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Title: Tracks and Tracking
Author: Josef Brunner
Release Date: May 4, 2014 [EBook #45578]
Language: English
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TRACKS AND TRACKING
[Illustration]
TRACKS AND
TRACKING
BY
JOSEF BRUNNER
_FULLY ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
MCMIX
Copyright, 1909, by
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
_All Rights Reserved_
CONTENTS
_Page_
FOREWORD ix
GENERAL REMARKS 3
PART I
GROUP ONE--HOOFED GAME:
The White-Tailed or Virginia Deer 11
The Fan-Tailed Deer 32
The Mule Deer 39
The Wapiti or Elk 43
The Moose 49
The Mountain Sheep 55
The Antelope 61
PREDACEOUS ANIMALS:
The Bear 73
The Cougar 92
The Lynx 101
The Domestic Cat 107
The Wolf 109
The Coyote 118
The Fox 121
WHAT TRACKING MEANS AND SOME HUNTING METHODS 125
GROUP TWO:
The Jack-Rabbit 135
The Varying Hare 140
The Cottontail Rabbit 144
The Squirrel 148
GROUP THREE:
The Marten and the Black-Footed Ferret 153
The Otter 157
The Mink 161
The Ermine 164
GROUP FOUR:
The Beaver 171
The Badger 180
The Porcupine 186
The Skunk 192
PART II
FEATHERED GAME:
Feathered Game 197
Upland Birds 199
Waterfowls 211
Predatory Birds 214
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Page_
Frontispiece iv
VIRGINIA DEER 12
TRACKS OF VIRGINIA DEER 14
VIRGINIA DEER. 17
HIND FOOT OF VIRGINIA DEER. 20
Trail of a deer
shot through brisket 22
Trail of a deer
with broken hind leg 22
Same as No. 3 on opposite page, but bullet
did not penetrate to the lungs. 22
HOOF OF BLACK-TAILED DEER. 28
FAN-TAILED BUCK DEER. 33
DEER TRACKS 35
MULE-DEER 40
ELK. 43
ELK 46
MOOSE BULL TRACK 50
MOOSE TRACKS 52
MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 57
HOG TRACK; WALKING. 59
HIND FOOT OF ANTELOPE. 62
ANTELOPE. 64
THE SIGN OF THE ANTELOPE (BUCK) 64
BEAR FEET--RIGHT SIDE 76
BEAR TRAIL. 77
TRACKS OF BEAR, RUNNING 80
BEAR TRACK. 82
BEAR STUMP. 82
BEAR TRACK. 84
BEAR LOG 86
BEAR LOG 89
COUGAR. 93
LYNX. 101
RIGHT FRONT PAW OF LYNX 103
LYNX TRAIL 106
WOLF 109
WOLF 111
COYOTE. 119
FOX. 122
HUNTING WITH THE WIND 130
JACK-RABBIT 135
JACK RABBIT 137
JACK RABBIT. 139
VARYING HARE 141
VARYING HARE 142
VARYING HARE 143
Cottontail Rabbit Tracks 145
COTTON TAIL RABBIT 146
COTTON TAIL RABBIT 147
SQUIRREL. 148
Marten track 154
Marten track 156
OTTER. 158
MINK. 162
MINK. 163
ERMINE TRACKS. 166
BEAVER 171
BEAVER 174
BEAVER STUMP 176
THE BEAVER'S HOME 176
BEAVER TRAILS OR SLIDES 176
BEAVER TRAIL 176
BADGER 181
BADGER TRACKS 182
BADGER 183
PORCUPINE 186
SIGN OF THE PORCUPINE 190
PORCUPINE TRACKS 191
FEET OF THE PORCUPINE 191
SIGN OF THE PORCUPINE 191
SKUNK 192
TURKEY. 201
PHEASANT. 202
Ruffed Grouse. 203
RUFFED GROUSE 204
BLUE GROUSE 205
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 205
Sharp-tailed Grouse. 207
QUAIL. 209
WOODCOCK. 210
Waterfowl 212
Waterfowl 213
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 216
HERON TRACKS. 216
WILSON'S SNIPE 217
Various Birds 217
FOREWORD
To derive the greatest pleasure from the pursuit of game, either
large or small, it is necessary that the disciple of Nimrod be
versed in the science of interpreting the meaning of tracks and
trails. Nature is as an open book to the man who can read the signs
of the woods and plains correctly; and where the uninitiated see
only meaningless tracks, experienced hunters find them in many
instances the guide to exhilarating sport and a desired trophy. To
the tyro the finest tracking snow is useless and the marks he sees
everywhere around him simply bewilder him. Were he able to read
them as every hunter should, his day's sport would mean enjoyment
and success, instead of disappointment and failure.
Game is not so plentiful as it used to be, and for this reason
it is generally a waste of time--from the standpoint of the
game bag--merely to tramp through the woods and trust to luck.
Moreover, the high-power, small-caliber rifles, which are so
extensively used, very often lead to shots at distances at which it
is not possible to place an immediately fatal bullet. This makes
it the more necessary for the hunter to be able to read the signs
correctly and to interpret aright the language of the trails. Every
sportsman should consider it a sacred duty to bring to bay any
animal he has wounded, and he should also regard it a matter of
honor to acquire a working knowledge of tracks, trails, and signs.
Then he will not, through ignorance, make carrion or wolf-bait of a
noble creature which, in all reason, he should have secured.
A sportsman who is unable to interpret the meaning of tracks he
encounters, however much game he may have killed by chance, luck,
or with the assistance of others, will be considered a tyro in
woodcraft by companions who have learned their lessons in this art.
Lack of opportunity on the part of the majority of sportsmen to
become versed in tracking lore by actual experience, as well as
the incompetence of a great number of guides, is the reason for
this book. The contents represent the experience gained from twenty
years of uninterrupted life in the great outdoors; and while only
half of that time was spent in the pursuit and study of American
game, the foreign experience was a considerable aid in arriving
at definite conclusions, for the same species, with but few
exceptions, show the same features in their trails the world over.
No space has been given to microscopic intricacies, since in the
woods plain tracking lore is intricate enough. In practice whoever
looks for exaggerated, fine, distinctive features in tracks and
trails soon sees things which a sober-minded expert recognizes as
imaginative.
* * * * *
It is generally understood that a track means the imprint left
on the ground or snow by a passing creature. From its form and
appearance the initiated are usually able to tell the species,
and in some cases the variety, of animal that made it. Where
the latter is not possible, a succession of tracks--the trail,
in short--is almost invariably the means of reaching a proper
decision. The expert considers not only tracks and trails, but also
the "signs," among which are the behavior of animals under certain
circumstances, blazed trees, bear logs, beaver stumps and cuttings,
excrements, etc., etc. A mere treatise of tracks, trails and signs
would in many instances leave the inexperienced man without a
comprehensive knowledge; therefore certain actions of the hunted,
and notes on hunting methods which have proved practical, although
they are not generally known, have been introduced into the text.
It is believed that a thorough study of this book, including the
illustrations, will enable the reader to become as well versed in
tracking lore as he could by years of actual experience in the
woods.
TRACKS AND TRACKING
TRACKS AND TRACKING
GENERAL REMARKS
_About the Motive Features of Different Animals_
TAKING it for granted that the arrangement of the individual tracks
in the trail is due to the general anatomic make-up of the animal
which made them, we have to consider four groups in the treatise on
mammals.
The _first_, the members of which possess a length of body
correctly proportional to their height, includes the deer, ox,
bear, dog, and cat families.
The _second_ includes rabbits, squirrels, and animals whose hind
legs are very long in proportion to their front legs.
The _third_ is made up of those animals whose legs, considering the
length of their bodies, are very short--marten, mink, etc.
The _fourth_ group embraces the animals whose legs are very short
in proportion to the length of the body, and whose bodies, in
addition to this, are disproportionately thick--beaver, badger, etc.
Of the various movements, we have to consider the walk, the
trot, and the gallop. Animals of the first group plant the feet
diagonally in the walk and trot. The hind foot track covers the
one made by the forefoot of the same side. If the right forefoot
touches the ground first, the left hind foot is placed next,
then the left forefoot, and last the right hind foot. Thus four
footfalls may be heard when hoofed animals are walking.
In the trot, which is but a hastened walk, the trail assumes more
the form of a straight line, because the animal endeavors to plant
the feet more under the middle of the body to obviate the swaying
motion; and because of the quicker action, in which two feet touch
the ground at the same moment, but two distinct footfalls can be
heard.
The gallop, the quickest movement onward, is a series of leaps
or jumps. In it the hind feet serve mainly as propellers while
the forefeet support and brace the body; and for this reason the
former are placed side by side, or nearly so, while the latter
stand one behind the other in the trail. The faster the gallop,
the more closely do the tracks conform to these conditions. In the
greatest speed of some members of the deer family the hind feet
also come nearer the center line, as shown in the illustrations.
As, by the velocity of the movement, the hind feet are thrown past
the point where the forefeet strike the ground, their imprints
appear in front of those of the latter, a fact which should be kept
constantly in mind by the trailer, since, in the case of an animal
with a broken leg, the appearance of the leap imprints are usually
the only means to decide which leg is broken. In animals of the
first group a broken foreleg is always more serious than an injured
hind leg, and therefore the game is easier brought to bag.
In members of the second group there is but one motion, no matter
whether they are moving slow or fast--the hind feet are always
thrown ahead of the forefeet, and the track picture is that of the
leap.
As the hind feet of animals of this group are considerably larger
than the forefeet, it is easily determined which individual foot
has made a given track.
The animals of the third group move usually in leaps, but on
account of the length of body and the shortness of the limbs, the
hind feet are not placed as far ahead of the front pair as in the
preceding group. At the usual gait the hind feet cover the forefeet
tracks, and the trail picture therefore shows a pair of tracks side
by side at regular distances. At a faster pace the trail picture
changes, as shown in the illustrations; however, this is so seldom
done as to be of almost no consequence to the tracker.
Members of the fourth group, like those of the first, walk and
leap; however, the size of the body and the shortness of the legs
combine to make a track picture entirely different from and not
easily confounded with the trail of the latter. The individual
tracks are close together, considering their size, and the toes of
the hind feet almost invariably point inward to a marked degree,
reaching an extreme limit in the beaver and the badger.
With the exception of the members of the second group and the
beaver, the hind feet of all animals are smaller than the forefeet,
a fact which, in some instances, has its uses when following the
trail.
PART ONE
_GROUP I_
HOOFED GAME
THE WHITE-TAILED OR VIRGINIA DEER
THOUGH the American sportsman still can enjoy in some districts, as
an inheritance from prehistoric times, the pursuit of the majestic
moose, and though the lordly elk still awakens the echoes in many
of our mountain ranges with his challenging call, the game in which
the great majority of hunters are pre-eminently interested is the
elusive white-tailed deer, which is found in all the states except
California, Nevada, Oregon, and Delaware, and because to bring it
down demands, to say the least, no less skill than is required in
the pursuit of its larger relatives.
Though, under ordinary conditions, a single track of any other
animal is nearly sufficient to ascertain the species or variety,
the case is different where white-tailed and mule deer are
concerned--that is, if they inhabit the same locality; and even a
small elk track may be taken for that of the white-tailed deer.
The track of a mule deer, roaming in rocky hills or out in the arid
breaks of the Bad Lands, is of course a very different thing from
that of a white-tail, but let the animals make their permanent
stand in white-tail country proper, and almost all difference in
their track soon disappears. It is evident that the sole of their
hoof undergoes the same change as that of a horse, which can be
ridden daily without shoes in dry regions, but which will get
footsore within a day or two if it is transferred into a district
where rain and dew moisten the grass and keep the ground damp.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA DEER]
Considering the individual track, the hoof of the Virginia deer
evidently spreads easier than that of any other member of the
family, except moose and caribou. It is because of this that,
during the season when they are in good condition and in hunting
time, the ridge of dirt or snow that is made between the two halves
of the hoof, and left in the track, is much more conspicuous than
that left by any other deer. However, if the conditions are not
ideal--and they most certainly are not if snow is on the ground,
under which circumstances most tracking is done--the variance
appears so slight that it can be noticed only by examining minutely
a perfect track, which may be found along the trail under some tree
where not more than an inch of snow has fallen or at a barren spot.
The writer does not depend on the size of the track in deciding
whether it was made by a buck or a doe, as he has seen many does
which have made as large tracks as the largest bucks; and the
common claim that rounded toes always indicate a buck he has also
found to be a fallacy. Sometimes it is noticeable in the trail that
the hind feet lag, _i. e._, they do not quite reach the forefeet
tracks. This almost invariably means an old buck which has become
rather stiff with age. The chance that the same mark is made by
an old sterile doe is remote, though, according to observations,
possible.
[Illustration: TRACKS OF VIRGINIA DEER
(1) Trail of buck before and after rutting season. (2) During
rutting season the drag extends from one step to the next. (3)
Trail of doe and fawn; the latter, however, takes still shorter
steps. (4) Buck or doe trotting.]
Not infrequently, at least much oftener than with black-tail and
elk, a marked difference between the two halves of the hoof may be
observed in the track of the Virginia deer, and the tracks of the
latter appear more slender than those of the former--that is,
in the same locality. Some claim that they can always distinguish
the track of Virginia from that of other deer, but the writer
counts himself among those who can not, and he has noticed that the
hunters who claim the skill are in the same predicament when out in
the woods.
Accurate measurements with the divider and tapeline would possibly
show some slight differences in the tracks of the various kinds of
similar sized deer, but they would be so diminutive and variable as
to be worthless in practice.
The trail, together with other signs, is much more significant
of the doings, ailments and sex of the animal than an individual
track would be. During the summer months the buck, and, it must be
admitted, the sterile doe also, accumulates a considerable amount
of fat; and the result is markedly shown in the placing of the
feet, their tracks being an appreciable degree off the center line
supposed to be under the middle of the body. For this reason the
toes of the hoof point more outward than is usual in the doe and
fawn. From this it might appear that a single track, or a few
of them, would be sufficient to decide the sex, but it is not;
because any deer in crossing a trackable spot is likely to look to
the right and then to the left, and the tracks will point in the
direction the animal has looked.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA DEER. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Front track. (2) Hind track. (3) Lagging back of hind feet;
sign of the old buck. (4) Overhastening; the sign of the young
buck. 3 and 4 also apply to the elk bull.]
Does heavy with fawns show similar features in their trail, but
as there are no such does during autumn, we can pass them over.
A buck always has the tendency to drag his legs, a feature which
reaches the climax during rutting season, while any doe, even the
sterile, steps clean if the snow is less than one foot deep. This
fact makes it possible to tell a buck's track with certainty,
even if tracking conditions are not favorable, because there is
always some displacement behind and in front of the tracks which is
readily observed in sand or dry snow.
There is one other feature by which the trail of a white-tail buck
can be distinguished from that of a doe, and even that of the buck
of black-tails, and that is the animal's habit of scanning the
surroundings while standing near trees, windfalls, and the like.
An old buck at leisure will take careful observations two or three
times inside of a hundred yards, except during the rutting season,
when he is too busy to spend so much time for safety's sake, and he
always does this from what he evidently considers cover.
In open forests are often seen places where the ground has been
pawed up, and the ground covering, moss, leaves or sod, thrown in
every direction. This always indicates the presence of at least
two old bucks in the same locality, and is never done by does.
[Illustration: HIND FOOT OF VIRGINIA DEER. (SLIGHTLY REDUCED)
(A) Dew claws. (B) Heels. (C) Soles. (D) Toes.]
About the first of September bucks begin to cleanse their horns of
the velvet and small trees and bushes exhibit the signs of having
been used for that purpose. Where such signs are found in roomy
forests near dense thickets, the sportsman can, with moderate
certainty, count on getting a trophy by stalking quietly or waiting
from sunrise to about 8 o'clock A.M., or from an hour or so before
sundown until dark. Of course it is easier to get meat for the pot
near streams and feeding places, where there are plenty of tracks,
but as doe and fawn shooting aims at the base of life, and as old
bucks usually do not make their appearance there as long as it is
light enough for a rifle shot, I would not advise one to stalk or
wait there at all. Stalking during rainy days in open forests where
bucks have left evidences, such as blazed trees, will, as a rule,
be rewarded. At that time, game being comparatively undisturbed,
most deer are shot at while standing, and even a poor shot can
hardly miss. However, as tracking is more difficult than when snow
covers the ground, it is advisable to watch the deer closely for
the signs at the moment of firing.
The most important sign to observe is the action of the game when
it receives the missile, since it is an evidence of where it was
hit. If struck somewhere in the front half, it usually jumps into
the air--that is, if it does not drop instantly, which incident we
have no need to consider in this connection--and if struck in the
hind half, it will kick out with the hind legs. A deer shot through
the heart seldom drops immediately. After the first jump, which is
often hardly perceptible and no doubt overlooked by the average
hunter, it generally makes off at top speed, running close down
to the ground. It may run only fifty yards, and it may run five
hundred, but one thing is certain--the hunter can follow at once,
and the animal will be dead by the time he reaches it.
The most striking exception to the rule of heart shots the writer
saw in the Snowy Mountains, Montana, during 1904. A buck was
galloping, broadside exposed, at a distance of about one hundred
and twenty yards, and was fired at. Four or five jumps after
the shot was fired he stopped behind some trees, which prevented
another shot. He remained hidden a few seconds, then trotted about
thirty yards and stopped again; finally he trotted off, directly
away from me, and if ever I would have sworn that a deer was
missed, I would have done so then.
However, force of habit compelled me to follow the trail, and about
two hundred yards from where he stopped last, the buck lay stone
dead. The bullet, a steel-jacketed .30 U. S., had penetrated the
heart squarely, and made a hole the size of a quarter. There was
not a drop of blood along the trail. Moral: Follow the deer, even
if you think you have missed.
A deer shot through the lungs usually goes off, after the first
jump, as if nothing had happened to it. There is no variance in its
trail from that of an uninjured deer, but alongside the trail there
is in every case the story of where the bullet hit, in the shape
of foamy, light-colored blood. This trail, too, may be followed
immediately.
[Illustration:
(1) Trail of a deer shot through brisket, and leg broken low in
shoulder. (2) Trail of a deer shot through the shoulders high.
(3) Trail of a deer with broken foreleg--the lower the leg is
broken the more drag there is.
The shoulder shot (No. 2) should be followed immediately. It is
best to shoot again when a deer gets up after the first shot
strikes it here. They always drop like dead when shot thus.]
[Illustration:
(1) Trail of a deer with broken hind leg--the lower the leg is
broken the more drag there is. (2) Trail of a deer shot through
the ham. (3) This trail usually means shot through intestines,
liver and often lungs at the same time; the animal will not go
much over a mile, even if not given time to get sick, and death
results in less than two hours.]
[Illustration: (1) Same as No. 3 on opposite page, but bullet did
not penetrate to the lungs. The animal dies slowly, and after a
couple of hours is usually shot in its bed. (2) The cross jump;
result of a bullet through intestines or liver when the animal
was broadside to the hunter--usually the slowest killing shot.
(3) The tracks of a wounded deer never register where the animal
was walking.
All these curious jumps may be seen on one trail, alternating
with jumps as made by a sound deer. They indicate soft shots,
and should not be followed within two hours after the animal
was shot. Blood, etc., on the trail decides for the tracker
where the bullet struck. Usually the less blood the surer the
animal will be found dead after a few hours.]
A liver shot is, perhaps, the least satisfactory of any. Sometimes
the deer on being shot through the liver, kicks, and at other
times it humps itself up, but always it leaves the place at a
quite lively rate, making a trail like a lung-shot deer, with here
and there a cross jump between. (See illustration.) It is hard to
advise what one should do in this case. I generally smoke a pipeful
of tobacco before taking up the trail, to give the animal time to
lie down. After that I follow and try to get another shot. While I
have killed deer instantly with shots through the liver, there have
been some that I never brought to bag.
Once I killed an elk three days after we had fried parts of its
liver which had dropped out through the hole made by a projectile
from a heavy-caliber English rifle, used previously for hunting
elephants. At another time I killed a deer one year after having
shot it through the liver. When killed, this deer was apparently
as well and fat as could be, though in place of the soft liver we
found a hard mass.
A shot through the intestines causes the animal to kick violently,
hump up its back, and go off at a slow rate. It usually lies down
within a quarter of a mile, and stays down if not molested too
soon. Along the trail may be found a little dark-colored blood, and
sometimes matter the animal has eaten. Deer shot thus should not
be followed before at least two hours have passed, since if jumped
they often go for miles. A deer with a broken leg may be followed
at once, though the chase is usually quicker ended if half an hour
is given for the animal to settle down.
In my opinion a sportsman who does any considerable hunting for big
game should have his dog trained to follow a track as far as his
master will follow him. A dog that runs deer is useless, and if he
will not stay close to his master he must be kept on a leash. There
is no law in any State against such use of a dog, and it would save
much hard work to the man whose eye is not trained for tracking
when there is no snow.
Besides the signs visible when a deer is shot, there are those
which are brought to the hunter's knowledge through his ear: a
hard, sharp sound conveying the intelligence that a bone is struck
(and if it is not a leg the deer will hardly run), and a dull
"thud" telling that a soft part is hit. In any and every case
the hunter should examine minutely the place where the game stood
when it was shot at. The hair cut off by the bullet is often of
great assistance in determining the location of the wound, and the
torn-up needles or ground often show if the animal jumped or kicked
as it was shot. Remember that the successful hunter is never in a
hurry, and minutes spent in close observation will often save hours
of exhausting chase.
[Illustration: HOOF OF BLACK-TAILED DEER. (SLIGHTLY REDUCED)]
Later in the season, when rough winds have robbed deciduous bushes
of their leaves, bucks generally change their day stand, abandoning
quaking-aspen thickets, and settling down among windfalls and
small coniferous trees, thereby offering better chances for shots
at any hour of the day. Still later, during the rutting season,
the biggest specimens and best fighters will occupy those roomy,
open forests, where in September and early October they make
their appearance only during morning and evening hours. These
old over-lords at this time select the places of a wider view,
apparently to see others of their kind that may pass, to fight
them off their range if they are bucks, and to claim ownership of
them if they are does. The white-tail buck does not keep a harem,
as is done by the elk and to some extent by the black-tailed deer,
but stays with a doe a few days only, generally two or three, and
then looks out for adventures elsewhere, or, more probably, the doe
does not care for his company after being satisfied, and avoids
him. Before the close of the hunting season, where it is extended
until January 1, bucks again stay in thickets as prior to the
rutting season, and soon after migrate to their winter range, where
they, in company with does and fawns, spend the rigorous season of
the year.
Summing up, we have seven signs by which to distinguish a buck's
trail from that of a doe, of which the first in the following list
is a feature of the white-tailed deer solely, and of which the
three last named cannot be regarded as always absolutely certain:
1. Watching from cover;
2. Drag;
3. Blazing of trees;
4. Pawing of ground;
5. Distance of tracks from center line;
6. The pointing outward of toes;
7. The lagging back with the hind legs.
THE FAN-TAILED DEER
THE existence of the fan-tailed deer, or gazelle-deer, as it
is sometimes called, is denied by some who know no better, but
it is generally recognized by "old timers" and men who hunt it
in its present restricted habitat. That its range was formerly
more extensive than now, and that even now it still exists in
widely separated districts, the writer infers from a letter of
Justice Douglas, late of the Supreme Court of New York, whose
guide apparently shot one in Michigan, and from an article in a
sportsman's periodical by Mr. Ernest McGaffey, who found it in
the Black Hills. The writer found relics of them in the Bad Lands
of Montana and live specimens in the Snowy Mountains of the same
State. It is evidently a smaller variety of the common Virginia
deer, with a markedly longer tail; however, as its track shows some
decided differences, by which it can readily be distinguished, it
is considered advisable to treat it separately.
[Illustration: FAN-TAILED BUCK DEER. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Front track. (2) Hind track. (3) Walk. (4) Trot. (5) Gallop.
(A) Dust heap. (B) Hillock.]
To begin with, the heels of the hoof are as broad as those of
the Virginia deer, yet the hoof is considerably shorter, and
consequently the track also, a feature which is, however, of value
only on good tracking ground.
The buck of this deer, whose tracks always register, walks with
hoofs pressed close together, puts the heels firmly on the ground,
which action moves the ground or snow toward the front, and steps
off by making a deep imprint with the toes. The result is a small
hillock in the middle of the track and, as this deer never drags
its feet, a small dust heap in front of it. In snow or mud, of
course, the latter sign cannot be found.
As this deer is much smaller than the ordinary white-tail, its
steps are consequently shorter, and in loose snow, where no
individual track is visible, its trail may be mistaken for that of
a fawn, and only by following it a distance can an error be avoided.
Once a friend and I on our way home struck a trail, and while
walking alongside it we both expressed our opinion that the deer
which made it was the smallest fawn in that territory. We never
would have given that trail any consideration had it not run along
our path. As it was, we followed it, and after we had gone a
hundred yards or so, my indifference changed to intense interest;
for it could be seen that the deer had taken observations from
nearly every shielding object it had passed. This caused me to
express the belief that this deer was a very old fan-tailed buck,
and events proved I was not mistaken. He had lost all his front
teeth but two, which were badly used up, had four points on each
antler, and weighed less than fifty pounds after his entrails were
removed. As his conduct the day he was hunted down disclosed some
features often experienced in the pursuit of deer, it is not out of
place to relate it.
[Illustration: DEER TRACKS
(1) Canter. (2) Going at a lively rate, in bounds up to
twenty-four feet; lung-shot deer often run this way. (3) Top
speed, bounds up to twenty-eight feet--indicates heart-shot if
the animal is wounded.]
He was located in a thicket, and jumped with the assistance of the
wind, a method which will be referred to later. We saw him but did
not fire, as our chance opportunity was lost while we were looking
for the horns so as to be sure not to kill a doe. His trail led to
a creek two miles distant, and there disappeared. I knew that he
had gone along in the creek, for wounded deer had often tricked me
in that manner, but that a well deer should resort to that method
to throw me off the track, after being so slightly molested, was
rather astonishing. A quarter of a mile upstream I found where he
had left the water, and I followed the trail, having resolved that
I would kill that buck in one way or another. The trail led me two
miles farther, and then it stopped. The snow was like sand, and
prevented the individual tracks from being seen plainly. The buck
had back-tracked, and I had overrun the spot from which he made
the side-jump. Back I went, and after going three hundred yards I
found his artful side-jump, and the trail led into a thick clump of
pines. Again I sent the wind in as a driver, and that time got a
shot; but I did not down my quarry. The trail showed the buck was
shot through the brisket and shoulder (low). Then I sat down, ate
my lunch, and smoked my pipe. After that the trail led me again
to the creek. I crossed to the other side and, about fifty yards
from the creek, followed its course over half a mile, knowing that
the buck would not leave the water on the side he entered it to
lie down. Finally the creek led past a fir tree with low-hanging
branches, and as the trail had not been seen thus far, I was
moderately sure that the buck had not passed that cover--and it
proved that he had not. During snowless times if a deer has been
wounded and gets away, hunting a day or two after along streams in
the district will often bring to bay the wounded animal. If it has
the strength, it will hunt up water to cool the wound, and then
crawl into the densest cover that is near. I have found many deer
in this way, dead and alive--and still more skeletons to which the
tracks of "varmints" led me in the later season.
The signs of the fan-tailed buck are:
1. Watching from cover;
2. Hillock in track;
3. Dust heap in front of track;
4. Blazing of trees;
5. Pawing of ground.
THE MULE-DEER
THE track of the black-tailed or mule-deer, while it shows no
appreciable differences from that of the Virginia (in white-tail
country), undergoes--even in the mountains and breaks, its proper
habitat--changes interesting not only to the student but to the
hunter.
The three pictures of the hind foot of the same four-year-old
mule-deer buck show what intermediate variations occur in the track
of this animal. The photograph was taken when the buck was killed,
and the drawings made in the rainy month of June, and at the time
of the deer's death in October, respectively. That particular buck
had its preferred stand on a lofty ridge, too high an altitude
for white-tailed deer to make their permanent abode, though they
frequent it as transient visitors.
The mule-deer always puts its foot down firmly from above, while
the motion of the Virginia deer might be called rather one of
sliding; and because of this the hoofs spread sideways without
lengthening the tracks. This gives the track of the latter a
somewhat round appearance as long as there is moisture in the
ground, or if it is covered by snow that is not too dry. This
form of the track is usually found during the winter and early
summer. Of course, when the rim becomes prominent enough to prevent
spreading, as is the case during prolonged dry weather or in the
arid regions, a big mule-deer will make a rather small track, and
in many instances the sole of the hoof does not show at all in the
mark. The track has very much the appearance of that made by a
domestic sheep, yet it is different from it because in the sheep's
track the heels and soles always show, and the hoofs are spread to
an extent not found in deer. Besides, the halves of the hoof of
a mule-deer are as a rule almost exactly alike, whereas with the
sheep that is but seldom the case.
[Illustration: MULE-DEER
(1) Track of buck, sketched during June (flat; about half natural
size). (2) Track of same buck in October (see photograph of
foot). (3) Domestic sheep (flat). (4) Trail of buck; drag during
rutting season from one step to the next. (5) Trail of doe. (6)
Gallop.]
The buck of the mule-deer evidently has not sense enough to spend,
for safety's sake, some of his time in watching from cover, and
because of this his trail leads along without stopping, except
where he did so to feed. Moreover, he does not vent his anger at
a rival by pawing the ground as the white-tail buck does. As the
rutting season of mule-deer is later in the year, the drag in the
buck's trail is a most prominent feature, when in the case of the
Virginia deer it has ceased to connect the individual tracks.
In determining whether one stands before the trail of a mule-deer
or some other kind, the locality where the track is found has to be
considered, which often solves the question. Their natural habitat
is usually higher mountains, and even the treeless breaks where no
white-tailed deer are to be found. The possibility of confounding a
big mule-deer track with a small elk track is not remote; however,
if one observes closely, mistakes will not occur often, as the
young elk places his feet nearer the center line under the body
than an old mule-deer buck, and never makes any drag. Then again a
full-grown elk always makes a track at least twice the size of that
of the mule-deer.
The signs of the mule-deer buck are:
1. Drag;
2. Blazing of trees;
3. Distance of tracks from center line;
4. Pointing outward of toes.
THE WAPITI OR ELK
IN the pursuit of _Cervus canadensis_ the aim of the tracker is to
distinguish the signs of the bull from those of the cow. As the
number to be killed per season by each hunter is limited by law to
one or two bulls, the pursuer is naturally interested in knowing
how to tell the signs of the old ones.
They are:
1. Size of track;
2. Distance of track from center line;
3. Pointing outward of hoofs;
4. Hillock in track;
5. Lagging back with hind legs;
6. Closeness of track;
7. Roundness of toes;
8. Blazing of trees;
9. Pawing of ground;
10. Size and roundness of dew-claws.
[Illustration: ELK. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Bull track. (A) Closeness of track. (B) Hillock. (2) Cow
track, flat (note spread). (3) Trail of bull. (4) Trail of cow.
(5) Trail of calf.]
A male yearling has a bigger hoof, and consequently makes a larger
track, than a female of the same age, and as the track of a
three-year-old bull is the size of that of a large cow, it is
obvious that even the track of the largest sterile specimen of the
hornless sex cannot approach in size that made by an old bull. As
the general size of the elk differs in their various districts,
this fact has to be considered; an elk in the Coast country, for
example, is much inferior in weight to an elk of the same age in
the Rockies. For this reason it is necessary to know the general
size of the elks in the territory in which the tracking is done to
estimate with approximate correctness the number of points on their
horns from the size of the track.
[Illustration: ELK
(6) Gallop. (7) Trot.]
The bigger the bull, the farther, of course, stand the tracks away
from the center line. What has been said about this, and about the
pointing outward of toes in the chapter on Virginia deer, applies
also to the elk, with the difference, however, that in the latter
it is always a _sure_ sign of the bull, as is also the lagging back
with the hind feet.
Like the fan-tail buck, the elk bull, in his manner of walking,
makes a hill in his track, but there is no dust heap in front of
the latter's, as the elk apparently does not step off so clean.
The bull elk always manages to walk with tightly closed hoofs, at
variance with the cow, which lets the hoofs spread more.
By reason of his weight and his habit of pawing the ground, the
points of the hoofs or toes of an old bull become rather blunt,
causing a much rounder track than a cow makes; and in a big track,
like that of an elk, such features show up conspicuously, while it
would be a hard matter to detect them in a much smaller deer track,
even on the best tracking ground.
The dew-claws, being much thicker and blunter in the bull than in
the cow, are a certain distinctive feature, but their imprint can
be seen only in mud or snow, and there the other more prominent
signs of the bull track are, as a rule, visible also and will be
found more reliable.
The young bull often oversteps the forefoot track with the hind
foot; therefore in case the tracks do not register it is necessary
to examine the two individual tracks of one side. If the bigger
track is in front, an old bull made it, and if the reverse is the
case, the animal is not worth following, because it is a young one.
Like all members of the deer tribes, the elk bull cleanses his
horns of the velvet on trees, and, in addition to pawing the ground
with the hoofs, he often belabors it with his horns in his anger
with a rival.
Some consider the distance between the individual tracks in the
attempt to determine the size and other points of the elk, and if
the animal has been seen, this is well, but if there is only the
trail to decide by, it appears to be a far-fetched "sign," because
the foundation, a knowledge of the speed, is lacking.
THE MOOSE
THE favorite rendezvous, in summer or winter range, of any other
member of the deer tribes may be ascertained by the observant
trailer, and the animal found within a given area with moderate
certainty, but not so our most gigantic game, the moose; he is far
too much of a traveler. True, he too has his range, but its limits
are so extended that he may return to the same place but once
within a month or two. Here to-day and elsewhere to-morrow seems to
be his rule.
Yet, in spite of the moose's habits, the tracker may bag him in any
given locality by ascertaining in what umbrageous thicket or on
what wooded hillside the moose prefers to stay during his visits,
that is, if the hunter does not wish to run him down by sheer
endurance, which would take him over deep, crusted snow, cost about
a week's hard work, and furnish poor sport.
On account of its extraordinary size, it is out of the question
that the track of a bull moose should be mistaken for that of
another deer; rather it might be taken for that of a big ox, except
the track of the latter is always rounder and the entire hoof-form
different. Where any doubt exists, a close examination will
invariably dispel it. In forming a conclusion about a moose track
the chief aim is always to decide if it was made by a bull or cow.
The hoof of the bull is bulkier than that of the cow, and should
therefore produce a rounder track. The immense weight of the animal
tends to obliterate such minor distinctive features in most cases
where the ground is not very hard.
The dew-claws on the bull are always farther apart than on the cow,
and as they are much blunter they make a good mark to consider.
The individual tracks of the bull are farther off from the center
line than in the case of the cow; but as the stride is long, this
feature is not apparent to any appreciable extent.
[Illustration: MOOSE BULL TRACK
(About one-half natural size)]
The length of the steps, if it is possible to estimate the gait he
was traveling from his other actions (feeding, etc.), is one of
the best signs of the bull, since he makes markedly longer strides
than the cow of equal size.
[Illustration: MOOSE TRACKS
(1) Trail of bull. (2) Trail of cow. (3) Trot. (4) Gallop.]
From all the foregoing it is obvious that it is a rather doubtful
possibility for the beginner to tell the track of a bull from that
of a cow, but actual observations in the woods will impart to him
the ability to distinguish between them with a considerable degree
of accuracy. Until he so learns he should follow every likely
looking track until it enters a thicket, and if he is following
a bull with a halfway good set of horns he will notice overhead
broken twigs and bent branches, or perhaps he will find along the
trail blazed trees, broken bushes, or the ground torn with hoofs or
horns, and may know by these also that a bull made the signs.
Unlike any other deer previously discussed, the moose, when
trotting, oversteps the forefeet tracks with the hind feet to a
considerable extent. (See sketch of trail.)
As signs of the bull moose we may consider:
1. Roundness of hoof;
2. Distance between and bluntness of dew-claws;
3. Distance of tracks from center line;
4. Length of steps;
5. Breaking of twigs with horns (overhead along trail);
6. Blazing of trees;
7. Pawing of ground.
THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP
_Where first the early sunbeams glow_
_On rugged cliffs, through morning shrouds,_
_Where icy winds in summer blow_
_On crests among the thunder clouds,_
_Way up on mountains high and steep,_
_There lives and roams the bighorn sheep._
THE king of sports, undoubtedly, is the pursuit of the bighorn, but
on account of the habitat of this game, under normal conditions, it
is restricted to comparatively few hunters, since perfect physical
condition and unswerving perseverance are required to endure
the hardships which present themselves in mountain climbing and
"camping out of camp," and to bear cheerfully the many discouraging
experiences which are commonly the lot of the sportsman who desires
to secure the finest trophy to be taken in our country.
No other reminder of the chase will bring back to memory so many
pleasant recollections as the head and horns of an old mountain
ram after time has obliterated the memory of the hardships
endured, and has woven around the trophy a halo through which the
mind's eye sees again sublime views from lofty mountain peaks,
roseate dawns and glowing sunsets, which bathed cliffs and crests
and crags in a flood of molten gold. Again the hunter feels the
thrill of care-free independence of the trifling world below, and
experiences boundless elation as the crack of the rifle, sounding
and resounding from a thousand crags, proclaims to the Alpine world
the triumphant end of the chase.
The tracking of this game consists chiefly in locating it by the
signs left on high meadows, or near springs or salt-licks. Except
for the larger spoor of the ram, there is no difference in the
track or trail of either sex.
Generally on meadows or near springs, where the big tracks of a
single animal, or at most a couple of them, are frequently found,
and where the tracks of lambs are conspicuous by their absence, one
may expect, with moderate certainty, to see game worthy of a shot,
as rams prefer to range alone, except at rutting time and during
the winter.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN SHEEP. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Front track. (2) Hind track. (3) Trail. (4) Leaps.]
If there is no snow, one may learn to know the track of every
individual sheep which frequents the range, and if he spends much
time there he will see an animal at too great a distance to be
shot at, but if he has any memory at all, he will recognize its
track if he finds it anywhere in that region. This, of course, does
not refer to mountain sheep below the average, which, I assume, are
of little interest to the sportsman who takes the trouble to hunt
for a trophy; nor does the meat hunter go up into these regions for
the pot, as he will get something easier lower down.
If the feeding ground or watering place of an old ram is once
known, about the best thing to do is to wait for the quarry. If
the game is seen, and it has not already observed the hunter, it
usually can be flagged as antelopes were in former days. The oldest
bucks, however, seldom respond to the summons, and are seldom lured
within rifle range by this method.
Hunting bighorn has much in common with hunting antelopes, but
in the pursuit of the former there is grander scenery and more
physical exercise.
The tracks of mountain sheep often show the cross-step, seldom
register, and, as the animals when running have to place their feet
where they can, the trail gives no indication of where an animal
has been hit. Infinitely greater vigilance is required than in deer
hunting to observe the signs at the moment of firing, and in the
study of hair and blood.
[Illustration: HOG TRACK; WALKING. (ABOUT HALF NATURAL SIZE)
To save the novice from ridiculous experiences this illustration
is given. The hog track is always spread, very seldom registers,
and, if the ground is not very hard, the dew-claws are always
shown.]
The hoof of the bighorn spreads easily and evenly; therefore, in
the track the distance between the heels is as great as between
the toes, and frequently greater--a fact which makes it impossible
to confound it with that of any other animal.
As stated, there is but one sign by which to tell the ram: Size of
the track.
THE ANTELOPE
THE track of the antelope looks like a combination of a bighorn
track, which it resembles somewhat in length and prominence of the
outer rim of the hoof, and that of the domestic sheep, to which
it bears a likeness in the shape of the heels. To confound it,
however, with either one of them is a rather remote possibility,
since the heels are broader and closer together than those of
a mountain sheep, with which in the Bad Lands the antelope is
sometimes found in the same range, and the spread is different from
that of the domestic sheep. In the case of the domestic sheep the
greatest spread is at the point of the toes, while in the case of
the antelope, the hoof being hooked, it is more between the soles.
An antelope buck of moderate size makes at all times a bigger
track than any range sheep, the track of the latter always being
rather flat. As antelopes live on the open plains where they are
generally hunted by sighting them, and as a sportsman is allowed to
kill but one in a season, we will therefore consider only the signs
of the old bucks.
There are but two signs, and these can be condensed into one,
because they are usually found at the same spot: Pawing of ground,
and droppings.
The droppings are of similar size, and though more or less
connected, always comparatively dry, while from does and fawns they
are either dry and scattered, or, if moist, in a lump and always
irregular in size; the cause of which seeming phenomenon is a
certain amount of glutinous substance in the droppings of the buck.
[Illustration: HIND FOOT OF ANTELOPE. (LIFE SIZE)]
The pawing is usually done in old buffalo trails, cattle runways,
and roads, or where coal deposits come to the surface making the
ground barren of vegetation; where this sign is found, an old buck
is always near, even if the locality cannot properly be considered
antelope country. Old bucks, before and after rutting season,
frequently make their habitat in roomy forests or in the breaks
of the Bad Lands, sometimes several miles distant from the grounds
where the herds roam.
[Illustration: ANTELOPE. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Track of antelope. (2) Domestic sheep (flat), note spread.
(3) Trail of antelope. (4) Gallop (no dew-claws; the antelope has
none).]
[Illustration: THE SIGN OF THE ANTELOPE (BUCK)]
The rutting season begins about the middle of August. The old
bucks are first in selecting their does, but they have to leave
their respective adherents on account of the stronger young bucks,
which fight off their old and emaciated rivals. During the rutting
season all bucks have such an emphatically disagreeable odor that
it is absolutely impossible to eat the meat; afterward they are
but skin and bones, and before they can pick up again and are fit
for food, they shed their horns. The sportsman, in consequence of
the law, which opens the shooting season for antelope September
1st, is put to two disagreeable alternatives: either to shoot a
buck and let the meat rot, saving horns and skin as a trophy of the
sport (?), or to kill a doe or fawn, to feast on excellent venison,
and incidentally hasten the extermination of the most beautiful
creature of the plains.
Sport with antelope bucks in the full sense of the word, can be had
only during the summer months; then they tax the hunter's skill,
and their meat is fit for the table of an epicure.
When their natural range is absorbed by private preserves, or
when human progress is advanced so far that it demands even of
politicians the exercise of some common sense, then, no doubt, laws
will be passed befitting the game. Until then, the sportsman, to
keep his shield of honor bright, must abstain from the killing of
antelope; else, ridiculous and inconsistent as it may seem, if he
decides he must have a trophy of this kind, in any event, he must
disregard the statutory laws.
Flagging old bucks seems to me an inexcusable waste of time; those
which I have tried to flag have invariably heeded the signal, and
left immediately for distant ranges, apparently having profited
from previous experiences.
The distress cry of a jack-rabbit, however, invariably causes
antelope to investigate. Often when I have been calling for wolves
and coyotes, antelopes have appeared seemingly from nowhere and
approached so close that they could easily have been killed with a
shotgun. If there is a herd of cattle in the known range of an old
buck it is almost a sure thing that he will associate with them
during the late afternoon. In timbered country bucks will be found
frequenting comparatively small parks where it is easy to stalk
them.
The antelope has the widest range of vision of all our game, but
like the others it is unable to distinguish objects when looking
toward he sun, a fact which at times has its advantages when
hunting the antelope or bighorn sheep.
The wound-signs are the same as in deer; but as antelope are
usually shot at in open country, they can generally be seen until
they drop dead or lie down. In the latter case it is more merciful
to let them die without disturbing them, unless it is possible from
the lay of the country to stalk them so that their misery may be
ended by a second well-aimed shot.
By reason of the hoof-form, the very prominent hillock in the
antelope track is of no value in ascertaining the sex, and neither
is the irregular stepping in the trail.
COMPARISONS OF THE MALE SIGNS AS FOUND IN THE VARIOUS HOOFED GAME
ANIMALS
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
| | Distance| Pointing | Hillock | | Lagging |
Animal | Size of| from | Outward | in | Drag | Back of |
| Track | Center | of Hoofs | Track | |Hind Legs|
| | Line | | | | |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Virginia| - | + | + | - | + | + |
Deer | | | | | | |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Fan- | | | | | | |
Tailed |_Dust heap in front of track_| + | - | - |
Deer | | | | | | |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Mule | - | + | + | - | + | - |
Deer | | | | | | |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Elk | + | + | + | + | - | + |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Moose | - | + | _Length of steps_ | - |
| | _Breaking of twigs with horns_| |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Bighorn | + | - | - | - | - | - |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
Antelope| + | - | - | - | _Droppings_ |
--------+--------+---------+----------+---------+--------+---------+
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
| |Roundness| Size and | |
Animal |Clearness| of | Form of |Blazing of|Pawing of
|of Track | Toes | Dew | Trees | Ground
| | | Claws | |
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Virginia| _Watching from |cover_ | + | +
Deer | | | | |
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Fan- | | | | |
Tailed | _Watching from |cover_ | + | +
Deer | | | | |
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Mule | - | - | - | + | -
Deer | | | | |
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Elk | + | + | + | + | +
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Moose | - | + | + | + | +
| | | | |
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Bighorn | - | - | - | - | -
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
Antelope| - | - | - | - | +
--------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
PREDACEOUS ANIMALS
THE BEAR
HUNTING bears with the assistance of guides supplied with a
well-trained pack of hounds may be satisfactory, if merely the
killing of them is desired, but it certainly is not sport, and
does not even deserve to be ranked with trapping bears, as in the
latter case the hunter must possess at least some knowledge of the
quarry's habitat and habits. Unlike a fox, a bear when once found
by the hounds stands no chance of escaping, and there would be just
as much sport in shooting the animal in a park or pen as in killing
a run-to-bay bear. This applies also with truth to mountain lions,
although perhaps there is in the case of the cougar the excuse of
the animal's destructiveness.
The employment of dogs in the chase would never exterminate or
even appreciably lessen the number of deer in any hunting country
where lakes are not abundant, but everywhere it surely means the
downfall and extinction of that relic of gray ages, the bear.
Where not plentiful--and the places where they are found in number
are to-day quite few and remote from civilization--bears are, on
the whole, harmless, and decidedly more useful than injurious. The
damage they do is almost _nil_, while they serve man in many ways.
The meat of young bears is equal to the best venison; their fat is
decidedly superior to the "fancy" lard we buy, of the source and
handling of which we are ignorant; and the hides give excellent
service as robes, rugs and clothing. In my opinion bears should be
protected to a certain extent rather than shot down merely to make
a record.
Sport should be conducted in a spirit of fairness to the game, and
while a couple of dogs is perhaps permissible in bear hunting,
still-hunting is the better sport, because it requires the utmost
skill and knowledge of woodcraft on account of the quarry's
sagacity and cunning, which is superior to that of any other of our
wild animals. Even if one is able to read the habits of the bear
clearly from its trail, it is necessary to possess an abundant
supply of patience, for, barring lucky accidents, no one can
reasonably hope to outwit Bruin at the first attempt.
[Illustration: BEAR FEET--RIGHT SIDE (ONE-QUARTER NATURAL SIZE)]
The end of their hibernation depends largely on the weather, but
about March or April bears frequent snowless slopes and gulches in
search of roots, bulbs, and similar food, and it is there one must
look for signs at that time. If a cold spell interrupts the spring
weather, as is often the case, a trail, sometimes a week old, will
often lead the hunter to a nearby thicket where Bruin has made
himself a bed on the ground, with the intention of sleeping until
another thaw. He usually changes his bed every two or three days,
but ordinarily will not leave the thicket unless he is disturbed.
If a bear is found to be in such a thicket, the hunter should curb
his impatience and suspend following up the trail until the snow
gets soft, when he can work carefully against the wind toward his
quarry. However, as it is usually impossible to see farther than
ten or twenty feet ahead, Bruin has, in this kind of hunting, much
the best of the hunter, and the latter finds in most cases an empty
bed.
[Illustration: BEAR TRAIL. (STEPS ABOUT TWO FEET APART)]
If the thicket is not too large the wind-hunting method before
described will, no doubt, often give satisfaction; but as a rule
the thickets which the bears make their spring habitat are of
too great an extent. The surest and easiest way to get him is to
persuade some other fellow to follow the trail while you intercept
and shoot the bear when he leaves the thicket. Knowledge of Bruin's
cunning then furnishes the means to decide where he will pass,
since, as a rule, he will sneak off under the densest cover and
try to reach another thicket under shelter of bushes, rocks and
the like. Anyone, not altogether a tyro in the woods, can easily
decide from the lay of the country where to wait for His Bearship.
When the place is selected, one should be sure that there is an
absolutely clear opening at least a couple of feet wide. A bear is
bulky and clumsy-looking enough, but he is able to pass without
offering a chance for a shot at places where another animal could
hardly escape an average hunter's lead. I am by no means slow
with my trigger finger, but before I learned to appreciate this
fact I was chagrined on several occasions by having bears pass
me unharmed at a less distance than fifty yards, and that too at
places where I thought I could kill a running rabbit if I wished to
do so.
[Illustration: TRACKS OF BEAR, RUNNING]
If a bear succeeds in leaving a thicket without giving opportunity
for a shot, there is no need for disappointment--he will pass
the same spot when he happens to be in the same thicket again,
and this is a certainty if he does not abandon that part of the
country. This statement has met with some disbelief among a few of
my personal acquaintances, and to prove my claims I had to shoot a
bear within a month from a given point. I killed Bruin, or rather
Old Eph, as it was a grizzly, less than ten feet from where I said
I would, and that settled the matter.
A mile and a half from my home there is such a thicket not over
one acre in extent, and if fresh bear signs are seen anywhere in
the surrounding woods, which cover several thousand acres and
contain many larger and just as dense thickets, I wait there,
reasonably sure that I will see Bruin soon after sunrise or at
sunset. Experience has proved to me that it is a waste of time to
watch for bears where signs are most numerous. They invariably
leave their home thicket very quietly before dark, and start their
noisy feeding, chewing up logs, and breaking down berry bushes, not
less than half a mile from their abiding place, near which no signs
except a few tracks are visible.
[Illustration: BEAR TRACK. (HIND FOOT; TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)]
For the entertainment of a visiting friend the thicket was driven
a few times by the wind method, which worked splendidly. An "old
mule," which was shot through the lungs with a .30-40 rifle on the
previous evening, was the only one that left the shelter slowly.
All the others, presumably the same on every occasion, appeared to
be very much frightened, and ran for about three-quarters of a mile
after they had passed the danger point.
[Illustration: BEAR STUMP. (ANTS WERE CHEWED OUT SEVEN FEET ABOVE
GROUND)]
To locate the abode of bears in such thickets during the summer and
early autumn, it is best and simplest to trail them by the signs
they make during their nocturnal rambles, such as overturned logs,
etc.; and if only a few of such signs are found near dense cover,
facing north or northwest, the ground should be carefully examined
for tracks. These are usually difficult to see, and if no moist
places are near such cover, the apparently used paths that lead
into it, but on which there are no signs except an occasional claw
mark, must serve as base for a conclusion, which must be verified
by watching at a good point near the thicket during the morning or
evening. The snapping of a twig or the breaking of a log on which
Bruin carelessly steps often confirms the conclusions, though the
bear may sometimes remain invisible to the hunter for several
consecutive visits.
[Illustration: BEAR TRACK. (FRONT FOOT; ABOUT TWO-FIFTHS NATURAL
SIZE)]
When the thicket they prefer is once located, the rest is easy. If
quick results are desired, driving or, perhaps, calling will yield
results. I once shot a bear which made its appearance immediately
when, by way of experiment, I imitated the distress cry of a
jack-rabbit. If the hunter has plenty of time to spend in the woods
it is a good plan to watch for the quarry. During autumn proper,
bears retreat to the more remote districts and the fastnesses of
the mountains; here they are usually found during the daytime where
they are accustomed to feed. In places where berries are plentiful,
on ridges and in gulches where blue jays and squirrels are storing
their winter supply of mast, here will be found the bears' favorite
autumn haunts. In the mountains of the West there is a berry
bush called kinni-kinic barberry or bearberry--I am not sure which
is the correct term--that is thickly covered with fruit about the
size of buffalo berries, and which is a favorite food for bears
before they can obtain mast; or, if the latter fails, Bruin seems
to regard the seeds of the piñon as a delicacy; but as it would
apparently take up too much of his time to fill himself from those
that fall to the ground, he resorts to easier methods to obtain
them--he becomes a thief and incurs the enmity of squirrels and
jays.
On ridges he robs the caches of the jays, and in cañons he depletes
the stores of the squirrels, and, by no means approving of such
actions, they heartily hate him and "cuss" at him whenever he
approaches, and in this way often betray his presence to the hunter
who has learned to interpret the language of the wood-folk. It is
always well to approach with the utmost care places where there is
a continual chatter of squirrels and cries of blue jays are heard;
and if the "cussed" one proves to be some other marauder--well, it
may be a bear next time. When still-hunting during the autumn the
attention paid to these small denizens of the woods is by no means
wasted, and yields better results than covering a great territory,
or watching for hours on trails or near baits, which latter are
seldom visited by bears during rifle light.
[Illustration: BEAR LOG]
Until I undertook the systematic study of the bear's habits I was
under the impression, from what I had read, that a bear track was
easily recognized, and actually passed many, regarding them as
cougar tracks. I have since noticed that many hunters, born and
reared in a bear country, make the same mistake. Of course in mud
or snow a bear track is easily identified, but in the vastness
of mountains and forests snow and mud are not always present; in
fact, they are of little service. There, the heel of the foot is
practically never seen in the track during snowless times, and
as the shape of the fore part of the foot conforms with that of
the mountain lion, a mistake is easily possible if the imprints
of the five toes of the bear are not all visible. The trailer in
these districts and under these circumstances is generally lucky
if he can discern here and there the part of a track of a bear's
foot. A couple of years ago a party of old deer hunters told me of
the great number of lion tracks they had seen as they came into
camp, and at my query if they saw any bear tracks, they answered,
"No"; yet I had camped there over two months, knew absolutely that
no lion was in those parts, that bears were abundant, and that
the hunters could have seen only their tracks. So much for the
information of those who have an idea that an animal, weighing from
three hundred to over a thousand pounds, must necessarily make a
big trail which can be readily followed.
[Illustration: BEAR LOG]
The tracker, if he will but stop and investigate closely, need not
make a mistake, even if only the imprint of a single toe is plainly
visible, as the long nails of the bear almost always leave some
mark in front of the track. The distance which the nails stand
away from the toe imprints is the only means of distinguishing
the grizzly's track from that of the black bear, except that size
dispels any doubt. The nails of the grizzly stand out almost
straight, while those of the black bear are more curvate, and their
imprints must consequently be found closer to the track of the foot.
The likeness of the bear track to that of the human foot has been
referred to by many writers. In reality no likeness exists, and the
inexperienced trailer in the woods has the already disadvantageous
conditions under which he is working multiplied so long as he is
not disillusioned.
If a bear who knows nothing of the hunter is shot at and suddenly
whirls around, _i. e._, jumps when the trigger is pulled, he is
hit, no matter whether there is another sign or not, and the color
of the blood will indicate to the hunter where he is struck. A shot
through the lungs with the modern high-power rifle will sometimes
not prove fatal within ten or twelve hours.
A missed bear is never in a hurry to get away, unless he has seen
or scented the hunter previous to the firing, and in most cases he
offers a chance for a second or third shot.
Not a few city hunters "pull out" if they encounter bear signs
where they intend to spend their outing, saying they are not
looking for bears; yet the chances are many against their seeing
one even if they were anxious for an encounter. The trouble is not
to avoid a bear, but to find him, as his greatest desire seems to
be to keep out of man's reach, and he employs all his cunning to
that end.
THE COUGAR
OF all the predatory animals there is none which in destructiveness
equals or even approaches the mountain lion; he, and he only, is
often the cause of unsatisfactory hunting trips into districts
where other big game by every reason ought to be abundant. A family
of these great beasts will, while the young ones are growing up,
deplete a region of almost every other game animal.
If a cougar kills a deer during the morning hours, he seems to
spend the day near it, as I have again and again found freshly
vacated beds under nearby bushes or rocks. On these occasions I
was following the drag the "varmint" had made with the carcass,
and although I kept a close watch on the surroundings, the lion
remained invisible; yet I know that he was watching me, for in
every instance I found that he visited and examined the covered
carcass during the following night.
The methods usually followed to rid the hunting-ground of its worst
poacher are to shoot or trap him. If the former is decided upon,
the fact that the lion has an excellent nose and keen vision should
not be forgotten when the place to watch for him is selected.
[Illustration: COUGAR. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Ordinary gait.
(2) Sneaking.
(3) Trot.
]
Still-hunting the cougar is about the most thankless undertaking
one could enter upon, yet there are occasions when a close
observer may be able to kill one without extra trouble when
out primarily for other game. The main requisite is time and a
thorough acquaintance with the country. The cougar, after the
young are grown up, does not remain in a comparatively small
district for any length of time, but usually covers a much wider
territory than the gray wolf, although the latter is universally
known as a great wanderer. At irregular intervals, say from once
in a fortnight to once in two months, depending on the region,
it returns to the same district. Unlike the wolf, the cougar, in
returning to and hunting over a district, does not usually go
over the same trail and buttes he has used on the previous trip,
but prefers to explore new ground on each occasion unless there
is something unusual to attract him. If his tracks, therefore,
are seen quite often on a certain lookout point, the hunter
should be alert for the cause of attraction, generally a fallen
tree, or an overhanging rock protecting a snug dry bed beneath
from rain or snow, which are always situated on a wind-sheltered
hillside facing south. When such a place is known, the hunter
should scrupulously refrain from going near it, to avoid leaving
any scent there; but he should observe the "nest" as often as he
comes into its vicinity, and from a convenient distant point.
If the "nest" has an occupant, it is better to let a bullet
investigate before the hunter does so himself, for a cat is a
cat, and if its suspicions are aroused, the devil cannot beat
it in trickiness--it will vanish unobserved without the hunter
knowing how it could have done so. I once shot one out of a bunch
of three, and felt sure the remaining two were "my meat," yet
not a spot of yellow of them did I see afterward, although every
nook within three hundred yards of the surrounding country was
seemingly open to my scouting.
This is tedious hunting, of course, and the number of cougars
would not be appreciably lessened by the method; but one lion
outwitted thus is worth perhaps, as a trophy of skill, a score
killed by other means; and besides, it at least gives the
still-hunter a chance.
Cougars do not respond readily to being called (by imitating the
cries of a jack-rabbit); at least I have lured but one in eight
or ten years, and missed it at that. Trapping them is as sure as
gambling, _i. e._, there is never any certainty that one will
get the lion, and as their existence is unquestionably obnoxious
to sportsmen and stockgrowers alike, hunting them with dogs is a
commendable method, since it insures their decrease, and to the
tyro means a trophy.
Barnyard study is, undoubtedly, responsible for the conclusions
advanced by some writers that the members of the cat family are
the most perfect track makers, _i. e._, walkers. As a matter
of fact, the trail of a wild cat cannot be compared, so far as
perfection goes, with the trail of the wild dog. The cougar's
tracks seldom register. He either oversteps with the hind foot
the track made by the forefoot when in a hurry, or he does not
step quite far enough to cover the forefoot track when leisurely
walking, and the individual tracks do not stand so close to the
center line of the trail as do those of the wolf. The roundness
of the track, together with the inconspicuousness of the nail
marks, even under the most favorable tracking conditions, makes
the cougar track unmistakably different from that of a wolf.
However, on hard ground the track of a bear and a lion may be
easily taken for one another, though the latter contains but four
toe-marks. But then every toe-mark is not often visible on hard
ground.
With all predatory animals the rule holds good that the female
track appears smaller than that of the male, even though the
size of the animals be the reverse. For example, a male cougar
measuring seven feet from tip to tip, will make a bigger track
than a nine-foot-long female. Although with dividers and tapeline
one might have difficulty to ascertain the difference, which at
best would be very small to the eye, it is unmistakable, and
one well acquainted with tracks can hardly make the error of
mistaking a female track for that of a male. The latter always
looks more substantial.
It is the same with the tracks of males and females of predatory
animals as it is with a bunch of deer, or of a single one for
that matter, after bucks have shed their horns. The initiated
can tell accurately from the appearance of the animals which
are bucks and which are does; yet if questioned _how_ he knows
it, he can scarcely answer. At best he will say, "Because it
looks like one." The reason for my dwelling on this subject is
by no means an idle one. During the early summer the ravages of
"varmints" often become almost unbearable to stockmen, and since
females, which have to provide for their offspring, are the worst
offenders, it is well for anyone to be able to distinguish their
tracks from those of males, in order to follow them only, as they
are the only ones that will always with certainty lead to the den
within a day's travel.
Predatory animals are, in the writer's opinion, not monogamous.
While a male is often found with a family, the same male may be
seen the next day with others of his kind miles away. I have
noted this while following game on horseback. On the other hand,
a male track may lead to several dens if followed far enough.
On several occasions I have shot two or even three males of a
species near a den within a week or so, the desire to kill the
female being on every occasion responsible for the long-continued
watch.
In following a track with the purpose of hunting up a den it
makes but little difference whether the trail be fresh or old. A
trail two weeks old, but made after a rain, is often more easily
followed than a fresher one, and will as well lead to the den's
vicinity, as the latter very often could not be followed at all
on hard ground; and a back-trail often leads more quickly to the
den than one leading ahead. Prevailing conditions of weather and
lay of country should govern the tracker's choice of which trail
to follow. He must know that he has to follow the back track if
it comes from rough country, for the den is more likely situated
there than elsewhere.
A den that contains young cougars is readily recognized by the
superabundance of carcasses of game lying around its vicinity.
Certainly unless due regard is given to the extermination of
predatory animals, it is impossible to bring a hunting preserve
up to the highest standard, and for the same reason their
unrestricted existence in the open hunting grounds can only be
harmful. The time when predatory animals kept the number of other
game in a healthy balance has passed, and the sportsman who
kills half a dozen deer ought to have to his credit at least one
member of the former tribe to offset his killing those of the
latter. As few of the hunting fraternity attain this desirable
result, I think those who kill as many or more marauders as they
do useful game animals, ought to be hailed as benefactors to the
sportsmen's fraternity. Sometimes, I am sorry to say, such an
action is referred to as unsportsmanlike by those who would soon
find the woods empty of desirable game if others gave no more
attention to marauders than they do themselves.
THE LYNX
WHAT the cougar is as an enemy to the useful big game, the
bob-cat is to small game and the young of big game. He, however,
lacks the cunning of the former, being easily called or trapped,
and therefore as a class, and excepting individual cases few and
far between, will never become a menace to either the sportsmen's
fraternity or to stockgrowers. Where hundreds of them infest the
country--as in certain sections of the Bad Lands--they only serve
to check the increase of the millions of cottontail rabbits,
which would otherwise so rapidly multiply that they would become
a destructive pest throughout the cultivated sections of the
country.
[Illustration: Scale 1 foot
LYNX. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Forefoot. (2) Hind foot (small specimen; nail marks are
generally invisible). (3) Imprint of fox. (4) Lynx, ordinary
gait. (5 and 6) Fox, ordinary gait. (6 and 7) Comparison of fox
and lynx trails in snow. (8) Lynx, running. (9) Domestic cat.]
The tracker, trailing bob-cats like deer, can often surprise them
at prowling, or jump them at close range from their beds, which
are usually found under deadfalls or overhanging rocks, etc. Until
their suspicions are aroused they are very foolish and the writer
has shot not a few with a .22 rifle when still-hunting for rabbits.
When called, they have not sense enough to run away if missed by
the first and even second shot. In hunting them with dogs they
give good sport, and not infrequently get away by entering holes or
putting the dogs to shame in some other manner.
[Illustration: RIGHT FRONT PAW OF LYNX]
[Illustration: RED LYNX]
At a careless glance the lynx track is but a miniature of that of
the cougar, but a close examination reveals the fact that the marks
of the individual toes are proportionately much more elongated than
in the latter. The trail, though much better than the mountain
lion's trail, is not as perfect as that of the coyote or fox, for
either of which it might be mistaken in loose snow; it is always
more out of line. In _Country Life in America_ for June, 1905, a
well-known nature writer shows a lynx trail, as perfectly as it can
be illustrated, as that of a fox. With such good standing tracks
it is inexcusable if the trailer makes a mistake, and even if one
has had but little actual experience in the woods, a less perfect
outline of the trail will be found sufficient to tell the wild cat
from the wild dog.
[Illustration: LYNX TRAIL]
In snow five inches or more deep the lynx makes, as a rule, quite a
drag with his feet, much more so than either fox or coyote, which
latter disturbs the snow only near the individual tracks. On good
tracking ground, or in soft snow, the nail marks are sometimes
visible, but never prominent like those of the fox or coyote.
THE DOMESTIC CAT
THE track and trail of the house cat--(if it were only a house cat
nothing would be said about it here)--is too well known to need
description. If it is found anywhere in hunting grounds, parks,
etc., the finder will confer a benefit on lovers of nature and its
feathered denizens if he, where possible, will set a trap baited
with fish (herring), or cheese; or if there is a chance to fill the
"varmint's" anatomy with pellets from a shotgun or a .22 rifle, or
to cut it in two with a big rifle bullet, he should never fail to
do so. It may seem a waste of powder and lead, but it is not, for
in my opinion there is no more harmful creature a-foot or a-wing
than the domestic cat outdoors.
It would be impossible to estimate the amount of damage they do by
killing songsters which nature intended to check insect pests. As
far as the sportsman is concerned, a single cat will often deprive
him of his shooting in given localities, for, if it has once found
the location of a bevy of quail, grouse or other game birds, it
will not stop until the last one of the family is killed.
Wild predatory animals generally restrict their raids to the hours
of the night; a domestic cat will prowl and kill at any hour during
the twenty-four. Some specimens attack even deer fawns and other
game of like size.
A cat shrinks from nothing in its lust for killing--not even from
water--and I remember seeing a big tom-cat rob a pond in a city
park of its goldfish. Unluckily for the marauder I had a gun with
me.
Anyone interested in shooting should keep a lookout for cat tracks
in the woods during the summer and autumn, and do his best to let
them show no more.
THE WOLF
THERE is perhaps no other animal about which more disagreeable
things are said and written than the wolf, yet the writer, though
recognizing its bad points, would dislike to have it become
extinct. Its howl is inseparably associated with many of my
pleasantest recollections, and the butte-fringed prairies and
rugged Bad Lands would have decidedly less charm without it for one
who has learned to love that so-called "God-forsaken country."
[Illustration: WOLF
Front track
Dog, forefoot (Two-thirds natural size)
Hind track]
Except under unusually severe weather conditions, wolves generally
kill only the weakest of range stock and big game animals, and
I doubt if their so-called depredations in this respect are
anything but a benefit to the survivors, as weaklings among any
species of animals are always inimical to the general health and
condition of the respective variety. The wolf in this regard does
only what the sensible warden of a well-conducted game preserve
does; _i. e._, weeds out undesirable specimens. In Yellowstone
Park, for example, since the cougars there are systematically
hunted with hounds, wolves and coyotes ought to be protected to a
certain extent or else the result will undoubtedly be a general
degeneration among the game animals in that region.
Before the warfare against lions was started, there were already
many scabby elks in that great preserve, and if the slaughter of
scavengers is kept up indiscriminately--well, a reasonable person
can only await results with misgivings. Nature always works out her
course best if left alone, and I believe that in the case of the
Yellowstone Park the Nation in the course of time will be willing
to pay ten times the amount it now pays for their extermination to
have the "varmints" alive in that great preserve. Where weaklings
are not abundant, game animals naturally suffer from an abundance
of wolves, and where the stock-raiser has enough sense to dispose
of sick or weak stock himself, Old Gray has no business.
[Illustration:
(1) Wolf (slow trot). (2) Dog (trot). (3) Wolf (quick trot). (4)
Wolf (gallop). (5) Dog walking slowly; a motion never seen in the
wolf trail.
In hunting wolves the quickest results are obtained in calling by
imitating the cries of a jack-rabbit. Wolves evidently think one
of their tribe has caught a bunny, and, as Wildenbruch fittingly
says: "Each and everyone would eat him." This trait is shared by
most other marauders. The wolf is a poor runner, and is easily run
down with the aid of an ordinary horse in open country.
The surest and most effective way apart from calling, is by
trapping, which is the most extensively practiced, and he who says
that trapping is not great sport has surely never tried to outwit
an old wolf. I always measure sport by the amount of skill required.
The keeper of a game preserve, who is not acquainted with the use
of traps and other devices designed to decrease predatory animals,
will never succeed in showing first-class results to the owner or
owners so far as abundance of game is concerned; and what holds
good in the case of the shooting-preserves holds good also for the
open hunting grounds.
The track of an old full-grown wolf, although similar to that of a
dog, differs from the latter, inasmuch as it shows that the foot is
less fleshy, the soles of the various toes appearing more sharply
divided than in the dog's track. The latter has a comparatively
big foot but also a soft foot which, being plainly visible in the
ordinary gait, becomes much more apparent where the animal adopts
a quicker motion. The toes are then spread out to an extent never
found in the wolf, except when the latter is running very fast,
and consequently the nail marks of the two middle toes of the dog
are about twice as far apart as those of his wild relative. A
wolf trail shows the individual tracks ordinarily about eighteen
inches apart, while the dog, making the same size or a slightly
bigger track, steps at the same gait less than fourteen inches;
and if, in trotting, he should equal the length of wolf-steps, the
spread of the middle toes makes his tracks easily recognizable. A
good-stepping dog steps about as near the center line as the wolf,
but as his steps are shorter, they appear more out of line to the
eye. This is an optical illusion, but it serves the tracker's
purpose.
A young wolf, say less than one year old, has as soft a foot as a
dog's. However, as young wolves go mostly in packs, following the
trail will generally reveal the identity of the animal. Usually
wolves do not track continuously, one animal investigating
here and another there, while the main trail leads on. Dogs,
two or more, show no clear-cut single trail even for so short a
space as ten feet, while a number of wolves often travel several
hundred yards with the trail showing as though only one animal
had made it. If one sees a wolf trail, and without following it
concludes that it was made by a single specimen, he is liable to
make the same mistake "Liver-eating" Johnson made with a bunch
of horse-stealing Indians. He was stopping with a friend, Eugene
Irvin, also an old Indian fighter, and one morning noticed about
fifty horse-tracks, of which he concluded only about half-a-dozen
were made by horses mounted by redskins. Instead of following out
on the prairies and deciding there from the comparative absence
of dust in the tracks--a rider is not mixed up with the herd he
is driving, and consequently in his mount's tracks less dust is
to be found--he hurried back to induce Irvin to join him in the
pursuit of the Indians. Now that old scout was not as eager for
the horses as "Liver-eating," and not at all for a fight, but for
old friendship's sake said he would come along if a couple more
fellows could be found, which, by the way, he did not believe
possible, for the country was not settled then as it is now. But
it happened that two men did come along just at that moment, and
Johnson soon convinced them that profitable business was ahead if
they joined in the pursuit. So the four went, taking a straight cut
toward Horsethief, a section of the country southeast of the Big
Snowy Mountains, where they thought the Indians would make a halt.
About three o'clock that afternoon they overtook the "Reds," but
found to their chagrin that a dozen bucks were ready to give
battle, while still four or five were left to attend to the stolen
horses, and as neither Johnson nor any of his companions were
burning for a fight, in which there was no promise of getting
anything but bullet holes, Johnson decided that he would rather go
home without the horses.
In the Bull Mountains a hunter followed a wolf trail into a ravine
from which there was no escape for the "varmint" except past him,
and he was promptly attacked by a half-dozen wolves. He killed
four after a hard fight, but he was pretty well chewed up at the
finish. Of course he had expected to find only one in the gulch.
As a rule the wolf is not anxious to fight, although not so
cowardly as most other animals--the cougar for example--yet I have
seen a single specimen follow a hunter, a boy of twelve years, but
the best rifle shot I ever met, about two miles. I was with him,
and waited for that wolf until he was within twenty yards, when I
allowed the boy to fire. His nerves were evidently too much shaken,
for he missed his first wolf--nevertheless he got his pelt.
The locating of dens, as explained in the discussion of the cougar,
is also applicable to wolves.
THE COYOTE
WHAT has been said in regard to the wolf and dog track, is
applicable also to the track and trail of the prairie wolf, but
as the latter is small there always exists the possibility that
its track will be mistaken for that of the fox. Where the locality
gives no clue to the identity of the maker of the trail, the
tracker has no distinguishing feature whatever from which to form
his judgment, since a big red fox makes as big a track as a small
coyote. The writer, after hunting foxes for many years, followed
what he took for fox trails quite frequently in a certain section
of the country, until he discovered that there was no fox within
a couple of hundred miles of the place. A big coyote, of course,
makes a larger track than a fox, but here all difference stops. For
comparison's sake the track and trail of the _average_ coyote and
of the _average_ fox are shown.
[Illustration: COYOTE. (TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Ordinary trot. (2) Fast trot.]
The hunting methods are the same as for the gray wolf. Where the
latter, however, is looking for the living, the coyote is watching
for the dead, and he rather deserves to be called the hyena of the
Western Hemisphere than prairie wolf, for his main diet is carrion.
His addiction to carrion can be made of use to the hunter, in
locating big game which has been unfortunately "shot to the woods,"
and of which he desires to secure at least the antlered or horned
head.
In locating missing persons, who are supposed to have met with a
fatal accident or worse, the trail of the coyote could be employed
to advantage--and undoubtedly will be, if it is once a matter of
general knowledge that the prairie wolf will always visit the
immediate vicinity of the remains of a hidden or buried human body,
and sound its dismal howl over them every time it happens to pass
through that part of the country.
THE FOX
THERE is very little to add to what has been said about the fox
track in the chapter on the coyote. When galloping, the fox's
trail shows many variations not found in that of any other animal,
but as the sinful fellow generally leaps only when he undertakes
a chase, or is chased himself, the features in the running trail
are practically of little or no consequence to the tracker. It is
hardly possible to confound a fox trail with that of a very small
dog--only in that the latter has a foot as small as the average
fox--on account of the glaring dissimilarity in the length of the
individual steps, which is much more apparent than between the wolf
and big dog. The writer, at the tender age of seven, mistook once
a very small dog's trail for that of a fox, but after his father
pointed out the above feature, he never afterwards made such a
mistake.
[Illustration: FOX. (TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)
Front and hind track. (1) Ordinary gait; the shaded part shows
drag of brush. (2) Running.]
When no individual track is visible, as is the case in dry snow,
the blurry mark of the fox brush which is frequently seen at
intervals in the trail settles any existing doubt. Some foxes, as
well as wolves and coyotes, drag their feet to the same extent as
does a dog that walks badly, and because of this the tracker may
disregard as immaterial the prominence or absence of the drag made
by the toenails.
Hunting foxes with hounds is undoubtedly the most popular method.
Calling him like the wolf and coyote yields good results for the
still-hunter, but of all methods I prefer to shoot them during the
rutting season, which occurs in January. The rutting season of
coyotes is during February, and that of wolves from January 1st
until April, approximately speaking. I have seen wolves "run" as
early as December 28th, and have killed pups about two weeks old
after the middle of June.
It is on snowy, blustering days that, in the depth of the woods,
the fox is holding high carnival, and his and her tracks run in
all directions. Watching where the trails are most numerous soon
furnishes work for the gun and trophies for the hunter, for on such
occasions the fox seems to have lost the senses of sight and smell
which at other times are so well developed. It is a singular fact
that they always run the most during the worst weather. In driving
it is impossible to tell where a wolf or coyote will leave a
certain thicket, beyond that it will not leave it where it entered;
but a fox is always the sure victim of the hunter if he knows the
fox path, for like the bear or old boar, he and every one of his
tribe will always leave a thicket at the same point.
In calling, an old fox, like a wolf, comes stealthily, while a
young one, like a coyote, will generally be in a hurry to get
there.
WHAT TRACKING MEANS, AND SOME HUNTING METHODS
BY the term "tracking" we usually understand the following of a
trail, but if a hunter attempts to get a shot at his quarry solely
by this means he has to depend on good luck or physical endurance.
The cougar is, in my opinion, the most perfect tracker and most
successful still-hunter; he tracks, but he does not follow the
trail like a pack of wolves or dogs; he uses it only as a guide,
following it for an occasional fifty or one hundred yards, which is
to my mind the proper method for the human hunter.
Tracking also means the ascertaining of the preferred stand of
certain animals. If, for example, the rutting place of the biggest
elk in a district is located by comparison of various tracks,
and the bull is shot later by waiting for, or stalking him at
his favorite place, he undoubtedly falls a victim to tracking.
Again, a track of a big bull moose is seen, and though it is too
old to warrant expectations of finding the animal still in the
locality, it is followed and determines where the bull made his
resting-place. When, weeks later, perhaps, the fresh trail of the
same bull is seen and again the previously preferred hillside,
or another specific part of the woods is hunted over carefully
without attention to the trail, but with all consideration for
wind-direction and lay of country, and a fair shot is obtained,
can it be doubted that tracking was responsible for the downfall
of this monarch of the woods? If so, let the doubter once follow a
moose track straight and try to get an easy shot: he will probably
change his mind. The locating of game, sometimes weeks in advance
of the time when the shooting is to be done, is not by any means
the least feature in the art of tracking. To reduce, if possible,
the annual slaughter of men by careless hunters, it may not be
amiss to discuss certain hunting methods which have given me the
most satisfaction, and which obviate the possibility of being fired
at by mistake.
Stalking along in grown-up timber and other open places, the
sportsman will run across the trails of all the animals which have
moved in the district he covers, and, having decided which trail
he wishes to follow, he keeps on in the direction it leads. If it
enters a thicket, a circuitous route--under wind--will lead him to
where the animal has passed out, or show him that it is "fast," _i.
e._, in the thicket. If the former, he, of course, has to pursue
the same tactics until the game is located. The rest is generally
easy enough, and that without entering any thicket, where, as we
all know, it usually happens that hunters are mistaken for deer.
Many hunters in relating their experiences tell us how careful they
were to hunt against the wind, to approach their game. While it is
well enough to have the wind against one if the game is in sight
or driven toward one, I consider it more judicious to make the
wind serve me. Having located an animal in a thicket, I select a
stump or some other elevation to windward which allows the widest
possible view, and simply wait long enough to allow the wind to
inform my quarry of my presence. It will not require long for the
game to take the hint and get up--often affording a shot by this
means alone--to leave the premises. Very few are the instances that
an old buck goes straight away and gives me no chance to see him,
because in that case he would have to cross my trail, and to do
that the wind, or rather my scent, does not frighten him enough;
and if he goes out at the side which is untainted by any scent of
man, he is usually my meat--if he is up to my standard. If the
thicket is too big, the smoke of a pipe will often do wonders. The
biggest buck I ever shot, became my victim through the assistance
of a smudge--the thicket in that instance being about ten acres in
extent. The diagram (p. 130) will illustrate the method better than
words could. I have used it with success on many animals, and even
on a wounded bear.
During snowless times no one can know with certainty if a deer is
in a certain thicket, and the method has to be employed at random
where there are enough signs to make it likely that a buck is near.
In hunting against the wind in open forests more game is passed
than many hunters would suppose. The animals see the man, note
that he will pass them, and hide by getting as near to the ground
as possible. If they scent him after he has passed, they evidently
realize that the danger is over, though some, mostly the younger,
inexperienced animals, then sneak off. Where game is very wild it
is often in such localities as I have mentioned only possible to
approach them _with the wind_ by outdistancing the latter, because
a big game animal at rest depends on its nose to save it from
danger in the direction from which the wind comes, and on its eyes
to watch the side from which it can get no other warning.
Desirable game is often located on slopes, and can be shot from
an opposite slope if only it can be made to move around slowly,
the latter being important, as shots in such cases have usually to
be fired at long distance, and the ability to hit running game at
three hundred or four hundred yards is not possessed by everybody.
An imitation of the lamenting cry of a jack-rabbit serves me best
in such cases, though it has often saved the game I was after,
because it has attracted a wolf, or a cat; and I would rather kill
one "varmint" than half a dozen bucks, which last can at best elude
a man who knows how to track for but a limited length of time.
[Illustration: HUNTING WITH THE WIND
The stand is at 2 if the hunter is alone, and uses only his scent
or pipe smoke to drive the deer out of the thicket. If a smudge
is used for this purpose, as is necessary in big thickets, the
stand is at 1, and if the hunter has a companion, one stands at
1, and the other at 2. A smudge should be made distant enough
from the thicket--about at 3--to give the hunter time to go
around, and take his stand at 1.]
The sketch of leaps of wounded animals apply to all of our hoofed
game except bighorn sheep. In any case, where one of them has been
fired at, the trail should be followed for at least two hundred
yards, as often an animal that goes away with the bounds of an
apparently sound creature, will announce its distress through the
placing of its feet, a sure indication to the tracker that he will
be able to get his victim at the trail's end.
PART ONE
_GROUP II_
THE JACK-RABBIT
The jack-rabbit is generally a resident of open country, though he
may be found also in woodlands; and, in some parts of the country,
when deep snow covers the lowlands, he retires to the fastnesses of
the mountains, where, up to altitudes of eight thousand feet, he
frequents the range of Bighorn.
He is unquestionably the delight of the hunter who desires to
acquire efficiency in hitting moving objects with a rifle bullet.
[Illustration: JACK-RABBIT]
His tracks, being the biggest of the rabbit tribe, cannot very
well be mistaken for those of any other animal. On sandy or muddy
places often only the imprint of the front part of the hind foot
is seen; and on hard roads, plow furrows, etc., usually the mark
of the toenails alone is visible. When the animal is feeding or
moving along slowly, the whole imprints of the hind feet are left,
while with increasing speed only the front parts of them touch the
ground. The forefeet rarely pair, and never if a jack-rabbit is
running. If the long-eared fellow decides in the morning that it
is time to retire for the day, he usually runs along a road,
cattle-runway, or the like, returns in his own trail, and by a long
side leap makes the trail seem to end. Where he lands, the four
footmarks are usually so close together that they can be almost
covered with the hand. He may leap directly into his "form," or
he may repeat the same maneuver several times; but one thing is
certain, a jack which acts in this manner is never far from home.
If pursued during the daytime, he employs the same tactics again
and again to throw the pursuer off the trail. At feeding places
slight forms are often observed, and to follow the trail leading
from them means, as a rule, a tiring walk, as those forms indicate
that the jack has spent the after-supper hours there.
[Illustration: JACK RABBIT
(1) Morning trail (easy lope). (2) Moving slowly. (3) Speeding.
(A) Side-jump. (B) Day form. (E) Night forms. (B to D)Morning
trail and night trail (feeding).]
I have hunted with men who blamed their dogs if they failed to
catch a rabbit with a broken foreleg. They evidently did not
consider that a broken foreleg is of very little consequence to the
running efficiency of that kind of animal. One with an injured hind
leg, however, can be run down easily.
[Illustration: JACK RABBIT. (TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)
(A) Front foot. (B) Hind foot.]
THE VARYING HARE
THE Varying Hare, though scarcely half the size of the jack-rabbit,
makes almost as large a track, and when he spreads his feet in
passing over frozen snow his tracks are fully as large. The
entire track picture, however, differs materially from that of
the jack--the individual tracks stand much closer together, and
the feet are usually paired. The hare makes many different track
pictures, but he cannot long refrain from making the jump--shown
slightly reduced in the illustration--and a following of the trail
for a short distance will always dispel any existing doubt, even if
the individual tracks are larger than those of a young jack-rabbit.
There is a much greater likelihood of mistaking the varying hare's
trail for that of the cottontail rabbit, with which it has many
points of resemblance. Only the slenderness of the rabbit's foot
serves as a distinguishing feature in the trail so long as they
are both unalarmed. If, however, they are put on the quick jump,
the similarity of the two trails disappears.
[Illustration: VARYING HARE]
[Illustration: VARYING HARE. (SLIGHTLY REDUCED)]
[Illustration:
(1) At leisure (one to three feet). (2) Steady lope (three to
five feet); the front tracks blend into one mark. (3) On the
quick jump (five to twelve feet).
Varying Hare track when the snow is deeper than a couple of
inches.
VARYING HARE TRACKS]
THE COTTONTAIL RABBIT
AS can be easily seen from a comparison of the life-size track
picture of the varying hare and cottontail--drawn from tracks made
under the same tracking conditions, _i. e._, on ground covered by
about two inches of snow, and while the animals were running at
approximately the same speed--the tracks of the cottontail, besides
being much more slender than those of the hare, are also more
pencil-shaped at the point of the toes. The toes are but faintly
indicated, and the toenails practically indiscernible, while in the
case of the hare both are plainly visible; in fact, the imprint of
the toenails is a prominent feature in the track of the hare. In
every case where any doubt exists in regard to the tracks of the
two small varieties, this alone is sufficient to settle it; as the
toe marks are more prominent in the front track, its appearance
alone is sufficient for the trailer to form a correct conclusion.
Except when jumping with the hind feet into the front tracks two
individual tracks of the cottontail never blend into one mark on
account of the slenderness of the feet. The jump picture of both
the small rabbits in dry snow sometimes appears very much like that
of the marten; but by following the trail for a short distance one
will always dispel any doubt.
[Illustration: Cottontail Rabbit Tracks--(1) At leisure. (2) In a
hurry.]
In illustrated articles the writer has seen drawings and
photographs of tracks and trails claimed to have been made by the
New England cottontail which looked exactly like those made by
the varying hare. If there was no mistake in identification, the
Western cottontail, which the illustrations represent, evidently
makes tracks entirely different from those of the Eastern variety.
There is every reason to believe, however, that the track of the
same type of rabbit is the same in every part of the country.
[Illustration: COTTON TAIL RABBIT]
While the pursuit of big game is exciting sport at times, hunting
rabbits is always attended with soul-satisfying fun. A famous
occupant of the White House found recreation and pleasure in it,
and I believe that few hunters who ever entered into the true
spirit of the sport have failed to obtain a great deal of pleasure
and healthful exercise.
[Illustration: COTTONTAIL RABBIT
The dotted line shows the real length of foot.]
THE SQUIRREL
THE squirrel practically always pairs its feet when on the ground.
Like the other members of Group II its hind feet are much larger
than the forefeet, and, as in the track-picture, are always planted
ahead of the latter. The hind feet point outward, so that even
by imperfect imprints, it may readily be seen in which direction
the trail leads. As there is no other track known to the writer
which could be confused with the squirrel's, it is not necessary
to describe it; the illustration serves every purpose. Where the
remains of the feast of a "varmint" are left in the woods--meat,
entrails, or bones--squirrel tracks are found in great numbers,
and the tyro is liable to take them for those of other animals.
Ordinarily a careful look is sufficient to disillusion him, both as
to the identity of the tracks and the diet of the squirrel.
[Illustration: SQUIRREL. (ABOUT TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)]
Besides tracks, the squirrel leaves other signs which betray its
presence in the woods--heaps of cone chips near stumps and other
elevations, or strewn under trees one may find twigs from which
buds have been eaten. Sometimes the cries of birds whose nests
the squirrel may be robbing of eggs or young, will betray his
presence. It is an entertaining pastime to hunt squirrels with a
small-caliber rifle.
The writer considers the squirrel one of the most injurious
creatures of our woods, and believes that in hunting him it is
better to use some other weapon than the noisy shotgun.
PART ONE
_GROUP III_
THE MARTEN AND THE BLACK-FOOTED FERRET
THOUGH their habitat is entirely different, these two animals make
very similar tracks and trails, so they are properly treated of in
the same division.
While the marten is a resident of the woods, the black-footed
ferret never leaves the open prairie, where it lives in abandoned
prairie-dog holes, usually leaving its hole every second night,
unless it happens to kill a rabbit. It is the most relentless enemy
of the rabbit, and lives almost exclusively on its flesh.
The track of the black-footed ferret is about the size of a
small marten's, but in soft snow the soles of the toes show more
prominently than those of the latter, whose strongly haired feet
usually cause the sole marks to appear rather indistinct.
Sometimes the trail of the marten looks like that of the
cottontail, but if followed for a short distance it always assumes
again the form of a parallel trapeze, the evidence of the usual
marten motion to which the ferret adheres at all times except in
the pursuit of prey.
[Illustration:
Marten track (one-third natural size), showing the four foot
marks (not the usual jump, see trails). The black-footed ferret
makes a slightly smaller track and shows not quite so much hair.]
There is no reason for mistaking one for the other, because, as
aforesaid, they do not inhabit the same locality; but if one does
not know of the existence of the wild ferret, then, of course,
one might track a supposed marten on the prairie--as did the writer
when he first came West--where that animal never has been found.
[Illustration:(1) Marten tracks. The lower part of the left-hand
drawing shows the usual marten motion, namely, the jump. The
upper part of the same drawing shows the walk, which is always
only for a short distance. (2) The black-footed ferret always
pairs its feet and never walks. (3) Running.]
Tracking marten and shooting them is as successful a method as
trapping them.
If ferrets are tracked and their skin is wanted whole, a trap not
smaller than a No. 4 should be set at the entrance of the hole,
as the pretty "varmint" mutilates himself if trapped and not soon
killed. If a ferret runs a rabbit into a hole he may not leave it
for two or three weeks, otherwise, as stated, the ferret usually
travels forth every second night.
THE OTTER
IT can be seen from the accompanying illustration of front and hind
tracks that the footmarks of the otter are rather unusually round;
and on hard ground, which allows but a slight impression, the
almost circular standing imprints of toes and heel show plainly. If
the individual tracks are invisible in dry snow, the form of the
trail, together with the drag made at intervals by the long tail of
the otter, obviates any doubt as to what animal has made the trail.
The otter has a habit of leaving the streams along which he
lives, or which he visits, at regular places, and makes what are
called slides near which parts of fish are frequently scattered.
Excrements containing fish bones found on boulders and promontories
in the rivers are unmistakable otter signs that betray his
presence, even if no tracks or slides are seen along the banks of
the stream.
[Illustration: OTTER. (SLIGHTLY LESS THAN HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(A) Right forefoot track. (B) Right hind-foot track. (1) Jumping.
(2) Walking. (3) Running. The shaded line shows the drag of the
tail.]
The otter is perhaps the greatest wanderer among the mammals, and
may, therefore, frequently be found where he was supposed to be
extinct; though if he visits a trout-stream or pond he usually
makes his stay long enough to deplete it to a greater extent than
a host of fishermen would.
Where otter signs are seen along small streams or at favorable
places along rivers, waiting for them with a shotgun during
evenings and moonlight nights usually yields satisfactory results.
If one is shot, and there is no danger of the current taking it
away, it is well to keep quiet for a time, as they often fish in
pairs, and the second frequently gives as good a chance for a shot
as the first.
The whistling call of the otter can easily be imitated, and at big
rivers on a clear night calling them is good sport. However, the
sportsman must be patient, as the otter will answer immediately,
but will take his own time in coming. On small streams it is well
to post oneself as near as possible to the water, as otherwise the
otter will pass unseen in the shadow of the bank.
Sometimes the otter travels for miles on land, and if daylight
surprises him there he will hunt shelter for the day in any
convenient hole. A trap set in it, and the entrance closed with a
boulder is usually the easiest way to get his skin.
As the animal is especially destructive in trout streams the
sportsman gunner will always do a great favor to the disciple of
the rod when he closes the career of one of these four-footed
poachers.
THE MINK
THE mink track presents some similarity to those of the marten and
the black-footed ferret, but it is much smaller than that of the
marten, and the toe-marks are even more prominent than those of
the ferret, for which it might be mistaken at times if it were not
that the form of the trails is different. The mink never travels
for long distances without showing at least three tracks plainly in
the jump-picture, while the ferret practically never does this. The
track of the ferret is found near ice-bound streams only when it
crosses them to reach other hunting-grounds, while the mink, being
almost as skilful at catching fish as the otter, generally travels
along a stream's course.
In destructiveness to small game the mink is perhaps only equaled
by the domestic cat, which, in remote districts, he resembles in
the habit of hunting at all hours of the day.
[Illustration: MINK. (LESS THAN ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(A) Left front-track. (B) Hind-tracks (a characteristic track
picture). (1) Ordinary jump. (2) Easy running. (3) Running.]
Trapping is practically the only paying method of hunting him. When
he goes upstream he leaves the water below rapids and travels along
its edge usually until he again reaches quiet water. If a trap is
placed in the intervening space--the trail of the animal will
show the trapper the best point--every mink in that vicinity may
be caught without the trouble of baiting traps, which is a rather
uncertain method where game and fish are plentiful.
[Illustration: MINK]
THE ERMINE
ALL lovers of our feathered song-birds kill the weasel at every
opportunity, believing it to be one of the deadliest enemies to
bird-life; and if sportsmen bear in mind that every time it gets
a chance the little marauder fastens its teeth in the neck of
a grouse or a rabbit, they will undoubtedly show it no mercy.
Considering, however, the number of injurious rodents it kills,
it is doubtful if this "little marten" is, on the whole, more
destructive than useful. Certainly it does no more harm than the
absolutely useless squirrel. I leave it to others to argue whether
it should be killed or spared. I do not spare it in ruffed grouse
cover and near home, where I wish to give the birds absolute
protection.
Its tracks and trail, with the exception of the walk, which the
weasel does not use where it could be tracked, are exact miniatures
of those of its large relative, the marten, and are, judging from
personal observations, frequently mistaken for those of other
animals even by sportsmen of long standing. One will mistake its
trail for that of the deer, another for that of a coyote, fox or
lynx, and still another, under favorable tracking conditions, will
confound its track with that of the mink or ferret. In loose snow,
when its trail is likely to be mistaken for that of any of those
mentioned, it should be considered that the jumps of the ermine
constantly vary in length, while the individual tracks made by the
other named animals usually stand a regular distance apart.
If the tracker follows an ermine's tracks which he takes to be
those of a mink, he should soon discover that the animal has
entered every hole and crevice along the trail, and that, judging
by the number of tracks around them, it found rock piles, logs,
brush heaps, etc., very interesting and attractive. Now, marten or
mink investigate these things simply by passing over or through
them--if they do not stop inside--but they never make regular paths
around them as the ermine does. Besides this, the ermine makes a
track hardly one-third as large as that of a small marten.
[Illustration: ERMINE TRACKS. (HIND FEET, LIFE SIZE)
(1) Ordinary jump. (2) Running.]
I have again and again pointed out the above features to men with
whom I have hunted, yet, presumably on account of not being thrown
on their own resources at the time, they seemingly paid little
attention to them, for I observed that they repeated their mistakes
just as soon as opportunity offered. The secret of successful
trailing can be acquired only by the careful and observant.
The features of a track or trail, once they are thoroughly
impressed on the mind, will always be remembered; and he who is
too careless to take note of them, even when they are pointed out,
has only himself to blame if he spends time--hours perhaps--in the
pursuit of the trail of an animal he does not want.
PART ONE
_GROUP IV_
THE BEAVER
[Illustration: BEAVER]
THE beaver was once distributed to a vast extent all over the
globe, but is now found in comparatively few sections of the
Old and New Worlds, and nowhere in great abundance. The state
of Montana, which until recently had the largest number of them
within its boundaries, joined, during 1907, those States where
this interesting animal is practically extinct, and the blackening
"beaver stumps" along its streams bear witness to the shame of
the legislative assembly of 1907, which left the beaver without
protection. For the extermination of the beaver in this State the
wealthy classes, and not the trappers, must bear the blame, for
without the consent of the former the trapper could not even have
decreased the number of them without endangering his own liberty.
[Illustration: BEAVER. (ABOUT ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
(A) Track of right hind foot. (B) Track of right forefoot.]
Where the beaver _is_ protected, he increases rapidly, and if
hunted with a rifle, he affords as much excitement as any game
that roams the woods.
[Illustration: BEAVER STUMP]
[Illustration: THE BEAVER'S HOME]
Business instinct, as well as sportsmanship, should urge sportsmen
to concerted action in order to preserve and increase the
comparatively few beaver colonies now left on our continent.
[Illustration: BEAVER TRAILS OR SLIDES]
[Illustration: BEAVER TRAIL
The third toe touches the center line.]
The beaver's tracks most strikingly represent the fourth group of
mammals in this treatise. In the effort to support and steady the
body adequately, the animal endeavors to plant its feet as near as
possible under the center of its body, but its corpulency prevents,
and the result is a track so ridiculous that it is laughable. The
front tracks are covered with the hind feet, the third toenails of
which reach the center line, and the heel of which stand, according
to the size of the specimen which made the trail, from four to
eight inches from it. The nails of the two inside toes of the hind
feet are but to a limited extent visible as the web between the
toes protrudes them. Where the beaver is scarce and much pursued,
the imprint of a forefoot near the water's edge may be discovered
occasionally here and there; in this case the prominence of the
toenails is unmistakable. I may state here, that a front track at
the water's edge is often the only sign which may be found along
a stream where beavers have become very wary; they seem to be
able to live on almost nothing--leaves, roots, etc.--for not a
single cutting can be discovered in such cases. Where not sought
extensively, the hunter seldom notes the tracks of this aquatic
fur-bearer; cut willows or tree stumps are, if not a surer, at
least a more easily distinguished indication of their presence,
while on much-used slides the tracks could not be seen anywhere.
It has been the writer's experience that in every case in which he
observed the building of a new house by one of these animals, the
builder was invariably a female providing for a happy family event.
THE BADGER
ON our continent there is no other animal which is responsible for
so many broken necks and limbs as the badger. While in pursuit of
his prey, he digs holes in the ground, which when grown over with
weeds or grass, are almost certain death-traps for the unwary rider.
The man who enjoys riding after wolves or the fox considers the
badger as a menace, and is never likely to look upon it with any
degree of favor, notwithstanding its decided usefulness as a
destroyer of undesirable rodents. I myself bit the dust of the
prairie four times within a couple of months on account of this
animal, though there was no further damage than a broken gunstock
and sore limbs. I have since killed everyone of the tribe when a
chance offered, though with some feeling of regret on account of
their desirable features.
The track of the badger is striking from the prominence of the
five-nail marks of the forefeet and the twisted inward appearance
of the hind track which usually stands squarely in the front track.
Considering the size of the tracks, the step-marks stand close
together--about seven inches--and, as in all animals of this group,
to some extent off from the center line.
[Illustration: BADGER]
[Illustration: BADGER TRACKS; LEFT. (SLIGHTLY REDUCED)]
It is readily tracked down, and when its hole is approached,
the animal frequently exhibits its head as a target from its
curiosity to see what is coming. If run into a hole, it will almost
invariably reappear within a few minutes. If it offers no chance
for a shot, a trap placed at the entrance and covered nicely
generally brings about its destruction. If no trap is at hand it
can be confined to its hole by tying a piece of paper or a rag to
a stick and placing it not less than two feet from the entrance,
which will prevent its leaving the hole for twenty-four hours or
so. This is a surer method of keeping the animal a prisoner than
blocking the entrance, and works satisfactorily also with other
marauders that take to holes.
A fox can usually be held thus for several days, and by this ruse
I have actually starved two of them to death. There was in each
case three entrances, and but one trap at hand, which was in both
instances uncovered by the prisoners during the first night.
[Illustration: BADGER
(A) Walking. (B) Running.]
As the ground was frozen hard, I did not wish to bother with
setting the trap at another entrance, so I left things as they
were, after covering the instrument again. But the foxes knew
it was there all the same, and did not again try to leave their
prison by that exit, and the other entrances were guarded by that
fearful specter of paper. Finally each one died about eight feet
from the scarecrow--about five feet inside the hole, which was
examined daily--one during the nineteenth, and the other during
the twenty-second day of their imprisonment. Had the ground not
been frozen so hard as it was, the experiment would have been
unsuccessful, as each of the foxes would of course have dug out at
some other spot. The latter method of escape will be employed by
the badger in every case where the trap is not properly covered.
THE PORCUPINE
IT may appear out of place to discuss this creature which has no
sportive quality whatever, but its trail is so conspicuous in snow
that it cannot be passed without being noticed, and the tyro,
attracted by the size of the tracks, will in many instances follow
it, thinking he is on the trail of something else.
A short time ago I trailed a supposedly lost, inexperienced hunting
companion who had run across the trail of a "bear," as he thought,
and followed and killed "Bruin," who happened to be up a tree.
When I caught up with the young fellow, he was contemplating his
broken gunstock, smashed in finishing the "varmint," but proudly
exhibited, to my great hilarity, the "bear" which may have weighed
about twenty pounds, and whose fur consisted mainly of quills.
[Illustration: PORCUPINE]
Before I got acquainted with the "pine-porker," I tried in vain for
a period of four months to ascertain the identity of an animal
whose tracks I frequently saw on a road. Only the marks of the
soles were visible there, and none of the many men I asked knew
that track, though they knew the animal which made it very well,
as developed later, when tracking conditions became so that I could
follow the trail to its end.
If conditions are half-favorable, the imprints of the
toenails--four on the forefeet and five on the hind feet--are
always visible.
[Illustration: PORCUPINE TRACKS
(1) Walk. (2) Run.]
[Illustration: FEET OF THE PORCUPINE
Four toes on front and five toes on hind feet (about one-half
natural size)]
[Illustration: SIGN OF THE PORCUPINE
(Bark eaten from the tree)]
If the snow is a few inches deep, the tracks stand in a
trough-shaped trail because the animal's body almost touches
the ground. The toes point inward, and almost touch the center
line. In the snowless woods numerous small dead trees attract
the attention of even those not interested in forestry. If these
trees are examined they will reveal the mark of the porcupine,
easily recognized by the partly eaten bark.
Along the streams of the Bad Lands the limbs of cottonwood trees
are sometimes depleted of every vestige of bark, which loss
ultimately causes the death of the trees. Where forests are cared
for on an economical basis, the porcupine is certainly a proper
subject for extermination.
Their meat is excellent if fried quickly in hot lard; roasted, or
cooked slowly, it emits an odor repellent even to a hungry man.
THE SKUNK
THOUGH an inexcusable intruder in the chicken coop and where
game birds are raised, the skunk is decidedly useful from the
standpoint of the forester or of the farmer. In the writer's
opinion, sportsmen if they encounter him in the woods should
cease to kill the animal just because it is "only a skunk";
others of the fraternity advance the "just because" argument if
they are questioned why they "shoot" the nests of useful hornets.
The skunk may rob a few birds' nests during the summer, but his
main diet consists of larvæ and berries, and by destroying the
former he is of inestimable value to the forests and fields near
his residence.
I am thoroughly convinced that his introduction and absolute
protection in localities where moths, butterflies and the like,
in their undeveloped stage, have become a menace, would greatly
help to solve the problem of rendering these pests harmless.
[Illustration: SKUNK
(A) Front track. (B) Hind track (life size). (1) Easy lope. (2)
Walk.]
With every skunk we kill we interfere with the balance of nature,
and the resulting deficit has finally to be met with the pocketbook
by paying for artificial substitutes for nature, which if left
alone would do the work much better.
In the summer woods it is not so much the skunk's tracks which
tell of his presence and merits, as the numerous small holes in
the ground, about a couple of inches deep, from which the animal
procures the larvæ there awaiting the final stage of development.
The soles of the skunk's feet are similar to those of the badger,
while their size about corresponds with that of the domestic
cat; the toenails always show conspicuously under fair tracking
conditions.
The individual tracks stand about half as far apart as do those of
the domestic cat, and are always considerably out of line. Like
the other members of this group, the skunk betrays himself by his
trail; he is a slow animal, and presumably would not put on speed
if he were capable of it, since, when foraging he is never in a
hurry, and if molested it is usually the disturber who prefers to
employ speed.
PART TWO
FEATHERED GAME
FEATHERED GAME
IT is out of the question to treat the signs and tracks of birds
with the same thoroughness as those of mammals, because the tracks
of several birds reproduce exactly those of domestic fowls, and
those made by young birds of one kind may look like those of old
birds of another variety. A description of bird tracks will,
however, be found interesting, and perhaps useful at certain times,
especially by the inexperienced hunter.
The locality where a given track is seen is the main point to be
considered. Tame turkeys and domestic chickens do not, as a rule,
venture great distances from the barnyard, so if tracks similar
to theirs are seen far from human habitation, it is usually safe
to conclude that wild birds made them. In the case of waterfowls,
however, even the consideration of the locality, under certain
circumstances, does not exclude errors; so the hunter, if he sees
tracks from which he might deduce the presence of these birds
in his immediate locality, should employ his resources to find
out for certain whether his deductions are correct or not. The
descriptions are of necessity limited, and the reader should study
the illustrations as the more important part of the matter.
UPLAND BIRDS
_The Turkey_
The tracks of this, the largest of game birds, differ in nowise
from those of the domestic kind. In the woods--in wild turkey
country--they usually indicate their presence by scratching up the
ground cover in search of food, just as domestic fowls do under
similar circumstances, and by their droppings. The latter are the
more important as a means of identification.
Wild turkeys, when habitually or temporarily frequenting a given
locality, have their favorite trees upon which they roost, and
under these trees the droppings will be very plentiful. Some
hunters wait at such roosting places during the evening or morning
and get their game; sometimes the bird may have treed five hundred
yards or more away, but the expert, who is not given to guesswork,
makes it his purpose to ascertain all the turkey trees in a
district, notes the easiest way to approach them, and then, during
the early evening hours he will, from a convenient point, mark
down the birds which he hears treeing. Then during the hour before
daybreak he will go noiselessly as near as possible to a roosting
tree which he knows harbors one or more turkeys, and after it is
light enough to shoot he will experience little trouble in stalking
as close as is necessary to get his bird.
_The Sage Grouse_
The track of the sage hen is about the size of that of a small
domestic chicken, but the toes at their base are somewhat broader,
giving the entire track a different aspect.
In the spring and autumn months the birds frequent sagebrush flats
and hillsides, and during the early autumn they seek the vicinity
of water, and there, if it were not that their toes are rather
short in comparison with their broadness, the tracks might be
mistaken for those of the pheasant in any place where that game
bird has been introduced.
[Illustration: TURKEY. (LARGE DRAWING TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE)
(1) Walking. (2) Strutting.]
[Illustration: PHEASANT. (NATURAL SIZE)]
_Pheasant_
The middle toe of the pheasant stands almost in a straight line in
the trail, and this feature is the most striking one whereby to
distinguish its track from the tracks of any of our native game
birds.
[Illustration: Ruffed Grouse. (Two-thirds natural size) Blue
Grouse.]
_Grouse_
The members of this class, in which are included the various
varieties of the ruffed grouse and those of the Spruce or Blue
grouse, all spread their feet in similar fashion, and walk with
the middle toes pointed inward to a considerable degree. Because
of this similarity the size of the tracks and the length of steps
are the only means by which to identify the particular species
which made them. The ruffed grouse make the shortest steps and the
smallest tracks.
[Illustration: RUFFED GROUSE]
[Illustration: BLUE GROUSE]
The illustrations show the tracks and trail of a dusky grouse of
ordinary size, and of an unusually big ruffed grouse cock.
[Illustration: SHARP-TAILED GROUSE]
The drawings were made under ideal tracking conditions; and only
then is it possible to note the difference in the number of the
knots of the middle toe. Though, as a general rule, the ruffed
grouse usually frequents rather low country and the blue-grouse
tribe is generally found on high grounds, the locality where a
track is seen gives no sure indication of the species. The writer
has frequently encountered the ruffed grouse at altitudes of over
seven thousand feet, and the blue grouse lower down than he ever
found the ruffed variety.
[Illustration: Sharp-tailed Grouse. (Two-thirds natural size)
Sage Grouse.]
_Prairie Chickens_
From the prairie hen to the sharp-tailed grouse, they all belong to
one order as far as their tracks are concerned. A prairie chicken
does not spread the toes to the same extent as does the grouse of
the woods, and the middle toes stand also somewhat straighter in
the line of the trail. The tracks made by the sharp-tailed grouse
are always of a rather blurred appearance because of the heavily
feathered feet.
_Quail_
The size of the quail's track is about that of a domestic pigeon.
A peculiarity of the track is that the mark of the hind toe stands
comparatively far off from the track on account of its singular
disproportion to the size of the foot.
In the pursuit of grouse, chickens, etc., the hunter usually
notes tracks less than other signs. Foremost among the latter are
the places where the birds take sand baths, where stray feathers
will usually be found. Countless interwoven small paths, leading
everywhere and nowhere in grass and grain fields, are infallible
signs that birds have fed there.
[Illustration: QUAIL. (NATURAL SIZE)]
_Woodcock_
The neatest bird track seen in upland hunting is, in the writer's
opinion, that of the woodcock. True, this fascinating Long-face
has generally gone to warmer climes before winter sets in, but
occasionally an early snowstorm catches him, and then his tracks
are a striking feature near springy places in forests, or under
dense trees that hold most of the snow aloft on their branches.
The splendid imprints are as unmistakable among bird tracks as the
tracks of the mountain sheep among big game, and as unforgettable
if once seen.
[Illustration: WOODCOCK. (NATURAL SIZE)]
WATERFOWLS
_Swans, Geese, Ducks_
The tracks of these aquatic game birds are so much alike that
only the difference in size makes it possible to distinguish the
species and varieties of ducks and geese; if they are of similar
size they cannot possibly be told apart. Where the tracks are seen
during cold weather at small open streams or springs, it is certain
that the birds visit there at night, doubtlessly coming from a big
stream or lake, perhaps many miles distant; by waiting for them
at sundown royal sport can be obtained. During summer, on grassy
places near water, young geese and ducks usually make numerous
small paths, similar to those made by upland birds, but broader.
[Illustration: Tracks of (1) Rail, (2) Coot, (3) Crane, (4) Swan.
(One-half natural size)]
[Illustration: (A) Duck, mallard size. (One-half natural size)
(B) Goose. (One-half natural size)
(C) Trail of Swan, Geese and Ducks.]
PREDATORY BIRDS
_The Great Horned Owl_
The great horned owl is of interest to the sportsman merely by
reason of the depredations which some members of this tribe commit
on small game. Where not forced by a scarcity of small game to
subsist on mice, etc., this owl lives almost exclusively on rabbits
and birds. The writer remembers an instance where one specimen
killed every beaver kid and muskrat on a creek several miles
along its course. The owl's tracks are very rarely seen, but from
the undigested refuse which he ejects through his mouth (for he
swallows all his prey, hair, bones, etc., when feeding) frequently
found thickly strewn under his favorite roosting trees (usually
densely branched), it can readily be ascertained what the light-shy
fellow lives on, and if he proves to be an outlaw, his death will
benefit the hunting ground.
_Hawks_
Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, all hawks, with the
exception of the sparrow hawk, are injurious. Even the much-lauded
marsh hawk in open districts lives exclusively on small birds,
that is, at least, in the West. In timbered country, where he is
too ungainly to catch winged prey, by force of necessity he has to
subsist on small injurious rodents which he can catch in the open.
Whoever has observed with open eyes and an open mind the actions
of hawks, knows that it will pay the sportsmen well to fill them
with lead at every opportunity. Imitating their mating call--an
easy matter--is the most satisfactory method of getting them within
range, and it is also a very entertaining pastime during the close
season. The hunter selects a good cover for himself in a locality
which he knows or suspects to be infested by the pests, and sounds
his _cac-cac-cac_--or, _kee-kee-kee-e-e_--dependent upon which
variety of eagles or hawks he wishes to call, and if a hawk is
within hearing, he is never long in coming.
[Illustration: SHARP-SHINNED HAWK]
[Illustration: HERON TRACKS. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
Bittern is the same form, but smaller. (The large drawing is of
the right track.)]
[Illustration: WILSON'S SNIPE]
_Various Birds_
[Illustration: HERON TRACKS. (ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE)
Bittern is the same form, but smaller. (The large drawing is of
the right track.)]
[Illustration: Tracks of (1) Flamingo (one-half natural size).
(2) Plover (one-half natural size). (3) Gull (one-half natural
size). (4) Dove (full size).]
For the sake of comparison, and because also some of them are very
interesting, results of my observations of the tracks of several
birds not of the game class are herewith given.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tracks and Tracking, by Josef Brunner
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