68 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



formerly cut up in narrow strips and braided into whip-lashes. 

 The process used by farmer boys fifty years ago was as follows : 

 Bury the hides in wet ashes, to remove the hair ; then put them 

 in soft soap over night ; take out and scrape the skin and hang 

 it over the back of an old chair in the attic — this is important ; 

 let it get dry but not too dry, and finally work by hand until it 

 becomes soft and pliable. The writer has used these home-made 

 whips when riding " the old mare," in the delightful pastime of 

 plowing on a side hill. It is not generally known that the wood- 

 chuck is a good whistler ; he has a habit of sitting in front of 

 his burrow in a thunder-shower and uttering a series of short, 

 sharp notes, twelve or more in number, in a curious diminuendo. 

 They will sometimes whistle when about to be taken from a trap, 

 but that performance is usually brief. 



Rabbit or Northern Hare, Lepiis canicubis. Common always 

 and even now plentiful though hunters are numerous. It is a 

 rodent and very prolific. From being brown in the summer the 

 fur, which is of small value, changes to nearly white in winter, 

 and affords an instance of protective coloring. 



Weasel, Piitorioiis vulgaris. There are several varieties, in- 

 cluding the white weasel, stoat or ermine, the tawny weasel, the 

 small weasel and the little nimble weasel. Though so small as 

 to make a hole in the snow no larger than a broom-handle, the 

 weasel is a terror to hens and chickens, which he kills by a bite 

 in the neck from which he sucks the blood. They are said to 

 be spry enough to get away between the flash of a rifle and the 

 bullet. The fur is valuable, and some weasels with glass eyes 

 may still be seen clinging to the necks of fair women. 



Grey Squirrel, Sciiirus Carolinensis. The grey and black, the 

 chickaree or red, the chipping, chipmunk or striped squirrel, and 

 the flying-squirrel, once very common here, are now compara- 

 tively scarce. In size the black squirrel equals or exceeds the 

 full-grown grey ; these are now rarely seen but have been killed 

 here within forty years. A white chipmunk is said to have been 

 recently shot in Pembroke ; probably a freak. 



