The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-12-18
A HUNTERS WOOD LORE:
fALLhclES CONCERNING BEASTS;
BIRDS, AND REPTILES.

Newspaper Gear Stories-More Killed In
Fiction Than Inhablt the Catskills-
Queer Facts About Snakes Animals
and Birds That Are Fond of Fish.
"a man learns many of the subtle
and interesting secrets of nature when
he lives in the woods as long as I
have" said Zenas Cartwright, the
woodsman and Catskill guide. 81
often read bear stories in the New
York newspapers which are dated in
the Catskill Mountains, which, if they
were true, would completely throw
awry the infallible laws of nature
and cause the wheels of the machine
to clog. They are, in fact, what you
newspaper people call fakes and are
manufactured out Of whole cloth.
Living in the woods has taught me
many things that the ordinary writer
Of bear stories don't know, and one of
them is that the reporter who writes
about old she bears being accompan-
led by young cubs from spring to fall
is an Ignorant liar. He don't know
that the bears all cub, if at all, in a
certain season of the year, and that the
old she bear sends the young ones
about their business as soon as they
learn to dig sweet roots for food, steal
corn from cornfeld or a sucking PIC
from pig pen. The fellow who
writes about fierce encounters with a
huge she bear weighing ESQ pounds,
accompanied by sucking cubs in the
early spring, in the month of August,
and just before snow flies, is a pure
and simple liar, as the she bear of
these mountains seldom, if ever,
weighs more than 100 pounds, and
her cubs, which are born during her
alternating period, leave her not later
than the month of May to shift for
themselves.
IT have lived in these mountains for
nearly half a century," he continued,
land have hunted and trapped them
from the Helderbergs to the Delaware
River, and over in Pennsylvania, and
while I have learned many things Or
binary people are ignorant Of, I
haven't found out all the curious
secrets of the woods yet, but am find
ing out more every day, as I travel the
woods, fields and swamps.
"Now, you read in the natural his
tories that the mink and the muskrat
are water animals and subsist largely
on fish. This is true to a large ex-
tent. yet these two fellows are among
the most persistent and unconscion-
able of robbers. I have known both
minks and muskrats to lay in hiding
behind @ tuft of grass, furze bush, or
a clump of heather waiting for hours
until the rabbit whose burrow was
near their hiding place came home,
and when he came, jump on him and
rob him Of the cabbage leaf which he
was bringing home for the young rab-
bits, and bite the unsuspecting bunny
to death, and suck his blood. The
skunk and the weasel will do the same
trick, except that the skunk will eat
the rabbits flesh, while the others
only suck the blood.
*'There are many things about
snakes which are curious, also. 1.-THE
writer's of snake stories only knew this
they wouldn't be filling the colamns
Of the newspapers with stories about
snake dens where re!tiesnakes, cop
perheads, adderr, blacksnakes, and
all other Kids, venomous and non
venomous, live together. A venomous
snake and anon-venomous snake never
den together, but the venomous snake
is deadly afraid Of a non-venomous
reptile, and will run from it upon
occasions, even if it is nothinr
little striped garter or n
These snakes always gi~ ta 3d..
sous kind, bn+
D.. a1,zt, n,..-.5