72 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. 



with his Indian carrying the canoe on his head as usual, when 

 they suddenly came on a large moose standing in the narrow 

 pathway. The animal showed a determined front and ap- 

 parently intended to dispute the right of way. It was hard to 

 see how he could be driven off without running the risk of a 

 savage kick, but the Indian, wise in forest lore, knew a safe and 

 easy way. He slipped one end of the canoe to the ground and 

 still supporting the other end on his head, drew his pipe and a 

 match from his pocket. Quickly lighting the pipe, he blew a 

 cloud of tobacco smoke down the wind towards the moose. 

 One whiff of the "tabac canadien" was enough for the King 

 of the Forest and he dashed off into the woods. 



Then if our snakes, bears and wolves are all perfectly harm- 

 less, what are our "dangerous" animals? Well, as already 

 stated, none of our fauna ever really menace human life; but 

 there are two denizens of the Canadian woods that, though they 

 do not ordinarily command any respect, I am inclined to treat 

 with considerable circumspection. These are the skunk and 

 the horned owl. 



The skunk when undisturbed is really a well-disposed and 

 unoffensive little animal. It is never the aggressor as far as 

 mankind is concerned; but it has justifiably great confidence in 

 its peculiar means of defence, and so it stands firmly on its 

 rights and is very loath to make way for anyone. When it 

 thinks it is being imposed on, it takes the literal offensive in a 

 most effective manner, and an incatitious approach always 

 results in the loss of a suit of clothes to say nothing of one's 

 dignity. 



The horned owl is a much more dangerous enemy than 

 this. It is, indeed, the only creature in our woods that ever 

 makes an unprovoked attack on man. True, it has nothing 

 against man personally, and its assaults are always the results of 

 a misapprehension, but nevertheless it sometimes inflicts painful 

 wounds. Like all its race, it is nocturnal in its habits, and 

 its usual mode of attack is to swoop down in the dusk on the 

 head of the passerby, its long claws causing severe lacerations. 

 It is evident that the bird from its elevated outlook sees the 

 moving figure of the man beneath it very much foreshortened, and 

 mistaking a shock of hair or a fur cap for one of the small animals 

 on which it usually preys, it pounces on its victim. In his most 

 interesting book " Sport and Life on the North Shore" Napoleon 

 Comeau records a number of instances of such onslaughts by 

 the horned owl. I know a man who bears a large scar on his 

 forehead as a consequence of such an encounter, and there are 

 many well authenticated stories of shantymen having been 

 attacked. At one camp it is said that the owls were so plenti- 



