the hours of daylight the traps almost invariably 
remained empty while the early morning regu¬ 
larly found them holding a larger or smaller 
number of this species. My notes record only 
'two specimens taken during the day-time, a male 
and a female trapped on the same runway under 
a decayed log. There is no doubt that in this 
territory the gapper-mouse is chiefly nocturnal. 
Peromyscus maniculatus gracilis (LeConte). 
Deer-mouse, white-footed mouse or wood-mouse. 
—This mouse comes next to the gapper-mouse 
in point of numbers. Excepting the marshy 
places it was taken in all the localities in which 
the preceding species was taken, but it seemed 
to prefer the drier wooded slopes and 'hillsides. 
It was found uniformly distributed. This mouse 
is known to be nocturnal in its habits and we 
found no evidence that it ventured abroad by 
day, of its own accord. It scampered about in 
close proximity often, at night, as we sat quietly 
by the campfire embers, writing up notes for the 
day by candle-light. It often entered our supply 
tent but was never found to do any damage. 
One of this species was taken in a trap set on 
a horizontal limb of a cedar about four feet from 
the ground. 
Synaptomys cooperi (Baird). Bog-lemming• 
—But a single specimen of this mammal was 
obtained. This was a male and was trapped 
at camp I, on the North Kawishiwi, a few yards 
from the water, in rather open woods of poplar, 
willow, and small birch. Traps kept in this and 
nearby places for a period of three weeks 
brought no more specimens of this kind. I be¬ 
lieve, however, that the bog-lemming may be 
found less rare than our results thus far indi¬ 
cate, when a more thorough search for it shall 
have been made in some of the sphagnum bogs 
of this region. 
Sciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben). Red-squirrel 
or chickaree .—The red-squirrel was found even¬ 
ly distributed throughout but not noticeably abun¬ 
dant in any locality. This is probably in part 
due to the scarcity of cedar groves, in which, 
nearer the central part of the state, in the same 
latitude, I have in former years found the 
chickarees massed, often in large numbers. 
At our camp on the lower Isabella river a red- 
squirrel, on one occasion, came down after dark 
from some tall cedars near which our camp-fire 
was burning, to search for food-scraps about 
the foot of the tree. We had arrived at camp 
rather late and the fire had evidently awakened 
him and induced his little night excursion. 
Tamias striatus griseus (Mearns). Common 
chipmunk —This chipmunk was found of com¬ 
mon occurrence, but, as elsewhere, was confined 
to certain localities, being quite absent in others. 
During the two weeks at camp II, we saw none 
of this species in the immediate vicinity, but the 
long-tailed chipmunk was common. 
Eutamias quadrivitatus neglectus (Allen). 
long-tailed chipmunk .—Generally speaking this 
chipmunk was observed wherever its larger rela¬ 
tive occurred, although the two frequently varied 
much in comparative numbers in a given local¬ 
ity. The long-tailed form was found most nu¬ 
merous in dry, open, rocky places bordering a 
water-course and with dense thicket in the im¬ 
mediate background. Especially to their liking 
were places of this sort that had been stvept by 
forest fires some years back, and as a conse¬ 
quence were strewn with debris. In the heavier 
FOREST AND STREAM 
woods, on the other hand, the short-tailed or 
common chipmunk appeared generally superior 
in numbers. 
Sciuropterus sabrinus (Shaw.) Northern fly 
ing squirrel .—During the first summer in this 
region we obtained no specimens of this species. 
In the latter part of August last, two specimens, 
male and female, were trapped at camp III. 
These were taken within a hundred and fifty 
yards of each other and may have been a pair. 
The locality was a tall ridge covered with birch 
and poplar, along the base of which the speci¬ 
mens were obtained. They undoubtedly occur 
in the more heavily timbered parts of all this 
region. Owing to their nocturnal habits these 
interesting mammals may remain unknown in 
localities where they are fairly common. Forest¬ 
ers who have spent much time in the woods of 
this region have disclaimed any knowledge of 
their occurrence. 
Marmota monax canadensis (Erxleben). 
Wood-chuck .—Three specimens were secured out 
of a total of five seen. Two of the five were 
half-grown specimens of the melanistic phase. 
One of these which was secured, was entirely 
black. All three collected were shot among 
rocks near watercourses, among which they evi¬ 
dently had their abode. While probably not to 
be classed as common, they undoubtedly are dis¬ 
tributed throughout this part of the state. 
Lepus americanus phaeonotus (Allen). North¬ 
ern varying hare or snow-shoe rabbit .—In the 
region 'about camp I the varying hare was very 
plentiful. It was a nuisance from our point of 
view, as it was continually tampering with our 
traps set on the ground for smaller mammals. 
In the vicinity of camp III rabbits were far less 
numerous, indeed, seemed scarce. Our small 
traps baited as usual were rarely disturbed by 
them and snares set out from time to time here 
gave very meager results. Chiefly responsible 
for their reduced numbers here are undoubtedly 
the wolf, fox, the great horned owl which is 
very common, and to a less extent, probably, the 
mink; and the lynx and wild-cat where found, 
but these appear to be scarce in this particular 
region. 
Fiber zibethicus zibethicus (Linn.). Musk¬ 
rat .—The musk-rat is of general occurrence. We 
found it in the marshy bays along the North and 
South forks of the Kawishiwi river westward 
to the county limits from camps I to II. The 
largest numbers occurred along the Isabella river 
and ks tributaries. These streams are usually 
499 
of good depth, with low grassy banks and marshy 
places at frequent intervals and are ideal musk¬ 
rat territory. Clams are an important food of 
the musk-rat in these localities, as the heaps of 
shells strewn along the banks give abundant 
testimony. Very rarely did we see any indica¬ 
tion of rat “houses” in any of this territory, the 
animals having their burrows under the banks. 
On June 23d, 1912, a family of musk-rats was 
collected consisting of a female and her five 
young, the latter about one-third grown. On the 
same day in a nearby locality another female 
was taken which contained seven unborn young 
about the size of the common house-mouse. 
Castor canadensis (Kuhl.). Beaver .—Due to 
the protection which the beaver has enjoyed in 
this state for some years, it has been able to 
maintain itself in a number of localities where 
it had already been threatened with extinction, 
and in some of these has been slowly increasing. 
It is doubtful, however, if many of these animals 
now exist outside the state park at Itasca, and 
in the Superior National Forest- 
Recent workings of the beaver were found in 
a number of quite widely separated localities in 
our territory, in 1912, but they were all of the 
nature of temporary feeding grounds and no 
attempt seemed to have been made to establish 
themselves in any of these places. There were 
all indications that the animals that had here 
been engaged had come from a colony that was 
known to be located on the upper sources of the 
Little Isabella river. 
In the latter part of August last a family con¬ 
sisting of about four individuals, so far as we 
were able to judge, had built a lodge and estab¬ 
lished itself on the lower Isabella river. This 
was at a distance of about seven or eight miles 
from the colony on the Little Isabella. The ani¬ 
mals were seen by us a number of times as we 
carefully paddled past the place on our trips 
up and down stream. Two were observed as 
they slid into the water from “forms” on the 
bank, close to the water’s edge and well con¬ 
cealed by bushes and driftwood. During the 
time that we were there, the first week of Sep¬ 
tember, great activity was manifest in laying in 
the winter’s food supply; the accumulations made 
in the intervals between our visits were very 
noticeable. 
Chinka hudsonica (Richardson). Hudsonian 
skunk .—A female of this species was trapped on 
the bank of a small stream entering the North 
Kawishiwi river, on Tune 25, 1912. The condi- 
B’rer Fox and the Moose Birds. 
