384 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1920 
from the rattlesnake, and could the rat- 
tles of a true rattler be attached to them, 
as I often wished to see done, you then 
would have the true “sing” of the rattle- 
snake, minus his poisonous properties. 
I don’t think a rattler is conscious of 
his “tune” and only vibrates his tail 
when angry preparatory to striking, a 11 
is the case with those species which I 
have just mentioned. Audubon says ; 
rattler never strikes without rattling, 
and destitute of that appendage canno 
strike at all, which latter clause I do not 
believe; however, if true, it would only 
go to prove what I have written above, 
that the brain and tail move sympatheti- 
cally, regardless of sound. 
And whilst writing I wish to allude to 
the location of sound most extraordinari- 
ly developed in the wild turkey, alone , 
so far as I have been able to ascertain, 
though I have been a reader of your 
journal nearly thirty years, and have 
never seen a notice of it and have read 
numerous stories relating to its charac- 
teristics, particularly its intelligence. I 
allude most particularly to the power of 
locating the imitator of its call, wher. 
turkey hunting, and no matter the dis- 
tance from you, if it can hear you (and 
it can hear you half a mile under favor- 
able circumstances), if it wants to come 
to your call, it will come to that very 
spot where the call is made. Of course 
you are supposed to be concealed in a 
blind and the turkeys are flushed, but if 
it wants to come, though I am sorry to 
say they are often actuated by business 
engagements elsewhere, it will do so, and 
no martin ever went truer to its gourd 
or a rifle bullet to the mark than Mr. 
Turkey to the exact spot where that call 
is made, though it be only large enough 
to conceal your body. I consider this de- 
velopment of the bump of location of 
sound most astounding, and if another 
animal possesses it, I would like to know 
it. It is developed somewhat in the hog 
but nothing approaching that of the 
turkey. 
James Moore, North Carolina. 
CARNIVOROUS SQUIRRELS AND 
VEGETARIAN FOXES 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: . 
H AVE any of the readers of Forest 
and Stream ever noticed that red 
squirrels are sometimes carnivorous? 
Such is the fact, vouched for by two 
railroad men, one of them well known 
to the writer, whose word can be depend- 
ed upon. During the past winter a dog 
which had been killed by their freight 
engine, near Tuscarora, Pa., was ob- 
served being fed upon by two red squir- 
rels. An investigation by two of the 
train crew showed that the two squirrels 
had burrowed quite a hole into the body 
of the canine, which had been preserved 
by the prolonged cold spell. Nearby was 
the hole of the squirrels, through the 
snow in which they were seen to take 
refuge. 
The severe winter in the Poconos has 
also caused some foxes to become vege- 
tarians according to the testimony of one 
reliable resident of that section wherein 
foxes have been seen to appear in his 
orchard back of his house to obtain fall- 
en apples. The foxes were very scant 
around the ribs. 
J. Keith Esser, Pennsylvania. 
GROWTH OF INCISOR IN SQUIRREL 
'~»~ , HE accompanying illustration gives 
: a left side view of an abnormal 
skull of the Western Fox Squirrel 
compared with a normal skull (above) ; 
described by Dayton Stoner in a publica- 
tion of the Iowa Academy of Science. 
“Apparently this animal had, through 
some accident or other, lost the exposed 
tip of the lower left incisor, thus leaving 
the upper incisor of that side unopposed; 
as a consequence, the latter tooth did not 
extend downward much further than 
normally, but assumed the outline of an 
incomplete circle, growing backward and 
upward.” 
The complicated state of affairs result- 
ing “must have caused much inconven- 
ience and even pain to the animal until 
its sufferings were ended by a shot from 
the hunter’s gun.” 
CECROPIA LEADERS AND SOME 
LARGE FISH 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
I N the April issue of Forest and 
Stream, there appears an article by 
E. T. Whiffin headed, “Fly Fishing Both 
Wet and Dry.” Altogether the article 
strikes me as an exceptionally good one. 
There is one particular item, however, 
that has aroused my curiosity and I 
should like to know if you could procure 
for me the information. It is relative to 
the cecropia silk worm, from which Mr. 
Whiffin says he procured material for 
a knotless leader about six feet long. 
First, I should like to know enough 
about the cecropia silk worm to readily 
recognize it, if it is among our local 
bugs. I should then like to know all 
about extracting the material from the 
worm and how to make the leader. 
I have no doubt in the least that thou- 
sands of fishermen would be tremendously 
interested in knowing the details con- 
cerning this subject. I make occasional- 
ly my own rod and tie my own leaders. 
Sometimes I take a try at fly tying. 
Every other real fisherman in this sec- 
tion of the country has spent many a 
pleasant winter’s evening at the same 
occupation and I am sure it would very 
materially add to our pleasure, if we 
knew how to draw and manufacture our 
own leaders. 
Incidentally, I do not believe that it is 
generally known that we catch trout in 
this locality which compare favorably in 
size with trout taken anywhere in this 
country or Canada. Forest and Stream 
has told many an excellent trout story, 
but most of these stories of especially 
large trout lead us to believe that for 
size and fight it is necessary to go to the 
wilds of Canada for the big ones. It 
might interest you, therefore, to know 
that on the first day of this season three 
brown trout were taken out of the Loyal- 
sock Creek, Lycoming County, over eigh- 
teen inches (18") long and one of them 
measured twenty and one-quarter inches 
(20^4"). One fisherman procured the 
three. Yesterday morning the same fish- 
erman secured two trout sixteen inches 
(16") and one thirteen inches (13") long 
in Lycoming Creek, Lycoming County. 
He fished from about six o’clock until 
ten o’clock in the morning. Recently a 
brown trout thirty and one-half inches 
(30%") long was sent in to one of our 
local taxidermists for mounting. It was 
caught near Tyrone, Pa. I do not know 
the weight but judge it must have 
weighed over eight pounds, as one was 
taken last summer just above Williams- 
port measuring twenty-seven inches (27") 
and weighing six pounds, nine ounces. 
These of course are brown trout. Last 
year the largest brook trout taken in this 
locality was seventeen and one-half inch- 
es (17%") long. Quite a number of fif- 
teen and sixteen inch brook trout were 
caught and one fifteen and one-half inch 
(15%") brook trout was taken from Ly- 
coming Creek this year. 
I trust that you will succeed in pro- 
curing for me the information relative 
to the silk worm. 
S. R. Hipple, Pennsylvania. 
T HE best of our American caterpillars 
from which to draw leaders is the 
cecropia; a full grown caterpillar some- 
times being five inches long, rather slen- 
der in proportions, apple green in color, 
with several large tubicals on the back of 
the seg aments near the head. It is some- 
times found on the grass or a nettle-stalk 
or at any height from a few inches to 
fifty feet above the ground. They some- 
times are quite abundant on maple, wil- 
low, alder, elm and sumac and they feed 
on leaves of these trees. 
It is occasionally possible to get a few 
of these worms late in August or early 
in September. When they are about 
ready to spin they are restless and may 
be found crawling rapidly up or down 
trees or across the walk or road and 
sometimes, if you look carefully, you will 
