|Ocr. 12, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
373 

oticed that the trails where they had dragged 
juaking aspen down from the hills were a long 
istance from the water, thus exposing them to 
he danger of capture by any of the animals that 
re fond of beaver meat. Another thing I 
Joticed was wherever we cut a dam the coyotes 
ere around, as the mud was full of their tracks 
ext morning, and we also found a good many 
ear tracks, as though the, bear were looking 
pr beaver, too. 
All the beaver we captured at this time were 
fem one creek, and I think we got all that 
yere in that creek except an old one and a 
pung one. I could have gotten these if I could 
jive found where they had located and had had 
little more time. 
| One of -the things connected with the work 
jas when we would leave camp we were never 
sire that we would have any provisions left 
jhen we got back because there were so many 
pars around. Once the bears stole our hams 
iid bacon, but kindly left us the lean part of 
¢ hams, only eating the fat off. We trimmed 
sf the part the bears had chewed and ate the 
st. I, as a rule, do not care to eat bears’ leav- 
gs, but this was a case of necessity, as we 
ad no other meat. We never left anything 
jhere the bears could get at it, keeping our 
/Ovisions, as much as possible, in strong boxes. 
jortunately the only bears that annoyed us were 
jaall black bears. At these we threw stones 
aid tin cans and drove them away until they 
jially became disgusted with our camp and 
ant of sociability and left us alone. While 
le were at work one day some cattle belonging 
| one of the Wiley camps stole all of our pota- 
yes and crackers, ate almost all our bread and 
jilled all of our tea and coffee. Once, when 
,was opening a box of beaver to feed and care 
)r them, one of them jumped out. Fortunately 
jie of the men grabbed him by the tail and 
\'ted him into the box again. This is the only 
jay I know of that you can handle a beaver 
jtth your hands and not have it bite you. 
|As soon as I got enough beaver for a ship- 
jent I went down to Gardiner with them and 
nt them by express with sufficient food (quak- 
g aspen, willows, etc.), to last them until they 
rived at their journey’s end. 
found that a great many visitors to the camp 
ought beaver ate fish. I told them beaver 
‘ver ate anything but bark from the aspen, 
ttonwood, willow, birch, alder, etc. Some- 
nes if starved or pressed for food, they will 
t down pine trees and eat some of the bark. 
hey also eat some roots of plants the names 
which I do not know. Some of the visitors 
ought, when they saw the broad tails of the 
aver, that that was what they carried the mud 
th. I asked them how they supposed the mud 
uld stay on the tails when they were swim- 
ing through the water, and informed them 
at as far as my observation went they carried 
e mud with their front feet, up against them, 
d only used their tails for steering and also 
r fighting. They can strike a very severe blow 
th their tails. They only use their hind feet 
r swimming; these are very large and webbed. 
ieir front feet are more like hands; are hands, 
fact. They use them for taking hold of 
ings and pulling them around, and they are 
‘ite strong, although small. 
|\When we were at work catching beaver the 
zhts were very cold. There was a heavy frost 
ery night and ice in the camp kettle, except 
a few cloudy or rainy nights. We were 
renaded often by numbers of coyotes. Usually 
2y gave us a song just at daylight. There 
‘re several families close to camp. The pups’ 
jices could be told from the older ones by being 
) a higher key. 
[ trust that the eighteen beaver will all reach 
d Forge in good shape and will settle down 
housekeeping before winter. If undisturbed 
*y will soon increase and fill up the country 
th their descendants. I know they will form 
interesting study for many a naturalist, 
T. E. Horer. 








jr. John B. Burnham, chief game protector of 
tw York, has sent us a copy of the report of 
$ne protector J. Edward Ball, of Old Forge, 
who liberated the beaver shipped by Mr. Hofer. 
Mr. Ball’s interesting letter follows: 
“On the 3d day of September I received from 
Gardiner, Montana, for the commission, eight 
beaver. Four were dead on arriyal at Old 
Forge; the others were in such condition that 
it was necessary to release them at once. They 
were put into the West Pond of the Twin Ponds, 
Township 7, Brown’s Tract, néar the First Lake 
of the Fulton Chain.. Two of these are now at 
the outlet of the pond and two are on a small 
stream on the Adirondack League Club’s land, 
Township 2, Moose River Tract. They are doing 
well. 
“On the 13th eight more came in fine condi- 
tion. Four were liberated in Eagle Creek, 
Hamilton county, State land. Mr. W. A, Pres- 
ton, of Eagle Bay, and Mr. Frank Markham, of 
Old Forge, kindly assisted in this work. This 
is a natural stream for them, and there is no 
doubt but that they will live and increase. 
“The other four of this shipment, as the de- 
partment directed, I took to the South Branch 
of the Beaver River, Township 42, State land, 
outlet of Lake Terror and Rose Pond. This is 
a secluded spot and they will have a good chance 
to do well. 
“On the 18th a fine pair of beaver came to 
Old Forge, and as requested by the commission, 
I took them to Long Lake West, and was taken 
by Mr. Ernest Johnson’s team to Little Tupper 
Lake, then with Mr. Johnson’s launch to the 
head of the lake to what is known as Green 
Bay; then took the beaver up the Antedeluvian 
stream and let them go. This is a wild section 
and ‘well protected. 
“The seven beaver that the commission re- 
leased three years ago are doing well. One 
colony at Big Moose has increased fast. One 
old beaver has four little ones again this year. 
Now we have eight different colonies located 
about ten miles apart north and south. 
“The people in this section seem to be greatly 
interested in this restocking and I believe the 
beaver will have no enemies.” 
A Study of ’Coons. 
A VISITOR is not long in Wilbraham, Mass., 
before he is asked: “Say, have you seen Davis’ 
*coons? Well, you ought to see them, for they 
are trick animals.” 
Davis is Professor H. B. Davis, of Wesleyan 
Academy, and he raises his hands in pro- 
test when one demands to see his “trick 
’coons.” “I am not training ’coons to do 
stunts,’ he says. “I am merely a worker along 
the line of comparative psychology, and I am 
experimenting with raccoons as other students 
have experimented with monkeys, cats, dogs and 
even rats.” 
Nevertheless, says the New York Tribune, his 
*coons are interesting animals, and under his 
tutelage are gradually beginning to do things 
that wild ’coons do not do. He has two, one 
nervous and excitable and the other phlegmatic 
and comparatively slow moving. One is a rare 
“black ’coon’—and by that is meant that its 
general color effect is black—and the other is 
the commoner tawny variety. They are about 
three years old, and Professor Davis has had 
them two years, but they still have the wild in 
their nature and pace restlessly back and forth 
in a longing to run off to the woods. However, 
they may be domesticated so that they will run 
about the house like cats, sleeping in cozy 
nooks in the corners, and even stretched out 
at full length on the back of a chair. 
The star “stunt” which the two little animals 
perform is to slide bolts and lift bars to get at 
their food. Professor Davis made a box to 
hold their food on which he put an ordinary 
iron bolt. After considerable fussing the ani- 
mals shot this and made a dash for the bread 
inside. Then a button was added for a fasten- 
ing, and the ’coons mastered this also. Next a 
wooden slide was added in such a way that it 
had to be pushed in, and this, too, was con- 
quered by the little animals. Two other arrange- 
ments, similar to the button, were added, that 
had to be swung either up or down, and the 
raccoons got the better of them. Now, to get 
in to their food they have to wrestle with five 
different sorts of fastenings, but they accomplish 
it easily. The different manner in which the two 
animals go about it is interesting. The nervous 
one works fast, breathlessly and excitedly, and 
makes many false moves. The phlegmatic one 
works deliberately, more surely, and often opens 
the door before his nervous companion can. 
This is-as far as. Professor Davis has gone, 
for he has been handicapped with other work, 
and the necessity of making cages and all con- 
trivances himself, but this summer he will con- 
tinue an interesting line of experiments. He 
will test their idea of color by one of two 
methods. Either he will put their food behind 
a board or some obstruction painted a certain 
color, and then move the board and food about 
from place to place to see if they recognize 
that particular color means food, or else he will 
give them food in a box painted a certain color 
in a similar way. For instance, he will put the 
food in a box painted red and place the box 
in the corner. The next day he will use the 
same box, but put it in the middle of the cage, 
maybe, and if the animal recognizes at once 
that it holds its food, there is a probability that 
he recognizes the color red. ‘ 
The animal’s idea of form will also be tested. 
Food will be given it in a conical shaped box 
or a cylindrical shaped box, and after a while 
the position of the box will be changed. If the 
animal still goes to it for food in spite of its 
position being changed, there is a probability 
that he recognizes its form. Then the ’coon 
will be tested for its sense of sound. As a dog 
is called, the raccoons will be called, trying it 
again and again, and if at last the animals re- 
spond to that particular call, that they have a 
sense of sound would be evidenced. Or a little 
bell will be rung at feeding time, and if the ani- 
mals run to be fed at sound of the bell the sound 
sense is again made evident. 
The personality of the two raccoons Professor 
Davis regards as very strong and very dis- 
tinctive, and he is constantly studying their tem- 
perament. Sometimes they are a trifle cross 
when they are being coaxed to do tricks, and 
recently one bit a visitor to the cage, its sharp 
teeth meeting in the visitor’s finger, but for the 
most part they are good natured and are full 
of little tricks, such as: burrowing in one’s 
pocket or hand for a piece of bread or a morsel 
of cake, much in the manner of a tame squirrel, 
although they are of the bear family. The 
minute they get a piece of food, whether it be 
meat or bread, they trot over to a pan of water 
and wash it vigorously before eating it. This 
is always a part of their dinner etiquette. 
Sometimes they get bilious and then they must 
be doctored, just as human beings are for a 
similar complaint. 
“How do I know they are bilious?” said 
Professor Davis. in reply to a question on that 
point. “Why I look at their tongues, of 
course. If they are thickly coated, why ten 
chances to one their livers are out of order, 
Then I dose them for biliousness. If they had 
a stomach ache, I would not hesitate to give 
them Jamaica ginger.” 
The Snake’s Rattles. 
Marion, S. C., Sept. 27—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The rattlesnake query needs another 
answer than the one given over the name of 
E. P. Jaques in your issue of the 28th instant. 
Rattlesnakes have their rattles attached to 
their tails edge up; that is, the rattles are so 
arranged that they give out their sound when 
the snake shakes his tail horizontally, the only 
way that a snake ever shakes that part of his 
body. To rattle—were his rattles attached flat- 
wise—he would have to shake his tail perpen- 
dicularly, something never heard of. 
Not only is the above the case, but the rattles 
slope up from the snake’s tail to the end of the 
rattles. The snake cannot put his rattles on the 
ground if he so desires. They are never used 
in assisting in propelling the body at all, 
There is no light side to the rattles, possibly 
one edge might be lighter than the other, though 
I have never noticed that peculiarity. 
M. Jounson, Jr. 


