538 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



WOODCHUCK. 



prominent feature of the fur trade of the mid- 

 dle colonies. It is but natural that the men 

 who risked so much in venturing to America, 

 300 years ago, should desire to carry back some- 

 thing that could be converted into cash. It was 

 the animals named above that laid the founda- 

 tions of the American fur trade, generally, and 

 of the Hudson Bay and North American Fur 

 Companies, in particular. It would take long 

 columns of figures, in large sums, to represent 

 the part played by the fur-bearing animals 

 named above in the commercial development of 

 the American colonies. 



But there is one very interesting fact in this 

 connection that we must set down. Of all the 

 fur-bearing animals of the Hudson valley, the 

 most persistent today are the Muskrat and the 

 Mink. Strange as it may seem, for ten years 

 they have been to the New York Zoological 

 Park, jointly and severally, a great nuisance. 



For eight years, or during the existence of 

 several piles of large rocks near our northern 

 boundary, wild Minks have raided our bird col- 

 lections, and slaughtered Gulls and other fish- 

 eating waterfowl at a rate that was most ex- 

 asperating. From 1900 to 1906 we killed in 



the Park, annually, from three to five Minks ; 

 and they killed annually from ten to thirty of 

 our birds. Now that their shelter rocks are 

 gone, and the most of the Minks have been 

 trapped and killed, we have peace. 



Muskrats have been so abundant in the Bronx 

 River and Bronx Lake, within our own grounds, 

 and have done so much damage to our valuable 

 aquatic plants, we have made war upon them, 

 in self-defense. In the winter of 1908-9 a 

 member of our force caught 23 of them, in our 

 own waters. 



The Otter once was abundant in the Adiron- 

 dacks, and its range extended thence southward 

 without a break to central Florida, where it still 

 persists in living. It still is found occasionally 

 in the North Woods, but it is doubtful whether 

 it survives today in the Hudson valley anywhere 

 south of Troy. So rare is this species through- 

 out the United States it is no longer possible 

 to secure alive and unhurt by traps a number 

 sufficient to stock the largest zoological gardens 

 of the eastern states. The steel traps, mills and 

 sewage of civilization are too much for an ani- 

 mal that is dependent upon streams of water for 



