THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 8l 



corn-crib. The so-called hairy woodpecker (Picida Villosus), 

 which is larg-er and lig-hter in color than P. Pubesens, has 

 been this winter a more frequent visitor than usual. 



Several of the smaller wild quadrupeds seem impelled 

 to come forth from their winter dormitories during the oc- 

 casional February thaws. The legendary myth, that ursa 

 major comes out of his hollow tree on February 2nd, may 

 possibly have a germ of probability to rest upon. This year 

 one heard the remark made that as there was intense frost 

 with clear sunshine on that date, if Bruin looked over his 

 shoulder his shadow was distinctly visible, so the "dictum'' 

 was that he must return to the somnolent condition for six 

 weeks long:er. . Yet there came a few days afterward a re- 

 lenting of the rigorous cold, and the bear's cousins, the 

 racoons, seemed seized with the mating instinct, and started 

 forth on their peregfrinations about the bush, and by their 

 footprints on the snow were tracked by prowling hunters to 

 their temporary visiting dens, and so became victims to the 

 peltry dealer in numerous instances that one became cog- 

 nizant of in this vicinity. 



About the same time frequent captures of Mephitis Mep- 

 hitica were reported of by the local dealers in raw furs, etc. 

 In general the trappers narrated that the snow tracks revealed 

 that parties of these perfumed quadrupeds had found shelter 

 in undergfround burrows, whence, after smothering, the 

 quadrupeds were disinterred and skinned, as their furry vest- 

 ment is now at a small premium in the market. In most 

 instances one was assured that the proportion of the sexes 

 in the undersfround rendezvous was three females to one 

 male, and this latter sex in marks of bitings and scars, ap- 

 peared to have just recently gone through an election contest. 



The inference, therefore, seems a safe one that several 



of our small quadrupeds of the bush incur many dangers of 



extermination from this periodic instinct to ramble, and are 



much in harm's way, when some of the rodents are safe in 



the darkness and repose of the cataleptic sleep, as the dor- 



