresh
harvest of furs.
The mink by preference is a forest animal,
living along the wooded bottom-lands of rivers
or the thicket-grown borders of small streams,
where the rich vegetation gives abundance of
shelter and at the same time attracts a wealth
of small mammals and birds on which it may
prey. From these secure coverts it wanders
through the surrounding country at night, visit-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
ing many chicken-houses on farms and leaving
devastation behind. It is persistent and bold
in such forays and in locations near its haunts
great care must be exercised to guard against
it. Minks have repeatedly raided the enclosures
of the National Zoological Park in Washington.
Now and then, on the banks of some wild
stream, one will try to appropriate the catch
lying at the very feet of a lone fisherman. A
naturalist fishing on a stream in northern
Canada, seeing a mink making free with his
catch, set a small steel trap on the bare ground,
and holding the attached chain in one hand
raised and slowly drew toward him the fish
upon which the mink was feeding. The mink,
without hesitation, followed the fish and was
caught in the trap.
An abundance of food may modify the pref-
erence of the mink for wooded or partly wood-
ed country. The marshy and treeless tundra
lying near sea-level in the triangle between the
coast of Bering Sea, and the lower parts of
the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers offers such
an attractive situation differing from their
usual haunts. The sluggish streams and num-
berless ponds abound with small fish four
to five inches long. Minks swarm in this area
to such an extent that the Eskimos who in-
habit the district are known among the natives
of the surrounding region as the “mink people.”
Steel traps are used there, but a primitive
method is even more successful. A wicker
fence is built across a narrow stream and a
small fyke fish-trap placed in it. In swimming
along the stream minks pass into the trap like
fish, and I knew of from Io to 15 being thus
taken in one day.
During my residence in that region from
10,000 to 15,000 mink skins were caught in
this tundra district annually, and the supply
appeared to be inexhaustible. With the grow-
ing occupation of the continent and the increas-
ing demand for furs, however, the numbers of
the mink must surely decrease. To forestall
the shortage of furs that seems imminent, ef-
forts are now being made to establish fur farm-
ing to replace the declining supply of wild furs
with those grown under domestication. The
mink appears to be well adapted to successful
breeding in captivity. The main question to
solve is the relation of the cost of caring for
the animals to the value of its pelt in the
market.
THE MARTEN, OR AMERICAN SABLE
(Martes americana and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 555)
Wild animals possess an endless variety of
mental traits which endow them in many in-
stances with marked individualities. Few are
more strongly characterized in this respect than
the marten, One of the most graceful and
beautiful of our forest animals, it frequents the
more inaccessible parts of the wilderness and
retires shyly before the inroads of the settler’s
ax. Its rich brown coat, so highly prized that
SMALLER MAMMALS
the pursuit of it goes on winter after winter in
all the remote forests of the North, is a source
of danger threatening the existence of the
species. The full-grown animal weighs five or
six pounds and measures nearly three feet in
length.
The martens are circumpolar in distribution,
and the several species occupy northern lands
from England, Europe, and northern Asia to
North America. Of the Old World species, the
Siberian sable is best known on account of the
beauty of its fine, rich fur, which renders it
the most valued of all in the fur markets of
the world.
The North American marten is a close rela-
tive of the Siberian species, and occupies all
the wooded parts of North America from the
northern limit of trees southward in the for-
ested mountains to Pennsylvania, New Mexico,
and the southern part of the Sierra Nevada in
California.
Like other members of the weasel tribe, the
marten is a fierce and merciless creature of ra-
pine, but unlike the mink and weasel, it avoids
the abodes of man and loves the remotest
depths of the wilderness.
Martens are endowed with an exceedingly
nervous and excitable temperament, combined
with all the flashing quickness of weasels. They
are more restless than any other among the
larger species of their notably restless tribe,
and couple with this extraordinary and tire-
less vigor. This is admirably shown in cap-
tivity, when by the hour they dart back and
forth, up and down and around their cages
with almost incredible speed.
In the forest they climb trees and jump from
branch to branch with all the agility of a
squirrel—in fact, they pursue and capture red
squirrels in fair chase, and have been seen in
pursuit of the big California gray squirrel
(Sciurus griseus). On the ground they move
about quickly, hunting weasel-like, under brush
piles and other cover. j oe ;
Practically every living thing within their
power falls victim to their rapacity. They eat
minks, weasels, squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats,
mice of many kinds, conies, snowshoe hares,
ruffed and spruce grouse, and smaller birds of
all kinds and their eggs, as well as frogs, fish,
beetles, crickets, beechnuts, and a variety of
small wild fruits. Unlike minks and weasels,
they are not known to kill wantonly more than
they need for food.
They make nests of grass, moss, and leaves
in hollow trees, under logs, among rocks, and
in holes in the ground. Sometimes they, have
been found in possession of a red squirrel’s
nest, probably after having slain and devoured
the owner. ‘ \
The young, varying from one to eight in
number, are born in April or May. At first
they are naked and helpless, but when large
enough accompany the mother on her search
for food. This period of schooling lasts until
they are forced to take up their separate lives
with the approach of winter. Thenceforth they
are among the most solitary of animals, show-
OF NORTH AMERICA 577
ing fierce antagonism toward one another
whenever they meet, and associating only dur-
ing a brief period in the mating season in
February or March. Martens show a cold-
blooded ferocity toward one another that often
renders it dangerous to put two or more in
the same cage. When placed in a cage to-
gether the male very commonly kills the female
by biting her through the skull. At times they
utter a loud, shrill squall or shriek, and in
traps hiss, growl, and sometimes bark.
Among the dense forests of spruce and lodge-
pole pine high up in the mountains of Colorado,
martens are sometimes hunted on skis in mid-
winter, an exciting and often, on these rugged
slopes, a dangerous sport. They are not wary
about traps and are readily caught by dead-
falls and other rude contrivances as well as
by steel traps. In Colorado and Montana hun-
dreds of their skins are taken by trappers every
winter.
In Siberia the sable has been exterminated
by hunting in many districts, and before the
present war began had become so scarce in
others that the Russian Government closed the
season for them for a period of years over
nearly all of their range. The same reduction
in the numbers of our marten has occurred in
most parts of Alaska and elsewhere in its range,
and its only hope against extermination lies in
stringent protection. Protective regulations are
already in force in Alaska.
During the early fur-trading days in north-
ern Canada the number of martens varied be-
tween comparative abundance and rarity. These
variations were said to occur about every ten
years. Some claimed the decrease was due to
a migration which the martens were believed
to make from one region to another, just as
was believed of the lynx. The lack of a corre-
sponding increase in surrounding districts,
where trading posts were located, effectually
disproved the migration theory. There is little
doubt that the increase of martens was due to
a reproductive response to a plentiful food
supply during years when mice or snowshoe
hares were abundant and their decrease was
due to a lessening of the numbers of these food
animals.
Efforts are being made to domesticate mar-
tens and raise them for their skins on fur
farms. The main difficulty so far encountered
lies in the fiendish manner in which the old
males kill the females and the younger males.
Although always nervous, they are not difficult
to tame, and will be most entertaining and at-
tractive animals to rear if their savage natures
can be sufficiently overcome.
THE LITTLE SPOTTED SKUNK
(Spilogale putorius and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 558)
The skunks form a distinct section of the
weasel family, limited to North and South
America. The group is divided into three well-
marked sections. One of these, the little spot-
578
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ay en
ee
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6 ya
ef
. , :
é
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s (fe.
te
@* \Woodchuck
EGS
THE COMMON WOODCHUCK, OR AMERICAN
MARMOT (SEE PAGES 533-534)
Its track shows this animal’s kinship with
the squirrels. The small series, to the left,
show the ordinary ambling pace. When speed-
ing, it sets its feet much like the little, or east-
ern, chipmunk (see page 580).
ted skunks, is distinguished from all other
mammals by the curious and pleasing sym-
metry of the black and white markings of the
animals. Few more beautiful fur garments are
made than those from the skins of these ani-
mals in their natural colors. These skunks are
smaller than any members of the other groups,
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
varying from a little larger than a large chip-
munk to the size of a fox squirrel.
Little spotted skunks include several species
and geographic races. All are limited to North
America and are rather irregularly distributed
from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from
Virginia, Minnesota, Wyoming, and southern
British Columbia southward to the Gulf coast,
to the end of Lower California, and through
Mexico and Central America to Costa Rica.
They inhabit a variety of climatic conditions,
from the rocky ledges high up on the slopes
of the western mountains to the hot desert
plains of the Southwest, and to partly forested
regions in both temperate and tropical lands.
In different parts of the United States they
have several other names, including ‘‘civet,”
“civet cat,” and “hydrophobia skunk.”
The spotted skunks make their homes in
whatever shelter is most convenient, whether
it be clefts in rocky ledges, slide rock, hollows
in logs or stumps, holes dug by themselves in
banks or under the shelter of cactuses or other
thorny vegetation, the deserted holes of bur-
rowing owls in Florida, or the old dens of
various kinds of mammals elsewhere. Thickets,
open woods, ocean beaches, and the vicinity of
deserted or even occupied buildings on ranches
are equally welcome haunts. On the plains of
Arizona they have been known to live inside
the mummihed carcass of a cow, the stin-dried
hide of which made an impregnable cover. They
have a single litter of from two to six young
each year.
Their diet is fully as varied as that of others
of the weasel kind, but is made up mainly of
insects and other forms injurious to agricul-
ture, including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles,
and larve of many kinds. They feed also on
flesh whenever possible and prey on wood rats,
mice of many kinds, small ground squirrels,
small birds and their eggs, young chickens,
lizards, salamanders, and crawfish. This car-
nivorous diet is further varied with mushrooms,
peanuts, persimmons, cactus fruit, and other
small fruits. Sometimes the animals locate
about occupied habitations in primitive com-
munities, where they give good service by kill-
ing the house rats, mice, and cockroaches on
the premises. On one occasion a spotted skunk
was detected cunningly removing the downy
chicks from under a brooding hen without dis-
turbing her.
In comparison with the other skunks these
little animals are extremely agile. They are
strictly nocturnal and when pursued at night
by dogs will climb to safety in a tree like a
squirrel. When caught in a trap they struggle
and fight far more vigorously than their big
relatives. They usually carry the tail in a
somewhat elevated position, but when danger
threatens hold it upright like a warning signal.
If the enemy fails to take heed they shoot two
little spraylike jets of liquid bearing the usual
offensive skunk odor, and the victim retires
without honor.
In writing of these skunks about the Valley
SMALLER MAMMALS
of Mexico, in 1628, Dr. Hernandez tells us
that “the powerful arm which they use when
in peril is the insupportable gas they throw out
behind which condenses the surrounding at-
mosphere so that, as one grave missionary
says, it appears as though one could feel it.”
That the little spotted skunk is subject to
rabies and has communicated it to many men
in the West is unquestionable. It usually bites
men who are sleeping on the ground in its
haunts, as they commonly do on the western
stock ranges.
I have personally known of several instances
in northern Arizona of men being bitten by
them. The head, face, and hands, being un-
covered, are the points attacked. One man in
the mountains south of Winslow, Arizona, was
bitten on the top of his head in April, 1910,
but paid no attention to the slight wound until
two months later when he began to have
spasms. He then hurried to town and died in
great agony the next day. The year following
a man in the same district was bitten in the
face, and seizing the animal threw it from him
in such a manner that it fell on his brother
and bit him before he awakened. Both men
were given the Pasteur treatment and had no
further trouble.
On New Year’s night of 1906, while I was at
the village of Cape San Lucas, at the extreme
southern end of the Peninsula of Lower Cali-
fornia, a large-sized old male spotted skunk
entered the open door of a neighboring house
and bit through the upper lip of a little girl
sleeping on the floor. Her screams brought
her father to the rescue, and with a well-aimed
blow he killed the offender. The next morning
the skunk was brought to me and added to my
collection. As I left a few days later I never
learned the result of this bite, but while there
was informed that a man had died the previous
year from a similar bite. The occasional in-
stances of this kind are remembered and ap-
pear more numerous than they are in fact. For
years many men have slept in the open where
these animals abound, without being molested.
It is interesting to find that when the voyager
Duhaut-Cilly visited the Cape in 1826, the na-
tives feared these skunks because they entered
housese at night, biting people and infecting
them with hydrophobia.
The little spotted skunks have extremely ani-
mated, playful natures, as I have had several
occasions to observe. ‘Two instances serve to
illustrate this. Once at the mouth of a canyon
at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley,
California, I camped several days at a deserted
ranch. At night I spread my blankets on the
bare floor of the house, from which the doors
were gone. Under it led several burrows of
some animal which I at first supposed to be a
ground squirrel. Each night while there I was
awakened by the sound of little footfalls pad-
ding rapidly about over the floor on which I
was sleeping, and in the dim light from the
moon could see two or three little spotted skunks
pursuing one another around me like playful
OF NORTH AMERICA O79
kittens. At the slightest movement on my part
they dashed out the door and into their dens
under the house. As there was no food of any
kind in this room, it was evident that the little
fellows were there for a frolic on the smooth
board floor.
On another occasion in the mountains of
San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican table-land, I
found a spring to which bears were coming
for water at night. As the bears here appeared
to be strictly nocturnal. I ensconced myself in
the evening with a dark lantern, amid some
small bushes, against a large pine log which
sloped downward to the bottom of the gulch
near the spring, with the plan to welccme any
bears which might come in. An hour or more
after dark the clinking rattle of small stones
on the far side of the gulch indicated the pres-
ence of some animal. The light from the
lantern was flashed on the spot and the rifle
lowered with exasperation as, running back and
forth, turning over stones in search of insccts,
a spotted skunk was revealed. The movements
of this unwelcome visitor were extremely light
and graceful, and in my interest in watching
them, for a time I forgot the bear. Two or
three hours passed and the skunk tired of the
hillside and came down to the spring, where
he found the offal from a deer which I had
placed there for bait. This gave him more to
do, and after I had listened to him worry the
meat for awhile, I turned on the light and was
entertained by the sight thus revealed. The
skunk appeared to have a persistent desire to
drag away the offal many times his weight. He
would seize the edge of one of the lungs and
after a hard struggle would get it up on one
edge, when the burden would turn over with
a flap, whirling the skunk flat on his back each
time. Immediately scrambling to his feet, he
would give the meat a fierce shake of resent-
ment and repeat the performance.
After a long time the moon arose and the
skunk could be plainly seen running back and
forth playfully, now biting at the meat and now
turning over stones apparently in sheer exuber-
ance of spirit. Then he suddenly mounted the
lower end of the log and came galloping up it
until he was close to my shoulder. There he
stopped and, coming as near as possible, ex-
tended his nose within a few inches of my
face, and for minute or more stood trying to
satisfy himself about this strange object. Satis-
fied at last, he turned and galloped back down
the log and resumed his antics in the gulch,
finally working close to the bank three or four
yards below me. There he found many small
stones and had a fine time rattling them about
until I decided that with this disturbing pres-
ence I should have little chance for other game.
Finding a convenient stone, and locating the
skunk as well as possible from the sounds, I
tossed it over to try and frighten him away.
My aim was too true, for the characteristic
skunk retort filled the air with suffocating
fumes and I immediately lost interest in further
bear hunting.
a80
dome.
Soe
a>
Little Chif munk
Cale
TIIE TRAIL OF THE EASTERN CHIPMUNK
The track is much like that of the fox squir-
rel, but usually the fore feet are a little, or
quite, one behind the other and, of course,
much smaller. No tail mark is ever seen (sce
pages 542 and 549).
THE COMMON SKUNK (Mephitis
mephitis and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 558)
Probably no American mammal is more gen-
erally known and less popular than the skunk.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
This current odium is due wholly to its posses-
sion of a scent sac of malodorous fluid, which
it distributes with prompt accuracy when an-
noyed. The possession of this method of de-
fense is common to all skunks. The term “pole-
cat,’ sometimes given to all kinds of skunks, is
the misuse of a name given Old World martens
of several species and to the Cape pole-cat, a
South African animal which in form and mark-
ings, including the plumelike tail, is remark-
ably like some of our smaller skunks.
In the preceding article an account was given
of the spotted skunks, smallest of the three
groups into which these animals are divided.
The common skunk and its relatives form an-
other group, which contains some of the larger
species of their kind, some of them weighing
up to ten pounds or more. These are the typi-
cal skunks, so familiar in most parts of the
United States, and distinguished by the dis-
proportionately large size of the posterior half
of the body and the long, plumelike tail.
The common skunk, with its closely related
species, is generally distributed in all varieties
of country, except in deep forests and on water-
less desert plains. It ranges from the Atlantic
coast to the Pacific and from Hudson Bay and
Great Slave Lake southward to the highlands
of Guatemala. The vertical range extends from
sea-level up to above timberline in Mexico,
where I found one living in a burrow it had
dug under a rock at 13,800 feet altitude on the
Cofre de Perote, Vera Cruz.
Skunks are most corimon in areas of mixed
woodland and fields, in valley bottoms, and
along the brushy borders of creeks and rocky
canyons. One of their marked characteristics
is a fondness for the vicinity of man. They
frequently visit his premises, taking up quarters
beneath outbuildings or even under the house
itself.
Any convenient shelter appears to satisfy
them for a home, and they will occupy the de-
serted burrows of other animals, small cavities
among the rocks, a hollow log, or a hole dug
by themselves. A warm nest of grass and
leaves is made at the end of the den, where the
single litter of young, containing from four to
ten, is born in April or May. As soon as the
young are old enough they follow the mother,
keeping close behind her, often in a long single
file along a trail. They are mainly nocturnal,
but in summer the mother frequently starts out
on an excursion with her young an hour or
two before sunsct and they may remain abroad
all night.
The young family remains united through the
following winter, which accounts for finding at
times from eight to a dozen in a den. In all
the northern parts of their range they hibernate
during the two to four months of severest cold
weather, coming out sometimes during mild
periods. When the season of hibernation ends
the family scatters and mating begins. One
solitary skunk was found in Canada hibernating
in the same burrow, but in a separate chamber,
with a woodchuck, evidently an unbidden guest.
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
581
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Foxsovirrel Wr tas
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THE TRACKS OF A RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL AND FOX SQUIRREL
The exaggerated pads of the squirrel foot are a strong feature of this track. It is typ-
ical in the pairing of the fore feet, much more so than that of the gray squirrel. There is
never a tail mark in this track (see pages 547 and 56r).
As in the case of their relatives, the common
skunks are omnivorous, but feed mainly upon
insects and rodents injurious to agriculture.
They are known to eat great quantities of
grasshoppers, besides crickets, cicadas, May
beetles, wasps, and larve of many kinds. One
killed in New Mexico had its stomach crammed
with honey bees. Wherever possible they prey
upon small rodents, as mice, wood rats, and
small spermophiles. To these may be added
ground-nesting birds and their eggs, lizards,
turtle eggs, snakes, frogs, salamanders, fish,
crustaceans, and numerous small fruits. Now
and then they visit the farmers’ chicken yards
with such disastrous consequences that in many
country districts the animals are killed at sight.
It is pleasing to record that a more intelligent
view of their real value to farmers, through
their destruction of farm pests, is rapidly gain-
ing ground, and they are now being protected
in many States. One of their worst traits is
their destructiveness to breeding game birds,
pone upland species, and especially. the water-
owl
Skunks walk on the soles of their feet in-
stead of on their toes, as do so many mammals.
The common skunks are wholly terrestrial and
move with the deliberation of one without fear
of personal violence or of having his dignity
assailed. Long experience has taught them that
the right of way is theirs. As they amble
slowly along, the tail is carried slightly elevated,
and when the owner is suspicious of attack, it
is raised and the hairs hang drooping like a
great plume, conspicuous and unmistakable. If
the disturber still refuses to take the hint, a
582
t
bet
ef
neh 3
Sitti ng
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A FULL SIZE RENDERING OF A FOX SQUIRREL TRACK
Illustrations of the arrangement of this track when the animal is foraging and traveling are
shown on page 581
rear view is promptly presented and a dis-
charge made that puts most enemies to flight.
Some have thought that the odorous liquid is
scattered by the long hairs of the tail, but in
fact it is ejected in fine jets from two little
tubes connected with the scent sacs on each
side of the vent.
When mildly annoyed the big skunks stamp
their front feet on the ground and utter little
growls of displeasure. By some effort they can
be urged into a retreat which may take the
form of a clumsy gallop. They are known oc-
casionally to swim streams voluntarily, and even
to cross rivers, probably urged by the instinct
that so often forces animals of all kinds to
move to new feeding grounds.
Although usually safe from annoyance
through the protective armament, many skunks,
especially the young, each year fall victim to
natural enemies, including wolves, coyotes,
foxes, badgers, and great horned owls.
The flesh of the skunk is a favorite food
among certain tribes of Canadian Indians, and
many white men have pronounced it exceed-
ingly palatable, even claiming its superiority
over the flesh of domestic fowls. In the narra-
tive of his expedition through the Canadian
wilderness many years ago, the naturalist
Drummond recorded that when the party was
about a day’s journey from Carleton House it
had the good fortune to kill a skunk, “which
afforded us a comfortable meal.” In the Valley
of Mexico I found the natives prize the flesh
of these animals as a cure for a certain loath-
some disease.
It is well known that large skunks are often
extremely fat. The oil produced from them is
clear and is said to have unusually penetrating
qualities. For many years there was a demand
for this oil for various medicinal purposes.
During recent years the fur of skunks has
come into great demand, and good prices are
paid for prime skins. The animals are so
numerous and the catch is so large that they
now rank among the most valuable of our fur-
bearers. They are gentle animals which readily
become domesticated and breed freely in con-
finement, and many efforts are being made to
establish skunk farms. Success in such farm-
ing depends wholly on the outlay for upkeep.
Skunk farming will probably pay better as a
side line, like chickens on the ordinary farm.
than to establish regular fur farms. The scent
sac may be removed by a slight surgical opera-
tion, so there need be no trouble from that
source. Common skunks when taken young
make affectionate and entertaining pets. They
become as tame and playful as kittens, and are
vastly more intelligent and interesting.
THE HOG-NOSED SKUNK (Conepatus
mesoleucus and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 559)
The third and last group of skunks contains
a number of species showing well-marked dif-
ferences from the two groups already described.
The species vary in size, but among them is
included the largest of all skunks. All are
characterized by comparatively short hair, es-
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 583
2 inches.
Wolverine
WOLVERINE
Its weasel kinship is seen in the wolverine track. Occasionally, not always, its fifth toe
shows.
pecially on the tail, and this appendage lacks
the plumelike appearance observed in other
skunks. The nose is prolonged into a distinct
“snout,” naked on the top and sides and evi-
dently used for rooting in the earth after the
manner of a pig. In addition, the front feet
are armed with long, heavy claws, and the front
legs and shoulders are provided with a strong
muscular development for digging, as in a bad-
ger. This likeness has led to the use in some
places of the appropriate name “badger skunk”
for these animals. The single white stripe along
the back, and including the tail, is a common
pattern with these skunks, but this marking is
considerably varied, as in "the common species.
The hog-nosed skunks are the only repre-
sentatives of the skunk tribe in South America,
where various species occupy a large part of
the continent. They appear to form a South
American group of mammals which has ex-
tended its range northward through Central
The track is not plantigrade, and a single track is easily mistaken for that of a wolf.
America, Mexico, and across the border of the
United States to central Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona. In Mexico they range from sea-
level to above 10,000 feet altitude on the moun-
tains of the interior.
The hair on these skunks is coarse and harsh,
lacking the qualities which render the coats of
their northern relatives so valuable. Where
their range coincides with that of the common
skunks, the local distribution of the two is
practically the same. They live along the bot-
tom-lands of watercourses, where vegetation is
abundant and the supply of food most plentiful,
or in canyons and on rocky mountain slopes.
For shelter they dig their own burrows, usually
in a bank, or under a rock, or the roots of a
tree, but do not hesitate to take possession of
the deserted burrows of other animals, or of
natural cavities among the rocks. Owing to
their strictly nocturnal habits, they are much
less frequently seen than the common skunks,
Weasel
CS
THE TRACK OF THE WEASEL
The unusual space between the fore and
hind feet in the middle of the left scries is
often seen. Sometimes the tail mark is there
and sometimes not. Sometimes the trail is
like that of a small mink. ‘The toes seldom
show (see pages 554 and 572).
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
even in localities where they are numerous. In
fact it is only within the last few years that
their presence in many parts of the southwest-
ern border has become known.
Although both the httle spotted and common
skunks live mainly on insects, the hog-nosed
skunks are even more insectivorous in their
feeding habits. The bare snout appears to be
used constantly for the purpose of rooting out
beetles, grubs, and larve of various kinds from
the ground.
On the highlands of Mexico I have many
times camped in localities where patches of
ground were rooted up nightly by these skunks
to a depth of two or three inches as thoroughly
as might have been done by small pigs. In
such places I repeatedly failed to capture them
by traps baited with meat, the insects and grubs
they were finding apparently being more at-
tractive food. I have had similar failures in
trapping for coyotes with meat bait in localities
where they were feeding fat on swarms of
large beetles and crickets. The persistence with
which the hog-nosed skunks hunt insects ren-
ders them a valuable aid to farmers.
In addition to grasshoppers, crickets, beetles,
flies, grubs, and other larve, and many other
insects, they are known to eat wood rats, mice,
and the small fruit of cactuses and other plants.
The stomach of one of these skunks examined
in Texas contained about 4oo0 beetles.
One Texas naturalist writes that he has lost
a number of young kids which had their noses
bitten off, and in one instance caught one of
these skunks mutilating a kid in this manner.
He also states that they pull down and eat corn
when it is in the “roasting-ear” stage.
Far less is known concerning the habits of
hog-nosed skunks than of the other species of
these animals. The number of young appears
to be small, judging from the record of a single
embryo found in one animal and in another
instance of two young found in a nest located
in a hollow stump. They have a curiously
stupid, sluggish manner and have even less
vivacity than the somewhat sedate common
skunk. No use is made of their skins in this
country or in Mexico, but the gigantic natives
of Patagonia make robes of them which are
worn like great cloaks.
THE NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO
(Dasypus novemcincta and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 559)
Armadillos are distinguished from _ other
mammals by having the nearly, or quite, hair-
less skin developed into a bony armor cover-
ing the upperparts of the head and body and
all of the tail. They lack teeth in the front of
both upper and lower jaws, and are members
of the group of toothless animals which in-
cludes the ant-eaters. The insects they feed on
are licked up by the sticky surface of their
extensile tongues.
In the remote past many species of arma-
dillos, some of gigantic size, roamed the plains
of South America, and a number of small
SMALLER MAMMALS
species still exist there. These animals are
peculiar to America and have their center of
abundance in the southern continent.
The nine-banded species ranges over an
enormous territory and is subdivided into a
number of geographic races, living from south-
ern Texas through Mexico and Central Amer-
ica to Argentina. In Mexico its vertical dis-
tribution extends from sea-level up to an alti-
tude of about 10,000 feet on the mountains of
the interior. Like the hog-nosed skunk, it no
doubt originated as a member of the South
American fauna and has spread northward to
its present limits. It is one of the larger of
the living representatives of this curious group
of animals and reaches a weight of from twelve
to fifteen pounds.
As might be surmised from its appearance,
the armadillo is a stupid animal, living a mo-
notonous life of restricted activities. Its sight
and hearing are poor, and the armored skin
gives it a stiff-legged gait and immobile body.
From these characteristics, combined with the
small head hung low on a short neck, it has in
life an odd resemblance in both form and
motion to a small pig; it jogs along in its trails
or from one feeding place to another with the
same little stiff trotting gait and self-centered
air. If alarmed it will break into a clumsy
gallop, but moves so slowly that it may be
overtaken by a man on foot. So poor is its
eyesight that a person may approach openly
within about thirty yards before being noticed.
When alarmed the armadillo immediately runs
to the shelter of its burrow, but may easily be
caught in one’s hands, especially if intercepted
on the way to its den. When caught it will
struggle to escape, and while it may coil up
in a ball in the presence of a dog or other
mammal foe, I never saw one try to protect
itself in this way. While. presumably serving
for protective purposes, the armor is flexible
on the sides of the body, and I have found the
remains of many armadillos where they had
been killed and eaten by coyotes or other preda-
tory beasts. The armor would no doubt be suf-
ficient protection to enable them to escape to
cover from the attack of birds of prey. They
are mainly nocturnal animals, but are fre-
quently seen abroad by day and in some places
appear to be out equally by day or night.
This armadillo lives by preference amid the
cover afforded by forests, brushy jungle, tall
grass, or other vegetation. In the midst of
such shelter it usually digs its own burrow a
few yards deep in a bank or hill slope, beneath
a stump, under the roots of a tree, or a rock,
or even on level ground. It will also occupy
small caves in limestone rock. At times it
shows a piglike fondness for a mud bath, and
the prints of its armor may be found where it
has wallowed in miry spots.
Well-beaten and conspicuous trails lead from
the burrows often for half a mile or more, fre-
quently branching through the thickets in vari-
ous directions. Armadillo burrows sometimes
accommodate strange neighbors, as was shown
by one in Texas which was dug out, and in
OF NORTH AMERICA 585
addition to containing the owner in his den at
the end, was found to be occupied by a four-
foot rattlesnake and a half-grown cottontail
rabbit, each in a side chamber of its own.
The food of the armadillo consists almost
entirely of many species of insects, among
which ants appear to predominate. When
searching for food the animals become so in-
tent that they may be cautiously approached
and closely observed or captured by hand. They
root about among fallen leaves and other loose
vegetation and soft earth, now and then digging
up some hidden grub or beetle. At night they
visit newly plowed fields in their haunts, root-
ing in the mellow earth. They are accused of
digging up plants in gardens during their noc-
turnal wanderings, and in Texas have been
charged with robbing hens’ nests of eggs, and
of reducing the supply of wild turkeys and
quail by breaking up the nests, all of which
needs confirmation. Their method of feeding
appears to vary considerably, as they have been
seen rising on their hind legs to secure small
caterpillars infesting large weeds.
The insect food eaten by the nine-banded
armadillo in Texas, as known from examina-
tion of stomach contents, covers a wide range
of insect and other small life, including many
species of grasshoppers, crickets, roaches, cater-
pillars, beetles, ants, spiders, centipedes, and
earthworms. As the list includes also wire-
worms and other noxious species, these inoffen-
sive animals deserve thorough protection as a
most useful aid to the farmer.
Some time from February to April each year,
litters of from four to eight young are born.
They have their eyes open at birth, and the
armor is soft and flexible like fine leather. The
hardening of the skin into a bony armor is
progressive, continuing until after the animal
fully completes its growth. As soon as the
young are able to travel they trot along with
the old one during her foraging trips.
Early one afternoon, when riding along a
trail in the heavy forest of southern Oaxaca,
accompanied by an Indian boy and a pack of
dogs, I suddenly came upon an old armadillo
and eight young about two-thirds grown.
They had heard our approach and stood mo-
tionless in a compact little group half hidden
in the grass. I had barely time to stop my
horse when the dogs spied them and made a
rush. The armadillos darted into the under-
growth in every direction like a litter of pigs,
and with the exception of two caught by the
dogs gained safe refuge in their burrow. This
we found dug in the level ground about fifty
yards from where we encountered them.
The Maya Indians of the Peninsula of Yuca-
tan have a legend that the black-headed vul-
ture (Catharista atrata) in old age changes
into an armadillo. The tale runs, that when
a vulture becomes very, very old it notifies its
companions that the time has come and alights
before a hole in the ground that resembles the
den of an armadillo. The other vultures bring
food and the old one remains there for a long
time. Its wings disappear, the feathers are
ou
wm
om
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
ra Mi ib types of wild life. Of these the
Le by 68. i* be ring-tailed cat is one of the
& ~ Sad f. ae most strikingly marked and in-
é Ad teresting. In the United States
3 bee it is known by several other
; €% te t,t) names, including “civet cat,”
fe: é “coon cat,” and “band-tailed
cat.” In Mexico it still bears
AMERICAN MINK TRACKS, SHOWING VARIOUS ARRANGE-
MENTS AND TAIL MARKS
The typical track of a mink is as in the bottom set at the
Twelve to twenty-
four inches are usually cleared at each bound. This illustra-
tion is greatly reduced from natural size (see opposite page
left, which also illustrates the tail mark.
and pages 555 and 575).
lost, and when the change is complete the newly
created armadillo enters the hole and begins
its new life. If skepticism is expressed as to
this metamorphosis, the Indians point out as
proof of the legend the similarity between the
appearance of the bald pate of the vulture and
that of the armadillo.
THE RING-TAILED CAT (Bassariscus
astutus and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 562)
The mild climate and the proximity of the
Southwestern States to Mexico and the tropics
brings within our borders numerous strange
the old Aztec name cacomixtle,
except in Lower California,
where it is the “babisuri.” It
is about the size of a large cat
but with proportionately longer
and slenderer body, shorter
legs, and longer tail. The al-
ternating bands of black and
white on the tail proclaim its
relationship, not to the cat, to
which it has no kinship, but
to the raccoon, which has a tail
similarly marked. Few mam-
mals possess such a beautifully
formed head and face, and its
large, mild eyes give it a vivid
expression of intelligence.
The ring-tailed cat occupies
areas under such differing cli-
mates as to produce geographic
races, but none of them vary
strikingly from the typical ani-
mal here illustrated. They
range from Oregon, Nevada,
southern Utah, Colorado, and
Texas south to Costa Rica. In
Mexico they occur from near
sealevel up to an altitude of
about 10,000 feet. While chiefly
rock-inhabiting species, they
sometimes live in the forests
and as a rule make their dens
in caves and deep crevices, but
sometimes in hollow trees or
about houses. Their young,
from three to four in number,
are born in May or June.
In the Southwest they fre-
quent some of the ruined cliff
dwellings, and I have found
them haunting many of the
ancient ruins of Mexico. Their
presence in little caves and other
sheltered spots along cliffs and
rock walls bordering canyons
or on mountain slopes may usually be known
by an examination of the fine dust which accu-
mulates in sheltered places. Whenever present
their delicate cat-like tracks will be found
where they have been hunting mice or other
small game.
Strictly nocturnal, they do not sally forth
from their dens until darkness is complete.
During the night they are restless and fre-
quently wander far and wide in search of food,
and apparently at times merely to satisfy a
spirit of inquiry. Their inquisitive nature fre-
quently leads them to explore the streets of
towns and cities on the Mexican table-land,
filled though these places are with dogs. At day-
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
break, tracks left in the
dusty streets tell the story
of their wanderings, as
they often do also in the
case of opossums.
One morning in Febru-
ary, 1893, soon after sun-
rise, I chanced to pass
through a little wooded
square in the City of
Mexico and saw a lot of
boys pursue and capture
one of these animals
which, having overstayed
his time, had been sur-
prised by daybreak. This
wanderer might have had
its den in some house in
the neighborhood, since
one of its known habits
is to take up its abode
about houses, ‘even in the
midst of towns. A friend
living in the City of
Mexico informed me that
after having been an-
noyed for some time by
noises on the roof at
night, he investigated and
discovered a female caco-
mixtle with partly grown
young snugly located in
a nest placed in a narrow
space betweén the tile
roof and the ceiling. In
southern Texas the ani-
mals live on the brush-
grown plains under con-
ditions very different
from those usually
chosen.
Like its relative the
raccoon, the cacomixtle,
with a taste for a varied
fare, takes whatever edi-
bles come its way. It
stalks wood rats, mice,
and even bats amid their
rocky haunts and birds
in bushes and low trees.
About the southern end of the Mexican table-
land it is much disliked for its robberies of
chicken roosts, especially when these are lo-
cated in trees. Insects of many kinds, larvae,
and centipedes are eaten, as well as a great
variety of fruits, including that of the pear-
leaved cactus, and dates, figs, and green corn.
Ring-tailed cats regularly locate among rocky
ledges, neighboring orchards, or other culti-
vated areas where they may gather some of
the bounty provided by man. I found them
more plentiful among the broken lava cliffs
bordering date palm orchards in Lower Cali-
fornia than in any other place. When the
dates were ripening they prowled about under
the palms after dark with gray foxes and
spotted skunks to pick up the fallen fruit.
They sometimes uttered a complaining cry and
<
ea
hes
2INC
in each track.
Mink
AMERICAN MINK TRACK NEARLY NATURAL SIZE
oJ. 3.
Although this animal has five toes on each foot, only four appear
This illustration, which is practically natural size,
shows the usual arrangement of the track. The hind feet are, of
course, in advance.
opposite page (see also pages 555 and 575).
Variations of arrangement are shown on the
when caught in a trap would bark almost like
a little dog, or occasionally utter a vicious
scream of mixed fear and rage.
Being an intelligent animal, the cacomixtle is
readily tamed and makes a most interesting pet.
During the early years of gold mining in
California, when many men were living in rude
cabins in the mountains, the prevalence of mice
often attracted these “cats” to take up their resi-
dence there. Often the owner of the premises
and the mouser struck up a friendly relation-
ship and the cacomixtle, becoming as free and
friendly about the place as a real cat, kept it
entirely clear from mice. I have had first-hand
accounts of these tame individuals from miners
who had harbored them in this way for months.
These accounts always gave the impression that
the animal was somewhat playful and mis-
588
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
XWalkin
ETS.
TRACK OF THE OPOSSUM
The hand-like paws are unmistakable.
The tail mark appears.
The absence of claw on the
thumb of the hind foot is usually seen.
chievous and most attractive to have about the
premises. All agreed that it was extremely
fond of sugar.
THE OREGON MOLE (Scapanus town-
sendi and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 563)
The effect on mammals of a narrowly special-
ized mode of life is well illustrated in the
mole. It is an expertly constructed living mech-
anism for tunneling through the earth. The
pointed nose, short neck, compactly and power-
fully built cylindrical body, with ribs strongly
braced to withstand pressure, and the short,
paddlelike hands armed with strong claws for
digging are all fitted for a single purpose. Eyes
and ears are of little service in an underground
life, so they have become practically obsolete;
the fur has been modified to a compact velvety
coat which will lie either front or back with
equal facility and thus relieve any friction from
the walls of the tunneled roads, no matter
which way the animal travels.
Moles are circumpolar in distribution, being
found from England to Japan in the Old
World and on both the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts of the New World, where they occur
only in North America, On this continent they
are limited mainly to the United States and
southern Canada, extending across the Mexi-
can border only in two limited areas at the
extreme east and west. Their distribution is
not continuous across the continent, but is
broken by a broad unoccupied belt formed by
the arid interior, including the Great Basin.
The home of the Oregon mole lies in the humid
area west of the Cascade Mountains in Wash-
ington, Oregon, and extreme northwestern
California. Closely related forms range from
eastern Oregon southward through California
to the San Pedro Martir Mountains in Lower
California, and others north into British Co-
lumbia.
The Oregon mole is the largest and hand-
somest member of the group in America and
perhaps in the world. Its skin, a velvety coat
of nearly black fur, often with a purplish sheen,
now brings a higher price in the market than
that of any other species. Its size and the
beauty of its dark coat distinguish it from any
other mole.
SMALLER MAMMALS
Where the soil is loose the mole practically
swims through it, urged forward by powerful
impulses of its “hands” and feet. This is the
common mode of travel near the top of the
ground, where the course is marked by the
lightly upheaved and broken surface. When
working at a greater depth and in more com-
pact soil the mole must dig its way and dis-
pose of the loose earth by pushing it along the
tunnel to an outlet at the surface through which
it is thrust to form a mound similar to the
“dumps” of that other great miner, the pocket
gopher.
On account of this similarity in mode of life,
moles and pocket gophers are sometimes con-
fused by persons not familiar with the two
animals. The resemblance ends in this ap-
parent likeness, for the pocket gophers belong
to the great order Rodentia, or gnawing ani-
mals, while the moles are of the Insectivora,
or insect-eaters.
The superbly forested region inhabited by
Oregon moles is so well watered that few
places, even on high mountain slopes, are too
dry for them to occupy. These animals are
generally distributed, and their hills may be
seen in the midst of the great coniferous forests
as well as in the open valleys.
They are most abundant in open grassy areas,
especially in meadows and in the bottoms of
canyons and similar places, where the damp
rich soil affords a plentiful supply of earth-
worms, grubs, and insects on which to feed.
Like other moles, they lead lives of great activity
and almost constant hard labor. During damp
weather they work near the surface, but in
dry periods as the upper soil hardens they
follow their prey to lower levels. A hard
shower, however, always brings an outburst of
activity as they reoccupy the upper soil and
throw up a multitude of new mounds. They
have the habit of regularly coming to the sur-
face to hunt food during the night. This is
no doubt coincident with the swarming up to
the surface of earthworms on which the moles
feed. At such times many are captured by
owls, cats, and other beasts of prey.
The runways of moles close along the sur-
face, shown by well-marked ridges, are for
hunting purposes, and the lower tunnels, from
which the earth in the mounds is brought, are
for traveling and lead to the nest chamber.
The deep tunnels of the Oregon mole sometimes
extend considerable distances along fences, or
other surface cover, which afford more or less
protection. Such tunnels are a kind of high-
way often used by several moles and also by
shrews and field mice. The system of tunnels
of the moles over a considerable area often in-
tersect and are used more or less in common.
As a result more than twenty moles have been
trapped at a single point in one of these under-
ground roads.
They make an intricate system of many-
branched tunnels, the courses of which are
usually marked by series of mounds varying
from four to ten inches high and five to twenty
inches wide and often scattered over meadows
or other fields from two to six feet apart.
OF NORTH AMERICA 589
Owing to the persistence with which the moles
raise their mounds everywhere in the occupied
parts of their territory, they have become a
serious and costly pest. In meadows the knives
of mowing machines are dulled by them, and
in towns lawns are disfigured by their unde-
sirable activities. As a consequence they have
now fallen under the ban and are classed with
other mammals which have shown their lack
of ability to fit in satisfactorily with the changed
conditions brought to their ancient territory by
civilized man. Under natural conditions their
activities were undoubtedly entirely beneficial.
They appear to have but a single litter of
young, numbering from one to four, each year.
These are born in March and grow so rapidly
that by the last of May they are working in
the tunnels and are scarcely distinguishable
from the adults.
The recent discovery that the Oregon mole-
skin is valuable for its fur will give such an
incentive to trapping that there is little doubt
the boys of the State within a few years will
reduce the numbers of the animal and thus
control its injury to agriculture. The market
for the skins appears practically unlimited,
judging by trade reports, one dealer in Brook-
lyn stating that he dressed 4,000,000 imported
European moleskins in 1916,
THE STAR-NOSED MOLE (Condylura
cristata)
(For illustration, see page 563)
The star-nosed mole, known in parts of
Maine as the “gopher,” is peculiar among the
moles in having a fringe around the end of its
nose formed by twenty-two short fleshy ten-
tacles. A less-marked character is in the pro-
portionately long tail, which becomes greatly
enlarged in fall and remains in this condition
during the winter months. Otherwise the ex-
ternal appearance of this species is much like
that of the common moles of America and the
Old World.
The star-nosed mole is found from southern
Labrador, the southern end of Hudson Bay,
and southeastern Manitoba south along the
Atlantic coast to Georgia and in the interior
down the Alleghenies to North Carolina and
to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Min-
nesota. Throughout this area it ranges irreg-
ularly and much yet remains to be learned
about the details of its distribution and habits.
Ordinarily solitary, these moles at times are
so numerous in limited areas that they appear
to form colonies. Such gatherings probably
mean an unusually rich feeding ground, which
makes it unnecessary for the young to disperse
to outlying locations, as is the habit of moles
and most other mammals.
The star-nosed mole has a strong preference:
for damp and even marshy or swampy loca~
tions. It frequents low-lying meadows, the
borders of streams, and grassy swamps, where
its underground burrows alternate with open
surface runways among grass roots and other
matted vegetation. It spends far more time
A RACCOON’S TRACK
The track of the raccoon is very distinctive and usually easy to find, because it frequents
the mud by the water side. Sometimes, to a casual glance, the track of a small coon is taken
for that of a large muskrat, but their differences are very obvious.
590
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
above ground than the other moles, and not
infrequently swims among flooded cat-tails and
other vegetation and in winter has been seen
swimming under the ice.
Like others of its kind, this mole is amaz-
ingly powerful in proportion to its size. It per-
sistently adds to its surface ridges, and in con-
stantly extending its deeper tunnels must dig
loose earth and dispose of it by forcing it up
through an outlet to form the mounds which
mark the course of its travels. Where the soil
is loose it readily forces it aside with its com-
pact body and paddle-shaped hands. In push-
ing up the little piles of earth and in the ridges
raised when burrowing close to the surface it
sometimes injures meadows and other culti-
vated land. Occasionally it wanders away from
the fields and invades lawns and gardens, where
the only injury it does is in the disturbance of
the soil.
Its nests are compact little balls of fine grass,
weeds, or leaves in dry underground chambers
excavated in its burrows. The nests are a foot
or two underground, but above the level of the
water, sometimes under a stump and again in
a knoll or bank. One nest containing five young
was found in Maryland in an old woodshed
under several inches of chips. This location
and its choice of a site for its nest under a
stump in a field or in a dry knoll are clear in-
dications of a kind of intelligence which even
the lowliest animals appear to have in caring
for their young.
The star-nosed mole is full of the restless
energy so necessary in a mammal which must
come across its food by more or less haphazard
tunneling through the soil. It is active both
summer and winter. In dry weather as the
moisture near the surface decreases the soil
hardens and earthworms and other subter-
ranean life seek deeper levels. The mole fol-
lows them, only to return with them nearer the
surface with a renewal of the moisture. In
winter it sometimes comes out and travels
slowly about on top of the snow, ready to bur-
row out of sight at once, however, at the sound
of approaching footsteps.
The food of the star-nose, like that of most
other moles, is made up mainly of earthworms,
white grubs, cutworms, wireworms, and other
underground insects. In captivity, before eat-
ing a worm or other flesh food offered, it first
feels of it with the little raylike organs of
touch on its nose. It is difficult to surmise the
real value of these “feelers,” for it would seem
that the acute sense of smell so common to
mammals should do better service.
Aside from its disturbance of the surface soil
by its ridges and mounds, the star-nosed mole
does no direct injury, and its life is largely
passed in the useful task of searching out and
destroying insects. Indirectly it causes some
injury to root crops, plants of various kinds,
and fruit trees, by providing tunnels along
which meadow and pine mice travel to commit
the ravages which on circumstantial evidence
are charged to the mole.
591
THE COMMON SHREW (Sorex per-
sonatus and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 566)
Many interesting smail mammals are noc-
turnal or lead such cbscure and hidden lives
that they are rarely observed except by natural-
ists. Of these are the numerous species of
shrews, which include the smallest mammals in
the world. These tiny beasts all live among the
vegetation and debris on the surface of the
ground or in little burrows below. With the
moles they are members of the order Insec-
tivora and depend mainly on insects and meat
for food. Despite their minute size, they are
possessed of anindomitable courageand ferocity,
which leads them without hesitation to attack
and kill mice many times their own weight.
The genus Sorex, of which the common shrew
is a member, is circumpolar in distribution, the
various species ranging through England, the
European mainland, Asia, and North America
as far south as Guatemala.
The common shrew is a purely North Amer-
ican animal, occupying all the northern part of
the continent from the Arctic shores of Alaska
and Canada south to northern Nevada, South
Dakota, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and along
the Allegheny and high Rocky Mountains to
North Carolina and New Mexico, Its vertical
range extends from the seacoast up to timber-
line in the Rocky Mountains.
The common shrew is the smallest of the
mammals in all the northern parts of this con-
tinent, and one marvels at the possibility of
such a tiny morsel of flesh and blood with-
standing the rigors of the arctic winters. It
measures about four inches in total length and
weighs about forty-five grains; the body and
tail are slender, the nose long and sharp, and
the rim of the ears shows a little above the
dense velvety fur. By these characters it may
be distinguished from the larger, more heavily
proportioned (and darker-colored) short-tailed
shrews which abound with it in certain parts
of its range. Its smaller size and grayish
brown color are the main superficial differences
between it and other American members of the
same genus. ‘The climatic differences in its
wide range have developed several geographic
races, none of which, however, show strongly
marked characters.
This shrew appears to have a most catholic
taste, so far as its surroundings are concerned,
for it appears to frequent every type of situa-
tion where shelter and food can be found. It
abounds among the peat beds and sphagnum
mosses of the desolate barrens bordering on
the Arctic coast, as well as amid’ the rotten
stumps, old logs, fallen leaves, and other vege-
table debris on the floor of the forests farther
south. It will be found also in the rank matted
vegetation about marshes, in old fields and oc-
casional sphagnum swamps in the southern
parts of its range.
The little tunneled runways of these shrews
form a network in the beds of moss in a sphag-
592 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
\
Gallop
IDTIinches
dy! ETS.
THE TRAIL OF THE COMMON SKUNK
The hind foot of the skunk rarely shows the claws
in the track. The diagonal set during the gallop is char-
acteristic (see pages 558 and 580).
1 tnrch
num swamp near Washington. In
the forest the animals always seek
the cover afforded by fallen logs, slabs
of bark, or anything else that will
give protection. On the coast of New
Jersey they live so near the sea that
an extra high tide forces them to
mount the drift logs on the salt
meadows for safety. They often make
little burrows in the soft earth under
the roots of a tree, a stump, or a log.
Their nests are small balls of dry
leaves, grasses, or other soft vegeta-
ble material placed snugly under a log
or in a hollow stump, burrow, or
other good retreat, where they appear
to have two or more litters of from
six to ten young during the summer
and fall.
As in the other shrews, the food
of the common species consists mainly
of insects, larve, worms, and obtain-
able flesh; but in winter and possibly
at other seasons many kinds of food
are eaten, including insects, meat, fat,
flour, and seeds. During the years I
passed at St. Michael, on the coast of
Bering Sea, the beginning of winter
always brought into the storehouses
and dwellings a swarm of field mice,
lemmings, and these shrews. The
food requirements of all appeared to
be the same, and all fed freely on the
flour and other accessible stores.
Dozen of the shrews were killed in
the houses every winter.
Occasionally I caught and kept one
captive for a time to observe its
habits. It would be extremely rest-
less and equally active by day or night.
The small eyes appeared of little serv-
ice, but the long, flexible snout was
used constantly and served as the
main reliance of the little beast for
information as to the outside world.
Wherever they travel these shrews
utilize the runways of the field mice
or other small animals and make little
runs of their own only where neces-
sary. Aside from a faint squeak, I
have never heard them utter a sound,
but other observers credit them with
series of fine twittering notes ap-
parently uttered as a song.
The common shrew is a solitary
animal of so morose a disposition
that if two are placed in a cage to-
gether they almost immediately fall
upon one another with tooth and
nail, and the victor devours the body
of its companion at a single meal.
The digestion of shrews is so rapid
and the call for food so incessant
that it requires constant activity to
keep the demand satisfied.
After the winter snow arrived in
the North I found many tunnels of
these shrews running just under its
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
surface and raising it a little in a
slight but distinctly rounded ridge.
Such tunnels wandered widely and
on the ice of the Yukon River I
traced one of them more than a mile
and repeatedly saw them crossing the
river from bank to bank. It was sur-
prising to note the ability of the little
travelers under the surface to keep
in so nearly a direct line for long dis-
tances.
At times these little adventurers
make similar tunnels in the snow far
out on the sea ice. The mythology
of the Eskimos contains accounts of
many supernatural animals which a
lone hunter may meet and which
have the power to do him deadly
harm. Among these the “sea shrew”
is one of the most malignant. Its
appearance is described as exactly
like that of the common land shrew,
but it is said to live on the ice at sea,
and if it sees a hunter to dart at him
through the air, pierce the skin, and,
after running all through the body
with incredible rapidity, to enter the
man’s heart and kill him. In con-
sequence of this belief the Eskimo
hunters were in mortal terror if they
chanced to encounter a stray shrew
on the sea ice. I knew one hunter
who suddenly meeting one on the ice
stood motionless for hours until the
shrew wandered out of sight. He
then hastened home and all the other
hunters agreed he had had a lucky
escape.
THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW
(Blarina brevicauda and its
relatives)
(For illustration, see page 566)
Several groups of species or genera
of the little mouselike animals known
as shrews are peculiar to North
America. Of these one of the most
numerous and best known is the short-
tailed shrew. It is a dark-colored
animal much more heavily propor-
tioned, larger, and with a shorter tail
than the common shrew. Its fur is
so thick and velvety that it is con-
fused by many people with the mole,
despite its smaller size.
The short-tailed shrews, sometimes
called mole shrews, of the genus Bla-
rina belong to a single species with
several geographic races occupying
eastern Canada and the United States,
from Nova Scotia, southern Quebec, Ontario,
Minnesota, and North Dakota southward to
Florida and the Gulf coast as far as eastern
Texas. Vertically they range from sea-level
up to the tops of the Alleghenies. Another
group of American shrews, containing numer-
ous species belonging to the genus CryPtotis,
5938
LITTLE SKUNK, POLECAT, OR SPILOGALE
This trail combines the characteristics of the skunk
with those of a squirrel.
of a stubby-toed squirrel, but the five-inch toe on the
front foot is plainly seen. The frequent pairing of the
fore paws is important.
pages 558 and 576).
At first it looks like the track
There is no tail mark (see
occupies the mountains of the Western States,
and ranges south to northern South America.
In external form it is indistinguishable from
the short-tailed species.
Probably no mammal is more numerous in
the eastern United States than the short-tailed
shrew. It occurs everywhere—in forests, in
o94 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
brushy areas, in old fields,
and along grassy banks.
Within the city of Wash-
ington it is common in
Rock Creek Park, where
it lives in covered runs
which it makes among the
grass and fallen leaves.
These shrews drink fre-
quently, and this may in
part account for their
abundance near streams
or other water, although
it may be the desirable
moist soil conditions
which draw them to such
situations.
The runways of these
shrews are scarcely half
an inch wide, usually
partly sunken in the mold
or rotting surface vegeta-
tion. These are not made
by digging, but by push-
ing aside the loose mold,
, beside, or
to walk on bogs.
; only in deep, soft ground.
The roundness of the front foot and the
But note that the hind foot is set ahead
commonly seen in animals that are accustomed
less search for prey.
Small rounded cham-
bers opening off their
underground runways are
filled with fine grass,
pieces of leaves, and
other soft matter for a
nest. One nest examined
was made entirely from
the hair of meadow mice,
probably the spoils of
war from the bodies of
victims. Asarule, shrews
are extremely unsocial,
but a pair of this species
is sometimes found oc-
cupying the same nest, no
doubt a temporary ar-
rangement. Several lit-
ters, containing from four
to six each, appear to be
born through the summer
and fall, usually begin-
ning in June.
While equally active by
day; and by night, the eyes
of these shrews seem to
, not straight forward. The clouts, or accessory hoofs, rarely show
e
g
s
nN, on
Zz
Oo a
Ties
aie and they cross and re-
is : 3
GF cross in an irregular net-
a ‘Oa work. They lead tothe en-
an © trances to burrows which
a sts
Cy S20 generally drop nearly
ao .
2) He straight down. The bur-
. e wo Ow rows are sometimes amid
dD OreeS the leaves, but usually
Beli
WwW zy al under the shelter of a
‘ Oo fog root, stump, old log, or
> Cc Bg other cover. In addition
Os iS a ZB to their own runways, the
C )& Oc = a shrews make free use of
. : ce a 303 the runs of meadow mice
eee Fw i eg ES and even traverse the
°o oO OS E tunnels of the pine mice
oO & 2 wo Sic and moles in their rest-
Oo 2M
£ z 8
H
° g
CG Bi
H
characteristics, thou
he hind are general
behind the trail of the front foot, but rarely exactly on it.
It is well to take the tracks of domestic animals a
narrowness of t
Note also the toes are set pointing a little outward
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
be of little use except to
distinguish between light
and dark, but their senses
of hearing and smell are
highly developed, as is
also the sense of touch
in their long hairs, or
“whiskers,” about the
nose. In captivity an ex-
treme sensitiveness is ex-
hibited to sudden sounds,
especially such as those
of a bird’s wings, indicat-
ing an instinctive fear
born of age-long perse-
cution by birds of prey.
Food is located by smell,
and as the flexible end
of the snout is moved
continually from side to
side, odors are caught
which may register con-
ceptions as definite in the
minds of these small ani-
mals as sight does in
more favored beasts. All
shrews are provided with
musk glands and on ac-
count of these are ap-
parently nauseous to most
other animals, as they
are rarely eaten by beasts
of prey. These musky
secretions must be of
great service to facilitate
them in locating one an-
other.
Like other shrews and
the moles, their digestion
appears to be very rapid
and they will eat two or
three times their own
weight in a day. This
necessitates great activity
on their part during much
of the time in order to
find the required food.
They prefer insects and
meat, but are practically
omnivorous, feeding not
only upon many kinds of
insects, but on earth-
worms, slow-worms, sow-
bugs, snails, slugs, mice,
shrews, and the young of
ground-nesting birds, as well as such vegetable
food as beechnuts, seeds, bread, and oatmeal.
The instinct of prevision against the season
of winter scarcity appears to be developed in
them, as one in captivity buried beechnuts in
the earth, and they are known to store living
snails in small piles and to gather disabled
beetles in store-rooms in their tunnels.
The courage and blind ferocity of the short-
tailed shrews when they are placed near cap-
tive mice far larger than themselves, is amaz-
ing to all who witness their encounters. They
attack instantly, spreading their front feet to
590
eivaceemencenk
foraging
Sheecking
1
5 inches
| Sr a |
* Blarinas
THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW, OR BLARINA
The curious grooved track in the snow with the tail mark is seen
on the left (see pages 566 and 593)
gain a firmer footing and moving forward in
little rushes. Mice larger and much more
powerful than the shrew are persistently at-
tacked and, finally giving out, are pounced upon
and the flesh torn from their heads and necks
with ravening eagerness. One day a passing
observer heard a loud squealing on a railroad
bank where an examination revealed a short-
tailed shrew dragging away a nearly dead pine
mouse, though the mouse was much the heavier.
The notes of shrews area fine tremulous squeak
which becomes a longer, harsher, and more
twittering or chattering cry when they areangry.
596
This is
& ¢
™m
ey
Z
bee. & wg
G
ayvrn
DOG GALLOPING IN
typical of many animals (see page 597).
Dag (gallop) f 7 Sel
¢ ¢
Do
es
Galloping
ee
Showing the curious change whereby the right front ceases to take first place; no doubt this rests the muscles a little.
No cessation of their activity occurs in win-
ter. When the cold weather begins many gather
about barns and houses located near woods or
old fields, and thus with the field mice take
advantage of the garnered food supplies and
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
shelter. Others remain in their regular haunts,
where they frequently burrow long distances in
the snow, making networks of tunnels and
traveling long distances just below the surface,
leaving little raised ridges like the track of a
mole on the ground. Their journeys upon and
under the surface of the snow appear to be
in search of food, as they burrow down to old
logs and stumps which make good feeding
grounds. Their movements are very active, as
they go about either at a walk or quick trot.
These fierce and truculent little hunters are
wholly beneficial in their habits and should be
encouraged in place of being killed on sight
indiscriminately, as one of the ordinary mouse
tribe.
THE RED BAT (Nycteris borealis)
(For illustration, see page 566)
Bats reach their greatest development in the
tropics, where a marvelous variety of these
curious mammals exist. To the northward the
number of species gradually decreases, until
eventually, in northern Canada and Alaska, a
single species represents the group. The United
States, occupying the middle latitudes, has a
considerable number of different kinds. Some
of these remain throughout the year, hibernat-
ing in caves during the period of cold, when
insects are not to be had; others wing their
way southward like birds on the approach of
winter and return in spring.
All bats are nocturnal, although individuals
of some species occasionally fly about for a
time by day and many come out just before or
soon after sunset. In this country practically
all species are insectivorous, but in Mexico and
the West Indies many are fruit-eaters and a
few true vampires or blood-suckers.
As a rule, bats are clothed in dull colors, but
richly tinted coats give a few a more attractive
appearance. Of these none has a more strik-
ing adornment than that presented by the soft
covering of glossy orange-red fur of the red
bat. Its large size, about four inches in total
length, with a spread of wings amounting to
twelve inches, combined with its color, suffices
to distinguish it at once from any other north-
ern species,
The range of the red bat extends from the
Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Ontario
and Alberta in southern Canada south through-
out most of the United States to the Gulf coast
and southern California; also beyond our limits
to Lower California and Costa Rica. The
genus to which this bat belongs ranges more
widely in other parts of North America; also
to South America and across the eastern Pacific
to the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands.
The red bat rarely or never seeks shelter in
gloomy caves and crevices, but hangs to the
small twigs or leaf stems on trees and bushes
in the full light of the sun. One observer in
Texas on July 4 found four of them hanging
in a cluster from a twig on a peach tree, with
the sun shining full on them, although the tem-
Big Dog. trotting
in 241N. Snow
a7 ee
BIG DOG TROTTING
This track of a big dog trotting in about two
and a half inches of snow is singular in the
perfect register it shows. The hind foot drops
each time into the track of the front foot.
This correct style is more usual with wild than
with tame animals. Compare with track of
dog galloping, page 596.
597
(04 0'~
Dog
walking
(medium) 5 7. .
A COMMON DOG
The hind feet are, as usual, narrower, though
nearly as long as the front. The dog is a loose
walker. Sometimes the hind foot is on the
track of the front, sometimes ahead, and often
behind. The claws show. The dragging of
the front feet is another slovenly habit, an evi-
dence of overdomestication.
598
perature in the shade was 82 degrees Fahren-
heit. I have found them in northern Illinois
in the glaring sunlight of May, hanging from
leaves in the tops of oak trees. This unusual
tolerance of light in a member of the bat tribe
is further shown by its habit of beginning to
hunt through the air for insects earlier in the
afternoon than other species in its range.
Long, narrow wings and swift, powerful flight
characterize the red bats in the air. They have
marvelous control in darting and turning here
and there, and no birds, except possibly the
chimney swifts, can equal them in their extra-
ordinary gyrations.
Red bats are known to migrate from the
northern part of their range in September or
October and to return in May. They have been
seen going south at Cape Cod the last of
August and in September; and late in October
Dr. I. A. Mearns has recorded great flights of
them down the Hudson Valley, lasting through-
out the day. That they share the vicissitudes
of migrating birds is indicated by observation
on the New Jersey coast of stray individuals
coming in from the sea exhausted early on
September mornings.
They are among the most solitary of their
kind, usually being found hanging singly on a
tree or bush, sometimes within a few feet of
the ground. On occasion they gather in clust-
ers as mentioned above, and in one instance in
Maryland more than a dozen were hanging in
a compact ball, which suddenly exploded into
its winged parts when disturbed.
One of the most unusual characteristics of
the red bat is found in the number of young
- it bears. Usually other species, except the
hoary bat, have one or two young, but at vary-
ing dates between May and July each year the
red bat produces from two to four, the average
being three or four. The young when very
small are carried clinging to the body of the
mother in her flights. She continues to take
them from place to place in this manner until
their combined weight exceeds her own. The
strength of the maternal feeling in this species
is well illustrated by an instance in Philadelphia
where a boy caught a half-grown red bat in a
city square and carried it home. In the even-
ing, three hours later, he crossed the same
square, carrying the young bat in his hand,
when the old one came circling about him and
finally in her deep anxiety alighted on his
breast. Both were brought in, the young one
clinging to its mother’s teat. The devoted
mother received injuries when she was cap-
tured, from which she died two days later.
In the contact between mankind and bats,
man, the invariable aggressor, finds the bats
baring their teeth, biting viciously, squeaking,
and behaving altogether like little fiends. A
gentler side is sometimes exhibited, however,
and one observer who caught a partly grown
red bat found that it became tame, showed in-
telligence, and developed a friendly feeling for
its captor.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE HOARY BAT (Nycteris cinereus)
The hoary bat is a close relative of the red
bat described above, but is larger, about five
inches long, and, as its name implies, is of a
different color. It is widely distributed over a
large part of North America, where it is known
to breed from Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and the
southern shore of Great Slave Lake south prac-
tically throughout the United States. It is
one of our larger species and is remarkable for
its power and skill on the wing. The wings
are long and narrow and carry their owner
through the air in a bewildering series of
swoops, curves, and zigzag turns remarkable
even in a group of animals so notable for their
powers of flight.
With the approach of cold weather the hoary
bat migrates from the northern parts of its
range to the milder southern districts. It is a
late migrant, not leaving its northern home
until the last of September or October and re-
turning in May. Some individuals appear tc
remain in the North all winter, as one has been
taken in Connecticut in December. In its south-
ern flight it wanders as far as Jalisco, near the
southern end of the Mexican table-land, to
Lower, California, and to the Bermuda Islands.
To reach the Bermudas it is evident the bat
must make a continuous flight from the nearest
point on our shores of at least 580 miles—a
good tribute to its wing power.
Like the red bat, it lives in the open, hanging
from twigs and leaves in the tops of trees or
bushes in the broad light of day rather than in
the dark, stifling crevices where so many of its
kind pass their lives. It appears to hang up
indifferently on any convenient tree or bush,
including conifers, aspens, or willows. During
the day it has a curious lack of alertness, and
as it is not rarely attached to low branches or
bushes within a few feet of the ground it may
be readily approached and: taken in the hand.
I once captured a fine specimen the middle of
May, in southern California,, hanging on a bush
about four feet from the ground. It appeared
to be sound asleep until taken by the skin on
the back of the neck, when it became very much
alive and, struggling in a fury, uttered grating
shrieks of rage, baring its sharp, white teeth
and trying desperately to bite.
Its food is made up entirely of insects, which
it appears to hunt higher up than most bats,
sweeping over the tops of the forest and in and
out about the trees. It appears to be of even
more solitary habits than the red bat and is
nowhere so common. Another reason for our
lack of information concerning it is found in
its strictly nocturnal habits, for it rarely ap-
pears until shortly before the approaching
night hides it from view.
The hoary bat shares with the red species
the distinction of bearing from two to four
young each year. The young are born in June
and are carried attached to the underside of
the mother’s body until they become too heavy
SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 599:
“4%
ey
THE TRACK OF A COYOTE
This track cannot be distinguished with certainty from that of a small dog (see pages 596
and 597).
The greater size of the side toes in the hind track I have often noticed, but there
is no corresponding disproportion in the animal’s foot.
a burden. They hang to the teats with the
greatest tenacity and apparently rely mainly on
this hold to prevent being dropped as they are
carried on the wild aérial hunting excursions.
With the unusual fecundity indicated by the
number of young, it is difficult to account for
the scarcity of these bats unless their habit of
hanging in the open, exposed to the elements
and to other dangers, may cause a heavy mor-
tality among them.
Nore.—The attention of the reader is called
to an error on page 566, where the Little Brown
Bat, Myotis lucifugus, on the tree trunk, a
common species throughout most of North
America, is labeled “Hoary Bat, Nycteris cine-
reus,” which is a much larger and very differ-
ent animal.
THE MEXICAN BAT (Nyctinomus
mexicanus and its subspecies)
(For illustration, see page 567)
Reference has been made in several preced-
ing sketches of this series to the mammals of
tropical origin which have invaded our south-
ern border. The Mexican bat is a notable
member of this class. It differs in many curi-
ous ways from the bats with which it associates
in temperate regions. It is smaller than any of
the other three bats treated here and is strongly
characterized by a flattening of the head and
body which enables it to creep into a surpris-
ingly narrow crevice in the rocks or elsewhere.
The ears are broad and flaring and extend for-
ward over the eyes like the visor of a cap, and
the end of the tail is not confined within the
membrane extending between the hind legs, but
projects from it. Another pronounced char-
acteristic of this bat and one highly disagree-
able is the rank musky odor which it gives out.
This pollutes the air about its harboring places,
rendering it a most unwelcome guest.
Whoever has visited the Southern and South-
western States or Mexico must have noted
the offensive odor in many places about the
verandas of houses and especially about old
churches and other public buildings. This is
the sign of occupancy placed on the premises
by the Mexican bats. which, to the number of
a few dozens or actually by thousands, as con-
ditions permit, may lie snugly hidden in cracks
and dark openings of all kinds about the roof
600: THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
and walls. No other bat in
Mexico or the United States
is provided with so strong an
odor.
The Mexican bat is extremely
abundant, probably exceeding
in numbers any other species
within its territory. It ranges
throughout the tropical and
lower temperate parts of Guate-
mala, Mexico, and across our
border, throughout most of
Texas, and east as far as
Florida and South Carolina; in
the West it also abounds both
in town and country in the
warmer parts of New Mexico,
Arizona, and California.
Closely allied relatives of the
Mexican bat abound through-
out the warmer parts of Cen-
tral and South America to be-
yond Brazil. The genus to
which this species belongs is
represented in the warmer parts
of both hemispheres. It ex-
tends north in the Old World
to southern Europe and also
is found in the Philippines,
The abundance of the Mexi-
can bat in some favorable
places is almost incredible. At
Tucson, Arizona, I once saw
them, a short time before dark,
issuing from a small window in
the gable of a church in such
numbers that in the half light
they gave the appearance of
smoke pouring out of the open-
ing. At times they occupy
houses in such numbers that
their presence and accompany-
ing offensive odor render the
places uninhabitable. At the
town of Patzcuaro, near the
southern end of the Mexican
table-land, I saw two rooms in
an old adobe house. occupied
by as many of them as could
possibly hang from the rough
ceiling. The owner considered
their presence a valuable asset,
as he collected and sold the
guano for more than the rooms
would have brought in rent.
The bats congregate in even
greater numbers in large caves.
So numerous are they in cer-
tain caves in Texas that the
owner reports an annual in-
come of about $7,000 from the
guano.
They are very plentiful by
day in the thin crevices about
the roof and walls of caves in
the celebrated Ixtapalapa, or
“Hill of the Star,” beyond the
floating gardens at the City of
Mexico, and I also found them
Much like the track of a common cow (see page 594), but more rounded
MUSK-OX
Walkin g
&.7 Lite,
Boll Musk-0x
Drawn from the tracks of a big bull in the barren grounds of Canada.
and less deeply cloven; also, I think, less often sprawling—in other words, more often hind foot on front track; for the musk-ox is more of an
upland creature.
SMALLER MAMMALS
OF NORTH AMERICA 601
BADGER
The huge fore claws are a strong feature.
The hind claws rarely show in the track. The
broad spread of the tracks in the lower trail corresponds with the low, thick form of the
animal.
living in many of the marvelous ruins of
Mexico, »including Chichen-Itza, in Yucatan.
Wherever they occur in numbers they may be
heard frequently by day shuffling uneasily
about and squeaking shrilly at one another.
When they first come out after sunset they
usually fly away in a great stream, nearly all
in the same direction, as though migrating.
This course will probably be found leading to
water, where they scoop up a drink from the
surface before beginning their wonderfully
erratic zigzags through the air in pursuit of
insects.
From the colder northern parts of their range
they migrate southward to milder climatic con-
ditions or descend to lower altitudes. In Mex-
ico, where they live up to above 8,000 feet alti-
tude, they move down from one to two thousand
feet. Their young, one at a birth, are born
from April to May.
It has been claimed that the Mexican bat
brings bedbugs to infest houses. This is un-
true of this or any other bat. These animals
have certain small parasites, some of which, re-
sembling small bedbugs, have probably given
rise to the belief mentioned. These parasites
live only on the bats.
Within a few years considerable publicity has
been given to the supposed possibility of utilizing
bats to destroy mosquitoes and thus eliminate
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SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA
malaria from infested areas. One or more bat
houses have been built at San Antonio, Texas,
for the purpose of assembling bats in large
numbers, and many untenable claims have been
put forth concerning the benefit to be derived
from their services. The Mexican bat is the
species which abounds above all others at San
Antonio and is the principal species which has
occupied the bat houses near town. It is def-
initely known that bats often fly miles from
their roosts when feeding and do not concen-
trate on any one kind of insect. Examination
of the contents of the stomachs of Mexican bats
shows that they feed on beetles and numerous
other insects, but rarely upon mosquitoes. I
have visited many Mexican towns and villages
in which every house was haunted by numbers
of these bats and where malaria was perennial.
The evidence against these animals serving any
useful purpose in checking malaria is con-
clusive.
It may be repeated here, however, that all
of our bats are of high utility as insect-destroy-
ers and should be protected. Among the many
species of varying habits which exist in the
United States, a few make their homes about
houses in annoying numbers. In place of killing
them to abate the nuisance, it would be better
to exclude them from buildings by closing the
entrance ways promptly after all have left in
the evening, and thus by quiet eviction cause
them to find abiding places elsewhere. The
destruction of forests, and the consequent ab-
sence of the hollow trees where they formerly
lived, is mainly responsible for bats and chim-
ney swifts coming to houses for harbor.
THE BIG-EARED DESERT BAT (An-
trozous pallidus and its relatives)
(For illustration, see page 567)
The marvelous variations in structure of the
ears and other organs about the heads of insect-
eating bats serve probably as microphones by
which the flight of their prey may be detected
and its direction located with instantaneous
certainty. The beautiful accuracy with which
this hearing mechanism works must be evident
to any one who will take a position where he
may have the evening glow of the western sky
as a background for flights of bats. It is cer-
tain that the small and ineffective eyes these
animals possess could never locate their minute
flying game and enable them to secure it in
the whirling, zigzag courses they pursue, often
at a speed and under a control which few, if
any, birds could rival.
The great ears of the big-eared desert bats
illustrate one form of a highly developed hear-
ing apparatus and give these animals a hand-
some and strikingly picturesque appearance.
This character at once distinguishes them from
others of their kind in the United States.
The distribution of this species lies mainly in
the arid parts of the Southwestern States and
Mexico. It extends from western Texas, south-
ern Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon, south to
603
Queretaro, on the Mexican table-land, and to
the southern end of the peninsula of Lower
California. The vertical distribution extends
from sea-level up to at least 5,000 feet altitude.
By day these desert bats live in crevices and
caves in cliffs, in old mining tunnels, hollows
in trees, and in sheltered places about the roofs
and walls of houses, barns, or other buildings.
Their presence in dark hiding places may some-
times be detected by occasional grating squeaks.
They appear to lack any musky odor which
characterizes so many bats. About the Ist of
June each year either one or two young are
born, and for a time these cling to the mother’s
breast and are carried during her swift flights
in pursuit of insect prey.
Often when camping at desert waterholes, I
have seen them come in just before dark to
drink, scooping up water from the surface
while in flight, and then circling back and forth
over the damp ground at an elevation of a few
yards for the capture of some of the insects
common in such places. At such times, with
the distant hills mantled with a deepening
purple haze and the pulsating heat of the day
replaced by the milder temperature of approach-
ing night, these bats could often be seen sharply
outlined against the rich orange afterglow of
the departed sun. Here and there in the still
air flickered and zigzagged multitudes of tiny
bats, like black butterflies, and among them the
occasional big-eared bats on broad wings ap-
peared huge in contrast. Their wing strokes
were slower and shorter than those of the
smaller species and impelled them forward in
a swift, gliding movement which gave their
evolutions a sweeping grace beautiful to see.
In August several years ago, during a visit
to the Indian School at Tuba, in the Painted
Desert of northern Arizona, I found these bats
living in considerable numbers about the build-
ings. Just before dark they swarmed out and
hunted about the surrounding orchards and
small fields. One evening my collector shot
at one as it circled over a potato field in a small
orchard. It continued its flight, circling low
among the apple trees as though unhurt, when
suddenly it dropped to the ground. Supposing
the bat to be wounded, it was cautiously ap-
proached and covered with a hat, when, with-
out a struggle, it permitted itself to be picked
up by the nape. It then became evident that
the bat was unhurt from the shot. The reason
for its sudden descent was revealed in the per-
son of a large, fat mole cricket (Stenopalmatus
fuscus) which it was holding firmly in its jaws,
and so ferociously intent was it in biting and
worrying its luscious prey that it paid not the
slightest attention to its captor. Finally it was
killed by having its chest compressed and died
with its bull-dog grip on its prey unbroken.
These bats, like the other members of the
tribe in the United States, are fully as bene-
ficial to the farmer as the best of our insect-
eating birds and deserve equal protection in
place of the general persecution from which
they now suffer.
Roe Ky Mt Goat
fa 1B es
ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT
Kinship with sheep and antelope is reflected
in the track of the goat. Its heel-pads are so
large and rubber-like that the track is rarely
so sharp as here shown. “Although marvel-
ously surefooted and fearless in traversing the
faces of high precipitous slopes, goats lack the
springy grace and vivacity of mountain sheep
and move with comparative deliberation.”
SRI
Bighorw (e we)
oe
BIGHORN
The general style of a bighorn track is like
that of deer, but the toes are finished off
more squarely and the hollow in the outer
edge of each hoof is a strong characteristic.
Sometimes the tracks are in correct register
The clouts rarely show. The dung pellets are
like those of the deer, but rounder. The track
is that of aewe; the ram's is similar, but larger,
604
Ee Wol
¢ wal in 2
; uo? 2
MOUNTAIN LION, OR COUGAR GRAY WOLF
The track of a mountain lion is much like The track is that of a large wolf. There is
that of a house cat, differing only in size. no certain way of distinguishing it from that
Sometimes, as in the cat, the hind foot is set of a dog (see page 597). Size and proba-
exactly on the track of the front foot. bilities must be considered.
605
iain
of
Buck. Walking .
ag ele
WHITE-TAILED DEER
WALKING
Bound (ng
WHITE-TAILED DEER
BOUNDING
GS
The track of the white-tail is
ideal—a starting point to study
all the tracks. Sometimes the
hind foot fits on the front
track, but sometimes not.
In these the clouts are clearly
shown. Note the resemblance
to the tracks of the moose
(see page 602), which differ
chiefly in their greater size.
606
Whitetailed qyh.te-tailed Buck Wh itetailed Doe.
Walkin
j
WHITE-TAILED DOE
WALKING
This track differs from that
of the buck in being smaller,
slimmer, and in having the toes
pointing forward or inward—
rarely outward.
Snow
Bunches
cleep
here
Bull Elk a jit
Zee
ELK
This shows the track of a large male wall<-
ing. Each hoof-mark is about 4% inches long.
Had it been five inches it would have meant
a very large bull. The track is strictly deer-
like in type, but has a little of the roundness
of point that is so marked in the domestic
eow. At the upper end of the drawing is
snow one inch deep. Here no clouts show :
at the lower end it is three inches deep, so the
clout-marks are clear. Size is essential in dis-
tinguishing the track. The dung pellets, about
¥% & % inch, are also important.
607
er
See
MULE DEER
The mule deer tread cannot be distinguished
with certainty from that of white-tailed or
coast deer; yet it averages larger than either
of these, and the curious close set together of
all four feet while it does its peculiar bounding
is quite unlike what we see in the white-tail
track. “These deer are not good runners in
the open. On level country in Arizona I have
ridden after and readily overtaken parties of
them within a mile. The moment rough coun-
try was reached, however, with amazing celerity
a series of mighty leaps carries them away”
(see page 456).
101y
Grizz)
Ben
walking
€.7.5GZ,,
GRIZZLY BEAR
The great size and the immense claws are
the chief characteristics of the grizzly’s track.
All five toes usually show in each track. “The
strongest and most distinctive characteristic of
the grizzlies is the long, proportionately slender
and slightly curved claws of the front feet,
sometimes more than three inches long” (see
pages 440 and 442)
Blac
walking :
Cant 72s,
BLACK BEAR
The plantigrade foot is clearly shown in the
bear track. That of a black bear differs from
that of a grizzly, first in size, second in the
shortness of the claws. Usually no claws
show, and the fifth toe, which is well devel-
oped on both front and hind paws, leaves little
sign and often none at all. Frequently the
hind foot is set on the track of the front foot
in correct register.
608
: r
en E75
A . Woman's foot, moch Shoe=
pinched
De ae Sock Indian oe foot, tooflat
Whee man ywlender man
5B Tce of (we oF glor;, D Very robust man
THE HUMAN FOOTPRINTS
The footprints of the human animal are included in this series of sketches for the pur-
pose of comparison. Especially interesting is the similarity to be noted between the tracks
made by man and those of the grizzly and the black bear (see page 608). The tracks shown
on the left half of this page present the moccasin-shod footprints of a Sioux Indian compared
with the shoe tracks of a white man. On the right are shown: (A) a woman’s foot which
has been much pinched by tight shoes; (B) a sturdy boy’s foot, somewhat too flat to be nor-
mal; (C) the footprint of a slender man, and (D) the imprint of a robust man’s foot.
609
Horse. walking (shod)
21S
THE HORSE
A hunter needs to know horse tracks as
much as those of wild game. ‘The greater
size and roundness of horse tracks distinguish
them from those of mules and asses. When
shod the toe calks are a strong feature; when
without shoes the unbroken front edge is dis-
tinctive. Some horses walk in correct register ;
some do not. Mules are more exact than
horses. When trotting the arrangement is
much as in walking, but the spaces are longer
and the hind-feet track farther ahead of the
front feet. In galloping the arrangement is
much as in the white-tailed deer.
610
BARREN GROUND CARIBOU
The caribou track is distinguished by its
great spread and the fact that the clouts or
hind hoofs touch the ground, even on a hard
surface. I know of no difference but size be-
tween the tracks of the various caribou and
reindeer. The probabilities of time and lo-
cality help in determining the species, but it
need never be mistaken for that of any other
type of deer. In winter the caribou’s tracks
in the snow show that its feet, instead of be-
ing raised high at each step, like those of a
Virginia or mule deer, drag through the snow
like those of domestic cattle.
2m
4
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13 7o 15 fee?
hounds
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Coast Blac Ktai led
Doee- £7. Sez
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COAST BLACK-TAILED DOE
I know of nothing but probabilities to dis-
tinguish the walking tracks of the coast deer
from those of nearly related species. This
track of a bounding female shows a peculiar
grouping that corresponds fairly with the
bounding action characteristic of the species.
611
ANTELOPE
The different styles of front and back feet
is a marked character of the antelope’s track
and is best seen in the walk. In galloping all
of these animals leave the hind tracks ahead of
the fore tracks, but disturb the ground, so that
almost no characteristic marks are to be seen.
CANADA LYNX
This track I sketched on the Athabasca
River. In summer the track of a lynx shows
the toe-pads faintly; in winter all are muffled
in hair and the track is much larger. “The feet
in winter are so broad that they serve admira-
bly for support in deep snow” (see page 409).
612
“ne
rr)
4
Texan
Wildcat
Walking é
8
TEXAN
WILDCAT
This track, while akin to that of a cat (see
page 487), has some very well-marked charac
teristics. The complicated outline of the heel-
pads is striking. This, with its large size, will
distinguish it from the track of a house cat.
The claws do not show.
Poteet a0 0 an 7 209
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a #1
a
hai
ech EA
Et