Photo by George Shiras, 3rd. 

 TWO GROUND DOV£;S AT THE BAIT, WHIIvE) A MAI^E CARDINAL I,OOKS ON 



tives showed 12 skunks, nine of which 

 were of different markings; four coons, 

 three opossums, one cat, one pointer dog, 

 two rabbits, and four wood-rats ; yet 

 neither the visitors, natives, nor care- 

 takers in this vicinity ever encountered 

 any of these animals, and only the roar 

 of the flashlight and the ever-increasing 

 pictures carried conviction. Some of 

 these animals are shown on pages 807, 

 808, 809, 811, 812, and 813. The year 

 before the result was the same, except 

 for a greater preponderance of coons 

 and a pictcre of a land turtle. 



While this article deals primarily with 

 mammals, it may be noted that alligators, 

 crocodiles, snakes, and turtles may be 

 taken in the daytime and sometimes at 

 night with the set camera. A string, 

 baited or unbaited, across the basking 

 spot of such reptiles will insure a day- 

 light picture, when the sun is high and 

 the shutter set at its fastest speed ; while 

 at night, when the alligators and croco- 

 diles roam the murky waters, a piece of 

 bloody meat or fresh fish will attract 

 them on to the bank or sand-bar. 



There is a very abundant land turtle 

 of the South, known locally as the 

 "gopher," which lives in a burrow and 

 seldom appears during the day. Last 

 year I found one of their holes within a 

 few feet of the spot where bait had been 

 placed for coons. This turtle, even in 

 the extreme South, often hibernates dur- 

 ing the so-called winter months, when 



fresh vegetation is at a low ebb. It was 

 not until the middle of March that fresh 

 tracks in the soft sand at the entrance of 

 the burrow showed the occupant was 

 once more abroad. A thread across the 

 entrance blocked its egress and on the 

 following night the explosion was heard. 

 The picture on page 814 shows the 

 clumsy animal trying to push its way 

 out, but the flash sent it deep down into 

 its hole for another week, when a second 

 picture was taken, and again it retreated 

 for so long a time that the camera was 

 removed. 



Flashlight portraiture evidently does 

 not meet with the approval of some 

 turtles. 



UNBIDDEN GUESTS 



Just as the fisherman complains of the 

 shark taking the hook intended for an 

 edible fish, or the trapper of a wolverine 

 pilfering his bait, so the camera-hunter 

 often finds the string broken or the bait 

 taken by some unwelcome visitor. 



Cameras placed where cattle, sheep, 

 and hogs range will be sprung by these 

 wandering animals. One night a no- 

 toriously ill-natured bull, belonging to a 

 Finnish settler, swished his tail uncon- 

 cernedly against the flashlight cartridge 

 and got a dose of flame and fumes that 

 made his bellows audible several miles. 

 On a trip up the Tamesi River, in east- 

 ern Mexico, I tried for a week to get 

 pictures of ocelot and the jaguar, but 



805 



