GENEEAL NOTES 
37 
the tree. This wolverine frequently visited the neighborhood of the cabin, and 
at ength was trapped in a dead fall strong enough and heavy enough, it was 
thought, to have held a young bear. The animal was not killed — although the 
faU log and what had been put on it must have weighed 800 or 1000 pounds — but 
pulled itself out and went off, leaving blood and hair which told unmistakably 
what animal had been caught. 
Mr. J. P. Holman of New York has often seen in Alaska caches protected by 
tin nailed about the tree trunks. 
Mr. T. H. Bowler, M.E., of New York, a former member of the Northwest 
Mounted Police, states to me that there is no question but that wolverines climb 
trees to rob caches. He also speaks of the common practice of splitting tin coal 
oil cans and nailing them around the tree trunks below the caches to prevent the 
wolverines getting support for their claws. Notwithstanding this precaution, 
he knows of instances where wolverines have robbed caches in trees that were 
thus protected. 
Apropos of the ancient story that the wolverine throws down bits of moss to 
attract the deer under the tree in which he is concealed, an observation by Mr. 
Burnham seems interesting. In his deer park he has seen deer attracted to oak 
trees in which gray squirrels were nutting, by the sound of the squirrels barking. 
The deer had learned that the gray squirrels dropped many acorns. He says, 
“Several years ago there was a very heavy crop of acorns on an oak ridge. I 
hunted this ridge three or four different days, and as I was searching particularly 
for large bucks I had abundant time to watch the deer. Several times I saw 
feeding deer raise their heads when they heard the squirrels barking at a distance 
and look intently in the direction of the sound. . If they saw any nuts dropping, 
they walked over under the tree in which the squirrel was working and ate the 
acorns. They had learned to associate the sound with the food.” — Geo. Bird 
Grinnell, New York City. 
CURIOUS PALATAL OBSTRUCTION IN MUSTELA LONGICAUDA 
While collecting on the prairies north of Islay, Alberta, Canada, I took among 
others on October 31, 1919, a specimen of Mustela longicauda disclosing a rather 
curious circumstance. Upon cleaning the skull I found a tough length of vege- 
table stalk, in diameter about the size of a knitting needle, firmly wedged in the 
cups formed by the rearmost and second molariform teeth. The piece fit securely 
