MaeGH S6, 1891.J 



FOREST AMD STREAM* 



187 



time did I find any indications that they were in search 

 of food or had eaten anything. If Mr. Lathrop will teJl 

 what lie knows ahout coons eating during the intervals of 

 hibernation, I will be very much obliged. Were his tame 

 coons kept in a warm place, or were they allowed to shift 

 for themselves, and if the latter, would they accept food y 



I made a careful post mortem on the last coon I killed 

 this winter, and found the stomach empty except for a 

 teaspoonful of a muddy sediment. The bowels were 

 closed with a considerable quantity of excreta, which 

 was in cylinders, hard as slag, and almost metallic. This 

 coon had traveled from his den tree several miles on the 

 two days immediately preceding its capture, and had un- 

 concernedly passed abundant rabbit sign. 



I always imagined a coon did not care much for cold 

 weather so long as he had an abundant suj)ply of fat on 

 Ms body, and only stayed in his den in the very coldest 

 weather of the early winter; but that later, wheri the fat 

 supply was burned away, he took advantage of his ability 

 to hibernate to save himself from an otherwise almost 

 certain death. 



To hibernate an animal must be in a peculiar state, 

 with circulation almost nU, and if it eats one warm day 

 how will it be prepared for the cold snap that comes the 

 next ? The digestive jjrocess necessitates a free and rapid 

 blood circulation , and 1 should think considerable time 

 would be required to regain a state of torpidity. 



Hahtfohx), M arch 21. Jj_B. BURNHAM. 



HOW TO DESTROY PRAIRIE DOGS. 



LEAVENWORTH, Kansas, March 16.— Editor Forest 

 and St7'eam: In your paper of the 13th inst. I notice 

 an inquiry by "J. H. B.," Punkapog, asking how prairie 

 dogs can be kept out of a sheep pasture. 



On the open ranges poisoned grain is used, wheat, corn 

 and oats. The grain is poisoned by soaking it in water in 

 which strychnine and arsenic are dissolved, and the solu- 

 tion sweetened with sugar to disguise the bitter taste of 

 strychnine. This method, while killing a great many, is 

 not always successful; and there is danger of poisoning 

 the stock, as the grain (about a tablespoonful) is placed 

 on the ground near the holes. 



If the land is inclosed and valuable, or the dog town 

 not too large, the following method is certain and free 

 from any objections, except as to cost. After three years 

 experimenting I think it is as cheap as the work can be 

 done— costing from 3 to 4 cents a hole. 



Procux-e a carboy (50 to lOOlbs.) of bisulphide of carbon, 

 which will cost wholesale from 15 to 18 cents a pound; a 

 half-dozen rolls of cheapest cotton batting, an oil can 

 (which keep closed when using), an old pan, and last but 

 not least a hoe or spade, with which to cover up the holes. 

 Then with an assistant visit the dog town except when 

 the frost is in the ground. Take a roll of cotton batting 

 about the size of a base ball and saturate it with the 

 bisulphide of carbon and throw it instantly into the hole 

 and at ones cover up the hole with dirt air-tight. 



To do this work properly requires two persons, one to 

 make the ball and saturate it and one to attend to the 

 coveriner. Boys can do the work as well as men when 

 once ^own. 



The way it works is thus: The bisulphide of carbon is 

 very volatile and instantly forms a heavy poisonous gas, 

 heavier than air, which sinks to the bottom of the hole 

 and then poisons the dogs. It is perfectly safe and harm- 

 less in the open air, and there is no danger attending the 

 use of it. I am informed that it is liable to spontaneous 

 combustion, and should therefore be kept outside of 

 buildings and not handled near a light. Its fumes while 

 on fire are dangerous to man. I use the oil can for con- 

 venienc e while working, refilling when necessary, and 

 the pan is to catch the waste, which I use on the next 

 ball. Be sure and keep corked air-tight when not using, 

 or you will find yourself minus the carbon. A pound 

 will be enough to use on six or eight holes. 

 - G-o over the town regularly, covering all dead as well 

 as live holes, and in a day or two revisit the town and re- 

 peat where necessary. If there are two or three holes 

 near each other be sure to treat all of them, as they fre- 

 quently connect. The owls will frequently uncover the 

 holes, so it is not to be taken for granted that at all un- 

 covered holes you have failed. 



The above method wds tried on a dog town on the Uhl 

 & Carney ranch, in Burton county, Kansas, in the spring 

 of 1888, and a town of over a thousand holes annihilated 

 by two men in about a day and a half. I and my brother 

 went over it again two days afterward and found that 

 not more that fifty holes needed attention. It is on this 

 ranch that the American Coursing Club hold their annual 

 jack rabbit chase. E. L. Carney. 



Whistling Up a Woodcock.— Dolores, Colo,— Snow 

 bound; no mail for a week. Have read up on back num- 

 bers of Forest and Stream, and am now wondering how 

 a close observer can venture the opinion that woodcock 

 do their wliistling with their wings! Most hunters know, 

 perhaps, how easy it is to imitate the call of a "scattered" 

 quail, in order by his response to locate him, or call him 

 to you, which can be done. Well, in like manner I have 

 called woodcock to me. The bird on the ground, wings 

 motionless, running toward me, as it whistled its response, 

 I did this often for my own amusement, and once to prove 

 to a skeptical old fellow who knew it all that I could do 

 it, and of this latter occasion I still have a living witness. 

 I further believe that none of the woodcock's whistle comes 

 from its wings.— JOHN J, Harris. 



■ Another Flyifc4 Squirrel Pet.— The Cedars, Oak- 

 dale, Long Island. — I have read with much pleasure the 

 interesting articles on the intelligence of the flying 

 squirrel. Memory carries me way back to early in the 

 fifties, when in one of my boyhood outings in West- 

 chester county, I captured a young flying squirrel, and 

 carried it home, where he grew to be one of the most af- 

 fectionate and intelligent creatures I ever saw. When 

 playing with my companions on the block in Twenty- 

 second street, I would let the little fellow free; he woiild 

 roam through the tops of all the largest trfies, and on to 

 the roofs of the houses, his range being the length of the 

 whole block. I often, while engaged in my play, forgot 

 about him, but he never got lost; all I had to do when I 

 wanted him was to call " Bunnie," and in a short time he 

 would appear sailing from the roof of a house or the tops 

 of the tallest trees, and land on my shoulder; and in a 

 twinkling would be in my coat pocket, where he always 

 loved to get. There was a dossen or fifteea boys, my 



companions. I used to enjoy hiding out of sight in the 

 midst of the boys, and then calling to the squirrel. As 

 he came out of the air, not seeing me, he would light on 

 the nearest boy, and then spring from one to the other 

 until he found me and my coat pocket. 1 had him a long 

 time, and every one living on the block was much at- 

 tached to him. But alas ! he went the way of most all 

 small pets. There was a pretty little maiden living op- 

 posite, who used to come regularly to the house (when I 

 was away,) to play with Bunnie. One day he got in my 

 bureau drawer, as she supposed, and in shutting the 

 drawer the squirrel was jammed and killed. Many tears 

 were shed for the little fellow, not only by the little folks, 

 but some of the older ones too. That same little maid 

 afterward became the wife of Francis Endicott, so well 

 known to many of your readers. Years have rolled away 

 since those happy times, and Frank and his wife have 

 gone to that great unknown from which no traveler 

 returns.— Alfred A. Eraser. 



Harlequin Duck at Cohasskt.— Boston, March 16 — 

 Mr. C. V. Barnes, while cooting at Cohasset, Mass., on 

 Nov. B, 1887, shot a harlequin duck (Histrioiiicas Mstri- 

 ouicus). The bird was an adult male and in fine con- 

 dition. This is the first instance of H. histrionicus hav- 

 ing been taken at Cjhasset. — E. H. Clark. 



^^m^ md 0ntf* 



The eull texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Book of the 

 Qame Laws. 



PRACTICAL TRAPPING. 



I.— LAND TRAPPING. 



FOR twenty-two years, off and on, I have trapped for 

 fur in the winter time. There are two great divi- 

 sions of trapping — land trapping and water trapping. 

 The latter, which is intended for the capture of beaver, 

 otter, mink and muskrats, needs the use of steel traps. 

 For trapping land fur we use dead-falls and twitch-ups. 

 There are many different patterns of these devices, 

 but the one I generally use is sketched in these illustra- 

 tions, one of which gives a ground plan and the other a 

 front view of the structure. 



The letters will show how these traps are made, but I 

 will give a few words of general explanation besides; 



The cross-stick, C, runs between two guiding doorposts, 

 D D, which are about a foot apart, and is heavily weighted 

 by the logs, W W, The bait-stick, B, is laid on the round 



bottom log, L, and the cross-stick is held up by the trig- 

 ger, P, which is balanced on the bait-stick. Sticks are 

 laid on each side of the door posts, and also slanting 

 down from the cross-stick to the ground behind, so as to 

 form walls and a roof, in order to force the victim to go 

 in the door for the bait. The roof is weighted with 

 rock. Now, when an animal smells the bait he goes in 

 the door and gives the bait a pull. This throws the trig- 

 ger off and the cross-stick falls on the animal, who Is 

 thus crushed between the bottom log and the cross-stick, 

 while the weighted roof, which comes down too, helps to 

 keep wolves and wolverines from eating up the animal 

 caught or spoiling his fur. 



The principal fur-bearing animals caught by land 

 trapping are the marten, the fisher, the fox and the mink. 

 Lynx, wolverines, and sometimes wolves are caught in 

 steel traps, though they are not water animals. Bear also 

 are occasionally caught in steel traps, and sometimes in 

 dead-falls, but this is not in the winter time, because the 

 bears "hole up" then, and they cannot be considered a 

 regular fxu- for the trapper. Many of these animals are 

 also taken by poisoning with stryclinine, but what I am 

 now telling about is the trapping of land fur in the most 

 ordinary and profitable way. 



My trapping grounds have been in Oregon, Washington 

 and British Columbia, and my way of doing it is as 

 follows: 



I start out pretty early in the season, say in August oj- 

 September, to look up a location where I think that there 

 is plenty of fur and that it will pay to put out a line of 

 traps. After I have found a section that suits me and 

 where the signs indicate that there is an abundance of 

 fur, the first thing that I do is to build a cabin — which is 

 to be my headquarters, where I intend to store everything 

 that I may need during the winter; provisions, fur, etc. 

 When the cabin is built, I start off in the direction which 

 seems most favorable, and, after prospecting a little, select 

 another spot about a fair day's journey from the main 

 cabin and build a second cabin. Then I build a third in 

 another direction and about the same distance from the 

 headquarter house, so that I have two days' journey 

 covered by my shelters. The two side cabins do not need 

 to be nearly as substantial as the main one, for they are 

 only intended to serve as shelters during the night; and 

 no great amount of time will be spent in them. Some- 

 times, when the country will admit of it, I build only two 

 houses, and make a circle of which these two houses are 

 on opposite sides of the circumference. This saves labor, 

 and, if the country if favorable, is a very good way. 



When these houses have been built, you have to get 

 your bait. If there is a salmon stream near at hand — 

 within a dozen or fifteen miles — you want to catch and 

 dry a lot of salmon. Dried salmon makes the best bait of 

 all. If you can't get salmon you must use dried meat, for 

 you can not be sure of securing fresh meat in winter, I 

 generally kill and dry deer for my bait, if I cannot get 

 salmon. When the bait is all dried and stored, it will be 

 time to get in your winter's provisions, and this is no 



small job when you have got to pack it all in from the 

 water, a distance sometimes of from fifteen to twenty- 

 five miles. I generally take a simple prospector's grub 

 list; bacon and beans, coffee, sugar, tea, flour, a little 

 vinegar, and if I can get them, some dried potatoes; these 

 last are useful in keeping off scurvy. But I believe that 

 the best remedy against scurvy is rustling round. Hard 

 work and exercise are in my opinion better preventives of 

 this disease than most people think. 



After you have packed all your provisions in to your 

 headquarter house, it will be about the first or middle of 

 October. It is now time to begin building your traps, 

 and you start out for one or the other of your two end 

 cabin?, blazing your way on both sides of the trail as you 

 go. You build a trap every two hundred yards from the 

 central cabin to one of the shacks, and then returning to 

 headquarters, build off toward the other shack. The 

 marten and the fisher, which are the moat valuable as 

 well as the most numerous of the fur taken on such a 

 line of traps, are animals about which but little is known 

 by most people. They are both weasel-like, inhabiting 

 the timber and very active. The marten is very quick 

 and active, and the fisher is lively enough to catch the 

 marten, on which to a great extent it preys, ;Both 

 aninjals feed largely on squirrels, mice, birds and on fish 

 when they can get them. The rutting time for fisher is 

 in March, but 1 do not know when their young are born, 

 nor whether they breed more than once a year. I know 

 nothing of the breeding habits of the martin. The fisher 

 from tip to tip is about as long as a good-sized cat, and 

 the skin when taken off and cased will often measure a 

 yard in length. The color is black, except for a sprink- 

 ling of gray hairs on the head, neck and shoulders of the 

 male. The tail is very bushy. The female fisher is 

 smaller than her mate and has less of this gray hair. 

 The marten is about the size of a mink, and in color is 

 yellowish brown with a bualiy dark brown tail. In the 

 high mountains and to the far north, the body color is 

 darker, and when you get in toward the Peace River 

 country they are perfectly black. 



Until all your traps are built you set none of them. At 

 some time during three weeks of preparation you have 

 looked up some straight cedar for stretchers, that is, for 

 sticks on which to dry your fur, and have cot a lot of it 

 and brought it to the cabin and put it inside where it will 

 dry. A stretcher is a flat board about Jin. in thickness 

 and 2ift. long, for a marten, and about 3in, wide, taper- 

 ing to a point from about Sin. from the head end, so as 

 to run down into the small neck and head of the skin. 

 The boards are carefully smoothed and the edges rounded 

 so that no splinters should stick out to tear the skin. For 

 each of these boards two additional sticks are needed of 

 the same length, but about f Xiin. for the greater part of 

 their length, but tapering as does the larger stick from 

 the shoulder of the animal to the head. After the skin, 

 inside out of course, has been drawn as far as possible on - 

 the larger board, one of these sticks is shoved inside the 

 skin on either side, so as to completely stretch it. These 

 stretchers of course can be manufactured during your 

 evenings. They must be perfectlv dry before being used. 



When your traps are ail made you start out with a load 

 of bait to set them. Your bait-stick must be sharpened 

 at one end and notched a little below the point. You 

 take a piece of meat or fish, say liin.xlin, a.nd thrust 

 the bait-stick through it up to the notch, so that the bait 

 cannot be pulled back, for of course the aniuia' cannot get 

 around to pull it off, and then set your trap. You ought 

 to be able to set the traps between your main cabin and 

 one of your side camp« in a day. When you start out 

 from one camp to another you always want to carry your 

 blankets, and provisions enough to last you for a day or 

 two in case you get caught in a storm and have to lie out* 



When your traps are all set, you wait for a day or two 

 before visiting them again. The work of visiting the 

 traps is very exciting. Sometimes you will go along 

 nearly the whole line of perhaps a hundred traps without 

 getting a fur, but you are always expecting each further 

 trap to be sprung. On one trip I got thirty-six marten. 

 The traveling, after the deep snow has fallen, is done on' 

 snowshoes, and you drag a little toboggan to pack your 

 load. This is much easier work when the trail is once 

 broken than going on foot and packing loads on your 

 back. 



The animals caught in these traps are always dead 

 when you get to them, and nearly always frozen, so you 

 jiick them up whole and carry the entire day's catch to 

 the end of the route. Sometimes weasels or mice will set 

 the traps off, and these animals are too small even to be 

 caught by the crushing stick, so you must simply reset 

 the trap. You always carry a supply of bait for resetting. 



Some trappers smear certain kinds of strong-smelling 

 mixtures they call medicine on or near their baits to 

 attract the animals. This is especially common with 

 beaver. In land trapping, too, this is much practiced. 

 Among the various ingredients used at different times 

 are oil of rhodium, oil of valerian, oil of anise, alcohol 

 and the contents of the musk glands of the captured 

 animals, I never use medicine for marten bait, but for 

 catching fishers I nrb on the bait-stick a mixture of 

 alcohol, honey, and the contents of the fisher's musk 

 glands, preferring the musk glands of the female. These 

 glands are better medicine for this purpose than any 

 essential oils, but the juice when squeezed out and 

 bottled will not keep well, unless you mix alcohol with it. 



The trapper's great enemy is the wolverine. These 

 fierce creatures tear to pieces the animals that are caught, 

 and sometimes tear down the traps themselves to get at 

 baits, for the wolverine is too large to fit in the door of 

 dead-falls. When I see a wolverine track I lay out some 

 poisoned bait near by, but these brutes are very cunning 

 about poison. On one occasion I tried to catch one with, 

 poisoned bait and failed, then I strewed a lot of unpoisoned 

 bait along with the poisoned, and the wolverine would 

 eat the good bait and let the other alone, Finallv the 

 idea struck me to poison some of the bait in the traps 

 themselves, and this proved fatal to the shy fellow. 



When the catch is carried to the cabin the first thing to 

 do is to thaw out the bodies that are frozen; then they are 

 all skinned by "casing," that is by opening the skin across 

 the hind legs from heel to heel and pulling the skin inside 

 out off over the animal's head. The tail is skinned by 

 putting the bone of the tail in a split stick, pinching the 

 sides of the stick together and pushing the skin of the tail 

 off the bone. Then I run a sharp wire through the skin of 

 the tail and through its tip to clean it. The tail, of course, 

 is not turned inside out by this process. 



The skin is then put on one of the stretchers I have 



