[Feb. 9, 1907. 
214 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
5.000 (Of the trees, worth over $30,000, were 
badly damaged, many of them being completely 
girdled, and the bark eaten often as high as 
among the lower branches. Most of the dam¬ 
age was from mice, but in parts of the orchard 
rabbits also had been at work. As a means of 
prevention, a force of men and boys was en¬ 
gaged in applying to the trunks of the trees a 
wash composed of water, soap and carbolic acid. 
Later it was found that the efficiency of this 
wash did not extend beyond forty-eight hours. 
Experiment with Poisoned Grain. 
As an experiment, the writer placed some 
wheat poisoned with strychnine at the base of 
about fifty of the badly damaged trees. This 
was done late in the evening, and on the fol¬ 
lowing morning a considerable number of dead 
meadow mice and white-footed mice were found. 
An examination of the stomachs of both species 
showed that only the meadow mice had eaten 
the bark of the trees. The poisoning experiment 
had proved so effective that the owner of the 
orchard set his men to distributing poisoned 
wheat throughout the orchard, with the result 
that within a few days nearly all the mice had 
been killed. 
Methods of Poisoning. 
In the use of strychnine for poisoning field 
mice an ounce of strychnine sulphate is used to 
each half bushel of wheat. The strychnia is dis¬ 
solved in a pint of hot water and a pint of 
heavy sugar sirup is added. The combined wheat 
and liquid are then stirred until every grain is 
wet, when the mass is allowed to stand in the 
mixing vessel for twelve or more hours before it 
is distributed. 
To prevent all danger of poisoning grain-eat¬ 
ing birds, twigs of apple trees as a bait may be 
substituted for wheat. The twigs or sprouts, 
cut six to eight inches long, are dipped into the 
liquid poison, or the poison applied to them with 
a brush, and then sparingly scattered near the 
base of trees or at the mouth of mouse bur¬ 
rows, and along the paths frequented by rabbits. 
Both mice and rabbits eat the bark of the poi¬ 
soned twigs freely. 
Another excellent way of destroying mice with 
poison without endangering the lives of larger 
mammals and birds, is to introduce the poisoned 
bait into the middle of short pieces of drain 
pipe which have an internal diameter of about 
1 y 2 inches. The pipes are then laid on the 
ground near the burrows of the mice. To pre¬ 
vent displacement of the bait, it may be put into 
the pipes after they are in position. Meadow 
mice readily enter these drains and find the 
bait. Oatmeal made into a paste is the most 
convenient bait to use. This method of destroy¬ 
ing mice is recommended by the French minister 
of agriculture, and is well worth trial. 
There is no escaping the conclusion that 
meadow mice are injurious to agriculture. It 
has been argued that they are to a great extent 
inhabitants of waste lands, and therefore not 
very destructive to crops, but such assertions are 
wide of the truth. The value of these mice as 
tillers of the soil or as destroyers of weeds, 
while not to be overlooked, is very slight in com¬ 
parison with their destructiveness to grass, fruit, 
vegetables, hay in the stack, and orchard trees. 
Testimony of their recent ravages in foreign 
countries, as before cited, is of itself conclusive 
as to their destructiveness, and their depreda¬ 
tions in America, although less severe locally, 
have been nearly as great in the aggregate. The 
danger lurks in every swamp, copse, and waste 
corner, and the continued destruction of hawks, 
owls, snakes and small carnivorous mammals, to¬ 
gether with climatic conditions favorable to mul¬ 
tiplication of the mice, must inevitably result in 
an outbreak of the animals. An invasion of 
meadow mice in this country, where farming 
operations are on such an extensive scale, would 
be attended by ravages of crops such as have 
rarely, if ever, been experienced. 
In a village in New Jersey, the schoolmistress saw one 
of the little boys crying. She called him to her and 
inquired, the reason. “Some of the big boys made me 
kiss a little girl out in the schoolyard.” was the reply. 
“Why, that is outrageous. Why did you not come right 
to me?” “I—I didn’t know that you would let me kiss 
you,” he said.—Chicago Daily News. 
Insect Food of Squirrels. 
At the monthly meeting of the Staten Island 
Association of Arts and Sciences, held on the 
evening of Saturday, Jan. 19, at New Brighton, 
S. I., Mr. W. T. Davis, one of the founders of 
the Association, read a paper on “Insects as the 
Food of Squirrels,” which has been published 
in the Canadian Entomologist. In connection 
with this paper, given below, Mr. Davis ex¬ 
hibited a number of acorns and nuts which em¬ 
phasize and illustrate the observations there set 
forth. The paper is as follows: 
“Toward the end of August and early in Sep¬ 
tember many acorns, with their cups attached, 
fall from the oaks and lie beneath the parent 
trees. When first they reach the ground they 
look perfect, but directly the Balaninus larvse 
begin to bore out through the cups and enter 
the ground, as is their habit. When they escape 
from hickory nuts, the larvae of these long¬ 
snouted beetles choose the thin places between 
the ridges, which are so characteristic of the 
shell-bark nuts, for instance, and the easiest way 
out from an acorn must be through its base 
and cup. The larvae, however, may be cut short 
at this part of their development, for they are 
much sought after by squirrels, who seem ro 
esteem them highly. The problem that presents 
itself to the squirrel is to tell which acorns con¬ 
tain larvae. He makes, considering the con¬ 
ditions, the simplest and most direct test. He 
bites a small part of the cup off so as to expose 
the base of the acorn, and then punctures it 
slightly. He can, no doubt, tell very quickly 
by the odor if there is a larva within, ^nd if 
such proves to be the case, the hole is enlarged 
and the much-desired, morsel secured. I have 
found on Staten Island scores of the large 
acorns of the red oak that had been treated as 
mentioned above, and on another occasion many 
scarlet-oak acorns that had been treated in the 
same way, all of which goes to show how en¬ 
terprising and intelligent the squirrels really 
are. 
“Another example of the insect-eating habit of 
a squirrel was observed at Lakehurst, N. J., 
where beneath a pitch-pine tree, mid the scat¬ 
tered remains of many cones, from which the 
seeds had been extracted, were found a number 
of C isiocampa cocoons. They had been brought 
from a nearby wild-cherry tree, that had been 
badly eaten by these larvae, and still contained 
some of their old tents. Each cocoon had been 
opened either at the end or side, and the pupa 
extracted. Certainly in this instance the squirrel 
did a good act, and also showed his liking for 
insects. 
“On the 29th of June, some years ago, I saw 
a chipmunk catch a moth, pull off its wings, 
and eat it. I have often fed captive gray and 
flying squirrels bits of raw meat, so their fond¬ 
ness for Balaninus larvae and other insects is not 
to be wondered at, but what is chiefly of interest 
is the intelligence shown in making their 
captures.” 
That squirrels live to some extent on animal 
food is well known, but that they make a prac¬ 
tice of destroying insects will, to most sports¬ 
men, be wholly novel. The red squirrel has been 
vehemently abused for his known destruction of 
the eggs and young of birds, and some observa¬ 
tions go to show that the gray squirrel has a 
similar weakness for flesh food. In bygone 
years we have seen one of the Rocky Mountain 
forms of chipmunk engaged in devouring the 
dried body of a field mouse, and we have known 
a side of bacon to be partly destroyed by 
ground squirrels. This, however, may have 
been done for the salt which was in it. Mr. 
Davis is a naturalist of high merit and lire obser¬ 
vations will be carefully read. 
Labrador Sketches. 
Translated from the French by Crawford Lindsay. 
The pekan or fisher is also called black cat, 
Pennant’s marten and by the Montagnais In¬ 
dians An-shi-kut. Although not excessively in¬ 
telligent. it has nevertheless a very good 
memory, and if it escapes after being caught 
in a trap, it is exceedingly wary afterward and 
even learns how to get behind the trap and 
spring it so as to get the bait. It is very- 
voracious and quite an epicure in its tastes if 
one may judge by its larder, which it builds 
at the end of pine trunks or in the tops of wide- 
spreading spruce trees. Partridges, hares, 
squirrels, small birds, eggs and the berries of 
the Mascabina (Mountain ash or rowan-tree) 
vary its bill of fare. Fish also seems to be a 
favorite dish. When hunters kill a caribou and 
cannot at once carry away the flesh, they gen¬ 
erally gralloch the animal, which they cover up 
with snow, leaving the entrails, which the pekan 
eats and is satisfied and does not dig up the 
carcass. 
It climbs trees in pursuit of its prey and to 
seek refuge from its pursuers. It is very seldom 
shot, as it is not very often seen, and is gen¬ 
erally caught in traps which are sometimes 
placed at the foot of a tree and carefully hidden. 
They must be strongly built, for a knowing 
pekan will separate the pickets and secure the 
bait. The portion of the trap liable to be at¬ 
tacked is defended by a second well-hidden trap. 
Sometimes also an appetizing bait such as a fine 
trout is hung up on a tree close by at a certain 
height and a carefully disguised trap set 
beneath it. When the animal jumps into the 
tree or out of it, it gets caught. 
The pekan resembles the marten, but is 
larger and its fur is grayer, although there are 
some very black. Its tracks are long and dis¬ 
tinguished by the very marked impression left 
by its inner claws. 
This animal is becoming scarcer and scarcer 
in our woods and seems to be retiring gradu¬ 
ally toward the north. I have caught only two 
fishers in all my trapping and that was some 
years ago. H. de Puyjalon. 
To Abolish the Biological Survey. 
Monadnock, N. H., Jan. 28.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: All the splendid game and song 
bird reforms in the United States, which are 
beginning to attract the admiration of Europe; 
the buying of lakes and islands by the Govern¬ 
ment to be held as protected breeding places of 
ducks, geese, grebes, snipe, etc.; the Lacey act, 
which made it unprofitable to kill immense num¬ 
bers of game, by putting a stop to the shipping 
of it from State to State; the discovery of the 
true relation of birds and mammals to* agricul¬ 
ture by the examination of thousands of stomachs 
—every bit of all this the work of the Biological 
Survey and the Audubon Society, acting jointly. 
Suddenly Congress proposes to abolish the 
Biological Survey, although the work only de¬ 
mands $52,000 a year. William Dutcher, the 
president of the Audubon Society, begs me to 
rouse every one I can to write at once to his 
respective Congressmen, both Senators and Rep¬ 
resentatives, urging the defeat of this iniquity. 
The Biological Survey is one of the finest 
features of modern times. I beg of you to get 
as many helpers as you can at once. Congress 
is near adjourning. Abbott H. Thayer. 
New Publications. 
“Adventures with Indians and Game” comes 
to us from A. W. Bower & Co., of Chicago. Its 
author is William A. Allen, who describes his 
twenty years’ experience in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains in the style well known to readers of the 
sportsmen’s press, to which Dr. Allen has lopg 
been a contributor. The illustrations are from 
life, some of them, and others from mounted 
specimens; portraits, plains scenes, etc. 
It has been a matter of regret to 11s that 
various difficulties have delayed the publication of 
“My Life as an Indian” beyond the date origin¬ 
ally set for it. We are now positively promised 
the book by Thursday, Feb. 14, when all orders 
will be filled. It will be a very great pleasure 
to many persons to renew their acquaintance with 
Nat-ah'-ki and all the other characters of the 
charming story, which under the title “In the 
Lodges of the Blackfeet” aroused so great an 
interest among the readers of Forest and 
Stream. 
<r 
