140 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
FOOD OP THE RED FOX 
On January 21, 1920, 1 was following a large fox track through the woods, where 
the animal had been hunting in leisurely fashion. On coming to a high stone 
wall he had leaped up on it, and there dropped dung. The four pellets were 
rather small, soft, smooth and of a dull green color, but there was no sign of fruit 
or hair on the outside. I sent the mass to the Biological Survey for examination, 
and received the following report: “The pellets were composed of about 90 per 
cent, mouse fur, mainly of Microtus pennsylvanicus. There were a few bones of 
the mice, one small feather of a bird, probably a chicken, and some skins and 
seeds of apples. The green color over the outside and to some extent through- 
out the felted mass is undoubtedly from the stomach contents of the Microtus^ 
which would be mainly grass. I should think from the amount of fur, that 10 
or a dozen mice were represented in this lot.” (Bailey). As there was about two 
feet of snow on the level one wonders how he got at the mice. 
— Ernest Thompson Seton. 
Greenwich, Conn. 
ACROBATIC SKUNKS 
Arthur H. HowelFs note on The Spotted Skunk as an Acrobat prompts me to 
write that this performance of standing on the front feet with hind feet up in 
the air is one that I have seen many times in the big northern skunk {Mephitis 
putida). Among several hundred skunks I found many that never did it, one 
or two that did it occasionally, and one that did it so much that his name with 
all the children was ‘Johnny-Jump-Up.’ It was usually done in a sort of playful 
threatening. He would stamp with his feet, run forward two or three paces, 
give a hard stamp with his front feet, and throw his hind quarters straight up 
in the air, with tail hanging forward and down or to one side. He always seemed 
to be in a rollicking good humor when he did it. I tried several times to photo- 
graph him in the act, but failed. 
— Ernest Thompson Seton, 
BOBCATS AND WILD TURKEYS 
During a visit to northeastern Arkansas in the first week of February, 1920, 
I was told by several hunters that the high prices commanded by furs were stimu- 
lating the trappers to such an extent that bobcats {Lynx rufus) were getting 
scarce, and the immediate result of that was a marked and steady increase of 
wild turkeys. 
— Ernest Thompson Seton, 
THE WOOD RAT AS A HARVESTER 
In December, 1916, while engaged in securing data for a report on some mineral 
lands near Magdalena, New Mexico, a small mining town 20 miles west of Socorro, 
I was surprised at the large shipments of pine nuts that were being sent to market 
from that station. A few miles west of Magdalena there is a considerable growth 
of pinon pines that might furnish a large harvest of nuts, but knowing the natural 
