224 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



there is an audible ripple in the current of the river, — 

 perhaps for the same reason that cows prefer a brook to 

 a pond, and a running spring to a sluggish creek. The 

 murmuring of the stream seemed to suggest the idea of 

 purer and cooler water ; and where the current was slow 

 the Indians contrived to produce a ripple by an artificial 

 obstruction. 



Nearly every animal has some peculiarity or other that 

 may be utilized for its capture. Minks have a queer pas- 

 sion for rummaging a pile of dry leaves, and the wild 

 turkey can be taken in an open trap, because, for some 

 reason, the idea of going backward never suggests itself 

 to his mind. A Kentucky " turkey-pen" is simply a 

 ditch with a roof of logs and ending in a cul-de-sac^ but 

 open at the other end. To this opening the turkeys are 

 allured by " sprinklings" of corn or cranberries, and, 

 entering the ditch where the bait is scattered more liber- 

 ally, they follow it till they reach the nc plus ultra end ; 

 and it is a decided fact that such half-captives will poke 

 around their pen for weeks without discovering the 

 means of exit. 



The female puma has a marvellous talent for hiding 

 her lair, but the trapper knows enough if he discovers a 

 place where she has torn her prey, for to that place she 

 will return again and again, even after the carcass has 

 been gnawed into a smooth skeleton. Jackals, too, are 

 fond of revisiting the scenes of their former revels: 

 some animals would seem to be endowed with the gift 



