The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-21
HUNTERS MISTAKES.
Errors Concerning Some Of the
Best Known Game and
Predatory Animals
Corrected.

CitVAo tAdL are COLlilO1 dld CutiSilJ
concernnlRssonne Eof u best known
game and predatory animals l will be-
gin with the elk. In nearly all the ac-
counts of the hunting of this noble
brute that have come to my notice, I
observe it is generally noted by the
sportsman ~ that the "old bull leader
of the herd falls before the deadly rifle
of the narrator. AS a matter of fact,
the leader of every herd of elk, whether
migrating or in flight, is a cow. The
young and middle-aged males are scat
tered promiscuously through the anks.
The old bulls invariably bring UP the
srear; but the foremost animal is always
a female.
Again, / often read of the hunters
paradise as regards deer, where the
grass is so luxuriant where it has been
cropped by these graceful animals, and
how these pastures are the favorite
haunts of these sturdy, yet wary, black
tail. | am awfully sorry to spoil this
oft-told story, but it is a fact that the
black tail deer never touches grass, for
food purposes, SO long as he can get
anything else edible in the way of vege-
tation. He will wade, knee deep, head
erect, through timothy, bluejoint, fox
tail, clover--all of which grow wild here
in the mountainsAto reach the sour
deep tongue that springs up in the
burned districts, Or to find the water
cress. swaying in the little rills that flow
from the great snow banks. These, to-
gether with the wild peas and beans,
the almost innumerable herbs, the lus-
cious fruits. such as the strawberry.
raspberry, huckleberry, chokecherry,
sarvis and thimbleberries, and half a
dozen kinds of currant, all native to
Montana and middle Colorado, are his
spring and summer food. In autumn
and winter he feeds to fairness on the
acorn, the pinon nut, the berries of the
wild rose. the fruit of the cactus, even
the park of shrubs of various kinds;
anything but grass. l have had more
than twenty of these animals in cap
tivity, during the last twenty-five years,
for periods ranging from six months
to four years, nave watched them feed
ing, hours at a time, and never saw one
take a bite of grass. The nearest ap-
proach to it was to take a nip, occa-
sionally, at a white clover blossom.
ANOTHER COMMON ERROR.
Another common error concerning this
deer is that his age can be told by the
number of prongs, or spikes, on his horns.
1t is true that the first horn is but q
straight spike, and the second year there
is an extra prong between the base and
the tip of the horn on each side, but the
third or fourth year he may have six or
a dozen. 1 have seen a three-year-old
buck with twenty-three points. While
living in the wilderness l had a pet
male black-tail deer. captured when q
his fourth birthday, when [ was com
PEELED to kill him on account of his vici-
Gus temper. He had min prongs on one
side and eight on the other.
Among the mythical monsters, with
which these romaneers delight to decor
ate their tales of adventure is the tim
Der wolf" a fercocious brute that, with
his long gallop, can tire the hounds
fierce hate and hunters ire; that pulls
down the lordly elk and follows the lone
hunter on the trail, until a friendly
cabin, or camp saves the terror-stricken
traveller from a frightful death. We
have, in Colorado, three species of the
Caius lupus; the common prairie wolf,
fellows, and the black wolf, the latter
q sort of lusus naturae, and now nearly
extinct. All of these prefer and fire.
cuent the open plains. Occasionally a
pack of gray wolves take to the woods.
but there is no distinct lumber wolf. He
follows a trail when going somewhere, if
it happens to lead in the right direction,
simply because he finds 1t easier travel
ling on a beaten track; and this is the
solution of his following the frightened
"tenderfeot."
An oft-repeated n generally credited
story is that one about the humorous
cohabitation of the prairie dog and the
rattlesnal1e. In the dog towns" that
were formally confined to our plains,
and even at an altitude of 5000 feet
one often finds Crotalus ringing his cas-
tanets as he lies at the entrance to one
of the burrows, and. if attacked, he gem
orally enters the most convenient hole;
but if there happens to be a dog within,
you will see him emerge in awful haste,
and he will never enter again so long as
the snake stays there.
THE LAST DELUSION.
The last delrsfon CONCERNING the pecu-
liarities of Il fourifooted denizeus,
which / will notice in this letter, is the
most cunning n crafty of quadrupeds.
To an old trapper this is, verify, Some
thing new under the sum-" for the men
fur-bearing animals by traps, snares,
and pitfalls, only want to find the haunt
of a fox to wager that. his hide will be
on a fence" as soon as it is in prime
easiest of all the furIbearing tribe to
CATCH. He puts his foot in it" every
time, If only the trap is covered and the
sagacity-whlch I have often seen the
coyote exhibit-to pick UP the trap pole
in his mouth in his frantic efforts to
escape, or to gnaw it in two so that the
chain will be free; nor the nerve to cut
his foot free, with his teeth, from the
trap Jaws, after the manner of the
beaver
And now, in conclusion, I will perhaps
astound my readers by making a state
ment, true as gospel, but never before, to
my knowledge, enunciated in print; anne
ly, that all of the quadrupeds of this
Western country, the most difficult to en-
snare, in fact, the one impossible to catch
by steel trap, dead fall, wire moose, or
old-fashioned snare-for I have tried all
of these-is the jack rabbit. You may
bait your snare with the ,juciest Ben
Davis apple. when the snow covers the
earth, and Brer Rabbit is starving, but
he will just starve rather than touch it.
Bury YOU No. 4 trap in his beaten
path, hunt him from his hole n start
him down the trail. He will split the
breeze at the rate of a mile a minute
until he gets within a leap or two of
your decoy, when he will fly the track
as though he had caromed on a creased
pole. He will walk under the lower rail
of your fence to eat you turnip tops,
night after night, until you fix a place for
him to enter, and then, no matter how
cunning your device is, he loses his
taste for turnips, and sage. brush and
cactus are good enough for him.-Shoot-
ing and EiShinp