February, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
75 
cause of the alarm, and come nosing 
back toward us, so we crawled on our 
hands and knees up behind an old log 
where we could watch from all sides. 
Very soon we heard a slight movement 
in the bushes on the opposite side of the 
ridge which must be Mr. Spikehorn com- 
ing back on his tour of inspection, so 
we cocked our rifles, drew a bead on the 
spot from which he appeared to be com- 
ing and waited. Slowly there slid out 
into view and pointed directly at our 
log, the most evil looking rifle barrel 
I have ever chanced to meet. The rifle 
was followed by the familiar face of 
one of our own party whom we had not 
seen since early morning. He too, was 
looking the business end of our rifles in 
the face, and they didn’t look good to 
him, either. 
Our friend told us he had followed the 
deer down to the ridge and the noise we 
made creeping up to our log sounded to 
him like the deer walking about. He had 
crept up almost onto him twice before, 
and the deer being young and not very 
wild would run a little way then wait 
until the hunter approached him. 
You can imagine that we were all 
glad indeed that all three of us had 
used proper caution in stalking that 
deer. 
Charles L. Burns, Maine. 
TRAPPING IN PENNSYLVANIA 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
A LTHOUGH Chester county, Pa., is 
but within a short distance of the 
city of Philadelphia and one of the most 
thickly populated sections of the State, 
it has a reputation for furnishing some 
of the finest pelts of animals in the 
country. They are of exceptional quality 
and trappers there reaped a rich harvest 
last winter. 
Skunks in that section are always of 
the finest quality and are more abundant 
than in many sections not so thickly 
populated. The result is that the small 
boys in the country are making lots of 
money, getting really high prices this 
season for the reason that more dealers 
are in the game and bid high for the 
pelts. In former years a few dealers 
took advantage of the small boy trap- 
pers and paid as they pleased for the 
hides, reaping good rewards at the ex- 
pense of the boys, but the latter are 
now wiser and are growing richer, while 
the dealers can no longer purchase prime 
furs from them at prices for “seconds” 
or “thirds” or bluff the trappers into 
believing the hides are “blue pelts,” a 
common game. The boys are meeting 
the game and making money. 
Recently a skunk hide taken in Ches- 
ter county brought $10, an unprece- 
dented figure, but it was that of an old 
resident as black as coal, and without a 
single streak. It will possibly bring the 
record price at some big sale. 
Muskrats were taken in large numbers 
in the county and small boys within the 
borders of West Chester, the county seat, 
have taken many along spring ditches 
and small streams in the limits, where 
they come from the larger streams miles 
away, even entering sewers at times. 
Quite a number of pelts have been sold 
to dealers at $2 each, but they were 
prime ones. Formerly if half a dollar 
was paid, the trapper thought he was 
getting about the limit. 
At Chadd’s Ford, on the Brandywine 
Battle Field, a trapper has the hide of 
an otter, taken this season, and prob- 
ably the last heard of in Chester county. 
The animal was over three feet in length 
and the hide is. a prime one. The man 
who secured it has so far refused all 
offers made by dealers and says he will 
get his own price later. 
Although they are extremely rare, an 
occasional otter has been found in the 
county in recent years. About fifteen 
years ago Franklin P. Gill, of this place, 
and a companion while after muskrats 
during a flood, shot four otter near 
Chadd’s Ford in the section where the 
one was taken this season, and about 
five years ago one was shot at Cedar 
Knoll in the §ame manner. 
Every little while there are stories 
of otters being seen along the Brandy- 
wine but investigation has shown that 
the man who thought he had seen an 
otter simply sighted a muskrat swim- 
ming on the water. Tracks on the banks 
and dens along the stream proving this 
to be the fact, as the ottor would leave 
an entirely different trail. 
Red foxes are plentiful in the county 
but are not trapped except in cases 
where they become “bad” and raid poul- 
try roosts. The trappers respect the 
sport of the fox hunters who enjoy the 
chase and do not disturb the animals 
to any extent. A couple of years ago 
a man poisoned a number and was de- 
tected by the fox hunters. They simply 
made matters so warm for him that he 
moved out of the locality and to another 
county the following spring. 
There are plenty of ’possums and 
’coons in the locality but no great at- 
tention is paid to them, although the 
hides are valuable this season. Even the 
black house cat is being sought in the 
towns and dealers are buying many pelts 
of this predatory animal. One man in a 
town used a deadfall beneath his back 
porch and marketed a dozen hides to 
date. 
A few mink hides are secured but the 
animals are rare and only an occasional 
one is found. One secured, however, is 
a prize worth from $10 upwards ac- 
cording to size and quality. No atten- 
tion is paid to rabbit or squirrel hides 
or even to that of the groundhog. 
Verily the ancient Quaker county of 
Chester is on the map as regards its 
fur-bearing animals. 
W. Taylor Hunt, Penn. 
BOXING SQUIRRELS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
( ENCLOSE a photograph of two squir- 
rels, mounted by my friend, Lee Clark, 
of South Amboy, N. J. Lee is a natur- 
alist and has a little museum all his 
own, which many people use and admire 
very much. 
J. B. Pardoe, New Jersey. 
AN INQUISITIVE DOE 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
T HAT wild animals have a strong sense 
of curiosity, is a fact often com- 
mented upon by hunters, and well at- 
tested by an incident that recenay came 
under the writer’s observation. 
Having reached the wooded crest of 
one of the Berkshire Hills, I sat down to 
rest and await developments, dividing 
attention between my lunch and the sur- 
roundings. Scarcely was I seated, how- 
ever, when my roving eye caught a 
glimpse of a moving furred body among 
the trees on the other side of a little 
ravine, — just a momentary glimpse of 
something too large for a coon and seem- 
ingly too dark for deer. Knowing that 
bobcat and lynx were common in these 
parts, I hastily slipped in some heavy 
shot, and advancing as noiselessly as pos- 
sible, through the ankle-deep leaves, to 
the edge of the ravine, I assumed a de- 
fensive position behind a large tree, peer- 
For the squirrels’ heavyweight title 
