THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



Light, cheap traps that they can get out of are worse than useless ; 

 they teach animals to use greater precaution and make them 

 harder to catch. 



As previously stated, the important thing in trapping as 

 crafty an animal as the wolf is to know their habits and have an 

 intimate knowledge of trapping generally. If a trapper knows 

 all the conditions, and the habits of animals that he has to meet 

 and overcome, he can devise ways and means of outwitting them 

 that are best adapted to the conditions under which he is work- 

 ing, and to his own particular talents. Methods that would suit 

 one locality or one certain trapper may be altogether unsuited 

 to another. 



VARIATION IN WINTER AND SUMMER PELAGE. 



Mr. 0. J. Murie secured some very interesting specimens for 

 the state collection last winter while trapping on Davis creek in 

 Crook county, which showed some' striking variations in winter 

 and summer pelage. 



On March 22, 1914, he trapped a weasel in brown pelage. 

 On March 26, he killed a weasel with the coat of fur changing 

 from white to brown. There was a brown stripe in the middle 

 of the back with white on each side; the face was partly white 

 and partly brown, giving the animal a rather strange appearance. 

 On April 7, he trapped a third weasel in the pure white winter 

 pelage. 



The brown pelage in March in this locality is rather the 

 reverse from what one might expect to find. The question arises 

 as to whether certain weasels of the Cascade mountains remain 

 in the summer pelage during the entire winter or not, and 

 whether others change from brown of summer to pure white 

 of winter. 



It is interesting to note that the weasel in the Willamette 

 valley does not change from brown to white in winter, but re- 

 mains brown the entire year. It is likely that the change of coat 

 takes place according to the altitude, and whereas those animals 

 in the valley do not change at all, those living in the highest 

 Cascades change from brown to white, although for some reason, 



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