302 



RECREATION. 



each time. The roadrunner, or paisano, as 

 he is called by Californians, is becoming 

 scarce. He is never killed to eat, but is 

 shot by thoughtless hunters' and tourists 

 merely that they may say they have killed 

 a roadrunner. 



C. W. Gripp, Pacific Beach, Cal. 



HOW TO BEGIN SKUNK FARMING. 

 Will Mr. Ramsey McNaughton please 

 tell me the best and cheapest way to build 

 a fence to keep skunks in? How high 

 should such a fence be? I have a fine- 

 place for skunks, on the side of a sloping 

 hill. I thought of fencing in 4 acres, one 

 acre to be cleared land and 3 in small trees 

 and shrubs and some small rock. My plan 

 is to set posts 6 or 8 feet apart, set slab 

 rock in the ground between the posts, with 

 a level top on the rock and nail planks 5 

 feet long up and down to come within Y 2 

 inch of the rock. This would permit the 

 skunks to roam in the 3 acres of woodland 

 and eat such vegetables as I should plant in 

 the acre of cleared land. I should turn loose 

 in the same enclosure 10 or 15 Belgian 

 hares. This would give the skunks meat 

 when they, might wish to catch the hares, 

 as the Belgians increase fast. Can you 

 name some paper or book on skunks? 



J. H. Colter, Georgetown, Ohio. 



ANSWER. 



Skunk farming has been proven practical 

 and profitable, but like every other business, 

 to comparatively few ; so I beg of you in 

 all friendliness not to go into it until you 

 try a small pen of half a dozen and catch 

 them yourself. Do not buy them, or spend 

 any money on them. Select about 100 feet 

 square of rocks and brush, with a spring 

 or brook within it if possible, and with 

 some abandoned old building on it for the 

 skunks to make a warm home under. En- 

 close all in a -5 foot poultry wire fence, 

 sunk 18 inches in the ground. Feed the 

 skunks twice a day at some regular time, 

 whatever quantity they eat up clean. Do 

 not leave an excess of food around. If you 

 grow fond of these gentle, tame and beau- 

 tiful little creatures, which are never neces- 

 sarily offensive, and if they thrive, there 

 will then be time enough to go into the 

 business further. 



Recreation is likely to have a careful 

 new article on "That Skunk Question" in 

 an early issue. R. Macnaughton. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 

 While driving I noticed a bird about the 

 size of a common hen turkey, with some- 

 what longer legs and a bill about 4 inches 

 long. The bird resembles in color a brown 

 thrush on the back and wings. Being at a 

 distance of 100 yards or over, the bird run- 

 ning away from me, I could not discover 



any other colors. I jumped out of the 

 buggy and raised the bird. In its flight and 

 after alighting 200 yards away in a swampy 

 place, it cackled, or croaked, like raven. 

 The bird seemed to favor the low land or 

 marshy ground. In all my travels in the 

 upper and lower peninsula of Michigan, I 

 never saw its like. Can you give me any 

 information as to what it is? 



P. P. Chase, Ishpeming, Mich,, 



ANSWER. 



From the description given, I am unable 

 to identify the bird, nor can anyone to 

 whom I have referred the matter even give 

 a good guess as to what the bird was. 

 Further information is necessary to identi- 

 fication. — Editor. 



I agree with J. C. Warren that the tap- 

 ping sound under water, about which Mr. 

 Covert asks, is caused by fish. I do not, 

 however, think the noise is made while the 

 fish are feeding. I have heard the sound 

 over 30 years, and have investigated dozens 

 of times, always with the same result. The 

 atmospheric conditions are always the same 

 — warm, muggy, no wind, and the drift sta- 

 tionary, or almost so. The sound comes 

 from beneath the drift at the surface of the 

 water. I am positive the fish comes to the 

 surface in the shade and sticks his nose 

 against the drift, the noise being produced 

 by suction in an effort to take in a little 

 air. In every case in my experience the 

 common black sucker made the sound. I 

 can go any day, with above mentioned 

 favorable conditions, where the sound can 

 be heard. 



W,. W. Walsingham, Ellsworth, Wis. 



Will you kindly advise the period of in- 

 cubation for hatching young quails? I 

 have often heard statements on the subject, 

 differing as to the time, some claiming 

 quail eggs require 13 days' hatching, others 

 18 days, and still others 21 days. 



D. P,. Faust, Shamokin, Pa. 



ANSWER. 



One of the California quails in the New 

 York Zoological Park has just hatched a 

 brood of 14 chicks in 21 days. I think 

 that is the period for American quails 

 generally. — Editor. 



Please tell me what is proper food for a 

 young crow? I caught one apparently just 

 after he had left the nest. He does not 

 seem to relish bread and milk. 



Harold Bowditch, Cambridge, Mass.. 



The proper food for a young crow is 

 mashed potatoes and hard boiled egg, 

 chopped and mixed with a little water 

 into a stiff paste. Feed about every hour, 

 while the bird is young. — Editor. 



