ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



539 



CANADA PORCUPINE. 



its food and its life, and yet is not nearly so 

 expert in hiding as is the muskrat and the mink. 



When abundant and unmolested, the Otter 

 amuses itself by establishing a "shoot the 

 chutes" of its own. on a steep and slippery bank, 

 ending in a water plunge. The Otter "slides," 

 and the games ]ilayed upon them, are well known 

 to trappers and others who have lived or hunted 

 where Otters were abundant. 



In the time of Hudson, there were probably 

 two million Beavers living in what is now the 

 state of New York. About 1670 the Dutch 

 ]irovince of New Netherland annually furnished 

 to the fur trade 80,000 Beaver skins, and in 

 1623 the Beaver was formerly incorporated in 

 the seal of that colony. 



In 1 860 the Beaver had so nearly disappeared 

 from the Adirondacks and the Hudson valley 

 that even in the former locality the total num- 

 ber alive was estimated at only 60 individuals. 

 By 1895 this had fallen to "5 or 10." Since 

 that date, 31 individuals have been set free in 

 the Adirondacks, chiefly through the efforts of 

 Harry V. Radford, and they are slowly restock- 

 ing the North Woods. 



The Black Bear, the Puma and the Canada 

 I,ynx once thrilled, and at times terrorized, the 



colonists of eastern New York; but gradually 

 they all disaj)peared from practically every por- 

 tion of New York save the Adirondacks and the 

 C'atskills. Strange to say, the largest animal 

 of tliis trio, the Bear, has been most cunning 

 and successful in resisting extermination. While 

 the Puma is entirely extinct in this State, and 

 the Canada Lynx practically so, the big and 

 burly Black Bear joyously holds on, both in the 

 Adirondacks and the Catskills. The familiar 

 Ba}- Lynx still is in our midst, and one was 

 seen in the Catskills, by H. W. ]Merkel and A. 

 P. Dienst, in the spring of the present year. 



The Raccoon once was an animal of practi- 

 cally universal distribution throughout the wood- 

 ed portions of New York state, but its place 

 in tlie list of fur-bearing animals has been fatal 

 to its continued abundance. It still lives, how- 

 ever, even numerously in places, and still may 

 be regarded as one of our most common quad- 

 rupeds of medium size. Firmly and persist- 

 ently, it refuses to be exterminated, and so long 

 as the forests remain, it will live to inhabit 

 them. Today its fur is really valuable, — be- 

 cause better furs are so rare. 



The members of the Order of Rodents, or 

 gnawers, are today our most abundant wild 



FLYING SQUIRREL. 



