182 



THE XATTOXAL GKOORAPTTTC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 

 A TYPICAL SCENE) ON WHITEEISH RIVER 



From 25 to 30 ash are in different stages of felling or 

 dismemberment, showing that these beavers do not 

 finish one tree before beginning on another. Average 

 time in felling a tree, ten days (see page 197). 



the unoccupied ranges throughout the 

 more easterly part of the country. 



A closed hunting season on any island, 

 however big, will finally bring most ani- 

 mals face to face with an unavoidable 

 enemy — starvation. Thus it became nec- 

 essary to supply some food in winter, be- 

 sides shipping hundreds of deer and sur- 

 plus elk to parks and game preserves, 

 followed still later by an open season on 

 deer. 



THE BEGINNING OE THE AEBINO DEER 

 COLONY 



If, however, this long and costly effort 

 to make Grand Island the permanent 



home of many immigrant species 

 has proved disappointing, an un- 

 expected reward has come, which 

 may eventually prove of greater 

 value than the fulfillment of the 

 original plan, namely, the estab- 

 lishment of a beaut i t'n 1 herd of 

 albino white-tail deer. 



A characteristic of the Michi- 

 gan deer has been the general 

 uniformity in physical appear- 

 ance ; for, though more deer have 

 been killed in Michigan during 

 the past fifty years than the ag- 

 gregate elsewhere, there are very 

 few freaks in antlers or extremes 

 in weight, while albinism has 

 been equally rare. 



Some ten years ago word came 

 that a fine albino buck had been 

 seen frequently on Grand Island 

 coming to a little pond on the 

 easterly side. Taking a camping 



guide, 



mv 



nights were 



outfit, a canoe, and 

 several days and 

 spent watching the pond, and al- 

 though other deer came during 

 the day or were seen under the 

 jack-light, the white buck did not 

 appear. 



The next year the quest was 

 no more successful, and when I 

 heard that on the opening of the 

 season the white buck had been 

 killed, it was a consolation to 

 know that the body was in the 

 hands of a taxidermist, prepara- 

 tory to being added to the little 

 museum of the island hotel. 



There, later, I took the meas- 

 urements of the antlers and body, 

 and then, to show what a striking picture 

 such a marbled figure would present with 

 a background of black, the mounted ani- 

 mal was carried one evening to the edge 

 of the forest where once it had roamed 

 and the flashlight fired (see page 148). 



Feeling quite confident, from the age of 

 this buck, that white descendants would 

 sometimes be found, a careful watch was 

 maintained throughout the island. 



Finally, in the fall of 191 5, a good- 

 sized albino buck was noticed loitering 

 about the box traps set for capturing deer 

 to be shipped away. With little effort it 

 was taken. 



Upon the removal to temporary quar- 



