CENSORED NATURAL HISTORY NEWS 219 



minism to future natural history. Dragon-flies 

 will have to cease being " Devil's darning-needles/' 

 toads stop producing warts, fuzz will have to func- 

 tion otherwise than keeping plants warm in winter. 

 If one beaver colony forecasts a hard winter and 

 another in the same locality plans for a mild one, 

 both will be allowed to do so uncensored, and if 

 porcupines go about the woods throwing their 

 quills like bushmen their boomerangs, something 

 will happen to them, too. With a little more gen- 

 eral acquaintance with wild life and woodcraft 

 there will be an open season on censors. 



Prairie dogs live in arid lands. For weeks their 

 only water is that from plants eaten. There is a 

 story of general circulation which tells that prairie- 

 dog holes go down to water. Oil and artesian 

 wells in prairie-dog towns show that the depth to 

 water is from two hundred to five hundred feet, a 

 depth impossible for the prairie dog, but not for the 

 story-teller. Although, too, the chief concern of 

 Mrs. Prairie Dog is to prevent snakes eating her 

 young, the story goes out that snakes, prairie dogs, 

 and owls live happily in the same hole. 



Roosevelt has commented on the superstitions 

 concerning the alleged ferocity of American ani- 

 mals in general and the mountain lion in particular. 

 He brought forward first-hand experience and an 

 array of competent witnesses to show that the lion 

 or puma does not leap from tree limbs onto people, 

 that it is an extremely shy animal, and that one 



