Winter Fauna of Mount Marcy. 



17 



the swamps, but their inhabitants — the rabbit — that he 

 desires. The trapping by a guide of two of these creatures 

 near Elk lake, where the trail leaves it for Mount Marcy, 

 seems to refute in some degree the opinion advanced by 

 De Kay that it has no repugnance to water. The shallow 

 and narrow outlet of the lake is nearly spanned at one point 

 by a fallen tree which was selected by a pair of lynx as a 

 bridge. A trap being set midway upon the log, one of the 

 creatures was captured, after which occurrence, unwarned 

 by the fate of its companion, which could easily have been 

 avoided if it had stepped through the shallow water, the 

 other lynx, following the same path, planted its foot also 

 in the trap. This is an animal which we might expect in 

 a high, cold region, for to its general distribution through- 

 out British America even to the shore of the Arctic sea, 

 it owes its well earned title of Canadian. It is not re- 

 corded as having been met with in the State more than 

 about one degree to the south of Mount Marcy. 



One morning, this winter, as we ascended the steep 

 slopes of Mount Skylight through the deep, freshly fallen 

 snow, a dog belonging to one of the guides broke away 

 fiercely upon a fresh trail, and filling the woods with his 

 eager cry, combined into irregular echoing melody by the 

 surrounding mountains, coursed his game to and fro, 

 under the ledges and along the mountain sides to the 

 steeper slopes of Marcy. An inspection of the trail showed 

 the footprints of a black cat — the Mustela canadensis the 

 animal often improperly known as the fisher — impro- 

 perly because he is not a fisher, as it seldom eats other fish 

 than those which it is able to steal from an angler. The 

 footprints of this animal were frequently met with at 

 different times and in different places upon Mount Marcy, 

 the trail indicating animals different in size and age, so 

 that it is probable that a number of these creatures make 

 this vicinity their home. A carnivorous animal, agile and 

 powerful withal, it was like its companion carnivora, 



Trans, ix.] 3 



