fish leap from the water about 500 feet 
out in the lake and shake his head in 
his efforts to get rid of the plug. 
In a few minutes the same thing was 
repeated near the shore and but a short 
distance from the boat. The bass was 
soon among the lily pads growing there, 
as could be seen by their agitation, and 
finally he seemed to have fastened him- 
self to some of the roots as the commo- 
tion remained in the same place. 
Rowing up to the spot, “Ed” said in 
looking down into the water “Uncle 
Rufe, I can see the plug.” 
Rufe said: “Take hold of your line, 
Ed, with one hand and the end of your 
rod with the other and see if you can’t 
eatch the loop on to one of the hooks 
in the plug.” 
After several careful trials, Ed ex- 
claimed, “I have got hold of him” and 
began to pull him up. 
When Mr. Bass with all the fight 
taken out of him by his long struggle 
was pulled into the boat, both men 
could scarcely believe their eys when in 
addition to the 3% pound big mouth 
which they had’ first hooked they also 
found a 2 pound 10 oz. small mouth 
who had evidently hooked himself in 
his efforts to take the “vamp” from 
the big mouth. 
GEO. P. WADSWorRTH, 
Binghamton, N. Y. 
Carp and Opossums 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
EING a regular subscriber to your 
magazine and reading the letters of 
other readers, I too, have decided to 
write one. I was just reading an arti- 
cle about carp in this month’s magazine 
and I would like to state that I have 
had some good times fishing for carp. 
A friend and I were at a spring where 
we get all our water when fishing, the 
spring is right beside a creek that flows 
into the river which is about 300 yards 
from the spring. We had just left the 
spring when we spied a large carp in 
shallow water that the tide had left up 
the creek. He could not get back on 
account of a pile of driftwood, so we 
got in the water behind him, and be- 
tween him and deeper water and we 
surely had a lively time for a few min- 
wtes as he seemed very anxious to get 
back in deeper water. 
When finally captured he weighed 
around 12 or 15 lbs. I would like to 
ask some of your many readers a ques- 
tion. 
Can you breed opossums at home and 
how large a place is necessary? I 
have several nice ones that we have 
caught this.month and wonder if they 
will mate in a cage of some size. 
J. G. BLizzarp, 
Richmond, Va, 
Woodchucks and Crows 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
LIKE all the rest of the readers of 
ForEST & STREAM I always find the 
magazine most interesting. Its timely 
articles of outdoor life and letters are 
as welcome as the birds in May. 
Do woodchucks climb? They most 
certainly do. I wouldn’t have believed 
it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. 
One day a few summers ago, I was 
walking along a lonely wood road on 
central Long Island when my attention 
was attracted by something unusual in 
the lower branches of a small-stunted 
pitch pine tree. It was about four feet 
from the ground. I stopped to investi- 
gate and see what it was. It was a 
small brown animal of some kind about 
the size of an opossum, but as the opos- 
sum is greyish in color it could not be 
him. Imagine my profound surprise 
when I sawit was a wood-chuck—a great 
great grandfather woodchuck! What 
in the world his object was in climbing 
the tree was beyond me, I must confess. 
Perhaps he went “up in the air” be- 
cause he was lonesome. Well, anyway, 
I poked Mr. Woodchuck down from his 
high perch with the aid of a_ short 
stick. He seemed real glad to get back 
upon terra firma again. I had the 
pleasure of seeing him scurry off, and 
was soon lost to view among the scrub 
oaks. 
Woodchucks and crows were my 
hobby as a boy—and I still like to read 
about them in middle life. I have 
hunted woodchucks and crows as pests 
and I have tamed them as pets. And 
I have found them interesting as such. 
I have eaten woodchuck and found the 
flesh equal to that of rabbit. I have 
even tried to eat crow, but the cook ab- 
solutely refused to prepare the bird for 
me, nor allow her cooking utensils to 
be used for the purpose. And as for 
chicken hawk, they most certainly do 
make an excellent broth with all their 
dark meat and gristle. 
There is no reason in the world why 
woodchuck meat should not be eaten. 
There is nothing repulsive about the 
woodchuck, in fact the woodchuck is one 
of the cleanest animals there is. He 
eats nothing but the cleanest of food 
—fresh vegetables and clover is his 
chosen diet. It is equal to that of rabbit 
any day—nowhere near as repulsive as 
skunk, and skunk, the most despised 
animal on earth, is eaten with evident 
relish by many. I do admit that I have 
never eaten skunk. The woodchuck is 
prepared for the table exactly the same 
as the rabbit. It is skinned and dressed, 
the sides cut away nearly to the back- 
bone, and then allowed to freshen out 
in clear cold water for a few hours be- 
fore cooking. It may be cut up into 
pieces and fried in the pan like chicken. 
Fried in butter or with cream sauce it 
is most delicious. 
As a boy I have made considerable 
spending money in woodchucks. The 
town paid a bounty on them then. It 
was only twenty-five cents per ’chuck. 
But, then, woodchucks were quite plen- 
tiful in those days and were considered 
a pest as well. The pasture lots and 
grain fields abounded with them. Their 
burrows were a nuisance and a menace 
for the horses to step into. Wood- 
chucks rear large families. A steel trap 
set in a burrow will oftentimes trap 
from four to six young ones as they 
come out to feed when all is quiet. Of 
course, one ’chuck is caught in the trap 
at a time, and then the trap is set 
again for the next one. In this way a 
burrow may be cleaned out in less than 
a day’s time. To collect the bounty on 
woodchucks in those days all that was 
necessary was to bring in the ears, cut 
off close to the head. But strange to 
say, some towns paid the bounty on 
the ears and others on the tail. And 
now just leave it to the boys. The 
boys of the old school were fully as 
wise as the boys of the present day. 
What the boy in one town didn’t know 
the other did. And the good old way 
of evening things up “fifty-fifty” was 
in vogue then the same as now. 
Crows are a wise bird. I consider the 
crow as being the wisest of all birds. 
It is the only bird or animal that comes 
next to the dog as being the companion 
of man (I will not say friend, for the 
crow is a born thief). The crow when 
taken from its nest when it is just 
about ready to fly is easily tamed and 
with reasonable care will be sure to 
live. It may be fed on small chunks of 
raw meat or on table scraps. It will 
soon be able to take care of itself, 
however. The crow may be left to run 
loose with perfect confidence. It never 
thinks of leaving its happy home when 
once domesticated. It knows its friends 
and all the members of the family just 
like a dog does. The crow is oftentimes 
a “one man” bird, as it will respond 
to its name when called, and will follow 
one around like a dog. It is always 
on the lookout for a choice morsel of 
some kind, preferably a worm or grub 
With the crow near, lift up a piece of 
board or old object from the ground, 
and he will be here on the hop. A crow 
of fair intelligence will soon learn to 
distinguish between sounds and will 
learn to know its name perfectly. It 
will even try to imitate other names 
and words it hears spoken. Sometimes 
a crow will learn to talk quite dis- 
tinctly, but invariably its vocabulary is 
limited to a few words most often heard 
and usually only understood by its fond 
owner. 
The crow is a born thief. It will 
steal most anything bright and shiny it 
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