454 
FOREST AND- STREAM. 
[ June 6, 1896. 
SOME TEXAS MAMMALS —II. 
CURiOtrs notes are given by Mr. Attwater about the 
variation of the Texas cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus tex- 
ianus), which sometimes entirely Disappears from the 
region and again becomes very numerous. In 1889, for 
example, these rats were extremely abundant, and then 
gradually disappeared, and were not heard of in Bexar 
county until the beginning of 1895. Since then they have 
again become common. They make their nests with the 
wood rats in bunches of cactus. They seem to get along 
very well with that species, but the brown rats kill and 
eat them. As an indication of their abundance at one 
time, Mr. Attwater says, "Mr. Watson's boys killed over 
100 in one afternoon in a brush fence, and for several 
months their cat would bring in from six to twelve every 
night." He says "that on one occasion, when tbe rats 
were the thickest, they counted thirty-eight, which the 
cat had piled up in the wood-box during the night for the 
amusement of her kittens," 
The destruction of crops, and especially corn, by these 
rats was very great, some farmers losing half their corn 
crop. During the winter following their great abun- 
dance, marsh hawks and short-eared owls were very nu- 
merous, probably attracted by the rats. 
The black variety of the rock spermophile (Spermophi- 
Ins grammurus buckleyi) is very abundant northwest of 
San Antonio. Of it Mr. Attwater says: 
"These black rock Equirrels are found in the cafions 
and ravines around the heads of the Medina and Guada- 
lupe rivers. The nearest point to San Antonio where I 
have heard of their being seen is on San Geronimo Creek, 
at Gallagher's ranch, twenty-five miles northwest of San 
Antonio, where a single one was seen several years ago 
by Mr. Frank Edwards, an enthusiastic hunter and close 
observer. This must have been a straggler, as I should 
not expect to find their regular range nearer than sixty 
miles northwest of San Antonio, near the northern border 
of Bandera county, nor to find them common till well 
in Kerr county. There is a colony at the head of J ohnson 
Creek, a fork of the Guadalupe River, about twenty miles 
north of Kerrville. On May 9, 1895, 1 visited this locality 
with Mr. Lacey to procure specimens. We watched the 
cliff, where the squirrels live, for more than an hour from 
the opposite side of the canon, during which time a dozen 
or more, of various ages, came out of the holes and 
crevices in the rocks. We peppered them with small 
bullets and coarse shot. Two or three were killed out- 
right, and others were wounded, but we were obliged to 
leave them on the inaccessible ledges, and reluctantly 
returned without securing a single specimen. Some of 
the largest appeared very black, but some of the smaller 
ones were of a grayish color all over. The four specimens 
sent you are from the head of Turtle Creek in Kerr 
county, and were kindly obtained and prepared for me by 
Mr. Lacey. 
"These rock squirrels are not generally distributed over 
the country, like the tree squirrels, but live in colonies, a 
dozen or more miles apar£, and generally in some favorite 
cliff or cafion near the heads of the creeks that form the 
sources of the rivers. When occurring near ranches these 
squirrels do considerable damage to the gardens and corn- 
fields. They are expert climbers, making their way up 
the perpendicular faces of cliffs with ease. Unless dis- 
turbed or alarmed their progress is. slow and their move- 
ments are more like those of a creeping reptile than the 
lively skip of a squirrel. If they bounded swiftly from 
rock to rock there would be nothing to excite surprise, 
but when seen slowly crawling along the under side of an 
overhanging ledge of apparently smooth limestone one's 
curiosity is excited, and you watch their movements with 
surprise. On being alarmed, however, they move with 
great quickness. 
"This is the only spermophile I have met with near 
San Antonio, Bexar county being apparently outside of 
the range of either Spermophiluv mexicanus or S. iride- 
cemlineatus. The former may occur not far from the 
southwestern border of this county, or on the other Bide 
of the Medina River, twenty-five miles eouth of San An- 
tonio." 
The beaver (Castor canadensis) was formerly found 
northwest of San Antonio, and Mr. Lacey reports it as 
still found sparingly on the Little Llamo and Perdinales 
rivers. 
A single skull of the black bear accompanied the collec- 
tion. Of this species Mr. Attwater says: 
' 'Black bears are still found in localities at the head of 
the Nueces River and in the Devil's River region, where 
the immense and almost impenetrable cedar brakes afford 
them protection. Ten years ago they were common in 
parts of Bandera and Kerr counties, Mr. Lacey informs 
me that at that time 'bear bacon' was nearly always to be 
found at any of the ranches on Turtle Creek, and that it 
was almost impossible to raise hogs on account of bears 
eating the young pigs. 
"A pair of black bears have bred three times in the 
Zoological Gardens at San Antonio, each time bringing 
forth the young early in spring. There were three or four 
in each litter, about the size of rats, and they were eaten 
by the old ones each time." 
No specimen of the civet cat (Bassariseus astuta) was 
sent, and they are reported to be more abundant in the 
rough country north and west of San Antonio than im- 
mediately about that city. In captivity they become 
quite tame and live comfortably; but I have not heard Of 
their breeding in confinement. In a wild state they live 
principally on birds and mice, and are said to be expert 
mice catchers. 
While the wolf, lobo or loafer is not now found imme- 
diately about San Antonio, it used to be, as this note 
Bhows: 
"Formerly common in Bexar county, but I have not 
heard of their occurrence here for several years. They 
are still found in the broken, hilly country northwest of 
San Antonio, particularly in Edwards county. They are 
more cautious than the coyotes, and disappear as the 
country becomes more settled and traversed by railroads. 
They are much more dreaded by the sheep and goat-men 
than the coyotes. Mr. Lacey says a coyote kills sheep be- 
cause he wants something to eat, but that a 'lobo' kills 
them just for fun, and generally 'lays out' a dozen or two 
before he quits. The ranchmen always pay a larger re- 
ward for a lobo than for a coyote. 
"Mr. J. Blackburn Miller, of Newburgh, N. Y., who 
spends much time hunting in Texas, with headquarters at 
San Antonio, and a good authority, on Texas game, has 
made some interesting experiments crossing coyotes and 
lobos with some of his dogs. A setter bitch crossed with 
a male coyote raised three pups, and a 'Great Dane' or 
Ulmer bitch crossed with a male lobo had thirteen pups." 
Its ravages on stock have led the Texas Live Stock As- 
sociation to urge the payment of a bounty on wolves. 
The red fox is believed by many persons not to have 
been native of Texas, and Mr. Attwater supplies us with 
interesting evidence bearing on this point, which is seen 
in the following letter from the secretary of the Texas 
Fox hunters' Association, Waco, Texas, which he sent to 
Dr. Allen: 
Office of T. H. Brown. ) 
County Clerk, McLennan County, [ 
Waco, Texas, Dec. 9, 1895. ) 
H. P. Attwater, Esq., San Antonio: 
My Deajr Sir — I nave just been handed a letter by Mr. 
Seley from you desiring information in regard to "red 
foxes," and will take pleasure in giving you such informa- 
tion as I have. Yes, sir, there is a Texas Fox Hunters' 
Association, with Dr. John D. Rogers, of Galveston, as 
president, and myself as secretary. I was the first to in- 
troduce "red foxes" into this part of the State. We had 
exchanged our old-time native hounds, or as usually 
called "pot lickers," for the Walker dogs from Kentucky, 
and the gray foxes proved themselves no match for these 
dogs, only being able to run from twenty to forty -five 
minutes ahead of them. Having the dogs, it became 
necessary to get game that would give them a respect- 
able race. Accordingly in 1891 I imported from Kentucky 
and Tennessee ten red foxes and placed them among the 
Bosque Brakes about four miles above where it empties 
into the Brazos River. They gradually scattered over a 
large area of country. The next spring (1892) I again 
brought in twenty-three more reds from the older States, 
planting thirteen of them again among the Bosque 
Brakes and ten of them on White Rock Creek, on the 
east side of the Brazos River. These foxes afforded us 
some fine sport, but they too gradually scattered, only a 
few remaining in the 'neighborhood of their adopted 
home, some wandering off through Bosque and Erath 
counties. The next spring I only succeeded in getting 
two reds from the East and planted these on the B )sque, 
and they remained and are still affording fine races. In the 
spring of 1895 I again planted five reds on the river near 
Lovers' Leap, where the waters of all the Bosques mingle 
with the waters of the Brazos. Some of the bluffs here 
are 300ft. high, and have a great many caves in them, 
and these last foxes seem well satisfied with their new 
home. Occasionally I hear of a red fox in various parts 
of this (McLennan) county, and I am satisfied that within 
a few years they will be as numerous here as in the old 
States. 
I understand that Messrs. Eli and James Rosborough and 
Capt. T. H. Craig, all of Marshall, Harrison county, some 
ten or fifteen years since planted quite a number of reds 
in that, the eastern, part of the State, and occasion- 
ally they find them where they have located, off some 
twenty or thirty miles from where originally turned 
loose. 
Dr. John D. Rogers has, I think, during the spring of 
1895 planted some six or eight on his Brazos Bottom farms 
in Brazos and Washington counties. I would suppose that 
in all there have been at least 100 red foxes imported and 
planted in the State. 
. Hoping this information will assist you in your work, I 
remain most respectfully, T. H. Brown. 
The gray fox (Urocyon cinero argenteus) is not very un- 
common, though it cannot be called abundant. Mr. Att- 
water reports the Texas lynx (Lynx texensis) as common, 
though less so than formerly. He says, "Its home is 
among the ravines and dry gullies which run into the 
creeks and rivers, where the land is broken and cut into 
holes and fissures by heavy rains, and the whole covered 
with a tangled growth of thorny brush, cacti, yuccas and 
small trees, forming a labyrinth which presents to the 
intruder a thousand thorns at every step, penetrated only 
by cattle paths leading to the water, and where a man 
found traveling on foot would be considered either an 
escaped lunatic or a fugutive from justice. Here the 
wildcats used to share the premises with peccaries, but 
the latter have been killed out in this country, and their 
only neighbor now is the rattlesnake. 
"Wildcats are often seen in the daytime, lying on 
ledges along the river bluff, and on horizontal limbs of 
trees sunning themselves. Mr. Watson once saw a wild- 
cat lying in the water on the Medina River, cooling itself 
after having been run by dogs. Their food consists 
chiefly of wood rats, rabbits and quail. They steal many 
turkeys and chickens from the ranches, and kill goats 
and young pigs. On skinning a wildcat the legs, head, 
neck, etc., are often found to be covered with cactus 
thorns, where they have accumulated under the skin in 
large quantities, the cats no doubt obtaining most of the 
rats, etc., by pouncing on them in their retreats among 
the bunches of Opuntia. 
"I have had the pleasure of hunting wildcats with Mr. 
Otto Braubach, a neighbor of Mr. Watson, who has a 
pack of hounds trained to hunt cats, and have obtained 
some interesting information from him in regard to their 
habits. Mr. Braubach hunted wildcats for the bounty 
several years ago, and in less than twelve months, com- 
mencing about September, 1892, killed eighty-five of 
these cats. They were nearly all killed in a cattle 'pas- 
ture' formed by the fork of the Medina and Leon rivers, 
about twelve miles southwest from San Antonio. A 
number of other wildcats were killed during the same 
time by other hunters in the same neighborhood. It 
generally took the hounds about three hours to tire a cat 
out and 'tree' it or corner it in a cave, and one was once 
run into the river by the dogs and killed there. The cats 
would not take to holes or trees on dark nights, but kept 
dodging around in chaparral thicket till they were run 
down. 
"Mr. Lacey reports them common in Kerr county, and 
from a high place on the side of a cafion he once saw an 
old one dodging the dogs by following around after the 
hounds that were trailing it among the thickets below 
him. These cats are often taken while young and raised 
as pets, and become very much attached to their owners. 
They occasionally breed in confinement. 
The panther (Felis coneolor) is fast being killed out, 
though it is still found now and then. A pair in the 
Zoological Gardens at San Antonio bred in 1891 and 1892, 
producing four young each time. The period of gestation 
was observed to be ninety-six days. 
The jaguar (F. onga) is rare east of the Nueces River, but 
is still occasionally taken in the chaparral thickets along 
the Rio Grande. 
The leopard cat (F, pardalis) is still common between 
San Antonio and the Rio Grande. 
A Buck Without Horns. 
Pennsylvania. — I have been reading about large horns 
and small horns and all kinds of horns, but did any of the 
Forest and Stream deer hunters ever kill a buck without 
horns? Not one that had shed them, but one that never 
bad had horns. . I was still-hunting deer in Wexford 
county, Michigan, and had started a deer which I 
thought was a buck, and after trailing him about a mile 
he went into some brush and I got within 15 ft. of 
him before I saw him. Just as I saw him I suppose he 
scented me. He made one jump and I took a snap shot 
at him and shot him through tne head. He had no horns; 
never had had horns. He dressed 1501bs., and was two 
years old, so the old hunters said. His head looked just 
like a moolley cow's. If any one ever killed one like it, 
would like to have them write about it. Some may say 
it was a fawn, but it was too big for a fawn. 
J. B. McW. 
[We imagine that hornless male deer of any species are 
very rare in America. We do not think that we have ever 
before heard of one. We believe that the European red 
deer (Cervus elaplius) sometimes lacks horns. These horn- 
less males are in Germany called hummle. They are said 
to be perfectly well able to take care oE themselves in dis- 
putes with the horned deer.] 
Wild Pigeons in the Northwest. 
Washington, May 24. — In your last issue you have an 
article from Dr. Beebe about the wild pigeons he has 
killed in western Washington near Tacoma. Having 
myself been a resident of that part of the country for six 
years, living on an island in American Lake, I have often 
killed wild pigeons and have seen great numbers of them 
in the trees around the lake, ajid they are identically the 
same kind of pigeon I had. often killed in Missouri and 
Illinois during the period from 1869 to 1875, They are of 
a dark slate color and have long tail feathers. 
I discovered while living on the island in American 
Lake great numbers of trout of several varieties. When 
speaking to the old inhabitants of that section of there 
being trout in American Lake, they told me they had 
never seen a trout in the lake, nor had ever caught one, 
although they had fished in the lake for twenty to 
thirty years. But I have seen hundreds of them at a 
time ; they would not take a fly or any other kind of 
bait, although I have tried repeatedly to catch them. 
I lived on the island with my family for eighteen 
months and the other members of my family have seen 
these trout. Wm. E. Clayton. 
Belated Geese. 
Rock, Mass., May 26. — We were much surprised this 
morning, during a heavy southeast rain, to see a flock of 
twenty-five or thirty Canada geese flying eastward 
toward Cape Cod Bay. They were flying rather low and 
had evidently passed the night in the great Middleboro 
Pands, on the edge of one of which my place is situated. 
John Murdoch. 
0»wf* &%8 {§ ttth 
A PARADISE FOR GAME. 
I imagine I see an incredulous smile creeping over the 
faces oi the gentle readers — as the novelists put it — of 
Forest and Stream when the heading of this article 
meets their eyes. But nevertheless, gentlemen and lady 
Nirarods also — if any there be who read Forest and 
Stream — it is a solid, substantial fact. The place exists 
and 1 have seen the country and have seen more game in 
ten days' time than I ever saw in my life altogether, and 
I am no spring chicken either. Was born at the foot of 
the Seven Mountains in the old Keystone State, and well 
do I remember when a boy, 8 years of age, standing 
in the door of my father's cross-road store and seeing, less 
than a mile away, five or more deer gracefully clearing 
the fence at a time. How I longed to oe a man and have 
a gun! But when I arrived at that period of life, Win- 
chester and other repeating rifles, and not less the lumber 
interests, had made large and small game of.all kinds few 
and those that were left mighty shy, and the weighty 
question which has troubled the Esaus of the present day 
and generation arose: "Where can I go and get a reason- 
able amount of game and fish?" There was Florida, but 
while fish were in abundance, the country was low and 
full of bad, very bad snakes and sich; also, if I may be 
allowed to use an IriBh bull, "big game is small;" the 
Adirondack charges high and game not too plenty, etc. 
But I had read and heard of Montana, Wyoming, Colo- 
rado; so last October, when asked to join a party going to 
the latter State, I joined and had the dream of my life 
realized. I saw and shot big game until I had to stop or 
see it go to wilful waste. 
I only picked out big bucks too, weighing from 150 to 
2001bs. , and what meat! So fat that it was stripped off in 
layers 2in. thick at places, and so tender that one could 
pull it to pieces witn one's fingers. This was on the 
Rocky Mountains at an altitude of 10.000ft. or snow line, 
and the home of the elk, black-tail deer, mountain lion, 
silver tips, bears, eagles, blue grouse, gray squirrel, and 
last, but not least, is the queer little snowshoe rabbit, 
called so, as it has webbed teet to enable it to travel over 
the deep snow in winter, which falls to the depth of 30ft. 
at times, Here also are the brawling mountain streams 
fed by the melting snow, and full, yes, swarming with 
the gamy trout. At the foot of the mountains or on the 
plains live the graceful antelopes, which are at this time 
of the year at their best — fat and tender from the early 
spring grasses — and can be seen from a pair to as high as 
75 and 100 in a bunch. Jack rabbits, common rabbi ts 
