April, 1922 
163 
that would better have fitted into Feb- 
ruary. The wind l)egan to blow from 
the nortii and we all began to shiver. 
“Might as well quit,” grumbled the 
Boss. “Thought maybe they’d bite later, 
but with this bloomin’ wind — ! Who 
ever heard of a fish bitin’ in a wind like 
this, as cold as it is?” 
But just then the Boss was thrown 
almost ofif his log. A varmint of some 
kind was trying to pull his rod away 
from him. When he at last had sense 
enough to use his fishing' brains, he found 
at his feet a crappie that looked like two 
pounds. “And that isn't a bad crappie, 
either,” remarked the Boss. 
We lined up near the Boss’s log, all 
of us shaking with the cold, the wind 
all the time blowing at our coats as if 
trying to get them off our very backs. 
There, with our teeth beating time t<r 
the music of the wind, we fished until 
nearly six o’clock. By that time we were 
ready to quit, even if the closing day did 
have something to do with it, for we had, 
collectively, twenty-seven crappie, ten 
bass and si.x pike, to say nothing of a 
small string of catfish. 
"They needn’t pull that old one about 
the wind blowing, on me, any more, and 
they needn’t spring that one about it be- 
ing too eold, either,” chattered the Boss, 
as we hurried, shivering, to our over- 
coats and hot coffee. 
That happened on a cold day, and 
later we fished that plate under the most 
favorable conditions, from April until 
October without catching a string of 
pme fish from it ! We caught catfish 
in plenty. But the bass and the pike and 
the crappie wanted a cold Alarch after- 
noon, with the wind blowing a hurricane 
from the north ! 
J. Arthur Dunn, Nebraska. 
ARE OWLS UNLUCKY? 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
AT my old Virginia plantation home a 
black woman named Emma lives in a 
little log cabin down in the big woods on 
the spring branch. Her father died last 
summer and as her husband is in the pen- 
itentiary, she lives with only her two lit- 
tle boys, Willie, aged eleven, and Robert, 
aged nine. She is very poor, but she had 
a flock of fourteen young guineas, three- 
fourths grown, which roosted in a small, 
bushy tree by the side of the cabin. 
Emma has very little education, but 
she can count, and one day, late in Octo- 
ber, when she counted her flock of young 
guineas, there were only thirteen; and 
when she counted them a few days later 
there were only twelve. From that time 
on those guineas were counted every 
morning and evening. There were al- 
ways the same number in the evening 
that there were in the morning, but every 
few days there would be one less in the 
morning than there were in the evening. 
By many the guinea is considered bet- 
ter than a watch dog, for when disturbed 
either by day or night he sounds a loud 
and noisy alarm. Yet Emma’s guineas 
would sound no alarm, when one of their 
number disappeared, arid Emma being a 
“Blue Gum,” was filled with all of the 
superstitions of her race, and soon be- 
came much alarmed, fearing that she 
FOREST AND STREAM 
had been conjured and the young guineas 
continued to disappear until there were 
only two left. 
Little Willie has a small gun, and one 
moonlight night last week he was watch- 
ing the tree and saw a dark, shadowy 
form alight in it so quietly that he heard 
no sound and the two remaining guineas 
were not disturbed ; he fired, and the next 
morning brought to the house to save for 
me the largest specimen of the big- 
horned owl (called "hoot owl”) that I 
Courtesy of Ameiicaii Museum of Natural History 
Great Horned Owl 
have ever seen, and they are so rare that 
I have not heard of one being killed or 
seen in this immediate locality in over 
twenty years, although I have killed them 
down on the coast of North Carolina, 
where they are still abundant. 
Russell J. Coles, Virginia. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher considers that in many 
localities the great horned owl is a “bene- 
ficial species” because of the number of 
rabbits it destroys xolicrc these arc a men- 
ace to crops. This is in spite of its fre- 
quent z’isits to flocks of poultry. “Of 127 
stomachs examined, 31 contained poultry 
or game birds; 8, other birds; 13, mice; 
65, other mammals; l,a scorpion; I, fish; 
10, insects, and 17 were empty .” — [Edi- 
tors.] 
SOME FUR BEARERS 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
D EFERRING to an article published 
in Forest and Stream, January, 
1922, entitled “Rare Furs of the Weasel 
Family,” by Agnes Laut, it is hard to be- 
lieve that the fisher and marten can be 
classed with the weasel, as both climb 
trees. The fisher is nocturnal in habits. 
The marten is not strictly nocturnal, but 
is both nocturnal and diurnal, or, rather. 
it is neither nocturnal nor diurnal. The 
marten is carnivorous, while the fisher is 
more like the raccoon, ready to feed on 
whatever presents itself. The writer of 
the article puts mink, marten, fisher, 
weasel and otter in the weasel class. It 
may be true, I cannot say it is not, but 
from my experience at traiiping 1 find the 
animals almost in a class by themselves. 
First, take the mink. It has a long, 
slender body, larger than a wca-el ; simdl 
head, short ears, bushy tail, broad feet, 
long, stiff overhairs with a dense, soft 
matted brown underfur. t olors varv as 
to localities from light dull-brown to a 
rich dark-brown tind nearly black, and 
there is a small white spot on the chin. 
The inink spends a greater part of its 
time in water and will never be found at 
any great distance from water except in 
journeys from one body of water to an- 
other. A mink is a great traveler and al- 
ways follows the same route with little 
variation. It is a great swimmer and 
diver and can remain under water for a 
considerable time. It can also climb 
trees, but spends most of its time on the 
ground or in water. The mink is neither 
nocturnal nor diurnal. It tra\els cither 
day or night. It cares not for the time of 
day nor the weather, whether a dark, 
stormy night or a bright, sunshiny- morn- 
ing. The female brings forth her voung 
in .April or May. She selects her den in 
rocks or tree-stumps and builds her nest. 
Her young run from four to eight in a 
litter, generally four. 'I'he mink is car- 
nivorous, feeding on fish, frogs, beetles, 
birds, mice, rabbits, lizards, etc. .\11 of 
these can be used for bait in trapping the 
animal. .As to scents for them, use fish 
oil or the musk of the animal, or a mix- 
ture of the two. 
' I ’ HE marten is nearly the size of a 
house cat, a large one. It has sbfirt 
legs, small feet, short, pointed cars, thick, 
bushy tail. Its colors vary from a yel- 
lowish-brown to a rich dark-brown, light 
underneath; .soft, drab, underfur. with' an 
orange-brown patch on the throat. The 
animal is carnivorous, feeding on mice, 
birds, squirrels, rabbits, and bird's eggs! 
They arc e.xpert climbers of trees, and 
are found in thickly wooded districts, 
making nests in old hollow trees or in 
dens in rocks where it is hilly. 'I'lic 
young are born three to six in ;i litter, in 
the early spring. The marten is not 
strictly nocturnal in habits, but is often 
seen during the day, regttrdless of wea- 
ther conditions. It is not .so great r. 
traveler as the mink, and travels from 
tree to tree as a squirrel docs, taking to 
the ground when it pleases. It is. there- 
fore. quite diti'erent from the mink, as 
the head is more like a fox and not a 
weasel. 1 hough with opposite habits, its 
food is practically the same as that of the 
mink. 
The white weasel has a long, slender 
body (more like the mink), short legs, 
small feet, small head, short cars and 
fairly sharp nose. 1 he fur is short and 
pure white in winter, except the tip ef the 
tail which is black. In summer the color 
varies from a light dull-brown to a rich 
dark brown, the tip of tail remaining 
(Continued on page 181) 
