CARNIVORA 219 



or a dozen mice a day. Destruction of badgers in Nevada was followed 

 by an increase in rodents. 31 



Badgers occasionally "make a hearty meal of grasshoppers, imma- 

 ture cicadas or beetles." 32 One stomach contained bumble bees and 

 their honeycomb. 33 They are said to have dug out nests of bank swal- 

 lows. 34 The badger is one of the hosts of the wood ticks that carry 

 the spotted fever, which may make it a slight menace in the fever- 

 infested districts, but there are so many other and much more abun- 

 dant hosts that the badger is not a source of much additional danger. 35 



FAMILY CANIDAE DOGS, COYOTES, WOLVES, FOXES, ETC. 



Not only are fox skins among the most valuable of furs, but the 

 pelts of coyotes, wolves and other members of this family also are 

 prized. In 1906 the highest price paid for skins was $15.36 each for 

 two fine ones, others bringing from 48 cents to $7.20. In 1921-1922 

 the average value of 9451 skins was $10.17. From 1901 to 1905, 

 498,000 pelts were taken in the United States and Canada. 1 In 1921 

 it was estimated that from 4300 to 6000 silver fox, and from i ,000,000 

 to 1,200,000 red fox, pelts were sold annually, 2 but actual sales for 

 1919-1921 were reported as follows: Red fox, 1,295,258; silver or 

 black fox, 26,350; cross fox, 32,296; white fox, 166,071 ; wolf, doubt- 

 less including coyote, i, 094,502.* An Associated Press dispatch from 

 St. Louis, dated May 3, 1919, announced that on that day 90,000 

 wolf skins were sold on the International Fur Exchange for a total 

 of $904,450, the highest price for a choice pelt being $52, most of the 

 timber wolves selling for from $18 to $27; and in 1921 155,000 wolf 

 skins were sold in the spring sales of Europe and America. 4 In 1927 

 the following estimates were made for the years I923-I924: 5 



81 Bailey, Farmers' Bull., No. 335, p. 29, 1908; N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 184, 

 1926; Animal life of Carlsbad Cavern, p. 102, 1928. Birdseye, Farmers' Bull., No. 

 484, 1912. Sawyer, Badger runs down ground squirrels, Journ, Mammalogy, vi, 125- 

 126, 1925. Gary, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 33, p. 181, 1911. 



3 - McAtee, The role of vertebrates in the control of insect pests, Ann. Kept. 

 Smithsonian Inst. for 1925, p. 416. 



83 Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 5, p. 85, 1891. 



** Potter, Badger digs for bank swallows, The Condor, xxvi, 191, 1924. 



35 Birdseye, Some common mammals of western Montana in relation to agricul- 

 ture and spotted fever, Farmers' Bull., No. 484, 1912. 



1 Seton, Lives of game animals, I, Part i, pp. 251-337, 1929. 



2 Laut, The fur trade of America, pp. 84, 149, 1921. 



3 Osborn and Anthony, Journ. Mammalogy, in, 226, 1922; Natural History, 

 xxn, 393, 1922. 



4 Laut, The fur trade of America, p. 149, 1921. 



5 Innis, The fur trade of Canada, table opp. p. 76, 1927. 



