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ANIMAL BOOh
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
DAN BEARD'S
ANIMAL BOOK
AND
CAMP-FIRE STORIES
BY
DAN BEARD
Author of "The American Boys' Handy Book," " Field and
Forest Handy Book," Etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
CHICAGO:
M. A. DONOHUE & Co.
COPYRIGHT, 1907, 1910, BY
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
All rights reserved
Published November, 1907
New and Enlarged Edition, October, 1910
The thanks of the author are due to the New York Herald,
the McClure Syndicate, and other publications for their courtesy
and promptness in returning originals directly when a delay
might have interfered with the publication of this book.
\ C \ID
To MY SON
DANIEL BARTLETT BEARD
THE MOST ENJOYABLE PET AND INTERESTING SPECIMEN I HAVE
EVER BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO POSSESS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I A WILDERNESS IN NEW YORK CITY 3
II ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS. . . 13
III HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 33
IV JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN. 52
V A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR
FOOD '66
VI THE, BATS I HAVE HAD 89
VII Do MEN THINK? 98
VIII BIRDS AND INSECTS THAT WILL TAKE
AN ARTIFICIAL FLY 112
IX A GREAT NOSE 129
X THE OLD UPTOWN AQUARIUM 138
XI THE FIRST LIVE MusK-Ox EVER
SEEN IN NEW YORK 144
XII THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE
KILLED 151
XIII LAND OF ETERNAL SNOW 162
XIV CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO. . . . 171
XV THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUE-
RIPE 188
XVI CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS WITH
NAKED HANDS 204
XVII "BLACK" WHALE CAPTURED BY AMA-
GANSETT FlSHERFOLK. . 212
CHAPTER PAGE
XVIII How ANIMALS PLAY 230
XIX IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 240
XX BEARS I HAVE MET 259
XXI A BEAR I NEVER MET AND A BEAR I
NEVER WANT TO MEET 276
XXII A STRING OF DOG TALES 292
XXIII OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANI-
MALS 313
XXIV SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 334
XXV FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES. . 352
XXVI LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS . . 384
XXVII SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 399
XXVIII FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-
HAIRED LIES H 432
XXIX BIRDS THAT PREY AND SOME THAT
Do NOT 455
XXX SMALL BIRD TALK 510
XXXI How TO GET ACQUAINTED WITH
THE BIRDS 537
XXXII ORIGIN OF OUR HANDS AND BACK-
BONE 546
XXXIII STRANGE CREATURES MET IN THE
WATER 556
XXXIV LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE OUTDOOR
WORLD 568
XXXV CURIOSITY OF BIRDS AND BFASTS 580-
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
White-footed Mice and the Roofed Birds' Nest 7
Birds' Nests adapted by Mice 9
Water-Color Sketches of Mice 19
The Woodchuck under .the House 23
Sweet Death of a Mouse 24
The Home of Fanny Flying Squirrel 27
Pack Rats 35
Sketches of Pack Rats made at Lake Chelan 37
House in which the Pack Rat was caught in an unbaited
trap 42
He Killed Paddy Pack Rat's Brothers and Sisters 44
Paddy Pack Rat's Nest in an Old Powder Can 48
Little Chief 54
Cruelty Exercised in the Name of Sport 56
Parts of a Mouse's Anatomy 57
Sketches of Short Tail Meadow Rat 59
Jumping Mouse 63
Common Chipmunk 79
Field Sketches of Western Chipmunks 81
Chipmunk in the Act of eating a White Foot Mouse .... 83
Sketch of Western Chipmunk 86
Leg of Young Bat drawn From Life 91
Sketches of Two Species of Bats 93
A Resourceful 'Coon 102
Hornets in Flight I IS
Field Sketches of Various Insects 121
The "White Death" catching a Bumble Bee 126
Mamma Hippo 131
Studies made From a Live Sea-Cow 133
Two Baby Elephants Sketched at the Old Aquarium... 139
Bull Moose, Horns Shed and Moose Calves 157
Nannie and the Author 165
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (continued)
PAGE
Pencil Sketches of a Live Rocky Mountain Goat 167
Nannie 169
Bull Preparing for a Charge 173
Buffalo Calves and Domestic Cattle 175
A Charging Buffalo 178
A Nearer View of the Bison when in Gentler Mood 181
Sketches Made by the Author on Flathead Reservation. 184
Faust and Marguerite 191
Trail of Ruffed Grouse in .the Snow 211
Whale Captured by Amagansett Fisherfolk 213
Skull of Calf Whale 217
Diagram of Side, Front and Top of Whale . . . 220
Whale Parasitic Crab 227
Young Coyote 233
A Young Chimpanzee 237
Grizzly Cub in Yellowstone Park 241
A Misunderstanding Among the Bears 243
Feeding the Bears 247
Young Big Game in Yellowstone Park 251
Pelicans in Yellowstone National Park 255
Wild Geese on the Roadside 257
Black Bear Cubs, Eighteen Days Old 263
Photograph of the Gentle "Mr. Dooley" 267
Grizzly Cub "Dooley" in Yellowstone Park 271
Enjoying a "Slippery" 273
Some of the Bears I Have Never Met 278
Mandy Jane Would not Hesitate to Leave her Bread
Dough 285
A Few of the Dogs 299
Snapshot of Tree-Climbing Bull Terrier 311
Unfinished Work of a Beaver Upon a Large Tree 315
The Opossum With Details of Parts 318
This Beaver Has All the Appearance of a Dead Animal
posed for the Camera 321
Photograph of a Fisher probably fast in a Trap 323
Photograph of a Fish that the Newspapers announced as
a Sea Serpent 326
Toten Kill-a-Loo Bird 333
Game in Sight 342
Lynx and Panther Sketched from Nature 344
The Killing 346
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (continued)
PAGE
Dead Mountain Lion 348
"Don't Interrupt My Dinner" 351
Fat Giant Cricket 359
Flathead Prairie Cricket eating Cast Off Cigar 360
Sin-Yale-a-Min 362
Outlet of Kootenay Lake 363
Breaking Camp on the Flathead Prairie 368
Stanley, the Author and a String of Trout 372
Women are Always the Best Fishermen 376
Sketches of Newt Skinning Itself 387
The Spotted Salamander 389
The Red Eft and Red Backed Salamander 391
The Spotted and Red Salamander 392
Sketches of Lizards 397
Handcuffed by a Snake 402
Top Views of Self Tying Knot 404
The Harmless Green Snakes - 407
A Baby Snake from South America 411
Garter Snake and Eleven Eggs Cut from It 414
Food of the Little Brown Snake 415
Little Brown Snake with detail of Parts 422
Big Tink Toad 433
Some interesting Frogs 434
Outline of Rabbit's Head showing comparative size
of Toad 437
Poses Assumed by my Mouse Eating Frog 440
Five-legged Frog 446
At the Outlet of Big Tink 449
Jim Crow to the Rescue 459
Young Barn Owls in Various Poses 465
Rough Rider's Eagle 473
Blackcrested Night Herons 485
Author Feeding Young Night Heron 487
Young Blackcrested Night Heron 488
Sketches of Flamingoes 501
Photograph of Live Free Water Ouzel 525
Photograph of Pike County Oven Birds' Nest 527
Sketches of the Oven Bird 529
12 ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
View of Under Side of Knot Pulled Tight by the Snake 408
The Snake Whips Its Tail Around My Waist 410
The Snake Was Forced to Open Up Knot 410
The Milk Snake Laid Six Oblong White Eggs 422
Map Showing Divisions on a Bird Used in Description. . 538
Field Notes of a Bird 539
How to Sketch a Bird 540
A Page From the Author's Note Book 542
Sketches From the Author's Note Book 546
Sketch of Man in Pose of a Bird 547
Fowl, Showing Parts Corresponding to Man 548
Comparative Diagram of Horse and Bird 549
Original Notes on Hands and Wings 550
Man and Ape With Wings 553
Sketch of Man With Bat's Wings -554
Leg of Man, Beetle and Bird 555
Killing a Rattlesnake in the Middle of a Lake '. 558
Woodchuck Swimming Across Big Tink 559
Doe Swimming 562
Even Reynard the Fox Is Never Sure of His Quarry. . . . 564
The Blue Heron Whips an Eagle 566
A Bear Driven Wild By Black Flies 571
A Spill of Hornets 576
The Bees Did Not Sting the Soldier Who Picked Up
a Hive 578
Inquisitive Sand Hill Cranes 580
An Uncomfortable Feeling 581
Horse Studying Art 582
Fooling the Animals 583
The Voice of the Coyote 584
A Barking Fox 586
We Listened to the Earnest Persuasion of Our Wives. . . 588
PREFACE
THIS is simply a book of animals and is made
up from the Author's personal notes and
sketches. All scientific names have been
omitted and big words avoided as far as prac-
ticable, and it is hoped and believed that some of
the notes and drawings may be of value to older
readers for
In nature there is nothing unimportant,
There is nothing uninteresting,
And nothing fully understood!
Hence any careful observer's notes must be of
value in adding to the general knowledge of the
subject.
What we need and what is coming is an un-
selfish, passionate love of Nature, not for Nature's
sake, but for humanity's sake; such a love is whole-
some, manly, invigorating, and uplifting.
Born in an artist's family, accustomed from in-
fancy to the society of sculptors, painters, and
poets, it was natural for me when a lad to dream
dreams and build castles in the air, but these cas-
tles did not glitter with gold nor was the sun re-
flected from their jeweled turrets and bespangled
domes. The dreams were of the wilderness and a
fairyland inhabited by all manner of wild creatures
and wild people like those described by Captain
Mayne Reid; a country where the towering moun-
siii
xiv PREFACE
tains wore white caps of snow in midsummer to
keep their heads cool, where the prairies were cov-
ered with crazy quilts of flowers and dotted with
real live buffalo and elk.
If this book succeeds in awakening a love for
wild Nature in even a small portion of the Ameri-
can youth it will be counted as a success. Well
barbered and manicured Nature, closely shaven
lawns and neatly trimmed hedges are perfectly
proper in yards to suburban houses, but contact
with Nature without a hair-cut and unshaven is
what gives strength to one's muscles, brightness to
one's eyes, and makes the red blood dance in one's
veins. Unfortunately there are many who cannot
appreciate mountains destitute of summer hotels,
unbridged streams or solemn dark woods, no more
than the deaf can enjoy music or the blind the
beauties of a sunset, but even the deaf can enjoy
seeing mountains and forests, and the blind feel-
ing the fresh stimulating air of the wilderness, and
this book of random notes is not intended for peo-
ple unable to appreciate the handicraft of the
Creator, or understand what is meant by
" He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast."
So recent is it, since man has acquired his present
gigantic mental powers, that his moral character is
still infantile in its development and like the giant
baby that he is, he is a menace and a source of
terror to all the rest of creation.
Grand old Mother Nature has long been
misunderstood by her pet child and ever since men
PREFACE xv
with prehensile toes, lived arboreal lives capering
among the branches in the primeval forests they
have looked upon good old Mother Nature as an
enemy to be subdued at all hazards and any cost.
In this silly warfare waged against our best friend,
we have denuded the earth of magnificent forests
of valuable trees, unnecessarily destroying and
burning enough material to supply our descendants
with shade and shelter to the end of the world.
We have greedily sought the oil buried beneath
the ground and wasted enough to supply genera-
tions of men with light and heat.
We have tapped the veins of natural gas and,
like the children that we are, allowed it to burn
continuously because it was too much trouble or
expense to turn it off during the daytime.
We have annihilated beautiful and useful birds
for the trifling temporary income their skins
brought us, when sold to our women to be used as
grotesque and uncanny ornaments for their dear
heads and very much dearer hats.
We have ruthlessly hunted and exterminated
animals of priceless economic value for the petty
price of their pelts or the savage joy derived from
butchering them.
And now we stand with expanded chests crying,
Look at the greatness of man, see how he has con-
quered Nature!
Or we flock to the churches and on bended knees
pray that the floods be abated or entreat that rain
be sent to slack the thirst of our parched fields,
xvi PREFACE
blaming Providence for results directly caused by
our own recklessness in denuding the earth of its
natural reservoir the woodland.
Where the banks are covered with forests the
snow melts slowly in the spring, but where the
trees have been cleared away, the waters come sud-
denly and with a mad rush, leaving devastation
and ruin in their wake !
But do not think that I am pessimistic, for I am
a loyal optimist. What I am trying to show is
that we are prodigal sons, and although we may
yet have to do our stunt as swineherds we even
now have a growing consciousness of our sins and
will repent in time to save some of our great and
incomprehensible inheritance.
Good old Dame Nature is even now patiently
looking forward to our repentance and reformation
and sits waiting the prodigal's return, with a large
and fatted calf for our delectation.
But we cannot hope to reach this practical com-
mon-sense view of the situation by reason alone.
Sentiment has ever been a more powerful incentive
to action than reason, and I am glad to see that
sentiment seems to be now turning people to a
tardy appreciation of nature and the grand natural
resources of our great continent of America.
A WILDERNESS IN NEW YORK CITY
CHAPTER I
A WILDERNESS IN NEW YORK CITY
BOB-WHITES, WOODCOCKS, MUSKRATS AND OWLS TO BE FOUND
WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS EMPTY BIRDS* NESTS REMODELED
AND USED BY WHITE-FOOTED MICE WHITE-FOOTED MICE
AS PETS THEIR FOOD AND NESTS
In these days of trolley-cars, for a nickel any-
one can visit the country, and even find small spots
of real wild land.
It is a mistake to suppose that because you live
in a city, a long journey is necessary before you can
see a real wilderness.
On a pleasant afternoon, in the spring or sum-
mer, take a trolley-car and before long you will
probably pass some neglected marshy land; stop
the car, get out and walk to the swamp you just
passed, and, if you are not afraid of wet feet and
torn clothes, enter. In five minutes' time you have
not only lost all traces of civilization, but all signs
of the presence of man.
The trees, whose interlocking branches conceal
the sky, might well be a thousand miles from any
human habitation.
The almost impassable thicket of green briar,
the festoons of cable-like wild grape-vines, the
4 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
rushes, the treacherous bog under foot concealed by
a carpet of soft mosses, coarse grasses, and rank
green skunk cabbages, is just the same in appear-
ance as it was when the occasional tracks left by
the moccasined feet of the red man were the only
signs of human life in the vast wilderness of a con-
tinent!
You are face to face with Nature. Not in her
most entrancing form, but always wonderfully
beautiful when unmarred by the hand of man.
Here within sound of the screaming locomotives
the woodcock rears its persecuted family. Here
timid Bob White has found a temporary retreat,
and even ventures to whistle, in a subdued tone,
his well-known call to his dapper little mate as she
sits on her scores of pretty white eggs.
Close by the inoffensive muskrat gnaws content-
edly at a root; the bullfrog bellows forth his
sonorous notes; red-winged blackbirds, robins, cat-
birds, hawks, and owls build their nests and rear
their young undisturbed by the dreaded small boy.
The gray squirrel bounds among the branches
overhead, and the beautiful little flying squirrel
peeps from its hole in the red cedar, all as if the
noise and smoke of a great city were not within
hearing and sight but for the dense underbrush.
Just such places exist inside the corporation lines
of New York City.
The poison sumac and thorny vines form a bar-
rier which leaves no charms for the small boy
and past which few pot hunters venture. The
A WILDERNESS IN NEW YORK 5
local sportsman is content to wait until Bob White
and woodcock families are old enough to venture
out of their retreat and be murdered in the most
approved style of the war of extermination. It is
in such neighborhoods that the
WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE ABOUNDS.
If you visit the swamp early in the autumn when
the white-throated sparrow is whistling his plain-
tive, tremulous call, you will find the scene
changed. Mr. Woodcock and all his family have
left or been killed; Bob White and family have
shared the same fate. The winds have stripped
the trees of their leaves, and the frost has changed
the grass from green to brown. The thickets and
trees are gray and bare in the swamps, and the
EMPTY NESTS
of the blackbird, robin, thrush, and greenlet are
now plainly discernible as dark objects against a
leaden sky.
Did I say the nests were empty? So they ap-
pear at first glance, but an examination will show
that some new tenant has been altering these sum-
mer houses and refitting them for winter quarters,
that is all of them that are not more than five or
six feet above the earth.
In some sections of the country it will be found
that every birds' nest near the ground is filled
with the down stolen from the cat-tail in the
neighboring swamp, or with dry lichens or moss,
6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
gathered from the bark and roots of the trees, and
your curiosity will be aroused and you will wonder
what accident tilled all these birds' nests; but, when
you attempt to investigate more closely and by
chance touch the branch upon which the nest rests,
you will probably be surprised to see a little brown
animal pop out of the nest, run up on the end of
the branch and sit there looking at you with his
little beady eyes as if he were inquiring why you
interrupted his slumbers.
Should you care to venture through the cat-
briers and if you are not deterred by fear of the
poisonous sap of the white sumac, you may be re-
warded by seeing many of these nimble-footed,
bright-eyed little tenants of last year's .birds' nests,
as they leap from their cosy quarters, alarmed by
the rude swaying of the branches upon which their
hanging home rests. If you are a true woodsman,
and know how to assume a pose in which you can
keep perfectly quiet and still for a long time, you
will see little white-footed mice run back to their
homes, where they may easily be captured by plac-
ing your handerchief over the nest and taking the
house and tenants together.
One Sunday I examined twenty or more birds'
nests that I found in the low bushes of a bit of
swamp land, only two of which had not been
REMODELED BY THE LITTLE ARCHITECTS.
I made careful sketches of these nests, repro-
ductions of which accompany this article. One
WHITE-FOOTED MICE AND ROOFED BIRD'S NEST
8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
nest has been filled with the down from the seed
stalk of the cat-tail. Under this warm coverlid
little White-foot can sleep snug and warm in the
frostiest weather. Another nest that has been
lined and roofed with moss has a doorway at the
top and near the eaves, so to speak, furnishing an
entrance and exit for the occupant.
Like their cousins, the flying squirrels, these lit-
tle mice can not stand wet and cold, and, after a
driving rain, they are not infrequently found dead
upon the ground. Consequently, when the damp
snow covers the top of their nest and the sun be-
gins to melt the snow the mice crawl out and make
their winter homes under the roots of trees and the
stone walls.
It sometimes happens that some mouse is more
ambitious and more ingenious than the rest of his
kind. In the Borough of Queens I found a nest,
shown in the corner of the accompanying leaf
from my sketch book, which had been roofed over
with
A THATCH OF RUSHES
and a door made on one side for an entrance and
exit of the little squatter. This nest is in the
National Museum at Washington, where I sent it
some years ago, and, as far as I know, is unique.
Usually the little rodents are satisfied with
COVERING THEMSELVES WITH A WARM HEAP OF
CAT-TAIL DOWN,
moss or the finely shredded inner bark of the cedar
FROM WATER-COLORED FIELD SKETCHES
io DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
trees; in this warm material they sleep 'during the
daytime and occupy their homes until the first snow
comes.
Although Audubon describes nests made by
white-footed mice "with nearly as much art as
the nests of the Baltimore oriole," I am quite
certain the little four-footed artisans in my imme-
diate neighborhood seldom, if ever, take the
trouble to build their own houses, much preferring
that some other architect shall do it for them.
I have found white-footed mice occupying the
nests of flying squirrels in red cedar trees; have
seen them scamper from all kinds of birds' nests
that are located within arms' reach of the ground;
have found their storehouses in the hollow rails
of a fence; have dug the little animals out of the
burrows of other small creatures; and have even
caught them housekeeping in the walls of a round-
topped muskrat's hut situated in the center of a
frozen pond. Central Park probably shelters a
number of these little animals. A very superficial
survey disclosed one catbird's nest that had lately
been occupied by deer mice. Unlike the common
house mouse,
THE WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE HAS NOT BEEN
DEGRADED
and contaminated by living with the lords of
creation; on the contrary, it avoids the habita-
tion of man, preferring the sweet nuts, seeds, and
berries of the woods to the refuse of the kitchen.
A WILDERNESS IN NEW YORK 11
Although it will eat Indian corn and grain of all
kinds, such material appears to form but a small
part of the mouse's diet. I have examined many
storehouses of the white-footed mouse, and never
yet discovered either wheat or corn in them, not-
withstanding the fact that the stores examined
were many of them located in the thickets border-
ing both corn and wheat fields.
When Indian corn is left standing in stacks late
into the fall or winter, I must acknowledge that
the good judgment of the deer mouse often causes
it to select the stacks for a place to locate its
winter residence; the perfect shelter, abundant
food, and soft silk for nestmaking offer induce-
ments not to be overlooked by such a practical
mind. The damage done the farmer, however, is
so slight as not to be worthy of attention. As a
pet the white-footed mouse will be found to pos-
sess a timid and gentle nature, which, combined
with his small, agile, form, brown back, white
belly, delicate pink and white feet, and large, lus-
trous eyes, will seldom fail to win the affection
of any one who cares for him. The pair that were
captured in the muskrat house made willing cap-
tives, and lived contentedly in a high narrow cage
built for them of wire netting.
A NEST OF THE SUMMER YELLOW BIRD
still resting in the fork of maple in which it was
originally built, was fastened by wires to the side
of the cage near the top. The mice took imme-
12 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
diate possession of the nest, and used it as a
dormitory until spring; but while the buds in the
orchard and woodland still imprisoned the blos-
soms, and before the first swallow had made its
appearance, my little captives destroyed the bird's
nest and gnawed off a portion of the window cur-
tain that accidently fell against the cage, and with
the material thus obtained they built a globular
house on the green sod at the bottom of their cage.
In the subcellar of the new dwelling an interesting
family of little ones was born. The instinct, rea-
son, or automatism of the mice taught them that
the bird's nest would be too small for a larger
family, and with commendable common sense they
erected a more commodious, though less poetic,
abode on the ground.
The ingenuity that the deer mice display in
adapting and remodeling such shelter as they hap-
pen to find, to suit their own wants, is to me more
wonderful than the common instinct which teaches
the Baltimore oriole to reproduce the same nest
year after year automatically like the bees when
they build their geometrical honey cells.
CHAPTER II
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS
THREATENED BY A RAT, NOISY RATS, ENGLISH RATS, BAD RATS,
DANGEROUS RATS, SEWER RATS POLL PARROT WHIPS RATS
IN FAIR FIGHT SINGING MICE THE FAMILY OF BEAUTIFUL
PESTS, FLYING SQUIRRELS, THEIR NESTS IN A STOVE-PIPE,
IN TROUSERS AND IN BOOTS FLYING SQUIRRELS IN WINTER
AN ALBINO FLYING SQUIRREL WITH PINK EYES.
Being curious to know how and for what pur-
pose the Norway brown rat, which infests our sta-
bles and houses, makes such a terrible rumpus
after dark, I visited a certain summer kitchen, one
night, that had the reputation of being haunted.
The room had a brick floor, board walls, a com-
mon iron sink with hydrant, and a flight of wooden
steps leading from the house proper, to the paved
floor.
There was a gas-jet in the summer kitchen. After
lighting this, I seated myself upon the steps and
waited for the ghosts to appear; I had long
since learned that by keeping quiet and immovable
one can disarm the suspicions of the most timid
creatures, and I reasoned that since ghosts never
appeared in daylight and always fled at the crow
of a rooster, they must be exceedingly shy. I had
not occupied my seat very long, before I saw a
13
i 4 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
bewhiskered nose peeping from one of the numer-
ous rat holes, where the board walls met the paved
floor.
As I had anticipated the ghosts lived in rat
holes. But before any of them emerged there
were numerous small vibrating noses to be seen at
the entrance of many of the dark passages, which
led into the earth, below the bricks. For some
time the ghosts were content to keep their stations
in their doorways and watch the big intruder with
their beady black eyes. At length, right from
under the steps where I was sitting, a great grizzled
old male rat appeared; he was evidently a veteran
and the scars about his face and ears told in an un-
mistakable manner the tale of many a fight.
THE GRIZZLED OLD WARRIOR
not only showed no fear, but was impudent enough
to openly threaten me; he did this by making short
jumps toward my feet, all the time emitting a
noise which I can only imitate by placing my
tongue against my front teeth and sucking it away.
The nearest I can come to spelling the sound is
s-t-u-t. Several times in fear, that the pugna-
cious rodent might really attack me I shook my
foot, and caused him to retreat. My attention had
been so occupied with this impertinent old rascal
that I had entirely forgotten the ghosts, until the
noise made by the upsetting of a tin basin re-
minded me of their presence and caused me to look
around the room. I was amazed at what I beheld.
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 15
It was a sight that would have pleased the Pied
Piper and warmed the cockles of his heart. The
room fairly swarmed with rats. There were big
rats, little rats, and half-grown rats. For an hour
or more I sat upon those wooden steps and
watched the circus. The boisterous play of these
creatures made me understand how it is possible
for such small animals as rats to make so much
noise in an attic or a vacant room.
One rat ran up to the top of the broom handle;
the broom was standing in the corner by the sink,
resting partly against the sink and partly against
the wall and no sooner had the rat done this
than another rat followed. Then all the rats
seemed to be possessed by a desire to occupy the
pinnacle of the broom handle and so they swarmed
up and up until the brown mass at the top made
the broom topple and fall. In falling it hit a lot
of cooking implements and a large dish-pan and
brought them down with a bang and a crash upon
the brick floor, but the rats seemed to take this as
a matter of course and showed not the least alarm.
As soon as they landed on their feet they imme-
diately set about finding some other means of en-
tertainment. They pulled every movable thing
over the floor, back and forward ; they took an old
newspaper and yanked it from one end of the sum-
mer kitchen to the other. One of them found a
chicken bone and then ensued a wild race around
and around the kitchen. They indulged in phe-
nomenal leaps ; they tried to scale the walls by run-
16 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ning up them at the corners; they upset more tin
pans, and only disappeared when I clapped my
hands and stamped my feet. The big old male rat
being the last to enter his hole, did it only after a
slow retreat and a continuous scolding, stut ! stut !
stut!
ENGLISH RATS.
An old gentleman in speaking of his school
days at the celebrated Eton school in England,
said that sixty years ago, the sixth form boys were
accustomed to eat their supper in the "Long
Chamber," where the rats were very plentiful and
would come trooping out at supper time from their
holes in the wainscot to feed on the food thrown
to them by the boys.
WHEN THE RATS BECAME TOO NUMEROUS
the boys, while the rats were feeding, would send
their fags to stop up their holes with stockings, so
as to trap the rats in the following manner: after
the stocking foot and leg was thrust in the hole
and the opening at the top of the stocking care-
fully spread open and fastened there and all was
ready the boys would stampede the rats. The
rodents, of course, would make for their holes and
dive into the fags' stockings, which were then
withdrawn and the rats killed by banging them
against the bed-steads; after which the poor fags
put on the stockings and wore them.
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 17
During the summer of 1858, while school was
closed, workmen tore up. the floor of the "Long
Chamber" and removed two large cart loads of
bones which the rats had carried down their holes
and deposited beneath.
RATS ARE DANGEROUS
under certain conditions. Every one is familiar
with the expression that "even a rat will fight when
cornered," but from all accounts it does not seem
to be always necessary to corner the animals in
order to make them fight. When I was in the city
engineer's office of Cincinnati, the sewerage en-
gineer's office adjoined ours. The surveyors
from the latter office frequently had to enter the
sewers and they never did so without going armed
with revolvers to protect themselves from the big
rats which infest these places.
THE BITE OF A RAT
is exceedingly dangerous, probably because the
rat's teeth are coated with all manner of vile stuff
which produces blood poisoning. My brother,
James Carter Beard, was once bitten by a Norway
brown rat through the finger, and his arm be-
came very much inflamed and swelled, from the
hand to the shoulder, to the serious alarm of our
parents and physician.
THAT RATS WILL ATTACK YOUNG CHILDREN
is only too true. Recently two children of Bos-
18 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ton were bitten by sewer rats, probably fatally, and
a little baby boy in Brooklyn, four months old,
had his finger badly chewed before his mother
could rescue him. Instances are not wanting
of full grown men being bitten while asleep or
even attacked while awake by rats.
A man in Washington who attempted to sleep
in a cellar, only escaped from the hungry rodents
after he had received more than a hundred wounds.
A man in Philadelphia entered a brewer's grain
pit and before he could be rescued from the rats
his body was covered with bloody wounds.
A farmer's boy of East Berlin, Pennsylvania,
uncovered a lot of rats while tearing up the barn
floor, and although he succeeded in killing a dozen
or more, the rats made a fierce fight, and when
friends found the boy he was unconscious from loss
of blood.
A policeman in New York was badly bitten on
the leg by a big sewer rat which he attempted to
hit with his club.
A man in Brooklyn made a kick at a rat he saw
running across the sidewalk, and when the ugly
creature fastened its teeth in his leg he learned to
his sorrow that rats will sometimes fight. The
newspapers of the day have frequent accounts of
rats fatally or seriously wounding human beings
and, after making due allowance for the "en-
thusiasm" of reporters, there will be still sufficient
evidence to rank the rat among dangerous animals
and to induce us to use due caution when forced
WATER-COLOR SKETCHES
NATURE
I.
2.
3-
4-
5
7-
8.-
9--
10
i i
-Left hind foot of common house mouse.
-Left hand of common house mouse.
-Common house mouse.
-White- footed mouse with young.
Left foot of white-footed mouse.
Left hand of white-footed mouse.
Side view of white-footed mouse.
-Front view of white-footed mouse.
-Under side of white-footed mouse.
White-footed mouse after being drowned in a plate of soup.
Common "Norway" Brown Rat.
20 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
to come in contact with the disgusting rodents
which inhabit our cities and houses.
A Flushing rat made the mistake of his life in
attacking a parrot belonging to a neighbor of mine.
There was a terrible rumpus.
POLLY USED VIOLENT LANGUAGE
and more violent measures to defend herself. She
lost some feathers and got some scratches, but she
must have ripped that rat up in a heart-rending
manner, for the cage was bedaubed with blood
and a trail of gore led across the dining-room floor,
through the kitchen to a large rat hole where it
ended. It was a record, bearing mute testimony to
the ability of Polly to take care of herself even
when attacked by a midnight marauder.
Mice are more interesting than the big dirty
rats and when one meets
A SINGING MOUSE
one has indeed a novelty.
A correspondent to the London Daily Mail
writes about a singing mouse; he says that it has
"been warbling just like a canary." Another man
writing to the Indianapolis News tells of a sing-
ing mouse which he caught and kept in captivity.
A dispatch to the Cleveland Plain Dealer tells of
another man who also caught a mouse which he
claimed "whistled and sang like a canary." Per-
sonally I know of only two singing mice, one was
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 21
in a house of a relative of mine in Ohio, and one
in my own home on Long Island. It is claimed by
some writers that singing mice are afflicted with
bronchitis and that what we call singing is only
the wheezing of the invalid mouse. Whatever the
cause may be the noise they make, as I remember
it, has stronger claims to be called music than have
many of the so-called songs of our native warblers.
From various reports it appears that,
LIKE GREY SQUIRRELS AND LEMMINGS, RATS
SOMETIMES MIGRATE.
In 1904 reports came from Illinois that certain
rural districts had been visited by swarms of rats,
one farmer having killed on his own place, three
thousand four hundred and thirty-five of them
without apparently diminishing their number. Rats'
skins are reported to have some value, and when
tanned are said to be used for the thumbs of fine kid
gloves, while the whiskers of mice are used in
manufacturing expensive flies fancied by anglers.
But if these rodents were of any great -value
we would soon find means of exterminating
them. The good they do as scavengers is
hardly of enough importance to entitle them
to a credit mark, and, on the contrary, the harm
they do in spreading the plague and other diseases
is in itself sufficient reason for a war of extermina-
tion. We may exterminate beautiful birds, the
dainty prong-horned antelopes, the magnificent
and stately bison, but rats and mice will probably
22 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
last as long as the human race safe because of
their lack of commercial value.
Both the house mouse and house rat are dis-
gusting degenerates, and while every living ani-
mal is a thing of interest, it is the wild creatures
of the wood and field that excite our enthusiasm
and not the parasitic animals which infest the
cities.
All of us who spend part of our time living in
the woods know that fairyland is around us and
that we have for neighbors
REAL LIVE BROWNIES
who work strange deeds at night in the sleeping
woods.
From her hole in the old chestnut tree
FANNY FLYING SQUIRREL
watched the sturdy lads "snaking" logs through
the grove, and she saw them roll the logs up skids
until -the pile took on the form of a house; the
little squirrel waited until the house was all
finished, and then she passed the word to the wood
brownies, and they all moved in ! The bats took
up their quarters between the logs of the second
story; the red squirrels between the logs of the
first story, the white-footed mice and large wood
rats in all unoccupied nooks.
The Phoebe bird took possession of a projec-
tion over the kitchen door, the robin built its nest
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS
THE WOODCHUCK UNDER THE HOUSE
on the soap shelf by the towel rack; the black-
tailed hornets defied the paper trust and built them-
selves a paper balloon under the apex of the eaves;
the woodchuck satisfied himself with a home under
the kitchen floor; the bumble bees occupied an
auger hole in a log of the areaway, and Fanny Fly-
ing Squirrel found a fine place on top of the frame
of the bedroom window.
All seemed to think that the log cottage was
built especially for them, and at first resented
human intrusion; but after a while, even the hor-
nets would fly about in the most friendly manner,
catching the flies on the dinner table or even pick-
ing them from off one's nose or hands.
None of the wild creatures can be taught the
sacredness of property rights; they are all born
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SWEET DEATH OF A MOUSE
communists, and believe that all forms of wealth
are public property. This belief often produces
dire results to the brownies themselves, for in-
stance morning after morning the milk was given
to the dog, because he was the only one of the le-
gitimate household who had no objection to
MILK WITH A DROWNED WOOD MOUSE IN IT.
You see the little brownies thought the milk was
for them and jumped in to drink, but the pans were
deep and the sides were slippery and so they
perished.
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 25
Once the strained honey was poured out on a
flat stone for the benefit of the wild bees, because
a white-footed mouse had gnawed a hole through
the lead covered cork. The mouse had then fallen
into the honey and perished, but its remains were
preserved by the sweet liquid.
The wood mice did not eat our fish, but they
often took them from the plate in the cellar and
hid them where they could not be found until our
noses told the secret of the hiding place. The lit-
tle brownies once unwound a ball of twine and
draped it all around the room, making a half hitch
or two on a hunting knife and a pipe, without
dislodging these objects from their insecure perch
on the narrow edge of a board. They also took
all the tacks from a new package and neatly stowed
them away in the egg shells kept for settling the
coffee.
But it was when the offspring of Fanny Flying
Squirrel filled the house that the real trouble be-
gan.
THE MOTHER SQUIRREL
was content at first with making her nest from
the tufts of cotton nibbled from the mattresses.
This first nest she made over the bedroom win-
dow. Determined to evict the little nuisance, I
climbed on top of a kitchen chair, which was in-
securely balanced on an unsteady washstand, and
looked into the little home.
The mother squirrel poked up her pretty head
inquiringly from beneath the soft nestling material,
26 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
and when I gazed into the soft big eyes of the
little animal, all the annoyance and anger in my
heart melted away. The chair tilted as I at-
tempted to descend, and I came down with a
crash, smashing a mirror, spraining my wrist and
barking both shins, but I left Fanny Flying Squir-
rel in undisturbed possession of her claim.
That was the greatest mistake I made about my
log house. The flying squirrels have multiplied
and increased, and continued to increase in num-
ber, in spite of the fact that each year I capture
as many as I can and send them away to friends
in different parts of the country for pets. Flying
squirrels make most beautiful pets, but they are
worse in a house than the so-called Norway brown
rats. Rats can't fly.
One season, in company with a friend, I fished
the brooks on the way to Wild Lands. My friend
said he would clean the fish if I would be cook.
The house had been closed all winter and after
opening the doors and windows I split some wood
and built a fire and then ran outside to breathe, for
the smoke filled the room. My friend said that
the chimney was cold. He said as soon as it got
wa.rm the smoke would go up. In the meantime
the smoke refused to go up, but filled the kitchen,
and when that was full, streamed out of the win-
dows and doors. But never a whiff went out of
the chimney. My eyes and throat smarted, my
lungs were raw, tears bedewed my cheeks. I was
covered with ashes, and my face was blackened;
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS
27
WILD LANDS THE HOME OF FANNY FLYING SQUIRREL
in desperation I climbed to the roof and, with a
long pole, felt for the obstruction in the chimney
there was none there.
After building a dozen fires and extinguishing
them again, I called my friend, and together we
took down the stovepipe and found that the space
from the elbow of the pipe for three feet was
PACKED WITH FINE CARDED WOOL
made from raveling gnawed from the dining room
rug. In this warm, smoke-proof nest we found
Fanny Flying Squirrel, and as usual there was a
family of little ones with her. We spared the old
mother and nursing babies, dumping them care-
fully into a cracker box. It was nine o'clock that
28 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
night when two hungry men at last sat down to a
feast of crackers and trout.
Not long after this adventure, the log house at
Wild Lands was filled with a merry company of
city people people with all
THE CITY FEAR OF SOLITUDE
and a firm belief in the existence of terrible
blood-sucking bats, long-toothed venomous ser-
pents with a miraculous power of charming their
intended victims, implacable hoop snakes and
poisonous swifts.
As night approached the fear of these things
crept over the guests, and they retired to their
cots trembling. Through the chinks they could
see the stars twinkle and they knew that a hypnotic-
ally inclined snake would choose just such an open-
ing through which to reach its victims.
Scarcely had the visitors closed their eyes for
slumber when some live thing fell with a sickening
thud on the chest of the most timid guest; it is
fortunate her heart was sound or it would have
ceased to beat.
Hardly daring to breathe, much less to scream
for help, the frightened urbanite lay quiet. How
heavy the serpent's coil seemed to be ! Gradually
her eyes became accustomed to the darkness, and
then she saw that the cause of her fright was only
pretty Fanny Flying Squirrel squatting on the cov-
erlet washing her face with her little hands.
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 29
Every summer evening, after the sun ball has
sunk behind the hill across Big Tink Pond, and
the hoot-owl and whippoorwill have begun to talk,
a shadow-like object is seen to sail from the apex
of the roof down into the gloom ; more phantoms
follow, until at times there are several in the air
at once, and we know that it is Fanny Flying
Squirrel and her living parachute descendants de-
parting for the night and we may sleep for a while
in peace.
But with
THE "WOLF'S BRUSH,"
that pale gleam of light which precedes the dawn,
on the eastern horizon, the bright-eyed little
aeronauts return from their night's frolic and
thump ! thump ! their bodies strike the shingles
overhead and patter ! patter ! go their little feet
scampering over the roof,
Within five or ten minutes from the first thump
heard on the shingles the last little imp has re-
turned, and one may hear them in all the gloomy,
mysterious corners rustling about as they settle
themselves for a long summer's day nap. They
wake up again at dusk of the following evening,
when, if it is fair, they sally forth, but on rainy
or stormy nights they do not go out.
An ordinary rat trap will not confine a flying
squirrel, for so flat is its beautiful little body that
by using the force of its muscles it can spread the
wires apart far enough to escape. I always use
my hand, usually protected by a glove or some
3 o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
similar object, and catch them with that. I caught
nine, in that way, in one night.
Sometimes I have turned down the bedclothes
and jumped into bed to alight upon a bunch of
cracked nut-shells, acorns and seeds.
A recent writer in a popular out-doors magazine
says that the flying squirrels hibernate, but this
very winter, with the mercury at times fourteen
degrees below zero, the flying squirrels were lively
as crickets in my log house and their tracks could
be seen in the deep snow on the roof, where they
plumped down from a chestnut tree and then
scampered to the opening in the roof by the chim-
ney. A few years ago I saw a flying squirrel hop-
ping across our lawns in Flushing, during a driv-
ing sleet and snow storm and afterward found its
dead body in a hollow shade tree.
One summer the mistress of Wild Lands took
on one of those spasmodic fits of cleaning peculiar
to her sex, and seizing a pair of canvas trousers
she and the maid began to give them a vigorous
shaking. The blood curdling screams which fol-
lowed brought every one within hearing to the
spot, and they saw mistress and maid facing each
other and doing a wild fantastic dance, accompan-
ied by a swinging of their arms and ear-piercing
shrieks.
A dozen or so frightened little flying squirrels
were scrambling over the bodies and heads of the
dancers or sailing across the intervening space
from maid to madam and from madam to maid.
ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF RATS 31
There were four pockets in the trousers and each
pocket contained a flying squirrel nest. That night
the maid put
PEPPER AN EIGHTH OF AN INCH DEEP OVER ALL
THE RUNWAYS
frequented by the squirrels, but the only effect was
to make the little imps keep us awake with their
high-keyed sneezing.
A SNOW-WHITE FLYING SQUIRREL
One afternoon while sitting on my front piazza
in Flushing, I noticed that the people passing
seemed to be interested in some object on one of
the large maple trees in front of the house. At
last my curiosity was so much excited that I got up
and went out on the street to investigate and dis-
covered a couple of flying squirrels scampering up
and down a tree trunk. Flying squirrels are, how-
ever, too common among the shade trees of old
Flushing to cause much attention, that is, ordinary,
every-day flying squirrels, but while one of these
was of this sort the other was as white as the
driven snow, and had pink eyes. The two squir-
rels played among the trees all that afternoon
from about five o'clock until after dark. They
would sail from the top of one tree diagonally
across the street to the trunk of another tree, run
up that and launch themselves into the air for a
long tobogganing slide down that thin substance
32 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
until they struck another tree 150 or 200 feet
away. I ran upstairs and got a landing net from
my fishing tackle outfit and attempted to capture
the beautiful little animal, but soon discovered that
I was giving it a fatal notoriety, for, like magic,
small boys appeared and with sticks and stones and
baseball bats engaged in the chase. As soon as
I realized the increasing danger I put up my land-
ing net and calling the boys over to the house
distracted their attention by showing them certain
other things of interest to boys. In the meantime
the flying squirrels disappeared in the shadows of
the tree top. A night or two afterwards a man
living several blocks away set traps in an old oak
tree, a very old oak tree, the only survivor of the
group which shaded the Quaker Fox when he
preached on Long Island. The next morning
the man found the albino squirrel in his
trap and taking it down to Manhattan sold it
to the former editor of Recreation. The animal
was placed in an ordinary squirrel cage near by
one occupied by an albino fox squirrel. The win-
dows of the editorial room were left open as the
weather was warm and in the morning the flying
squirrel had made its escape. What was the final
fate of the beautiful little creature, I do not know,
but it was probably killed by some prowling city
cat.
CHAPTER III
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS
ORIGIN OF THE NAME THEY LOVE NOISE AND MISCHIEF, EXCITE
FEAR AND MURDER TRADE, WOOD AND MOUNTAIN RATS
JIM THE TRAPPER AND HIS FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS PRANKS
OF PACK RATS THE LEGEND OF PADDY PACK RAT ? S TREAS-
URE TROVE
There is a big hairy-tailed rat to be found in the
Rocky Mountains which is one of the most inter-
esting little animals in America. Scientists call it
a Neotoma, but it is locally known as the
PACK RAT,
mountain rat, wood rat, and trade rat.
To explain the reason for this first name to the
Eastern readers, it is necessary to call their atten-
tion to the fact that in a new and unsettled coun-
try baggage and luggage of all kinds must be car-
ried on one's own shoulders, or on the backs of
animals. Of course one cannot carry things on
one's back without making them into some sort of a
bundle or pack, hence the men on the trail who at-
tend to loading the horses and mules are called
packers, while the animals themselves are known
33
34 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
as pack animals, from this it is an easy step to
substitute the word pack for the word carry.
Thirty years ago, in all parts of Kentucky, the
word pack was commonly used for carry and the
people packed their bundles and baskets. Even
the school children packed their books to school,
the pack having survived from the time when Ken-
tucky was first settled and when household goods
and personal baggage were brought into the
state on the backs of men and animals. The word
may not now be generally used in this sense in
Kentucky, but it still is in the Rocky mountains
and through the Southwest and Northwest.
Wherever the hunter or prospector is found the
word pack is used in the place of carry, hence,
A PACK RAT IS A RAT THAT CARRIES THINGS.
The trappers hate these little animals because
of their mischievous pranks and they one and all
kill the rats at every opportunity. I could fill this
book with the wonderful stories that are told
about this rodent. One trapper, a friend of mine
named Jim, has a snug little shack in the Cascade
mountains, and Jim confided to me that he had
not killed a pack rat in a long time.
This was not because of the scarcity of pack rats
in his neighborhood, for every night they pulled
his things about or selecting a loose spot in his
roof they would stamp on it with their little front
feet and make the big shingle rattle with a loud
noise. Next to packing things about, if there is
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 35
DEAD PACK RAT, OUTLINE TRACED FROM THE ANIMAL,
AND LIVE PACK RAT WITH FEET IN A TRAP
anything these rats do love better than their own
little souls it is to make as much noise and racket
as they possibly can; still Jim the trapper would
not kill the rats. When Jim found his boots filled
with an assortment of pebbles, and garbage in-
termingled with the buttons from his clothes, he
would say things which should never be repeated
much less printed, but still the rats lived in his
shack unharmed.
This conduct on Jim's part was so divergent
from the character of the man, as I knew him, that
it needed some explanation. I do not mean that
it was at all unusual for him to use strong lan-
guage when the spirit moved him; but I do mean
that it was very queer that this man, who spent
his life killing things,
36 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SHOULD HESITATE TO KILL VARMINTS LIKE PACK
RATS.
In due course of time I learned from the trapper
himself the reason of his strange forbearance. It
seems that the winter shut down on the moun-
tains and caught Jim the trapper short of a supply
of tobacco. There was a party of government
surveyors camped near him in the mountains who
kindly gave Jim a chew of tobacco whenever he
asked for it, but they refused to sell or give him
any considerable amount of the weed and would
not under any circumstances supply him for his
winter needs. The surveyors were many miles
from the trading post and only had enough for
their own use, and they did not expect to visit a
post before spring time.
One day Jim was desperately hungry for a bite
of tobacco, but consoled himself with the thought
that as soon as he reached camp he could beg a
chew; but what was the trapper's dismay upon
arriving home to find that the topographical men
had departed during his absence, for parts un-
known. Several days had passed since the sur-
veyors had left, during which time Jim had
chewed the bark from numerous sticks of red wil-
low, but it failed to satisfy his cravings and he
was growing desperate. He had about made up
his mind to take the long solitary tramp necessary
to reach the trading post, but before doing so he
thought he would set some traps in the bed of a
stream. To protect his feet from the cold slush
SKETCHES
S OF PACK RATS MADE AT 1,AKE CHELAN, WASH.
37
38 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
and mud he took down a pair of rubber boots
which had been hanging for months to one of the
rafters over-head. Jim was not at all surprised
upon discovering that one boot was unusually
heavy he was accustomed to have the pack rats
fill his boots with any material they could find
so with a muttered something which was not a
prayer he dumped the contents of the boot on the
floor.
The sight of the contents of the boot caused the
old sinner to dance around the shack and shout
for joy. The pack rats had taken all the sur-
veyors' plug tobacco and packed it neatly away in
the long hip boot, giving Jim a bountiful supply
of his dearly beloved weed and more than enough
to last him through the long winter months. I
do not vouch for the truth of this story, but from
what I know of rats it does not seem an improb-
able one. They will steal a man's box of pills,
carry them to a neighboring camp and leave a
dead bird in their place. They have been known
to carry off every kind of small article to be
found in mountain camps and cabins. The reason
they are sometimes called
TRADE RATS
is because of their habit of leaving something in
the place of the thing they take away.
A great many stories have originated from this
habit of the pack rat and many writers pretend
to believe that the hairy-tailed rats are really bent
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 39
upon making an honest trade, but of course this
is not true, the rat finds some object, picks it up,
and starts to carry it away; during its journey it
comes across some other object, which, for some
unknown reason, appeals to its fancy, so it simply
drops the thing it has and takes up the other ob-
ject and thus gets the reputation of being too
honest to steal, and of making an attempt to pay
for everything it takes. Here are a few reports of
PACK RAT PRANKS:
A paste pot was left over night in the assay
office of the Silver Queen Mine; when the office
was opened in the morning the paste was gone, but
the pot was filled with a number of articles,
among which was an unbroken glass funnel, the
end of a stick, a bit of rope, some scraps of wire,
and numerous other similar articles. The pack
rats had been busy that night.
A man who was building a shanty in Pueblo
sent to Denver for a keg of nails, he knocked out
the head of the keg and let it stand over night. In
the morning the keg was filled with table knives,
spoons, a lot of pebbles, fragments of a buckskin
glove, a set of false teeth, and a tin saucer, but
there was not a nail left in the keg. The man who
lost the spoons found his floor strewn with nails;
the man who had lost the buckskin glove found in
its place a woolen sock, and the prospector who
left his false teeth in a cup of water found in their
40 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
place a cup full of nails. The proprietor of the
nail keg by diligent work got back about half his
original supply of nails.
This all sounds very funny and humorous, but
in the early days when men were quick with
their guns, a thief's life was often a short
one, but not always merry. The hills were full
of men who came there to search for gold
and who had never heard of or seen a pack
rat. It is said that many a bloody tragedy
was probably caused by the pack rats taking things
of value from one cabin and depositing them in
another, and the poor victim with the stolen goods
in his shack was given no time for explanation.
Superstitious people have been so
FRIGHTENED BY FOUR-FOOTED MIDNIGHT
MARAUDERS
that they have been known to sell valuable claims
for trifling amounts in order that they might make
their escape from the uncanny -neighborhood. It
would be interesting to know how much of our old
superstitions and beliefs in ghosts, witches, gnomes,
and fairies could be traced to the pranks of small
animals. But the prettiest legend that I ran across
in the West is the one that I heard told as we sat
around a camp fire on the shores of the Arrow
lakes. I had heard references to it in many parts
of the West, so I am led to believe that there is
probably a foundation of truth in it. I will tell
it to you as I remember it.
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 41
A PACK RAT'S TREASURE TROVE. A LEGEND OF
THE LAKE CHELAN COUNTRY.
Paddy, the pack rat, and all of the little pink
brothers and sisters were born as blind as art
critics and as bald as college professors, but, un-
like the latter individuals, young pack rats learn to
see, in time, and age cures their baldness. Not
far from the rats' nest, in a steep bank of treach-
erous slide rock, there lived a rattlesnake, dec-
orated with dark stripes and spots, the skin of this
same snake or one like it is a conspicuous object on
my study wall, but its markings approach so
closely to the color of the sun-baked stones that
a live rattler of this kind is scarcely distinguishable
among the slide rocks.
How it happened that the snake ever discovered
the rats' nest is uncertain; however, I am inclined
to think that, dog like, it used its nose to follow
the trail of the mother rat. Even such devoted
little creatures as
MOTHER PACK RATS
cannot provide against all accidents, and accidents
sometimes happen to their helpless offsprings.
Oldtime prospectors and trappers do say that pack
rats in the gold mining districts of Arizona pro-
tect their nests from snakes by barricades built of
prickly cactus.* That this plant does not grow in
*It is possible that the rats do carry the cactus to their nests, but it is
> more than probable that if i1
/atch, nails or any other object
also more than probable that if they do so they do it ES they would a
:h, nails or any other object without any idea of deferse.
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
HOUSE IN WHICH THE PACK RAT WAS CAUGHT IN AN
UNBAITED TRAP
the Chelan Mountains near Paddy's home may ac-
count for the ease with which the slide rock rattler
inserted its body into the cleft in the cliff where
the nest was located. By some unexplained acci-
dent little Paddy's life was spared, but when the
mother rat returned to her home it was to find the
graves of all her other children marked by an egg-
shaped swelling in the living body of the reptile,
which resembled in appearance a Christmas stock-
ing.
The most relentless and bloodthirsty foe of all
wild creatures is man and such is the terror usually
inspired in their hearts by the presence of a hu-
man being, that it is seldom we have an oppor-
tunity to witness
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 43
THE REAL NATIVE COURAGE
of our wild brothers in furs and feathers. If the
old mother rat's body trembled violently and her
chisel-like teeth chattered at the sight of the
t venomous snake, it was not with fear but rather
with righteous wrath. With her eyes fixed upon
the intruder the old pack rat's body seemed to
swell to abnormal proportions. She swayed slowly
from side to side and stamped the earth menac-
ingly with her little hand-like feet.
I have often witnessed a snake strike with a
rapidity beyond the power of the human eye to
follow; but quicker than the movement of the
snake w r as the spring which transferred the mother
rat to a perch on the squirming body of the rat-
tler. All in vain did the rasping rattle sound its
dry vibrating threat of death; such was the fury
of the onslaught that the rodent's teeth not only
severed the snake's backbone, but the reptile's
head was stricken from its writhing body with the
dispatch and skill worthy of a professional heads-
man.
The initial motive instinct or thought still con-
trolled the snake's body with its dire purpose, and
devoid of head, brains or weapons, the horrid
thing coiled and struck the rat again and again
with the bloody stump of its neck!
Such was the tragedy which left little Paddy
sole heir to the horded stores of its parents. When
Paddy's eyes were opened he viewed with satisfac-
tion the soft hair which had begun to grow from
44
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
HE KILLED PADDY PACK RAT'S BROTHERS AND SISTERS
the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. Pack
rats have tails like chipmunks, as you may see by
referring to the illustrations, a peculiarity ob-
served by Lewis & Clark's men on July 2, 1804,
when they found the first one of these animals ever
seen by civilized man. Comparatively few civi-
lized men have seen any of these creatures since
1804, for the reason that only hunters and miners
frequent the haunts of the pack rat and the rodents
themselves seldom venture out until after dark.
The illustration on page 37, drawn from life,
will possibly give the reader a better idea of this
animal's appearance than a printed description.
It is not its bushy tail alone which makes the
pack rat interesting, for its
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 45
QUAINT ECCENTRICITIES OF CHARACTER
overshadow the peculiarity of its appearance. No
sooner does a camper, prospector or trapper erect
his tent, shack or cabin in the rat country than the
pack rats are on hand eager for a chance to trade,
as I have already said; not only do they exchange
their bric-a-brac for food, but any portable object
has a value to them, finger rings, pocket knives,
buttons, revolvers, iron bolts, pocket compasses,
cartridges, watches and keys are irresistibly tempt-
ing to pack rats.
As the summer advanced Paddy moved further
up the mountain side, where he began a famous
collection of curios. About this time it was noised
about in ratdom that a prospector's cabin had been
erected near Paddy's new home. It is not safe to
state just how
THE RATS PASSED THE WORD
around, for it would be certain to be contradicted
by my good friend, John Burroughs, but it may
be stated that after sunset there was a great
rustling among the dry leaves and a swaying of
the fringed gentians and Indian paint brushes,
showing that the little mountain folks were about
that night.
The next night it was very evident that the
word had been passed. Scarce had the sun set
behind the snow-covered peaks before the little
mountain folks assembled to break the dull
46 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
monotony of the lonely prospector's life. There
was a rat from Lake Chelan with the head of a
ling in its mouth; there was a rat from Railroad
creek with a half plug of Battle Axe tobacco,
another from the Indian settlement with a bunch
of blue beads, a rat from the trapper's cabin, five
miles over the mountains, with a Canadian half
dollar, eager for trade.
Rap, rap, rap! went their front feet on the
loose clapboard over the prospector's bunk, but
the tired man only mumbled in his sleep and turned
over in bed. Rattle-te-bang went a powder can
from the rafters to the floor, awakening the
sleeper, who reached for his revolver, but seeing
nothing, turned to sleep again.
Next morning there w r as plenty to see fish
heads, chips, bones and pine cones, etc., in place
of his knife, fork, spoon and tin cup which he
had left on his rude table; but worst of all was the
sight of the battered oil can in which he had
packed his cartridges. No ammunition was now
visible, but in its place was
A CAN OF DIRTY LOOKING PEBBLES.
The angry man kicked over the can and as he
did so made use of very many uncomplimentary
remarks concerning rats.
With petulant rage, he viciously struck the of-
fending objects with his prospector's pick. As the
pebbles flew from the blow the man's expression
suddenly changed; he dropped the pick, and for
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 47
the moment seemed to fear to move, then he sud-
denly fell upon his knees, and with hands which
shook with excitement, gathered up a handful of
the dirty looking pebbles and examined them at-
tentively; after which he gave a wild warwhoop,
sprang to the door and fired six shots at the un-
offending sky.
Paddy witnessed these antics with the utmost
interest and astonishment, and his curiosity was so
great that he crept from his hiding, place to the
unoccupied bunk and was peering cautiously over
its side when he found the man's eyes fixed upon
him. The man laughed a wild, naughty laugh,
which sent the chills down Paddy's back and took
from him all power of flight.
When last seen the miner and the rat were
inseparable companions; they no longer lived
at the edge of the snow fields in the Cascade
mountains; a wonderful change had come about,
for foolish people had given the lonely prospector
houses, lands, cattle and horses in exchange for the
dark-colored pebbles which they called nuggets,
but Paddy Pack Rat had given these little lumps
of gold in exchange for some brass cartridges, and,
strange to say, neither Paddy nor the prospector
ever regretted the trade.
IF THERE IS ANY ONE WHO CAN TELL
why the bower bird ornaments its playhouse with
bits of bright ribbons, broken glass, and pretty
pebbles ; why the crow and magpie devote so much
i
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
PADDY PACK RAT'S NEST IN AN OLD POWDER CAN INSIDE
A GOLD MINE
of their time to stealing and hiding silver thimbles,
scarf pins, and trinkets of all kinds, things which
they cannot eat or wear, things which, as far as
poor human intelligence goes, are absolutely useless
to the birds, as useless in fact, as a billionaire's
billions are to him; if any one can tell why these
birds and men collect these useless things, they
may possibly give us a reason for the pack rats'
eccentricities.
One pack rat's nest found in an empty house
was built of heavy iron spikes, mixed up with
forks and spoons, and three large hunting knives,
this was not all that was in the pile, for there
was a carving fork and steel, several augers, the
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 49
parts of a watch, numerous plugs of tobacco, and
minor articles too numerous to mention, making
a substantial fort if not a soft nest. But the pack
rat is
NOT THE ONLY RODENT WITH MISCHIEVOUS
HABITS.
Ordinary brown house rats have been known
to build a nest as large almost as a bushel basket
composed entirely of expensive cigars, and in Con-
necticut the muskrats robbed a tobacco plantation
of growing plants in large q.uanities. In an old
house in Pennsylvania some ten years ago, a rat's
nest was found containing a Mexican dollar of the
date 1774, a Mexican quarter of the date 1772,
and some papers of 1770. A rat in New Jersey
was detected in the act of carrying away a thou-
sand dollar bill.
One rat's bed was found in an old house. The
nest was composed of money in denominations
from $5 up to $1,000. A workman in tearing
down another old house discovered a rat's nest
made of "butter money" issued by the Bank of
Orange County at Goshen, some time before the
great Civil War. The nest was at least fifty years
old.
But in these cases it must be remembered that
the money and even the tobacco and cigars were of
real service as good material for the manufac-
turing of nests all except the Mexican silver dol-
lar and quarter of a dollar, these must have been
50 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
\
taken by the house rat for the same reason, or lack
of reason, which prompts the pack rat to commit
its thefts. In this last case, however, it was not
the work of the common brown rat, for back
IN 1770 IT WAS THE BLACK RAT WHICH IN-
FESTED OUR HOUSES,
a rat which the brown rats have since almost ex-
terminated.
Even mice have been known to rob a till, and
the Florida rat seems to have precisely the same
traits as the pack rat. It took a lot of Florida
lats only six nights to carry two bushels of shelled
beans thirty feet and -replace the beans with the
empty seed pods. A lady in Florida was dis-
mayed to find a number of seeds in the place of
the diamond earrings she had left on her bureau,
she knew where the seeds came from and there
found her missing ear-rings, but the best joke was
on the gambler who found his supply of poker
chips replaced with a string of prayer beads and
a small crucifix. The devout priest who occupied
the next room, however, was greatly shocked to
find in place of his rosary a heap of sinful poker
chips.
Strange to say the most pestiferous and an-
noying wild things often make the most delightful
and amusing pets. Mr. Charles Frederick Holder
once owned a tame pack rat which was allowed the
freedom of his room and which he told me was
HAIRY-TAILED PACK RATS 5!
one of the most amusing of pets. Unfortunately
the pack rat from which I made these sketches was
so injured by the trap that I had it killed to pre-
vent it from useless suffering. But this is a story
in itself and I will tell you about it in the next
chapter.
Since the first edition of this book was printed
the author has been thoughtless enough, on two
occasions, to gather up the double handful of
lint and fibers, composing the white-footed mouses'
nest, and throw it in the open fire. On both occa-
sions the nests contained thirty-five high-power
Winchester cartridges which were not discovered
until the bombardment of exploding ammunition
began and sent us all fleeing from the room.
Since then all mice nests found in camp are
carefully examined before being burned.
CHAPTER IV
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN
SKETCHING A MISCHIEVOUS GNOME NEEDLESS CRUELTY IN
SPORT, SCIENCE AND ART VICIOUS STEEL TRAPS HOW p-
FEELS TO BE CAUGHT IN A TRAP A MAN IN A TRAP HOW
TO FIX A STEEL TRAP WITH PADS CHARLES DANA GIBSON,
THE ARTIST, AND LANGDON GIBSON, THE ARCTIC EXPLORER,
AS NATURALISTS A SHORT-TAILED MEADOW MOUSE
THAT NEVER MISSED A CHANCE HABITS OF THE MEADOW
MOUSE CATCHING A MUSKRAT BY THE TAIL WITH
HAND BIG RATS IN CAMP A DANGEROUS CAPTIVE
In the last chapter the Cascade Mountains were
mentioned as the place where the particular pack
rat, from which the accompanying studies were
made, was captured; but it really happened in a
wing of the Cascades, known as the Chelan Moun-
tains.
This range is split in twain by a huge crack and
between the two halves, at the bottom of the crack,
lies Chelan Lake, a long, narrow, deep body of
water with steep and often precipitous sides spring-
ing up from the water and forming the shore.
Wherever a mountain torrent finds its way to the
lake it makes a delta at its mouth, composed of
boulders of all sizes. These deltas form the only
52
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 53
land level enough for the purposes of a camp or
house.
It was in such a place that a trapper had built
his little log cabin, a photograph of which, repro-
duced on page 42, serves as an illustration. There
is perhaps no form of playground and romping-
place which is more irresistible to a pack rat than
a deserted log house, so when I asked
JIM THE TRAPPER
where I could procure a live specimen; I was not
surprised when he pointed . out the little log
house on the shore of Lake Chelan, at the same
time saying that he would himself put some traps
in the cabin and catch a rat for me.
I always did hate steel traps; they have such a
vicious, cruel look and all the appearance of in-
struments made especially for torture. I asked Jim
if he could not set a box trap, but he only laughed
at my tenderfoot ideas and said he would get me
a rat all right and would not hurt him either. He
set some unbaited traps in the old fire-place and the
second morning when I paddled up the lake to the
deserted cabin and landed among the boulders, I
could hear the steel trap rattling around the cabin.
Upon entering the little hut, I saw a large pack
rat hopping backwards and dragging the trap after
him. Taking the rat and trap to a convenient
place, I sat down to make a water color sketch of
it. About this time Jim the Trapper came along
and detecting a look of pain in my face inquired
54
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
with much solicitation if I was feeling ill; I told
him that it was not I, but the pack-rat, that was
feeling ill and while I was exceedingly anxious to
make a drawing of a live pack-rat, I could not
work while the creature was suffering so much.
Both its little hands, as the reader may see by
LITTLE CHIEF
the photograph, were held by the vice-like jaws of
the trap. Jim threw back his head and laughed
boisterously. "Why," he said, "that don't hurt
him a bit, it only benumbs his paws so that there
is no more feeling in them than there is in your
toes when your foot's asleep."
But half convinced, I sat down and made care-
ful drawings of the poor little animal after which
Jim knocked it in the head and killed it, and its
distorted skin, upholstered by a taxidermist, now
occupies a position of honor along with another
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 55
unfortunate of the same species on the top of the
grandfather's clock in the corner of the dining-
room adjoining my studio where I am working;
but I have not yet recovered from the guilty feel-
ing I had while sketching that poor rat.
There is a great deal of needless
CRUELTY EXERCISED IN THE NAME OF SPORT,
more in the name of science, and some in the name
of art, but whatever name you may apply to the
act it can neither lessen the pain inflicted,- nor
modify its cruelty.
HOW IT FEELS TO BE CAUGHT IN A TRAP
After a trip on the lake, another in a stage
coach and an exciting one by steamer down the
Columbia River, we reached the railroad at We-
natchee and took the train going East. At one
of the stations, where we stopped, an old gentle-
man came aboard and as soon as he secured a seat
he threw up the window sash and stood with his
hands on the sill smiling at his family of grown-
up daughters, as they stood on the platform of the
railroad station ready to wave him an adieu with
their handkerchiefs.
As the train started, the car gave a lurch and
down came the window, catching the old man's
fingers on the sill. A half-dozen of us rushed to
his assistance; we struggled and sweat and pulled
at the window sash in vain, the old gentleman's
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
CRUELTY EXERCISED IN THE NAME OF SPORT
fingers wedged the sash so tightly that it was im-
movable. Thinking of the pack rat I turned to
ask the man if his fingers were "numb," but one
look at his white face and agonized expression, told
me only too plainly that he was on the point of
fainting from extreme pain. All this time the
train was speeding on its way.
At last we liberated the victim's fingers by using
some walking sticks and umbrellas as levers, with
which we pryed up the sash. When he was released
the old gentleman would have fallen had I not
supported him. A commercial traveler saved him
from fainting dead away by giving him a glass of
something from a bottle; as it was he suffered so
much pain that he got out at the next station,
where we left him holding his hands over his head
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 57
'/- #4
\
PARTS OF A JUMPING MOUSE'S ANATOMY
l. Left hi ~d foot natural size. 3 Left hand.
2. Enlarged hir.d foot. 4. Left hand enlarged.
5. Section of tail
for relief, while waiting for a train on which to
return home.
After this experience it is needless to say that
no one can convince me that a steel trap does not
inflict excruciating pain upon the unfortunate ani-
mal caught by its steel jaws.
HOW TO TRAP WITHOUT INJURING THE TRAPPED.
Since then I learned from another trapper how
to bind the jaws of a trap with rags until their hard
edges are transformed into comparatively soft
cushions. A trap, treated in this manner will hold
58 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
the leg or foot of a small animal without inflicting
serious injury or causing an undue amount of suf-
fering. Enough of this painful subject I am glad
to say that there are other ways of capturing ani-
mals for study or for pets, and that the pack-rat
is the only animal shown in this book which was
captured by such a cruel method.
Charles Dana Gibson, the artist, and his brother,
Langdon Gibson, the Arctic explorer, were my
companions on many long tramps through the
fields, woods, swamps, and over the soft meadows
and I only wish that I could remember half of the
interesting things we saw or the discoveries we
made. Nothing escaped the keen eyes of these two
boys. It was vain for the wild creatures to attempt
to conceal their whereabouts.
We knew the location of every crow's nest,
where the red-tailed hawk built, the holes in which
the screech owls hid and the grove where the black
crested night herons reared their families of fiend-
ish looking offspring. Sometimes we would re-
turn with our pockets full of turtles and frogs,
or strange and interesting insects, or plants. At
other times we would have our handkerchiefs tied
together enclosing in their folds field mice, and
other living creatures.
A SHORT-TAILED MEADOW MOUSE
which I brought home from one of these excursions
proved to be a very savage pet. The white-footed
mouse's cage of wire-netting with a tin bottom, I
L
SKETCHES OF SHORT TAIL MEADOW RAT, FROM LIFE
60 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
arranged for the new comer. In the bottom I
planted green sod to make the mouse's home as
near like nature as possible and here it lived con-
tentedly for many months, but every visitor who
carelessly put his or her hand against the cage
withdrew it with an exclamation of pain and sur-
prise, for the blunt nosed little mouse was always
on the lookout for an opportunity of this kind and
never missed a chance to sink its teeth into the
fingers that came within its reach.
A YOUNG MEADOW MOUSE
which I once captured proved, however, to
be a very gentle little creature and could be handled
with impunity. In captivity these little animals
make their nests in the form of hollow balls of the
dried grass cut down by them while eating the
roots. Meadow mice are given to migration, as
are the lemmings, and instances of such occurrences
are mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, and the
Bible. Armies of meadow mice are not unknown
in Europe. They have appeared at Vienna and
many parts of Germany, and they have been re-
corded as visiting many different parts of England
at intervals from 1648 to 1867, but here in Ameri-
ca they seem not yet to have adopted the migra-
tion fad. They are probably content with the dam-
age they can do near home. There are at present
about one hundred and sixty-five kinds of meadow
mice on record and we have our share of them,
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 61
America being represented by seventy-eight species
and sub species.
Some meadow mice live in the dark shade of
the forest, some in high and dry places, and others
make their runways and little homes of dry grass
on the salt meadows subject to the overflow at
every high tide. Some kinds live like moles, have
long galleries under the ground and some swim and
dive in a manner which entitles them to be called
aquatic, but they all bear a general family resem-
blance to each other and the one in the illustration
is typical of the family.
MUSKRATS WHEN CAPTURED YOUNG
make interesting and gentle pets; but full grown
muskrats are too savage to handle with safety.
This rule, however, is true of most animals, al-
though I have tamed full grown gray squirrels, red
squirrels, flying squirrels and chipmunks.
The last-named animal makes a gentle little pet
and it is interesting to note that one which I have
kept all this winter did not hibernate, although it
slept late on very cold or stormy mornings, but on
bright days it would sit in the sun and chatter and
chortle in a low, self-satisfied, comfortable manner.
A few years ago my wife and I were in camp
AT THE HEAD OF FLATHEAD LAKE.
We were trout fishing and I had climbed over a
lot of whim sticks, which is Chinook for the dry
62 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
drift wood logs piled on the shore by the torrents,
to a point of vantage where a tangle of these whim
sticks extended over where dark waters whirled in
a spiral, collecting a lot of suds like foam, and
keeping it twisting around in the center of a minia-
ture whirlpool. It is in just such places big trout
love to lurk and I was intent upon casting my flies
over this spot when a low whistle from my wife
signaled me. Looking up I saw that she was point-
ing to some object under the edge of an overhang-
ing bank. Noiselessly clambering back over the
smooth logs and cautiously approaching, I peered
over the edge of the bank, and with some difficulty
discovered the
TIP OF A TAIL.
I felt assured that there must be some sort of an
animal hitched to the other end of it, and so climb-
ing down the bank and cautiously removing drift
wood and rubbish, I rolled up my sleeves, got down
on my knees and quietly slipped my hand close to
the place where the root of the tail should be. I
was not at all surprised upon pulling the animal
out of its hole to discover that I had
CAPTURED A MUSKRAT.
Oh, me, oh, my! what a big one it was! and how
vicious! It appeared to be almost as large as a
beaver, and was very heavy. It was, in fact, the
largest muskrat I had ever seen. I started for
camp with Mr. Rat, for the very good reason
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 63
JUMPING MOUSE (LIFE SIZE) TAKEN FROM INSIDE OF A
RATTLE SNAKE
that I did not know how to let go of it. Not only
did I have to hold the animal away from my legs
to prevent it biting me, but also had to be con-
stantly on the alert to frustrate its efforts to double
up and catch me by the wrist with its long yellow
teeth. The rat would attempt to do this by swing-
ing its body in such a way as to gather momentum
and at the same time imparting to it a twisting
motion that would most certainly have enabled it
to swing up and reach my hand if I had not per-
sistently twisted it in the opposite direction, thus
unwinding the animal, so to speak.
64 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
I had discovered that it is one thing to catch
a wild animal by the tail and it is an entirely dif-
ferent proposition to let go of him again. When
I reached camp the rest of our party were inside
their tents. Audubon says that muskrats may be
handled with safety, but I would not advise my
readers to trust them.
Some previous campers had brought some straw
upon which to sleep and had left it in a heap where
their tent had been pitched. This offered me a
means of getting rid of my
SOMEWHAT DANGEROUS CAPTIVE,
so I held the rat down until its front paws reached
the straw and was glad to see that it immediately
made an effort to crawl into the old bedding to
hide. As soon as I was sure of its purpose, I care-
fully let go of the tail, jerked away my hand, and
the rat immediately disappeared under the straw.
I stood for some time rubbing my tired arm, for
I had carried the rat a considerable distance. Then
I called to the other campers and as they came out
of their tents, I told them that I wanted to break
camp, that I did not like the place at all, that it
was infested with rats.
"Rats!" they exclaimed. "Why there are no
rats here."
The heap of straw was directly in front of my
own tent which was located on a high bank over-
looking the Swan River; the campers were all
standing around the straw. I told them that I did
JIM THE TRAPPER OF LAKE CHELAN 65
not know what they might call the animals, but
I called them rats.
"Where are the rats?" they inquired.
"Everywhere," I replied.
"Show us one," laughed one of the ladies.
"Why," I exclaimed, "there are probably some-
in your tent now."
"Mercy!" cried the ladies in alarm.
"Oh, he is crazy," whispered a small boy.
"Come, Mr. Beard," said one of the gentlemen,
kindly taking me by the arm, "you have been
dreaming, show us a rat."
"Well," I replied, looking thoughtfully around,
"likely as not there are some in this straw." With
that I kicked the straw away and out jumped the
frightened muskrat.
There were screams from the ladies, some ex-
plosive remarks from the men, and the place was
incontinently deserted.
In less time than it takes to tell it the rat went
over the edge of the bluff, scrambled and rolled
down the bank, splashed into the water and swam
away. But the campers had shown more speed
than the muskrat in making an escape.
Picking up my trout rod, I went back to the river
to get the big trout I knew must be lurking in the
whirlpool amid the tangled heap of "whim sticks."
CHAPTER V.
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD
GNAWERS GOOD FOR FOOD BEAVER TAILS RAT STEW
DORMICE HASH POPPY SEED AND HONEY BOILED POR-
CUPINE THE INDIAN METHOD OF COOKING PORCUPINE
THE RULE OF THE WILDERNESS THE SIN OF THE SIN-YALE-
A-MIN PORCUPINE QUILL THE TAIL IS MOST SAVORY
CUDJO THE GRAY SQUIRREL ROBIN THE RED SQUIRREL
A DRUNKEN RED SQUIRREL AND HOW IT ACTED THE RED
SQUIRREL TAMED BLOODY MINDED CHIPMUNKS LIVE
MICE SNAKES AND YOUNG BIRDS AS CHIPMUNK FOOD
THE CHIPMUNK AT WHIPPORWILL COTTAGE THE WHITE
FOOTED MOUSE AND THE SNAKE.
All evidence seems to point to the fact that the
whole tribe of gnawers can change from their ac-
customed diet to a new one
without suffering any great
inconvenience, or injury to
their health. This may not
be true of the beaver, I have
never experimented with
this big flat-tail rat and have
no data upon which to base
a positive opinion. But
there have been so many
exaggerated stories in which
66
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 67
the writers have allowed their imagination to run
riot regarding the habits of the beaver, that I think
I might say that this animal fed upon roast beef
and pudding without exciting much surprise.
But if the information is incomplete regarding
what rodents eat, we all know that they themselves
are not a bad article of food. Beavers' tail is a
historic delicacy of the backwoods.
MUSKRATS
are regularly served at the table in some parts of
this country, and not unknown in New York City,
while squirrels and chipmunks have been looked
upon as delicate articles of food ever since this
country was settled.
I have been told by two gentlemen who lived in
a certain rural district in England that it has been
the custom from time immemorial in that particular
place to
DINE ANNUALLY ON RATS ;
but both men were very careful to explain that
they did not eat "house" rats, using only those
which were trapped in the granaries and hence not
garbage fed; "granary" rats they declared to be
clean animals.
As far back as the time of the Caesars, a Mr.
Bambonselvergius (the man who is credited with
inventing sausages), wrote a treatise in a very
learned manner, telling how to fatten dormice for
the table. In those days they had dormouse
68 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
fricassee, dormouse on toast, dormouse soup and
dormouse hash, and dormouse served with a sauce
made of a mixture of poppy seed and honey.
In the North Woods
THE INDIANS EAT PORCUPINE,
boiled porcupine occupying the place of Thanks-
giving turkey among the Northern Indians. I
have never eaten porcu-
pine and the one I pre-
pared for cooking was
left at Sin- Yale- A-M in
Lake in the Mission
Mountains when we
broke camp to hit the
trail for McDonald
Lake. I am told by Mr.
Belmore Browne, the
artist, hunter and wilderness man, that this ani-
mal should be boiled in not less than two or three
waters or it will be too strong for white man's
taste. If the reader should want to know
HOW TO COOK A PORCUPINE
he can learn from the Indians by watching them
as they prepare a porcupine for the table, but for
fear that all my readers will not have this oppor-
tunity or like u lnjun" cooking, it may be well to
say that the first thing to do is to suspend the
animal over a blazing fire, or throw it bodily into
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 69
the fire and turn it over with a stick until the quills
are thoroughly singed; then roll it in the grass to
brush off the burnt quills.
With a short knife slit the skin up the middle
of the belly from the tail to the throat, peel off the
pelt, cutting off the feet as you come to them. It
is
THE RULE OF THE WILDERNESS
to always burn porcupine skins, but scientists do
not always follow this rule and tenderfeet do not
know of its existence. Professor Elrod, of the
biologicaj surveying party, carefully preserved the
skin of the porcupine killed at Sin-Yale- A-M in
Lake so that it might be stuffed and mounted for
the university museum. During the process of pre-
serving the skin a number of the spines became
detached and lay around upon the ground where
we were accustomed to sit when we gathered for
songs at the evening camp-fire.
After this occurrence, I spent six weeks in camp,
and during all that time I wore the same hunting
suit, only changing it for "store" clpthes when I
came East. When the trout season opened the next
year I put on my same old camping clothes and
went out to fish in a brook in Pike County, Penn-
sylvania. At noon time I selected a mossy stone
upon which I might sit while I ate my lunch. Pike
County is infested with rattle-snakes, so I looked
carefully around before taking my seat and al-
though I saw nothing suspicious, I sprang from
that stone with a yell, under the firm belief that I
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
This
spine
had
had seated myself on a snake and had been struck
by its poisonous fangs; upon putting my hand to
the wound I found there a quill of the Sin-Yale-A-
Min porcupine!
remained hidden in my
trousers during the
whole time I spent in
camp, only to reveal its
savage purpose a year
afterwards in a part of
Pennsylvania which is
free from porcupines
and two thousa-nd miles
away from Sin-Yale-A-
Min Lake.
THE PORCUPINE MAY BE BOILED OR ROASTED.
The latter is done by suspending the animal by its
forelegs and roasting it over a bed of hot coals.
When properly cooked its meat is said to be as de-
licious as any that can be found in the wilderness,
and
THE TAIL, IN PARTICULAR, IS MOST SAVORY,
is very meaty, and, like beef tongue, the meat is
full of fine bits of fat. Split the tail, take out the
bone, and roast the meat over the hot embers.
Cooked in this manner it is known by the suggestive
name of Yum-Yum.
But enough of this, it is not my intention to fill
a book with accounts of dead animals or of cook-
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 71
ing recipes. One live animal is more interesting to
us, and of more real value to humanity than a
carload of dead ones. We have abundance of do-
mestic animals to supply us with meat, and it seems
outrageous that beautiful little creatures, like the
gray squirrels, for instance, should be killed to sup-
ply our table. I once owned
A GRAY SQUIRREL NAMED CUDJO.
It was during the war time, my room was in
the third story of a brick house, and, like the pack
rat, I filled my nest with all manner of useless
things. The walls were decorated with the junk
from the camps and at one end of the room hung
a pair of glazed leather boots. They were broad-
toed, after the fashion of the day, they had big
bulging calves to allow room for the baggy trousers
which were then in fashion, the boots were cut
away under the knees to allow free play of the
man's joints, in front they, extended up above and
protected the knee by rounded tips.
They were in fact full dress officers' military
boots of the war of '61. One of these boots was
selected by Cudjo for his home and down in the
foot of it he slept during the night.
He spent the days in romping around the room
or sitting in the window with one foot on the sash
and the other curled up under his body while he
watched, with evident interest, the boys at play, or
the passing of regiments of soldiers and the six-
mule team government wagons, but whenever a
72 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
dog ran by, the squirrel became very much excited
and kept up a continuous scolding as long as his
enemy remained in sight. The scolding consisted
of a continued repetition of its own name, Cudjo!
Cudjo ! Cudjo !
It has always been my habit to rise early, but as
a regular custom I awakened earlier while
CUDJO AND I
occupied the same room, than I hav before, or
since. This was because Cudjo himself was a very
early riser. How he knew when daylight came
while he was down in the dark toe of
that boot, in the dark end of the room, is
a mystery still unsolved. With the first light upon
the eastern horizon Cudjo would awaken, and,
climbing to the top of the boot leg he would poise
himself on the edge of the leather, give a mighty
spring and alight upon my chest with a resounding
thump.
Cudjo knew me to be a kind master, a boy with
a gentle, even temper, but he had also learned that
it is not always safe to awaken suddenly even a
good-natured boy by jumping with all four feet
on his chest, so, no sooner did he knock my breath
from my body than he was instantly off again,
and while I lay in bed and said things, Cudjo the
squirrel, from a safe distance on the mantle-piece
or the top closet shelf, would sit and chatter back
volubly in squirrel language.
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 73
There can be no mistake regarding the object
of the squirrel's thump on my chest. Cudjo meant
to awaken me and in this he never failed. If my
chest happened to be an inconvenient place for him
to land, he had no hestitancy in landing on my
head. After being once awakened, if I fell asleep
again the squirrel would climb back to the boot
and make another jump and he would repeat this
operation until he compelled me to get up. As
soon as I arose Cudjo would begin to romp around
the room, run up my leg, sit on my shoulder, and
in every way express his joy in a manner as un-
mistakable as that of a dog when wagging its tail.
Cudjo was very considerate in some things, and
unlike most rodent pets, he refrained from gnaw-
ing the boots, furniture, or woodwork in the room.
But he did delight in creeping down between the
sheets and hiding a lot of walnuts and hickory nuts
there. It was my habit as a boy, when retiring for
the night, to undress as hastily as possible, throw
my clothes on a chair, put out the light, then in the
dark hastily pull down the bed clothes and with one
bound alight in the middle of the lower sheet.
Cudjo would place the heap of nuts just where
I would strike them when springing into bed.
This, to my boyish fancy, he did purposely, though
of course the position of the nuts was entirely ac-
cidental.
The sensation caused by sitting down very hard
on rough shelled walnuts and pointed nose hickory
nuts, when one is in one's thin night-clothes, is
74 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
such as to cause unpremeditated and ungrammatical
remarks. It gives me pleasure to be able to say,
however, that I was a moral and clean-minded boy
and did not use "swear" words on any occasion,
but I am afraid the emphasis with which I made
my simple statements and expressions of feeling
sounded to the squirrel much the same as real bad
"cuss" words would, because even though he
could not understand my language, he did under-
stand the meaning conveyed by the tone of my
voice and he seemed to enjoy my irritation.
But this was probably imagination. Cudjo was
never savage or ill natured, and although he would
not allow me to take hold of him with my hands,
he would sit on my hand, wrist, or shoulder, climb
into my pockets in search of peanuts without the
slightest fear, nor would he resent it if I stroked
his back. In this particular he was unlike
ROBIN THE RED SQUIRREL
before he took to drink. Robin was caught in a
box trap set in a swail, where the high ferns grew
and the yellow moccasin flowers and baneberries
bloomed, on the shores of Big Tink Lake. Robin
proved to be a veritable savage, he was as ferocious
as a diminutive tiger might be. He would spring
at the bars of his cage and savagely bite the
wires whenever any one approached him. We
kept him for several weeks and although he ate
what food we gave him, we had to be constantly
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 75
on guard to prevent him from biting our fingers
while we were placing the food in his cage.
One day all of us got in a wagon to drive
to the nearest market town, and left Robin
to watch the house. When we returned it was
dark and rainy, Robin was forgotten and the poor
fellow's cage hung all night exposed to the cold
drizzling rain. In the morning we thought he was
dead, but upon removing his wet, dank and chilled
body from the cage we discovered a slight move-
ment of his hind foot, and immediately hunted up
some pieces of warm flannel, rolled him up in the
cloth and placed him in the oven of the stove; tak-
ing precaution to leave the oven door open so that
we could watch and see that poor Robin was not
baked alive.
In a little while our patient began to move, twist
and kick, at length he kicked the covers off, then
the cook removed him from the oven and going
to the closet, filled a spoon with a mixture of "cook-
ing" sherry and milk, which she administered to
Robin with the belief that the wine would warm
him up inside and set him on his feet again; but
it set him on every part of his body except his
feet.
As the fumes of the liquor ascended to his
wicked little brain, Robin began to make a disgrace-
ful exhibition of himself. It was plain to see that
he was drunk, outrageously, hilariously drunk! He
jumped up in the air and alighted on the top of
his head, he stood on his hind legs and whirled
76 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
around, he ran through the hot ashes in the open
fireplace of the dining-room, he jumped hurdles,
and at last catching sight of the cook, ran up the
outside of her dress and before she was aware of
his intentions, sunk his chisel-like teeth through the
nail of her thumb, biting into the bone.
This was going too far even for a drunken
rodent, so the squirrel was grasped roughly by the
nape of his neck and thrust back into his cage,
where he curled up and slept off the effects of his
too generous libations.
Then a wonderful thing happened, Robin the
savage, Robin the ill-natured, from that time be-
came one of the most gentle and lovable of little
pets which I have ever possessed. It may have
been that he was shamed into gentleness by the
memory of his disgraceful behavior, or it may have
been that he felt grateful for the care he received
after his soaking in the rain, or it may be that
the strong drink rearranged the gray matter in
his little brain, destroyed the wicked thoughts and
developed the good ones. But whatever the reason,
Robin had a change of heart. At the end of the
season, when the reformed red squirrel was given
his freedom, he seemed to leave us with real regret,
and, as if reluctant to part with his human friends,
he several times returned to his cage at the log
house before finally disappearing with a whisk of
his tail down in the swail where he was first
caught.
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 77
It is not my intention to advocate intemperance
as a means of grace on the part of one's pets, nor
do I say that the wild orgy indulged in by Robin
was the cause of his regeneration. I only tell the
incident as it happened and leave the reader to
draw his own conclusions as to the advisability of
high license, prohibition, local option or free rum
for red squirrels.
RED SQUIRRELS KILL PIGEONS.
Since writing the above I have made a visit to
Litchfield, Connecticut, where the red squirrels are
very abundant; while there I met Mr. James New-
ton Gunn, who has a summer home and keeps
pigeons at this charming old town. When he visited
his summer place during the winter he found with
dismay that some creature was devouring his pets.
He supposed, of course, that the ravages in his
dove-cot were committed by rats; but resolving to
investigate the matter thoroughly, he arose early
one morning and crept very quietly up to the
pigeon loft and peering in, he saw a red squirrel
in the very act of killing one of his pigeons.
The peculiar and interesting part about this is,
that the squirrels only ate the heads of the birds,
and then making a hole in the pigeons' breasts,
devoured the contents of the crops. As far as I
know, this is a new record of the predaceous habits
of the red squirrel and a novel way to procure
grain.
78 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
As for these animals' well-known predaceous
habits, while in a wild state, and their vicious
treatment of their beautiful long tail gray cousins,
I offer no defense, but can say that the red squir-
rel is a plucky, pugnacious little animal, and that
after it is tame it makes a good pet.
Somebody started a discussion in one of the
New York papers about the habits of the chip-
munk, claiming this rodent did not climb trees.
It was done as a joke, but many of us were sur-
prised to find how ignorant city people are about
the habits of this little striped animal.
It is a popular belief that most of the men in
the city originally came from farms, but this can
scarcely be true, for every country boy knows all
about the habits of the chipmunk, and I seriously
doubt the ability of some of the people who rushed
into the newspaper discussion, to tell the difference
between the chipmunk and a skunk.
Every season, for many years, I have watched
the chipmunks at Wild Lands, and have frequently
seen them climb to the top of trees 60 to 70 feet
high. They may have done this in play, but I
am sorry to say that I am inclined to believe that
these gentle little animals are
SOMETIMES BLOODY MINDED.
Last summer I saw a white-eyed vireo dart at
a couple of chipmunks on a white oak tree and
knock them both from their perch twenty feet or
more to the ground, this act aroused the suspicion
COMMON CHIPMUNK
8o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
that the little bird might be more familiar with
the habits of the chipmunk than our city-bred
naturalists, and that perhaps she has good reasons
for driving the chipmunks from the trees.
It was on account of this suspicion that I made
some experiments and attempted to discover what
sort of food well-fed chipmunks would eat. By
this I mean animals with a constant supply of food
at hand so that hunger could in no wise tempt them
to an unusual diet. Two chipmunks which I had
confined in a wire minnow box were most gentle
and interesting little pets and one of them now oc-
cupies a squirrel cage along side of me as I write.
THE WHITE FOOTED MICE
discovered years ago, that there is a bountiful
supply of food in the pantry of the log cabin, food
which is more palatable than that to be found
in the surrounding woods, so these beautiful little
creatures became a regular nuisance and were as
annoying to the housewife as are their degraded
brothers, the Asiatic mice, to the housewives of
our cities. Consequently I set traps for them and
caught five in one night. The little rascals had
deservedly forfeited their lives by taking their
abode in the pantry, but I did not care to become
their executioner, so I took a tin cracker box and
cut a hole in it as near as I could judge to be
about the size of a mouse's body; then filling the
tin box with soft nesting material and the five
mice, I placed it
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD
FIELD SKETCHES IN PENCIL OF WILD WESTERN
CHIPMUNKS
IN THE CAGE WITH THE CHIPMUNKS,
my idea being that the chipmunks would run
around the cage in the day time and sleep at night,
while the mice would run around at night and sleep
during the day. I was perfectly right in my con-
clusion, but made a grave mistake of judgment in
regard to the size of the hole which a chipmunk
can enter, and when I visited the minnow box in
the morning the. rags with which the chipmunks
had made a nest in the corner of the cage still
occupied their accustomed place; there was no
means of escape visible by which the prisoners
might have freed themselves; but no chipmunks
were in sight.
I violently shook the cage, and to my great sur-
prise the two chipmunks, one following the other,
emerged with some difficulty from the small hole
%^ DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
in the box which had been cut for the mice, but,
as every thing seemed peaceful and mice un-
harmed, there was apparently no reason for
separating them, so the mice and their big cousins
were allowed to sleep together. The mice ap-
peared perfectly willing to do this, but the chip-
munks, it seemed, had their own idea of the man-
ner in which this should be done. At the end of
two days all five mice were resting
INSIDE THE CHIPMUNKS!
In capturing its prey the chipmunk springs
upon a mouse, and grasping it in its arm, severs
the jugular with its chisel-like teeth. It then eats
the eyes of its victim, next its brain, and after that
the rest of its body, bones and all. The neatness
and dispatch with which they do this, and the man-
ner in which they leave the skin of the mouse
intact with only the feet, tail, and skull attached,
plainly indicates that the chipmunk is no novice
at this sort of work. A young friend of mine
now employed in the Museum of Natural History
at Central Park, tells me that he shot a chipmunk
with the fresh scalp of another chipmunk in its
hands. From my own observations I think that
at times all rodents are cannibals.
Once having captured
A VERY LARGE GARTER SNAKE
I put it in with the chipmunks, not for the pur-
pose of causing trouble, but because the chipmunks
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 83
CHIPMUNK IN THE ACT OF EATING A WHITE-FOOT MOUSE,
WHICH IT HAD JUST CAPTURED
occupied the only available cage, and I thought
that they could take care of themselves. In this
I was again right, but the manner of taking care
of themselves pursued by the little imps was alto-
gether unlocked for by me.
The animals showed not the least alarm or even
excitement in the presence of the snake; on the
contrary the biggest rodent suddenly leaped upon
the intruder and although the serpent, after the
manner of a true constrictor, quickly wrapped the
chipmunk in the folds of its sinuous body, the
struggles of the "garter" were of no avail and
not even noticed by the chipmunk as it busied it-
84 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
self biting the snake through the neck. A moment
later the little chipmunk was sitting on its haunches
holding
THE SERPENT'S HEAD IN ITS DAINTY PAWS
calmly eating it as it would an acorn or a hickory-
nut. After that my snakes were put in a box by
themselves.
A ROBIN HAD ITS NEST IN THE CHESTNUT TREE
near the stone chimney of the log cabin. Under-
neath the spreading branches of this tree, and
directly under the robin's nest, a load of sand had
been dumped for our little baby daughter's play-
ground. It rained hard one day and packed the
sand so firmly that when one of the young robins
lost its balance and fell on the hard sand, it was
instantly killed, to the great grief of little Barbara,
who witnessed the accident. I took the young
robin and tossed it to the chipmunks and they
fought over it as savagely as two dogs over a
bone. All of which leads me to believe that
while a chipmunk does not make a regular prac-
tice of
ROBBING BIRDS' NESTS
and probably does not disturb the eggs as do
some other four-legged scamps, still, I do think
that in its occasional excursions to the tree tops it
would not pass by a nest of young birds without
helping itself. If the truth were known, I believe
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 85
that all rodents are more or less omnivorous and
not disinclined to add meat to their diet.
THE COMMON BROWN RAT
was once undoubtedly a wild animal and as such
most probably lived on a diet of berries, seeds and
nuts, just as its wild cousins do today, and prob-
ably for the same reason, that is, because it is dif-
ficult for such wild animals to procure meat.
Only a little while ago I saw a gray squirrel
on Bowne Avenue, in Flushing, Long Island, pur-
sued by a flock of English sparrows. It was just
in front of my house, so I hurried across the street
to discover the cause of the pursuit. As the squir-
rel ran up a large pin oak tree I saw that in its
mouth was, not an acorn, but a full-grown English
sparrow! I have never heard the gray squirrel
accused of nest robbing. However, from this in-
cident it seems probable that it does not object
to varying its diet of nuts with the taste of bird's
flesh. My
CHIPMUNKS WILL EAT RAW MEAT,
mice, bread, cheese, milk, and in fact anything that
a human will use as an article of food except fish
and eggs. They will also hunt, catch and de-
vour frogs, eat flies, beetles, butterflies, moths and
other insects.
A half tame chipmunk at Whip-poor-will cot-
tage, near Wild Lands, was in the hot pursuit of
86
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SKETCH OF WESTERN CHIPMUNK FROM LIFE
a large pickerel frog when the latter, by a skil-
fully executed back jump, threw the chipmunk off
the trail. The grass was long and to get a better
view of the field the chipmunk mounted a large
stone and from this vantage ground watched with
keenest interest the grass about him, but the frog
had had a narrow escape from a foe with which
it had had previous encounters, so it lay quiet,
concealed by the grass until its enemy, tired of its
watch, went to the kitchen door for its accustomed
bit of table leavings, then the frog hastened to its
home under the board steps. This little bit of
wood play was enacted in full view of an inter-
ested audience in the cottage, people who were the
personal friends of both the frog and its foe.
My readers must not understand by these re-
marks that I approved of, or even intentionally,
A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 87
took a hand in causing any of these sanguinary
encounters; but when one is collecting live speci-
mens for sketching purposes, even though one
gives them all their freedom after they have served
as models, there are bound to be some unadvertised
and unscheduled scraps where the race problem
comes to the front, and the hereditary prejudices
and antipathies have an opportunity of venting
themselves.
A little white-footed 'mouse which. I had in a
cage with a garter snake (but for which I pro-
vided a safe retreat in one corner, so fixed that
the snake could not enter it), became so enraged
at the presence of its enemy that it left its safe
retreat to attack the monster snake, for monster
it was in comparison with the size of the little
mouse; but I doubt if this would have happened
in the open.
It was probably the maternal instinct which
prompted the little mother mouse to come out
and attack its great foe, but, whatever it was, out
she came and jumped right for the snake, much
to the latter's surprise. Her small teeth, although
capable of inflicting a painful bite on my fingers,
were not long enough to do any serious injury
to the garter snake, and before I could open the
cage to interfere the latter had bitten the mouse
severely on one of its hind feet.
For the comfort of the tender-hearted reader,
I will say that I took the snake from the cage
and liberated it; also, that I kept the mother
88 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
mouse until her foot had healed, and when I let
her go to the woods her injury was only percepti-
ble by the presence of a slight limp as she went
hopping over a moss-covered log to her old home
m the hollow trunk of a tree.
CHAPTER VI
THE BATS I HAVE HAD
SYMBOLS OF DARKNESS BATS IN HIS BELFRY ANIMATED
AEROPLANES HOW TO MAKE AN OBSERVATION BAT HOUSE
BAT HOUSES ON FARMS BATS AT "WILD LANDS " A
DISREPUTABLE BAT TWO LITTLE BABY BATS DEATH OF
THE MOTHER BAT HOW WE FED THE ORPHANS TOO KIND-
HEARTED DOLLS' NURSING BOTTLES FOR BABY BATS
There are many very interesting, harmless and
pretty creatures in this world which are looked
upon with disgust by the ordinary uncultured per-
son. Old-time witchcraft and superstition, poets
and artists, all have unintentionally done great in-
justice to some of the animals of this world and
given many of them a reputation which is entirely
undeserved.
Because owls and bats are nocturnal animals
they have been used from time immemorial by
artists and writers as
SYMBOLS OF DARKNESS.
Physical darkness has also been used as the sym-
bol of ignorance and thus the owl and the bat are
often used to represent ignorance. But because of
an imaginary wise appearance the owl is also
9 o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
represented as a symbol of wisdom, not so the
poor bat. Today there is a common slang ex-
pression used to indicate a disordered mind, and
when a man is said to have
"BATS IN HIS BELFRY'*
we know that there is something wrong in that
person's head; that bats correspond to disorderly
thoughts and the belfry to the head.
In this manner and by this process bats have
become associated in everyone's mind with super-
stition, ignorance, darkness, lunacy, and a lot
of other disagreeable and uncanny subjects. For
all of this the bat itself is not to blame; it is a
useful, beautiful and extremely interesting little
animal and the only mammal capable of flight.
THE FLYING SQUIRREL DOES NOT FLY,
it is simply an animal aeroplane, capable of sail-
ing down from a high point to a lower one; but
the bat has the same powers of flight as a bird,
although when it is on the wing it more truly re-
sembles a butterfly in its movements than a bird.
Any one who wishes to make a study of bats and
their habits may easily do so by
MAKING AN OBSERVATION BAT HOUSE.
Take a board the size of a cellar window sash,
nail four small blocks about one inch thick to the
four corners and nail the window sash to these
THE BATS I HAVE HAD
^
LEG OF YOUNG BAT DRAWN FROM LIFE
four blocks. The board should be rough and un-
planed so as to
GIVE THE BATS A FOOTHOLD.
A door to cover the window sash can be made of
a second board. The bat house must either hang
like an old fashioned tavern sign, be nailed up flat
against the side of a stable, barn or dwelling, or
fastened to a pole; but wherever it is placed it
should be set upright upon its edge in the position
a sash occupies in the window of a house. If this
frame work is boxed in so that the sides and the
top are closed to protect the inside from the rain,
but left open at the bottom, the bats will enter
from below.
A door or shutter made of another piece of
board and swung from hinges at the top, can be
arranged so that it will hang over the sash and
give to the interior the darkness which the bats
so dearly love.
92 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THE SHUTTER
should fasten with a hook at the bottom to pre-
vent the wind from banging it back and forth.
When the space between the sash and the back
board is occupied by the bats, they can be exam-
ined at any time by opening the shutter and watch-
ing the inmates through the glass.
Bat houses constructed on this or a similar plan
should find a place on every farm, because bats
feed exclusively on night-flying insects and moths
which are as a rule most injurious to vegetation.
But bat houses can be made of only two pieces of
board each and when they are not made for ob-
serving the inmates, of course they need no sash.
The open spaces between the logs of my house
at Wild Lands have from the first been favorite
homes for families of bats. In company with a
friend I was cleaning and adjusting my fishing
rods one summer day when I was startled by a
scream coming from the bedroom overhead; drop-
ping our tools we both made a rush upstairs, and
there we found my devoted help-mate in a great
state of excitement because she had "heard a rattle-
snake in the walls."
I thought that she was mistaken, because it is
not an act characteristic of a rattle-snake to climb
to the second story of a house, but when I struck
the wall with my fist the blow was answered by
a rapid rattling noise which startled all three of
us. Each time I made the experiment of pounding
on the wall the "varmint" inside replied by making
,
SKETCHES OF TWO SPECIES OF BATS
94 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
the same alarming noise. After the first excite-
ment was over I was positive the noise was not
produced by a snake, but what did cause it was
an unsolved mystery.
When I put a ladder against the outside of the
house, however, to search for the intruder, I pur-
sued my investigations with the utmost caution,
notwithstanding my firm conviction that it was
no snake, but, to use a familiar expression, "there
was nothing doing," so we again returned to our
various occupations; and the incident would have
been forgotten had not my fisherman friend
chanced to look up and in doing so discovered a
small head protruding from a chink in the wall.
It was the work of an instant to mount again the
ladder and investigate. There I found, not a
snake, but the measliest moth-eaten, crippled, old
battered veteran of a bat that I had ever laid my
eyes upon.
There was scarcely any hair upon the animal's
back and the slits in its ears and cuts on its face
were evidently the marks received in battle. Every
time I moved, the bat scolded me by emitting a
rattling sort of noise. I took it down from the
house and discovered that it was unable to fly,
so I hung it up in the hollow of an old oak tree
and left it to its fate.
The bat was reasonably plump, did not have a
starved appearance and consequently must have
been able to capture its food without flying after
it. It appeared to me as if :t was suffering from
THE BATS I HAVE HAD 95
old age and a quarrelsome disposition and that its
joints were rheumatic; the old reprobate had the
gout, and whenever it attempted to crawl or move
it would begin to swear, in bat language, just like
a gouty human sinner. Far more interesting than
this crabbed wreck, were the mother bat and
TWO LITTLE BABY BATS
which a small boy captured for me on a tree in
Flushing. I made careful studies of the little bats
and after their death preserved them in alcohol,
but the drawings have been misplaced or lost, the
alcohol in the bottle long since evaporated and the
bodies disintegrated. I am very sorry for this, be-
cause I know of no good picture of baby bats
drawn from life. The two little babies, when cap-
tured, were clinging to the breast of their mother,
and when I put her inside the wire cage, built for
the white-footed mice, the babies did not loosen
their hold of mamma.
I fed the old bat with small pieces of fresh meat,
which I gave to her from the point of a hat-pin.
Perhaps the red meat was too strong for her
stomach, or it may be that the old mother bat was
injured by the boy when he captured her; at any
rate she did not live long in confinement.
Under the circumstances it did not seem strange
that the bat should perish, but her actions and
preparation for death struck me as being very novel
and interesting. It was her custom to hang all
96 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
day by her hind feet with her head down and with
her two babies folded in her winged arms.
At night she was more lively and would clamber
all over the cage; but on this particular occasion
she seemed disinclined to move; at length, how-
ever, she disengaged her two little babies and care-
fully hung them side by side to the wires of the
enclosure.
Previous to this occasion the two babies and the
mother had never been separated, so, when I saw
what she had done, my curiosity was greatly ex-
cited and when the little mother slowly and pain-
fully climbed down to the bottom of the cage, let
go her hold and rested upon her back, I was sur-
prised, for I had never before seen a bat voluntarily
assume this position.
I did not see how she removed the young ones
from her breast as the act was unexpected, but I
saw her with the babies and the next moment they
were hung on the wires and a few hours after-
wards when I looked at her again, I was still more
surprised to find that she was dead. Was this ac-
cidental, or did the poor mother feel that her time
had come and prepare for it by tenderly hanging
her babies out of harm's way? If an accident it
was interesting, if an intelligent act it was pathetic.
I had now two orphans on my hands and how
to feed them was the question. At first I put a
rag in a saucer of milk and the other end in a
baby's mouth; this seemed to answer the purpose
and to be in a measure successful, but the babies
THE BATS I HAVE HAD 97
bedaubed themselves all over with milk and the
process of feeding was tedious. I next secured two
dolls' nursing bottles and they answered the pur-
pose beautifully.
The little bats were greedy babies and had to
be limited in the amount of milk given to them.
Shortly after this I went on an exploring expedi-
tion to some islands lying off the extremity of Long-
Island. It was out of the question for me to take
the baby bats along with me and so I turned them
over to my sister-in-law, knowing that the helpless
little things would appeal to her kind heart. But
Lord bless her soul, she was
TOO KIND HEARTED!
In the hurry of my departure I forgot to cau-
tion my volunteer nurse regarding the amount of
food to give the babies. She tenderly placed the
little things in a warm bed of soft wool and gave
them each a bottle full of warm milk. Although
the nursing bottles were made for dolls, each bot-
tle was larger than the baby attached to it, and
the consequence was that the greedy little bats
sucked away at the bottle until they were both dis-
tended like two little round bladders, filled with
milk. Sad to relate, they both perished from an
acute attack of expansion.
CHAPTER VII
DO MEN THINK?
DO ANIMALS POSSESS INSTINCT THE EFFECT OF THE
CHWESE GONG UPON THE HOTEL GUESTS NEGROES
AND OXEN WHAT IS INSTINCT ? HOW TO CONCEAL IGNOR-
ANCE HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE ACTION OF LOWER
ANIMALS EARLY NATURE FAKIRS FUNNY OLD HENRY
VII. THE GRIZZLY BEAR WHIPS THE KING OF BEASTS
RATS UNABLE TO SOLVE A NEW PUZZLE WISE MEN
FOOLED ON THE FIRST OF APRIL BROWN BESS THE BAR
LIFTER THE COON THAT SOLVED A NEW PROBLEM HE
EATS THEM ALIVE A MONKEY THAT SOMETIMES TURNED
THE HYDRANT OFF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT KID
WHICH PLAYED THAT THE HOTEL TOWELS WERE SNOW
FOOLISH COWS THAT EAT SHIRTS
Twenty-five years ago the dinner-gong was in
common use at hotels and boarding houses and
there are men living today who can remember
when this noisy oriental instrument was first in-
troduced, and all of them can remember the first
time they heard one of them.
When the Chinese Gong was introduced in the
Burnett House in Cincinnati, at the first quivering
noise the guests sat up straight in their chairs and
looked wildly at each other, as the clamor in-
creased in volume the guests rose hastily from their
seats, and when the noise was at its worst there
98
DO MEN THINK ? 99
was a panic; the office, barber-shop, and bar-room
were empty and the terror stricken customers were
fleeing from what they thought to be a house fall-
ing about their ears.
The first Chinese dinner-gong used for a dinner
call at Memphis, Tennessee, not only
STAMPEDED ALL THE OX-TEAMS
within hearing, but the planters and negroes as
well. The oxen threw up their heads and bel-
lowed, the negroes showing the whites of their
eyes, jumped to their feet, and the languid planters
vied with their slaves and animals in fleeing down
the streets to escape the shapeless horror which
pursued them.
As soon as experience taught the men that this
sound meant food, they welcomed it with glad
smiles and no fear. As soon as experience taught
the oxen and negroes that no danger lurked in the
sound of the dinner-gong, fear vanished from
among them and thereafter when the gong sounded
the planters strolled to the dining-room, the
negroes lounged around, the oxen calmly chewed
their cuds and paid no heed to the clamor. The
same sort of sound might stampede a sloth of
bears, a route of wolves, or a clowder of wild cats,
or a herd of elk, but if no harm accompanied the
sound, these animals, like the planters, negroes and
oxen would soon learn not to be frightened.
To understand properly the living creatures of
this world we must
ioo DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ATTRIBUTE NOTHING TO INSTINCT,
this vague word has too long blocked the threshold
of the study of animated nature.
It must be taken for granted that everything
in the natural world can be explained in a practical
or natural manner and we must remember that
such words as "instinct" are invented, not for the
purpose of enlightenment, but
TO CONCEAL IGNORANCE.
When we do not know what a thing is we give
it a name and thereafter speak familiarly of it,
calling it by name (the name we gave it) and de-
ceive ourselves into thinking that it is all explained.
While man's intellectual powers are acknowl-
edged to far exceed those of the brutes, the most
casual observer cannot help noticing that the
brutes possess a mind peculiarly their own, prob-
ably differing in its possible development, rather
than in its nature, from that of the man.
We can neither imagine nor conceive a thing
which does not correspond in some manner with
our own personal experience, because the imagina-
tion feeds upon and is composed only of the
things of which we are conscious through our
senses.
Hence, it follows that to understand the action
of the lower animals, it is necessary for us to be
able to place ourselves mentally in their position
and think how we would act with the beast's limita-
tions and.surroundings.
DO MEN THINK ? 101
The student must be able to imagine how he
would express his emotions with vocal organs capa-
ble of producing only grunts, whines, growls or
bellowing; he must think how he would act if,
like the dog, his sense of smell was so acute that
each individual stick, stone, tree, and shrub ; each
patch of earth, sand or water, possessed to him a
distinct and recognizable odor; how he would
move if he had the body of a frog, a snake, a tur-
tle, or an elephant.
He must conceive how he would conduct himself
if, like the hawk he had a sight so keen as to be
able to know food, drink, friend and foe at dis-
tances, only possible to him now, when his human
eyes are aided by the most powerful field glasses.
Formerly it was the general custom of writers
to endow the birds and
BEASTS WITH WONDERFUL HUMAN MINDS,
and more than human sentiment. There has been
a change since those romantic days, and now every-
thing in the scale of life below man is, by many,
called an automaton, in other words a machine.
In the ancient Book of English Dogges printed
in the sixteenth century a story is told of Henry
the Seventh becoming angry because
FOUR "BANDOGGES" CONQUERED A LION
in fair battle, and he "commanded all such dogges
(how many soeuer they were in number) should
102 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A RESOURCEFUL 'COON
be hanged, beyng deeply displeased that so ill
favored rascall curre should with such violent vil-
lany assault the valiant Lyon King of Beasts!"
In an ancient history of this same King, quoted
in the old Latin dog book, it tells how King Henry
also ordered that a falcon should be killed because
it presumed to attack an eagle, the King of birds.
It is a pity that the old pumpkin headed Henry
was not present at Laredo, Texas, when a plebian
grizzly bear seized the terrible man-eating lion
"Parnell" by the shoulder, swung his royal high-
ness high in air and slammed him down so hard
on the ground that the King of beasts lay there
limp and unconscious.
It is entertaining to think how indignant King
Henry would have been had he witnessed this act
of "lese majeste" and it is not difficult to guess
DO MEN THINK? 103
what the fate of the grizzly would have been-
if the King's orders were obeyed as well as are
those of a certain brilliant but vain and childish
emperor, who sends a laborer to nine months in
prison for sticking out his tongue at him.
But long ago before Uncle Remus had taught
some of our modern romantic nature writers his
peculiar method of viewing Natural History, long
before the reaction which teaches us that animals
are nothing but living machines, there was a time
when animals were not only thought to be en-
dowed with human reason, but also with human
morals and human tendency to crime. A proof of
this is in the fact that they were frequently brought
into court with lawyers to defend and lawyers to
prosecute them for their misdeeds.
But the careful observer and student who has
freed himself from the loose reasoning of the first
writers and the narrow reasoning of the last ones,
cannot help being astonished, both at the
POWER OF "INSTINCT," AND THE LIMITATIONS OF
"MIND"
in insect, beast and man.
The scientist who prepares an elaborate labyrinth
with which to test the reasoning powers of a rat,
forgets that he should not venture beyond the
previous experiences of the rat. Many of the so-
called reasoning human beings are as helpless as
the rodent when confronted with entirely new
104 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
problems, problems which former experiences will
not help them to solve.
Because a rat is unable to find its way out of
one of these puzzle boxes invented by the scientists,
does not prove a lack of reason on the part of the
rodent.
To illustrate this as well as to give a lesson in
temperance, I once caused frozen jelly in cocktail
glasses to be served to a company of two hundred
men; each glass had a cherry in the bottom of
the jelly and the latter was as firm and hard, al-
most, as if it was a part of the glass.
The men represented the most intelligent and
cultured class of New York City.
Yet regardless of the fact that they were as-
sembled for the purpose of celebrating the advent
of the first of April, when, as Toast Master, I pro-
posed
AN APRIL FOOL TOAST
which in itself should have excited their suspicion,
these two hundred intelligent human beings stood
on their feet for at least three minutes and tried
to drink the solid bit of jelly from their glasses.
Not satisfied with one or two attempts, they held
their glasses up to the light, looked earnestly at
the supposed liquid, and then tried again and again
to suck it down their throats.
If some grave old scientist had tried this experi-
ment in order to determine whether men were
possessed with reason or whether they were ma-
chines, would the experimenter have decided, upon
DO MEN THINK? 105
the evidence before him, that the eminent judges,
authors, writers, artists, publishers, and leading
merchants were all machines?
I do not claim that the lower creatures possess
a human intellect, far from it; but inasmuch as it
is admitted that our brains have grown or de-
veloped from something possessed by a lower
form of animal,
THE ADMISSION ADMITS
that the animal must have possessed something
from which an intellect could be developed, in
other words a mind, which by education gradually
becomes a human intellect. If, according to science,
man is but an educated animal, it is evident that we
need some new definition of reason, intellect, and
instinct in order to escape endless misunderstanding
and discussion and make a platform on which all
may stand and from which we can reach some
common-sense conclusion. But to give the wishy-
washy sentiments of the old writers to the beasts,
or to take the Uncle Remus school of nature
writers seriously is as absurd as the automatism as-
serted by some of our modern naturalists.
AN OLD BROWN COW
I once knew was always sleek and fat ; whether the
grass crop was good or bad mattered little to
her.
Like other cows,
io6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
BROWN BESS
had a pasture, but she only used it as an exercise
ground and loafing place. When she really wanted
food she selected the garden patch which contained
the vegetables her highly cultivated appetite
craved. After appeasing her hunger she would re-
turn to her pasture lot and contentedly chew the
cud.
Another cow possessing the same ingenuity, but
with less self-control, would have foundered in the
first red clover field, or miserably perished from
overloading her numerous stomachs with sugar
corn, or died in an agony of colic from the con-
sumption of too many green apples; but not so
with old Brown Bess! She grew plump and fat,
and her rotund sides appeared as if they had just
been brushed, combed and oiled for exhibition at
the county fair.
I was curious to find out how she managed to
live so well, when all her companions were "ran-
gey" and lean, so one day I shadowed her.
When I discovered her she was cropping the
grass by the roadside in company with three other
cows and a young bull. Bess gazed at me so in-
nocently with her big soft eyes that I was willing
to swear that she had been slandered by the en-
vious people who owned the thin cattle with moth-
eaten tails. After pausing, however, to exchange
greetings with her, scratch the cowlick on her fore-
head and pat her glossy sides, I stole away and
hid behind a tree.
DO MEN THINK? 107
For a time the cattle all browsed in a nonchalant
manner, but presently Brown Bess raised her head
and looked around with studied carelessness. Her
big, intelligent eyes took in the landscape at a
glance; evidently her mind was not occupied with
the dusty grass at her feet.
Bess had a pair of
BEAUTIFUL LONG HORNS,
which sprang from her head in wide, graceful
curves. After the manner of cows, she began to
rub them against a tree growing near the post and
rail fence which enclosed a field of young growing
corn.
Nothing suspicious being in sight, she ceased to
dissemble, then walking up to the fence she skill-
fully inserted her curved horns under a rail, lifted
her head until the end of the rail was loose in the
hole in the post, and then, by turning her head
slowly to one side, slid one end of the rail from
the hole and gently deposited it on the ground.
It is possible that this might have been an ac-
cident, but the rapt attention and expectant atti-
tude of the young bull and other cows plainly
showed that they did not look upon it in that light.
The most enthusiastic believer in animal autom-
atonism could not honestly say it was accidental
when Brown Bess removed two more rails in the
same manner, and then, stepping over the low bot-
tom rail, led her companions to a feast that would
make their lean sides swell to the danger mark.
io8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
Evidently this old cow, alone and unaided, had
experimented until she solved the problem of a oOst
and rail fence, just as she had also discovered a
way to unhook a gate. In other words, she had
solved a puzzle box's secret, and had she been
human we would say she did it by common sense
and reason, but as she was only a cow I must call
it instinct to prevent some of my good friends
among the naturalists from dealing harshly with
this book.
A RESOURCEFUL ; COON.
I once owned a 'coon which was extravagantly
fond of craw iish, and kept me busy seining the
riffs for these fresh water lobsters.
When a big, vicious specimen was thrown to the
'coon, the animal took great care in approaching
until it was within easy reach; then it gently placed
both its hands upon the middle of the crustacean's
back. Moving its hands in opposite directions, the
'coon would gently but firmly smooth out the
jointed and armored tail, and at the same time lay
the strong pincers flat upon the ground, and thus
with claws and tail extended the helpless captive
was pinioned to the earth to be
EATEN ALIVE.
Even a powerful salt water lobster's strength
would not avail him in such an emergency.
Of course, raccoons have hunted craw fish and
eaten them in this manner ever since 'coons and
DO MEN THINK r 109
craw fish existed, and the method of capture might
be claimed as an "inherited automatic instinct,"
whatever that may mean. But no inherited knowl-
edge could have helped my pet to solve the follow-
ing problem which I invented to test its common
sense and power to reason excuse me, I mean in-
stinct.
Selecting about a peck of the largest, huskiest
craw fish the river could produce I dumped the
whole of the fighting, armored creatures in a heap
in front of Mr. 'Coon.
No similar experience of its ancestors could
help the four-handed fisherman in this dilemma,
but the 'coon was equal to the emergency.
Walking up to the rustling heap of claws and
long waving antennae, the raccoon straddled its
legs wide apart, covered the animated heap, and
gently settled down upon them as a brooding hen
might settle upon a nest of eggs. To my surprise,
the craw fish made no effort to escape, apparently
"thinking" that they were safely concealed from
their enemies.
With what seemed to me to be a twinkle in its
cunning eyes, the 'coon proceeded to fish out one
craw fish at a time and leisurely devour it, until all
that remained of that heap of armored knights was
a lot of scattered claws and tails, marking the spot
where, by 'coon sense, a 'coon had solved a dif-
ficult problem in a simple, practical, common sense
manner.
i io DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THIS MONKEY KNEW HOW TO GET A DRINK.
A monkey we had at home soon discovered the
use of the hydrant and would turn on the faucet,
hold its mouth to the stream of water, take a drink
and turn off the water again- sometimes.
A ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT'S ARTIFICIAL SNOW
FIELD.
At Field, B. C., I saw a Rocky Mountain kid
which had been captured by a guide. I had heard
that the Rocky Mountain goats paw away the
melting snow in order to feed upon the succulent
grass beneath. There was no snow nearer than the
top of Mount Stephen to test the story, but there
was a clothes-line laden with white towels. In a
spirit of mischief I told the hotel guests of the
habits of these goats in the snow field and then an-
nounced that we would make a make-believe field
and see what would happen. I then gathered an
armful of towels and spread them over the grass to
make an artificial snow field.
The kid trotted over to the towels. After caper-
ing around on them for awhile, she began to paw
with her front foot until she had displaced a towel ;
then she greedily nipped the exposed grass. She
went through this performance again and again,
and ended by lying down in the middle of the arti-
ficial snow field to the great amusement of the
spectators.
DO MEN THINK? in
If she had been a domestic goat she would have
ignored the grass and eaten the towels, which re-
minds me that goats are not the, only animals ad-
dicted to eating manufactured fabrics.
Once, while looking out of the window of a din-
ing car, I saw a young cow in a back yard calmly
chewing and
SWALLOWING A FRESHLY-LAUNDERED SHIRT.
She ate one whole shirt, and the sleeve of a sec-
ond disappeared as my train pulled out.
Where the Licking River empties into the Ohio,
between Covington and Newport, Kentucky, on the
Covington side, there is a retaining wall of stone
built to keep the high bank from being washed
away during the floods. The top of this wall was
formerly a favorite lounging place for the Coving-
ton youngsters and the shale bar below was a
favorite spot from which to swim during low water.
One day while sitting on top of the wall watch-
ing some boys in swimming I saw a young cow
walk up to the boys' heap of clothes below me
and calmly eat their damp little shirts; as the tail
of the last shirt disappeared I left, because the
boys were bigger than I was and I well knew
that I would be held responsible for those
shirts and that the cow story would not be be-
lieved. This showed caution and boy sense
on my part, but shirt eating does not appear to
be an intellectual pursuit even for a cow.
CHAPTER VIII
BIRDS AND INSECTS THAT WILL TAKE AN
ARTIFICIAL FLY
CAT BIRDS AND HORNETS, DECEIVED BY PICTURES THE
ICHNEUMON FLY MADE AN ATTEMPT TO PUNCTURE A NAIL
INCIDENTS SHOWING POOR JUDGMENT OR POOR INSTINCT
ON THE PART OF OUR UNDEVELOPED FELLOW CREATURES
We are all familiar with the story of the painter,
who painted the grapes so well as
TO DECEIVE THE BIRDS OF THE AIR,
so that they flew down and pecked the painting
mistaking the flat surface of the picture for the
luscious fruit; probably most of us have looked
upon this story as a pretty bit of fable; but it is
not an improbable story.
ANY ONE CAN DECEIVE A BIRD
with the crudest sort of a representation of bugs,
or insects, even if they are only black silhouettes
upon a piece of white paper, as I have proved by
experiment, and as for the insects themselves, ]
have seen
BIRDS AND INSECTS 113
HORNETS
time after time attempt to carry away the heads
of nails from where they appeared on the surface
of the framework of houses. The hornets only
saw a black dot and mistook it for a fly.
THE ICHNEUMON FLY
is a strange wasp-like insect ; the female has a long
tube at the end of her body, composed of the fur-
rowed pieces of the sheath of her gimlet, which she
uses for the purpose of piercing the bodies of help-
less grubs.
To do this it is necessary for her to locate the
grubs in the wood and this she does by probing
the worm holes with the long instrument attached
to her body.
The particular ichneumon fly of which I am
speaking made a similar mistake to the one so often
made by the hornets, she, however, unlike the lat-
ter did not mistake the nail for an insect, but she
evidently thought it to be a worm hole and the
ACROBATIC FEATS
she performed in trying to thrust her egg bearing
tube into the head of the nail were most laugh-
able; she stood on her head lifting her tail high in
the air so as to be able to thrust her spear verti-
cally down, it would not go; she felt all around
the nail and tried every device known to her ex-
ii4 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
perience without results, for the thirty minutes and
more I watched her before I was called away.
At last she faced about and standing facing the
nail head she bent her body up over her head bring-
ing the ovapositor in front where she could watch
the process and in this position I left her working
on the kitchen window sash of my camp.
The cook afterwards told me that "the long-
tailed fly" worked away until dark, until I suppose,
the metal head of the nail had dulled her instru-
ments to such an extent that a grindstone would be
necessary to put them again in working order.
If the ichneumon used any reason at all it rea-
soned something like this: "This is a piece of
wood, it has a dark spot on it, my previous expe-
rience has taught me that the dark spots on a piece
of wood are worm holes, therefore I should be
able to thrust my ovapositor in this dark spot."
The two hundred men, previously alluded to,
reasoned, if they reasoned at all, in this wise:
Here is a glass, there is something in it that looks
like drink; our previous experience teaches us that
glasses on these occasions are used to contain drink,
therefore this must be liquid, and we will drink it.
But, personally, I do not believe that either the
hornet, the ichneumon, or the men upon these par-
ticular occasions reasoned at all, they took things
"for granted."
With these facts in view it is not at all wonder-
ful that birds and insects should be easily deceived
by the objects resembling other things.
BIRDS AND INSECTS 115
FLY-FISHING FOR HORNETS.
Late in the afternoon while fly-fishing for bass
on the lake it is no uncommon occurrence to have
the night-hawks sweep down with a w-h-r-r-r-r!
after the feather lures ; indeed, upon more than one
occasion I have jerked my fly away for fear of
hooking one of these interesting and useful birds.
But the night-hawk is not the only bird which will
take the artificial fly. All of the fly-catchers,
phoebe birds, king birds, or any of their kin will
take a fly as readily as a trout. In the branches
overhanging a dark, deep bass hole, where an
"old settler" of generous proportions used to lurk,
two gnatcatchers had built thei^ nest, which I only
discovered from the fact that every time I made a
HORNETS IN FLIGHT
n6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
cast there, one or both the little birds made a
swoop for my fly.
Not only do various
BIRDS READILY TAKE THE ARTIFICIAL FLY,
but the big, black, paper nest-building hornets will
dart at the feather-decorated hook upon every oc-
casion, and more than once I have had dragon
flies try to devour my lures under the impression
that they were real live insects.
At Whip-poor-will Cottage, near Wild Lands,
Pa., where I am now writing, I related the last inci-
dent, and it was met with incredulous smiles. In
the oak tree shading the door of the camp is a
goodly sized paper balloon of a nest, occupied by
black hornets, who busy themselves searching for
house flies. Piqued at the reception of my story,
I proclaimed the fact that I would fool these hor-
nets with a picture of a fly, and forthwith drew,
one with a soft lead pencil on a paper pad, while
all the "Whip-poor-wills" sat round and watched.
It was only a few moments until a big hornet
pounced upon the picture fly, to the great astonish-
ment of the "Whip-poor-wills" and my great joy,
for I had never before tried the experiment, and a
failure would have been embarrassing.
THE DIGGER WASP.
One summer when I was attempting to show
some small boys how to handle fireworks with
BIRDS AND INSECTS 117
safety, a pot of red fire exploded in my face, blind-
ing me for the time and terribly burning my whole
face.
As I began to recover, my appearance was such
as to make me bashful and to cause me to wish to
hide myself from the sight of my friends. With
this purpose in view I went to Maine and located
there among the farmers. It was while I was
resting my shattered nerves and injured eyes that
I sought entertainment in watching the black Dig-
ger Wasps in the road-way.
I noticed that they first dug holes in the hard
surface of the country roads and then went to seek
their prey, which was apparently "cached" in the
near neighborhood.
WHEN DIGGING THE HOLE
the wasp went down head first and then came out
backward, carrying a little pellet of earth in its
mouth which it deposited in a heap, very much
after the fashion of an ant, near by.
The game which these black digger wasps cap-
tured were grass-hoppers.
In some way or manner the wasp has the power
of benumbing and stupefying its captives without
killing them. The insect books say that it is by
using the sting, but while I have frequently seen
the wasp pounce upon its prey I have never been
close enough at the time to say with a certainty
that the thin-waisted highwayman uses its sting
upon its victim, though I do know that the vie-
ii8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
tim is stupefied by some process so that it can
neither walk, hop, nor fly, but passively allows it-
self to be buried,
PUT IN COLD STORAGE
so to speak and kept for the young wasp to feed
upon when the egg is hatched. In order that I
might more readily observe how the black digger
proceeded to bury its victim, I sat down in the
dusty road with my legs spread each side of a wasp
hole.
When the digger arrived with a grass-hopper
it seemed very much annoyed by my presence and
walked 'round and 'round, making a threatening
buzzing noise, but when it discovered that I did
not molest it, it went back to where it had left
the grass-hopper and grasping the stupefied insect
by the head with its four hind legs, the wasp used
its two front legs for running.
In this manner the grass-hopper was dragged
to the edge of the hole. After reaching this point
the wasp entered the hole tail foremost and tak-
ing hold of the grass-hopper, this time with its
front legs, with some difficulty and not without
considerable work, enlarging the hole at points
where its narrowness interfered with the grass-
hopper's progress, it dragged the latter slowly
out of sight; the chamber at the bottom of the
hole must have been larger than the passage, be-
cause after a time the wasp came out again and in
doing so it must necessarily have had room to pass
around the body of the grass-hopper.
BIRDS AND INSECTS 119
But the most interesting part of the work was
yet to come; in front of the hole was a little heap
of dirt which had been deposited by the wasp while
making the excavation; this dirt must now all be
replaced and I was greatly entertained by watch-
ing and learning how the wasp did this, I saw the
insect turn its back to the hole and working its
front legs, make the dirt fly
EXACTLY LIKE A DOG
when it is digging the dirt for a wood-chuck;
every once in awhile it would stop digging the
dirt and peer down the opening, occasionally crawl-
ing in as I rightly supposed for the purpose of
packing down the dirt inside; I say rightly sup-
posed because as the cavity filled I could see
exactly how she did it.
I had my sketching pad on my knee and made
drawings of the insect at all stages of the work
so that I can vouch for the accuracy of these state-
ments. Whenever the wasp had what it thought
to be a sufficient amount of dirt in its hole it would
use its head for a mallet and by butting would
hammer the dirt until it was packed tightly in
place. It kept up this process until the hole was
completely filled up so that no trace of it was ap-
parent.
One day while we were eating dinner in our log
house in the woods of Pike County, Pa., we were
entertained by a number of white-faced hornets,
which were busy catching the flies that hovered
izo DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
over the table. They even caught the flies from
the back of my hand and lifted them gently from
the bald spot on my head.
One hornet pounced upon a fly which was busy
rubbing its two front legs together, as it clung
with the other four to the fringe of the tablecloth.
Buzz as the hornet would, it could not carry away
that fly. It had gathered up some fibers of cloth
along with its prey and, of course, was unable to
pull the tablecloth along with it.
As I sat laughing at its futile efforts I saw that
in its occasional pauses the hornet itself seemed to
have an idea as to what held the fly, for it would
nip off a fiber here and there, and try again. At
length, in despair, it ceased its efforts and devoured
the fly then and there. Afterwards it caught
another fly from the butter dish, and, with its last
victim in its claws and its first in its stomach, flew
triumphantly out of the window. There are many
INSECTS WHICH WILL LIVE IN CONFINEMENT
and make amusing pets, but the only people I
know of who make a practice of keeping insects
in confinement for this purpose are the Japanese.
However, there is no reason why we should not
derive a lot of enjoyment and entertainment from
captive native insects of our own country. There
are a number of crickets and grass-hoppers, beetles,
and aquatic insects which can be kept in confine-
ment with very little trouble. I once had
FIELD SKETCHES FROM LIFE
I. Digger wasp backing out of hole with pellet of earth.
2. Digger wasp running on two front legs and grasping a grass-
hopper with its four hind legs.
3. Digger wasp pulling a grasshopper into the pit dug for it.
4- Digger wasp scratching dirt like a dog with its front legs.
5. Digger wasp using its head to ram down the earth.
6. Cocoon of a Samia cynthia moth.
7- Cecronia moth shortly after emerging from its cocoon.
8. The "White Death" catching a Heman's moth under side of
spider. Back view and enlarged diagram showing crescent arrange-
ment of eyes.
9- An orange-colored spider, showing, in the enlarged view of its
body, the Oriental rug pattern of its decorations.
122 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A LARGE KATYDID
which I caught in the back yard late in the fall,
I gave it the freedom of my library and it became
very tame, would feed from my hand and lived
through the winter until after the Christmas holi-
days; then it met an untimely death by creeping
into the open fireplace to keep warm and being
scorched to death in the morning when the fire
was lighted.
A friend of mine used to amuse himself by keep-
ing captive basket caterpillars on the desk where
he worked.
THE BASKET CATERPILLAR
had been fastened by a short thread, one end being
attached to the cone of the basket and the other
end to a pin which was driven in the desk in the
yard master's office of the O. & M. R. R. This
allowed the prisoner to creep only the length of
the string and the poor thing traveled for hours
around and around the circle described by the
radius of the thread.
After a time my informant noticed that the
caterpillar had ceased its monotonous crawling and
had retired to the seclusion of its basket home.
While he was examining it, the caterpillar's head
suddenly peered through a hole which it had made
in the top of the basket. Finding the thread, it
bit it apart and freed itself. With its own silk it
carefully mended the hole in the apex of the cone,
and, after again turning a somersault inside of
BIRDS AND INSECTS 123
the basket, the little head once more appeared at
the proper aperture.
The caterpillar was allowed to crawl away to
its well-earned freedom, still burdened with its
conical snail-like house tottering on its back.
When I visited the Rev. Dr. McCook of Phila-
delphia and was shown to his library I found it
INHABITED BY SPIDERS
of all sorts, and shapes and forms, and their webs
stretched over the books, making many passages
from one end of the library table to the other and
suspension bridges across the chasms formed be-
tween the piles of books.
Besides these loose spiders there were numerous
other ones confined in glass-covered boxes. I sup-
pose these spiders were tame, for they showed no
alarm at my presence and they were probably the
pets of the Doctor who has written so much in-
teresting matter about spiders, ants, and other in-
sects.
I have never tried to tame an oyster or a
clam, but as far as my experience goes I believe
that anything with intelligence enough to live on
this earth also possesses intelligence enough to
learn to know its friends and that is all the intelli-
gence required to make it tamable.
FEROCIOUS SPIDERS.
The mention of Dr. McCook's spiders recalls
to mind some interesting experiments performed
124 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
by some young men with these creatures. It seems
that one of them, not knowing the solitary habits
of the spider, and the fierce manner it has of re-
senting intrusion by any, member of its own race,
attempted to collect a number of the various kinds
to be found in the woods near my camp and keep
them together.
The interesting time came when a job lot of
spiders had been put in confinement together, and
it was evident that every mother's son of them
looked upon every other one as his mortal foe, I
say "his" but the truth is a number of these pug-
nacious creatures were females, the matter of sex,
however, seemed to make little difference in their
treatment of each other. There was one great big
hairy old lady spider who had an exceedingly bad
temper. She was a wood spider and when caught
she was bearing a large white cocoon or silken bag
filled with her precious babies. By means of a
stick she had been
SEPARATED FROM HER BAG OF BABIES
and her grief did not tend to soften her temper;
in fact she was so ugly, brave, and vicious that she
would jump at one's hand if it was brought near
her. She, however, remained in one corner while
the other spiders sparred for a good lead by which
they might take advantage of each other. There
were a number of deaths in the box before night-
fall, but the hairy old wood spider took no part in
the fights What she did at night we can only
BIRDS AND INSECTS 125
imagine, for in the morning she was the sole sur-
vivor. This so aroused the admiration of one
of the young men that he immediately proclaimed
that his spider could
WHIP ANY SPIDER IN THE WOODS !
The challenge was accepted by several of the
other campers who immediately set to work to
scour the stumps and stones and trails in search
of gladiators. Learning that I had a big white
spider at my camp, one of the lads came over and
borrowed it and I afterwards learned to what use
he put it.
The white spider appeared to be an expert in the
art of Jiujitsu and it slew all comers until a little
unknown spider which the boys named "Teddy"
was introduced in the arena. Not only did the
white spider bite with fatal results, but it had a
mean way of disabling its foes by amputating their
legs; it cut all the legs off of the big wood spider
and left it unable to move. Whenever the "white
death" was put in with its fellows their limbs
strewed the field.
The little strange spider called Teddy after los-
ing two legs, killed the "White Death" as the boys
called my pet, and it was the death of the "White
Death" that the lads had to explain, which gave
me the interesting account of the failure of their
collection, as such, and its success as a gladiatorial
contest; I saw the battle ground and the carnage
but did not witness the conflict. You can make pets
126
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK:
THE "WHITE DEATH" CATCHING A BUMBLEBEE.
SKETCHED FROM LIFE
of spiders as I have often done, but they will not
tolerate companions of their own kind in their con-
finement.
It is not at all difficult to deceive human beings,
with either fake animals, or fake animal stories,
of course there are some people who will not be-
lieve anything that they have not seen with their
own eyes, and these are the ones whom you can
most easily deceive, even with home manufactured
artificial animals. When I was a lad in Painsville,
Ohio, I made
BIRDS AND INSECTS 127
A SPIDER OF CHEWING GUM,
painted its body with brilliant colors from my
father's paints and slyly stuck its legs to a show
case in a hat store, then lounged around until some
one chanced to see it.
It created a great sensation and the proprietor
of the store called his neighbors in to see the won-
derful big spider. No one doubted the genuine-
ness of the thing and when at last one of the
spectators poked at it with a cane and pushed it
from its perch the wax spider fell to the floor and
its legs broke into fragments to the great astonish-
ment of all the spectators none of whom even then
doubted that it was a real live spider and they
would not believe that it was an imitation until I
picked it up in my hands, softened it by my warm
breath and rolled it into a shapeless mass between
my fingers.
When but a small boy in Kentucky I often
amused myself with modeling
HUGE LIZARDS OF BLUE CLAY,
drying them in the sun and then placing them on
the neighbor's door steps, ringing the door bell and
hiding to watch results. None of the neighbors sus-
pected that they were but clay lizards, but without
exception they one and all mistook them for live
reptiles. I am willing, however, to swear that no
such lizards as my awkward boyish hands had
fashioned ever lived on this earth ; yet to the great
128 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
delight of myself and the other boys I had let into
the secret, the good people tried to kill the clumsy
clay things with sticks.
CHAPTER IX
A GREAT NOSE
A GREAT NOSE FIRST OPPORTUNITY TO SKETCH A LIVE SEA-
COW HOW A SEA-COW LOOKS ITS BAG-LIKE BODY AND
ITS SMALL HEAD THE FINNED MAMALIA, WOMAN FISH,
COUSIN TO THE LITTLE BEARDED MAN THE ADVENTURE
OF MR. DIMOCK WITH A TWELVE-FOOT MANATEE A SEA-
COW THAT KNEW ITS KEEPER USE OF THE HIDE, ITS OIL
AND FAT HUMBOLDT LIKED MANATEE MEAT A SCHEME
FOR MAKING USE OF OUR IDLE RICH, WHY NOT A MANATEE
RANCH.
The mosquitoes were singing, with a noise re-
sembling the sound of a distant saw-mill and they
floated in spiral columns like steam clouds above
the bastard palmettoes on the shore; water tur-
keys with snake-like necks were swimming in the
stream, while living rafts of ducks floated on the
smooth surface of the water just out of gun shot.
This was before the days when our fashionable
women had murdered all the white herons to fur-
nish "aigrettes" for their criminally ignorant heads
and the beautiful white egrets boldly displayed
their slender and graceful forms, their dazzling
white plumage making conspicuous spots in the
green marsh and on the dark mud banks.
As my boat idly drifted with the tide the al-
129
130 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ligators would slip from the banks or fall with a
splash from water logged tree trunks into the
stream and swim away, conspicuously displaying
the black and yellow markings of their armor-
plated tails. Stretched prone upon the bottom of
my boat with my chin hanging over the gunwale
lazily watching the water, I noticed that between
me and the shore some floating weed or grass
was moving in apparently an unaccountable man-
ner; not only did the floating vegetation move with-
out regard to the direction of the tide, but por-
tions of it constantly disappeared beneath the flood ;
presently there was a ripple on the smooth surface
of the water near the floating grass and
A GREAT NOSE, WITH COW-LIKE NOSTRILS
and stiff bristles startled me as it appeared above
the surface; it was visible but a moment before
it disappeared and then a bulky shadowy form
could be seen swiftly and noiselessly gliding away
under water. There was no chance to make
sketches of this thing, and the modern snapshot
camera was not then invented, but I retained a men-
tal photograph of that nose in my mind.
It was at the old New York Aquarium that I
first had an opportunity to examine at close quarters
and make drawings of a live sea-cow. That was
years ago when the institution was located on what
is now known as Herald Square. When I first came
to New York, along with my other work, I was il-
lustrating and writing natural history articles for
A GREAT NOSE
MAMMA HIPPO
the Scientific American and I entered the Aquarium
for the purpose of sketching the
GREAT SEA-COW OF FLORIDA.
Passing the many tanks, allowing the finny oc-
cupants to swim and flop unnoticed, I proceeded
straight to the pit formerly occupied by a baby
hippopotamus. As I stood looking into the vat
there was a disturbance in the water and again I
saw a cow-like nose armed with stiff bristles ap-
pear for a moment above the surface and then
sink out of sight; this was all that happened to
tell me that the tank was occupied and all that
could be seen, until through the kindness of the
keeper the water was drawn from the tank.
As the water lowered, an apparently shapeless
mass, enveloped in a wrinkled, slate-colored skin,
i 3 2 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
with white bristles scattered sparsely over it, was
disclosed. When the tank was almost dry, I could
get a fair view of its occupant, and found it to be
a large, uncouth animal, somewhat resembling a
seal in shape, but with the hind limbs replaced by
a broad, fleshy tail or caudal fin, and two flippers
in front corresponding to forelegs; but really the
animal looked more like an animated leather bag
than anything else.
Bent down, with its nose upon the bottom of the
tank, was
A RATHER SMALL HEAD
with an odd, wrinkled countenance. As the huge,
unwieldly monster moved, its body became corru-
gated with large wrinkles.
This was a Florida manatee, the first live speci-
men of this animal ever exhibited in New York
City and the accompanying drawings, I believe,
are the first published sketches made from a live
specimen of the seacow of Florida, the finned
"mamalia," the "woman fish" of the Spaniards, and
a cousin to the little "bearded man" of the Dutch.
Not long ago, my good friend, Mr. Dimock,
spent six hours in the water with a twelve-foot
manatee, which he was endeavoring to persuade
to take a trip north and exhibit itself to the crowd
at the New York Aquarium. Mr. Dimock was
successful in anchoring the manatee; but while he
was making preparation to ship the animal north,
it made its escape. It will be interesting to the
"old" boys to know that this gentleman who could
STUDIES MADE FROM LIVE SEA-COW
a ra s appear
like flippers.
3. Profile of head.
4. Front face.
5 . Showing mouth, chin and neck.
6. Profile of head.
7. Hand.
134 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
spend six hours in the water struggling with a
twelve-foot manatee had passed his sixtieth birth-
day.
The manatee is entirely harmless, docile, readily
tamed and the one I sketched evidently knew its
keeper, and would move awkwardly around to
meet him when he waded into the tank.
THE SEA-COW'S HEAD
is round and on the muzzle are a number of
bristles, each of which is said to connect with the
brain by a nerve. No opening to the ears could
be detected from a position outside the tank. The
eyes are so minute that they are hidden by folds
of skin. The hands of the manatee have five nails
(see sketch in illustration). The structure of the
bones allows the hand to turn in any direction at
pleasure.
In the study of the top view, or back of the
animal, the hands are doubled underneath so that
the arms resemble fins.
The tail is about one-quarter of the length of
the body, and in this specimen 3^2 feet was just the
width of the body at its broadest part. The skin
is remarkably thick and tough. It is used in the
place of rawhide or leather in the manufacture of
articles where great strength is required. I have
seen a walking cane made from the skin of a
manatee, killed at the head of navigation in the
Magdalena River, in South America.
A GREAT NOSE 135
The oil from the fat is free from that rancid
odor common to most animal oils, and is held in
high esteem. The flesh is edible, and pronounced
by Humboldt and others, sweet and palatable.
When salted and sun-dried it will keep for a year
or more. By Catholics it is considered fish, and
eaten by them on fast days.
The true manatees are confined to the Atlantic
side of America. The largest species is found in the
United States upon the Florida coast; a smaller
kind inhabits some of the rivers in South America.
The manatee is placed by Cuvier among the
cetaceans (whales), but Prof. Agassiz compared
the skull of one with that of the mastodon and
with that of the elephant, and in a discourse before
the American Society for the Advancement of
Science, over a very perfect skeleton, he proved
that Cuvier was wrong in many of his statements
regarding the anatomy of the manatee, and ended
by pronouncing it an embryo type of the thick-
skinned animals, such as the elephant, hippopota-
mus, etc.
By domesticating and rearing Florida sea-cows
for the market there is an opportunity for some
people of wealth to find occupation and win fame
far more lasting than that gained by society notices
in the newspapers. It is possible that they could
save from extinction a very valuable food animal
and benefit humanity by adding a new and valuable
domestic animal to its lists. Just think what fun
it would be !
136 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
The sea-cow's pasture is all under water and
any lagoon in the district inhabited by these ani-
mals might be fenced in by a strong net anchored
across one end and would make a novel
cattle ranch; but I am afraid that none of our idle
rich is possessed with high enough ideals to at-
tempt the domestication of any sort of wild animals
and if our native creatures are to be saved from
annihilation it must be done by the common people
through their government or by clubs, and societies
of the people formed for that purpose.
At Behrings and Copper Islands, away up in the
cold arctic country, there formerly existed a very
large cousin of the manatee, known as the rhytina.
When Behring was on the island he had with him
an enthusiastic German naturalist by the name of
Stella, and it was this German who published the
first description of the rhytina. Twenty-seven
years after these animals were discovered there
was not one left; the crews of the whalers had
killed and eaten all the rhytina that there were in
the world and wiped this useful food animal com-
pletely out of existence, just as the modern whalers
are at this very moment killing and eating all the
remaining musk-ox in the north country.
It never occurred to the people in the olden
times to leave enough of these animals alive
to keep up the stock, and it does not oc-
cur to our frontier people today to leave any-
thing alive which can be used for fresh
meat; that the rhytina might be transported and
A GREAT NOSE 137
planted around other desert islands in the same
region is an idea too altruistic, too advanced and
too practical to occur to the men in Behring's time.
There is still another creature which is classed
by the scientist with the American manatee under
the family name of sirenia, and this is the dugong,
a name which the Malays have given it. The du-
gong is reported to be found in the Red Sea, East-
ern Africa, Mauritius, Malacca, the Indian Archi-
pelagos, and on the west coast of Australia. All
this and much more you can find in any up-to-date
natural history. Personally I have never seen a
dugong and I am too young to have ever met a
live rhytina, and while I have made illustrations
of these last two animals, they were made u out of
my head" and the pictures published unsigned, in
the good old box-w r ood days when nobody ques-
tioned any nature fakir's work, whether it was a
book or a picture. Ah ! those were great days for
the engravers if not for the illustrators. The lat-
ter made pictures as the engravers directed and the
engravers knew as much about natural history as a
cow does about Christian Science.
CHAPTER X
THE OLD UPTOWN AQUARIUM
THE OLD UPTOWN AQUARIUM BABY ELEPHANT FROM JAVA
THE TROUBLES OF AN ARTIST WITH THE HAIRY ELEPHANTS
PUNISHING A REBELLIOUS MODEL THE BAD ELEPHANT'S
REVENGE HOW AN ELEPHANT LAUGHS THE CAMEL THAT
TRIED TO GET IN THE ARTIST'S LAP MURDEROUS TRICKS
OF OLD ELEPHANTS JUMBO, THE GOOD NATURED TREAT-
ING THE COMPLEXION OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT, AND THE
COSMETICS USED ON JUMBO.
The old Aquarium which used to stand where
Herald Square is now was a most interesting place
and there were often things there which neither
could be called mermaids or fishes. At one time
they had a couple of little baby elephants from
somewhere in the neighborhood of Java. They
were advertised I believe as
HAIRY ELEPHANTS
or dwarf elephants. At any rate I went there to
make some sketches of them and the keeper kindly
furnished me with a chair inside the enclosure
where the little things were kept; he then went off
about his business, leaving me to my own devices.
I put the chair down in the straw; seating myself,
I began to work, but as usual when sketching ani-
mals my models did not choose to pose. The lit-
138
TWO B\BV ELEPHANTS SKETCHED AT THE OLD AQUARIUM
SO-CALLED "HAIRY ELEPHANTS"
i 4 o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
tie elephants were about as tall as an ordinary
table, but they were strong and
HAD WILLS OF THEIR OWN.
Both of them exhibited the keenest curosity and
insisted upon looking over my shoulder while I
was working. I suppose very few of my readers
are art students, but such of them who paint and
draw from live objects will at once see the impos-
sibility of making a sketch with one's models look-
ing over one's shoulder. I tried to push the baby
elephants away, but they did not or would not un-
derstand. Then I got down on my knees, and
pushing with all my strength succeeded in placing
one of the little brutes in position; this made the
other one very jealous and it crowded my chosen
model out of position so I took my drawing pad
and
SLAPPED THE DEFIANT ELEPHANT
over the head, driving it to a position behind my
chair, to the great delight of the other baby, who
now seemed to understand what was expected of
it and proudly held its pose. I sketched hastily,
as one must when dealing with such models, sup-
plementing my drawing with written pencil notes,
and just as I became absorbed in my work
THE BAD LITTLE ELEPHANT
behind me slyly curled its funny little trunk around
the leg of my chair and then with a quick pull re-
moved the chair, leaving me sprawling on my back
THE OLD UPTOWN AQUARIUM 141
in the straw with my legs spread out and feet over
my head.
It was just at this moment that Mrs. Olive
Thorne Miller, the celebrated writer of books on
birds, came in and looking over the railing smiled
sweetly as she said: "How do you do, Mr.
Beard." I did not take off my hat to the lady for
the reason that the elephant had already done that
for me.
I do not know that
AN ELEPHANT LAUGHS
or that scientists will admit that they are ever guilty
of such an expression of mirth, but I do know that
when I regained my seat both of those little imps
came up to me and throwing their trunks back over
their heads and opening wide their mouths they
thrust their faces close to mine and made a noise
like this : Sh a s s s s ! and it would take
a strong argument to convince me that this was
not an elephantine laugh. It was only after a con-
tinued vaudeville performance during which I
played the clown and the elephants took the part
of ring master that I succeeded in making the rude
sketches preserved to this time and here repro-
duced.
There used to be a
WEE BABY CAMEL
up at Central Park which was fondled by every-
body. The baby grew rapidly, but seemed to be
unconscious of that fact, and when my brother, J.
142 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
Carter Beard, went up to the Park to make a
sketch of it he found that the animal had grown
to be a long-legged youth. Mr. Beard had not
taken his seat, however, before this big thing
ATTEMPTED TO GET INTO HIS LAP.
My brother is quite a stout gentleman and has
not any lap worth mentioning, so when the almost
full-grown camel tried to climb aboard, the chair
gave away and chair, man and camel rolled over
the ground to the great delight of the spectators
who had gathered around the enclosure to watch
an artist at his work. There are always more or
less humorous incidents in the work of sketching
live animals, often exciting and sometimes even
dangerous, but I know of no serious accidents ever
happening to animal painters and illustrators while
engaged in their chosen work.
If baby elephants are playful with the artist,
the full-grown elephants are not at all inclined
that way, at least I have not found them so,
for whenever I have attempted to sketch them I
have been compelled to keep on the alert to save
myself from serious consequences. The old fel-
lows will usually stand
SWAYING THEIR BIG HEADS,
apparently not seeing the artist busy at his work,
but their wicked little eyes are watching for an
opportunity to injure him. This they will not do
openly .for fear of their keeper, but I have had
them more than once slyly manoeuver to get me
THE OLD UPTOWN AQUARIUM 143
between them and a wall in such a position that
they could work their huge body around and crush
me against the wall without apparently intending
to do so. If, in place of being in their winter
quarters they happen to be under their summer
canvas, then I must watch them for fear of being
stepped upon. They have numerous other tricks
"up their sleeve" by which they can make life un-
comfortable or even squeeze it out entirely from
the body of an ambitious artist, and they try to do
it in an apparently accidental manner. I
am not speaking here of vicious elephants, but of
the ordinary circus animal, in truth the only ele-
phant in whose society I have felt at all safe was
poor old Jumbo. Jumbo was an African elephant,
but whether that had anything to do with his good
disposition or not I am unable to state.
When they had
THE "WHITE" ELEPHANT
they used to scrub it and scrape its toe nails to
make it appear as light colored as possible; the
effect was also greatly heightened by a pink elec-
tric light. To make the "white" elephant appear
still lighter in color, poor old Jumbo was painted
with a coat of lamp black and grease or some
similar substance; this made the contrast between
the two, when standing together, quite noticeable,
but I doubt that there would have been much dif-
ference in their color if the two elephants had been
turned out to pasture for a week or two.
CHAPTER XI
THE FIRST LIVE MUSK-OX EVER SEEN IN NEW
YORK
CAPTAIN BODFISH OF THE GOOD SHIP BELUGA THE FIRST LIVE
MUSK-OX EVER SEEN IN NEW YORK FATE OF ITS COM-
PANIONS ITS TRAVELS FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK
CITY THE FIRST SKETCHES FROM A LIVE MUSK-OX EVER
PUBLISHED LOCKED UP IN THE CAGE WITH THE MUSK-OX
DESCRIPTION OF " OLIVE" AND THE PLACE WHERE SHE
BELONGS JIBES OF THE CROWD ADAPTED BY NATURE TO
COLD COUNTRIES THE MUSK-OX SHOULD BE PROTECTED
AND DOMESTICATED " BUFFALO" JONES* HEROIC EF-
FORTS WOLVES SLAY HIS DOG AND INDIANS SLAY HIS
CALVES.
All Arctic travelers and natives know Captain
Bodfish of the good ship Beluga, so also do those
New Yorkers who were fortunate enough to be
counted among the members of the old Camp
Fire Club.
Captain Bodfish is
A VETERAN WHALER
and spends his winters on the northwest coast of
the American continent with his ship frozen in the
ice in some protected cove well known to the ad-
venturous sailor.
144
LIVE MUSK-OXTWENTY-ONE MONTHS OLD, CAPTURED BY
CAPTAIN BODFISH AND SKETCHED BY THE
AUTHOR, MARCH, 1907
146 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
It was while his steam whaler Beluga was win-
tering in the neighborhood of Cape Bathhurst that
a party of the captain's Eskimo hunters ventured
inland about thirty miles to a point north of Great
Bear Lake and there captured
THE FIRST LIVE MUSK-OX
ever seen in New York. Indeed the flat-faced,
fur-clad hunters captured four live musk-ox
"calves," if their parents belong to the ox family,
or "lambs," if it is decided that the musk-ox is a
sheep. But whatever the position in which scientists
may finally decide to place these queer northern
animals it cannot be denied that they were young
ones.
The wolfish dogs belonging to the Eskimos
killed two of the captives before the thirty miles
had been traveled necessary to reach the ship and
on board the ship the same wolfish animals killed
another, leaving only
ONE SURVIVOR,
which was exhibited in November, 1901, in San
Francisco, from there it went to Chicago, thence
to New York, where I found it in a cage at the
Sportsmen's Show, and where William C. Whit-
ney paid $1,600 for it and then generously pre-
sented it to the New York Zoological Park, where
it died.
At the present writing only three specimens of
the mu$k-ox have ever reached civilization. In
FIRST LIVE MUSK-OX IN NEW YORK 147
1899 a Swedish exploring exposition captured two
on the eastern coast of Greenland, both of which
were sold to the wild animal man, Carl Hagenbeck,
of Hamburg. The Duke of Bedford bought one of
these from Hagenbeck and the Berlin Zoological
Garden bought the other. As far as I know
THE SKETCHES
here published are the first ones ever made from a
live musk-ox.
To make these drawings I had to enter the cage
with the animal, and I must say that I found it as
gentle and well behaved a young lady as ever posed
for me; she was at that time (March, 1902)
twenty-one months old. "Olive," as they called her
up at the Zoo, stood two feet three inches high
at the shoulder, with a total length of four feet
ten inches, as measured by Mr. Hornaday. She
had short ears, protected inside and out by a thick
growth of woolly hair, the actual length of the ear,
according to my measurement was four and seven-
tenths inches. She wore a thick woolly coat with
long hair on the outside to shed the sleet and rain.
There was a thick mane like a long cushion reach-
ing from the back of her head to a point back of
her shoulders. The hair was long and thick around
her throat, protecting the neck and hanging down
over her legs to her knees. The general color was
a dark brown, with a yellowish white short hair
upon the exposed part of the legs, and a gray
streak on the head extending from one horn to the
H8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
other, also a gray place extending from the end
of the mane to the tail. When
OLIVE GENTLY LICKED MY HAND
I noticed that her nostrils and lips were black,
that her muzzle was gray or a dirty white, and that
her tongue was pink in the middle and had a black
border.
Lately the musk-ox has been placed between the
ox and the sheep and honored with a genius of its
own called ovibos.
In the Barren Grounds north of Great Bear
Lake, "Olive" lived upon twigs and grass, but
she took kindly to civilized food and contentedly
munched the crackers which I had brought in my
pockets to please her.
The sketching of wild animals is always at-
tended with more or less inconvenience on the part
of the artist, in the wilderness; he must get his
poses with hasty sketches made from life and make
his finished drawings from the dead animal or
from the zoological specimen confined in the gar-
den, but this is not always a simple task. I have
been in more serious danger
SKETCHING IN WILD ANIMAL STORES,
MENAGERIES,
and such places, than I ever have been in the wil-
derness.
.While. I was in no danger shut up with
"Olive" in her little cage, I found it anything but
FIRST LIVE MUSK-OX IN NEW YORK 149
an easy task to make my drawings with my model
so close to me; although an old hand at this kind
of work, I found it more or less disconcerting
whenever I would look up from my work to see the
cage surrounded by a crowd of curious people.
Neither did it relieve my embarrassment when
such questions as: "What are you locked up for,
old man?" "How many days did the judge give
you?" "Do they feed you on hay?" "Do you have
to sleep with that cow o'night?" were hurled at
me from various quarters of the compass.
These sallies of wit were greeted by the rest of
the crowd with unconcealed merriment, but not-
withstanding the inconvenience of the small space,
and the public exhibition of myself as a caged
wild man, I shall 'always remember gentle little
"Olive" and my visit to her with pleasure and
never cease to regret her untimely death.
The musk-ox is perfectly adapted by nature to
the barren, cold countries where it lives. Its flesh
is good for food, does not taste of musk and it
probably saved General Greely's party from starva-
tion. Lieutenant Peary is also indebted to the
musk-ox for many much needed additions to his
stock of provisions.
However, unless some
STRINGENT MEASURES
are introduced the musk-ox, like the poor buffalo,
will be wiped out of existence. If it was domesti-
cated it could be used by settlers in the north coun-
150 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
try where it would thrive. The domestic herds of
this animal would supply food and clothing and
render the country habitable for people for all time
to come and the time is coming when that coun-
try will be settled as is northern Europe today.
There is no doubt that in its own climate
the musk-ox could be made as much of a range ani-
mal as the reindeer is in Lapland, and it would be
far more useful than the domesticated reindeer, so
carefully imported into a country already supplied
with magnificent native beasts perfectly adapted to
the climate, food and country.
"Buffalo" Jones, whose heroic efforts at
DOMESTICATING BUFFALO
and crossing it with our domestic cattle have been
so little appreciated by the unthinking public, made
an expedition to the Barren Land of the north in
order to secure some musk-ox calves with which
to start a herd. After enduring great hardships
and going through many adventures he was suc-
cessful in capturing a number of the young ani-
mals. The calves in his camp attracted the wolves
which he had literally to fight away in hand-to-hand
conflict during which the wolves killed his dog.
But he saved the calves only to have them
treacherously slaughtered by his Indian hunters so
that the doughty Colonel returned to his home
empty handed with a new lot of thrilling experi-
ences added to his already long list of personal ad-
ventures.
CHAPTER XII.
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED SPLENDID WHITE TAILS
HE MUST HAVE A DEER ALL THE GUILT OF A MURDERER
HOW THE HUNTER SHOT HIS BUCK NO WOODCRAFT IN
KILLING CHICKENS AND BUTCHERING CATTLE, AND NO FUN
IN IT EITHER REAL SPORT IN PHOTOGRAPHING BIG GAME
EVERY W 7 ILD ANIMAL KILLED MAKES ONE LESS IN THE
WORLD A GUMMER AND A LUNGER HOW THE AUTHOR'S
LIFE WAS SAVED BECAUSE HE LOOKED MORE LIKE A MOOSE
THAN A DEER THE KING OF BIG AMERICAN GAME ANIMALS
THE LiITLE FAWN AT BELTON, MONTANA BUCKS ARE
DANGEROUS AT CERTAIN TIMES IN THE YEAR FIVE FULL-
GROWN DEER NOT LARGER THAN RABBITS KILLED BY THE
POISON BREATH OF A FURNACE A PIGMY MUSK DEER
HOOFS MEASURING ONE-QUARTER OF AN INCH THE
BROADEST PART SUSPENDED BY THEIR TEETH.
Armed with a camera, a sketch book, and field
glasses, but otherwise unarmed, I once took
a journey to the woods where I was met by
a botanist friend of mine and we put up
for a short time at a small hotel on the
verge of the forests. Often in the morning while
dressing, I could see from my window the deer
digging potatoes with their forefeet in the hotel
potato patch. Each day in our tramps we would
meet with one or more of these beautiful creatures,
1 52 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
then we would clap our hands and watch them
spread
THEIR SPLENDID WHITE TAILS
as they bounded away unharmed in the woods.
Just before we pulled up stakes to start for a camp
further back in the forest, a hunter, a good shot,
but poor woodsman, complained bitterly of his
hard luck in not being able to get a deer to bring
home with him or even to get sight of one.
It was our last day at this place when this
hunter put his rifle into my hands and told me
^_^
HE MUST HAVE A DEER.
The season was open for deer, but I am
not a killer. With the gun over my shoulder
I walked back about two miles where a
buck was feeding in a windfall. A child could
have shot this deer; it required no skill and
no courage to kill it as it stood broadside towards
me. I fired, but just as I pulled the trigger the
deer started forward, so instead of the bullet strik-
ing him in the shoulder, as it should do, it pierced
his side (paunched him), the poor animal stag-
gered a short distance when the botanist fired to
put it out of misery and it fell under a tree and
lay there kicking until we came up and cut its
throat. I felt
ALL THE GUILT OF A MURDERER;
we hung -the body up by its heel joints, disem-
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED 153
boweled it, buried the refuse, and left the thing
hanging on the tree; then we washed our bloody
arms and hands in a dark pool and cleaned the
blood off our knives with the brown dead leaves,
blazed the trees to the road and with a guilty
conscience I returned to the little hotel, returned the
rifle to its owner and sadly told him that if he
would walk out to a certain woodpile, then follow
a spot trail, he could shoot a buck.
The next morning as we were on our way to
our distant camp we met a hunter proudly return-
ing with his only deer. It did not take long for
me to wash the gore off my bloody hands and
arms and to clean my hunting knife, but I shall
never rid myself of a feeling of guilt when I think
how unnecessary it was to kill that animal, and
how weak I was deliberately to kill a deer simply
because a man asked me to do it. That
deer was killed by me because of the friend-
ship for that man and the man wanted it for the
same reason an Indian would wish a scalp to put
in his belt, he wanted it as a "trophy" of
HIS SKILL AS A HUNTER.
Now please don't misunderstand my position. I
would not hesitate to purchase and kill
chickens or even cattle, if we needed them
for meat, neither would I think it wrong in
a game country to supply the camp kettle
with the necessary food from the abundance
which the forest offered, but / do not like to kill
154 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
chickens; I would hate worse to kill cattle, and I
see no pleasure in the killing of game. The danger
of the chase and all the hardship, and all the skill of
a woodsman are required of the man who success-
fully photographs or sketches wild creatures, and
it is these qualities which give real zest to the hunt,
not the bloody butcher's part of it.
There is another side of the subject which we
must keep in view; every chicken which we kill,
every steer which is slaughtered or any domestic
animal of any kind which is sacrificed for the table
or market, creates a demand for these animals, and
the farmers feeling the demand, raise more do-
mestic animals, so, strange as it may appear, the
more domestic animals you kill the greater will be
the supply; but
EVERY WILD ANIMAL KILLED
makes one less wild animal in the world, so you
can see that the more game there is destroyed the
less there will be in the world.
It was on this same vacation after we had made
a hot and fatiguing tramp through the woods and
climbed over some fallen trees lately felled by a
baby tornado, that we reached the shore of a lake
and I seated myself upon a log in an open spot. We
pulled off our brilliant colored sweaters so that the
breeze from the water might refresh us. Out on
the lake a few hundred yards distant, a canoe ap-
peared occupied by two men. Suddenly the man
in the bow- with evident excitement pointed his fin-
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED 155
ger at me as I sat upon the log. The manner in
which he pointed me out to his companion, for
some reason or other, gave me an uncomfortable
sensation, so I hastily arose from the log and
waved my cap. The only effect this had was to
increase greatly the excitement in the canoe,
and when the man in the stern reached for his
rifle I ran down to the water's edge and shouted.
At that both men took up their paddles and con-
tinued their journey.
I am not a vain man and my physical ap'pear-
ance occupies a small part of my attention, but
since that incident, what little vanity I had has
disappeared. I afterwards learned that the occu-
pants of the canoe were
A GUMMER AND A LUNGER
the gummer being a man who spends his time in
collecting spruce gum for the market and a lunger
a man with defective lungs who has been ordered
to the woods by his physician. The season was
closed for moose, but open for deer and the game
marshal at that time was somewhere in the neigh-
borhood. It seems that the gummer in the bow of
the canoe when he caught sight of me, exclaimed,
"There is a moose!" while the lunger declared
that I was a deer; if the gummer had not been so
positive that I was a moose and the game marshal
had not been known to be near by, this story would
never have been told, and maybe if I had not run
down to the water front and shouted the game
156 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
laws might not have been observed, but whatever
might have happened, the fact remains that my
life was saved because
I LOOKED MORE LIKE A MOOSE THAN A DEER.
Up to the time of that adventure I had
been disposed to laugh at a moose, his long un-
gainly nose, short neck, and badly drawn body,
have always appeared absurd to me, in fact, the
moose seemed to me as if the Creator had made
him while in a humorous mood, but now it is dif-
ferent. I look upon the moose as an exceedingly
dignified and noble beast; neither do I hesitate to
declare him boldly to be the king of American big
game animals. Pshaw ! Alongside of a moose a
deer is but a weak effeminate creature !
When I was last in the Rocky Mountains a big
mountain lion drove a beautiful little fawn down
to the railway station at Belton, on the Great
Northern Railroad, and the kind-hearted station
master fed the little spotted fawn from a bottle
just as human "bottle babies" are fed.
Deer make beautiful pets, but the bucks are very
dangerous at certain times of the year. This, how-
ever, depends upon the size of the buck. One full-
grown deer that I once owned had legs smaller
than the pen with which I am writing, and its
body was not as large as a big jack-rabbit. Of
course, this toy deer was not dangerous any time
of the year. But the pigmy musk deer of Java are
far from numerous and seldom seen in this coun-
/li Jf^
BULL MOOSE, HORNS SHED. MOOSE CALVES
158 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
try. The one I owned was killed by gas from the
furnace of our house.
One winter while we New Yorkers were bring-
ing into requisition all modern appliances \vithin
our reach to ward off the cold waves that came
rolling over us from the mountains and plains of
solid ice of the northern frozen regions, while our
ears and noses, our fingers and toes were tingling
in the frosty air of midwinter, the crew of the good
ship Janet Ferguson were sweltering under the
burning rays of a tropical sun. The ship was on
her return trip from Singapore to New York with
a cargo of pepper and spices. When passing
through the Straits of Sunda she was met and sur-
rounded by the usual fleet of native bum boats
laden with fruits and curiosities. Among the mis-
cellaneous cargo of these sea peddlers' boats there
were some of the most graceful,
BEAUTIFUL LITTLE CREATURES
one could well imagine five full-grown live deer,
not larger than rabbits. The captain of the Janet
Ferguson, after some parley, succeeded in purchas-
ing them, giving in exchange an old silver watch.
The ship's carpenter soon built for them a con-
venient little house, about the dimensions of a
small dog house, with "Deer Lodge" neatly paint-
ed over the door, and in these comfortable quarters
the little midgets made in safety a voyage of 136
days, becoming great favorites with the crew. One
fawn was born during the trip, but when discov-
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED 159
ered by the mate of the vessel the buck had eaten
off its legs and it was dead.
Arriving off Sandy Hook the Janet Ferguson
encountered a cold wintry gale, all hands were kept
busy, and during the confusion three of the little
creatures which had
MANAGED TO ESCAPE
from their snug little house, perished with the cold.
Immediately after arriving at port the fourth, a
fine buck, fell a victim to our inhospitable climate.
The only survivor,
A BEAUTIFUL DOE,
represented in the painting, came into my pos-
session; but she only lived about ten days. In
spite of all my care she too expired, killed by the
poisonous breath of our furnace.
She was a timid little creature, and although per-
fectly tame, objected to being handled, but she
would take food from my hand and allow me to
stroke her back. She had the pose and action of
our ordinary deer. When watching her as she
leaped over a footstool, or stood, head erect, with
one forefoot gracefully poised, in an eager, listen-
ing attitude, or crept timidly and stealthily close to
the wall and behind the articles of furniture, it was
as difficult to realize that it was a real live deer as
it is to believe that some of the human midgets
are actually living specimens of mankind.
160 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THE PYGMY MUSK
is common in the peninsula of Malacca and the
neighboring islands, frequenting the thickets.
They are nocturnal in their habits, and are often
surprised by the natives in the act of making a
raid upon the sweet potato patches, and captured
by throwing sticks at their legs or caught in nooses;
in the latter case they frequently escape by feigning
death.
The Malays prize them both as articles of food
and as domestic pets. It is of this species that a
"Nature Fakir's" story is told to the effect that
when closely pursued by the hounds the deer will
leap into the overhanging branches of some
friendly tree, and hang
SUSPENDED BY THEIR LARGE CANINE TEETH
until the too eager foe rushes by, then dropping to
the ground they will calmly retrace their steps. It
is said that the creatures can make most extra-
ordinary leaps, and that they display great cun-
ning. They have no musk bag, and like the rest
of the family are destitute of horns. The antlers
we see upon stuffed specimens in the windows of
the taxidermist are artificial.
The doe in my possession measured fifteen inches
in length; the head rather large, being four and
one-half inches from point behind the ears to the
tip of its nose; nose movable, always wet and cold
like a pointer dog, and, like that dog, she possessed
THE DEER I SHOULD NOT HAVE KILLED 161
a keen scent. The round, short ears gave the ani-
mal the appearance of a mouse. The canine-like
tusks were short, slender, and sharp, and, unlike the
buck's, did not extend below the lips. The ten-
inch mark upon the rule came above the highest
part of her back. The legs were extremely deli-
cate; a Faber lead pencil looked thick and clumsy
beside them.
THE TINY HOOFS
only measured two-eighths of an inch at the broad-
est part, where the cloven parts united. The color
is a general reddish brown, darker upon the back,
where the hairs are tipped with black; an indistinct
dark band runs from a point between the ears to
nose; rather stiff gray hairs upon the sides
and back of neck; fawn-colored sides; three
white streaks under part of neck; soft hair upon
belly and the anterior upper part of hind limbs
and the posterior upper part of fore limbs; the
lower jaw is also white.
These animals could in all probability be ac-
climated in our Southern States, especially in Flori-
da, abounding as that State does in swamps and
thickets, where the animals could secure coverts and
breed.
CHAPTER XIII
LAND OF ETERNAL SNOW
STARTED FOR THE WEST ENGLISH TOURISTS OUR CONTEMPO-
RARY ANCESTORS LOOKING FOR MY MODEL'S NAME ON A
TRUNK SHE MOVED IN THE HIGHEST OF CIRCLES THE
WHISTLING MARMOT TOWERING FLOWER GARDENS LAND
OF ETERNAL SNOW ICE HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD ABOVE
THE CLOUDS A FAINT BABY CRY DEATH IN A ZOOLOGICAL
GARDEN.
It is very difficult to secure a model who ac-
cords with the artist's ideal and almost impossible
if she must also be suited to the particular subject
the artist may have in view. Understanding this
the reader may imagine with what a keen sense of
joy I read a letter from Mr. Chester Fox, of Seat-
tle, a student of the Art Students' League, who at
the time was on his way to his home in Seattle to
spend the summer. Mr. Fox said that he had dis-
covered a model exactly suited to my needs.
After that I lay awake nights thinking about her
and when slumber would at last claim me the beau-
tiful model haunted my dreams and as soon as I
could arrange my affairs I
STARTED FOR THE WEST.
Before long I found myself in the heart of the
162
LAND OF ETERNAL SNOW 163
Selkirk Mountains, and under the shadow of
Mount Stevens, nestling in a bank of brilliant
flowers, I found a little hotel; not particularly
small as compared with other hotels, but very small
and puny compared to the surrounding mountains.
The reader must bear in mind that the largest
hotel in New York City would be but
AN INSIGNIFICANT OBJECT
perched on the side of Mount Stevens and that
there are very many higher mountains than
Stevens.
In front of each room, standing in the hallway
of the hotel were the black enameled trunks and
TRAVEL WORN BATHTUBS
of English tourists.
Both trunks and tubs were plastered over with
carefully preserved pasters of hotels and trans-
portation companies until they looked like New
York bill poster boards. But the
STRANGEST SIGHT TO AMERICAN EYES
was that of the owners' names and ///// titles In
while letters five inches high painted on the funeral-
like trunks and globe trotting bathtubs.
These strange contemporary ancestors of ours
advertised their comical titles as an American quack
does his patent medicine.
164 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
In vain did I look for my charming model's
name on trunk or tub, it was not there.
Not only do our funny old-fashioned cousins
from the other side of the water bedaub their bag-
gage with their names and full titles until it looks
like an American circus man's luggage, but, with
the most unconscious bad taste they scrawl their
titles across the hotel register in this fashion :
Major General Beefjuice, Sir and Lady, Hong-
kong.
Lady Milldew and Maid, London.
The Right Reverend Bishop of Moosjaw.
Colonel Pigsticker and Valet, South Africa.
Below which may appear :
Bill Jones and Valise, Yonkers.
But nowhere in this distinguished company could
I find my brown-eyed model's name or title ; it was
not on the register, yet I knew she was stopping at
this hotel and that her family was as old as any
of the titled names registered on bathtub or trunk.
In truth my model family always moved in circles
more exalted than those frequented by the queer
but genial and pleasant mannered tourists from old
England or even Bill Jones from Yonkers.
MY BEAUTIFUL MODEL NANNIE
was a born aristocrat whose parents moved only in
the highest circles.
Indeed,. if you wish to visit her family estate you
must be first certain that your heart is all right,
LAND OF ETERNAL SNOW
165
NANNIE AND THE AUTHOR.
otherwise that important organ may go on a strike
when you are most in need of its help.
You must climb far beyond the limits of the
devil's clubs whose thorny cudgels threaten you as
you pass and you must cross the foaming, tumbling,
wild waters of the mountain torrent by walking on
the perilous bridge formed by a fallen tree.
Up ! Up beyond the quaking aspens, where the
deep blue fringed gentians, the flaming Indian
paint brush, and the lavender-colored asters thrive.
Away above the dim twilight of the mysterious
forests of the giant trees. Above the Jack pines
to where the
i66 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
WHISTLING MARMOT
startles you with his call and the little chief hare
scuttles with its mouth full of grass to its home in
the slide rock.
Here you may rest and regain your breath on
the mountain meadow and see the great patches
of snow holding their own in spite of the rays of
the summer sun, and admire the profusion of
beautiful blossoms which mosaic the verdant
spots caused by the water which exudes and trickles
down from the softening snow beds. Here strange,
comical looking goblin thistles apparently twist
their hairy necks to peer at the intruder, the yellow
Senecio blooms and mingles with the red tips of the
still present Indian paint brushes, where asters and
the blue Polymonium nestle in the rocky recesses.
You must walk through patches of heather-like
plants which cling close to the rocks and whose
blossoms dare not thrust their heads far above the
protection of their foliage. You must tramp
through masses of twin flowers and as your cruel
hob-nailed shoes crush these delicate blossoms their
only protest is a faint but fascinating almond-like
perfume exuded from their wounds.
Leaving this Alpine garden far below you rrmst
climb the snow-powdered, towering rocks whose
frail projections break from the parent stone
under the grasp of your hands and crumble away
from beneath your feet to go crashing with wild
leaps to the blue world below you.
Up these rocks to the
PENCIL SKETCHES OF A LIVE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT
KID, PROBABLY THE FIRST PUBLISHED SKETCHES
OF THE ANIMAL MADE FROM LIFE
i68 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
LANDS OF ETERNAL SNOW !
Up to the birthplace of the awe-inspiring
glaciers, whose
EMERALD ICE, CENTURIES OLD,
never ceases its imperceptible, but certain move-
ment to the bluff foot where pieces hundreds of
feet in thickness break off and go thundering down
the mountain-side, cutting great swathes through
the forests of tall dark trees below. Here on the
edge of the beetling precipice
FAR ABOVE THE CLOUDS
you will find gentle little Nannie's nursery.
On the twenty-ninth day of May, 1890, "Chris-
tian," the guide, murdered Nannie's mother; but do
not think too badly of Christian if he did not live
up to the high ideal suggested by his name. Few
men think it
WRONG TO TAKE LIFE
even of a mother animal for the fun of the thing;
few women will deny themselves the pleasure
of wearing in' their hats the badly upholstered
bodies of little birds, for the sake of sav-
ing some of their humble fellow-creatures from
extermination.
Christian thought himself to be a sportsman and
the killing of a mother animal is considered "sport"
LAND OF ETERNAL SNOW
169
by more enlightened men than this Swiss guide.
After the death of the mother goat
A FAINT BABY CRY
attracted the hunter's attention to a small white
object on the rocks of the mountain top. This was
the poor little orphan Nannie and when the big
man with the picturesque costume, and the terrible
gun, picked up the baby goat, the kid took the
man's fingers stained with its own mother's blood,
in its mouth and tried vainly to secure the life-giv-
ing nourishment expected when nursing.
1 70 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
When I met Nannie in the Selkirk Mountains
she had grown to be a
BIG FLUFFY KID
and though extremely bashful was quick to form a
friendship for those who treated her kindly. In
fact she became so very friendly that when I would
seat myself on the grass near by to make sketches,
my model would proceed to climb up my back to
a perch on my shoulders, there she would push off
my hat to lick the bald spot on my head, a scandal-
ous thing for an artist's model to do, but it greatly
amused Hasler and Bohrn, the Swiss guides.
These two men came to New York in October,
1901, and brought with them poor little Nannie,
the Rocky Mountain goat and sold her to the
Philadelphia Zoological Society, I believe, where
she probably died, for it is a tough goat that can
live long in a zoological garden.
CHAPTER XIV
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO FAMOUS PABLO ALLARD
HERD THE COWS WERE MAD PHOTOGRAPHING THE HERD
SKETCH OF THE BUFFALO HOW A BUFFALO PREPARES
TO CHARGE HE MUST LICK HIS NOSE, ROLL UP HIS TAIL,
AND PAW CRESCENTS IN THE EARTHS-BUTTED BY A BUFFALO
BULL CALF THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO DIDN'T GET A PIC-
TURE AND WHAT BECAME OF HIS CAMERA HOW MY PLATE
LOOKED WHEN DEVELOPED WHY I DID NOT SHOW THE
PRINT TO MY COMRADES ONE HORNED IKE, THE MAN
HATER A BIG DIGNIFIED BUFFALO BULL HIS SPIRITS
WERE HIGH AN ORDINARY RANGE BUFFALO A DANGER-
OUS INHABITANT THE DEATH OF ONE-HORNED IKE-
SHORT ON ALTRUISTIC IDEALS FAILURE TO SAVE THE PAB-
LO ALLARD HERD A PLEASANT WORLD TO LIVE IN
ENGLISH SPORTSMEN KILL DOMESTIC BUFFALO.
On July 26, 1900, we were driving over Horse
Plains, between the deep canyon of the Pen d'
Oreille and the snow-capped Mission Range, Mon-
tana. As we rounded the foot of a big, drab, sway-
backed hill, known as Saddle Butte, we were con-
fronted by a herd of between two and three hun-
dred magnificent buffalo. They were thoroughly
wild, although the herd was the private property
of an old "Breed."
i;z DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
Such a sight was not only novel but awe-inspir-
ing. This was
THE FAMOUS PABLO ALLARD HERD
which has lately been sold and shipped to Canada.
The bulls were magnificent fellows and stood ready
to meet all comers, they had no fear of man, and
a human being on foot would stand but a poor
chance for life in their presence.
As our wagon, heavily loaded with tents and
camp materials, approached the herd they all threw
up their heads and "rolled" up their tails, then with
a deep vibrating bellowing let us know in no un-
mistakable manner that we were trespassers on their
domain.
CHARGED BY A BUFFALO HERD.
The bulls pawed the dust and came running to-
wards us followed by the cows, the latter with the
hair on their humps standing erect like that on the
back of a mad moose or elk.
THE COWS BELLOWED
more like our domestic animals but in a savage
manner and came on a trot towards the wagon,
their
PRETTY LITTLE CALVES
running along behind them. Our camping outfits,
wives and children were in the wagons, to which
were harnessed "Injun cayouses" without bits in
their mouths, the reins attached to halters. The
half-wild horses paid no heed to the buffalo, even
174 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
when the whole herd halted within twenty feet of
us, bellowing and pawing up clouds of dust, the
bison seeing that we did not move either for a re-
treat or for a belligerent purpose, pawed dust a
few moments, but made no further attempt to at-
tack us. What they said, however, we understood
as well as if they had used the English, "If you
want to take a fall out of us, come down and fight !"
We being of Quaker ancestors were content to take
shots at them with our cameras from our perch on
the wagon, and in a few moments they slowly
moved away.
Three times our squaw-man drove up towards
the herd and three times the herd went through
the same evolutions.
There was not a house in sight, the prairie end-
ing on one side at the foot of the snow-peaked
Mission Ridge, and beyond, the invisible canyon
of the Pen d'Oreille in distant blue mountains on
the other side, while to the right and to the left
the prairie rolled up against the horizon. In the
distance were bunches of cattle and horses almost
as wild as the buffalo.
It was always my ambition to
PHOTOGRAPH A CHARGING BUFFALO
and to do this it was necessary to have plenty of
room, for while buffalo can, and often do charge
in zoological gardens, they never get under full
headway r the distance being too short. When we
were opposite Saddle Butte our squaw-man pulled
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 175
BUFFALO CALVES AND DOMESTIC CATTLE
up his spotted cayouses, and pointed with his finger
to the foot of the big, drab, sway-backed hill where
some shapeless black lumps stood motionless on
the sun-baked prairie. I knew that these things
were outlawed bulls hovering around the outskirts
of the distant herd which disowned them. So I
took my 'camera and slid down from the wagon
and approached one of these lonely veterans. It
was an outlawed bull without doubt, an old fellow
whose temper was sour because he had been driven
176 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
from the herd by a younger rival. He was a "has
been" and consequently
HE WAS DANGEROUS.
As I approached the bull he was cropping the
short sun-dried grass and thinking of the time when
he was young and had helped chase other outlawed
bulls from the herd, but if this bull had been
chased by a rival, it had never been chased by man,
especially had it never been threatened by a man
afoot and consequently a pedestrian inspired no
awe in his bullship's heart, but a buffalo bull has
a certain formula through which it must go before
it can actually make a charge, a sort of buffalo red
tape, so to speak, which must be religiously ob-
served because other buffaloes observe it.
In the first place
THE BUFFALO MUST LICK HIS NOSE;
my buffalo stared impudently at me for a few
moments then licked his black nose. In the next
place it must paw the dirt with one forefoot, swing-
ing its body around with its hind legs as a pivot,
thus making a perfect arc of a circle or a complete
semi-circle of pawed earth; during the process it
throws the dirt up over its shoulders in the same
manner as does a domestic bull when it is angry.
This much of the program having been faithfully
performed, his bullship drops on his knees and
rolls over in a great cloud of dust; if the enemy
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 177
has not fled when the demonstration has gone thus
far
THE BULL DROLLS" HIS TAIL,
that is, holds it in a stiff curve, then it lowers its
head and comes thundering at you like an auto-
mobile. If the buffalo ever hits you the re-
sults will be just as bad and redress as unattain-
able as it is when you are struck by an automobile.
Once when the brawny and genial Howard
Eaton of Wolf Ranch was
ROPING WILD BUFFALO CALVES
on the plains, he secured a fine young bull. Grip-
ping the end of his "lass rope" tightly, Eaton
ascended a little mound to scan the horizon in an
effort to locate his companions. With one hand
shading his eyes and the other holding fast to the
lariat, he did not notice that the rope had slackened
until all of a sudden he woke up to find himself
on his back gasping for wind and staring at the sky
over head, and this was caused by a blow from only
a calf.
A few months before I visited the Pablo Allard
herd, a photographer with a very large camera and
tripod attempted to get a picture of the last of the
bison, but he did not succeed. The photographer
reached Selish in a very excited state of mind and
a somewhat exhausted state of the body. For-
tunately for him, his big camera was so conspicu-
ous that the animals devoted their entire attention
DAN BEARD'S ANLMAL BOOK
A CHARGING BUFFALO
The photograph that I did not show to my camp fire friends.
to the camera and gave the operator a chance to
escape. They played battledore and shuttlecock
with. the camera and trampled the fragments deep
into the dusty earth.
Now, while I was most anxious to get a photo-
graph of a charging buffalo I had no desire to ex-
periment with its butting power, so opening my
camera, I stood facing the enraged bison for some
time before I touched the button. I waited until
I thought it was so close that its image in the nega-
tive would overlap the plate. After touching the
button, I "hit the trail," but only the high places
on it, until I reached the wagon and clambered
aboard, where the bull did not follow me.
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 179
I could hardly sleep nights until I had that plate
developed. I planned how I was going to bring
that home and show it to my Camp Fire Club com-
panions, but I never have shown them the picture
and the reason is that my eye magnified more than
the lens of the camera. When I made a print
from the negative there was a line of sky and a
line of prairie and it took a magnifying glass to
discover that the little fly-speck on the paper was
the charging buffalo. This was all very annoying,
but I have since thought it over and feel convinced
that had I waited until the buffalo appeared as a
large object on the negative, the plate might never
have been developed. Mr. L. S. Huffman of Mile
City, who was with me when I visited the Flathead
Reservation, was
AN OLD BUFFALO HUNTER
and plainsman as well as a pioneer photog-
rapher of big game animals. Mr. Huffman did
succeed in getting one very good view of the herd
and I secured some hasty drawings.
ONE-HORNED IKE, THE MAN HATER.
Every once in awhile the owners of this herd
of buffalo were accustomed to sell to showmen or
ranchmen a few of the animals. They sold them
in this way: The purchaser would ride out to
Horse Plains and meet the owners, together they
would trot down to where the bison were grazing,
i8o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
there the owner would make the bargain and col-
lect the money in advance at so much a head on
the animals to be sold and leave the purchaser to
get his animals as best he could they were there,
he might take them. On one occasion the purchaser
succeeded in herding his animals successfully down
at the station at Selish, where there stands an or-
dinary western cattle corral. All of my readers
who have traveled in the West are familiar with
the big enclosures built of cottonwood logs and
know what substantial affairs they are. Among
the animals driven into the corral on this occasion
was
A DIGNIFIED BULL BUFFALO;
the bull did not seem to realize that he was a
prisoner until the bars of the corral had closed upon
him and then he began to paw dirt and say things
and utter dire threats against the cowboys, station
hands, half-breeds, and Chinamen assembled
around the railroad station. Either these people
did not understand buffalo language or they
thought bull threats were idle boastings, for they
paid no attention to the animal until they were
aroused by the frightful splitting of timber as
the enraged bison came bodily through the splen-
did corral, then everybody sat up and took notice
and before the bull had time to shake the splintered
wood from his hide there was not a man in sight.
Just to show the people what he could do when he
tried, the big beast turned around, made a charge
i8z DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK .
at the corral, going through one side and coming
out the other. By this time his bisonship was feel-
ing good,
HIS SPIRITS WERE HIGH
and he looked around for something else more dif-
ficult to tackle than the corral. On the siding of the
railroad track stood a locomotive and just about
this time the gathering steam lifted the safety
valve and escaped with a threatening roar. The
bull's eyes flashed; he pawed the dirt until the
cloud of alkali dust almost concealed the animal;
the next moment from out the cloud he came
thundering along straight for the challenging loco-
motive. He struck the locomotive and it is need-
less to say that the latter paid no attention to the
attack, although just about this moment the steam
ceased to escape from the safety valve and the
threatening roar which had attracted the buffalo
bull's attention ceased with its cause. Whether the
bison took this as a sign of surrender or whether
the loss of one of its horns with the impact of the
locomotive caused it to desist, no one knows, but
the railroad men, cowboys, half-breeds, and China-
men from their hiding places saw the old bull stand
back, shake his head, and mutter dire threats and
challenges to everything on earth, then turn and
walk off up the hill with the blood dripping from
the broken horn and a piece of rope or lariat
dangling from the good horn.
Previous to this adventure One-Horned Ike had
been only
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 183
AN ORDINARY RANGE BUFFALO BULL,
but after it he became a menace to everyone who
traveled in his neighborhood. Day after day One-
Horned Ike would post himself on the top of one
of the buttes and from this vantage ground scan
the horizon watching for his hated enemy, man.
Half-breeds, red men, and white men all learned
to look for this bull and whenever they would see
silhouetted against the sky, the form of a buffalo
with but one horn and a piece of rope attached to
that, they made a wide detour to escape meeting
One-Horned Ike, the man-hating buffalo of Horse
Plains. On various occasions men had gone out
for the expressed purpose of ridding their reserva-
tion of its
DANGEROUS INHABITANT,
but when they came back the heaving sides of their
horses, their wide distended nostrils, and the sweat
which dripped from their hides was more eloquent
and said more than did the horsemen. At last,
however, an Indian took his rifle and by worm-
ing his way through the grass, he gained a posi-
tion from which he could draw a bead on One-
Horned Ike and this ended the days of the man-
hating buffalo.
When we Americans allowed
THE PABLO ALLARD HERD OF BUFFALO
of the Flathead Reservation to be sold to Canada,
i8 4
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
i ...
SKETCHES MADE BY THE AUTHOR ON fLATiliiAD
RESERVATION
we lost the last herd of grand, historic and noble
American bison.
Here was a living herd of American bison large
enough to increase without the danger of degenerat-
ing from too close interbreeding, located in a fertile
valley apparently just suited to their needs, and
we have allowed it, the last real herd of buffalo in
CHARGED BY A HERD OF BUFFALO 185
existence, to be sent out of our country! There
are a number of small groups of buffalo and single
individuals scattered around the country, but none
of these are composed of enough buffalo to pre-
vent the danger of close interbreeding and gradu-
ally such small groups will die out and my young
readers will live to see the day when none exist.
While editing Recreation, I formed a committee
composed of some of the most prominent men of
this country from all walks of life, for the pur-
pose of saving this herd of buffalo to and for the
people of the United States; I went so far as to
have Mr. Howard Eaton get an option on the ani-
mals, but to my great surprise, I found that many
of the people of Montana, where the herd was lo-
cated, were bitterly opposed to making a buffalo
reservation in their State, and some of the most
prominent politicians to whom I applied, some of
whom occupy seats in the United States Senate,
were unable to appreciate either the historic value,
patriotic value, and sentimental value there would
be in a national herd of historic animals. In our
work for the preservation of the bison we had the
enthusiastic support of our broad-minded President
and the editors of all the leading papers of New
York City, but neither the President, the commit-
tee of citizens, nor the editors of New York papers
can put through a move of this kind without the
support of the people themselves and the financial
part of my magazine became discouraged before
we had awakened the popular conscience.
1 86 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
We have in our country very many wealthy peo-
ple, any of whom could have bought this whole
herd without noticing the expense incurred as much
as many of my readers would five cents given to
charity, but unfortunately, our very wealthy peo-
ple seem to be short on high ideals.
The following incident published by one of the
Western papers is a good example of what some
wealthy people call sport.
A party of English sportsmen came to Montana
in quest of big game. They had a retinue of ser-
vants, an armory of high-power guns and they were
"out for blood," but after a number of days' hunt-
ing they only succeeded in killing a few coyotes,
jack rabbits, and prairie dogs. This did not satisfy
their thirst for gore so they went to the Flathead
Reservation and paid $500 per head for the privi-
lege of shooting down two or three range buffaloes.
The half-wild cattle on the same plains or horses
would have been just as difficult to shoot as the
bison. However, our English cousins are now
pointing to the upholstered heads of the range
buffalo as trophies of their powers as great hunters.
What an exceedingly pleasant world this would
be to live in if the public could devote its time to
enlightenment and refinement and if the so-called
rulers of the nations were really endowed with the
higher order of intelligence and in any way could
prove themselves in their ambition to be
above the savage chieftains. Suppose, for instance,
that the billions of dollars spent within the last few
CHARGED BY A HERD OE BUFFALO 187
years by the different governments to uphold an
absurd, Kentucky moonshiner's idea of honor, had
been spent on internal improvements, parks, forest
preserves and scientific investigations ! Boys, such
things are too grand for us men to realize in
our lifetime, but not in yours.
CHAPTER XV
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE
FAUST AND MARGUERITE TWO YOUNG RED FOXES FAUST
STEALS A JOHNNY CAKE CUB FOXES JUMP SIX FEET
HIGH WITHOUT ANY TROUBLE HOW THEY DISFIG-
URED THE LAWN THE AUTHOR'S FIRST DRAWING FROM
NATURE MORE ROOM FOR FOXES AND BOY FOXES STEAL
GEN. GRANT'S CHICKENS THEY STEAL CHICKENS FROM ALL
THE NEIGHBORS HOW THEY DID IT WITHOUT BEING
UNCHAINED A SUSPICIOUS TRAIL IN THE DUST SHOWING
THE WHITE FEATHER WHAT THEY NEVER COULD LEARN
FOXES AND DOGS NATURALLY ASSOCIATE TOGETHER
HOW A FOX BARKS THE SOLITARY FOX HUNT THE
SHREWD COUNTENANCE OF A FOX HOW REYNARD THREW
THE DOG OFF THE SCENT THE HOUND LOOPS THE LOOP
ANOTHER SOLITARY FOX HUNT THE FOX WATCHES THE
HOUND ON ITS (THE FOX's) TRAIL JIP AND THE PIKE
COUNTY FOX THE FOX MAKES A FATAL MISTAKE THE
BALL OF FUR WHICH ROLLED DOWN A HILL FOX's TRACKS
IN THE SNOW V.HAT DOES HE DO IT FOR.
\Vhile the author was a schoolboy in Kentucky,
he was made supremely happy by a gift of
TWO YOUNG RED FOXES, FAUST AND MARGUERITE.
When the truck backed up to the front sidewalk
and delivered the packing case containing the
foxes there was no place ready for their reception,
so the box was carried down cellar. After the cel-
lar doors were closed, a board was knocked off the
box and the long-legged, wolfish looking young-
sters allowed to escape to the confines of the cel-
188
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 189
lar. The next morning when the cellar was visited
each of the foxes was discovered to be occupying
a window; this incident may appear to be
trifling, but it did not so appear to the boy, because
each window-sill was higher than his head and as
near as he can now calculate, they must have been
almost six feet above the floor, which was a pretty
good jump for cubs. Before the foxes had re-
mained long in his possession the Kentucky school-
boy was ready to believe that his pets could easily
have jumped from the ground into the second-story
window of the house; that they never did make
this jump was no proof to his mind that they could
not make it if they tried.
THE FOXES BECAME VERY TAME
and were not vicious, but they would bite when
there was something to be obtained by using their
teeth.
Once when the writer's baby sister was watch-
ing the little foxes at play, Faust discovered that
the child was eating a big round, corn johnny-cake;
the Eastern readers probably have never seen a
real johnny-cake, and for their benefit it may be
well to explain that this article of food is made
from corn-meal and water, patted with the hands
until it is about the size of a saucer and about an
inch thick, it is then fried in grease until it is a rich
brown color on both sides ; being made of the sweet
field corn which grows in the Southwest; it is not
sweetened with sugar, and does not taste so much
190 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
like sand as do the corn-meal cakes made of flint
corn in the Eastern States.
THE SOUTHERN JOHNNY-CAKE
is really delicious, as Faust's nose told him, so he
gamboled up to the side of the little girl with a
series of undulating bounds and then without warn-
ing he nipped the dimpled hand that held the john-
ny-cake. The surprised child gave an indignant
scream, dropped the johnny-cake and ran to tell her
mother. Faust immediately snatched up the
abandoned cake and ran into the dark corner of
the cellar to devour it.
There was a terrace in the back yard which ran
up to an elevation of at least twelve feet; this ter-
race was covered with a beautiful coat of green
grass; to give the foxes a little taste of sunshine,
they were taken to the back yard and securely
chained to stakes firmly driven into the earth, when
their owner returned from school that evening
there was a pile of fresh earth on the grass in front
of the terrace, but no foxes in sight. They had
burrowed to the full length of their chain and were
lying on the cool damp earth at the far end of the
hole enjoying themselves.
This disfigurement of the lawn was against all
rules and regulations and the boy was held responsi-
ble for the misdoings of his pets; so he took a
spade, filled up the hole, placed a piece of sod over
the spot and raked off the grass; he then secured
an old bafrel and placed it in another part of the
a
! 13
^ >-
o
p 5
fc O.
E
192 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
yard to serve as a house for his pets. He fastened
them to a stake driven close to the barrel. On
Saturday he took his paints and made
HIS FIRST PLCTURE FROM NATURE;
the picture is amateurish, but he has kept it unto
this day and a reproduction of it accompanies this
chapter. The author prizes this picture because it
is the first attempt he ever made at a serious draw-
ing from life.
Shortly after this incident the boy's parents
moved to a larger house with more extensive
grounds, and Faust and Marguerite had a box
made for them with a round hole in its center for
a door-way. The box was buried in the ground
about a foot so that the hole or door-way of the
box was even with the surface of the ground; the
dirt from the excavation was packed over the top
of the box so that
THE FOXES' HOUSE APPEARED
like a mound of earth.
Here they lived happily for a long time, running
around the neighborhood at night and loafing
around their den in the daytime; but the reader
must not suppose that their master knew that his
pets were roaming free. They may have been free
for weeks before it was discovered and it is known
that they were free for at least four or five days
while they were supposed to be tightly chained to
the door of their den.
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 193
One morning the author's Sunday School teach-
er, who lived on- the opposite side of the street
near the home of the parents of General U. S.
Grant, complained that the foxes had killed some
of his fine chickens; this was indignantly denied
by the boy, who declared that the foxes could not
kill the chickens, because they were securely
chained to the door of their den and he took the
neighbor in the yard to where Faust and Mar-
guerite lounged in front of their door with their
noses between their paws watching their visitor.
Wholly unconvinced the Sunday School teacher
turned away. Next General Grant's father com-
plained of the loss of chickens and several other
neighbors
FILED COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE TWO FOXES.
There was something uncanny about this work;
foxes have the reputation of being very sly, but no
one ever heard of a fox that could unchain itself
at night and then chain itself up again in the morn-
ing. Still each night the chickens continued to dis-
appear, and the storm clouds to threaten. So one
morning the boy arose very early to make investi-
gations; no wagons had passed that morning save
the milk-cart, and the white dust of the macadam-
ized street was undisturbed and any track or trail
might be easily discerned.
Reaching diagonally across the white, dusty
street from the writer's front yard to the sidewalk
of his Sunday School teacher's, he discovered
1 94 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
TWO VERY PECULIAR LINES IN THE DUST,
and it did not take him long to arrive at the con-
clusion that these lines were made by trailing a
chain or chains across the street. No sooner had
he made up his mind to this effect than he took a
stick and hastened to obliterate the tell-tale tracks ;
then he went over to look at Faust and Marguerite.
The foxes were full grown at this time and both of
them beautiful specimens. When their master ap-
proached they both lay perfectly quiet in front of
their den. This was the second time that they had
received him in this manner, and there was some-
thing suspicious about it, for it was the habit of
these foxes whenever their master approached to
dive into their den and suddenly emerge again;
thus going backward and forward they expressed
their delight; this action taking the place of the
frisking of a pet dog.
"Faust, you rascal," exclaimed the boy, u what
have you been doing?" Faust made no reply, nor
did he move until his master pushed him to one
side with the toe of his shoe and discovered
A WHITE CHICKEN FEATHER
protruding above the ground. Faust was now in-
side of his den with his pointed nose just visible at
the opening. Marguerite was still immovable.
When she also was pushed aside she too retreated
to the den. To make a long story short four
chickens were dug up from the spots where the
foxes lay. These were carefully buried again by
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 195
the owner of the foxes, because the lad could think
of no good explanation that the neighbors would
accept and concluded that the best policy was to
call that incident closed. For a long time he stood
leaning on his spade lost in thought; at last it oc-
curred to him that, maybe,
THE FOXES WERE NOT CHAINED,
so stooping down and gathering up the chains he
discovered that their ends were fastened to nothing.
By slyly watching the animals he discovered that
they freed themselves by twisting the chain round
and round until it made a hard lump over the
swiveled spring snap (which was fastened by being
strung on a ring bolt in the side of the box) . The
twisting of the chain around the snap forced the
spring back and unfastened it.
It was no doubt an accident that first freed the
foxes, but after they had once learned how to do
it, it was probably purposely and consciously done.
To show the limitation of their instinct or their
reason, however, when the two animals were
chained together they
NEVER COULD LEARN TO GO THROUGH THE SAME
OPENING
between the bars of the iron fence of the front yard
and thereafter they never succeeded in reaching the
neighbor's hen roost, or going further than where
their chain caught on the fence.
196 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
There was another thing the author learned
about foxes and also about dogs which surprised
him, and that is that
DOGS AND FOXES WILL ASSOCIATE WITH EACH
OTHER
and play together unless the dogs have been previ-
ously trained to hunt the fox. There was not a
local or stray dog in our neighborhood that did
not stop to have a romp with Faust and Marguerite
and after the accidental death of Marguerite, Faust
was so lonesome that whenever there was a dog in
sight or hearing he would call him by barking. I
never knew Faust to make more than three barks in
succession and seldom less than three. His call was
bow wow wow, very quickly given and then,
after a considerable pause another bow wow
wow, or it may be more properly speaking bow
bow bow. Whether it was the novelty of this
bark or something peculiarly winning in its tone,
is unknown, but the fact is well known to all who
remember these foxes that the call seldom failed
to bring a dog into the yard. Black-and-tans,
poodles, fices, and even
BULL DOGS CAME AND PLAYED WITH THE FOX
and in all the rough-and-tumble gambols there
were no times when either party showed ill tem-
per. Occasionally the fox's chain would take a
hitch around the dog's leg and cause it to yelp;
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 197
occasionally the dog would be a little rough and
the fox would dive down into its den, but it would
always appear again after the dog had apparently
promised to be more gentle.
A SOLITARY FOX HUNT.
Once when spending the summer in the neigh-
borhood of the White Mountains, I was sitting on
the shore of a wild little lake watching some great
northern divers with a little black fuzzy baby diver
disporting themselves in the water, when I heard
the voice of a hound away off in the distance. The
sound grew nearer and nearer, but long before the
dog approached my neighborhood there was a rus-
tle among the leaves near the shore of the little
lake and I saw
THE SHREWD COUNTENANCE OF A FOX
peering out, apparently more interested in the
northern divers than it was in the distant hound.
The voice of the hound sounding again much near-
er, however, reminded the fox of the necessity of
caution; it trotted along the bank opposite to a
place where a log was floating in the water, then
it turned and disappeared in the woods, made a
short loop and reappeared again at the same point
and without any hesitancy lightly sprang through
the air to the floating log. It then ran along the
log to where it approached a fallen tree which lay
half covered with water with the roots at one end
198 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
extending in the air and the branches at the other
end almost submerged. The old tree was at least
fifteen feet from the shore. Trotting along the
full length of the trunk it jumped from one piece
of driftwood to the other, then sprang to the shore.
THE BAYING OF THE HOUND
was approaching closer and closer. Nevertheless,
the fox calmly stopped to look once more at the in-
teresting group of water fowl, and then in a care-
less manner it trotted off and disappeared in the
woods. Soon the voice of the hound told that it
was hot upon the trail and in a few moments it
appeared fairly bellowing with excitement. It
reached the edge of the water, ran around the loop,
back again to the water, where it suddenly stopped
its baying and nervously sniffing the ground, went
back and forth on a trail around the loop again
and again. At length it commenced sniffing up
and down the shore, and it must have been almost
a quarter of an hour before a sudden and joyful
baying announced that the hound had discovered
where the fox had jumped to the shore.
THERE WAS NO ONE WITH THE HOUND,
it was having a solitary hunt on its own account,
and there is little reason for supposing that it ever
caught the fox.
Another time when the writer was seated on the
doorstep .of a Pennsylvania farm-house, which
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 199
from his position commanded a splendid view of
the other side of the Laxawaxen River, he saw a
fox chased by a hound, come trotting along the
trail amid the stones and big rocks of the mountain-
side. Like the Massachusetts fox this one ap-
peared to be in no hurry, seeming to have perfect
confidence in its own ability to get away from the
hound. Presently it hopped upon a stone about
the height of a man's waist, from there it jumped
to the slanting trunk of a chestnut tree which gave
it just sufficient foothold for another spring to
the top of a rock about eight feet high, landing
on the flat surface of this large stone it coolly
walked over to the edge and squatted in a posi-
tion to command a view of the trail.
IT WAITED THERE FOR THE HOUND TO GO BY.
The observer was expecting an important let-
ter, the mail train was late and he had ample
time to watch the fox and the hounds and the lat-
ter afforded plenty of entertainment to pass the
time away; apparently the fox enjoyed the hunt
as much as did the hound, for after the hound had
passed the rock the fox would jump down from its
perch and go through the same tactics again and
again to the utter bewilderment of the dog. It
never seemed to occur to the dog to look up or
about, or to use its eyes in the search, but it de-
pended entirely upon its nose to find the object of
its pursuit.
200 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A FOX ONCE LIVED IN A CLEARING
or the woods adjoining it, back of a little farm-
house, on the edge of the trout brook which runs
from Big Tink Pond to the river. Every day for
"sport or play" this fox would come out in the
clearing and bark at "Jip, 5 ' the farmer's dog. Jip
was a mongrel, principally black-and-tan and the
rest dog.
JIP COULD KILL A RATTLESNAKE
with safety and dispatch ; he knew all the wiles of
the woodchuck and just how to get between this
rodent and its hole; he would tree partridges for
his master, was an excellent coon dog, and death
on squirrels and chipmunks, but the fox had no
fear of Jip. All summer long this play went on.
About the same time each day the fox would dare
Jip out and each day after having fun with the
dog, would leave the chagrined and bewildered
canine barking up some tree which a fox could not
climb, or slinking back with its tail between its legs
in conscious defeat to the house. One day, how-
ever, the fox made a fatal mistake. Jimmy, the
farmer's boy took Jip along with him to hunt
snakes, while he (the boy) cut brush. At the
usual time the fox appeared and gave his challenge
to the farm-house dog. The fox did not look be-
hind him or he might have escaped, for this time
Jip was right back of him and Reynard had but
just finished his third bark when
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 201
JIP WAS UPON HIM.
Now Jip was about the same size as the fox and
the fight should not have been very unequal. They
clinched and made a ball of fur which rolled down
the hill-side, but when it separated into two parts,
one part was the triumphant Jip and the other a
dead fox.
Last winter, in company with a schoolboy, a
scientist, and a sportsman, I took a run out to the
woods. A heavy snow storm followed our arrival
at camp ; the thermometer dropped as low as four-
teen below zero, so that, within a little over a hun-
dred miles from New York City, we were enjoy-
ing an Arctic- experience. We went to the woods
to study the tracks of animals as well as to wear
off the effects of too confining work indoors; we
were successful in both objects and had a week of
most
EXHILARATING AND STRENUOUS FUN,
but what I want to speak of here is the story told
by
THE FOXES' TRACKS IN THE SNOW.
After the storm had cleared up and the weather
moderated to zero, all the wood folks began to
venture out and write their adventures in the white
snow. We could see where the deer walked leis-
urely along the tote road dragging its feet through
the snow, moved on again, crossed the trout stream
on a bridge of a single fence rail, took a drink,
then, as other tracks told us, a man had ap-
202 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
preached, and the deer's tracks showed in a series
of big leaps marking the road for a mile or so.
We could see where the mice had tunneled their
way out of the snow and the tracks of their feet
and tails running across the surface to the trunks
of trees, where they disappeared into other tun-
nels, and where Molly Cottontail had made little
paths. We found
THE FOOTPRINTS OF A WILDCAT
in the old wood road and everywhere about,
Reynard, the fox, left his trail. Now, the inter-
esting part about the fox's trail was this: The
fox had been pursued by neither man nor dog 5
there was nothing after it, yet every time we
struck a fox's trail we discovered that the hunting
fox was just as cautious and adopted the same
tactics as the ones already described as those of the
hunted fox.
EVERY MUSKRAT HOUSE
along the edge of the lake had been investigated by
a fox, but in no case did the fox go directly up to
the muskrat house. The tracks in the snow told us
that he first circled around the snow-covered mound
once or twice before he ventured to examine it and
mark it with his private seal; neither did the fox
follow a straight trail for any length of time. It
was plain to be seen that the animal was constantly
avoiding some imaginary foe; he was trying to mis-
lead possible pursuers. This it did by trotting
THE STORY OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE 203
along the center of the road, then suddenly mak-
ing a side leap of six or more feet, then trotting
along near the road and parallel with it; then out
in the woods making a circle, coming back on his
first tracks, following them back for a short dis-
tance, then side leaping from them and continuing
along parallel with the other side of the road for
some distance before he made another jump to the
center of the road, to continue the journey. .When-
ever we found a fox's trail, we discovered that it
went through the same or similar manoeuvers.
I must admit that the examination of these
foxes' trails in the snow proved a stronger argu-
ment to me in favor of animal automatism than
any argument I have read in books or heard at
lectures, for I suppose that anything that is done
through habit is done more or less unconsciously
and I really do not believe that the foxes who left
their tell-tale tracks in the snow, deliberately rea-
soned out the subterfuges they adopted to mislead
any possible foe, and I have not the least doubt
that a tame fox that never knew an enemy would
leave the same sort of a trail.
CHAPTER XVI.
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS WITH NAKED
HANDS
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS WITH NAKED HANDS BOY WHO
LIVED IN THE WOODS LIKE A WILD CREATURE WHAT A CAT
CAN DO A BOY CAN DO HOW PUSS CAPTURES HER PREY-
CLOSE QUARTERS WITH A GREAT HORNED OWL BOTH ENDS
OF IT WERE DANGEROUS STALKING WILD ANIMALS CAP-
TURING FULL-GROWN BIRDS ALIVE THERE WAS AN OLD
CROW, BLIND IN ONE EYE HOW HE WAS CAUGHT WITH
NAKED HANDS ALL BIRDS WITH BALD HEADS ARE NOT
EAGLES BITTEN BY A TURKEY BUZZARD A TURKEY BUZ-
ZARD IN THE HANDS OF THE GAME COCK MARKS ON THE
SNOW LEFT BY THE RUFFED GROUSE.
As a lad it was my ambition to capture alive and
tame every wild thing I saw. Traps did not ap-
peal to me and I never had the desire to kill, con-
sequently there was but one method left for me to
secure the creatures for my backyard zoo and that
was by capturing them with my hands. It is need-
less to say that my first efforts in this line were
failures. But some volumes of Hall's Western
Tales chanced to fall into my hands and like every
other book pertaining to the wilderness, or pioneer
life, these books were read by me with
the keenest of interest. Among the stories
told by this pioneer historian of the West,
204
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS 205
was one about a little outcast boy, who
lived in the woods like a wild creature and cap-
tured live things with his naked hands. This fas-
cinated me and appealed so strongly to my imagina-
tion, that I spent many hours in brooding and
studying over plans by which I might be able to
capture wild animals without the aid of guns or
traps. It occurred to me that our cat might give
a hint, for
TABBY WAS A VERY SUCCESSFUL HUNTER.
Tabby was only a cat, she was not very big, she
had no hands, and not much sense. I was a boy,
a human being, I had a pair of very useful hands
and brains enough to hold my place with the other
boys in my classes at school, consequently it seemed
reasonable that anything a cat could do I should
be able to accomplish. So I spent hours and days
lying prone on the grass with my chin in my hands
watching to see how puss captured such wary things
as birds, squirrels and rabbits. The first thing that
I noticed was that the cat seldom or never moved
when the object of her pursuit was looking at her,
but took every advantage of inattention on the part
of the game to shyly creep nearer and nearer until
she was within reach, then abandoning all efforts
at concealment she would spring boldly upon her
prey. For weeks I practised the cat's tactics to
see how closely I could approach the robins, blue
birds, cat-birds, rabbits and other small creatures
without alarming them, and to my great delight I
206 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
discovered that I soon could out-do Tabby in her
own chosen field. One day a great horned owl was
discovered perched upon a projection in the roof
of an out-building in the back yard. I thought
that the big bird would make a splendid addition
to my zoological garden. Carefully I Crept upon
the fierce blinking thing and whenever it turned
its head my way I would become as rigid and mo-
tionless as a setter dog on a point. To my great
joy I succeeded in reaching the owl, but I did not
know what to do next. The Virginia horned owl
is a large and powerful bird of prey, has hooked
talons which are capable of sinking through a
thick cowhide boot and badly wounding the foot
within, as I know from my own personal knowl-
edge, but at that time I had never before experi-
mented with big owls nevertheless I knew enough
about wild creatures to see at a glance that
BOTH THE HEAD AND FEET OF THIS THING WERE
DANGEROUS
and I was in a quandary.
If I caught it by the feet its head would be free
if I caught it by the head, those powerful hooked
talons could rend and tear my flesh and clothes,
so in despair I took the flat of my hand and
knocked the astonished bird from its perch. Since
then, I have owned live specimens of the Virginia
horned owl and have reason to congratulate my-
self that I was prudent enough to allow this one to
escape.
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS 207
The escape of the large owl was a grievous dis-
appointment to me, at the same time I had proved
to myself that the study of the cat's tactics had not
been in vain. I had learned the art of stalking
wild creatures. Among the live game captured by
me in this manner, are gray squirrels, red squirrels,
chipmunks, flying squirrels, a full-grown muskrat,
opossums, raccoons, and one full-grown red fox.
The latter was being pursued by the dogs when it
dashed into a house and took refuge under a bed,
under which I crawled and brought forth the live
animal without receiving a scratch or a bite.
I also captured live full-grown birds, catching
the goldfinches by creeping under the big sun-
flowers and snatching them from their perch while
they were feeding upon the oily seeds of the plant.
I even caught specimens of such shy birds as the
scarlet tanager, bob whites, ruffed grouse, and wild
pigeons.
A few years ago there was
AN OLD CROW
that was blind in one eye. He frequented a cer-
tain woods where some lumber had been cut and
where a pile of decaying logs gave him a perch
from which he could survey the surrounding land-
scape. It was also a famous hunting ground, fre-
quented by wood-mice, shrews, small brown red-
bellied snakes, beetles and luscious fat grubworms.
208 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
IT WAS A HUNTERS' PARADISE
for a crow. All my readers must know that a crow
is one of the shyest and most cunning of birds and
that even when a crow is blind in one eye, his cap-
ture with one's naked hands is about as difficult a
project as even an expert need try to prove his skill.
Curious to see if I still possessed the ability de-
veloped in my youth I announced my intention of
capturing old one-eye with my hands. My first
attempts to approach the bird offered me no en-
couragement, but afforded an inexhaustible source
of amusement to Mrs. Beard, who was reared upon
a farm, frequented by these birds, and thor-
oughly understood the difficulties attending my at-
tempts to capture one alive, she freely declared that
it was not possible for a man to capture a wild
crow, even if it "were blind in both eyes" But
I was not disheartened and I found that my at-
tempts to approach nearer the bird were rewarded
each time by a slight advance over the previous
effort. The old crow gradually became less wary.
After watching it feasting upon a large sized
rodent I made my final attempt. Whenever its
blind eye was turned in my direction I made rapid
advances, but as soon as the wary bird
FOCUSSED HIS GOOD EYE UPON ME
I stood stock still gazing intently at the sky, at
the ground, at a tree, at anything but the crow.
Within fifteen minutes after the time of my start
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS 209
I brought the squawking and frightened bird in
triumph to my log house and let it loose before my
astonished helpmate. This I consider a record
breaker in this line of sport and even more excit-
ing than photographing big game in the wilder-
ness.
If it is difficult to sneak upon game and steal
a photograph of it in the open, it is very much
more so to creep upon it and capture it alive with
one's naked hands.
With all my youthful experience in
HANDLING THE WILD CREATURES
of the woods I have but one scar to show where
I received any punishment from them and this
scar was made by the beak of a big disgusting
turkey buzzard. The bird had fallen into the
Ohio River and was captured by two small boys,
who brought it to me and said it was an eagle.
While I was perfectly familiar with the form of
the turkey buzzard when it was roosting upon a
dead tree or circling around in its most beautiful
and graceful flight, I had never examined one at
close range, and when this one was dumped un-
ceremoniously from a bag in front of me I got down
on my knees and resting on my hands was study-
ing the creature, not knowing for the moment what
sort of a bird it might be.
THE TURKEY BUZZARD
emitted a series of hisses, then waddled over to my
210 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
hand and slowly stretching out its neck it grasped
my wrist with its beak and placing one toot upon
my hand commenced to pull as if to tear a piece
of flesh from my arm. It was so very deliberate
about this operation that I did not realize its ob-
ject until the pain in my wrist and the blood from
the wound left no reason for doubt. Doubling
up the fist of the other hand I struck the buzzard
and knocked him from the porch.
When I lived in Kentucky everybody kept
chickens and everybody who kept chickens had one
or more
GAME ROOSTERS.
Our old game cock had been standing along-
side of the veranda for some time watching me
with the liveliest of interest, when to his delight the
blow from my fist sent the big ungainly bird plump
down in front of him.
A TURKEY BUZZARD IN THE HANDS OF A GAME
COCK
is about the most helpless creature I ever saw. This
one was knocked by a series of blows all over the
lawn and at last ignominiously rolled down a
series of terraces to a corner of the fence, where it
lay upon its back gasping and helpless. There is
a little half-moon scar upon my wrist today which
serves me as a memorandum of my adventure with
the turkey buzzard which the boys wanted to sell
me as an eagle at my old Kentucky home.
CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS
211
I have said that I have caught ruffed grouse
with my naked hands, but this was when the snow
was on the ground, and any boy with ordinary
alertness and judgment can tell by the marks on
the surface of the snow where the grouse has
alighted and buried itself under the soft mantle of
crystals. Then by reaching his hands down through
the snow at the proper point he can pick out the
bird without difficulty, hold it just long enough to
prove to himself that he has captured it, give it a
toss in the air and allow it to escape with a whirr
to freedom.
\
CHAPTER XVII.
"BLACK" WHALE CAPTURED BY AMAGANSETT
FISHERFOLK
BLUBBER SERVED AT DINNER THE MEMBERS OF THE CAMP FIRE
CLUB OF AMERICA EAT BLUBBER WITHOUT BEING AWARE OF
WHAT IT IS HOW TO TELL A FISH FROM A WARM BLOODED
AQUATIC MAMMAL WHITE BONES OF GIANT HANDS THE
LONESOME SHORE OF NEW YORK MILK GIVERS THE
HIND LEGS OF A WHALE TIME WHEN ALL WHALES HAD
TEETH WHALES WITH FINGER NAILS IN THEIR MOUTHS
HOW I GOT THE EYE OF A WHALE AND WHAT IT LOOKED
LIKE.
Amagansett is a quaint fisherfolk town on Long
Island. There are buildings there of recent con-
struction and on the ocean front some modern sum-
mer cottages, but a neglected old windmill, just
such a one as the valiant Don Quixote attacked,
stands guard over a small scattered flock of gray,
weatherbeaten houses whose hand-rived shingled
sides bear mute testimony to their age and respec-
tability.
Among the dust and cobwebs of the attics of
these ancient houses are treasure troves that would
give an antiquarian palpitation of the heart, old
flint-locked guns, with barrels as long as a pike
handle, and cartridge boxes containing flints and
cartridges, the latter made of the newspapers of
214 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
revolutionary times, filled with gunpowder gray
with age, engraved powder horns with high-pooped
and castled-bowed ships of 1650 scratched on their
surface, long, straight-bladed swords of the seven-
teenth century and iron-bound chests suggestive of
Captain Kidd's time.
But few strangers know of these things and it
is very difficult for an outsider to obtain admission
to the lofts where the blue wasps build their mud
nests on the old bronze sword hilts, and the ghosts
of ancient mariners are said to peer from the dor-
mer windows. Whenever a whale is sighted off
shore, the
WHOLE TOWN IS EXCITED.
Every student of whale-lore has read of the late
Captain David Gray, who, with the proud title of
the prince of whalers, combined the reputation of
being one of the most observing and noted field
naturalists; but Captain Josh, of Amagansett, has
only a local fame as an expert whaler and it is
very probable that he has little, if any, knowledge,
of the genealogy and history of the whale as it is
recorded in books of natural history. Neverthe-
less our Amagansett whaler is thoroughly conver-
sant with all the tricks and characteristics of live
whales and it is doubtful if the prince of whalers
himself could excel Captain Josh in his ability to
instantly detect the puff of vapor issuing from the
blowholes of a distant whale.
From the crow's nest on top the house, Captain
Josh, of -Amagansett, scans the ocean, and where a
A CAPTURED WHALE 215
landlubber could see nothing to attract his atten-
tion the old salt's quick vision detects the faint
cloud of steam on the horizon, which sends the
blood tingling through his veins and causes him to
shout, 'Thar' she blows!"
Up goes the signal flag to spread the glad news
that a whale is sighted, in a moment more the
church bell is clanging and its brazen throat is try-
ing its best to articulate the words, "Thar' she
blows!"
ALL IS HUBBUB.
However unintelligible the remarks of the bell
may be to mere strangers, there can be no doubt
but that the natives understand it perfectly, and,
if they did not, one glance at the captain's signal
flag would explain all.
The sound of the bell sets the village wild with
excitement and all is hubbub and confusion. "Thar'
she blows!" shout the school children. "Thar'
she blows !" ejaculates the teacher, "She's blowin' '
chuckles the parson as he grabs his hat and makes
a bee line for the beach.
In the olden times on this part of the coast they
had no church bells, and when the first church was
built in the neighboring village of Sag Harbor
in 1767, the good fishermen, farmers and pi-
rates used to assemble on sabbath days at
the call of the drum, and it is more than
probable that this same martial implement
was beaten when a whale was sighted off
shore ; but now it is the church bell which rings the
2i 6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
news, and Captain Josh and Captain Gabe and
Bert, Dave and Dan launch their boat amidst the
white foam of the breakers and a goodly crew they
make, none better pull an oar; but there are other
crews and other brave men who jump at the first
stroke of the bell, and as the sound reverberates
among the houses and fields,- shoe-makers drop their
lasts, tailors their thread and needle, blacksmiths
their hammer and farmers their plow handles, for
underneath the thin disguise of merchant, trades-
man and farmer are hidden the adventurous sea-
men and expert whalemen of Amagansett.
WARY OLD WHALE.
All the inhabitants rush for the beach, the kodak
man scorching on a wheel with his camera slung on
his back, summer boarders, women, dogs and
children hasten to be in time to see the oilskin-clad
men launch their boats and bend to the oar in the
mad race to be first in the chase.
Wise and wary must be the whale who escapes
the hereditary foes of its race; but there is one
old spotted fellow (perhaps he is a descendant of
the celebrated "Moby Dick") who has led the
Amagansett people several chases.
The whalers know old "spotty" by the big white
marks near his flippers.
The black whale, which is the kind hunted at
Amagansett, was supposed to be totally extinct at
the time of the American revolution and has only
b.een recently introduced to science as a rediscovery.
A CAPTURED WHALE 217
aHBi
*
SKULL OF CALF WHALE SHOWING INSIDE OF UPPER JAW
BLUBBER DRIED OUT.
Captain Josh and all his hardy race are ever on
the lookout and when the captain shouts, "Thar she
blows!" his voice is heard in New York City; it
comes ticking over the wires in every newspaper
office and as the Amagansett boats shove out in the
surf, representatives of the press, with pens, pencils
and cameras are hurrying by rail to be in at the
death.
When the leading boat of the fleet comes up
with the whale Captain Josh shouts,
"GIVE IT TO 'EM, GABE!"
and there is a swish in the air and the next
2i8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
instant Captain Gabe's harpoon is quivering in the
whale's body.
Sometimes this happens so far out to sea that
the boats appear as mere dots on the horizon.
Then, again, the whale is accommodating and
allows himself to be struck so near the shore that
the kodak man risks a snap shot at the act. Then
comes the fight, next the death and then the long
procession of boats towing the dead monster
ashore, and there is no sleep for the people that
night.
Men are busy at the grindstone sharpening their
"spades," great chisel-like tools, with long handles,
used in cutting up the whale. Implements similar
in form to drawing knives, called "mincing knives,"
are made ready, fires are lighted under the huge
iron kettles and horses are hitched to the wagons
for hauling the blubber from the beach to the
trying kettles.
Hardly are the lines made fast which secure
the whale to the shore before a swarm of men
with their long-handled spades mount the black
carcass and begin work.
NOT VERY GOOD.
The last time I was in at a kill I secured some
good, clean blubber after the oil had been tried
out, and under a French name had it served at a
dinner of the old Camp Fire Club. Some
of those who ate it thought it to be toast fried in
fish oil, others tripe fried in fish oil, another bacon
A CAPTURED WHALE 219
treated in the same manner, Yellowstone Kelly said
it was beavers' tail fried in cod liver oil,
two guessed sea lion, one guessed seal, one
said it was some sort of fish a long way
out of season and two knowing ones "guessed
right the very first time." Personally I must
admit that while I can eat blubber fresh from
the trying kettle I much prefer bacon. The whale
oil is a useful article of trade, but as long as beef
and bacon last my advice is do not experiment on
whale as an article for the table.
Amagansett people have be.en known to fry their
DOUGHNUTS IN THE KETTLES OF WHALE OIL,
but Amagansett people are sentimental in
everything flavoring of the sea, and even
the strangers who visit this old Long Island
town pay little heed to the historic relics
moldering in the twilight of the attics, but
like the native born, the stranger's sole interest is
in the most ancient of all objects found there, the
sea.
If any reader wishes to distinguish at a glance
the warm blooded sea mammals from the great
fishes, he can do so with one look at their caudal
appendages or in other words at their tails. If
the creature inspected is a warm blooded, milk giv-
ing air breather which gives birth to its young alive,
the tail will be found to be set parallel with its
mouth, that is horizontally on the body like this ,
but if this useful organ is set edgewise, in other
220 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
DIAGRAM OF SIDE, FRONT AND TOP OF WHALE
words, with its edge perpendicular, like this ( , the
creature to which the tail is attached is a fish.
There is a good common sense reason for this
that the sculptors, painters and illustrators of
MERMAIDS
may well study, for the nose on the anatomy of the
mermaid stamps her as an air breather and not a
fish.
An air breather must force its head above water
whenever it needs more air and the great horizontal
tail is most admirably adapted to this purpose in
its position ready to slap the water with a down
stroke, in fact it is safe to say nothing is better for
this purpose; if there is any improvement, nature
would have worked it out long ago and some one
of the warm blooded progressive sea animals
would be rejoicing in the patent.
A FISHES PERPENDICULAR TAIL
on the contrary, is built to scull the owner through
A CAPTURED WHALE 221
the water. It is only with considerable exertion
that a fish makes consecutive leaps in the air, but
the porpoise and the whale roll, leap, and bound
above the surface of the water with as much grace
and ease, as an antelope does on shore. The fishes
secure oxygen from the water that passes through
their gills and they only leap above water in play,
to capture food or escape being captured.
We know that a
MERMAID IS AN AIR BREATHER
and a milk giver, that is, a mammalian because she
is represented with nostrils and lungs and breasts
like a woman; we also know that she is a fable, a
nature fake, a fanciful creature, but even a fable
should be logical and so she should have no scales,
but a skin-covered horizontal tail like that of the
porpoise and whale.
Scattered on the beach of white sand, bleaching
in the sun just above high tide were the remains of
the flippers cut from various whales. Decay had
parted the meat from the bones, fiddler crabs and
sand fleas had completed the work until all that
remained of the giant rubber-like flippers were the
WHITE BONES OF GIANT HANDS
of five fingers each. The unexpected sight of
these well articulated bony hands make a startling
and forcible argument for the evolutionist, and the
observer is ready at once to accept as truth the
222 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
theory that the whale has been evolved from a
four-footed land beast and also to believe that the
ocean is older by far than the sandy beach, older
than Long Island itself. The ocean pulsates and
roars now just as it did before Long Island was
pushed out into the sea just as it did when the
Appalachian Range and the Rocky Mountains
themselves were but reefs of rock in the primeval
sea when New York State had just emerged
above the tide. The breakers dash upon the beach
at Amagansett to-day as they did upon
THE LONESOME SHORE OF NEW YORK
untrodden by man, beast or reptile and over which
no bird winged its flight. You can well believe that
New York was then a nightmare land, covered with
a carpet of fantastic and weird vegetation a vege-
tation which lived and died without damage from
bird, mammal or insect, for geologists tell us that
none then existed. Ages and ages after that time
when animal life appeared upon all the lands and
among them the ancestors of our present
MILK GIVING CREATURES,
one of them loved the water, and while spending
more and more time in that liquid it discovered
that the buoyancy of the water formed a better
support for its elephantine body than the thin air,
consequently its visits to the shore became less and
less frequent until, after ages, its descendants took
up their permanent abode in the open sea.
A CAPTURED WHALE 223
THE HIND LEGS
were of no further use and had gradually disap-
peared. The end of the spine had developed a
huge tail to aid it in its movements through the
water.
ITS FRONT PAWS,
or feet, which had at first probably been webbed
were now entirely enclosed in a rubber-like mit-
ten and the pre-historic monster was transformed
to a whale. You can see the operation reversed
today by keeping a tadpole, in an aquarium and
watching its transformation to a frog, but while,
as a rule, it takes only a season for a tadpole to
change into a frog, it must have taken thousands
of years for the hind legs of the whale to gradu-
ally disappear and be absorbed into the body, just
as the useless tail of the tadpole is now absorbed
by the young frog.
Although the whale does not now know the use
of legs, it apparently hates to give up the in-
stitution of its ancestors, so we may still -find in a
modern, up-to-date whale some useless bones em-
bedded in the coarse, stringy meat and oily fat of
their huge fish-like bodies, which is all that is left of
the hip bones or pelvis of their ancestors, and like
the useless buttons on the back and sleeves of our
own coats, their only present purpose is to let us
know that once on a time there was use for these
things.
224 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
The Greenland whale still retains hip and knee
joints with some of its muscles, telling us in un-
mistakable terms that the forebears had useful hips
and knees, but these bones and muscles in the mod-
ern whale are only rudimentary and are as useless
to the whale as the aforesaid buttons on the back
of a man's frock coat.
The nostrils, or nose holes of the whale family
are simple slits placed on top of its head, there
are sometimes two of them and occasionally only
one. It is doubtful if they are ever now used as
organs of smell, but probably they are simply
breathing holes. When the whale breathes, that
part of the throat known as the larynx makes a
connection with the nostril, thus forming a free
passage for the air to the lungs which the water
in the mouth of the whale can not enter even when
all but the nostrils are under water.
When the whale exhales the air it sends the
vapor out with a rush and the whaler on the look
out cries,
"THERE SHE BLOWS!''
It takes millions of myriads of the small molusca
crustaceous and jelly-like animals, upon which the
WHALE-BONED WHALES
feed, to supply material to build up their huge
bodies of oily blubber, but by an ingenious modi-
fication of the mouth the whale has contrived a
fish net most admirably adapted for the purpose
of capturing the small shell-fish, shrimp and jelly-
A CAPTURED WHALE 225
like animals upon which to appease its appetite.
Once on a time the whale-bone whales had teeth,
and the sperm whale still exhibits as formidable a
display as a dentist's show-case; but the whale-
bone whales having no use for teeth, never take the
trouble to cut them, although the little teeth are
embedded in their jaws, buried there as the anatom-
ical remains of their equally useless hind legs are
buried in their bodies. As the balaena gradually
changed their habits their huge jaws became modi-
fied, what in the roof of a cow's mouth is rough,
fleshy ridges, is altered in time to horny, biting
ridges in the manatee and becomes whale-bone in
the balaena.
The whales are the only creatures which have
FINGER NAILS IN THEIR MOUTHS,
for the whale-bone is practically the same sub-
stance as our finger nails and the process of growth
is the same. Set about a quarter of an inch apart
the whale-bone hangs down from the upper jaws
with a smooth horn-like outer surface and thickly
fringed with hair-like shreds upon the inner sur-
face, and while these whales do not, strictly speak-
ing, have "hair on their teeth" they do give an
observer that impression. On very large whales
as many as three hundred sheets of whale-bone
hang down on each side of the jaws. Every man's
first desire when he is shown a captured whale
seems to be to see if it is possible for the animal
to swallow a man. As he steps into the open
226 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
jaws of the dead monster and views the small
throat hole and big wrinkled unwieldy tongue,
he is satisfied that the Biblical animal could not
have been a whale-bone-bearing whale.
It is safe to say the whale-bone whale never
sticks its tongue out at any one because it can't,
its tongue is fastened down to its lower jaws almost
to the tip, nevertheless it is a very useful organ to
the whale.
THE WHALE IS NOT FOND OF DIRTY WATER,
but where the water is clean, clear and of a dark
blue color, and where its special food is most abund-
ant the whale chooses its place to feed, which it does
by swimming two or three hundred yards and
back again to the starting point, with its nose just
under the surface, and its mouth open; let them
spread their jaws as wide as they will, the droop-
ing net of whale-bone still guards the passage of
the mouth and as the mouth is closed the elastic
ends of longer whale-bone bend back toward the
throat and fit into the hollow formed by the short
blades behind them so that the whole trap is neat
and snug and ready to be sprung again as soon as
the thick tongue, by raising at the back of the
mouth forces the water left there through the
fringed whale-bone, leaving all the small food crea-
tures entangled inside the meshes.
For an hour or more the great leviathan will
swim back and forth feeding, then it takes an after-
dinner nap.
WHALE PARASITIC CRABS
The only photograph of this parasite extant.
228 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
It was cold, blustering weather while I was at
Amagansett and the chilly winds impregnated with
the raw ocean spume benumbed my hands and
fingers. For some reason or other I had always
been possessed with a desire to examine
A WHALE'S EYE AT CLOSE QUARTERS,
but when I attempted with the aid of my
jack-knife to cut the- eye from its oily
socket my fingers became numb, and the muscles
holding the eye were so tough that it took me at
least twenty minutes to remove it from its socket.
The eye was about the size of a regulation baseball
and in the same form. I put it in alcohol and pre-
sented it to the museum of the Flushing High
School, but I am doubtful if any one takes the same
interest in this object as I did, and confess that to
the unscientifically inclined person it is an uncanny
object.
On the protuberances on the top of the head at
the front of the jaw, called
THE BONNET,
I found a colony of small crabs, known
as whale lice, and Tapan Adney, who was
with me, at my urgent request, attempted
and succeeded in making a photograph of
them while they were still alive. This is
interesting not only to the naturalist but to all such
people as are fond of unique objects in photog-
raphy ; I think it is the only photograph ever taken
A CAPTURED WHALE 229
of these live degenerated crab-like animals. It has
since occurred to me that my deep interest in the
eye of a whale, its odd jaws, and the little crabs
which infested its skin are not so much due to my
passionate love of nature and natural history, as
to the fact that everything relating to the whale
excites my liveliest interest, principally because, as
a boy in an inland town, I used to read exciting
stories of whalers and then wonder if I would ever
see a real live whale.
In the illustrations to the boys' books of whaling
adventures little care was given to detail of the
monsters of the deep ; such small points of the
anatomy as the eyes and flippers were enveloped
in a mystery caused by a lack of knowledge on the
part of the illustrators. Hence the eyes, flippers
and other details were usually ingeniously cover-
ed up with convenient waves or masses of foam.
In fact I think that the first correct drawing of a
whale, which has appeared in any of the popular
natural works, is the one in the Standard Natural
History, made from a drawing of the late Dr.
Holder, Curator of the New York Museum of
Natural History, which he made from some of the
very drawings and photographs reproduced in this
chapter.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW ANIMALS PLAY
HOW THE CPERA HAT IMPRESSED THE "COON " AND ASTONISHED
THE RACCOON A COYOTE WITH WHICH I BECAME AQUAINT-
ED THE CINCINNATI TIMBER WOLF THE JOLLY OYSTER
INSECTS WHICH LOVE FUN A TAME KATYDID'S PLAY THE
FISHES'GAME OF "i CONQUER" A WILD MOUSE ON A LARK
THE CHIMPANZEE'S ROUGH PLAY TAME PIGS PLAYTAG
HOW A YOUNG BIG HORN AMUSED ITSELF A ROCKY MOUN-
TAIN GOAT'S HOUR OF RECREATION
Tame monkeys, like children, are very fond of
pets, and take great delight in fondling white rats
and other small creatures. Raccoons, on the con-
trary, do not seem to indulge in live pets ; but they
are extremely playful and full of fun.
I once had nine dollars saved from my salary of
seven dollars per week and with it purchased my
first opera hat; it was a great hat and I was so
impatient to wear it that I could scarcely wait until
evening to don .my "swallow" tailed coat and full
formal evening attire, but night came in due time
and by eight o'clock I was dressed with white tie,
broad expanse of shirt front, white vest and patent
leather gaiters. It was the first u top to the bot-
tom" evening dress I had ever owned, hence my
impatience to put it on. With the opera hat on
230
HOW ANIMALS PLAY 231
I walked a couple of doors to where a most charm-
ing acquaintance lived, rang the bell, handed my
card to the maid and with an ostentatious snap
mashed my hat flat under my arm as I was ushered
into the long parlor.
There is little doubt of the effect of that hat on
the colored maid, and no doubt that she told
"young miss" of my formal appearance and the
awe-inspiring tall hat, for "young miss" was a
long, long time in making her appearance. I sat
bolt upright in my chair with my precious new hat
under my arm and waited, it seemed to me, for
hours; presently a something came bouncing into
the room,
A SOMETHING ROUND AND FUZZY.
It was not a maid or a madam, but it was alive.
I was astonished at first, but my astonishment soon
changed to interest when I discovered that the
thing was a big fat raccoon. The 'coon's antics
soon set me to laughing and my innate love of ani-
mals made me forget the assumed formality of
my call, and, sad to relate, forget all about the
lovely girl I was calling upon. In a few minutes
I was down on my hands and knees playing with
the 'coon. I had just shot my opera hat out to its
full aristocratic dimensions with a snap which so
astonished the 'coon that it rolled over backward,
when I was startled by hearing a silvery laugh and
looking up was very much embarrassed to see
"young miss," arrayed in an exquisite evening
232 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
gown, standing in the doorway looking at her caller
and the pet raccoon, both of them on all fours on
the parlor floor. Fortunately the charming Ken-
tucky girl and I had been playmates and we had
known each other since my barefoot and her pina-
fore days ; otherwise the situation might have been
more than temporarily embarrassing. As it was,
my very first formal society call proved to be the
most informal visit of the kind that I can remem-
ber.
YOUNG WOLVES
will accept an old shoe, a ball, or any other object
that will appeal to a domestic dog as a plaything.
A coyote with which I became acquainted, while
visiting the Canadian National Park at Banff, had
such a wild frolic with my cap that when I at last
regained possession of it the thing was a wreck.
A timber wolf in Cincinnati was the playmate of
my elder brother and was in no-wise different from
a frolicking dog.
FOXES NEVER SEEM TO TIRE OF PLAYING
with each other; a feather delights them beyond
measure, and in pursuit of it they will make phe-
nomenal leaps. I have watched young red foxes
playing together for more than an hour at a time,
and I doubt if there lives any more graceful and
playful creature in wood or field.
HOW ANIMALS PLAY 233
YOUNG COYOTE
It would be a difficult matter to determine just
WHAT ANIMALS DO NOT PLAY
for youth and play seem to go hand in hand. It
must not, however, be understood from this broad
statement that the writer looks upon the oyster, for
instance, as a frolicsome, fun-loving creature.
But even this lowly bivalve is a more highly
organized animal than might be supposed by any
one whose only knowledge of the oyster is its ap-
pearance on the half-shell, or its flavor as it goes
sliding down his gullet. The oyster has a heart, a
liver, an intestine and a rudimentary brain. The
baby oyster swims free, and, for aught we know to
the contrary, may be a playful creature before it
attaches itself to some stationary object and settles
down to the stupid vegetable life of a true gentle-
man of leisure.
234 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
By experiment I have found that even
INSECTS ENJOY RECREATION
and apparently have an appreciation of fun. A pet
katydid, which I kept in my library one winter,
would pretend to fight my finger and assume the
most laughable poses while so doing. At the same
time it kept up a queer scolding noise, made with
its wings, that I have never heard among the trees.
Last summer, from an ambush in the forests, I
watched the little four-footed brownies and wood
fairies as they rustled among the leaves, peeped
from under the ferns or scampered up the tree
trunks, but the ones which interested me most were
the American white-footed mice, or deer mice, as
some call them. One of the little fellows appeared
upon a log at the edge of the water, and in the
exuberance of its joy, leaped so high into the air
that it lost its footing when it again struck the log,
and fell with a splash into the water. But this
seemed to be part of the game, and the mouse was
out again in a jiffy, rolling on its back like a wet
dog. Then away it scampered over the water,
leaping from one lily pad to another, and noisily
disappearing into the top of a fallen tree.
One summer day, as my boat was floating quietly
with the tide, my attention was caught by the
unusual movements of some killies. The little fish
seemed to be engaged in a game of "I conquer" or
HOW ANIMALS PLAY 235
"FOLLOW THE LEADER,"
and were leaping over a small raft of
salt hay. The killies were not feeding, the
closest scrutiny failed to reveal a trace of food on
the hay, and it was evident that the bunch
of floating straw was being used as a plaything by
the aquatic children.
A young chimpanzee resembles a human child so
closely that it is not strange that the play of these
two children should be similar in many respects;
but the young troglodyte is much stronger than the
human infant, and consequently its play is much
rougher.
WITH PLAYFUL CREATURES
I have found that if an artist wants to
get a sketch of them the best way to do
is to play with them until they get tired,
236 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
then, while they are resting, he has a good oppor-
tunity to make his sketches. But, in attempting to
follow this policy with Mr. Crowley, I soon dis-
covered that I had over-estimated my own capa-
bilities and under-estimated his.
I was locked in the room where Mr. Crowley 's
cage extended from one end to the other, and, as
there was no audience to embarrass us we had high
jinks there for quite a while. I would rush to one
end of the room and knock on the floor with my
knuckles. Mr. Crowley would tear around on his
knuckles and hind feet to that end of the room,
availing himself of the flying trapeze, which hung
in his cage, to make a giant leap which sent him
bang up against the other end of the cage, and then
he would get down on his hands and knees to look
and see where I had knocked, and listen and pretend
to examine the place very carefully. Then looking
at me with his comical eyes, his face would assume
an expression in which there was discernible an un-
deniable grin, which is depicted by the sketch under-
neath the one in the northwest corner where he has
his face down between his hands; the next in-
stant he would scramble over to the opposite end
of the cage and reach out and knock on the floor
with his knuckles. It was then my time to
run and examine the place where Crowley knocked.
This and other boisterous sports and games
we kept up until I had to strip off my coat and vest
and at last fell exhausted against the steam heater,
much to the amusement of the ape.
A YOUNG CHIMPANZEE
2j8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
When vainly attempting to make a finished
drawing of another one of these animals while it
played with a straw, a rung of a chair, and an old
silk hat, I was compelled to laugh until, utterly ex-
hausted, I sank helplessly upon a bench. It is need-
less to say that the sketches made under such cir-
cumstances look more like shorthand notes made
by a lunatic than serious attempts at pictures, but I
learned much of the ways of the chimpanzee.
The sense of the proprieties of life is undevel-
oped in these animals, and this will prevent a full
report ever being made of their outrageous com-
icalities; but can never prevent the witness of their
boisterous fun from enjoying a hearty laugh. In
fact, a lack of appreciation on the part of the audi-
ence will often cause the primitive comedian to fly
into a wild and ungovernable fit of anger.
THE DOMESTIC PIG
is a much misunderstood and maligned ani-
mal. True, a pig-sty is not a New England
housewife's idea of cleanliness, but it is the
best the pig can do under the circumstances, and
is never so offensive as some of the human sties
which answer for jails in some parts of the country.
Like any other prisoner, the pig is dirty when he is
forced to live in filth.
A pig I once owned in Kentucky was so clean
that its white bristles shone like spun glass, and the
pig's skin showed as pink as a baby's foot. There
was nothing this pig enjoyed more than a bath from
HOW ANIMALS PLAY 239
the garden hose, unless it was the game of tag on
the lawn, which followed with its young master
and the house dog.
WHEN THE PIG WAS
"It," she would tag the boy by using
her snout to trip him, and tag the dog by
giving it a toss into the air. Then with "guogh!"
away the hog would scamper, with the others in
hot pursuit.
Not the lamb which Mary loved, but a big horn
lamb from the Rocky Mountains, owned by a
Western gentleman, was wont to climb to the top
of the tallest pieces of furniture in the house, from
which it would playfully leap to the floor, where
it landed stiff legged and with feet close together.
A ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT KID
I once met would climb to my shoulders and jump
to the ground, and for variety's sake would butt
me with its little, white, woolly head. I could de-
tect no difference in its play from that of the kid
of a domestic goat.
"All work and no play" makes a Jack rabbit as
dull as it does a Jack boy; but it is interesting to
note that all animals seem to use their play as kin-
dergarten schooling for the more serious pursuits
of their maturer years. The puppy engages in a
mimic chase, the kitten stalks imaginary mice, and
so the -idea of play developing the faculties runs
through all the animal world.
CHAPTER XIX.
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC
IN THE GLOAMING SMALL NOCTURNAL ANIMALS GHOSTS OF
THE CAMP FIRE EFFECT OF FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION
PANTHERS KILL FOR THE FUN OF IT BAD GRIZZLY IS WAL-
LOPED WITH A STICK BY COL. JONES SCAVENGERS OF THE
PARK SOME BEAR STORIES A THING MUST SMELL LIKE A
MAN RAID THE KITCHEN WAGON GOOD RED BLOOD
HERE THE MOUNTAIN LION PROWLS PINE MARTENS, FISH-
ERS, OTTERS, MINK, BADGERS, BEAVER, GOLDEN CHIPMUNKS,
MULE DEER, ELK, MOOSE PREHISTORIC ANIMALS BISON
AND BIRDS
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC.
All day the July sun has been shining with trop-
ical heat, causing the crystal mountain air to shim-
mer above the white, dusty roads; but now the fiery
ball is sinking behind the Sofatara plateau, the
lengthening shadows creep rapidly eastward over
glistening geyserite formations, and the coyote
chorus proclaims the restful evening. In the gloam-
ing the forests of pine, fir, and black spruce are
extremely somber; 'the camp fires shed a ruddier
glow ; bats creep from the hollow trees and launch
themselves on noiseless wings, and like a flitting
shadow the western flying squirrel sails by the
camper's face. As the shadows deepen, the small
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC
241
GRIZZLY CUB IN YELLOWSTONE PARK
Drawn from life. Bears in background are from photographs.
nocturnal mammals come from their subterranean
homes and rustle among the dry grasses or the
roots of the fringed gentians and Indian paint
brushes. Fresh from the snow fields of the moun-
tains, the cool night wind whispers among the
trees; objects near at hand become vague, and the
increasing gloom materializes into moving forms
which steal from the shadows and troop down the
broad trail in a cloud of dust. These apparitions
are no ghosts of the camp fire, but huge brutes,
fierce and sullen.
242 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THEY ARE GRIZZLY BEARS.
The surprising nimbleness of these mighty ani-
mals is a revelation to one whose previous knowl-
edge of them is derived from the broken-spirited
prisoners of the menageries. Gigantic strength,
unbounded courage and astounding tenacity of life
make the grizzly the most dangerous foe.
FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION
will hardly change the nature of an animal, but it
will allow him to revert to the state in which he
existed before his persecution began. It is plain,
too, that the changed conditions will not affect all
the animals alike, and that though their wildness
may be greatly modified, they will still retain their
racial characteristics. One of the most interesting
results of freedom from persecution enjoyed by
the animals of the Yellowstone Park is its civiliz-
ing effect on the grizzlies, which, beyond a doubt,
now recognize their novel position, and are loath
to bring scandal on the animal community by acts
of real violence.
But it must be acknowledged that some of the
BIG SILVER TIPS
are still dangerous to meddle with and criminally
mischievous. While Colonel Jones was in charge
of the park animals the grizzlies became so trouble-
some to the foreign laborers that the latter threat-
ened to quit work, so Buffalo Jones fixed a noose on
A MISUNDERSTANDING AMONG THE BEARS OF YELLOW-
STONE PARK. PAINTED FROM SKETCHES AND NOTES
MADE IN THE PARK. (ORIGINAL OWNED BY
MR. WM. E. COFFIN)
244 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
a block and tackle and when an impertinent old sil-
ver tip visited camp and put its foot in the noose
the workmen quickly strung the huge monster up
by the hind leg while Colonel Jones administered
such a flogging as no bear ever before received.
The Colonel exhibited moving pictures of this inci-
dent which were as unique as the idea of punishing
bad, wild bears. In his talk Colonel Jones said that
after the flogging not only that particular bear but
all the others gave the camp a wide berth.
Not only do the bears of the park,
WHEN UNMOLESTED, REFRAIN FROM ATTACKING
MAN
himself, but they seem to know that they must
not prey upon domestic animals; this may be due
to the fact that it is less labor to visit the garbage
heaps than to capture live creatures, but it does not
arise from a lack of opportunity on the part of
the bears for their human-like footprints may be
seen any morning around the stables and open
sheds where the horses and cows are tethered, and
where it is no uncommon sight to see little colts
frisking around about their dams.
The same thing could not be truthfully said
about
THE MOUNTAIN LIONS,
for these big cats, even in the Yellowstone Park,
kill apparently for the fun of killing and an exam-
ination of some of their dens disclosed more elk
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 245
carcasses strewn about than the cats could possibly
devour.
BEARS ARE THE SCAVENGERS OF THE PARK,
as hogs formerly were in our cities. A peculiarity
of the grizzlies is the marked manner in which
they avoid their black cousins, preferring to eat
what the black bears leave rather than to associate
with them.
A few years ago, before the hotel at the upper
geyser basin was burned, the guests of that hostelry
were sitting around the big open fire, telling bear
stories, when in walked
A LARGE GLOSSY BLACK BEAR.
Conversation died, and the guests sat silent and
motionless as the petrified trees at Yancey's, until
the bear, bored by such dull company, strolled leis-
urely to the front door, looked out at the bubbling
geysers, then quietly took its departure. At Norris
I found the soldiers alternately swearing because
bears had looted their tobacco and scattered it over
the ground, and laughing at "Larry the lunchstand
man." This talkative and genial Irishman thought
he could protect his meat house from the bruin by
erecting scarecrows at the four corners of the
house, but when night came on the bears pulled the
stuffed men to pieces.
246 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
Bears, like dogs, have keen noses, and
A THING MUST SMELL LIKE A MAN
before a bear will think it a man. Late one after-
noon, as we were nearing the end of a long drive,
an exclamation from my wife caused me to rein up
my horses, and turn in my seat. At the side of
the road were two camps of family parties located
in a beautiful green glade, separated from each
other only by a deep, narrow gully. Seated in the
bottom of this hollow was the largest, fattest,
laziest-looking black bear we had seen in the park.
It was in plain view of the road, but concealed
from the campers. A few feet from its hiding
place children were romping and playing, uncon-
scious of its presence, and the big brute paid no
attention to the shouts and laughter of the little
folks, but idly swayed its head from side to side
with a comical expression of weariness. The pur-
pose of the bear was evident. It was .waiting for
the campers to retire, that it might
RAID THEIR KITCHEN WAGONS.
We afterwards learned that the noise it made in
clambering into the wagon aroused the cook, who
drove the fat rascal away by pounding its back with
a tent pole.
Yellowstone Park is to the birds and mammals
of this country a place of refuge from persecution.
It is indeed unique in being the first place where
24 8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
man has allowed the preamble of the immortal
Declaration of Independence to apply to his unde-
veloped brothers of the wilderness; and the only
zoological collection, with the possible exception of
the Garden of Eden, where animals have been in-
trusted with self government.
It is astonishing what a remarkable difference
there is in appearance between the healthy animals
and the old-fashioned stuffed museum specimens of
the same creatures. Indeed, so great is the dis-
parity, that it is by no means easy to identify many
of the living birds or mammals from a previous
study of mounted specimens.
The healthy bodies of the citizens of the Wild
Animal Republic, unlike many museum specimens,
are not stretched out of all semblance to nature.
No odor of camphor or other drugs emanates from
them, and no printed labels give you their names
in a language as dead as the stuffed specimens. But
with
GOOD, RED BLOOD COURSING THROUGH THEIR
VEINS
the agile citizens of the Park are a surprise and a
pleasure to all lovers of nature. It is only fair to
the new school of taxidermists to say that the fore-
going was written before the modern artistic man-
ner of mounting animals and birds, such as may be
seen at the Natural History museum in Central
Park, was. in vogue.
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 249
Instances are not wanting in which stage roads
and even hotel lobbies have been visited by strange
guests; but, as a rule, the animals must be sought
in their native haunts.
HERE THE MOUNTAIN LION PROWLS
as he did before Columbus blundered on America.
The lynx mounts a log, arches its back and gives
forth youghs and calls that would make a domestic
cat die of envy. The wolverine prowls in search
of its dinner, feeling certain that its food conceals
no cruel trap.
THE PINE MARTIN AND THE FISHER
no longer dread to crawl under a log for fear of
displacing a trigger and being crushed.
THE BRIGHT EYED OTTER AND MINK
look not for human enemies ; muskrats and beavers
build their winter homes practically undisturbed
by the trapper. Several varieties of foxes glide
noiselessly through the low bushes, unmolested by
hounds and men.
BADGERS SPREAD THEIR WIDE BODIES
to catch the genial rays of the sun. Beautifully
colored living marmots, or u rock chucks" run
ahead of your team along the rocky roadsides, or
peep at you from their fantastic castles, built of
250 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
snowy geyserite deposited by geysers extinct years
ago. The yellow porcupine gnaws contentedly at
his favorite food. Cotton tails, snow shoes and
jack rabbits fear none but their natural wild ene-
mies, and little chief hares abound in the slide
rock. Along the dusty roads
BIG GOLDEN CHIPMUNKS
and little four-striped chipmunks play and scold
passing teams. These creatures are so tame they
do not hesitate to enter your tent, and they live
royally on grain stored in the Transportation Com-
panies' stables. From the woods by the roadside
the
GRACEFUL MULE-DEER
and rarer white-tailed deer gaze with innocent curi-
osity at stage loads of tourists, never suspecting
that, but for an intangible thing called law, these
people would be their blood-thirsty enemies. Moose
wander in the forest glades at the southern boun-
dary of the Park, and scattered over Hayden Val-
ley many thousand magnificent elk roam free.
Recent discoveries of the remains of
PREHISTORIC ANIMALS,
which once inhabited the Far West, and which have
been so beautifully illustrated by Charles R.
Knight, should make us put a high value on exist-
ing species. The two-ton, four-horned rhinoceros,
I
-
YOUNG BIG GAME IN YELLOWSTONE PARK
252 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
the ungainly, water-loving Metamynodon, the
strange, horse-like rhinoceros, the diminutive four-
toed horse, the giant pigs, and the hobgoblin deer
with tusks and six horns are a few samples of the
nightmare creatures whose comical forms popu-
lated the hills and plains of those remote days;
they were caricatures of our living species.
Like any human child,
MOTHER NATURE'S FIRST ATTEMPTS AT MODELING
were crude affairs, compared with the fine work
of her present art. It took ages of experiment to
produce the dainty, swift, and graceful prong-
horned antelope and it is a masterpiece of art.
There are still several hundred of these gentle lit-
tle citizens in the Park; but a fence is absolutely
necessary for their preservation, and should be built
to prevent them from straying over the boundary,
as they do, to be immediately killed by game hogs.
THE BIGHORN,
or Rocky Mountain sheep, can be seen by climbing
']Mt. Evarts, or some other high peak of the Park.
They have been so persecuted that it will be long
before they will frequent lower ground. There
were about 200 in the Park at the time this was
written. With care this number can be increased.
Inasmuch as these creatures will soon be extermi-
nated elsewhere, it is important that every care
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 253
be taken by our rich government to protect the
survivors here.
We ask why
THE HERD OF YELLOWSTONE BUFFALO
has been so sadly reduced, and we are told that
grizzlies and hard winters have destroyed them.
For thousands of years grizzlies and hard winters
were features of the buffalo country, and yet the
buffaloes thrived and waxed strong.
Buffalo heads are in great demand. Fine ones
command extravagant prices. Buffalo skins are
eagerly sought by museums and wealthy people and
I was told that in the neighborhood of the Park
purchasers had paid as high as $2.00 a pound for
buffalo steak. The very bones of these animals
are in demand, for anatomical specimens for mu-
seums ; hence a wild buffalo is looked on as a small
fortune walking around without an owner. Is it
any wonder, then, that skin hunters, adventurers,
and settlers have turned poachers at the sight of
these poor beasts? These people have no more
heart than an automobile to restrain them, and the
slight penalties for poaching were easily evaded.
In 1892 Captain George Alexander reported a
herd of 400 bison in the Park, 20 per cent, of which
were yearlings, and in 1900 there were but twenty-
nine !
Among the many strange sights one sees in the
Park are the hundreds of swallows twittering and
flying around the cliff overlooking the boiling sul-
254 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
phur springs. Unmindful of the fumes of sulphur,
the proximity of scalding steam, and the alarm-
ing subterranean noises, these little birds skim
through the air and enter the queer holes and
cracks in the cliff, as cheerful and happy as house
martens in a farmyard.
At the sound of the rumbling of the Fountain
Hotel wagon, which hauls garbage to the dump-
ing grounds, bears appear, and, along with them
comes a
PRETTY YELLOW-COATED, RED-THROATED LOUISI-
ANA TANAGER.
This little bird moves unmolested among its big
neighbors seeking for dainties in the cast-away
food. Nowadays it is a surprise and a joy to see
a bird of brilliant plumage 'alive and in its native
haunts, instead of perched askew on a woman's
hat.
On Yellowstone Lake and on Yellowstone River
PELICANS MAY BE SEEN
floating or sailing in the air overhead. The sight
of free wild pelicans conveys an impression
strangely different from that obtained by viewing
the same bird in captivity, where its long beak, with
its fleshy bag attached, gives the creature a comical,
clumsy look, and little prepares us for the grace-
ful bird seen in the Park.
\
PELICANS IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
256 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
GEESE AND DUCKS
are numerous and tame. At one place wild geese
marched along the bank of a stream within twenty
feet of our surrey, and viewed us without alarm.
The ducks only showed their distrust by placing
themselves between us and their fluffy little broods.
Swans are rarer and wilder. As might be expected,
birds of prey are numerous and bold. The crags
are crowded with their eyries, and every bit of
open grass land has its hovering hawks, on the
lookout for unwary shrews, moles, or gophers.
Many varieties of grouse inhabit the woods and
prairies, and in winter numbers of beautiful mag-
pies. The hoarse croak of the raven can be heard
at the Thumb, and crows are seen in all parts of
the Park. The black-headed jay, a variety which
was new to me, and the Canadian jay, are not only
tame, but mischievous. Having occasion to use my
pocket knife, I placed it temporarily on a stump
near camp, and after twice saving it, by shouts and
mad rushes, I was at last compelled to put it in
my pocket to prevent the jays from carrying it
away.
While many of the smaller birds are new or un-
familiar to Atlantic coast people, their old friend,
the robin, makes his home in the Park.
THE INTERESTING LITTLE WATER OUSEL
bobs up and down on the rocks and dives into
the water of the Gardiner and the Gibbon, and
kingfishers are common.
IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 257
WE HAVE ALL READ OF OSPREYS,
which, having struck fish too large for them to
manage, unable to disengage their hooked talons,
have perished, their bodies having been afterward
found, still attached to the live fish.
I am now prepared to believe these sto-
ries. One day we were driving along the
shores of Yellowstone Lake, and saw an
osprey fall like a stone from the sky, into
the water and disappear beneath the waves.
Thinking it had been drowned, we were about to
resume our journey, when the fluttering tips of the
hawk's wings appeared. The bird slowly arose
with an immense fish in its talons, but after three
WILD GEESE CN THE ROADSIDE
258 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
times clearing the water, only to fall back again,
it dropped the fish and flew wearily away.
To understand the Yellowstone animals we must
remember the brutes are direct and practical in
their minds, and to what does not immediately con-
cern the gratification of their desires they pay little
attention.
Fear greatly influences the actions of man and
beast, and creatures absolutely devoid of this gov-
erning principle would soon be exterminated. The
presence of man has always meant disaster and
death to wild animals, so that the taint of his pres-
ence in the air is enough to stampede a herd of a
thousand elk.
It is easy, then, to understand that "wild ani-
mals" are only animals which fear man; and when
experience can show their fears groundless, they
will no more heed man than they will any other
harmless creature. This is the happy state which
converts Yellowstone Park into an Eden for all
lovers of nature.
Long live the Animal Republic!
CHAPTER XX.
BEARS I HAVE MET
EFFECT OF FIRE ARMS ON THE HABITS OF AMERICAN BIG GAME
GRIZZLY BEARS FEEDING OUGH OO GO! THE HATED
TAINT ON THE BREEZE IT WAS VERY, VERY, INTERESTING
A LONELY TRAIL A BRILLIANT IDEA I LET THEM SNIFF
A BLACK BEAR WHO WAS STOPPING AT THE SAME HOTEL
THE UNFORTUNATE ROOSTER A BEAR IN THE SUBURBS OF
A CITY THE SAD STORY OF GENTLE MR. DOOLEY WHO IS A
MISS THE BEAR I DID NOT KILL
The panther, the wolf, the deer, the fox and the
hordes of smaller creatures walk on the tips of their
fingers and the ends of their toes and are each and
all graceful after their kind, but Bruin walks on
the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands
leaving a trail in the mud or dust not unlike the
tracks left by a barefooted boy; this plantigrade
habit of the bear gives the creature an odd wab-
bling gait which, with the big awkward appearing
body, adds much to the comical appearance of the
mischief-loving natural humorist of the wild woods.
After studying the black bear in its wild state in
the forests and mountains, in its semi-wild state
in the Yellowstone Park, and in its tame state when
kept as a pet, it- is difficult for one to conceive of
this creature as ever being an alarmingly danger-
259
260 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ous wild beast. On the contrary the black bear
seems to be the acknowledged comedian and clown
of the American forest.
How dangerous Bruin was before our ancestors
brought their unwieldly arquebuses with them to
this country is not easy to determine. The intro-
duction of firearms to replace the bows and arrows
of the Indians has unquestionably changed the hab-
its of all creatures unfortunate enough to be classed
under the head of game.
When Bruin saw the first white man with a gun,
and saw how this stranger u did well and properly
take a match out of the left hand with the thumb
and second finger, holding the arquebus in due
height, as well for ease as for safety," Bruin was
no doubt deeply impressed, and when the bear saw
how this white two-legged animal "did bring the
match handsomely near his mouth and did blow off
the match before he did put it upon the Cock and
set the piece against his breast" not against the
shoulder Bruin's curiosity must have been greatly
excited; but when this hand cannon at last belched
forth a stream of fire accompanied by a thunder-
ous report, the poor bear was without doubt terri-
fied, although probably uninjured.
Since that day there came the Daniel Boones
with their long deadly "Kaintuck" rifles and they
taught Bruin to dread the accuracy of firearms in
the hands of men with whom powder and shot
were scarce and consequently not wasted : men who
shot to kill with each discharge of their long brass-
BEARS I HAVE MET 261
mounted guns. Nowadays every Tom, Dick and
Harry is armed with a lead pumping machine
which pours a succession of soft nosed bullets into
the devoted carcass of any luckless wild creature
that is unfortunate enough to cross the path of the
butchers.
The terrible execution of these modern fire-
arms in the hands of good shots is apparent when-
ever one of the real hunters brings in his trophies.
Not long ago old Joe of Arizona drove into
Globe with five grizzly bearskins and the pelts of
fourteen black bear which were the results accom-
plished by Joe and his two sons in a two-day hunt
in Gila County.
When two men can make such a score we can
understand that the wild animals we know, may
well be a very timid set of creatures compared to
the ones which inhabited the forest-covered conti-
nent to which the Pilgrims emigrated. But the
black bear has grown wise, and the fact that it still
may be found almost anywhere in the United
States, sufficiently proves that it has kept up with
the times and developed an ability to accommodate
itself to changed conditions of environment.
The locomotive of an Erie Railroad train killed
a black bear last year, within a hundred and sev-
enteen miles of the New York City postoffice, and
I saw bear tracks this (1907) summer near my
log house, where I am now writing, a day and a
half drive from New York. Notwithstanding the
advent of modern guns and a price on his
262 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
head, Bruin still manages to exist and is
even reported to be increasing in numbers in
some sections of the country. Bear pelts and meat
are deemed so Valuable in the Province of Quebec
that the animals are protected during the mating
season. Only last June (1907) I counted thirteen
black bear skulls at one camp on the River Croche
in the Province of Quebec. Beautiful big silver
tipped black bear are reported to live far North
near one of the Hudson Bay Posts on the Labrador
coast, but I have never seen a pelt or met a man
who has examined either the skin or the bear itself.
In the Northwest, bear can be hunted from
canoes; I have seen them come down to feed
among the refuse of the lake shores, and passen-
gers aboard the up-to-date modern steamers on
Kootenay, Arrow and Slocum Lakes, are often
treated to the sight of real wild bears walking
along the shore and paying not the slightest atten-
tion to the big steamboat loaded with people. In
1901, I saw a number on the shores of these lakes.
GRIZZLIES WHEN FEEDING
seem to wish for no company outside of their own
circle, and if a person wishes to see them at their
feasts he must usually seek the shelter of a rock,
a choke-cherry, bull-berry, or sage-bush, from
which to make his observations. A number of
years ago while camping on the southern border
of the Yellowstone Park where the animals were
still wild, the wind suddenly shifted and blew di-
\JRv%)
wQV&
**\&*Zi
<^;
//
BLACK BEAR CUBS, EIGHTEEN DAYS OLD. SKETCHED
FROM LIFE
264 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
rect from my hiding place towards an old female
grizzly who was busily engaged in helping a light,
almost white, cub and its dust-colored mate clean
up some camp refuse. Instantly the grey cub de-
tected my presence; rearing on its hind legs, the
baby Bruin sniffed the tainted air a moment and
then said: "I smell a man."
OUGH oo oo.
This startled the other cub which also stood up,
and after a whiff of the breeze had entered its
sensitive nostrils, replied: "Wee ee e" (We are
watched). "Oo wee ee" (Yes, its a man).
Now Mother Bruin arose to her feet and she was
very tall and closely resembled an old dry tree
trunk in the twilight, she was also as motionless
as a stump until she too caught
THE HATED TAINT ON THE BREEZE,
then she made some low-toned remarks to her chil-
dren which sounded like "Oughed oue wee
oo!" and they all silently disappeared. Of course
the reader understands that the translations of the
bears' language are my own, but if the words are
not literal, the meaning is, for no one could doubt
the meaning of the actions of the bears.
IT WAS VERY, VERY INTERESTING,
but to my dismay the bears hit the same trail that
I must needs follow to reach my tent where my
BEARS I HAVE MET 265
good little wife was awaiting my return. The trail
was a lonely one, abounding in tall grey stumps
and the shades of night were approaching. Lin-
gering around to give the bears a good fair start
I met a big rough Western barkeeper and a packer
for a lot of pack horses. Both of these men be-
longed in a camp up beyond mine on the same
trail so I evolved a brilliant idea. I would let them
go first. With this plan fixed I engaged in a
game of mumbly-peg with a soldier from another
camp. But bless my soul, the packer and the bar-
keeper became so deeply interested in our game
that I suspected that they saw through mine. At
any rate it was soon evident that all three men
were each waiting for one or the other to lead, so
shutting up my pocket-knife, with which I had been
playing mumbly-peg, with a snap and shutting
my teeth together in the same way, I started down
the now dark trail with the packer following me
and the big barkeeper following the packer.
Each grey stump which loomed up in the gloam-
ing caused me to stop to let the packer lead, but he
did not take advantage of the opportunity and
neither did the barkeeper.
That night I was awakened by some large ani-
mals sniffing the hem of our canvass house; as
I was only armed with a five-ounce trout rod,
I LET THEM SNIFF.
In the morning I was not surprised to find the
big human-like footprints of a mother bear
266 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
mingled with the smaller ones of her cubs in the
dust around the tent; but the only harm done was
the stampeding of the camp cow which was not
found for several days. I carefully kicked the
dust over Bruin's footprints, for Mrs. Beard is
only afraid of bears and snakes. Of course I said
nothing to her about the incident, although I was
sorely tempted to boast of my own bravery.
A BLACK BEAR WHO WAS STOPPING AT THE SAME
HOTEL
with me became quite friendly and whenever I
returned from business, at noon or in the evening,
Bruin would be waiting for me in the hotel yard.
The front fence was a high board one and faced
the main street; Bruin's chain allowed him to
reach the fence, but it was too short for him to
climb over to the street, so he would sit on a pack-
ing case and swing one arm on the outside of the
fence and watch for me. As soon as I hove in
sight he would exhibit the greatest pleasure by
expression and action and greet me with an idiotic
grin that was very amusing. The bear knew that
in my pocket there was a pint of chestnuts and he
dearly loved chestnuts.
One noon I was feeding him as usual and he
was dexterously removing the shells and devouring
the white kernels with relish, but not without
losing some crumbs; this fact was observed by a
big young rooster which slyly approached us in
order to pick up
8
P c/5
. Q
o
s
O c/5
268 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THE CRUMBS WHICH FELL FROM BRUIN'S MOUTH
as he chewed the chestnuts. Bruin had not oc-
cupied the same position while feeding, and con-
sequently the crumbs were strewn over a yard
or more of the ground.
Slyly the cock approached, picking greedily at
the crumbs but keeping his weather eye upon the
bear. The bear did not appear to see the chicken
but no sooner had the unfortunate fowl come
within reach than the bear gave a left hook swing
which sent the rooster through the air for about
twenty feet where it struck with a "swat" against
a shed and fell dead on the ground. It was a
most skillful and terrific blow and taught me to
respect a bear's ability as a boxer, but Bruin did
not seem to think that he had done anything
worthy of notice, and when I turned from the
chicken to the bear, the latter was calmly holding
out his powerful paw in a supplicating pose dumbly
asking for more chestnuts.
MEETING A BIG BEAR IN THE SUBURBS OF
CINCINNATI.
Once when surveying a section line on the Lower
River Road in Cincinnati, I had my instrument
planted on the top of the hill and had sent a flag-
man down to plant his red and white painted staff
on a marked stone so that I might get the line.
It was a long sight and I was following the flag-
man with the telescope of the instrument when
I was surprised to see him give a jump, drop his
BEARS I HAVE MET 269
flag-staff and run, and was even more surprised to
behold a big bear standing on its hind legs under
a tree. In those days there were large country
estates, farms and woods in what was known as
the Southwestern Division, but I had never met
any wild animal larger than a fox while at work
on the topographical survey. Presently I saw a
swarthy black-bearded man under the tree and
saw that he was eating a loaf of black bread, and
then I knew that the bear was a tame dancing bear.
Turning the telescope full upon the animal and
adjusting the focus I could plainly see the leather
strap muzzle on the brute and the chain which
confined it to the limits of the shade of the tree.
It was some time, however, before I could in-
duce the flagman to proceed with his work and
I was hoarse from shouting when he at last picked
up his staff and started again down the line.
MR. .DOOLEY: HER STORY. .
If one may say "The Liner, she's a lady" as
Kipling does, and speaks of a man-of-war as a she
as sailors do, there is no real reason why one should
not say
U MR. DOOLEY, SHE IS A LADY,"
for if gentleness is a characteristic of ladies, Mr.
Dooley is certainly entitled to that title, but she was
a vicious cub.
A few years ago, Mr. Walker, of the Yellow-
stone Park, while on horseback, ran down a sil-
270 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ver-tip cub, and when I sketched it the cub was
fastened to a tree.
The cub was named Mr. Dooley, but there was
some mistake in this, as the young monster was
not a mister, as it appears "he" was a she.
I placed my sketching stool just out of reach
of the cub, and, while I worked with my pencil,
Mr. Dooley spent her time scraping the dirt with
her paws, making long canals in the loose earth
as she backed away, but all the time keeping her
wicked little pig eyes fastened on me.
Every once in a while she would make a sudden
savage rush at me and end it with a half-strangled,
gurgling growl.
When the season was over, the commander of
the post stated that he intended to send Mr.
Dooley to the Washington Zoo. This grieved
Mr. Walker, until the late Major Bach innocently
asked if Dooley never escaped, and the next morn-
ing it was discovered that Dooley .ha d escaped.
In the following spring, when Mrs. Walker ar-
rived with her husband at the canon, to open the
hotel, Dooley was waiting to greet them on the
broad veranda.
Time rolled on, and Dooley became a favorite
visitor at the camps, and it was not an unusual
sight to see a great, hulking, silver-tip bear
wrestling with the guides and enjoying the fun as
much as the astonished spectators.
Dooley, although a very, very bad little cub,
broadened, both in mind and body as she grew
GRIZZLY CUB "DOOLEY" IN YELLOWSTONE PARK
272 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
older, and adopted the Golden Rule as her moral
code; but this was a sad mistake on the bear's
part. There perhaps never was a more gentle,
better-hearted bear than Mr. Dooley, the great
grizzly of Yellowstone Park. Far better would it
have been for the lady bear with a gentleman's
name if she had adhered closely to the traditions
of her race and developed into a surly, gruff, dan-
gerous old girl, in place of the gentle, sweet-tem-
pered creature she really made of herself. True,
she would not have been petted and fed with
prunes and sweetmeats, but she would have been
much happier than she now is, poor thing!
The trouble with Mr. Dooley is that she made
the mistake of applying the Golden Rule to human
beings, and the human beings did not appreciate
the generous nature of the bear.
Human beings are all right when they preach
and when they write, but their brothers in fur will
do well not to trust to the sincerity of the two-
legged creatures' sentiments.
Because the gentle grizzly of Yellowstone Park
was guileless and unsuspicious, she (Mr. Dooley)
was led into captivity, and is now imprisoned in
a narrow iron-barred cell in the Washington Zoo.
And when the readers visit Washington, and see
a big grizzly with its tongue lolling out of its
mouth, and a far-away look in its eyes, they may
know that it is the lady bear, known as Mr.
Dooley, of Yellowstone Park, and that the poor
girl is dreaming of her free life in the mountains,
BEARS I HAVE MET
273
ENJOYING A "SLIPPERY"
or her real friends, the guides and cooks of the
camps, and Mr. and Mrs. Walker of the Canon
Hotel.
It is hoped that the visitors will take with them
some little green thing turnips, apples, or any
vegetable which will gladden the heart of the lady
bear who trusted man to her sorrow.
THE BEAR I DID NOT KILL.
George and I were fishing in the mouth of a
glacier stream in the Rocky Mountains, and as we
274 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
drifted amid the swirling eddies a dark object on
the distant shore caught my attention. It was a
bear and we were short of meat at camp, and
George insisted that I must get that bear; so with
some reluctance I shot at it with my Winchester,
and it gave utterance to several vigorous "Oughs!"
and vanished.
When we landed, my friend stopped and picked
up a bunch of brown hair between his fingers.
"You burnt him all right with tha' first shot,"
he said. "The bullet went right along his back-
bone through his hair, and here 'tis in this log."
I was disappointed, although I did hate to
shoot the bear, disappointed because I made a bad
shot, but after examining some tell-tale marks on
the shore I felt better.
"George," I said to my campmate, "I wouldn't
have shot that bear for $100. It would have been
as bad as shooting a child."
George looked at the marks, too, and laughed.
"Gosh all hemlocks !" he cried. "He squatted thar'
an' kivered up his legs with the pesky sand jist like
a child do, an' made sand pies, too, same as I
uster do onct; an' see wha' he's tobogganed down
the mud into the slough an' made a regular 'slip-
pery' ! jis like I uster on the banks of the Big
Muddy when I war a cub of a boy."
"Say, tha' cub must have a consarned, low-down-
opinion of us two. Here he wuz taking a day
off on the lake shore, playing hookey, most likely,
from b'ar school, an' having a bully good time,
BEARS I HAVE MET 275
when along comes two onery cusses and pumps
lead at him. Tears all wrong, this sort of thing
we call sport."
"But, say," said George, patting me on the
back, "that was a James Dandy shot of yours,
from a bobbing canoe seven hundred yards away."
CHAPTER XXL
A BEAR I NEVER MET AND A BEAR I NEVER
WANT TO MEET
UNCLE JEFF'S WONDERFUL BEAR STORY A CURE FOR FRECKLES
UNCLE JEFF WAS KWASS THE FURTHER HE DUG THE
MADDER HE GOT GRIZZLIES DON'T TAKE BACK TALK
HYAS KWASS OLD BALD FACE WANTED HE WAS A DEAD
BEAR A TRUE STORY OF A CINCINNATI BEAR MARKET
DAY A NEGRO ON A SAFETY VALVE A LONG LANK BUCK-
SKIN CLAD FIGURE NO BENT OR RUSTY PINS WERE AC-
CEPTED HE WOULD ROLL HIMSELF IN A BALL AND SLEEP
OFF HIS INDISPOSITION THE BEAR WOULD GO TO THE
FRONT PARLOR WINDOWS THE BEAR AND THE MILK-
MAN'S BELL CUFFEY WAS DECEIVED BY A CAT BLOOD
TRICKLED FROM CUFFEY's LACERATED MOUTH A PUBLIC
MENACE DEATH OF CUFFEY
"I'm. the gol durndest coward in the Rocky
Mountains!" exclaimed old Uncle Jeff, scout,
trapper, and hero of many thrilling adventures,
and he glared at the circle of faces illuminated by
the camp fire to see who would dare to contradict
his assertion.
"Wull, ye know," he continued, "afore I met
thet Asulkan grizzly I uster be as spotted as the
belly of a lynx. I was thet freckled, one would
think my mother was a guinea hen, but old bald-
face threw such a scare into me that
276
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET
277
I WAS KWASS
(frightened), and I turned so white that all the
freckles faded out, and I hain't had one since, no
sir-ree, not a polka dot mHHHHHmmmmmummm
left of 'em!"
Everybody from the
Kootenay lakes to Sel-
ish, and from Moose-
jaw to the Eraser Can-
yon, knows that a more
courageous man never
wore buckskin, baited a
trap or chewed tobacco
than old Uncle Jeff; he
is as absolutely fearless
as it is possible for a
man to be and still re-
tain enough discretion
for self-preservation.
So when he filled his
little black pipe with a mixture of tobacco and the
inner bark of "red willow" (dogwood), we fixed
ourselves in comfortable positions to listen to the
story we knew was coming.
Uncle Jeff can spin a good yarn; but he is on
some occasions
A TERRIBLE NATURE FAKIR;
and for the sake of making sport of the ignorance
of the average tenderfoot on topics of natural his-
2 7 8
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SOME OF THE BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET
tory, the old trapper will sometimes attribute
traits and physical characteristics to animals alto-
gether foreign to the creatures in question.
"Tha' war bear sign pleanty around my claim
up in the Selkirk Mountains. I hed a right smart
of a hole dug in the rock, an found pleanty of
color, but it was all rock quartz; I hed no ore
crusher in my pack, fer I carried all my traps on
my back, so ye can judge quartz gold warn't much
use.
THE FURTHER I DUG THE MADDER I GOT.
u My pan warn't no use at all. I picked up a
piece of quartz with veins of the yellow stuff in
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 279
it, which looked mighty purty, but 'twould take a
mule train to carry enough for a grub stake.
"I was just looking around to see at what I
cud throw the tarnel thing, when I seed the big-
gest grizzly I ever sot eyes on, walking along to-
ward my shack. Grub was getting low and I
knowed if old Ephraim once smelled my last strip
of bacon he wud tear down the shack to get it.
So I up and let drive at him with a piece of quartz.
"Gosh-all-Sassafras ! I pasted old baldface in
the side so hard that it sounded like a thump on an
Injun tomtom.
"Now, ye know
GRIZZLIES DON'T TAKE NO BACK TALK FROM
NOBODY.
"Wuz Baldy mad? Well, I-want-ter-know
Geewhilikans ! he came at me like a bale of hay
sliding down the Illecilleweat glacier! Skeered?
Well, you can bet your Hi-yu-muck-a-muck that
that is just what was the matter.
I WAS HYAS KWASS
(terribly frightened) for certain, an' I did some
running that wud hev made a prong-horn stare,
an' I jumped and clum them rocks like a Rocky
Mountain goat.
"I was making for the timber belt. The devil's
clubs scratched my hands an' tore my clothes an'
the goblin's thistles turned their wry necks to see
28o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
me go by; but 'taint no use whatever to race with
a baldface. They look clumsy, but it's all in their
looks. They air race horses in fur overcoats, that's
what grizzlies be!
"So I grabbed a branch of a lodge-pole-pine
and swung myself up like a squirrel an' I clum to
the slim end. But, shoo !
OLD BALDFACE NEVER WAITED
for a minute. He just cum after me like a miner
up a ladder when there is a cave-in behind him."
"What, a grizzly climb a tree?" cried a young
man in a stylish hunting suit. Uncle Jeff gave one
look from under his shaggy brows and the young
man wilted, shriveled up and was quiet.
"That air tree was almighty slim an' tapering
up whar I wuz, an' it bent in a way I did not like,
but that pesky b'ar just kept on cumen, and clum
almost up to me, when I heard the wood a
cracken.
"* You blathering old idj it! Ye baldf aced fool !
Stop, or we'll both be killed!' I yelled.
"BUT EPHRAIM WUZ MAD,
an' he didn't pay no attention to my remarks; so
I clum to the tip-top an' drug up my legs as close
to my body as I cud hold 'em, while I reached for
the milky way, an' that's when I began to lose my
freckles.
"Old baldy came right on, a-growling an' cuss-
ing to hisself, an' all the time the pine a-bending
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 281
an' cracking. I held my breath a minute till the
crash came, then you bet I yelled.
"Say, that was a mighty quar accident! The
old b'ar went down a clawing on to the big sliv-
ered end an' his weight made the top piece of
the pine turn like a big arrow with me for the
feathers !
"It went clean through the b'ar, pinning him
to the ground.
"HE WAS A DEAD B'AR SHUR'NUFF,
an' I was a badly shuk up prospector; but it was
a funny sight for the bluejays and magpies to see
me on top of a pole yelling bloody murder and the
other end of the pole planted in the b'ar.
"If you don't believe me, you go up thar an'
on the trail from Mount Bonny to Asulkan glacier
yu'll see a lodge-pole-pine a-growing from the mid-
dle of a pile of b'ar bones; wull, that's the top of
the tree what took root whar it wur planted by the
fall."
A TRUE STORY OF A CINCINNATI BEAR.
Mandy Jane's hair was the rich, yellowish red of
the old crockery pickle jars on the pantry shelf,
and her oval countenance was so freckled that it
seemed as if a cow had sneezed bran in her face.
Mandy Jane's lips were ruby red, her teeth pearly
and regular, her eyes deep turquoise blue and her
lithe, girlish figure was as plump as a partridge.
282 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
No one knew her antecedents. or whence the girl
came. They only knew that she was a "bound
girl" and worked for the family of a distinguished
young artist, a man whose sugar-loafed, broad-
brimmed cavalier hat, long, curly hair, ruffled shirt
front and wide flowing collars were as well known
as his pictures and his oft quoted bon mots.
IT WAS CUSTOMARY ON MARKET DAYS
for the farmers of the surrounding country to as-
semble in town before the break of day, and back
their picturesque canvas-covered market wagons
against the curb-stones of the brick sidewalk until
the closely packed line of vehicles extended many
squares.
With the first rays of the morning sun Mandy
Jane usually appeared, walking demurely behind
her mistress and toting a big willow basket through
the crowds of marketers who thronged the
sidewalks. Mandy spread despair in her wake,
and mid heaps of country produce she left many an
aching heart. But Mandy Jane saved all her
caresses for
A BIG LOUT OF A LOW COMEDIAN,
a creature with small eyes, uncouth manners, awk-
ward gait and dishonest ways. He was, besides
all this, as black as your hat !
Mandy Jane's affections, in short, were centered
on a big", fat black bear, and this is the story:
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 283
The young artist had been down the river on
a commission to paint the portrait of Gen. Zachary
Taylor, and while the steamer raced up the stream
with
A NEGRO ON THE SAFETY VALVE
and the spiteful blue steam hissing menacingly at
every rivet in the boilers, the reckless passengers
sat unconcernedly at cards in the saloon or around
the decks, and laughed merrily when the rival
packet was left around the bend.
When a necessary stop was made at a lonely
spot to take on wood and
A "BLACKLEG" WAS PUT-A-SHORE
for dealing a crooked hand in the cabin, the care-
less passengers laughed at the plight of the sharper.
It was on one of these occasions that a long,
lank, buck-skin clad figure emerged from a cane-
brake and added further amusement to the gen-
tlemen and ladies on deck by offering for sale a
wee little bear cub, which was promptly purchased
by the artist.
WHEN THE BEAR BEGAN TO GROW
he waxed strong and lusty and developed a taste
for rollicking fun which won his way to all the
boys' hearts.
"Cuffey," the bear, and the artist's sons were at
this period inseparable. If one of the children fell
down stairs, Cuffey was with him; if there was a
284 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
raid on the cookey barrel Cuffey led the raid; he
played tag and hide-and-seek as well as any boy,
and was also a source of revenue to the lads.
FIVE PINS WAS THE PRICE CHARGED
to see the "real live bear from the Red River,"
and no bent or rusty pins were accepted by the
trust owning the animal. Even such pins as were
ingeniously straightened out by small feet revolv-
ing them back and -forward on the red brick side-
walk were scornfully rejected, and yet every pin-
cushion in the house soon glistened with its load of
wealth.
IF THE BEAR WAS TIRED FROM PLAY
or had indigestion from swallowing marbles and
pieces of wooden tops, he always went to Mandy
Jane for comfort and kind words, after which he
would roll himself into a ball and sleep off his in-
disposition in the kitchen wood-box.
As Cuffey became older he increased in size and
strength and the children learned to fear the rough
play of their four-footed friend. In time the bear
grew to be so large that, for safety,
HE WAS CHAINED TO THE OLD PEACH TREE
in the yard. He would break loose occasionally
and create considerable excitement by visiting the
house.
His reception there was not now as cordial as
it had been when he was a small cub. When the
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET
285
Mandy Jane would not hesitate to leave her bread dough. '
^^^^B
bedroom doors were slammed in his face the bear
would go to the front parlor and seating himself
by the window in the black horsehair covered
rocker, proceed to rock violently back and forth,
to the great astonishment of the people on the
street.
On such occasions the sportsman uncle and the
artist father were wont
TO PUT BOOT LEGS ON THEIR ARMS
before proceeding to drag the bear out of doors
286 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
by his ears and chain him, but Mandy Jane would
not hesitate to leave her bread dough in the
kitchen, and with her sleeves still rolled up above
her elbows, proceed to capture him.
IT WAS A WINSOME SIGHT
to see the girl, with her dimpled white arms
thrown fearlessly around the big brute's neck,
talking affectionately to the bear as he walked with-
out protest back to the tiresome peach tree and his
shackles.
When chained, he would wearily trot half way
around the tree,
TURN A SOMERSAULT
and trot back again, for hours at a time.
The farmers' sons, the milkman and the grocery
boy envied the bear, and all of them would have
consented gladly to be chained to any old tree, if
Mandy would only have led them as she did Cuffey.
Each morning the harsh clang of the milkman's
bell caused the bear to gnash his teeth with anger,
and there can be little doubt that if he had suc-
ceeded in breaking loose at an opportune time, he
would have
TORN THE MILKMAN TO SHREDS.
Cuffey had no great affection for the red-cheeked
grocery clerk, and even when the bear was safely
chained the grocery boy dared not open the gate,
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 287
although the lad often lingered outside of the pal-
ings in hopes of a chance smile or word from
Mandy Jane.
THE BRAVE FARMERS'
sons did not even venture to lounge around outside
of the lot, but with a frightened look at the peach
tree and a wistful one at the vine-clad kitchen door,
they hurried by, their cowhide boots resounding
on the brick sidewalk.
Cuffey had been deceived once by a cat and he
never forgot it. He had been idly swinging one
arm back and forth wondering why the boys had
ceased to play with him, when a beautiful big tom-
cat came cautiously up to examine the food trough.
The bear delightedly caught the cat with his paws
and began to bounce Tom up and down as he had
seen people dandle babies.
THE LONG UNDER LIP OF THE BEAR
projected from his mouth, in an idiotic fashion
whenever he was amused, and the cat amused him ;
but the cat was frantic with fear and reaching for
anything in sight, caught the bear's tender lip with
his hooked claws.
Blood trickled from Cuffey's lacerated mouth
and gleamed in his little eyes, and he held the hap-
less cat to the ground with his paws and deliber-
ately turned a somersault on the spitting and growl-
ing animal.
288 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
Cuffey was never scratched again, although
scores of cats had their lives pressed from their
bodies by the somersaults of the bear. After that,
whenever,
ANOTHER CAT WAS ADDED TO THE LIST OF
VICTIMS,
Cuffey expressed delight by doing all kinds of
stunts around the peach tree, until the slack of his
chain was wound in, and then reversing his acro-
batic feats, he would again unwind the chain.
But neighbors now averred that the bear was a
public menace, and they were in fear for the lives
of themselves and their children, and so it was
decided by the artist to give Cuffey away.
One day two rough showmen appeared driving
an open express wagon. The men hitched their
horse and went into the yard for Cuffey.
CUFFEY DID NOT LIKE THEIR LOOKS
and went for the men, who proved themselves to
be skilled athletes by tKe celerity with which they
vaulted over the high picket fence.
The men of the house now appeared with boot-
legs on their arms, and attempted to lead the bear
by the chain, but Cuffey, thinking it fine fun,
put his toes in the ground and pulled the men to
their knees.
Mandy Jane had shut herself in the kitchen and
pulled down the blinds and for a time she could
not be persuaded even to look out of the door at
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 289
the unfortunate Cuffey. However, she was coaxed
at last into exerting her influence with her four-
footed admirer.
THE EFFECT WAS WONDERFUL.
The bear ceased to romp, play, or show fight.
He waddled up to Mandy, reared upon his hind
legs and said: "Oue- oue e e!" Then he
dropped to all fours and put his head against the
girl for a moment and when she said something
softly to the beast, he caught her dress playfully
in its mouth and lifted her skirts until they dis-
played the trimmest pair of ankles in the city.
But Mandy Jane seemed unconscious of that
fact and slowly led her pet to the wagon. The
tears glistened on her eyelashes as she climbed
into it,
FOLLOWED BY CUFFEY.
The showmen hastily fastened the bear's chain
to the seat and as Mandy lightly jumped to the
ground they cracked the whip, and the horse
started at a gallop up the street.
The novel experience of being in a rapidly mov-
ing wagon so astonished Cuffey that he never
moved until he saw that Mandy was sobbing bit-
terly. Then he sprang from the vehicle. Al-
though the chain did not break, it did pull the seat
from its fastening and tumbled the showmen over
in their wagon and poor Cuffey was free forever.
There was a piercing shriek as Mandy Jane fell
fainting, not on the sidewalk, but into the stalwart
sons, the milkman and the groceryman, all envied the bear.
THE FARMERS' SONS, THE MILKMAN AND THE GROCERY.
MAN, ALL ENVIED THE BEAR
BEARS I HAVE NEVER MET 291
arms of the grocery boy. The limp form of the
broken-necked bear was hoisted into the wagon
and the equally limp form of the broken-hearted
"bound" girl was tenderly carried into the house.
THE SHOWMEN SWORE ROUNDLY
when they found that the bear was dead, and the
milkman, market men and the neighboring cats
openly rejoiced over the demise of Cuffey; but the
red-cheeked grocery lad's eyes suffused with sin-
cere tears when he was confronted with the deep
grief of Mandy, and when he was rewarded by a
grateful, though tearful smile, the lad solemnly
declared that Cuffey was the best bear that ever
lived. And so he was to Mandy Jane!
CHAPTER XXII
A STRING OF DOG TALES
MONAD AND THE WHISTLE BALL HOW MONAD FOOLED HIS
MASTER HE COULD ALWAYS FIND YOUR POCKETKNIFE HE
WAS A MONOMANIAC ON BALL PLAYING SPENT HIS TIME
KNOCKING ASHES FROM CIGARS BLUFFING DOGS AND THEIR
SLACK CHAINS THREE GREAT DANES ATTACK THE AUTHOR
A GREAT DANE FRIGHTENED AT ITS OWN RELEASE WHAT
DO YOU MEAN ? CHARGE, SIR? STAND YOUR GROUND AND
EXPLAIN YOUR POSITION A FAMOUS POINTER IT WAS
ONLY A POOR LITTLE YELLOW DOG FAMOUS MR. SPIN
HIS MASTER'S VOICE THE IDENTITY OF MR. SPIN WILD
DOGS AN ADVENTURE WITH WILD DOGS DOGS IN A
BESIEGED CITY FEROCIOUS BEASTS WILD DOGS ATTACK
HORSES ATTACHED TO BUGGIES.
Monad, my little Pomeranian spaniel, was fond
of playing with a rubber ball containing a whistle,
the sound of which afforded him a great delight.
He would rend other playthings to fragments, but
he used the utmost care with his whistle ball, exert-
ing only sufficient pressure to make a squeaking
noise.
Impelled by a spirit of mischief, I once caused
the ball to be filled with cigar smoke. Monad
was disgusted with the mean trick, and showed
his lack of confidence in me by never again taking
the ball in his mouth without first striking it with
his paws to see if any offensive vapor had been sur-
reptitiously inserted into his favorite plaything.
292
A STRING OF DOG TALES 293
THE DOG THAT MADE BELIEVE.
Monad hated flies, and would hunt them
all over the house. Thinking to have some
sport with him I made a noise with my lips
imitating the buzzing of a fly, and then made be-
lieve to catch the insect. The dog, lifting his lips,
went through all the motions of biting an
imaginary fly to death. I thought that I had
fooled him, but the joke was on me, for, after re-
peated trials, I discovered that Monad had en-
tered into the spirit of the game and was also
"making believe."
This, not only showed intelligence, but also a
highly developed sense of humor, and everybody
knows that while humor may be spontaneous it is
never automatic.
JACK, THE JACK-KNIFE DOG.
Sauntering down to the post-office at Hancock,
Michigan, I was surprised to see a mongrel dog
leave the crowd that had collected for the mail,
and make straight for me. Upon coming within
reach, it behaved in the most peculiar manner,
barking and alternately jumping at my trousers
pockets and gazing intently at a grass-covered ter-
race across the street. At length a tall, lank miner
from Red Jacket said: "Here's wot it wants yer
ter do, stranger." He then drew a cla.sp knife from
his pockets and threw it across the street into the
long grass. With a yelp of delight, the dog darted
294 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
across the street and soon returned with the knife
in its mouth. I then threw my small penknife,
with the same results.
The dog went from one to another of the crowd
begging them to give him the privilege of retriev-
ing their pocket knives; he found the knives by
beating a zig-zag course until his wonderful nose
scented the object sought, and he never failed to
find the little bit of hardware.
Jack knew the taste and smell of every piece of
pocket cutlery in Hancock, but he would retrieve
nothing else.
The grass in the lot was above the dog's back
and knee-deep to a man, and each time a knife was
thrown, the thrower, by false moves and
feints, did all in his power to mislead the dog;
when this is taken into consideration, one may
realize what a wonderful nose the little mongrel
possessed.
A LONE BALL GAME.
In Wisconsin a little fox terrier came trotting
up to me with a ball in its mouth and by sundry
signs tried to induce me to throw the ball, but I
had no time to play. Seeing this the dog took the
ball to the top of the slanting board sidewalk, al-
lowed gravitation to roll it down to the gutter, and
then ran after it in great glee.
It was no accident, for I saw him do the same
thing half a dozen times before I left him still
engaged in his u one ole cat" game of ball.
A STRING OF DOG TALES 295
THE SMOKER'S COMPANION.
A dog sitting beside me in a frontier hotel in-
sisted upon knocking the ash from my cigar. By
continued experiments I discovered that the little
creature had been trained to do this unique trick,
and that it took great delight in the performance.
DOG ACTORS.
Many chained dogs apparently make frantic ef-
forts to break loose to attack you. They rattle
their chains, spring up and come down on their feet,
coughing as if their fierce struggling had caused
their collars to almost strangle them. But it is all
a piece of clever acting nothing but a big bluft.
Close scrutiny will show you that the strain put
on the chains would not break a piece of string.
The chains are never even drawn taut.
I once entered a yard and passed a sleeping
monster Dane without seeing the brute. The dog
suddenly awoke and seeing a stranger in the yard,
with a savage growl sprang at me. To my hor-
ror, the chain snapped like a thread and the dog
was free.
But the brute did not expect this result and was
so terrified at its unusual position that after an
amazed look at the broken chain, it gave a startled
yelp, clapped its tail between its powerful legs,
cleared a high board fence with a single bound and
vanished down the street.
296 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THE EFFECT OF HABIT.
A general knowledge of dogs will often save
one from serious mishaps. In Wheeling, West
Virginia, a large Irish setter sprang unexpectedly
at my throat and caught its teeth in my collar and
necktie.
Of course I was frightened, but I had the pres-
ence of mind not to let the dog know it. I stood
for a moment perfectly quiet, looking down into
the beast's savage face. I saw what sort of a dog
had me, and, as soon as I could trust my voice,
coolly said:
"Down, sir! Charge! What do you mean?
Charge!"
The dog hesitated and growled, but its habit of
obedience was too strong. Down it came to a
"charge" on the ground at my feet much to the
amazement of the owner, who was hastening to
my rescue.
The man had not heard what I said to the dog,
and could only gasp out the words: "What did
you do to him? He's a very dangerous dog a
very dangerous dog!"
In St. Louis I was
ATTACKED BY THREE GREAT DANES.
The brutes rushed out unexpectedly upon me leav-
ing no chance for a retreat. As they came bound-
ing towards me with their great mouths open, I
knew that I was in a very serious position. To
A STRING OF DOG TALES 297
run under such circumstances would mean to be
overtaken and possibly torn to pieces. To stand
and fight such brutes would mean serious injury
on my part, with all the chances of victory on the
side of the dogs. If they struck me and I fell
there would be little chance even of my life. In
fact it looked as if this account was never to be
written, but I spread my legs wide apart, composed
myself as well as I could, resolving neither to
fight nor run away, but to hold my ground and at
the same time to talk sharply and in a command-
ing voice to the savage beasts. Several times the
dogs rushed at me, evidently expecting me to flee
or strike at them. At one time two of the big
animals had their fore feet upon my shoulders,
but my stubborn attitude of command puzzled and
embarrassed them, and prevented them from bit-
ing me; and by the time that help came the dogs
had retired some distance, where they stood growl-
ing and talking the incident over among themselves
in dog language.
DON'T EVER RUN AWAY FROM A DOG
unless you are absolutely certain that you can get
out of its reach. Remember that even the most
cowardly cur will attack a fleeing man. While it
may be safe to kick a small dog which is barking
and snapping around your heels, don't ever at-
tempt to fight a big and savage dog, for the brute
may happen to be a plucky one, in which case you
298 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
are certain to come out of the encounter with
bleeding wounds and torn clothes. Whenever es-
cape seems doubtful
STAND YOUR GROUND
and talk to the attacking animal. Use a severe
tone of voice, telling him he is making a fool of
himself, that he has made a mistake; tell him to
lie down, "Charge, sir!" or anything else that hap-
pens to occur to you, but do not scream or yell for
help. Watch dogs may be animal automatons,
but they are not fools, and they can detect the
slightest signs of fear, whether it is expressed by
voice or manner, and when a person shows fear
the dogs become very aggressive. But
DO NOT EXPERIMENT
just for the purpose of testing these directions,
for although I have tried them over and over
agairi successfully, there is always a possibility of
unforeseen accidents under such circumstances, and
a strange
DOG'S BITE IS ALWAYS SERIOUS.
But whenever you are caught unawares by a self-
important and watchful dog, assume an air of con-
fident command.
As a traveling surveyor and map maker for five
years my work took me into the back yards of
private residences, factories and breweries all over
our country, and not a day passed without
A STRING OF DOG TALES
299
AN ENCOUNTER WITH A DOG,
and yet there is not the mark of a dog's tooth on
my body, and I never had them even tear my
A FEW OF THE DOGS
300 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
clothes; twice only have I used force and in self-
defense killed two dogs, but both of these were
fierce bull terriers, bred for dog fighting, and in
both cases there was no opportunity to engage the
savage creatures' attention. One dog I killed with
a back thrust of the painted steel-shod flag-pole
used by surveyors, and the other with a large
stone, the only weapon handy at the moment.
A FAMOUS POINTER.
But all dogs are not savage. Old Wallace was
a gentleman even if he was also a pointer dog, and
he had as wide a reputation for vigilance as his
master's silver-mounted, muzzle-loading shotgun
had for accuracy.
When Wallace made a point on a covey of quail
he "froze" as soon as his nose caught the scent.
But if, after a reasonable time, no one appeared,
Wallace would look cautiously around to see why
the gunner failed to follow up the scent.
If the hunter was inattentive, the wise old dog
would leave his point, tiptoe to the man and gain
his attention by a suppressed "hough!" Then he
would tiptoe back, find the game, and again re-
solve himself into a rigid statue of a dog.
Wallace, the silver-mounted gun known as
"Old Baldface," and their owner, were known
from New Orleans to Lake Erie. The dog and
hunter have joined the great majority, but the old-
fashioned gun hangs in my library.
A STRING OF DOG TALES 301
THE TOPER'S DOG.
The train stood in front of the row of false-
fronted frame houses which sprawled along the
narrow unpaved street of the town. To add to the
general appearance of discomfort, a drizzling rain
was falling.
The train was making one of those long, silent,
unexplained stops to which Southern trains are ad-
dicted. No one got off and no one got on the cars,
which were apparently only resting their wheels.
Suddenly a small animal appeared on the scene,
and the sight of it was eagerly welcomed by the
many passengers. Some cried, "It's a fox;" others
said that it was a 'coon, and yet others declared
it to be a 'possum, but these wild guesses only
showed a lamentable ignorance of natural history.
It was only a poor little wet, bedraggled dog,
evidently in search of something and thoroughly
knowing its business.
Almost every other house was a barroom, and
the steps, latches or knobs of the doors to these
places received the dog's most careful inspection.
But a little chapel was passed without notice, and
so was the one-story printing office. The dog
paused, however, at the drug store long enough to
rear up on its short hind legs and sniff the door-
knob in a casual manner before it went on its way.
It gave a perfunctory sniff at the thumb-latch of
the grocery store, critically inspected the doorway
to the post-office, threw up its nose to catch the scent
of the upper currents of air as it passed the general
302 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
merchandise store, but did not deign to give the
Sons of Temperance headquarters a passing glance.
The interested passengers had by this time
thrown up the sashes of the Pullman and were
shouting suggestions to the little dog, to which it
paid as little heed as it did to the Sons of Temper-
ance.
When the animal reached the "Blind Tiger"
barroom the train was awakening from its trance;
squeaking noises issued from the wheels and his-
sings from the air brakes. The dog's tail was
drooping between its legs and its body was be-
spattered with rain, but the moment its wet nose
touched the knob of this saloon door a wonderful
change took place.
The creature was transfigured. Its tail wagged
energetically and the animal leaped into the air,
frisked about and emitted barks of delight. It
acted as if it was greeting the real presence of some
person. After its first transports of joy had passed
it sought shelter from the rain under a wooden
bench.
As the train pulled out the dog could be seen
comfortably curled up, its nose resting between its
front paws, its intelligent eyes fastened expectantly
upon the closed door, and its tail slowly and con-
tentedly thumping the board-walk.
THE STORY WITHOUT WORDS WAS TOLD.
The faithful yellow dog had located its master,
and we all knew that the man was not a member
of the Sons of Temperance.
A STRING OF DOG TALES 303
Not long since an old friend of mine by the
name of Spin joined the Great Majority crossed
the Divide where all the pony tracks point one
way. Like many other celebrated persons my
friend's fame only came after he was dead and
buried. Although Spin's portrait is today pub-
lished in almost every magazine, painted in oil,
and prized by a wealthy corporation, exhibited in
show windows and emblazoned in gigantic size on
bill boards, poor Spin's bones rest in an unmarked
grave in Pike County, Pennsylvania, the location
of which is known to only a few, a very few of
his old friends.
Even his greatest admirers do not know the
name of this famous person and only two or three
persons know that he is dead.
SUCH is FAME!
yet every library in this country and in every
other country possesses dozens of portraits of my
old friend Spin and his bright, intelligent counte-
nance is as familiar to the readers of this book as
that of George Washington. Wherever printed
papers and magazines go there is to be found the
portrait of the
FAMOUS MR. SPIN.
When I first met him, the hero of this story was
in the prime of life, but, of course, I only remem-
304 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
her him as he appeared when I last saw the old
fellow a fat, poddy body, gouty legs and a
wheezing voice. But the pictures of him show
the great Spin in the prime of life, with a hand-
some face and well proportioned youthful figure.
As I have already intimated you all know the
celebrity's face, but you cannot recall his name.
WHO THEN WAS SPIN?
It was away back in 1887 that I conceived the
idea of building for myself a log house on a deer
run-way in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Shortly
after my house was finished a very charming and
interesting lady came to the woods, and selecting
a piece of land adjoining mine had it cleared, and
on it erected a large house which she called "Lodge
Bohemia." After her came her husband and with
him came Mr. Spin, and that was the first I saw
this celebrity. As I have before said, Spin's
fame came later and it all came about by chance
or accident. When I met Mr. Spin I was not
struck with the fact that I was facing one that was
to become famous, but as our acquaintance ripened
into intimacy, I learned to respect the quiet dig-
nity, well-bred manners and also the high order
of intelligence displayed by Mr. Spin. If, how-
ever, my memory is correct, Mr. Spin, like the
Yellowstone bear "Mr. Dooley" was a miss, at
any rate he was only
A STRING OF DOG TALES 305
A FOX TERRIER,
but Spin was a traveled dog, who had visited
almost every city on the globe big enough to boast
of a play-house, and Spin always traveled first-class
in company with his master and mistress, and
although the dog never had a pass, his master
never paid for Spin's passage.
As most of my readers know, dogs are not al-
lowed to travel on railroad trains except in the
baggage cars or express cars, but Spin knew sev-
eral tricks by which the rules of the heartless cor-
porations could be set at naught. Upon approach-
ing a train the sly dog would slip under his mis-
tress's skirts and trot along in concealment, hidden
from the sharp eyes of the guards and conductors.
This wise and widely traveled dog would also
seek the same hiding place whenever a uniformed
trainman hove in sight, and in this manner, in
spite of rules and regulations, Spin managed
to travel over Europe, Asia, Australia, and New
Zealand in first-class coaches without a ticket or
a pass. While Spin was in the prime of life the
phonograph began to become popular and one day
the dog's master talked into one of the receivers
and sent the wax cylinder with the record thus
made to his wife, who at that time happened to be
visiting in another city. When the record was put
into a phonograph, and the familiar voice sounded
from the instrument, Spin knew it at once and ran
frisking to listen to
306 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ins MASTER'S VOICE.
A friend of the lady photographed Spin as he or
she was in the act of listening, and that photograph
by some chance fell into the hands of the phono-
graph people who were immediately struck with
the novelty and attractiveness of the picture and
its value as an advertisement for their product.
It is very doubtful if the phonograph people
know
THE IDENTITY OF THE DOG.
Spin's mistress was the late Mrs. Willis P.
Sweatnam and her master was Willis P. Sweat-
nam himself, the Sweatnam who in the play of the
"County Chairman" delighted the audiences night
after night with his quaint humor and masterly
interpretation of the character of Sassafras Livings-
ton.
There has been and always will be, interesting
discussion regarding the origin of our domestic
dogs. Most people conceive that the dog's an-
cestor was in all probability the wolf, and we know
in the Far North of our own continent the dogs
belonging to the Esquimaux, Indians and white
people are constantly in-breeding with the wolves.
But whether the dog proceeded from the wolf or
not, when allowed to run wild, they soon revert
to an animal closely resembling a wolf in looks
and character. There have been reports of
A STRING OF DOG TALES 307
PACKS OF WILD DOGS
and their ravages coming from all parts of the
Far West ever since that country began to be in-
vaded by the white settlers. Ten years ago there
was a detailed account of a pack of wild dogs in
Montana which ranged the country as far North
as the Kootenay Lake, the account traced the pack
back to some neglected ranch dogs.
PACKS OF WILD DOGS.
Wild dogs have been reported from Georgia
and various parts of the South. The only differ-
ence between the character of the wild dogs and
the native wolf seems to be that the wild dog is
bolder and fiercer than his aboriginal brother.
Personally the only experience I ever had with a
wild dog occurred when I was a boy in Kentucky.
It was a big black dog with a white sheep-like
face, and it lived on the banks of the Licking River.
The dog was never seen in the day time, but peo-
ple who lived upon the streets adjoining the river
bank, frequently saw the white-faced dog at night.
No one was ever able to approach the animal and
it could not be tempted by offers of food to ap-
proach the house. It was as large as a Newfound-
land dog. One day
I TRACKED IT TO ITS DEN,
which was under some drift-logs which had been
piled upon the shore. I lay prone upon the ground
3o8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
and wormed my way under the wood-pile far
enough to see the dog in its hiding place, then I
hurried to a boy friend and told him of my great
discovery. We decided that we could capture the
wild dog and do it as Putnam did the wolf. All
boys who are familiar with the old legend of Gen.
Putnam and the wolf know that Gen. Putnam
crawled down the wolf's den and caught the ani-
mal by its ears, then the General's friends pulled
the hejo out by his heels. The question between us
boys was, who should be Putnam and who the
friend. After a long and heated dispute it was
decided by lot, that my chum should be General
Putnam. Without any further delay he crept un-
der the heap of logs and I followed him. There
was a snap and a snarl and a yelp, then he cried :
"PULL, DOGON YE, PULL!"
I grasped him by the feet and pulled him out,
and with him came the white-faced dog, but we
no sooner got the dog from under the heap of
sodden logs than it gave a spring at me, knocked
over my companion in doing so, and hit me on the
chest with its fore-feet so that we both fell in a
heap, and the dog disappeared in the woods, which
at that time thickly covered the bank of the river
just above the suspension bridge. What became of
the white-faced dog, I never knew. It was a
powerful brute, but as timid as a hare. From
many accounts that I have read of the wild dogs
in the West, however, I am ready to believe that
A STRING OF DOG TALES 309
they are exceedingly fierce animals. This belief is
substantiated by a very interesting account of the
wild dogs of Atlanta, Georgia, after the siege of
that city during the Civil War. Of these animals
the Atlanta Constitution says:
"OUR DOGS HAD A HARD FIGHT
during the siege. There were thousands of them
in those days, and when the season of short ra-
tions set in they were the first to feel it. In many
instances they were abandoned by their refugee
owners and had to literally forage for a living.
"The thunder of the big guns, the unearthly
shrieks of the shells, the noise of falling buildings,
the rattle of musketry, and the heavy tramp of
marching soldiers, all struck terror to the canine
contingent. Toward the close of the siege nearly
every dog in the city was half rabid or in the last
stage of nervous prostration. The wretched brutes
sought shelter under houses and in bombproofs.
Majestic mastiffs and surly bull-dogs curled their
tails between their legs and yelped mournfully at
every unusual sound. Hundreds of the bolder
ones made a frantic break over the breastworks
and ditches, and made their way through the lines
of both armies, never stopping until they reached
the woods.
"It was even worse after Sherman's army entered
the place. The citizens were driven out in such a
hurry that they had no time to think of their pets,
and no means of transportation for them. Later,
the destruction of the city by fire, and the general
310 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
pandemonium that ensued, scattered the few re-
maining dogs.
"These innocent victims of the ravages of war
had a terrible experience during the rigorous Win-
ter of 1864-5. Their misery drove them to form
strange partnerships, and it was a common sight
to see them roving in bands of a dozen or more.
'Banish the dog from his kennel and you have a
wolf,' was illustrated in this case. In the course
of five or six months the country people for fifty
miles around were spinning marvelous yarns about
'them wild dogs from Atlanta.' "
The dog belongs to the genus which produces
the wolf, the jackal and the fox. Tame dogs, of
course, lose many of the characteristics of these
animals; but when persecution and misery cause
them to relapse into their wild state they take the
appearance, the habits, and the tastes of wolves
and jackals. Such was notoriously the fact with
the Atlanta dogs. They lost every trace of do-
mesticity. They grew to enormous size, with sav-
age eyes and cruel-looking fangs.
Occasionally a gang of these ferocious beasts
would swoop down on a farmyard, devouring
chickens and pigs, and attacking men when they
stood in their way. It took the liveliest kind of
shooting to drive them off. Sometimes they would
surround a lonely cabin and wait for the inmates
to come out. They even made raids into little
villages, forcing the inhabitants to shut themselves
up in their houses. The disappearance of many a
A STRING OF DOG TALES
3**
negro in those perilous times was fully accounted
for when his skeleton was found with every parti-
cle of flesh gnawed oft, and with the ground
around showing evidences of a desperate struggle.
Early in 1865, when a few refugees began re-
turning to Atlanta, they had to struggle with these
wild dogs for the possession of the ruins. Bloody
encounters occurred among the ash heaps and piles
of debris. Every cellar and hole in the ground
held these ravenous brutes, and they leaped upon
men, women and children without the slightest
provocation. At that time it was dangerous to
ride or drive out in the country. On the main
road between Atlanta and Decatur, in broad day-
light, dogs were known to attack horses attached
SNAP
SHOT OF TREE -CLIMBING BULL TERRIER, TAKEN
ON FLUSHING INSTITUTE GROUNDS.
312 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
to buggies, forcing their drivers to open a hostile
fusilade with their revolvers.
After getting this taste of a wild life the Atlanta
dogs went to the bad altogether. A relentless war-
fare was waged upon them from Stone Mountain
to Kenesaw, and one by one they bit the dust until
they were all wiped out.
A TREE CLIMBING DOG.
Mr. Guild, formerly of Flushing, L. L, owned
a bull terrier which could run up a tree trunk 13
or 14 feet. I measured one run of over 13 feet.
While Mr. Guild held the dog one of the company
would mount a ladder and hang a handkerchief
to the tree; when freed the dog would make a
dash, run up the trunk and secure the handker-
chief.
CHAPTER XXIII
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS
MYSTERIES AND FABLES SURROUNDING THE BIRTH OF THIS
ANIMAL OPOSSUM HUNTING AND OPOSSUM EATING A
WEASEL INSPECTS WILD LANDS THE WEASEL AND A
CROW'S NEST WEASEL BOXES WITH A MASTIFF AN
ANIMATED PHONOGRAPH FROM PENNSYLVANIA WHO
TELLS A WEASEL'S STORY A FOUR FOOT BLACK BASS A
SEA SERPENT WE SEE WHAT WE THINK WE SEE SOME
GENUINE NATURE FAKING THE WONDERFUL KILL-A-LOO
BIRD STORY IN PICTURES OF TREE BARKERS.
BORN BLIND AND DEAF.
Australia seems to be a spot set aside by nature
for experiments in curious forms of animal life.
By some means, in the far distant past, a repre-
sentative of that singular order, the marsupials,
reached North America, where it is still to be
found in abundance, a source of wonder to the
ignorant and a puzzle to men of science. It was
not until 1848 that the mysteries and fables
shrouding the birth of this animal were swept away
by Bachman and some of his friends, who, by dili-
gent work and patient experiment, set aside for-
ever the wild theories of such men as Valentine,
Marcgrave, Piso, Beverly, Pennant and others,
who held that the young of this creature grew upon
3 H DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
the mother's breast as the fruit does upon the stalk.
The common opossum is described by scientists
as follows: "Head long and conical, muzzle
pointed, ears large and membraneous, rounded, and
almost naked, tongue aculeated, internal toe of
hind foot opposable to fingers," etc. Equally good
and far less technical is the description given by
a small street Arab as he gazed at one of these
animals in the writer's possession: "Oh, looky,
Billy," said he, "see that big rat; hit's got a pig's
head, a 'coon's body, monkey's feet, and a rat's
tail." The accuracy of the last description may
be tested by reference to the engraving on page
318 showing the parts in detail
According to "Wood," fifteen days elapse, and
the young opossum comes into this world, a di-
minutive, helpless babe, weighing not more than
three or four grains, blind, naked and deaf. It
cannot even open its mouth, its jaws being sealed
together, a small orifice only left at the muzzle,
through which it receives its nourishment. One
would think it was ill adapted to buffet with the
rough world, but Nature, ever kind to her
creatures, has ready prepared a soft cradle for its
reception, where it is placed by its mother. The
opossum,
LIKE ITS COUSIN, THE KANGAROO,
is a pouched animal; within the pouch are the
mammae; to one of these the young opossum fas-
tens itself almost immediately after being placed
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 315
in the pouch. The growth of this babe is sur-
prisingly rapid, increasing from three and three-
quarter grains to thirty grains in a week. In four
weeks' time its funny head may be seen peering
cautiously out at the great wide world : and at the
end of the fifth week the little fellow is able to
leave its snug quarters and venture out of doors.
Not being over-confident of its ability to take care
of itself it grasps with its prehensile tail, the tail
of its mother.
You have but to spend a short time upon some
Southern plantation to learn
THE CHARMS OF A 'POSSUM HUNT,
UNFINISHED WORK OF A BEAVER UPON A LARGE TREE
Photographed by the Author
316 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
and if you can overcome your scruples enough to
taste the meat after it is prepared by one of the
sable huntsmen, you will pronounce it good.
Though this marsupial sometimes makes raids
upon hens' nests and occasionally upon the hens
themselves, the good it accomplishes in exterminat-
ing other more mischievous animals doubly repays
for a few stolen eggs and an occasional chicken.
One that Bachman kept in a stable chased or de-
voured every rat upon the place.
I once secured a large female opossum from
Charleston, S. C. When caught she had three
young ones in her pouch, but when the Charleston
steamer arrived at this port I was disappointed
to find the young ones missing. It is said that these
animals are readily domesticated, soon becoming
very tame and gentle, which is probably true. But
the one I had, possibly through disappointment
at the loss of her family, had a very ugly temper.
She occupied the house formerly the home of the
pygmy musk deer, an illustration and description
of which you will find in this book. Whenever
I approached the house she retreated to the further-
most corner and there, with distended jaws, defied
further molestation.
The opossum to me is most interesting because
it is
AN ANIMAL OF NOVEL CONSTRUCTION
and habits, not because it shows any great degree of
intelligence, but it makes a good pet. I have eaten
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 317
opossums and can say that when they are properly
cooked, they are not only a good, but a delicious,
article of food. The fat is very fine and oily and
is so mild to the taste that one is in great danger
of eating too much before becoming aware of its
exceeding richness. I made this mistake myself
with my first roasted opossum, and ate so heartily
of the rich food that it was a long time before I
could bear the thought of trying it again. Of late
years the opossum seems to be migrating north.
When I first came to Long Island, in 1878, the
opossum was unknown to the hunters and farmers
on the Island, and the one I received from Charles-
ton was looked upon as a great curiosity in Flush-
ing, but since then they have invaded not
only the farms, but also the villages, and I
have seen them captured in the street in the Bor-
ough of Queens, New York City. When I first
went to Pike County, Pennsylvania, the natives
there
HAD NEVER SEEN ONE,
but this summer, 1907, I heard of several having
been captured in that township. According to the
Savannah News, a Mr. Thomas Chancey has
awakened to the possibilities. of the opossum as a
food animal, and gone into the business of opossum
raising on an extensive scale. His opossum ranch
is enclosed with a wire fence, to keep out the
'possum hunters. This novel farm is said to be
located about a mile from Hawkinsville. Accord-
318 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ing to the statement in the same paper, the prod-
ucts of the 'possum ranch would bring from forty
THE OPOSSUM WITH DETAILS OF PARTS
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 319
cents to eighty cents apiece, and have a ready
sale in the Southern market.
One rainy day while I was sitting in front of
the blazing fire in my camp,
I SAW A WEASEL
appear in front of my window. From my vantage
ground I could watch it with no danger of dis-
turbing the little animal. It ran around to the
kitchen door, looked into every can and dish, ex-
amined the door-sill and inspected the closed door,
then climbed up on the slanting cellar door and
sitting up on its hind legs looked long and at-
tentively into the kitchen window. The contents
of the kitchen seemed to interest it so much, that
it must have sat there at least ten minutes before
it slowly turned around and made its way to the
wood-shed, making a more complete inspection of
that building than a Japanese spy would of
s~*\ \~/~T~? a Russian fort. From
^r^ there it went to the
woodpile outside of
the shed and disap-
peared underneath.
The interesting part
j\ about all this was the
very careful manner in
which the little
*v - \ \ animal made .its
>>- / ^ /i j tour of inspection.
Weasels are often to
MR. LANGDON GIBSON
EXAMINING A CROW'S NEST be found
I
320 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
IN VERY UNEXPECTED PLACES.
One time when Langdon Gibson, Charles Dana
Gibson and I were out in the woods we induced
Langdon to climb to the top of a tall tree and
examine a crow's nest. An exclamation of sur-
prise and amusement was heard from Langdon
as soon as his face reached the level of the nest.
Then he cried, "Guess what it is," and threw some-
thing down to the ground. My little dog
"Monad" was with me at the time and the Gib-
son boys had a big mastiff dog with them. Monad
made a grab for the object the moment it struck
the ground, but the big mastiff pushed him one
side, and then stopped as if in doubt at what next
to do. For there in front of him stood a small
animal bolt upright, and it was most comical to
SEE A WEASEL JUMP AND BOX
the big dog with its front feet whenever the dog's
nose approached it. Apparently the mastiff at
length became ashamed of being held at bay by so
small a creature, and so he made a rush at the
weasel. It was now the mastiff's turn to box its
own face for the weasel had fastened its teeth
TO THE END OF THE DOG'S NOSE,
and it hung on in spite of all efforts to dislodge it.
If I remember aright, it was not until Charles
Dana took a hand in the fight that the weasel
was at last vanquished. I almost forgot to say
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 321
that the weasel was the sole occupant of the crow's
nest.
One summer I was traveling on board the
"Katydid," a small steamer which formerly ran
THIS BEAVER HAS ALL THE APPEARANCES OF A DEAD
ANIMAL POSED FOR THE CAMERA
on the Ohio River during low water, and has since
blown up. The craft was a queer, crazy little af-
fair, with
A VIOLENT-TEMPERED, PUFFING ENGINE,
and a jolly crew. If the boat was queer the pas-
sengers were also peculiar. There was one man
from Pennsylvania with light-colored chin whiskers
and long, light-colored hair combed back behind
his ears and a very large turned-up nose.
322 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
HE WAS AN ANIMATED PHONOGRAPH.
By this I do not mean to imply that his remarks
were not original, he probably made his own rec-
ords and then ground them out. At any rate he
talked a blue streak in a monotonous tone. He
was talking when I got aboard the boat at Wheel-
ing, W. Va., and I left him talking when I went
ashore at Ironton, Ohio. If I had been a short-
hand reporter I would have had quaint stories
enough to have filled a book of several volumes,
and in my note-book of that day I find an attempt
to report some of his talk in longhand. I will
quote only that part that refers to the weasel.
"Well, sir, when I use ter live in Union, Penn-
sylvania, I was tortling through the woods one
day when my little dog started somein' from un-
der a stun. I seed it was a weasel, an' I always
calcaleted they were the usefulest animals we could
have on a farm, so I called off my purp jest as he
had chased the stoat to the woodpile. We had been
pestered with rats round the house: they stole th'
hen's eggs an'
KILLED THE YOUNG CHICKENS AND DUCKS.
I saw one drag a good-sized pullet into its
hole under th' barn, so I jest thought that the
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 323
PHOTOGRAPH OF A FISHER
PROBABLY FAST IN A TRAP.
woodpile wus a
good place fer
that weasel. Out
o' the middle of
the woodpile
there wus an' old
apple tree grow-
ing which had a
few little dried
up apples and no
leaves worth mentioning on it. The tree wus about
dead and the branches came up to my winder.
When I got up th' next mornin' about four o'clock
it wus rainin' pitchforks, but I noticed ther' wus
somein' a matter with th' old apple tree. It had
fruited durin' th' night, but when I w r ent to ex-
amine that 'ere fruit, by gum, it turned out ter be
rats. Yes, sir-ee. As sure as I am here the tree
wus filled with great big rats. I counted twenty-
five of 'em on one branch. Traps ! Why, sir, one
weasel will beat all the cats, dogs and traps yer can
git. I did set some traps one night an' kivered
thim up with leaves. In th' mornin' I found six
mink in th' traps, but nary a rat ! I caught twenty
polecats in the traps. Smell bad? No, sir. I
jest hung 'em up in a tree fer a day or two and
then skun 'em. But say, after I skunned those pole-
cats, I went out to the woodpile ter git some
wood, and that ther' weasel came out, took one
look at me an' pretty near sneezed his head off
rubbed his nose with both paws and tuk ter th'
324 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
woods. But weasels are awful particular animals
about smells."
It is easy to see that this man started out with
the intention of telling the truth. The incident of
the little dog and the weasel, the fact of its start-
ing the creature from under a stone, sounds too
natural to be fictitious: the weasel taking refuge
in the woodpile is just what a weasel would do
under those circumstances, and I have little doubt
that when the weasel got in the woodpile the rats
left it.
Now just here there are possibilities which would
appeal to
ANY MAN WITH A VIVID IMAGINATION
so strongly that only a person of firm character
could resist the temptation, and it is here that our
friend from Union, Pennsylvania, began to depart
from the lines of truth.
In reading nature stories one must use the same
judgment that one does in any other sort of narra-
tive upon any other subject. It is not necessary to
believe in
ALL THE FAIRY STORIES;
well-meaning but untrained observers tell of things
that (they think) they see or experiences (they
think) they have had. Neither is it necessary
to condemn these people as intentional falsifiers.
We all of us smile indulgently at the fisherman
when he- tells of the fish of gigantic proportions
which u got away," and only the other day a truth-
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 325
ful man on Big Tink Pond hooked onto a large
bass, probably four or five pounds weight; of
course the bass jumped up above the water, and as
the man was no angler the fish got away on the first
plunge. .
There were several witnesses to this little epi-
sode, all of them native farmers, and when the
fisherman told of the
FOUR-FOOT BASS
none of them even smiled ; they all really believed
the fish was four feet long, and I had not the
heart to protest, although the largest small-mouth
black bass ever caught in those waters weighed but
five and three-quarter pounds.
To satisfy my curiosity I have for years saved
the newspaper accounts of wonderful nature
stories, and wherever it was possible made personal
investigations regarding them, the result being that
I am convinced that seventy-five per cent, of these
stories are genuine ;
BUT
the untrained observers who write them up make
the stories unbelievable by attributing wrong mo-
tives to the simple acts of animals, or a guess
at dimensions so as to make a four-foot rattle-
snake seven and even eight feet long.
I have written for and secured photographs of
many
326 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SEA MONSTERS,
and they were all genuine and to be found in any
natural history.
A SEA SERPENT
from the North Pacific Coast proved to be a fish
and not a snake. A "horrible sea devil" from the
THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF A FISH, THAT THE NEWS-
PAPERS ANNOUNCED AS A SEA-SERPENT
Long Island Sound was the angler fish, common
to naturalists but seldom seen by inland newspaper
reporters.
A FAKIR
is one who intentionally deceives, but an ignorant
person or one whose poetic and romantic nature
causes him to see everything surrounded by an at-
mosphere of fancy, although he is an inaccurate
observer, cannot justly be accused of
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 327
NATURE FAKING.
Philosophers tell us that human thought creates
that which it imagines. That is a tough proposi-
tion, but we know it to be true in dreams and de-
lirium and can believe that even when we are wide
awake and in good health, to a certain de-
gree, we see just what we are educated to believe
exists. In other words
WE SEE WHAT WE THINK WE SEE.
In olden times almost any sort of improbable,
impossible story would be accepted as truth, espe-
cially if it were told in regard to Nature and her
children, and in every old book of Natural His-
tory we see the results.
The old illustrators' eyes were as good as ours,
their minds were as keen and their brains weighed
as much as that of the modern illustrator, but
when they drew a picture of the narwhal, for in-
stance, because of its one tusk, they gave it
THE HEAD OF A UNICORN,
and because it lived in the water, the scales of a
fish!
When they made a picture of a sea-cow, they
gave it the trunk and head of a woman with the
tail of a fish and called it a mermaid. These things
had no existence outside of the brains of the peo-
ple and yet even
328 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
COLUMBUS SAW MERMAIDS
in the ocean.
A man who would see mermaids today would
be put in the alcoholic ward of a hospital or a so-
called sanitarium for "nervous patients"; in plain
language a lunatic asylum.
Although skillful photographers can make the
camera tell some terrible and over-powering false-
hoods,
THE CAMERA ITSELF IS HONEST
and straightforward. Had Columbus and his
predecessors taken snap-shots of the mermaids and
the old illustrator done the same with the narwhal,
the unicorn fish and the mermaid would have found
no place in our books.
There was a truthful, matter-of-fact old lady
up the Hudson River who
SAW A HOOP-SNAKE
roll down hill beside her; of course there is no
such thing as a hoop-snake, but that makes no dif-
ference ; the old lady had been taught from child-
hood to believe in this fabulous reptile and when
a blue racer or some other snake swiftly glided
out of her path, her imagination immediately con-
verted it into a hoop-snake and
SO SHE SAW ONE
with its tail in its mouth roll down the hill.
All of us have our own preconceived notions
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 329
with which to contend when we make observations.
When Mr. John Burroughs describes a bird it is
a Burroughs bird; when Mr. Seton describes a
wolf, it is the kind of wolf Seton would be if he
was transformed into one of these animals. When
Mr. Roosevelt describes an animal, it is a Teddy
animal, and Dr. Long's bird mends its broken leg
as the doctor thinks he himself would do if he
was a broken-legged bird. None of us can escape
our own individuality, surroundings and training.
It may be that it was my training which made me
guilty upon one occasion of
SOME REAL NATURE FAKING.
When the hunting season opens and the sports-
men flock to the woods the temperature at Wild
Lands becomes very cool in the daytime and chilly
at night. Roaring big log fires somewhat modify
the cold air inside the house, and the dogs eagerly
crowd around the hearth in front of us and our
guests. Then it is that we put big stones in the
fire and when we retire at night all of us carry
them with us to keep our feet warm. One night
when we all retired as usual and were sleeping
soundly we were aroused by the late arrival of
guests. A very charming girl who was visiting us
at the time and who is known to many of my read-
ers by her contributions to the current magazines
is a very great admirer of Browning; in fact, dur-
ing her stay at Wild Lands her time was divided
between
330 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
HER GUN AND HER BOOK,
and she was seldom without one or both in her
hands. Upon this particular night she had taken
her volume of Browning to bed with her. Being
awakened by the commotion caused by the arrival
of the visitors she sat up in bed until her feet were
cold, then she replaced the stone at her feet and
suffered no more with the cold but slept peacefully
until morning only to find upon arising that the
stone was on the floor and her feet had been
warmed all night by the fervid poetry of Brown-
ing.
She told of this at breakfast, and we all had a
good laugh, especially did the new arrivals enjoy
the joke, and they said many things about mind
cure for cold feet and the power of imagination;
but their turn came next, although they did not
tell the story upon themselves.
A Pike County farmer had presented to us a
number of large turnips; they were of monstrous
growth, and I really do not know what our friend
expected us to do with them; they were as fit for
food as pine knots soaked in water might be.
When the two sportsmen guests, with a native
driver, had gone for their baggage we took the
turnips and with some wooden toothpicks, we fas-
tened the skins of_ruffed grouse over the vegeta-
bles, and when there were no tail feathers on the
grouse skin we used rabbits' tails pegged to the
proper place as substitutes. For heads we took some
fish heads which had been cut from the largest
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 331
pickerel which we had been saving to show to our
guests when they should ask how the fish were bit-
ing. The heads had been hung on trees to dry,
and their mouths we propped open with sticks to
give greater effect to the trophies; a bunch of wild
ducks supplied their legs for the nondescript birds.
We made a half-dozen of these absurd birds and
set them up on stumps and stones all around, out-
side the cabin, and they were
THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS, BLAMEDEST LOOKING
THINGS EVER SEEN.
The pickerel heads were astonishingly bird-like,
yet bore no relationship to any living fowl. In
fact there was such an air of possibility and reality
about the creations that they would deceive almost
anyone, and yet with their rabbit tails, or feather
tails, neat brown feathered backs and wings, strad-
dling duck legs, with gaping pickerel heads, they
belonged more to Welsh rarebit dreams than to
this prosaic world.
When the two sportsmen returned with their
baggage and guns they hailed me as they drove
up, asking, "What chance is there for shooting?"
To which I replied with a dubious shake of the
head: "I'm afraid it is a very poor place; there
don't seem to be anything but kill-a-loo birds
around this fall."
"KILL-A-LOO BIRDS?"
they shouted in chorus. "We never heard of
332 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
"Well," said I, "I think the kill-a-loos have
driven all the game away."
"Can you show us one?" laughed one of the
sportsmen.
"Maybe," I replied, "they generally come
around about this time of day," and with that I
looked about in every direction, as if in search of
some of this new sort of game. "There! I think
there is one over there," I cried in a loud whisper,
pointing to a stump near at hand.
As the sportsmen and the driver looked at the
stump
THEIR JAWS DROPPED
and their utter bewilderment was most laughable.
The driver showed his emotion by pulling upon
the reins and addressing remarks to the horse, not-
withstanding that these beasts were standing
quietly in the road. With his bulging eyes fixed
upon the kill-a-loo birds the teamster began pull-
ing on the reins, loudly crying: "Whoa ! Whoa
a a!" and muttering, "I'll be gol-durned if
I'd ever seed one of them afore !" The sportsmen
had started to reach for their gun-cases, but for-
got to open them as they stared transfixed with
silent wonder upon the strange bird.
"What is the matter?" I asked. "These are
common birds here. There is another one, and
yet another over there on that log; they are all
around here. I told you this was the time of
day they 'usually came." The rest of the house-
OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 333
hold who had
been interested
spectators
could restrain
their merri-
ment no longer,
and the shout
of laughter
they gave was
the first thing
which caused
the three men
in the wagon
to suspect
something
wrong, but it
was not until
they took the
birds in their
hands that they
were really sat-
isfied that they
were fakes.
When the vacation was over, the kill-a-loos were
carefully packed away in the sportsmen's trunks
and taken home for exhibition as samples of the
sort of game found on the shores of Big Tink
Pond.
A TOTEM KILL-A-LOO BIRD
TWELVE FEET HIGH, BUILT
BY STEWARD EDWARD WHITE
FROM PLANS BY THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER XXIV
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS
SPORTSMEN AND FALCONRY THE SCREAM OF A PANTHER
PANTHER ONE-HALF DAY'S JOURNEY FROM MANHATTAN-
PANTHER SIGN YELLOWSTONE KELLY AND A PANTHER
GRANDFATHER'S ADVENTURE FOOTSTEPS BEHIND HIM
MY HAIR STOOD ON END BITTEN BY A GRIZZLY MCLEOD's
MOUNTAIN LION STANLEY WITH A MOUNTAIN LION ON HIS
BACK WILD ANIMAL STORES AND WILD ANIMAL SHIPS
SCUFFLE WITH A BLUE-FACED BABOON.
In the olden time when all sport was the recrea-
tion of kings and nobles, there was as much formal-
ity connected with it as with any other court func-
tion. Of course you all know that "the four-hun-
dred" of mediaeval times was wont to
HUNT WITH FALCONS,
that is with trained hawks ; but it must not be sup-
posed that the king would hunt with the same
sort of bird as a squire. No, no, that would have
been a terrible social error, an inexcusable one
even for a king to make. Soon after the Norman
conquest the laws of the land named the sort of
birds that the members of each grade of society
might use. There was
334
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 335
ONE SORT OF BIRD RESERVED FOR KINGS,
another for princes of the blood, still another for
dukes and great lords. Fifteen grades in all from
the king to the knave, from the Peregrine down
to the little sparrow-hawk. But only the female
peregrine was entitled to the name of
THE FALCON.
On account of her superior strength, great size
and courage the falcon was flown at ducks and
herons. In another place in .this book will be
found the record of a blue heron putting an old
bald-headed eagle to flight after the latter had
made an unprovoked attack upon the heron ; from
this incident we may be led to believe that it
really does require a bird of strength and courage
to attack a heron.
The male peregrine was formerly called
TERCEL, TIERCEL, OR TIERCELET,
and was flown at partridges and magpies, and so
all of these birds were divided up not only in
their use in the field, but also as to who could fly
them.
In spite of all this tomfoolery of royalty, how-
ever, and its childlike regulation of the names and
uses of hawks, there is a glamor of romance about
those times and about falconry which appeals to us
all. We all love to read of the people "In days of
old when knights were bold, and barons held their
336 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
sway," when a genial iron-monger like Mr. Car-
negie, for instance, would have furnished sheet
iron suits of clothes for his fellow-citizens in place
of libraries. Those were great old days (for the
knights and royalty).
A knight always paid his court to his fair one
by
HIS MARKED ATTENTION TO HER FALCONS,
using the greatest judgment in flying the bird at
the proper moment, never losing sight of it, en-
couraging it by calls, following it and securing the
prey from the death-dealing talons: then, with a
caress for reward for the lucky or skillful work,
the knight would
SLIP THE HOOD OVER THE BIRD'S HEAD
and with all the grace he could assume place the
falcon on the slender wrist of the bird's mistress.
What are the proper terms to use for congrega-
tions of animals of different kinds is a question
frequently asked, and for the benefit of those in-
terested in speaking "according to Hoyle," the cor-
rect names have been collected for the reader. It
may be well to say that Hoyle in this instance is
the ancient custom.
Today we commonly use the
COWBOY'S TERM "BUNCH"
for everything alive or dead. It is customary now
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 337
to speak of a bunch of cattle, but we frequently
hear of a covey of quail : if, however, we go back
to the original use of this word, covey is only ap-
plied to partridges. In some parts of the United
States the bob-white is called a partridge and in
other parts a quail, and I suppose that in those
parts of the country where it is called a partridge
it would be perfectly proper to speak of a group
of them as a covey, but, if we call the bob-white a
quail, according to Hoyle, we must speak of
A GROUP OF THEM AS A BEVY.
Bevy is frequently now used for a group of young
girls, but this is not an Americanism, for it was
used in the same sense in mediaeval times in Eng-
land.
The old use of these words as laid down in the
ancient books of hunting and falconry, is as fol-
lows: when beasts went together in companies a
group of lions was called
A PRIDE OF LIONS.
It was also a lepe of leopards. Herd was proper
for deer or elk of any sort, and generally used for
all kinds of horned beasts, but if it is a group ot
does of which you are speaking,
CALL IT A BEVY.
They also formerly spoke of a sloth of bears
and a singular of boars and sounder of wild swine,
but
338 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A CROWD OF DOMESTIC HOGS WAS CALLED A DRIFT.
,We now speak of a pack of wolves, but the old
hunters called it a route of wolves. It was a harass
of horses, a rag of colts and a stud of mares, a
pace of asses, and a bar en of mules: a Hock of
sheep is the term formerly applied and still in com-
mon use, but it was
A TRIBE OF GOATS.
Very properly they spoke of a skulk of foxes,
but the reason is less obvious for a cete of badgers,
a riches of martins, a fesymes of ferrets. Now
when you want to speak of a great congregation of
jack-rabbits, call it a
HUSK OF JACK-RABBITS,
also a down of hares, a nest of cottontail. If you
meet a group of wildcat remember to say, "I met
a clowder of cats" : but if you find they are young
it is a kennel of young.
Should you be traveling in the tropics
YOU MAY MEET A SHREWDNESS OF APES
and on your lawn you may find a labor of moles.
Two greyhounds are called a brace, three a
leash: but two spaniels or harriers are called a
couple. A number of hounds is a mute of hounds,
but when you speak of common curs, be sure to
remember and call them
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 339
A COWARDESS OF CURS.
In olden times they applied these sporting terms
in derision or fun to people and spoke of a skulk
of friars and a skulk of thieves, an observance of
hermits, a lying of partners, a substitute of ser-
geants and what might apply to some of our "400"
a multi-plying of husbands, also
A BLAST OF HUNTERS,
a draft of butlers, a poverty of pipers, etc. But
it was really mean when they spoke of a "bunch"
of wives as
A GAGGLE OF WOMEN,
gaggle being the term used for a group of geese.
Speaking of water-fowl reminds me that it was
proper to call a group of herons a sedge. This also
applied to bitterns, but when it came to swans it
was a herd: it was also
A HERD OF CRANES AND OF CURLEWS,
and duck hunters may take notice that when a
flock of shelldrakes appear they must by no means
call it a flock, but a dropping of shelldrakes, also
a spring of teals, a cover of coots, a gaggle of
geese, and
A BADELING OF DUCKS.
That is, when there is a group of various or un-
known ducks the term badeling is used, and when
the mallards come, speak of them as a sord or
340 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
sute: but if you happen to be in India hunting pea-
cocks and run across a flock, by no means speak of
it as a flock, but call it
A MUSTER OF PEACOCKS
and a nye of pheasant. At home it is a congrega-
tion of plover, a flight of doves, a flight of swal-
lows, a dule of turtle-dove, a walk of snipe, and
a fall of woodcock, a rookery of crows and a building
of rooks, a murmur ation of starlings; but with
domestic fowl it is a brood of hens. A flock of
larks is poetically spoken of as
AN EXALTATION OF LARKS,
and the sparrows very properly as a host of spar-
rows. A watch of nightingale, is also significant
in its meaning, and a charm of gold finches is
charming.
I trust that the readers will no longer be con-
fused in the terms they use for the different
"bunches" of animals and game they meet; please
do not speak of an afternoon tea as a gaggle of
women, or a bunch of pretty girls as a badeling of
ducks.
Few sportsmen of today are familiar with these
old names, but everything new or old pertaining
to sport is interesting because sportsmen them-
selves are interesting people and real sportsmen are
fine fellows. It is true that sportsmen delight in
shooting game be it big or little, but they also be-
lieve in preserving the game of the country, and
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 341
while all thinking people regret the wholesale
slaughter of wild creatures by gunners, we must
remember that the only intelligent efforts to pre-
serve the wild life of this country are to be found
in the game laws suggested and enforced by sports-
men. The city-bred men of the Eastern States
are sometimes inclined to look upon the Western
hunters as brutal fellows, but experienced explorer?
and travelers in the wilderness will tell you that in
respect to bloodthirstiness and brutality in the
game field the man of the wilds is
OUTCLASSED BY THE CITY GUNNER.
In truth the city man and the Indian equipped
with modern firearms "see red" when in a good
game country; and they never take the trouble to
hunt down and kill the wounded and paunched
animal. I know of a case where a city man refused
to turn over two shells to a man who had paunched
a mountain ram. In this case the animal could
have been put out of pain easily, had the man who
shot it had any ammunition, and when he asked for
more he was refused for no reason except that the
city man did not fancy returning to camp with an
empty gun. Possibly he feared some fierce marmot
or little chief-hare might attack him.
A REAL MOUNTAIN MAN,
one of those fellows the city people look upon
as a bloody man, will often follow a wounded ani-
342 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
mal all day and this over the roughest of coun-
try, in the worst of weather, until the wounded
creature is overtaken and put out of its misery.
But the city sportsman and the childlike Indian
would not think of fasting all day and out of com-
passion for a wounded beast sleeping away from
camp without a blanket. The most chari-
table way to think is probably to consider both
our city friend and the Indian as children with
new toys in their hands.
Mentioning big game brings to mind the fact
that big game may be found very near New York
City. In the summer of 1906 as I was standing
on the porch of my log house preparing to retire
for the night, I was astonished to hear
GAME IN SIGHT
He heard footsteps behind him
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 343
THE SCREAM OF A PANTHER.
Remember that Wild Lands is only one hundred
and seventeen miles from New York City, and
although there are a few black bear, deer and wild-
cats in the woods surrounding the log house, I
never expected to see or hear a panther, and
doubted the accuracy of my hearing; but Mrs.
Beard also heard the woman-like scream, and called
to me, saying: "Someone has upset in the lake."
The next day I quietly made some investigation,
and discovered that a large animal had followed
a young man one night through the woods from
Wolf Lake almost to his own door; also that as
one of the lumbermen was driving his best girl
home from a dance he had heard
"A LOST WOMAN" SCREAMING
in the dark, and was about to go and search for
the wanderer when a violent thunderstorm caused
him to desist and take his lady-love home, also that
our cook who had attended the country dance, had
heard the "lost woman" upon several occasions. I
further learned that a number of others had started
out to succor the supposed woman whom they
thought was lost in the woods while after blue-
berries.
Next I discovered that Mr. Elmer Gregor of
the Forest Lake Club had seen
PANTHER SIGNS
on the road to Mast Hope. The panther had
344
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
been eating rabbits as was evident from their re-
mains. It was then that I got up a party and with
a good 'coon dog, we hunted the woods all night
LYNX AND PANTHER SKETCHED FROM NATURE
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 345
for the beast, but without results, and later the
groceryman told me that while driving in the
woods about dusk, twenty-five miles from Wild
Lands, he had met a panther and, shortly after-
wards, a man with a rifle hunting for the beast
which
HAD BEEN PROWLING AROUND THE MAN'S CABIN.
Putting all this together and also the fact that
I am not unfamiliar with the scream of the
panther, there is little room for doubting that one
of these creatures was roaming the woods in and
around Wild Lands for several weeks before it
wandered away.
The panther is very prone to follow a person
at night or even in the daytime through the woods.
YELLOWSTONE KELLY
was followed by one when he was out stalking
antelope, and his companion who was behind him
shot the animal and scared away the antelope.
When Kelly asked him why he fired, his friend
pointed to the dead beast and replied :
U HE'S BEEN CREEPING AFTER YOU
for the last half hour and I thought that he was
getting too darned near for safety," and so did
Mr. Kelly when he saw the dead panther a few
feet behind him.
346
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A panther once followed my grandfather all
night through the woods, and I used to make my
mother tell me the tale over and over again.
Grandfather's horse went "dead" lame and he had
to leave it and walk. Night overtook him and as
he was tramping through the dark forest
HE HEARD FOOTSTEPS BEHIND HIM.
In those days pelts or skins of animals were
used for money and as this sort of currency was too
big for a pocketbook, it was carried on the travel-
er's back. Grandfather had
A PACK OF FRESH SKINS ON HIS BACK,
and possibly the smell of them had something to
do with the footsteps behind him. My ! how
THE KILLING
Note the matter-of-fact manner of the big cat and the lack of
resistance of the kid
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 347
MY HAIR USED TO STAND ON END
when we came to the part of the story where the
footfalls would stop when the traveler paused, and
begin again when the traveler began to walk,
quicken with the quickened step of the traveler,
and
RUN WHEN THE LONE MAN RAN.
At last, when grandfather fell down a gully, I
thought the beast would be upon his shoulders,
but no it paused on the edge of the bank and he
could see its
EYE-BALL GLEAM
in the moonlight which streamed through the open-
ing in the woods made by the gully. At length the
traveler .came to a clearing and scaling the rail
fence he hastened to a log cabin, but
IT WAS UNINHABITED!
Climbing to the roof he tore off some of the
"shakes" and crawled in the opening; the inside was
filled with flax, so burying himself in the flax he
opened his clasp knife and awaited the enemy, but
the animal feared to approach the cabin and only
made known its presence by
348 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
A SCREAM.
The sound of the scream was a great comfort
to the lone traveler; for grandfather was unarmed,
and he feared it was a hostile Indian whose foot-
steps he had heard, but he knew panthers and pre-
ferred their company to that of Indians, so mak-
ing himself comfortable he fell asleep and did not
awaken until the sun was shining through the hole
he had torn in the roof.
On the train between Slocan and Sandon I met
Alex McLeod of Answorth, B. C., a prospector,
and the hero of many adventures. His arms and
neck bear
THE SCARS OF A GRIZZLY'S TEETH
received one day
when he thought
he could knock a
grizzly out with a
prospector's pick.
It is needless to
say that he failed
in this attempt
and only escaped
death by playing
DEAD MOUNTAIN LION. V)OSSUm.
He bought a new pick, but he now carries a
gun on his trips and this has proved a friend in
need. Not long since McLeod and his "pard,"
a man named Smith, went fishing at Coffee Creek.
Smith was armed with a trout rod and was some
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 349
distance in advance of McLeod when the latter
heard him shouting for help. Arriving in sight of
Smith, McLeod was astonished to see him
FACING A BIG MOUNTAIN LION.
The cat crouched in the trail about fifteen feet
from the fisherman. The great tail of the beast
was slowly swishing from side to side as he
watched with interest, but no alarm, the fisherman
waving his switch-like rod; a small dog with its
tail between its legs was barking dire threats at the
lion, but keeping a safe distance from the latter's
jaws and claws, when McLeod sent a bullet from
his thirty-forty and
KILLED THE GREAT CAT.
It weighed 250 pounds and was a monster as
may be seen from the accompanying photograph
given to me by the prospector himself when I was
up in his country. Mr. McLeod is a big man,
fully six feet or more in height.
It is not probable that the big cat had any
intention of attacking Smith, but an unarmed
man does not enjoy facing such a beast and is al-
ways glad to have it shot. The little dog may have
aroused the lion, and as these beasts
HAVE NO LOVE FOR DOGS
it was probably facing the barking canine, so as
not to be attacked in the rear.
350 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
The late George Stanley, trapper, of McDonald
Lake, was once sitting in a crouching pose, fishing
through the ice on this lake; he was dressed in
buckskin clothes and furs, and his arm was mov-
ing up and down to keep the baited hook bobbing ;
his six-shooter lay in front of him on the ice ready
for any emergency, when suddenly
HE FELT A HEAVY ANIMAL POUNCE UPON
HIS BACK.
Stanley did not know the sort of animal with
which he had to deal, but he did know that it
was no friend of his, so he grabbed his gun and
placing the muzzle over his shoulder fired, send-
ing
A BULLET CRASHING THROUGH THE SKULL
of a big mountain lion.
The animal was lean and hungry, but it is prob-
able that it did not know that the fur-clad lump
on the ice was a man : the cat only saw some-
thing out on the ice moving and so it crept up and
leaped upon the thing as a domestic cat will
do upon a smaller moving object.
THE PIKE COUNTY PANTHER
did not attack the fisherman on Wolf Lake, but
followed him. The Mississippi panther only fol-
lowed my "grandfather and did not attack him ; the
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 351
"DON'T INTERRUPT MY DINNER"
panther did not attack Yellowstone -Kelly, but fol-
lowed him ; neither did the one in the photograph
attack Smith.
All evidence seems to point to the fact that
PANTHERS HAVE A WHOLESOME FEAR OF MAN,
but I do not think that it would be safe to creep
on one's hands and knees under a limb of a tree
occupied by a panther. The beast under such cir-
cumstances might jump upon the moving object as
it did upon Stanley, and after it was on one's back
it would probably fight from fear and embarrass-
ment.
In the days before Nature photographs filled all
our magazines with beautiful half-tones of every
living creature, and writers wrote of some that
352 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
never lived, in the days when the illustrators made
their drawings upon boxwood for the wood en-
graver, I used to frequent the docks to watch for in-
coming ships from the tropics manned by piratical
garbed foreign sailors and hearing strange freight
SHIPS WITH QUEER BIRDS AND ANIMALS IN THE
RIGGINGS
and on the decks. The Fulton Market was also a
favorite hunting ground for rare fish, and the
u wild animal stores," on the lower East Side, for
objects of interest. There was one of these shops
on Park Row; it was an unobtrusive little store
filled with cages of noisy birds but the back door
opened into a good-sized wareroom and within
IT WAS A MENAGERIE OF ALL SORTS OF ANIMALS
from an elephant down to a kangaroo rat.
As I passed the monkey cages, I shook my fist
at a blue-cheeked specimen of a mandrill baboon
and told him things of an highly insulting nature
about his personal appearance. A baboon is as
quick to resent an insult as is any Southern colonel,
and Bluecheeks flew at the bars in his cage,
AND SHOOK THEM WITH RAGE.
This was just what I expected, so in a spirit of
mischief I stopped to make more uncomplimentary
remarks.
My portfolio was under one arm: I had taken
off my overcoat and thrown it over the other
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 353
arm. Mr. Bluecheeks grabbed the bars with his
two hands, looked me straight in the eyes, showed
his teeth, and jabbered at me, thus keeping my at-
tention upon his face while
HE SLYLY REACHED OUT ONE LEG
and grasped my overcoat with his hand-like foot.
The first I knew of his intentions was when my
overcoat was unceremoniously pulled from my arm.
Back of me there was a dry goods box or pack-
ing case, the boards of which were all loose, and
the nails partly or wholly shaken from the wood
so that the sides would have fallen out had they
not been held in place by a clothesline bound
about and knotted over the box. It was a large
packing case larger than a table, and realizing that
if the baboon once drew my overcoat through the
bars of its cage it would be of no further use to
me, I threw my portfolio on the packing case, so
that I might use both hands to rescue the coat
from
MY FOUR-HANDED OPPONENT.
After a struggle of five or more minutes I was
successful in not only gaining my coat but also in
arousing to the highest degree of excitement all
the other animals in the wareroom.
They had been interested spectators and, when
the struggle for the possession of the coat was at
its height, one and all in the room
354 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SIGNIFIED THEIR DESIRE TO TAKE PART IN THE
FIGHT.
I was alone in this room with the assembled
jungle-folks and would have been dealt with se-
verely by my four-footed relatives had their bars
and chains allowed them to reach me. After fan-
ning myself with my hat, wiping the perspiration
from my face and neck, and smoothing the wrinkles
from my coat, I approached the packing box to
secure my portfolio, but as soon as I came near
the box the top and sides
MOVED IN A MOST ASTONISHING MANNER
the whole box bounced up and down, and from
the interior came the most
BLOOD-CURDLING GROWLS, SNARLS, AND YOWLS.
If this itself had not been enough to alarm me
the sight of the hooked claws of some beast tear-
ing splinters from the edge of the boards where the
sides were parted would most assuredly have been
sufficient cause for fright; but after my first alarm
I decided that I must have my portfolio, and at-
tempted to steal around to the other side of the
box, walking on my toes so as not to make any
noise and using every precaution to prevent at-
tracting attention to myself. It was in vain, how-
ever, it seemed as if
THE THING INSIDE THE BOX
was all eyes and could see through the boards,
SPORTING TERMS AND BIG CATS 355
and no matter from what direction I approached
its prison, the box would be vibrating before I
could reach my portfolio and the thumping and
yowling from the inside would begin over again.
Growing desperate I made a bold rush, grabbed
my property and retreated. Then as my time was
short, I went over to where the baby hippopotami
were enclosed in a rude pen. I finished my sketches
and going through the store to the street, stopped
at the desk to thank the proprietor for his courtesy
in granting me the privileges of his shop.
"By the way," said I. "What have you got in
that packing case back there?"
"Dot backing case? Vot backing case you
mean?"
"The one with the rope on."
"Dot backing case ! Py golly you must not
cro near dot case. It may get loose once."
"What may get loose?"
"DOT LIVER PAD."
"Liver pad?" I exclaimed.
"Yes, dot liver pad vot vas in dot box tied mit
dat rope. Dot vas a vild liver pad. He vas very
dangerous, yes."
None the wiser for all my friend's remarks I
bowed and hurried back to my studio. I knew
that the thing was dangerous, and the box insecure,
but in all my travels and in all my visits to
museums, circuses and wild animal stores, I have
never seen a
356 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
WILD LIVER PAD,
yet it was evident that the man was not joking, but
quite serious in what he said.
Not until years afterwards when I heard a Ger-
man prince describe an adventure that he had with
a "liver pad" in Africa did it dawn upon me that
this was the German way of pronouncing the Eng-
lish word leopard.
With my present mature experience, and ripened
wisdom, if my portfolio should again be placed
on a box of wild liver pads, I would either leave
it there, or from some position of safety fish for
it with hook and line.
CHAPTER XXV
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES
A FISH OF SIN-YALE-A-MIN LAKE A SPOT UNCONTAMI-
NATED BY MAN CATCHING BIG FISH WITH A FLY
A FIERCE RUSH OF A BLACK SPECKLED TROUT
DOLLY VARDEN TROUT STANLEY, THE MOUNTAIN
MAN AND THE LITTLE MINISTER CATCHING BULL
TROUT IN MACDONALD RIVER HE DIDN'T HOLD HIS
MOUTH RIGHT FISHING FOR A BIG FISH IN NEW
YORK CITY THE FISH CAUSED GREAT HILARITY A
POLL PARROT FISH BUT IT COULD NOT TALK.
BEAUTIFUL LONG-TAILED MAGPIES
with burnished iridescent and piebald plumage
fly around our cayuse team; at Selish the birds are
as tame as the dirty, noisy English sparrows of
New York City. Selish is a little station on the
Northern Pacific Railroad in the Flathead Indian
Reservation; the station is close to the shore of the
Jocko and backed up against a big butte of the
color and texture of the army officers' khaki uni-
form. There is a stony road which winds around
the steep sides of the butte until it finds a passage
up the rugged course of a torrent-worn gully, to
the dry, hot elevated prairie north of the station.
On the same elevated plain a few miles further
north and close by the foot of Saddle Butte, about
357
358 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THREE HUNDRED BUFFALO
then roamed free on their ancient pasture lands.
The Flathead prairie is thirty odd miles long, by
fifteen or twenty wide, and is bounded on the south
by the drab-colored buttes, on the east by the Mis-
sion Range and on the west by the deep canyon
through which the turquoise water of the Pen d'
Oreille splashes and dashes, churning itself into
suds, as it roars over the rapids and falls ; fretting
itself into foam-capped waves as it chafes against
the rock-ribbed shore ; whispering awesome threats
as it glides into the deep, dark mysterious pools
where the currents twist the floating suds into a
decorative pattern of great whorls and spirals.
From their sources in the glacial lakes where
they are cradled mid the mountain peaks, several
trout streams of clear, cold water cross the Flat-
head prairie hurrying on to join the Pen d' Oreille;
there are also occasionally muddy pools inhabited by
STUPID SPOTTED FROGS
and other ponds whose snow-white edges tell of
alkali deposits and scab lands. Along the edges
of the different waters
KILLDEAR, SPOTTED SAND PIPERS,
solitary sand pipers, yellow legs, greater yellow
legs, long-billed
CURLEWS AND JACK-SNIPE
wade in happy security.
Scattered over the prairie are bunches of half
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 359
wild cattle and horses and in the vibrating heat
over their backs sail the hawks, great and small;
these birds seem to be omnipresent on all the West-
ern plains where they have an inexhaustible supply
of small mammals on which to prey. Now and
then an old hen grouse with a brood of fuzzy lit-
tle chicks gives a warning call and the young birds
scatter and hide their dust-colored bodies on the
dust-colored ground.
Occasionally the long, graceful form of
A HARMLESS SNAKE,
with its pretty yellow stripes, may be seen gliding
out of our way, and myriads of
FAT GIANT CRICKETS,
as big as the brown wood frogs of New York,
hop clumsily out of the horses' tracks, scolding as
they go. Everything is novel and strange to a
tenderfoot from the East; yet many things bear
a recognizable relationship to objects at home.
THE MEADOW LARKS
look like ours and one hearing them for the first
time would immediately pronounce the notes to be
those of a meadow lark. Nevertheless the West-
ern bird's voice is much rounder and more flute-
like in tone.
THE SONG SPARROW'S DITTY
seems to be the same, even though the bird itself
may differ from its Eastern brothers, but there is
nothing familiar, to the tenderfoot fresh from the
360 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
\\
, ^
FLATHEAD PRAIRIE CRICKET EATING CASTOFF CIGAR
effete civilization of the East, in the appearance of
the quaint settlement at the Mission of St. Ig-
natius. Utterly oblivious to the fact that the creak-
ing wagons contain white men, the bloody enemies
of all living things,
PLOVER AND SNIPE
run under the noses of the horses as they splash
through the cold shallow stream crossing the road
at the Mission. Around the Indian graveyard,
church, and schools, is a cluster of low, log houses
interspersed with frame ones of more pre-
tentious aspect ; the latter are the homes of French
traders. Rising abruptly from the prairie back
of the little village the Mission Range rears its
ragged snow-covered crest to an altitude of 10,000
feet.
Down the precipitous sides of the mountain,
back of the little church, dash the waters from
the fields of snow; in its wild plunge the crystal
fluid is resolved into white foam and mist, making
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 361
an irregular streak which might easily be mistaken
for a perpendicular band of snow, all of which
make a most charming scene and one which ap-
pears more like a picture evolved from some
dreamy artist's brain than a real landscape.
COWBOY "BREEDS"
in leather chaps ornamented with fringe and in-
serts or checkers of red cloth, walk awkwardly
about, cowboy fashion, proud of their brilliant red
handkerchiefs which are knotted about their
swarthy necks and of the beautiful buckskin cuffs
and hat bands incrusted with patterns of stained
porcupine quills.
OLD INDIANS
with long iron-gray hair falling on their shoulders
from beneath the broad brims of their drab quaker
hats, talk together in guttural grunts. Prone on
the ground, in the shade of the trading store, re-
cline young Indian bucks in picturesque blanket
leggings, blanket wraps and beaded moccasins,
their glossy black hair hanging in braids in front
of their shoulders and terminating in bunches of
red flannel.
SIN-YALE-A-MIN
is 3,900 feet above the sea; it is a beautiful and
romantic little lake which occupies a valley in the
Mission Range and this was our destination; but
362 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
SIN-YALE-A-MIN
Biological Camp at extreme left
time is of little importance to the "butter-chinned
priests," and "Breeds," traders, "Injuns," and
squaw-men of the Mission, and it was late ere we
got a start. Before we had reached the foot of
the mountain the king-bolt in the light wagon
broke and wrecked the vehicle so that the ladies
were forced to alight and we harnessed their team
as leaders ahead of the cayuses attached to the dun-
nage wagon. Most of the party preferred walking
to hanging on top of the rolls of tents aboard the
jolting baggage-wagon. It was almost dusk when
we entered
THE MYSTERIOUS WOODS
at the foot of the mountains. The rude trail led
up over corduroy bridges which were half washed
away, under tall, ghostly dead trees whose lofty
tops seemed to pierce the clouds. Climbing, ever
climbing with the voices of the waters always
within hearing, now gurgling, now babbling for
all the world like the sound of the many voices
of a gay picnic party in the woods.
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 363
When the glint of water through the trees an-
nounced the end of our journey it was I A. M.,
and although it was beginning to rain, we tarried
not to pitch tents, but pumping up our air mat-
tresses and unrolling our sleeping bags we crawled
into the latter and fell asleep while the rain was pat-
tering on the canvas flaps over our faces.
I was awakened the next morning by the long
drawn out call of the cook of the biological camp
on the lake shore
RO LL L L L OUT! R OLL OUT!
ROLL OUT !
Young Kendricks, a boy of twelve, was still
sleeping on a cowboy's bed-roll near me, his body
uncovered and his drowsy young head resting on
his arm ; the rays of the morning sun were shining
through his hair, making a halo around his youth-
ful face and
ON HIS CHEST WAS PERCHED A MOUNTAIN WREN;
the little bird had
its head cocked to
one side and was
saying things to
itself in a pert
wren-like manner,
as it examined the
sleeping child.
With the true
hospitality of the
OUTLET OF KOOTENAY LAKE. West ^ ^^
cal people came into our camp with a pressing
364 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
invitation to breakfast with them, which we
promptly accepted and did ample justice to our
first meal on the shores of Sin-yale-a-min.
It was the search for real wild and woolly trout,
trout which know not the price or names of the
feathered lures in one's fly-book; it was the search
for the aboriginal fish of the West, which landed
us at Sin-yale-a-min, 3,900 feet above the sea; it
is a lovely, romantic little lake that occupies a de-
pression in the Mission Range.
It was
A TWO-MILE PULL
to the head of the greenish-blue-colored glacial Sin-
yale-a-min Lake two miles in the Oregon a
clumsy, heavy skiff of
"INJUN" BUILD;
two miles with one long, roughly hewn oar and one
short, bark-covered stick with a pine "shake" nailed
to one end for an oar blade. But I bent cheer-
fully to my task, for the waters were virgin waters
as far as fly-fishing was concerned. On all sides
of the lake rise the mountains whose rounded forms
show the grinding and smoothing effects of ice.
Great swathes have been cut through the trees by
terrific avalanches. A grand forest of white cedar
(arbor vitae) trees of gigantic proportions covers
the rocky shores of the Sin-yale-a-min Creek, rear-
ing their stately heads to dizzy heights ; the irregu-
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 365
larities of the ground cause the fallen trees to rest
at all angles, and the density of the foliage over-
head makes twilight at midday. This, with the
dashing waters and the thick beds of moss, pro-
duces a weird effect in the wild gorge through
which the creek flows.
At last we had found
A SPOT UNCONTAMINATED BY MAN,
and more beautiful than any of his clumsy attempts
at landscape-gardening. About a half mile back
from the lake, the stream is a succession of falls
whose source is concealed by the thick foliage, pro-
ducing a unique effect; it looks as if the water was
pouring down from the sky itself. The lichens and
moss grow with a luxuriance I never saw elsewhere.
In the lake and at right angles to the mouth of this
stream a dead and denuded arbor vitae is lodged
on the submerged delta, and although the water
of the creek could flow under the log, for rea-
sons of its own it deflects and flows parallel with
the tree. Making the Oregon fast with a withe
and a stone, I waded out to the log and cast my
flies down the current to a point where the small
end of the giant timber was sunk in the deep and
blue waters of the lake.
AS SOON AS MY FLIES SETTLED,
I had a double strike, and landed a couple of ten
or tw T elve-inch rainbow trout, but their size some-
366 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
what disappointed me. Although we had canned
goods galore at the camp, I thought these cold-
bodied, pink-fleshed fish would be a welcome addi-
tion to our menu, and so I made another and
another cast, and soon had such a fine string of
fish that I became more particular as to the length
of the trout hooked.
Acting on this principle, the next time I found
a ten-inch trout was hooked, I steered the fighting
fish right into the swiftest waters to give it a chance
to break loose, and save a lazy man the trouble
of unhooking it.
THERE WAS A MIGHTY SPLASH
and my trout disappeared, while the line started di-
rectly out to sea. In my utter astonishment I
allowed the line- to run, and it was not until two
hundred feet of braided oil silk had unwound from
the clicking reel that there was a pause. It was
the fiercest onslaught I had ever experienced in
many years of angling. The rush of my trout
had in it all of the impetuosity and savageness of
a tiger springing upon its prey. This was the first
time I had ever wet a line in the Rocky Mountains,
and I had no idea what sort of fish now had my
hook, but I did know that a ten-inch trout is a
good-sized mouthful for even
A VERY LARGE FISH,
so I stood in that ice water unmindful of the deadly
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 367
numbness of my legs, and waited to give the
creature time to gorge the bait. The fish was a
primitive savage, and clinging manfully to the ten-
inch trout, had run two hundred feet of line off
a clicking reel without apparently noticing the snub-
bing resistance of the silk. It was very exciting,
but I was cool enough to give the creature time
after the rush. Presently, the line began to move
slowly about, and I judged
THE MOMENT HAD ARRIVED
for me to strike, and carefully and slowly I reeled
in the slack until I could "feel" the fish. Then,
with a quick movement of the wrist, I struck the
barbed hook into its mouth. It is no simple thing
to strike a fish successfully with a light fly rod
and two hundred feet of line deep down in the blue
water, but there was no doubt of the success of
my efforts, for the fish
"PUT UP" A WILD AND CRAZY FIGHT,
using neither the craft of a bass nor the judgment
of a brook trout. But it had the impetuosity and
fierceness of both combined, and soon ran out all
but a round or two of my line, and I thought that
I should lose him, for I doubted the power of my
tackle to withstand the force of a direct pull. Luck
was with me, however, for the next rush was to-
ward the shore, giving me the hoped-for oppor-
tunity to reel in some line and also a chance to run
3 68
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
to the beach and pick up my landing-net, which I
had not found necessary for the small trout.
UP AND DOWN, OUT AND IN,
my fish rushed, and then sulked in a most grievous
manner. I reeled in slowly until I could see the
dark back and slowly moving tail; carefully I
steered the fish to the net, slipped the latter under
it, and lifted a great black spotted trout from the
water, the fish making a last, mighty struggle in the
net.
It was not until the excitement was over that I
realized that there was no more sensation in my
legs than in a block of ice, and I scrambled out
BREAKING CAMP ON THE FLATHEAD PRAIRIE
of the frigid water and sat on the shore until a
vigorous rubbing and the warm sun's rays had
brought back life to my chilled limbs. Measuring
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 369
from the tips of my fingers to the wrinkles in my
coat sleeve at the shoulder, my first black spotted
TROUT WAS THE LENGTH OF MY ARM,
though not a very large specimen of this kind of
fish. Under favorable conditions, I am told that
this kind of trout often reaches the weight of
thirty pounds ; but for exciting fun and fierce fight-
ing qualities I recommend the smaller fish; the
larger ones would no doubt smash your tackle, and
your landing net would not hold the monsters.
Live bait at Sin-yale-a-min was apparently un-
attainable. There are no frogs in this high alti-
tude, and minnow-nets were not part of the outfit,
so it was known that I left camp with nothing but
a book of artificial flies, and the rumor went abroad
that my fish was caught with a fly, and the next
arrival at camp greeted me with, "Hello! I con-
gratulate you ! Understand you are doing some
great fly-fishing. What makes me think so ? Heard
them talking about it down at the Mission."
The following day I initiated the speaker into
the secret art of hooking two fish on one fly, and
we captured
A BIG DOLLY VARDEN TROUT,
known in Montana as bull trout. But it did not
make as game a fight as its black-spotted relative,
?nd after its first mad bull-like rush it threw up its
hands, so to speak, and came to the net like a
stick. In its first rush, this red spotted "bull"
wound the line round and round a sunken bush,
370 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
but my companion unwound the line with skill and
patience, during which process the great trout could
be distinctly seen swimming slowly about unmind-
ful of the hook in its jaw. Since then I have
caught larger fish and had many an exhilarating
fight with the speckled beauties of the Selkirk,
Rocky, and Cascade Mountains, and the far North-
ern waters in the wilderness northwest of Lake St.
John in Canada ; but the memory of none of them
affords such exquisite pleasure as the recollection
of my first black spotted trout taken from the
waters of Sin-yale-a-min in the snow-capped Mis-
sion Range.
HE DIDN'T HOLD HIS MOUTH RIGHT A FISHING
INCIDENT IN THE ROCKIES.
The "sky-pilot" stood, in a St. Lawrence row-
boat, awkwardly balancing himself with one gyrat-
ing arm.
The parson's boat was anchored where the
swiftly rushing waters of a mountain torrent made
countless eddies and a miniature whirlpool as it
forced its way into the greenish-blue waters of
Lake McDonald.
"Good-morning, Mr. Stanley!" exclaimed the
sky-pilot, addressing my guide. "Can you tell me,
my good man, why these
AGGRAVATING JUMPING PHILISTINES
refuse my lures?"
"You don't hold your mouth right, sir," replied
Stanley, in a mock-deferential tone.
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 371
"My mouth?" screamed the little dominie.
"What in the name of of er common sense
has that to do with fishing?" But the backwoods-
man deigned no reply.
It would be difficult for me to explain exactly
what Stanley meant by his sarcastic remark; but
it was plain to see that the buckskin man did not
approve of the sky-pilot's "get up."
On a bunch of grass in the bottom of the canoe
lay
A FEW TWELVE-INCH TROUT,
the result of some random casting during the
progress of our journey up the lake to the river's
mouth. Our catch was by no means great enough
to permit of boasting on our part, and after Stan-
ley's ungracious reply to the little minister I felt
that we must sustain our assumed superiority at all
hazards.
"SURE, IT'S UP AGIN' us
to show fish; but we'll get 'em all right, or my
name is not George Stanley. Unhitch that leader
and string o' flies, and drop 'em in the water in the
bottom of the canoe to soak awhile," said the back-
woodsman. "There, that's the ticket! Now I'll
show you a trick that'll open that gospel-sharp's
eyes," continued the mountain man as he produced
a stiff piece of wire from some mysterious source,
and using one of the boulders for an anvil and a
372
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
STANLEY, THE AUTHOR AND A STRING OF TROUT
small stone for a hammer, proceeded to make a
couple of circular loops in its otherwise straight
length.
In a surprisingly short time Stanley finished his
contrivance and had one of our twelve-inch trout
strung on the wire. The loops in the iron prevented
the trout from sliding up to line or doubling up
on the wire.
A GANG OF HOOKS
was attached to the end protruding from the
mouth of the trout, and another gang to the end
protruding from the tail of the fish. A swivel
from a spoon-hook prevented the line twisting.
I have* used all sort of artificial lures and flies,
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 373
have fished with angle-worms, grubs, helgramites,
crawfish, frogs, and minnows, alive and dead, but
never before did I use twelve-inch trout for bait.
Scarcely had my guide paddled our canoe into
the rapids before I felt a mighty strain on my
line. "Hold on a minute, Stanley; my hooks are
fast to the bottom!" I cried.
"WULL, PULL THE BOTTOM ABOARD,
then," was the complacent reply I received. But
now my line was crossing the stream at right angles,
and my reel was singing like an August cicada in
a phoebe-bird's mouth, and I knew that even the
bottom of an eccentric Rocky Mountain stream
could not yank a line around like that; my poor
little fly-rod was bending like a rib of a seventy-
five-cent umbrella in a gale.
"Don't paddle so blamed fast!" I shouted. But
Stanley knew his business; the canoe was almost
stationary, and it was only the swiftly flowing water
which gave the appearance of speed to the craft,
and deceived me into thinking that the canoe was
rapidly traveling up-stream. To tell the truth, I
had not had much confidence in my guide's plans,
and the strike took me so completely by surprise
that it is a wonder that
I HOOKED THE FISH.
But after the first shock of astonishment was over
I entered the fight with my frame thrilling with the
374 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
delicious joy of that subdued excitement which all
anglers know and appreciate, and for the sake of
which they willingly undergo suffering, hardships,
and peril.
In due time Stanley was dexterously sliding the
landing-net under the exhausted fish as it floated
alongside of the canoe.
u Good boy!
YER HELD YER MOUTH JIST RIGHT
that time!" cried the mountain man as he tri-
umphantly held the big red-spotted Dolly Varden
trout aloft, to gaze upon before consigning it .to
the bottom of the boat.
"Hold out your hand," commanded my guide,
and when he observed that my fingers trembled,
notwithstanding the most strenuous effort on my
part to hold them steady, he smiled approvingly,
and remarked, "I wouldn't fish with a man who
could land a big un an' not have palsy when 'twas
over; such a man don't appreciate sport."
IT WAS A NOBLE FISH,
two and a half feet in length from the tip of its
quivering tail to the extremity of its gaping jaws.
We had now drifted quite a distance down stream,
but Stanley resumed his paddling, and guided our
craft so that in its course up stream my line swung
under the overhanging willows of the steep shore.
Again my. little rod was bent into a circle, and
my reel sang sweet music in response to the fierce
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 375
bull-like rush of one of the spotted savages of the
cold glacier waters.
THE UNUSUAL SIZE OF MY BAIT
and the swiftly plunging water were enough in
themselves to try a sensitive rod, and you may
imagine the effect of adding a big bull-trout to the
strain the tackle already had to bear; it made lively
times, and was an experience to cause the hair on
the nape of a tenderfoot's neck to rise with excite-
ment at the mere thought of it.
An hour or so later, as our little canoe was drift-
ing down to where the sky-pilot could still be seen
thrashing the water with his frayed-out flies, Stan-
ley made me disengage the dead bait, remove the
gangs of hooks, and cast the wired fish overboard.
I was then directed to affix my leader with the
flies attached, after which the mountain man se-
lected a bull-trout of about two feet in length,
which still showed signs of life, and hooking one
of my flies in the lip of the captured fish, he gently
dropped it into the water.
"IT WILL COME TO IN A FEW MINUTES,"
explained my guide, and it did. We were drifting
among the eddies near the sky-pilot when I felt my
fish tug at the line. Just then the dominie hailed
us with the inquiry, "What luck, good friends?"
"Ah, only so so not biting well today," replied'
Stanley, in a discouraged tone, but with a twinkle
in his eyes. By this time I was beginning to have
376
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
fun with my resuscitated trout. This attracting
my guide's attention, he, in simulation of wild ex-
citement, began to shout such advice as this: "Gosh
all hemlock, man! hold yer mouth right! Keep
the tip up. Don't snub him ! Look out now ! Mind
yer mouth!" and many similar directions. We
made a fine show, and I played the half-dead fish
in such a careful manner, taking advantage of every
swirl of the current to let my reel run, that it
might have deceived even a more expert angler than
the little parson.
The sight of the two-foot fish brought forth an
exclamation of delight from the sky-pilot which
softened my heart and
MADE ME FEEL GUILTY.
We were now
close to the St.
Lawrence skiff,
and when the
dominie caught a
glimpse of the
string of great
fish in the canoe
bottom, he nearly
collapsed, and as
soon as he could
find his voice he
softly said to
himself: u Dear
me! Dear me!
and on ' a flv WOMEN ARE ALWAYS THE
'*' BEST FISHERMEN.
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 377
too!" Then, as a sudden thought seemed to strike
him, he cried: "Good gracious, gentlemen! How
did you hold your mouths?"
In the lower part of New York, where the
Brooklyn Bridge crosses the narrow streets with its
arches, there was formerly a number of taxi-
dermists' shops, and there are still some left in
that neighborhood. There was one store occupied
by Mr. Wallace. It was
A DARK, MYSTERIOUS PLACE
filled with pungent odors and uncanny objects, as
like as not one would find a heap of dead animals,
trophies of the hunt, in the passage way. The
gloom of the store took as many fanciful shapes
as one's bedroom does when one has the night-
mare. There were huge gorillas, great serpents,
terrible nondescript animals. These things were,
however, real, while those we see in the nightmare
fade away when we open our eyes. When I say
the queer things in Wallace's shop were real I do
not mean that they were alive, I only wish to con-
vey the idea that they were real, substantial objects
and were specimens of
MR. WALLACE'S SKILL AS A TAXIDERMIST.
The giant gorilla skin was never worn by a live
gorilla, but formerly clothed the back of some
bears. In truth there was nothing in connection
with this giant gorilla which came from a real ani-
mal of this kind. The teeth which gleamed in his
ugly mouth formerly were the pride and power of
378 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
an African lion. But nevertheless it did have a
realistic appearance and resembled a real gorilla;
it is today probably being exhibited by some side-
show and heralded as the genuine article. Mr.
Wallace's principal business, however, was not mak-
ing groups of strange animals for side-shows, but
skillfully mounting real animals' skins in as good an
imitation of nature as did any of the taxidermists
of his time. If the shop was gloomy, mysterious,
and uncanny, it did not in any particular partake
of the nature of the proprietor, for Wallace him-
self was a long-bearded, genial old soul, a man of
wide experience and a most interesting person with
whom to talk. Whenever he received some new
or strange creature it was his custom to send me
word and I would journey down to his shop to
make sketches and take notes. One day Wallace
sent word that he had
A PARROT FISH DOWN AT HIS SHOP
which he thought might make an interesting
sketch. I was very busy at the time on some rush
work, and so I asked the wood engraver, in the
office next to my studio, if he would not go and
get the parrot fish for me at noon. He was a good
fellow and readily agreed to accommodate me, but
after he produced the fish it took a long time
for me to convince him that I had no idea of the
size of the fish and no intention of playing a prac-
tical joke when I asked him to get it, and it is
doubtful if he ever was thoroughly convinced. I
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 379
thought the parrot fish was a small creature about
the size of a shad, but as Mat, the engraver, said :
"It was as long as a plumber's bill and as fat as a
police captain/' and he had toted that blamed
thing on his shoulder from Ann Street along
Broadway to Dey Street.
HE CAUSED GREAT HILARITY
and a brilliant flow of witticisms among the crowds
that he passed, and when he reached my studio
his face was red with anger and chagrin, which was
increased by the burst of laughter with which I
greeted him and his big parrot fish. It may be
that before Mat died, he had forgiven me for the
joke he thought I played upon him, or it may be
before that time that the good fellow really be-
lieved that it was an accident and that I had no
more idea of the size of the fish than he had. The
incident, however, served to teach us both not
only the size of a parrot fish but incidentally
their habits and general appearance. Since then
very much smaller live specimens have been ex-
hibited at the New York Aquarium, but this one
of Wallace's was a "sockdologer" and a real
AMERICAN PARROT FISH.
There is probably no more curious and beautiful
fish in American waters than this great green fish,
yet, after having spent nearly a day in a diligent
search at the library, the writer was unable to find
380 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
any account of it beyond the bare mention of the
fact that such a fish existed, but there were many
careful drawings and accounts of the European
scarus, a smaller and less elegant creature inhabit-
ing the Mediterranean Sea, but since Mat went
fishing on William Street, the United States Gov-
ernment has printed numerous beautifully illus-
trated books of our fishes.
The Wallace specimen came from Campeachy
Bay, Mexico, and was, when this was written,
owned by Mr. Blackford, of Fulton Market. It
measured, from tip of its beak to tip of its tail,
three feet one inch, and its greatest vertical width
was thirteen inches. In form the fish is not un-
like the common u sheepshead" ; its dorsal and cau-
dal fins terminate in long points, and the other fins
have the same tendency. There was no way of as-
certaining its weight, but when alive it could have
weighed not less than forty or fifty pounds. The
most striking peculiarity of this fish is its dental
anatomy. Its odd-looking mouth or beak is com-
posed of a bony structure of a bluish-green color,
excepting the teeth upon the cutting edge, which
are white and polished. These teeth, from the out-
side, have the appearance of being rather long
shingle shafts set edge to edge. Upon the inside,
however, their compound structure is at once de-
tected; the cutting edge of each jaw is composed
of about fourteen irregular scallops or undulations,
each of which is composed of about eight well-de-
fined teeth, with five or six very indistinct ones as
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 381
a base. The four teeth which form the rim are
white; the four crowded below are tinted with
green, making a pretty green and white mosaic
work; the green gradually grows darker until it
merges into the uniform color of the bony beak
or jaw.
THE TEETH OF FISHES
offer a more striking series of varieties than that
of any other animal. First, the sturgeon and
the whole order to which it belongs is without
teeth; the myxinoids have only a single tooth; and,
lastly, are those fish whose mouths are filled with
countless numbers of fangs or points as the pike.
The dental organs are always an important and
almost a sure key to the habits of an animal; for
from the form, construction, and position of the
teeth an accurate and definite conclusion can be
reached as to the kind of food eaten. So in the
curious arrangement of the mouth of the parrot
fish we see that the teeth grow in crowds, new ones
being always ready to take the place of the old
ones that are worn away, from which fact it would
be natural to infer that the teeth are much worn
in masticating the food, and that the food must
be hard. This reference is proved to be correct
upon learning that their food is the corals that
cover the bottom of the sea like a brilliant garden
of many-colored flowers. The sensitive little
creatures upon which these fish feed, retire when
touched into their calcareous suits of armor, and
382 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
the fish must therefore be provided with suitable
instruments for crushing their prey from their
stony coverings.
Although we may laugh at the ignorance and
superstition of the ancients when
THEY SAID THAT THE PARROT FISH COULD TALK,
and declared that it had the habit of sleeping at
night and ruminating by day, we must acknowledge
that there was some logic in their method of rea-
soning, for the parrot fish certainly browses upon
the corals much after the manner of ruminating
animals, and until a comparatively recent date
corals themselves were believed to be vegetables
and the little creatures that inhabit them to be the
flowers.
Cuvier was of the opinion that the parrot fish
of Adrovandus is the species celebrated by
the ancients, by whom it was endowed with most
wonderful qualities and intelligence. They as-
serted that he was a sort of good Samaritan,
GOING ABOUT DOING GOOD
to his neighbor by releasing all unfortunate fish
found entangled in the nets set for them by their
enemy man. It was also believed that this species
alone among all fish slept at night and had the
power of chewing its cud like cattle. The parrot
fish was highly esteemed as a delicacy, the flesh was
said to be tender and palatable. They were cooked
like woodcock without removing the intestines
FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES
383
and are so cooked and served to the present day.
Elipertius Optatus, commander of the Roman Fleet
in the time of Claudius, sailed to Greece with the
object of obtaining large supplies of these fish with
which to stock the Italian Seas.
So "there is nothing new under the sun." Even
Seth Green, our great and enthusiastic piscatorial
culturist, but followed in the path trodden by the
ancient fish culturists many hundred years removed.
I told all this to my obliging friend, Mat the
engraver, but Mat said, "Cut it out! I'm through
with parrot fish, even the newsboys in the street
shouted as I passed:
'GET ON TER JONAH AND THE WHALE,' "
CHAPTER XXVI
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS
A HEADLESS SNAKE STRIKES THE AUTHOR TEST OF THE FET-
ISH THE STORY OF BILLY WHO IS HAPPIEST WHEN HE
IS BLUE HOW HE CAME BY MAIL WAS ASPHYXIATED
ATE MEAL WORMS LITTLE RED " BILLIES," BIG RED
"BILLIES," SPOTTED "BILLIES," AND SLIMY "BILLIES"
A WATER "BILLY" A GREAT MYSTERY THE DOUBLE
LIFE OF THE VERMILION SPOTTED NEWT HE EATS HIS
OLD CLOTHES ONLY COMES OUT AT NIGHT EASY TO
KEEP IN CONFINEMENT THE CAROLINA ANOLIS CAUGHT
A BLACK ONE AND FOUND I HAD A GREEN ONE COLOR
CHANGES OF AN AMERICAN CHAMELEON GREEN ITS
FAVORITE COLOR WONDERFUL ARRANGEMENT OF ITS
FEET.
A few years ago there was a package came by
mail from Natchez, Mississippi. It was tightly
sealed, but had a suspicious appearance, and looked
as if it contained some sort of natural history speci-
men, but whether the thing inside was dead or
alive, iish or reptile, there was but one way to dis-
cover. The package was opened and out rolled
a little lizard. It was apparently dead, asphyxi-
ated from its long confinement without air, but
when laid on the window-sill where the breeze blew
over its little gray body, it soon began to show signs
of life. A letter following the package told me
that the thing was a pet and its name was Billy.
384
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 385
I do not know the common name for this lizard,
but its long scientific name is Sceloporus undulaytus
and Billy was a male specimen of this lizard as
anyone could tell by the markings under his chin
and upon the sides of his belly. When Billy felt
good the spots under his chin turned blue; when
he felt fine and was in buoyant spirits they were
a brilliant sky blue; in other words, Billy just re-
versed the scheme of color we human beings have.
When we're feeling fine we say we have a red hot
time, and when we're feeling bad we say we're
having the blues. Billy was happiest when he had
the blues. I kept him for a year or more and he
used to rattle around my studio among the papers,
scamper over the wire screen in the windows, and
catch flies on the window-pane, but his principal
food consisted of meal worms which I bought for
him at the bird fanciers. My little girl was a tiny
baby when Billy arrived, and had just learned to
talk when Billy died. The consequence of this is
that now that she is five years old, every newt, sala-
mander and lizard is called by her a Billy, anr!
she distinguishes them only by the color. There
are little
RED BILLIES AND BIG RED BILLIES,
and spotted Billies and slimy Billies, and these are
the names commonly used by all the visitors to
Wild Lands. The little red Billy is the vermilion-
spotted newt or red eft; an exceedingly interest-
386 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ing little creature and very common in the moun-
tains of Pike County.
After a rain one may pick up hundreds of them
on any mountain trail, path or wood road, and
from the time little Barbara was able to creep she
has taken great delight in gathering red Billies,
and each year we bring home a lot with us to the
city, where they live on some damp sphagnum
moss in a fish globe in apparent contentment all
winter. Down in the lake among the lily pads
there is a
WATER "BILLY,"
in other words an aquatic vermilion-spotted newt.
Surrounding these two newts and their life history
there is a great mystery. It is claimed by
Professor Simon Henry Gage of Cornell Uni-
versity who has written an exceedingly interesting
paper on the subject, that the vermilion-spotted
newt deposits its eggs upon water plants and stones
in the water. The eggs are sticky and adhere to
the plants and stones until they are hatched. The
young live in the water for a while and then leave
it and take to the land. When they take to the
land they are known as the vermilion-spotted
newts, and by the country people as the
LITTLE RED "LIZARDS."
I have kept the vermilion-spotted newts all winter
and they did change their color and assume the
yellowish brown of the aquatic specimens, but I
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 387
could not induce them to live in the water. How-
ever, they may not have been ready for that change
of environment, and my experiment proves nothing,
but anyone interested in solving this problem can
easily do so by keeping a lot of vermilion-spotted
newts in a box, the bottom of which is covered
with moss which must be kept damp. By intro-
ducing fresh moss you will introduce new food
SKETCHES OP NEWT SKINNING ITSELF
supply for the little creatures, for the moss will
be full of all the little worms and insects which
make their home in the damp carpet of the woods.
I have kept the aquatic newts in aquariums for
a year or more, but never had one show
an inclination or indication of changing its former
388 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
habits to that of a land animal. But I did succeed
in making some interesting sketches of one of these
creatures in the act of removing its skin, which are
here reproduced. The sketches were very rapidly
drawn, but are perfectly accurate as far as the pose
and action of the creature is concerned. Fig. i
shows a newt with
THE SKIN ROLLED BACK FROM ITS HEAD
over its arms pinioning them to its side. This was
as I first discovered it ; by a series of wriggling mo-
tions the creature squirmed out of its skin until
the arms were free, and the fold of skin bound its
waist like a tight belt, as shown in Fig. 2.
STILL SQUIRMING
and writhing the slippery little body worked its
way out of its tight-fitting clothes until it had
rolled its shirt, so to speak, back over its legs as
may be seen as shown by Fig. 3. The hardest
part of the work was now over; it seemed an easy
matter for it to work its skin down to its tail, and
then a funny thing happened; the little animal bent
itself in a circle, as shown by Fig. 4, took the old
skin in its mouth and pulled it off from the end of
its tail, wrong side outwards, of course, just as
you would pull the finger of a kid glove from your
own finger, Fig. 5. I was interested to know what
it was going to do with its old suit of clothes;
whether It would donate them to some aquatic
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 389
orphan asylum, send them to the missionaries or
sell them to some subaqueous ragman; but little
Red Spot had a better way of disposing of its cast-
off garments and that was by simply swallowing
them, as shown in Fig. 6.
THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER
is much larger than the vermilion-spotted newt,
390 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
and specimens which I have measured, ran from
five and one-half to six inches long.
THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER
delights in living in the muck and mud and only
comes out at night. The one which I kept in cap-
tivity for about a year fed on angle worms. It
was not very lively, and if it was guilty of any
interesting performances they were done while I
was asleep.
THE LITTLE BROWN SALAMANDER
known as the red-backed salamander, on account
of a reddish brown streak extending from its nose
along its back to the tip end of its tail, is very plen-
tiful in the woods of Pennsylvania. It lives under
sticks and stones and wet rags, in rotten stumps,
under damp fallen leaves, or any place which
affords moisture. Its life history is unknown to
me, but it makes a good companion in a collection
of the vermilion-spotted newts, and lives with
these little creatures, if not on terms of friendship,
at least as an inoffensive companion.
To supplement my drawing of these creatures I
have introduced some most excellent photographs
taken from live specimens, and with them is the
photograph of the
RED SALAMANDER.
Upper Picture. RED EFT OR VER-
MILION-SPOTTED NEWT.
Lower Picture. RED BACKED SA-
LAMANDER.
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 391
This must not
be confused with |
the vermilion-
spotted newt, as
it differs from it
in both size,
habits and ap-
pearance. It is
of a brilliant
vermilion color,
disagreeable to
handle because
it is very slimy
whereas the lit-
tle red efts are
not at all unpleasant to handle and not in the least
slimy. The red salamander shown here was about
six inches long, covered with black spots and ex-
tremely lively. It also is nocturnal in its habits, but
the one we kept in confinement would come out
of its concealment much more frequently than did
its dark-colored, spotted companion. The draw-
ings reproduced here in half-tone were made in
colors, but to reproduce in colors all the numerous
illustrations in this book would add so much to
the expense as practically to put it out of the reach
of boys and young people for whom it was written.
I have already said that I knew very little about
the
LIFE HISTORY OF THE COMMON SALAMANDERS,
newts and lizards, and from my experience in re-
392
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
f erring to technical books on the subject I think
there is a great deal yet to be learned. Labor fol-
lows the line of the least resistance in the study
of Nature as well as in all other fields of work;
consequently the majority of Nature students
choose birds. Birds are popular, easily seen. You
can lie on the grass under the shade of a tree to
watch them and take notes of their habits, but you
cannot
1. THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER.
2. THE RED SALAMANDER.
BURY YOURSELF IN THE MUD
and muck of the swamp to study the habits and
life history of the spotted salamander. Neither can
you bury yourself in the cold ground around the
spring hole and live under the sphagnum moss
while you make notes of the red salamander; but
you can very easily keep all these creatures in con-
finement, and here is an opportunity for any
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 393
AMBITIOUS BOY NATURALIST
to make careful and accurate observations and
notes of these creatures which will not only be in-
teresting for himself, but his discoveries will be of
importance enough to give him a reputation and
standing even among the grave old scientists.
Everybody, however, is familiar with the ap-
pearance of
THE AMERICAN CHAMELEON
or the green Carolina anolis.
Perhaps the first creature that attracts the eye
of the Northern naturalist upon landing at Florida
is a small, slender lizard, which appears omni-
present, to be seen running up and down the walls
of the old fort at St. Augustine, peering in at the
windows of the hotel at Palatka, scampering over
the logs of the swamp at Tocoi, or scrambling
along the garden fences at Jacksonville. It may
also be seen exhibited for sale along with young
ALLIGATORS, WILDCATS, BLACK BEARS,
and many other queer objects to be found in the
jewelry stores at Jacksonville.
The specimen from which my illustrations are
made I captured at Tocoi. When first taken it
was of a sooty black, five minutes afterwards, when
I opened the handkerchief in which I was carry-
ing it to show my prize to a friend, I was amazed
to find, in the place of the dark, dingy
394 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
little creature I had wrapped up, a beautiful
emerald green lizard. It was only then that I dis-
covered my specimen to be the so-called American
chameleon. I was somewhat ashamed of my ig-
norance until I met a certain collector from Michi-
gan, who had gathered quite a number of what he
took to be distinct species of lizards, and had care-
fully preserved them in spirits, only to find upon
inspection, that they were all exactly alike in form
and color, all having assumed a yellowish-brown
tint after immersion in alcohol. Those that I kept
in captivity proved very gentle pets, and would run
over my hands waiting eagerly for me to catch
flies for them. Although quick in their movements,
and able by the help of their tail to spring quite
a distance, these little animals never could capture
the flies for themselves unless I first crippled the
insect by removing a wing. They loved the sun-
shine and fresh air, the latter they would swallow
occasionally in great gulps, expanding a sort of
pouch under their neck by the process.
THOUGH GENTLE WHEN TREATED WITH
KINDNESS,
when tormented they would fight, opening their
mouths in a ludicrous manner. After trying in
vain to bite a lead pencil, with which I had been
stroking its back and otherwise plaguing it, one
of them deliberately
LIZARDS, NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 395
SHOOK OFF ITS TAIL,
and scampered away, leaving three-fifths of its
length wriggling upon the floor, where it continued
to twist for some time. A drop or two of blood
moistened the stump where the tail had been, but
though the loss of the latter appeared to cause no
physical pain the little cripple seemed
ASHAMED OF ITS ODD APPEARANCE
and hid itself in corners. It remained in my room
for a month longer, but I seldom caught sight of
the disfigured little thing.
It is
THE COLOR CHANGES
of this little creature that attract and interest all
observers.
The negroes and even intelligent white inhabi-
tants of the district frequented by the anolis, tell
many fabulous stories of its wonderful powers
in this respect. Experiments with specimens
which were in my possession at different times
seemed to demonstrate that pea-green, gray, and
sooty black and reddish-yellow were the limits
of its powers. When frightened or pleased
IT TURNED GREEN;
if agitated for some time, in apparent indecision,
the color would fade and return in blotches. Under
an ordinary magnifying glass it could be seen that
the hollow around the eyes changed first. Then
the hexagonal plates upon
396 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
THE HEAD SHOWED THE COLOR,
commencing at the edges and gradually spreading
over each plate, the centers being the last points
to turn. If a number of these animals are placed
in alcohol they will be found to assume a dirty
yellow or brown tinge. This is probably the
natural hue of the skin with the coloring matter
removed. The pigments appear to be contained
in a network of vessels beneath the skin, and to be
somewhat, though not altogether,
UNDER CONTROL OF THE ANIMAL.
One, placed upon a bright crimson cloth, did as-
sume a reddish-yellow color, and though it did not
approach the brightness of the cloth, a casual ob-
server would hardly have noticed the lizard mo-
tionless upon it, but I doubt that the color of the
cloth affected the color of the anolis.
Green is its favorite color, and black I never saw
but in one instance. When hiding in the Spanish
moss or upon a tree trunk it is often gray in color,
but this may be accidental; yellowish-red it as-
sumes with apparent effort. It sometimes was very
near the color of a cigar box. From tip of nose
to tip of tail it measures from five to six inches,
the tail being three-fifths of its total length. The
head is rather large, triangular in shape, apex at
the nose, and covered with small hexagonal plates
from the hose to just behind the eyes. The rest
/ ^JL
398 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
of the body is covered with small papillous points ;
the nostrils are near the apex of the nose; the ani-
mal has no apparent external ears; it has bright,
intelligent, almond-shaped eyes; large mouth, ten
well defined teeth upon each side of the upper
jaw, four well defined teeth in the lower
jaw, the intermediate space being filled with minute
points ; and four well developed legs, five toes upon
each, each toe swelling out into a soft pad, ter-
minating in a hooked claw. The pad or middle
of the toe,
UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS,
shows an odd arrangement of folds or flounces in
the skin, 'each flounce, tuck, or fold being armed
upon its edge with minute points, one-half of them
pointing up and the other half down, as shown in
the illustration. This explains the creature's ability
to run up or down the side of a house with equal
facility.
In the illustration I have shown the lizard upon
my finger, with mouth open ; the dark color repre-
senting its favorite green hue. At the bottom in
the moss is the same animal in its gray coat. In
the same place appears a magnificent view of the
teeth, the second toe of the hind foot much en-
larged, showing the peculiar arrangement of the
folds of the skin upon the under side, and an en-
larged view of the hind leg, and the head as it
appeared under the glass while changing its color.
But in making the half-tone cut for this book
almost all the drawings were reduced.
CHAPTER XXVII
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES
LOOPING THE LOOP, OR HANDCUFFED BY A BLACK SNAKE
BITTEN BY A RATTLER WATER SNAKE PULLS ITS OWN TAIL
OFF SNAKE EGGS WHICH HATCH INSIDE THE MOTHER
RING SNAKES, GREEN SNAKES AND RED BELLIED SNAKES
SQUIRREL TORMENTS A BLACK SNAKE LEGEND OF EVE*S
WEDDING RING SLUG-EATING SNAKES A TURTLE, A
MOLE AND A ROBIN UNABLE TO EAT A SLUG SENSELESS
HORROR GREAT JUMPING JERUSALEM, OR THE POLICEMAN
AND THE PYTHON.
I owned a little pocket image of the Sacred Ape.
It was sent to me from India by a missionary
friend of mine, who jokingly said, that it was a
very powerful fetish and if properly treated could
perform magical feats. We had been fishing, my
friend and I, we had been very lucky with bass,
pickerel and trout; each time before we cast a
line I took the sacred monkey from my pocket
and mumbling a string of meaningless words over
its head I implored it to give us luck. My friend
became very enthusiastic over the monk, as he
called it. This being his last day at Wild Lands,
he solemnly asked me to get him a rattlesnake.
At that time, although I had occupied Wild Lands
for a number of years, I had never seen or heard
a rattlesnake in the neighborhood, or any other
399
400 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
part of the country around; so fearing for the repu-
tation of my sacred monkey, I began to explain
that it wasn't a good season for rattlesnakes; that
we had had bad forest fires in the spring, and so
on. We were trudging along a dusty road and
my guest insisted upon sitting right down there
in the dust, going through an incantation, and ask-
ing the ape to produce a rattlesnake. I reluctantly
consented, telling my friend at the same time that
this was a very severe test, for I did not believe
there was a rattlesnake in the township. We both
sat down, however, in the dusty road and I drew
a magic circle with my finger, and put the poor old
ape from Hindoostan in the center, and as solemn
as any priest of the ancient gods, went through the
mummeries. Now here is where luck favored me.
We had not gone a quarter of a mile when we
heard a locust singing in a huckleberry bush.
When you hear a locust in a huckleberry bush,
it isn't a locust you hear at all, but a rattlesnake.
By locust I mean the cicada, or harvest fly, which
is commonly known as a locust. I looked around
at my friend and he was stepping as high as if the
snow was three feet deep. His eyes were as big
as saucers. I told him the snake wasn't in the road
where he could see it, it was in the huckleberry
bush ; I then cut him a switch so that he might kill
the snake without injuring its skin. Bless your
soul ! He did not hear a word I said to him, but
when I pointed out the snake to him in the huckle-
berry bush he snatched a big club and would have
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 401
beaten it to a jelly had I not restrained him. The
snake was killed and I cut off its head. It is cus-
tomary in Pike County, Pennsylvania, always to
cut off the head of a dead rattler and put it under
a stone where no harm can come from foolish peo-
ple or children meddling with the poisoned fangs.
I then reached for the snake for the purpose of
skinning it, but no sooner did my fingers touch
the body than it instantly assumed a striking pose ;
although I instinctively jumped away
THE SNAKE STRUCK ME
on the wrist with the bloody stump of
its neck. It almost seemed as if the headless body
not only possessed nerves, but also sight. How-
ever, I'll leave this act to be explained by men
who make a study of these things.
LOOPING THE LOOP.
While out in the woods during the early sum-
mer I became much interested in the tree-climb-
ing snakes, and while making some colored sketches
of live specimens I was surprised at the facility
and rapidity with which these snakes could tie a
knot with their bodies, and also the strength they
exhibited. In a recent issue of Recreation there
was a note telling how a young man of Bohemia,
Pike County, Pennsylvania, was
BITTEN ON THE HAND BY A RATTLER.
What interests me in connection with this subject
402
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
is not the fact of Jim's being bitten by this ven-
omous reptile, if he was really bitten, but that when
the snake wrapped around his arm and he grasped
HANDCUFFED BY A SNAKE
it by the neck it had sufficient strength to pull it-
self loose from his hand, which fact caused the
accident. I know Jim, and he is a powerful young
backwoodsman, with muscles of iron, and even
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 403
though his hold might not have been the best, it
must have required phenomenal strength on the
part of the snake to pull loose from his grasp. I
would have been more surprised at this and in-
clined to doubt it were it not for the fact that
last summer I grasped a water snake, which was
creeping under a rock, by the tail a'ld attempted
to hold it until some one should remove the stone ;
but the snake pulled so hard that it left the tail
in my grasp and itself disappeared under the stone.
I have never heard that the water snake has been
noted for its strength, but I have since discovered
that this snake can squeeze with more power than
any snake of its size which I have handled.
When coiled around one's wrist the common,
banded water snake "Moccasin," by which
I mean the Tropidonotus fasciatus sipedon,
the common water snake of the Northeast,
can coil so tightly and use such muscular force as
to be very uncomfortable. It can also make an
ugly bite, although I have been careful not to
have any personal experience in this line. They
are not poisonous, but I do not enjoy being bitten
just for the fun of the thing even by non-poisonous
serpents. In the colored plate accompanying this
chapter the reader will see drawings of the young
water snake which was alive when taken from the
egg, also a colored picture of the eggs, as
they appeared when taken from the body
of the snake, like a string of big amber
beads, and a separate drawing of one egg
404
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
showing the young snake coiled within. There is
no picture of the parent snake for the reason that
she was mashed to a jelly by a large stone from
the hand of a heroic ( ?) man. I baited a fish-
hook with one of the young snakes and made a
cast from the pier on which the snake was killed.
The bait no sooner sank in the water than it was
devoured by a large sun-fish which I landed and
then threw back. Had there been a bass or a
TOP VIEW OF SELF-TYING KNOT
pickerel there at that moment, it would probably
have taken the bait as readily as did the sun-fish.
The interesting point about the accompanying
sketches is that the drawing of the young snake
shows two heart-shaped appendages, which have
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 405
all the appearance of rudimentary paddles, corre-
sponding to the hind limbs of a reptile.
When fishing on Big Tink Pond these water
snakes will steal one's minnows if they can gain
access to the pail. I once set a patent minnow trap
for bait and the next day found no minnows but
THREE VERY PORTLY WATER SNAKES
inside the trap.
It is the habit of the native fishermen when fish-
ing for catfish at night to cut off the heads of the
captured fish, skin the bodies and throw the head
and skin into the water. Any one acquainted with
the flat, broad-mouthed catfish knows how wide
the head is in proportion to the body of the fish.
One day I discovered one of these water snakes in
the act of swallowing a large catfish head.
I carefully retreated, and secured my camera to
photograph the reptile, but a little snake-killing
dog named Jip discovered the water snake before
I had the instrument focused, and pouncing upon
it he shook it literally to pieces.
When making these sketches of the little green
snake which I attempted to hold with one hand
while I sketched with the other, it
WOULD SWING ITS TAIL
around until it struck my pencil or some other ob-
ject, and then, with a motion quicker than that of
the most expert Jack Tar, it would throw a hitch
around that object, or a knot, which could not
4 o6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
be pulled loose without endangering the parting
of the snake's body.
In Pike County, Pennsylvania, in the neighbor-
hood of Wild Lands, there are two kinds of green
snakes. One species of the snake is the keeled,
and the other is the smooth or the grass snake.
Any boy can distinguish
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO SNAKES
as soon as he takes them in his hand. They are
perfectly harmless, and seldom attempt to bite one.
The only time I ever had one attempt to bite me
happened while I was trying to sketch one
shown in the accompanying illustration. Some
ladies from the Forest Lake Club, stopping to
make a call at my camp, interrupted my work, and
while I was talking to them one of them gave a
scream and exclaimed: "Mr. Beard, that snake
is biting your thumb !"
The snake was trying to escape from my hand,
and I unconsciously squeezed it too hard for its
comfort, and the poor little thing tried to free it-
self by biting my thumb, but, as may be imagined,
the bite that I could not feel was not a very serious
bite. Let us, however, return to the difference be-
tween these two snakes.
THE KEELED GREEN SNAKE
has a little ridge on each scale, like the keel of a
boat, and the smooth green snake or grass snake
has none.
THE HARMLESS GREEN SNAKES
408 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
In the "Serpents of Pennsylvania," by Prof. H.
Surface, the keeled green snake is only reported
from Lancaster and Dauphin counties. In the
magnificent Reptile Book by Raymond L. Dit-
mar, the author says of the keeled green snake:
"Although widely distributed this reptile does
not range so far north as the other green snake.
Its habitat is from Southern New Jersey south-
ward through Florida and westward to the Missis-
sippi in the northern portion of its range. In the
South, it extends westward to California. It oc-
curs in Northern Mexico." From which it appears
that they have not before been reported as far
north as Wild Lands. Unfortunately, my speci-
mens of both kinds were carelessly allowed to es-
cape before the drawings were finished. The truth
is that I was more interested at the time in their
ABILITY TO TIE KNOTS WITH THEIR TAILS
than in making a record of the range of the dif-
ferent species, but I can positively state that I
picked up a specimen of the keeled green snake,
which I found sunning itself in the middle of the
road leading from Forest Lake Club to Wild
Lands.
While engaged in this work my nephew cap-
tured
A LUSTY MOUNTAIN BLACK SNAKE,
and I got my camera ready, focused it and put
it in the hands of one of the party, and then tried
VIEW OF UNDER SIDE OP KNOT PULLED TIGHT BY
THE SNAKE ITSELF
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 409
the experiment to see what the black snake would
do with my two hands when his tail touched them.
The result is depicted in the accompanying photo-
graphs.
IT HANDCUFFED ME
in less time than it takes to tell how it did it. In
fact, its movements were too quick for me to
accurately tell just how they were made, but by
taking a series of photographs of different views
I succeeded in getting some pictures which will ex-
plain the operation better than I can by words.
The first photograph shows my nephew
HOLDING THE SNAKE BY THE HEAD
the moment after its tail had touched my arm,
and, as may be seen, my hands are securely tied
together, (on p. 404.)
The second photograph shows an upper view o'f
the snake in my hands.
The third photograph shows an under view. In
each of these two photographs I forcibly kept
my hands apart so as to show the manner in which
the knot was tied. In the last photograph you can
see how completely I was handcuffed, after
THE SNAKE HAD DRAWN THE KNOT TAUT,
by this living manacle. Of course, I do not
want the reader or anyone else to think that I was
4 io DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
unable to free myself, because I have strength
enough, and any ordinary man has, simply to pull
his hands apart and tear the body of the little
reptile asunder; but had its body been made of
metal instead of flesh no handcuff invented by man
could have held me more securely.
TO KEEP THIS SNAKE FOR FUTURE OBSERVATIONS
I threw him in a large receiving cage, which was
made of a piece of wire netting, bent into the form
of a cylinder, and covered top and bottom, and in
which I put any small live things which I captured
and needed for observation. It was what in olden
days the showman used to call a "happy family"
that occupied this cage, but the happy part repre-
sents only the showman's way of putting things.
There was a flying squirrel in this cage, and he
took a malicious delight in tormenting the black
snake. The serpent was a cautious hunter. He
would move around so slowly that the motion was
scarcely perceptible, in his attempt to gain a
vantage ground from which to strike and capture
his tormentor, and his care and woodcraft deserved
success, but the quarry was shy and wise with the
wisdom of the wood folks, and if the black snake
could strike quickly the squirrel could jump even
more swiftly than the snake could strike. Time
and time again the squirrel crept chattering down
the sides. of the cage until he had tempted the
black snake to spring at him if you can use such
THE SNAKE WAS FORCED TO
OPEN UP KNOT AND SHOW
BETTER ITS CONSTRUCTION
(Note the knot on forearm)
THE SNAKE WHIPS ITS TAIL
AROUND MY WRIST
A BABY SNAKE FROM SOUTH AMERICA
4 i2 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
an expression to designate the motion, which was
simply a sudden straightening out of a loop made
in the shiny black neck and, although the snake's
motion when attacking was apparently as rapid as
that of the shutter of a camera,
HIS POOR NOSE
would come with a bang against the hard, unyield-
ing wires, and the squirrel would be in the top of
the cage ready to repeat the manoeuver. At last,
in sheer pity for the snake's wounded nose, I took
the reptile by the tail and pulled him from the cage
and tossed him down on the damp ground under
the ferns, where he might find life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness without the company of
flying squirrels. He was a fine specimen of black
snake. Every motion of his glistening body be-
tokened strength and grace, and I was very anxious
to make a careful study of him, for I have none
among my sketches, but, because of the unceasing
persecution of the flying squirrel, I liberated my
model and allowed it to escape.
I will not vouch for the absolute truthfulness
of the following story, and I fail to recollect
seeing anywhere an account of a jewelry shop in
the Garden of Eden, although all accounts men-
tion
ADAM AND EVE AND THE SERPENT.
But this is a new version of the serpent inci-
dent. It seems that after Adam and Eve had lived
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 413
happily for some time together Eve had a yearn-
ing for an affinity, or possibly her life was too
monotonous, and things ran too smoothly in the
Garden of Eden; the life there lacked excitement
and was absolutely devoid of gossip. At any rate,
so the story goes
EVE MET THE SERPENT
one day when Adam was not with her. Of course
if Adam had been a man of pluck and had been
present he would have taken a stick and killed the
snake as his descendants have been doing ever since,
but according to the legend Adam was mooning
about somewhere else in the garden when he
should have been at home with his wife. The ser-
pent, taking advantage of Adam's absence, twisted
himself up in such beautiful spirals and made such
pretty compliments that he completely won the
good lady's heart. Then it was that he boldly
asked her for her wedding ring. "But you have
no hands," exclaimed Eve, coquettishly, "and hav-
ing no hands you have no ring finger. What shall
I do? Shall I slip it over your tail?"
"No, no," replied the serpent. "It would be in
the way there. Slip it over my head and I will
wear it as a necklace."
Eve did as she was bid and to this day you can
find Madam Eve's wedding ring of shining gold
DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
GARTER SNAKE AND ELEVEN EGGS CUT FROM IT
ON EVERY RING-NECKED SNAKE.
On the same colored page with the water snake
and the eggs, you will find some drawings of the
ring-necked snake and its eggs. This is a gentle,
inoffensive little reptile and like the green snake
it may be handled with perfect safety. While clear-
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 415
ing a piece of ground near Wild Lands for the pur-
pose of erecting a cabin I was picking up the stones
and casting them in a heap we used for a founda-
tion. In a space fifty by fifty feet I found over
a dozen of these little snakes. If they are as plenti-
ful as this all over the country a little calculation
will show you what immense numbers of these little
insect-eating creatures inhabit the unimproved land.
Snakes are very much more plentiful than the
majority of people imagine, and some varieties are
TO BE FOUND EVEN IN OUR CITY STREETS.
The little brown snake known as De Kay's snake,
from which the drawing on page 422 is made, I
picked up on the sidewalk on Amity Street, in
Flushing, Borough of Queens, New York City. I
FOOD OF THE LITTLE BROWN SNAKE
4i 6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
have often found these snakes in my cellar and the
flower-beds of our yard. It was not until Dit-
mar's book was written that people knew that
there were snakes living wild even in Manhattan
itself. The De Kay snake eats slugs. Now this
interests me very deeply because I have made
SOME EXPERIMENTS WITH SLUGS
as an article of food. I tempted a pet robin to
try one, but the slime from the slug entangled the
bill and legs of the little bird, like a strong spider
web, in such a manner that the bird would have
perished had I not personally and with some dif-
ficulty freed it from its bonds. I next
GAVE A SLUG TO A PET TURTLE.
It was a small turtle, a little smaller than the saucer
to an after-dinner coffee cup, but it had a voracious
appetite, and a firm conviction that it was able to
eat any live thing that wiggled. After two or
three bites at the slug its head was completely en-
tangled with the slime. The turtle made desperate
efforts with its front feet to free itself, the only
effect being that of entangling its feet in
THE SAME STRINGY MUCOUS WEB,
so I was compelled to take the turtle out of the
aquarium,, and carefully remove the slug slime. It
was a sadder and a wiser turtle that I returned to
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 417
the aquarium. I next caught a garden mole. As I
had always been taught that moles fed upon angle-
worms and grubs, I reasoned that it might like
slugs. The mole did make an attempt to eat the
one I offered it, but I never freed the mole from
the slime, the reason being that the stuff seemed to
drive the animal crazy, and it escaped.
With its funny nose held high in air the animal
tried to run across the lawn, making no attempt
to burrow in the ground, but uttering a series of
rat-like squeaks, it disappeared under some bushes
in the corner of the fence, where I was unable for
some time to find it. Although uninjured by me
the mole only lived a short time after it was
rescued.
Slugs will eat the vegetables in your garden and
I imagine do considerable
DAMAGE TO THE FLOWER GARDENS,
for in New Orleans I noticed upon various oc-
casions people engaged in killing slugs which they
found among their flowering plants. It is the only
creature of which I know that can be
CAUGHT BY PUTTING SALT ON ITS TAIL,
and that seems to be the regular method of killing
them in the South.
The reason for this digression from the subject
of snakes is the fact that if any of these little
snakes eat slugs it would appear that it might be
4i 8 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
cheaper to cultivate snakes in your garden than
waste your salt upon the slugs. The little
RED-BELLIED BROWN SNAKE
shown on the colored plate is a pretty little creature
very nearly akin to the De Kay snake; is abso-
lutely harmless and also makes a valuable addition
to your flower garden.
THE SENSELESS HORROR
which so many people have of all snakes is almost
as foolish as the habit that some others have of
frightening nervous people with these creatures.
Little children and even nervous grown people
have been made seriously ill, sometimes with fatal
results, caused by unthinking boys running after
them with snakes in their hands or
THROWING THE REPTILES AT THEM,
which reminds me of an amusing incident which
occurred to myself. A friend of mine brought me
from South America
A BABY CONSTRICTOR,
which I kept for some weeks in my studio, but
each man who visited the studio seemed to delight
in tormenting the poor snake, so one cold winter
day when I started for home I put the
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 419
SNAKE IN MY OVERCOAT POCKET
and put my fur glove on top of it to keep it warm
and then promptly forgot all about it. At James'
Slip I bought an evening paper, went aboard the
ferryboat, entered the cabin and took my seat about
in the center of the long bench against the cabin
wall. Under this bench there were a number of
steam pipes used for heating the cabin and they
often made the seats uncomfortably warm to sit
upon. We had gone about half way on our journey
from James' Slip to Hunter's Point, as the land-
ing at Long Island City was then called, and the
man on my left looked at me with the most pe-
culiar expression on his face, then quickly got up,
crossed the cabin and sat down upon the opposite
side. I would have thought nothing of this had
not the man upon my right behaved in the same
manner; then a big, fat woman who was next to
him hurriedly left her seat to take one upon the
opposite side of the cabin. There was a full head
of steam on in the heating pipes, and I at first
thought that the bench was
GETTING TOO HOT FOR THESE PEOPLE,
but that fact did not explain the look of indignant
horror with which each one greeted me as they
left their seats. I was not responsible for the
steam pipes nor the excessive heat. When at last
I was left alone on my side of the cabin, and found
all the passengers upon the opposite side staring
420 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
at me, I felt embarrassed. I tried to read my
paper, but I could feel all those eyes boring
through the paper. I twisted my mustache, wiped
off my chin, pulled down my vest, and went
through all the motions a man does when he is
embarrassed, but derived no relief from it. At
last I stood up to rearrange my clothes, and in
spreading my coat-tails preparatory to seating my-
self
MY HAND STRUCK SOMETHING COLD.
Looking down at my pocket I saw about a half-
yard of snake sticking out and swinging backward
and forward with vibrating tongue, fascinating my
fellow-passengers. I hastily thrust the snake back
in my pocket, put the other fur glove on top of
it, regained my composure and proceeded to
read my paper. Over in the starboard corner of
the cabin I noticed a friend of mine, a frequent
visitor to my studio, he was convulsed with
laughter, but I paid no attention to him. The next
day as I was standing on the bow of the same boat
with a group of gentlemen, all returning from their
day's work, among them was the man I had seen
in the corner of the cabin the night before, and
he entertained the crowd by a very humorous ac-
count of the occurrence, ending up by saying: "I
bet five dollars
HE'S GOT A SNAKE IN HIS POCKET
now/ 1 With that he thrust his hand in my over-
coat pocket and
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 4-1
INSTANTLY UTTERED A YELL
which could be heard across the East River. He
had not won his bet; there was no snake in my
pocket, but on my way to the ferry I had passed
through Fulton Market and Eugene Blackford,
the fish merchant, had called me into his office to
show me some extraordinarily large crawfish. As
I left he presented me with one, and having no
better place to carry it I put it in the pocket of
my coat.
THE CRAWFISH
was as large as a young lobster, and its claws were
as strong. With its sharp, muscular pincer fas-
tened on my friend's finger, it brought the blood,
made a painful wound, and taught him to keep
his hands in his own pocket. As the gentleman was
a Wall Street man, this lesson did not seem very
inappropriate.
Jn all the foregoing illustrations of
SNAKES' EGGS,
all but one of those represented hatch inside the
mother snake, the young being born alive; but in
the last illustration are shown four eggs of the
milk snake. These eggs are laid like a hen's
egg and hatch like turtle's eggs. On the i6th of
July, the milk snake which we had, laid six oblong
white eggs with leather-like shells, which, as they
became dry, sunk in at the sides as shown by the
THE MILK SNAKE LAID SIX OBLONG MILK-WHITE EGGS
WITH LEATHER-LIKE SHELL
LITTLE BROWN SNAKE WITH DETAIL OF PARTS
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 423
lower two in the drawing. The upper two show
the eggs the exact shape and size they were when
laid.
While speaking of the exact size, it may be well
to call the attention of the reader to the fact that
all the original drawings of small creatures in this
book are made exactly life size, but have been re-
duced in photo engravings to suit the size of the
book. The original drawings are all made on
sheets of paper ten inches wide by fourteen inches
long. These proportions will .help you to get the
correct size of the objects shown.
THE RED-BELLIED SNAKE
shown in the illustration was caught in July and
contained seven eggs. In one of the water snakes
there were thirty-three eggs and in the one killed
on August 19, from which the drawings on the
colored plate were made there were only eighteen
eggs.
Pike County has the reputation of having more
snakes in it than any place in the United States,
especially rattlesnakes, but in twenty summers spent
roaming around the woods, swamps and quarries,
I have never met but five live rattlesnakes. Once
I was on my way with my field glasses in hand to
the shore of Big Tink Pond. I had heard the old
eagle across the lake whistling. All of us "Pikers"
have learned to know this bird by the name of
Uncle Sam. When he's up to some mischief, this
424 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
old eagle always gives some preparatory whistles
before he can decide upon action, so when
I heard him, I grabbed my glasses and started for
the shore of the pond. As I was hurrying along
I was conscious of
SOMETHING MOVING ALONGSIDE OF THE PATH,
and as is my habit under such circumstances I im-
mediately stood perfectly still, then turned my head
very slowly and carefully to search for the object.
As I looked around I saw within a few inches of
my foot a beautifully spotted
YELLOW AND BROWN SNAKE
which I at first glance mistook for a milk snake,
then I noticed the snake's head and it was that of
a rattlesnake. More careful inspection disclosed
the fact that
THE SNAKE'S TAIL WAS VIBRATING
in an alarming manner. There was not the least
doubt of it. The snake within a few inches of my
feet was a rattlesnake, which had just shed its skin.
We had had incessant rains for more than a week
and although the snake moved its tail as rapidly
as possible the rattle would not rattle ; and no noise
that I could hear proceeded from it. I have often
heard that rattlesnakes during continued wet
weather
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 425
CAN MAKE NO NOISE WITH THEIR RATTLE,
but this is the first instance of that fact coming
under my observation. This snake made no at-
tempt to strike me, although I stood perfectly still
within a few inches of its nose, but I was less for-
tunate in my next encounter. I had been over to
Forest Lake Club and was walking back through
the short-cut trail when I saw a yellow-billed
cuckoo in the path, and walking sideways to get
a better view I suddenly heard
THE DRY BUZZING NOISE OF A RATTLESNAKE;
turning around to locate the sound, I was just in
time to see the pinkish white mouth of the villain
as he struck viciously at my legs. I gave an in-
voluntary grunt and jumped backwards. The
snake's nose struck my trousers with considerable
force, but strange to say its fangs did not catch in
the cloth.
Immediately after the attack the snake fled into
the underbrush; I followed, but when I stopped
to pick up a stone, the reptile had disappeared and
I lost it.
"DON'T TREAD ON ME."
It is the only time that I ever felt like killing
even a snake ; but it was not the snake's fault, for
had it not attacked me it would have been trampled
upon the next step I took. It only defended itself.
426 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
One day I was hurrying down to catch the
James' Slip Ferry; passing through Roosevelt
Street I approached the wild animal store which
used to be there, and was astonished to see a big
policeman with a sudden leap dash into the store.
Anticipating an adventure, I followed close upon
his heels, but when I reached the interior the ani-
mals all seemed quiet in their cages and the pro-
prietor was seated on a low, flat box in the middle
of the floor. No one was excited but the guardian
of the peace. The big policeman's eyes were as
large as those of a giant squid; turning to me he
said: "Did you see that?"
"What?" I asked.
"Great jumping Jerusalem! Didn't youse see
it?"
"No," I replied. "I'm afraid that I was too
late; what was it?"
"Why," said the excited policeman,
"THERE WAS A SARPENT LOOSE
there wid a body as thick through as me own, and
as long as a fire engine hose."
I looked warily around the. shop to see if the
"sarpent" was not hid in some dark corner, but
there was not a snake in sight. A belted peccary
near the door was eating peanuts; a mangy mon-
key with a pathetic face was busy picking dust
out of a crack in the floor in the rear of the store;
the birds, raccoons, white mice, and guinea pigs,
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 427
were busy feeding or scratching themselves.
I turned to the policeman. "Officer," said I,
"WHERE is THE SNAKE?"
"In that box," he replied, pointing to the one
upon which the proprietor was seated.
"When I jumped into the door," said the officer,
"the big sarpent was right over there. It was
coiled up ready to strike and held its head six feet
from the floor; it opened its mouth as wide as I
can open my hand, and then sprung right at that
man. What did he do? Why he just struck out
and ketched the snake by the neck and with the
same motion of his arm swung the thing around
and brought it ker-slap into that box, then before
the snake knowed what it was doing, he clapped
the board on the box and sat on it."
"That's just where I came in the store; but hon-
est, officer, how big was that snake?"
"HE'S A PRETTY BIG ONE,"
said the proprietor. "He's a python, a new one
that has just come in. He made his escape from
the box before I noticed it. But you can have a
look at him," and with that the man got up, and
began to lift the board from the box, but before
he could do so the policeman and I both made a
bolt for the door.
"Oh! hold on," said the man, "they're all quiet
now, they will not hurt you;" and with that he
428 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
removed the lid from the box displaying to our
astonished view not one, but half a dozen im-
mense serpents. They were not as long as a fire
engine hose nor had they the girth of the portly
policeman, but they were as large as any that 1
had ever seen, fully large enough to excite my re-
spect. I asked the storekeeper if they were not
very heavy, and he invited me to take hold of one
and test its weight. I started to do so, but the
snakes began to move in the box and I suddenly
remembered that
I MUST CATCH THE JAMES' SLIP FERRY !
On June 3rd. Mrs. Beard and I went after
blue lupin with a pick-axe with which to dig, and an
old pan tied to a string as a cart in which to haul
the plants home. In front of our next-door
neighbor, Willis P. Sweatnam, my wife screamed,
"rattlesnake!" Looking quickly around, I saw a
beautiful large black snake; the next moment I saw
another one alongside of the road. We passed on
and left them, but, on pur way back we
saw them again; one ran into Sweatnam's
wall and another ran ahead of us down
the road, and I took after it, and after a hot
chase, caught the snake and discovered why my
wife thought it was a rattlesnake. It had a way
of vibrating its tail like a rattlesnake, -and when
it did this, among dry leaves the sound was alarm-
ingly similar to the dry rattle of the rattlesnake.
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 429
SAVE ALL LIVE HOOP-SNAKES.
I received a very interesting letter from a man
in the State of Washington, who claims not only
to have seen
TWO HOOP-SNAKES,
but to have killed one himself. Unfortunately he
requested me not to publish his letter and I must
hold such requests sacred. It can be said, however,
without fear of contradiction, that there are prob-
ably many very many people who have seen,
not only hoop-snakes, but have seen the hazel-rod
turn in the hand of a diviner and point to the water
beneath, though we are of the opinion that the
water would have been found just the same with-
out the mummery of the forked hazel twig and
its appeal to the aid of the old god Thor. Hoop-
snakes, hazel-rods, lucky stones, horseshoes, and
the thread of red worsted which the old peasant
woman still ties to her cow's tail before sending it
out to pasture, all these are heirlooms from the
faith of our superstitious ancestors, who lived in
a world in which fairies and gnomes, hobgoblins,
witches and mermaids,
THE UNICORN AND THE SEA SERPENT
played a very real part.
Under the fierce, cold electric light of this age
of scientific investigation, these things in which our
430 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
ancestors believed so implicitly have no place ex-
cept in books of folk-lore, or in children's books,
where the hoop-snake may find a congenial com-
panion with
MOTHER GOOSE'S COW,
that jumped over the moon.
Yet I freely acknowledge that I love Mother
Goose, Baron Munchausen, and all their family
and friends, and am in sympathy with the New
York Sun when it says :
"It is a cheerful belief that it would be a pity
to discard into the lumber room of the things that
once held faith. The most appreciative account of
the water finder's rod is in Dr. Herbert Mayo's
work, 'Letters on Truth Contained in Popular
Superstitions' (London, 1851). The work is most
cordial in its tone towards these old beliefs of
the lowly, and is a mine of curious information."
A very interesting and complete account of old
superstitions probably more judicious than the
former, is Folkard's "Plant-lore, Legends and
Lyrics."
Since so much has been said about the hoop-
snake it may be well to give a correct description
of it so that if any of my readers have been drink-
ing too much coffee or in any other manner have
upset their nerves, so that they dream of snakes,
they may be able to recognize the cele-
brated hoop-snake when it appears. The hoop-
SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 431
snake according to the best authorities wears a
horn on the end of its tail. No one has correctly
described its color, markings, or teeth, but they
have all been particular to describe the horns.
Hoop-snakes frequent hilly countries ; I don't know
how it gets up a hill, and have never seen any de-
scription of this act. Somehow or other it is
always at the top of a hill, and prefers one with
a steep road. When it sees anyone approaching,
it sticks its tail in its mouth, makes a hoop of it-
self and commences to roll down hill with a greater
speed than a coasting bicycle. This is the time for
you to wake up; if the snake reaches you, it will
let go its tail, and
STRIKE YOU WITH THE POISONOUS HORN
with fatal results. Down South when a hoop-snake
rolls down hill and is disappointed in not finding
any victims, it will strike a tree with its horn, and
the tree immediately withers and dies. You will
find plenty of people to vouch for the truthfulness
of this account, and many who would be willing to
make affidavit that they have seen one of these
snakes. Nevertheless the snake and the mermaid,
and the devil's darning-needle that sews up your
ears, the swallows that sleep in the mud all win-
ter, the poisonous swifts and centaurs belong in the
same nature books with the unicorns and fiery
dragons. These are all exceedingly interesting
creatures, but they must be understood as existing
only in Nemo's Dreamland.
CHAPTER XXVIII
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES
AMBROSE PAKE'S TOAD YARN WERE THERE NATURE FAKIRS
IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN ? GEORGE WILSON WALLS UP A
TOAD LIVE FROG SIX HUNDRED FEET UNDER GROUND
THE TOAD'S EYES SHONE WITH UNUSUAL BRILLIANCY
WAS PLINY A NATURE FAKIR ? DR. BUCKLAND's EXPERI-
MENTS THE AUTHOR'S BULLFROG FROGS DEVOUR OTHER
FROGS, INSECTS AND ANYTHING THAT WIGGLES FROGS
WILL NOT WILLINGLY EAT DEAD ANIMALS BATTLE
BETWEEN FROG AND MOUSE FROG ATTEMPTS TO EAT
A GREAT HORNED OWL GIGANTIC TOADS OF SWAN
RIVER A TOAD STONE OF MACDONALD RIVER A
TOAD WITH THREE FRONT LEGS AND A TOAD WITH
THREE HIND LEGS COWS WITH SIX LEGS NEW ZEALAND
FROG WITH SIX LEGS TWO-HEADED TURTLE FREAK
FISHES A DANIEL BOONE LAND TORTOISE AN INTEMPER
ATE TOAD PHOTOGRAPHING A TOAD IN THE ACT OF SING-
ING TOAD CATCHES GOLD FISH HOW LONG DOES A TOAD
LIVE ?
There have been so many nature fake stories
told about frogs and toads, and these stories have
been received with such faith by even intelligent
ople that it makes it dangerous for one to tell the
th. For a- well established lie is much preferred
the multitude to an aggressive self-seeking truth,
' the lies about frogs are many of them so old
nd venerable that we must treat them with defer-
ence and respect for fear of shocking the sensibili-
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 433
ties of our readers.
As an example, there
is an account of old
Ambrose Pare, who
should have been a
scientific man because
he held the position
of chief surgeon to
Henry III. of France,
but Pare really be-
longed to the hoop-
snake crowd of
scientists. Pare said
that while he was
overlooking a quarry,
he saw a man break
an exceedingly hard
and large stone, and discovered in the middle of
it a very big and very lively toad. This is
not the first time this lie has been told. Adam
probably told it to Eve, and maybe the stone that
David used had a toad in it. On the 2ist of May,
1793, a man named George Wilson walled a toad
up in some masonry upon which he was at work,
and it is claimed that sixteen years afterwards the
toad was found still to be alive. The truth is that
an ordinary toad will not live in a dwelling house
more than two or three days at the most; the toad
needs moisture and will dry up if confined to an
ordinary living room; this any of you can prove
by experiment.
BIG TINK TOAD.
SOME INTERESTING FROGS
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 435
Early in 1862 a man claimed that six hundred
feet under ground in a nine-inch bed of coal he
found a live frog. The frog was probably there
and got there the same way as did the man. In
1731 a toad was found in a heart of an oak tree
near Natz. Some cheerful story tellers about forty
years ago claimed that while working on the Hat-
tlepool waterworks, they found a toad embedded
in a solid block of limestone. "The toad's eyes
shone with unusual brilliancy," as well they might.
The creature continued for some time in the pos-
session of Mr. Spence Horner, President of the
Natural History Society, but I find no record of
Mr. Spence Horner's vouching for this story.
Nevertheless, people will go on believing in these
wonderful toad stories for hundreds of years to
come. The great and learned Pliny was as credu-
lous as is a small boy of today, and some of his
nature fake stories have gone down through the
centuries and are still accepted as truth by many
people, yet any one can by experiment, prove the
fallacy of these stories. Over a century ago mem-
bers of the French Academy by experiments proved
that neither frogs nor toads could live in air-tight
enclosures. Miline Edwards, early in the nine-
teenth century enclosed some frogs in air-tight ves-
sels. The frogs, of course, turned up their feet
and died. A certain Dr. McCartney put a toad in
a vessel and covered it with a piece of slate and
buried it in the ground, but the slate admitted both
air and moisture, and at the end of two weeks the
436 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
toad was discovered to be perfectly well. The
same toad put in an air-tight vessel and buried for
only a week's time was found to be so very dead
that no one cared to make a minute examination of
it. Dr. Buckland made some experiments in 1825
with the same results. The many experiments, how-
ever, have proved that frogs will live and thrive
for a considerable length of time if kept moist and
damp ; even though they are buried at considerable
depth, without any visible food supply and in com-
plete darkness. I once kept a large bull-frog for
several years. It was one sultry day in the sum-
mer of 1879 that I sent a boy down to a Fulton
Street aquarium store, to secure me a model for a
picture which I had received a commission to paint;
the boy returned, bringing with him a most
peculiar individual.
A pair of bright gem-like eyes and a blunt nose,
together with a broad, tightly closed mouth, made
up a countenance not to be easily forgotten; and
his odd-shaped head rested closely upon his
shoulders. Add to this a pair of short arms ter-
minating in hands of four fingers each and dispro-
portionately long legs, to which were attached very
broad feet, and you have before you a picture of
my model.
Although a musician by birth and occupation,
he is known to the schoolboy as the bull-frog ! The
peculiar batrachian whose portrait adorns this book
was quite a favorite, in spite of his previous bad
character. Although a tyrant and cannibal, he
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 437
numbered among his personal friends many well-
known artists and noted engravers, who gladly put
aside their brush, pencil or graver for the pleasure
of seeing the frog devour a crab, bug or bat that
had been captured for him. An old fish globe was
brought into requisition, and through its transpar-
ent wall the green prisoner stared at me as I wrote
this account. The frog had fasted in this crystal
prison for three weeks before it occurred to me
that he might be hungry. To make amends for my
neglect I spent almost half a day chasing blue bot-
tle-flies around the room, but with indifferent suc-
OUTLINE OF RABBIT'S HEAD SHOWING COMPARATIVE
SIZE OF TOAD
438 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK
cess. However, I captured twenty-five of them, and
one vicious hornet that had strayed in through the
open window. All these were successfully swal-
lowed by the frog in the most business-like man-
ner. A pink, fleshy tongue would be visible and
in an instant the insect would disappear.
When he came to the hornet the frog appeared
to think his food was rather highly seasoned, for
he winked his eyes several times, if that term could
be applied to the act of sinking his eyes down in
his head and then popping them up again.
Next day he ate fifteen large flies, two big
lively katy-dids, and two full-grown fiddler crabs.
He had for dessert the same day a dragon fly and
an ichneumon fly. I tried him with raw meat,
but he could not be persuaded to touch it until a
piece cut to resemble some insect with long legs
was put upon a straw and dangled in front of his
nose; this he instantly snapped up.
Insects, crustaceans, snails, and small animals,
anything with life and not too large to be taken
into the capacious mouth of this animal, are greed-
ily devoured, even its own tadpoles and young frogs
form a palatable viand for the parent.
Once I took a dead mouse and holding it in the
globe, jumped it around to give it the appearance
of life. Without hesitation it was seized and de-
voured by the frog before he discovered that he
had been swindled by a corpse. He then opened
his mouth and with his fore feet deliberately pulled
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 439
out the obnoxious mouse in a manner that set the
spectators in a roar of laughter. Since then he has
devoured many live mice with apparent relish, all
of which he swallowed tail foremost, keeping up
a lively kicking and scratching with fore and hind
feet to prevent his prey from curling up and bit-
ing. Enough water is always kept in the globe to
keep its inmate moist, but too shallow to drown
a mouse. The wily batrachian is well aware of
this fact, for it was not until nothing but the
head and forefeet of the mouse protruded from
between his jaws that he bent his head down,
holding it and the mouse under water until the
latter was suffocated before it was finally gulped
down. Partly to make a more even fight and
partly as an experiment to see what the frog would
do under the circumstances, before putting
in a large male mouse, we emptied all the
water from the globe. Then ensued a chase ; round
and round went the mouse, trying in vain to scale
the glassy walls, but never missing an opportunity
to give the frog a savage nip with its sharp teeth.
Round and round plunged the batrachian after
him. Once he caught the mouse by the tail, where-
upon the mouse turned and mounted the slimy
back of his enemy and bit him severely; but quicker
than thought the powerful hind leg of the fro^
swept the mouse from his back and dashed it
viciously against the side of the globe.
The battle had commenced and lasted about five
minutes, when by a lucky snap the frog got the
POSES ASSUMED BY MY MOUSE EATING FROG
FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 441
mouse by the hind quarter, the little mammal bury-
ing his sharp teeth in the frog's nose. Then again
did the milk-pond croaker exhibit an intelligence
and activity which I had always been led to be-
lieve these creatures never possessed. He kicked
with his hind legs and pawed with his fore legs
with such vigor that that rodent had very few op-
portunities of biting. Once the mouse's teeth fas-
tened upon the hind foot of the frog, causing him
to turn two or three complete somersaults in his
efforts to free himself. The mouse was so la
