The Intelligence of Animals. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was glad to see the article on this subject 
,y Mr. John H. Hendrickson. Anyone who has 
ivvned an intelligent dog knows that dogs can 
eason and can corroborate his statements. But 
hose who claim the contrary always say. when 
ases of the intelligence of dogs are adduced, 
hat the dog. -by long association with men, has 
tad its instincts changed into a kind of intelli¬ 
gence with seems like reason, but is not reason. 
Now the trouble with Mr. Burroughs and 
hose who think as he does is that they have 
lad but very slight acquaintance with wild ani~ 
nals. If they had ever studied wild raccoons 
md bears they would never make the statements 
hey do make. These animals not only reason, 
hut are progressive. Fifty years ago a great 
nany bears in Maine were taken in log traps. 
Gradually it became more and more rare that 
me would enter a log trap, yet there was no 
rouble in taking them in steel traps set in houses 
of logs or brush, but they soon learned to avoid 
joing in by the front entrance and would tear 
aut the side of the house and g'et the bait, leav¬ 
ing the trap set. Some bears, like some people, 
could easily be fooled once, but unlike many 
people, it was seldom one was fooled a second 
time. A man will go into a gambling house and 
lose his money and keep on going and never 
learn to avoid one; but a hear, after he has been 
once trapped, is very seldom caught in a trap 
set in the same way. 
I know of a case where, after trying all 
known ways to trap a bear, a place was found 
where there was a cavity in a ledge shaped like 
an inverted V. A large bait was placed at the 
further end and a trap at the entrance, the clog 
being shoved inside and perfectly covered ; and. 
as the entrance was too wide for the trap to 
fill it, a piece of an old beech log was stood at 
one side, between the trap and the end of the 
clog. Everything looked perfectly natural and 
showed no signs. The trap could not be taken 
out without throwing the beech log down unless 
that were first removed. Instead of entering as 
was expected, the bear removed the beech log 
first, throwing it one side; then, taking hold of 
the end of the clog, he drew out that and the 
trap and hauled them to a safe distance, leav¬ 
ing the trap still set, and then went in and se¬ 
cured the bait. It is not known that this bear 
was ever caught in a trap. 
In four cases I have known bears caught in 
steel traps to climb trees, and, after entangling 
the clog in the long branches, to throw them¬ 
selves down, trusting to their weight to pull 
them out of the trap. In one case this worked 
successfully; in another the bear escaped with 
the loss of a toe; in the other two cases the 
bears were found dead. In one case which T 
saw. the ground under the tree, a large hemlock, 
looked as if the tree had been struck by light¬ 
ning from the amount of bark and limbs the 
bear had torn off. 
I once set a trap for a large bear. Hav¬ 
ing heard that others had failed I took par- ■ 
ticular precautions. I selected a place where 
three large pines stood in almost an equilateral 
triangle. I set the trap between the trees which 
were nearest together, leaving the other for the 
back of the house, and endwise between this tree 
and those on the sides, placed short pieces of 
old logs, which the loggers had used to skid 
between rocks. As bears dislike to touch any¬ 
thing prickly I banked the wall on both sides 
and covered the top with large old dry spruce 
boughs until it looked like a brush heap, and 
all around outside stuck small spruce trees, cut 
a long distance from the spot. Except for the 
bait I think few men would have suspected that 
anything had been placed there by a man. 
The first time the trap was looked at a por¬ 
cupine had been caught by the tail, and the bear 
had dragged him and the trap out and had torn 
him out. The second time the spruce boughs 
were found taken down from one side, and the 
logs tossed aside, the bait taken, and the trap 
left undisturbed. One log, a piece of water- 
soaked juniper, which was a good load for a 
man to lift, had been struck with one paw and 
sent several yards away. The trap was looked 
at until too late in the spring to catch bears, but 
the bear did not come again. Being ashamed 
to be beaten by a bear, the next fall—although 
in going and coming I had to travel over thirty 
miles to look at the trap—I set it again. I set 
two traps without bait. One was on a level 
intervale between a large spruce and a birch 
whose roots were raised above the ground and 
reached across to the spruce, making a place for 
the bear to step over. I set it as carefully as 
for an otter, scented with beaver oil and rubbed 
scorched honey on the trees high up. 
At the second look, the clog was found on the 
opposite side of the birch from where it had 
been placed, tucked under the birch roots. 
There were marks of a struggle and the trap, 
twisted all out of shape, lay near it. But what 
was singular, a deep trail where the clog had 
been dragged led away from the trap. It was 
evident that the bear had been caught by the 
hind foot. He had started off with the trap, 
and in the course of a quarter of a mile had 
found two large cedars turned up by the wind, 
but still green. Beginning at the top of each of 
them he had limbed both trees from top to bot¬ 
tom, breaking off green limbs as large i s a 
man’s wrist. Then, not finding any chanc*- to 
get fast to anything, he evidently remembered 
the place where he was caught, and, circl ng 
back, had shoved the end of the clog under the 
roots of the birch, and, exerting his great 
strength, had wrecked the trap in a way a horse 
would not have had the strength to do. It took 
a blacksmith to put that trap in shape again. 
If there was not an exercise of reason in that 
bear's coming back again to the spot where he 
was caught, on purpose to find a place where 
he could make the trap fast, so that lie could 
pull out of it. then there is no such thing as 
Now what would a man have done in a sim.lar 
situation? I will tell you what one man did. 
A few years ago an Indian who was traveling, 
in looking for a camping place near the main 
road above Mattawamkeag. stepped into a bear 
trap set in a path. His leg was not broken, and 
he had a hatchet. I was also told that he had a 
file in his bag. With his hatchet he could have 
cut a short lever, and, placing one end under a 
root and bearing down on the other, he could 
have borne down the spring and secured it with 
his belt, or, in lack of a belt, could have twisted 
withes or used a spruce root; and then, revers¬ 
ing, he could have treated the other spring in 
the same way, and been free in fifteen minutes; 
or he could have filed the bows of the springs 
off. But what he did was to stay where he was 
for nearly two days, until some one passing 
heard him call and released him. Now this was 
a man, and if he had reason, what did the bears 
have whose cases I have cited. J I could give in 
detail dozens of cases where bears, raccoons and 
foxes have shown a great deal more reason in 
avoiding traps than men usually do in keeping 
out of places where they are likely to lose their 
money or reputation. Manly Hardy. 
Foxes and Grouse. 
New York, April 20 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: We are often told of the fox as a 
destroyer of grouse, but I should like to hear 
the story of some eye witnesses as to his work 
in this direction. It is very easy to find fox 
tracks about the remains of a bird and then say 
a fox did it. I believe that many of the offenses 
laid at his door are committed by weasels, mink 
and wildcats or lynx. 
During a portion of the year I have known 
foxes to spend a part of each day digging 
among potato hills in a retired hollow for white 
grubs or mice in the adjoining fields and to re¬ 
turn to the mountain at nightfall, passing a farm 
which was almost covered with young poultry 
out for grasshoppers. From an experience of 
about ten years in a locality where there are 
more foxes than in any part of Essex county, I 
am convinced that this animal destroys but few, 
if anv, chickens. Our trouble there was, first 
of all, hawks, then skunks, owls and raccoons. 
The fox never invaded the chicken coops or 
broke up the sitting turkeys out at the base of 
the mountain. Of course in winter a fox may 
sometimes trap a grouse in the snow at night, 
but who has ever seen a fox actually catch a 
grouse? Come, now, brothers of the forest, be 
honest and own up. I would be glad to learn 
how the fox does the trick, if anyone has seen 
it done. Peter Flint. 
SUBSTANTIAL NOURISHMENT. 
The chief concern of every camper is to ob¬ 
tain substantial nourishment in - compact form. 
No camp or cabin is complete without its supp! 
of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk anu 
Peerless Brand Evaporated Milk. They have 
no equal for Coffee, Fruits and Cereals.— Adv. 
reason. 
