MARCH. 55 



same manner, it probably resembles them in its food, eating 

 various kinds of nuts and seeds, as well as green herbs. It is 

 said also occasionally to peel off the bark from apple and other 



trees. A singular mode of taking small furred animals 



out of hollow trees, logs, &c. is practised in the south, called 

 " twisting." I once saw it performed on a rabbit (so called) ; 

 the dogs had tracked him and driven him to his hole in the 

 bottom of a hollow hickory tree. The hole was too small to 

 admit the hunter's hand with convenience, so we made the 

 negroes cut down the tree, which was soon effected. When 

 it fell, we watched the butt, to see that the rabbit did not 

 run out, but he did not make his appearance. The hunter 

 then got some long slender switches, and probing the hollow, 

 found that the rabbit was at the farther end, several feet up 

 the trunk. He now commenced turning the switch round 

 in one direction, a great many times, until the tip of it had 

 become so entangled in the animal's fur, as to bear a strong 

 pull. He then began to pull steadily out, but the rabbit 

 held on as well as he could, and made considerable resistance, 

 crying most piteously, like a child : at last the skin gave 

 way, and a great mass of fur and skin came out attached to 

 the switch, pulled off by main force. He now took a new 

 switch, and commenced twisting again, and this time pulled 

 the little thing down, but the skin was torn almost com- 

 pletely off the loins and thighs of the poor little creature, and 

 so tightly twisted about the end of the stick, that we were 

 obliged to cut the skin to get the animal free. I thought it 

 a curious, but cruel expedient. 



C. What large cloven-footed animal has made this 

 trail ? 



F. It is probably nothing more than some stray cow ; 

 but the footmarks have been enlarged by the late thaw, 

 without losing their shape. I was once deceived by a simi- 



