The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-03-23

Information Not Happy state-The Rab.
bits Alone Fare Well
The bears and the raccoons have at
last gone to sleep. Long ago the chip
hunks and the woodchucks began their
Information. The woodchuck sleeps in
burrows,in the ground, the chipmunk
in logs, 'coons in hollow trees and bears
in the cavities left by roots of fallen
trees.
They had to sleep or starve. No
grass, no meat, no tasteful food could
they find in the deep snow left by the
first bowling blizzard of the year which
piled more than two feet OF it on a
level and in the burnings tumbled
heaps and drifted ten times as deep.
The beech nuts were covered with
mass of snow.
1t is comfortlcss kind of senseless-
ness that is called Information, be-
cause there is drowsy feeling of the
cold, and a part awakening when warm
days come and the animals rise and
wander forth seeking food that is diff
iicult to obtain, and then are driven
back to their beds, hungry and thin,
to sleep again till the storms pass and
once more they can go forth. That is
why the bear looks for his shadow in
February, and why the woodchuck
comes out to peer around. He can no
longer sleep in his hole and hunger
drives him forth till kindly nature
sends long sleep to his eyes. 1t is on
. these rambles that the bear becomes
the vicious beast so often told about.
1t is then that re kills sheep or robs
pigpen.
Snow storms mean death to many
deer, for when deep snow comes woods
men will strap on their snowshoes and
so to the yards, and with unsparing
hands strike down the buck, the doe,
and the yearling fawn, leaving toe
often great piles of flesh to freeze and
become the food of foxes, martens and
other flesh eaters. Down into the
snow will dive the partridge, and,
deep though it is, a fox, should one
come that way, will dig there, and
only few feathers will tell the tale in
spring time. Likewise will the spite
full weasel, the mink, and the fighting
marten live high ON partridge breasts.
Then. too, if a rain should come atop
this fluffy snow, crust would form
over it, and the partridge would peck
in vain to reach the air above; while
the deer would cut their legs fleeing,
perhaps from stray wolves, but surely
from hounds turned loose by woods
men and guides to roam at will through
the woods.
To one beast, though. a snow means
great amount of food. 1t is the
woodman's rabbit. He is great, shy
creature, three times as large as the
simple little rabbit of Long Island, not
to be kicked out of brush heaps and
bowled over with No. / shot, but to be
followed for hours by dogs, and at last
shot while going like deer in grace
full bounds No shot will do, but the
experienced woodsman uses No.
oftener, for so strong is this rabbit
that he runs rods with broken ribs.
His food is the buds of trees. Two feet
of snow lifts him into another region
almost, for seldom do the birches
branch so low as to give the rabbit a
chance at the buds when the ground is
bare, and there are other trees as well
that give in this way to this game
beast. He is too swift of foot to be
run down by fox or wildcat, though
both stalk him. And he is fighter of
his kind. The bucks draw blood often
in their love quarrels.
The snow storm is likely to prove
fatal to much game, but it is to be
hoped that the birds will not die as
they did last winter. Seldom have
cartridges been SO scarce and wild in
the Adirondack region. 1t is well that
the birds are by some instinct SO wild
after these thinnings-out that but few
arc killed, and these by long, difficult
shots.-Chicago Times.