*5 



RECREA TION. 



tory to watching the tragical gormandiz- 

 ing feat to the end. 



The head of the rat soon disappeared, 

 and the snake still had plenty of mouth 

 room, for he opened his jaws wide enough 

 to reach over the forelegs, that stood out 

 from the body, and to crush them down 

 with ease. The snake's neck and body be- 

 came greatly inflated, for several inches, 

 and when he advanced with his mouth as 

 far as possible he would close it, firmly, 

 and the muscles of the back would stiffen 

 in a sinuous line, to push the throat that 

 now seemed stretched to almost a burst- 

 ing tension, ahead so he could again ad- 

 vance with his mouth. 



When he reached the coils, which he still 

 retained around his victim, he moved them 

 back across the rat's hips, and used them 

 to hold the body steady as long as he had 

 room. When he had to relinquish their 

 use altogether his task became preceptibly 

 more difficult, and he had to stop, occa- 

 sionly, to rest. At last the rump disap- 

 peared and the hind feet soon followed 

 from view. I again consulted my watch 

 and found he had been just one hour and 

 17 minutes. 



He now showed his first annoyance at 

 my presence, and began to sneak away, tail 

 first, into the darkness. To see that snake 

 squirming backward, dragging his help- 

 less, distorted neck, with his shiny head 

 closed over a rat's tail, was the most repul- 

 sive sight I ever witnessed. Possibly the 

 reader may ask why I watched him? Well, 

 I was betting with myself that the snake 

 could not swallow the rat; but I lost the 

 bet. 



ANOTHER DOSE OF DOPE. 



Crevasse, Mont. 



Editor Recreation: Mr. Thompson's 

 article on the doping habit, in wolves and 

 dogs, recalls the following incidents: 



At a house party on the Hudson, many 

 years ago, a lady from the city had with 

 her a diminutive terrier; blue-blooded, be- 

 curled and be-ribboned, and, I might add, 



be-d d by several of the men, who fain 



would have engaged the attention, if not 

 the affections of the mistress, for she was 

 passing fair. But she doted on the purp 

 and would none of us. 



Sauntering one day through the wooded 

 lanes of Cornwall the odor of some animal, 

 in an advanced stage of decomposition, 

 held us speechless, if not breathless. The 

 terrier, however, as soon as he winded the 

 cause of our discomfort, went for it; and 

 ere his mistress could stay him, rolled 

 heartily in the reeking filth. 



How do you account for it? Was it 

 heredity? Surely no stronger odors than 

 those of his perfumed bath had ever before 

 reached his delicate nostrils. 



In the early 70's the break-up of the great 

 migratory buffalo herd, and the hundreds 

 of thousands of carcasses left by the hide 

 hunters brought together, between the 

 Arkansas and Platte rivers, countless num- 

 bers of coyotes and gray wolves, many of 

 whom were poisoned by Mexican and 

 other trappers. Sitting one day on top of 

 a butte, West of the Purgatoire river, I 

 saw a coyote rolling around at the bottom 

 of a small arroyo. He would roll on one 

 spot, then go to another a few feet distant. 

 This he did several times, and in such man- 

 ner as, led me to believe he had been doped. 

 On my return to camp I passed the spot, 

 expecting to find him dead, and was as- 

 tonished to see that he had been rolling 

 on a buffalo carcass, and then on a small 

 patch of buffalo grass. A closer examina- 

 tion, the following day, showed that others 

 of his kind had also been there. 



During the past summer I killed, at my 

 cabin door, a skunk, and buried it some 

 distance away. About 2 weeks later there 

 came a strong odor, from that direction, 

 and on investigation I found the flattened 

 carcass some 20 feet from where it had 

 been interred. A day or 2 later a young 

 Llewellyn of mine came to the house, 

 strongly impregnated with the mephitic 

 odor. She had been with me before, when 

 I had killed and buried these animals, but 

 had never disturbed them. This one had, 

 no doubt, been resurrected by a coyote, a 

 fox, or a porcupine. J. W. H. 



CANADA JAY {PERISOREUS CANADENSIS). 



This tame " hanger on " to a hunter's or 

 lumberman's camp, is found throughout the 

 Northern parts of Canada, in Maine and 

 Minnesota, and up to the Arctic- circle in 

 the intervening territory. 



Naturalists sometimes divide it into 2 

 sub-species. The Western variety, rather 

 less in size and of slightly different colora- 

 tion, is put under the name of Perisoreus 

 canadensis var. Capitalis (rocky mountain 

 jay), while the Labrador, from being some- 

 what darker than the others, is called Peri- 

 soreus canadensis var. Obscurus (gray jay — 

 dusky Canada jay). 



His local assortment of names is varied. 

 Among them I mention whiskey jack (a 

 slang corruption of his Indian name " wis- 

 ka-jhan ") moose bird, caribou bird, meat 

 bird, camp bird, and camp robber. 



To all of these his habits will cause him 

 to lay claim, but his principal failing is an 

 acquired habit of helping himself to what- 

 ever you have in the eating line, and it will 

 not be long after you have your tent up 

 or camp built, before these birds will find 

 you. 



Your first acquaintance with them, per- 

 haps, will be in seeing a pair perched on a 

 convenient branch silently watching your 



