OTHER RESOURCES OF MICHIGAN 115 



chipmunks, striped gopher, woodchuck, beaver, iive 

 kinds of mice, muskrat, common rabbit, wliite hare, 

 porcupine and opossum. He states further that 

 "three hundred and thirty-six kinds of birds have 

 been reported as residents or migrants. Dr. Miles re- 

 ports 43 reptiles, including turtles, snakes, frogs, 

 toads and lizards; also IGl land and fresh-water mol- 

 lusks." ^ George W. Sears, traversing the Michigan 

 wilderness some eighty years ago, from Saginaw to 

 the Muskegon Eiver, encountered droves of wild tur- 

 keys amid heavy timber almost hourly. Deer were 

 everywhere "on all sorts of ground and among all 

 varieties of timber. Very tame they were too, often 

 stopping to look at the stranger, offering easy shots at 

 short range and finally going off quite leisurely." W. 

 J. Beal has left us an account of the game animals of 

 his Lenawee County home, where "black bear occa- 

 sionally devoured pigs as they were allowed to run 

 among oaks and beeches to fatten on the nuts known 

 as shack or mast," where "wolves were thick enough, 

 often making night hideous by their howling which 

 resembled the howling of a lonesome dog," and where 

 "occasionally the screams of a wildcat terrified some 

 belated footman. Foxes were numerous and cun- 

 ning. Deer, badgers, porcupines, minks and musk- 

 rats were plentiful. Deer ate the young wheat of the 

 fields. Wild turkeys were often seen in flocks and 

 sometimes wintered on corn left in the shock in the 

 field. Partridges and quail were abundant, wild 

 pigeons so numerous that at times of wheat seeding 

 ^"Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections" XXXII, 359. 



