12 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Jan. 4, 1913 
often go singly, or in pairs only, but when on 
the lakes and in marshy swamps they go in 
flocks (or as it is called “teams”) numbering 
anywhere from three to six or occasionally 
more. 
Most members of the duck family, if living 
much on the water, especially near the sea coast, 
are liable to have a fishy flavor when cooked, 
but this is not so with the teal whose flesh is 
very delicate and savory, almost as much so as 
a snipe or woodcock, but just the least flavor of 
duck is present, and none of the “fish.” 
In this respect the teal has a considerable 
advantage over the widgeon, and indeed over 
all the duck family in the delicacy of its flavor. 
Note on the Star-Nosed Mole. 
Although the star-nosed mole is quite a 
common mammal, very few people know any¬ 
thing about it. City dwellers never see it, and 
even to those who live in the country it is al¬ 
most unknown and seen only occasionally when 
a night hunting cat brings to the house an in¬ 
dividual that she has caught, but does not devour 
because of its unpleasant odor and — presumably 
• — taste. Long-tailed, and with the curiously star¬ 
shaped tip of the nose, it is an odd animal. 
Last spring Francis H. Allen made some 
interesting, if brief, observations on this species 
and published them in a recent number of 
Science. He says: 
On April 20 of this year I discovered a 
star-nosed mole {Condylura cristata (Linn.) 
Desmarest) entering a half rotten willow stump 
at the edge of a little pond in the woods at 
West Roxbury, Mass. The crevice it had en¬ 
tered proved to be a cul-de-sac, and after watch¬ 
ing for some little time its eager efforts to 
escape by burrowing out, I easily captured it by 
seizing the tip of the tail between thumb and 
forefinger. I dropped it on the path close by 
where it at once burrowed below the surface of 
the humus and progressed with some speed there, 
its progress being indicated by a lengthening 
ridge of earth. Catching it again, I carried it 
WINTER IN THE YELLOWSTONE. 
home, wriggling, and placed it in a wire cage 
with a wooden floor. It was very active, but 
owing, I suppose, to the position of the fore 
paws, which of course were fixed with palm out¬ 
ward, it could not get over the ground very 
rapidly. In the cage it kept going the rounds, 
poking its nose between the wires in an effort 
to escape. I dug some earthworms and placed 
them one by one in the cage. Apparently the 
mole’s power of scent was nearly or quite as 
weak as its eyesight, for it paid no attention to 
the worms unless they were dropped directly in 
the path it pursued about the edge of the cage. 
When it actually ran its nose into a worm, how¬ 
ever, it ate with astonishing greediness, and in 
a curiously piggish way, with a constant shaking 
of the head and shuffling the worm into its 
mouth with the help of the backs of its “hands,” 
which it moved in unison. It devoured about 
ten worms before its appetite appeared to flag, 
but one worm, a very large fat one, it abandoned 
after cutting it into three pieces by transverse 
bites. Perhaps this worm was uncomfortably 
large for its mouth and gullet, for it afterward 
ate one or two smaller ones. Little or no chew¬ 
ing took place apparently, and the worm always 
disappeared down the animal’s throat in a very 
short time. I heard no noise of the teeth in 
eating, such as Audubon and Bachman mention 
in describing the feeding of the common mole. 
A saucer of water put inside the cage was not 
noticed for some time, but finally the mole put 
its nose into it and appeared to drink with the 
same continual motion of the head that it used 
in eating. It tipped the saucer up a little and 
spilled some of the water, which it then seemed 
to drink off the board in a way that resembled 
sponging out the bottom of a boat. It continued 
the same operation on the dry part of the board, 
as if it could not tell where the water ended 
except by feeling. It struck me as a creature 
of very small Intelligence. Its eagerness to es¬ 
cape was perhaps due less to fear than to a de¬ 
sire to get below the surface of the ground and 
to a habit of perpetual motion that seemed to 
possess it. I use the word “eagerness’’ advisedly, 
for that seemed to be the dominant mental atti¬ 
tude of the little animal. There was nothing 
frantic or nervous about its actions, simply 
eagerness to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit 
of earthworms. 
Black Foxes. 
Halifax, N. S., Nov. 8. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of Nov. 2 in an article 
on “Rearing Fur-Bearing Animals,” Raleigh 
Raines states that “some foxes have been sold 
for fabulous prices, bringing in many cases from 
$2,000 to $3,000.” 
If Mr. Raines can buy up any black foxes 
at those prices, he has a good opportunity to 
make a few thousands of the needful easily. 
Fox farming has been carried on for at 
least a quarter of a century on Prince Edward 
Island, one of the Maritime Provinces of Canada. 
To-day there must be at least one hundred fox 
“ranches” on the island, a ranch containing from 
one to twenty or more pairs of foxes. One 
rancher — the pioneer in the business — has be¬ 
come a millionaire through what his neighbors 
called a crazy scheme in the beginning, but he 
worked away quietly, raising them for fur only 
LITTLE GRAY FELLOW SCENTS WINTER. 
at first, and was content to let the “wiseacres” 
scoff while he was becoming rich. 
Now as to prices. The minimum figure that 
a pair of black pups, male and female, can be 
got for to-day is $10,000, and they must be 
spoken for and part paid for a year ahead. It 
is reported that one pair, the female being guar¬ 
anteed to be with pup, changed hands last winter 
at the really fabulous price of $28,000. To my 
knowledge $15,000 was paid recently for a pair. 
Of course these prices are for breeding pur¬ 
poses only, though it is claimed foxes at $10,000 
are a good investment for fur raising alone. A 
pelt from a fox that died through accident this 
year brought £410, or $1,995.30 in the London 
fur market. 
One of these ranches was recently formed 
into a stock company, being capitalized at $600,- 
000. The ranch , has only twenty pairs of black 
foxes, the seller guaranteeing, however, an in¬ 
crease of not less than fifty young foxes to July 
I, 1913. This figure brings the price of the 
twenty pair to nearly $30,000 a pair, and the 
promoters claim that not a drop of Adams ale 
or a drop of the briny liquid that flows around 
this fox-mad island has leaked into the scheme. 
W. H. Starratt. 
New Publications. 
Camping in the Winter Woods. By E. R. 
Gregor. Harper Bros., $1.50 net. 
On the fly of the cover of this book is a little 
notice reading “How to open a book.” It goes 
on to say that you must lay the book back down¬ 
ward on a table or smooth surface. While this 
applies to a great many books, it should never 
have been printed in connection with “Camping 
in the Winter Woods,” for once the boy starts 
to read the 380 pages contained in this book, he 
will not lay it down until he has reached the 
tracks of bruin on his way into the cave to hiber¬ 
nate, at the bottom of page 380. The book is 
so various in its chapter titles, and so interest¬ 
ing, as it leads from one episode to another, that 
when you buy it for your boy it will be like a 
through trip ticket on an express. He won’t 
stop until he gets to the end. It relates to the 
experience of two boys who, at the suggestion 
of their father and under the guidance of “Old 
Ben,” a famous Maine woods guide, spend a 
winter camping in the Maine woods. While the 
book is fiction, there is no chapter in it that is 
not probable. 
