FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 5, 1907. 
He Let the Rabbit In. 
West Park, N. Y., Dec. 26. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Some people I know once had a 
kitten that got under the kitchen floor. The' 
kitten,- instead of coming out the way it got 
in, found a knot-hole in the floor and under 
this it sat, looking up imploringly, first with 
one eye and then with the other. The peo¬ 
ple, being of the society with the long name 
type, foolishly tore up a section of the floor 
to liberate the kitten, instead of covering up 
the hole, in which case the kitten, as soon as 
it no longer saw the light or people at that 
place, would have hunted for light somewhere 
else, and so found its way out. 
Their experience was the very opposite of 
one I had when a small boy. I was just be¬ 
ginning to set traps, and one winter day was 
delighted to catch a rabbit. I slipped the 
rabbit, uninjured, into my hunting coat pocket 
and took him home, hanging my coat up in 
the hall. The secret of having a real live 
rabbit in my pocket, unsuspected by the 
family, was so • delightful that I let him remain 
that day, giving him apples on the sly. The 
next morning I was met by the hired-girl in 
high wrath. 
"What did you want to let, that rabbit* in 
with you when you came in last night for, say 
—a scarin’ me most to death?” 
I tried to put on a “straight face” and solemnly 
replied, “Well, it was so cold and the poor 
rabbit a shiverin’ and wantin’ to come in, I 
hadn’t the heart to refuse him; so I let him in.” 
“Well, you young clip, if you let any more rab¬ 
bits in this house to scare me when I come 
down in the dark in the mornin’ I’ll leave—you 
can just leave ’em stay out, cold or no cold.!’ 
These are true stories and the moral is: How 
readily humans, even those not officially belong¬ 
ing to the new school of natural history ro¬ 
mancers, impute human motives to all actions 
of animals! Julian Burroughs. 
Gulf Bird Reservations. 
Away back in September, a frightful hur¬ 
ricane ravaged the coast of certain portions of 
the Gulf of Mexico. One of its branches de¬ 
vastated the "city of Mobile, causing terrible dam¬ 
age. Mr. Frank M. Miller, President of the 
Louisiana Audubon Society, has just learned 
of the effect of that hurricane on some of the 
bird island reservations in the gulf, It is re¬ 
ported that Grand Cochere Island, which con¬ 
tained 100 acres, has been swept out of exist¬ 
ence by the tropical hurricane of September. 
Breton Island, which was 6 miles long, and wag 
the largest island in the group and the most 
resorted to by breeding sea birds, was cut up into 
three pieces by the storm, three leads now run¬ 
ning through it from side to side. 
Since the storm, we are told by President 
Miller, that no one has ventured out to the 
reservation. Trappers had been engaged to go 
to Breton Island and trap with the raccoons 
and muskrats this winter, animals which in the 
breeding season do much damage to the birds, 
but these trappers were prevented from going, 
and their lives were thus saved. 
Mr. Miller is quoted as saying: 
“Breton Island stood twelve feet out of the 
water. The storm was worse in that section 
of, the sound than during the Galveston storm. 
All the inner islands were under water six feet. 
In one instance a house was on very high pil¬ 
ings, as was the cistern. The water was so 
high that the cistern floated off and left its 
stand. 
“Thousands of pelicans are on Breton Island 
with broken wings. They are dying. The 
storm was so fierce that the birds were dashed 
to the ground and in other ways injured. 
“At Chandeleur Island an iron ship that had 
been wrecked on its shores four years ago was- 
carried clear across this island and to the north 
harbor islands, where the wind shifted and blew 
the vessel back to Chandeleur Island, where it 
is again lodged. Four keepers were on the 
ship at the time, and they escaped serious in¬ 
jury. 
“One thing,” added Mr. Miller, “There is not 
a raccoon or muskrat left out of the 700 square 
mile reservation. Every one was drowned, and 
I do not believe the islands will be infested with 
them again.” 
Whatever the destruction of sea birds by the 
storm may have been, continued protection will 
repair such damage, and if the predaceous ani¬ 
mals have been destroyed by drowning, as Mr. 
Miller believes,, the storm so far as the bird 
islands go, will not have been an unmixed evil. 
Kill the Cats. 
Replying to our recent comments on cats’ as 
game destroyers, a correspondent writes us: 
“Kill all cats found on a country road, as they 
have no good intentions. We make laws to pre¬ 
vent gunners, but not cats.” 
Some Red Squirrel Maneuvers. 
Conneaut Lake, Pa., Dec. 26.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Moving day in squirreldom is nol 
the first of April, nor in fact any day or sea¬ 
son ruled by the calendar, but a movable 
date fixed Upon by the matron for purely local 
or personal reasons. 
Last season, when the approach of warm 
weather brought the family more and more 
to the veranda, a red squirrel which had for 
months frequented the overhanging cherry 
tree, manifested its disapproval of human in¬ 
vasion by a regular tirade of scolding every! 
time any one appeared. Failing to make any 
headway, it was one day noticed running 
down the tree and along the fence with some-! 
thing in its mouth. Shortly it returned, and 
a second squirrel baby, carried as a cat car-i 
ries her kittens, was removed to a place of safety. 
Another of the genus was observed to fre¬ 
quent a clump of sunflowers, the heads of 
which disappeared mysteriously, even in the 
immature state. Later these seed heads, 
some of them not half grown, were discovered 
tucked away in a pile on the second floor of 
a little used outbuilding, evidently for winter 
use. Near by, in a bag hung over a rafter, 
Mrs. Squirrel had made her nest; and when 
an inquisitive member of the family peeped 
in, her rebuke was a speedy removal of her 
family to unknown quarters. 
One of the tribe was frequently observed 
to spring from shop roof to a neighboring 
apple tree, thence to neighboring trees under 
which a colony of incubator chicks were do¬ 
miciled. One day cries of distress summoned 
the family to the chick nursery, where a 
wounded chick and a vanishing squirrel told 
the story. In half an hour ’the alarm was 
repeated, and the furry mischief was seen to 
run down a tree trunk and grab three chicks 
in turn, holding each but an instant, and then 
bound up the tfee before assistance could 
be given. A bystander insisted that it was 
purely a mischievous prank, but the chicks, 
none of which was seriously hurt, did not ap¬ 
preciate the joke. The old house cat, too, 
suddenly became interested. The squirrel 
tauntingly jeered from the treetops, but be¬ 
fore night the cat had avenged the insult, and 
the squirrel was no more. Bessie L. Putnam. 
Ingersoll’s Mammals. 
From the press of the Macmillan Co. .comes a 
new animal book by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, who 
has been writing natural history books and articles 
for lo these many years. The present volume is 
devoted to the mammals and appears to be one 
of a series, since the head lines of the title, page 
is The Life of Animals, and the word Mammals 
comes in as a secondary title. 
The work deals with the mode of life, the his¬ 
tory and the relationship of the most familiar 
class of animals, the one to which we all belong 
the mammals. It does not concern itself with 
descriptions of species, but rather with the broad 
characterization of groups and the -expression oi 
the habits of different members of the groups. 
It thus contains a mass of material hot found in 
the ordinary scientific book nor even in the ordi¬ 
nary natural history, but which to the great pub¬ 
lic, the uninformed person or the beginner in 
nature study, is much more interesting than any¬ 
thing which relates merely to color, form or sys¬ 
tematic position. 
In compiling this volume Mr. Ingersoll has 
gone to the best authorities, and in the last pages 
of the book he quotes gives references to 270 of 
these. Moreover he - has had the assistance and 
advice of Prof. Henry F. Osborn and 'Dr. W. D. 
Matthews, of the American Museum of Natural 
History; Mr. D. G. Elliott, of the Field Natural 
History Museum, and Mr. Hornaday, of the 
Zoological Society. The volume is profusel > 
illustrated and most of the pictures are extreme!] 
good, many of them being taken from photo I 
graphs of living animals. There are fifteen 
colored plates of great beauty. 
The book is one of extraordinary usefulness 
and interest and should have a wide popularity.! 
There is a good index. 
A YELLOWSTONE BEAR. 
