WILD ANIMALS THAT TOOK THEIR OWN PICTURES 



787 



raid while the mother was out of sight in 

 search of food. Whether fear, gallantry, 

 or a provident instinct in not killing the 

 hreednig female accounted for the mink's 

 refusal to give battle, I will not under- 

 take to say. And possibly it was this par- 

 ticular mink that had an encounter which 

 it did not regard as a joke, as shown on 

 page 786, v/here a mink, near the musk- 

 rat log, is pictured pulling on the fish 

 bait just as the flash exploded. 



RABBITS 01^ TH^ NORTH 



The varying hare or snow-shoe rabbit 

 does not occupy a burrow, and although 

 it reman:s throughout the year above 

 ground it is seldom seen, even where 

 fairly numerous ; for, besides living in 

 ■dense swamps and thick coverts, it is 

 largely nocturnal. I have sometimes 

 come across the remnants left by an owl 

 or a fox, and have often seen hundreds 

 cf tracks in a freshly fallen snow, be- 

 sides on occasions snaring some for 

 camp use, but rarely have I seen their 

 brown forms in summier or when whit- 

 ened on the approach of the winter 

 snows. The fact that this rabbit was 

 difficult to photograph and, moreover, 

 was typical of the northern swamps, be- 

 ing a staple winter diet of the trapper, 

 homesteader, explorer, and of many In- 

 dian tribes, led me to try for a series of 

 pictures, even if such a humble and 

 timid animal was not rated high on the 

 sportsman's list. 



In the near-by swamps and in the al- 

 ders along the creek in front of my 

 Michigan camp, there were supposed to 

 be a number of rabbits ; so a preliminary 

 feast of carrots and cabbage was placed 

 100 yards down the stream, such prox- 

 imity being an advantage in resetting the 

 camera and flash whenever we saw the 

 blaze or heard the report, for if the rab- 

 bits proved as indifferent to the flash- 

 light as coons, skunks, and muskrats, it 

 would then be possible to get two or 

 more pictures each night. 



In a few nights the vegetables were 

 gone. Then a carrot was tied to the 

 end of a string connected with the flash- 

 light ; but no explosion occurred the first 

 night, because the rabbit had quietly 



eaten the bait without pulling on the 

 string. Then a carrot was suspended 

 from the ground on the trunk of a tree, 

 requiring the animal to stand up and 

 pull ; but this made a somewhat ridicu- 

 lous position, since one is not accus- 

 tomed to seeing a rabbit brace its fore- 

 feet and pull for dear life. 



Then a tilting board was arranged, so 

 that when the animal stepped on it the 

 flash would be discharged ; but a few ex- 

 periments showed that the visitor always 

 seemed to come with a hop and a jump — 

 whether of joy or suspicion I could not 

 tell. This resulted in the animal moving 

 during the flash or being out of focus 

 when on the jump. 



Finally, a spring pole was bent down 

 to within a foot of the ground and a 

 carrot tied to the end of it and to a stake 

 driven level with the soil, so that when 

 the carrot was eaten through the pole 

 would fly up, pulling the string con- 

 nected with the flash. One can see or 

 imagine he sees a surprised look on the 

 face of the rabbit as the half-eaten car- 

 rot springs into the air (see page 789). 



When the fall winds from Lake Supe- 

 rior carried the first snowflakes, and it 

 seemed probable the rabbits had changed 

 from brown to white, the camera and 

 flash were set out again. But a week 

 passed before a visitor came, for upon 

 the alders losing their leaves the sum- 

 mer wanderers had retreated to the cedar 

 sw^amps. One scene, on page 791, de- 

 picts a pair, partially robed in white, 

 nibbling at the last supper of the year, 

 furnished from the garden of the au- 

 thor's camp (1912). 



NORTHERN SKUNKS UNDER THE 

 EEASHUGHT 



During the fall of 191 1 I spent 10 

 days at my house-boat on White Fish 

 Lake, and, as was the custom, some fish 

 and the remains from the camp table 

 were placed a few yards back in the for- 

 est for the enticement of any wandering 

 animal. It was in this way and in the 

 same locality that I got my first series of 

 coon pictures by flashlight. The second 

 night following a visitor came and the 

 food selected suggested a coon or a 



