THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
In general habits and food the fisher is, in short, an exaggerated marten, 
which keeps more to the ground and prefers the wet rather than the dry 
parts of the forest, and has a special taste in summer for frogs. Wonder- 
fully quick and strong in leaping, or for a short run, either on the ground or 
among tree branches, it makes easy prey not only of squirrels, mice, etc., 
but of such larger creatures as the muskrat, coon, skunk, and porcupine — 
the last named by Richardson as its favorite food, procured by “‘biting the 
belly.” Audubon questioned this statement — “in what manner it is able 
to overturn the porcupine”; but the explanation is that the attempt is made 
only in winter, when the fisher bores his way through the snow and comes 
up beneath the porcupine, who sits on the surface thinking itself secure 
in its armor of quills, and unsuspicious of the burrowing strategy of its wily 
foe. Even the bear, according to Colonel Brackett, U.S.A., is likely to be 
despoiled of her baby cubs by this hungry prowler when she leaves them 
alone in her den. Its own young, born usually in a hollow tree or log, 
number two or three. When attacked by men or dogs it fights with the feroc- 
ity of a wildcat and the deathless courage and tenacity of a weasel. 
This big species stands between the typical martens and 
a still larger and more powerful mustelid common to both 
hemispheres, and called glutton in the Old World 
and wolverine, or ‘“‘carcajou,” in the New. Were 
one to judge of it by the stories of the forest people alone, it 
could hardly be considered anything else than a sort of devil 
on four legs, with a heart as full of malice as its brain is surely 
full of wit. This is 
no worse, nor more 
erroneous, than the 
animal’s reputation 
in Europe, where 
the glutton is rep- 
resented in old books 
as a ravenous and 
disgusting monster 
of ferocity and cun- 
ning. In reality the creature is simply, to use the phrase 
of Dr. Coues, whose book*® devotes a long chapter to the 
166 
Wolverine. 
THE WOLVERINE OR GLUTTON. 
