feCONOMiC BIOLOGY 389 



Foxes are accused of preying on game birds. The U.S. Biological Survey 

 made a special investigation of the food habits of foxes; it reports that foxes 

 take few game birds. In Michigan on a certain 800 acre game preserve, 

 stocked mainly with pheasants, an investigation was made of the food habits 

 of the fur-bearers occupying the same territory. It was found that the 

 bulk of the food of foxes was meadow mice and rabbits. In only six out 

 of sixty-eight fox droppings were the remains of pheasants found with 

 certainty. 



Among the interesting and comparatively harmless mammals that are 

 being shot and poisoned from our forests, the American Porcupine stands 

 out as notable in many respects. It is found only in North America, and 

 mainly in those sections where coniferous trees are common. The wilder- 

 ness dweller regarded the porcupine as a friend, for it assured food to an 

 unarmed person who by any accident of fate might become lost in the 

 wilderness. 



But when, about twenty years ago, the craze for the destruction of preda- 

 tors and rodents broke out, the porcupine could not long rely on what 

 little pity or tolerance could be demanded by an animal so poorly de- 

 fended, and which was known to carry barbed quills, and to bite trees. It is 

 noteworthy, however, that, although experiments in the control of por- 

 cupines by poison were instituted by the Biological Survey in 1922, the 

 animal did not attain headline importance until three years later, when 

 both the Biological Survey and the Forest Service seemed to awake to the 

 value of the porcupine as material for "control" propaganda. Within the 

 next few years, porcupines were declared to be increasing rapidly; and 

 soon were alleged to be a forest danger, sometimes greater than that caused 

 by fire, and also to be an enemy of several farm crops. 



By this time, a salt and strychnine combination had been perfected that, 

 unless its use is curbed, threatens to "control" not only the porcupine, but 

 mammals of many other species so unfortunate as to share the habitat of 

 the porcupine, and to possess a liking for salt. In a certain cooperative 

 project in northern Pennsylvania, it was charged by competent local or- 

 ganizations that squirrels, rabbits and deer were killed by the salt-strychnine 

 baits put out for porcupines. 



The Woodchuck, the eastern representative of the Marmot, lives fa- 

 miliarly in the meadows and pastures of the farm. It eats hay, clover and 

 other vegetation, taking a small toll of which no farmer complains. Its 

 habit is to sit motionless at, or nearby, the entrance of its burrow until 

 closely approached. A little boy with a .22 rifle may employ some skill 

 when engaged in a "careful and close stalk." But how degrading it is for a 

 grown man with a high-powered rifle to stand at a distance of 100 to 200 

 yards, and shoot this harmless, motionless creature. 



