MAMMALS. 69 



the sides of the trunk up among the branches where some limb has 

 served as a rest while the animals were getting their breakfasts of 

 bark, or even on the branchless trunk of a tree where while feeding 

 they have rested in perfect comfort on the bristles of their tails. 

 Usually a patch of bark the size of a hat seems to have served as a 

 meal, but in many cases several meals have been made from the same 

 part of the tree and occasionally the bark is removed clear around 

 the trunk in a broad band that completely girdles and kills it. In 

 other cases some of the branches are thus peeled and killed or the 

 top of the tree may be girdled and the future shape of the tree en- 

 tirely changed. When abundant, porcupines often do considerable 

 damage to the forest, but in ordinary numbers this injury is not very 

 serious. When they become very numerous they should undoubtedly 

 be destroyed, but in their present abundance they merely add a fea- 

 ture of interest for many of those visiting the park. 



The theory that porcupines should never be killed, as they might 

 furnish food to some one who was lost in the woods, has very little 

 value as a practical precaution. Generally anyone who will get lost 

 in the woods would not know enough to Idll and skin and cook a 

 porcupine if the opportunity were offered, and it might be several 

 days before one could be found. Porcupines are fairly good eating, 

 however, and the Indian method of cooking them is very simple 

 and could be adopted by anyone capable of wielding a club and build- 

 ing a fire. Without any preparation whatever the porcupines should 

 be buried in coals, or placed on a fire and more fire built on top of 

 them, and left to roast for 20 minutes or a half hour. When prop- 

 erly cooked they should be drawn from the fire and the shell of 

 burned quills and skin broken off the outside, when the meat will be 

 found white and tender and well cooked underneath. One would not 

 have to be starving to enjoy such a feast, but the meat is apt to have 

 a flavor of the pine bark, and while thoroughly wholesome and nu- 

 tritious the flesh of an old porcupine is not an epicurean dish. 



Family ZAPODID.^: Jumping Mice. 



Rocky Mountain Jumping Mouse: Zapus princeps princeps 

 Allen. — Jumping mice are graceful, slender little animals with very 

 long tails and long hind legs and feet. They are kangaroolike in build 

 and form, wiih tiny hands that are rarely used for aid in traveling. 

 Their slender tails are much longer than the head and body, and their 

 rich buffy sides, dark buft'y gray backs, white bellies, and pointed ears 

 combine to piake an animal of unusual beauty. They are common in 

 the park region and often are the principal animals caught in a line 

 of mouse traps. They live mainly in the meadows and open grassy 

 slopes, where there is ample cover of gi-ass. plants, and bushes for 



