THE OOLOGIST 



61 



encountered in God's wide creation. 

 Two shot guns, a rifle and the irremis- 

 slble camera were our dumb com- 

 panions. 



Having gained the summit of a hill 

 we perceived a pair of Blue Birds that 

 were having a glorious time on a fence 

 post. A little later our attention was 

 attracted by several Cardinals which 

 were satisfying their hunger in the un- 

 derbrush. Many other species of 

 Fringillidae were seen, the slate- 

 colored Junco being most abundant. 

 Besides these we took note of Tit- 

 mice, Creepers, one Pileated Wood- 

 pecker and of coure, the Crow. 



Everybody in this vicinity is after 

 squirrels and rabbits with culinary in- 

 tents. These animals therefore seem 

 to be educated, for no sooner Man 

 enters the woods, or their respective 

 premises, they disappear, and one has 

 a poor chance of getting one of the 

 terranean rodents without having a 

 hound along. As it was, Dame For- 

 tune seemed to smile on us, for we 

 "jumped" our first and last cottontail 

 this day. Knowing his possible fate 

 he hiked with lightning's quickness 

 into the adjacent heap of brushes and 

 no cajoling on our part would induce 

 him to pay us his respects. Our 

 whetted appetite was not done justice. 

 After this little enterprise, we ar- 

 rived at our first traps, full of antici- 

 pation, but Mr. Opossum had been 

 more cunning than the trappers. The 

 bait, a Blue Jay, was gone. When the 

 trap was revisited at a later date, be- 

 hold someone was playing "possum," 

 although the unrelenting jaws of a 

 Victor held fast its victim. Once too 

 often had the tempting bait lured the 

 marsupial into the hollow which it 

 was known to frequent. In spite of 

 her doing cleverly away with the 

 menu several times ridiculing as it 

 were its ruthless, ambushed foe, it 

 succumbed this time. 



After our quarry was dispatched, 

 we decided to hunt for some squirrels 

 in the neighborhood. Just as with the 

 rabbits, none were seen but one, and 

 it got away on us too. History repeats 

 itself. The nimble climber had reach- 

 ed his retreat and it was decided upon 

 to try to smoke him out. 



Picking the powder and other ac- 

 cessories one of us liberally volun- 

 teered to sacrifice his red handker- 

 chief for the good cause. An enter- 

 prising lad managed to get to the door 

 of the squirrel abode and did the pok- 

 ing and the smoking part in a most 

 fashionable manner. The harrassed 

 animal remained in its retreat, 

 whether dead or alive who knows? 



Shortly after this chase we spied 

 two "Chicken Hawks" soaring not 

 very far above us. These aerial rob- 

 bers tempted us to waste some am- 

 munition on them, but before long 

 things must have become critical, for 

 they went off in a hurry. Now two 

 more traps were visited, but nothing 

 was caught. On our way to the sec- 

 ond last one we ran on to a bee tree, 

 lying prostrate in our way. It was 

 decided to deprive it of honey towards 

 evening. It yielded nearly four quarts 

 of the coveted sweet. The reader can 

 imagine our timidity in going about 

 to rob the busy insects, if I say that 

 this was our first experience of the 

 kind. Since the bees did not show a 

 hostile attitude the job was finished 

 quickly. 



Having left the bee tree, the traps 

 were reached in a few minutes, and 

 we were pleased to bag another opos- 

 sum. Beside one mink, an opossum 

 was all that was canght in this sea- 

 son. A raccoon was known to make 

 the vicinity dangerous for poultry but 

 it could not be caught. 



From this you see not only the 

 Southern Darkie but also his competi- 

 tors, the ruddy farmer youth must 



