The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-14
NIGHT-PROWLING BEASTS.
SOME OF THE MOONSHINERs OF
THE QUADRUPED TRIBES.

The Elusive Zebra Wolf of Australia.
Curious Tricks of the Wolverine.
Animals That show Shrcwdness In
Hiding.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
An apoogist of the witchcraft deusion
suggests that the belief in the possibility
of transformation may have been founded
on such facts as the change of caterpillars
into butterflies and of tadpoles into frogs.
But where the survival of a species is at
stake. the miracle-wor<ing capacity of ma
ture is unlimited. and the faculty of di-
rection in some Of its forms is much more
marvellous than the metamorphosis of
worms into winged insects,
Hounds turned loose on a new hunting
ground will range woods and hills for
scores of miles. and then return to their
masters camp in bee line. with the aid
of some faculty that appears to be quite
Independent of keenness of scent, since il
is shared by birds in their wanderings
through enormous distances of trackless
air. Sea turtles return to their breeding
grounds from exile in a different hemi-
sphere. and there are beasts of prey that
solve the perhaps still more difficult prob
lem of remaining invisible for years to-
gether and battling the researches OF hun
ter and hound even after repeated raids
into the immediate neighborhood of habi-
tations.
The Australian bush squatters spread
loose sand around the Enclosures of their
farmstead, and if the trail of a midnight
maurauder indicates the visit of zebra
wolf they renounce pursuit as hopeless
enterprise. The chicken thief may be trap
1.f.s f,trf hn Tltalg
ed. The best hunting dogs. not excepting
British or American foXhounds, would be
bahied by the zigzag runs Of the WHY rob
ber his Intricate and incalculable "doub-
lngs'' upon a trail that comes to an abrupt
termination, and If followed backward
branches out into half a hundred digres-
sions. indistnguishable from the home
in approaching the farmyard the wolf
ca striped member of the marsupial fam
ily) seems TO recognize the necessity or
avoiding "A straight line of proceedings as
carefully as a Mormon missionary IN "A
Kentucky shotgun district, and may have
developed his talent for circumNenton
during ages Of competition with the car
nivorous natures of Van Diemens Land.
TIE nearest approach 10 his tricks can be
studied IN the flight Of our common wild
pigeon. In her annual migrations the an
oostor OF the tumbler can fiy as steady as
an arrow, shooting straight ahead
Through light and space" a an elevation
OF several thousand feet above the haunts
OF rifle manufacturers; but when sudden
lV reused from her nest or from grain
fcld She does tumble with wonderful sud
dcnneSs and effectiveness. lodging right
or left. downward and sideward again in
a manner to disconccrt the aim of the
best sharpshooter.
The zebra wolf can he trapped with
bats OF fried pork and similar tidbits
providing the trap itself Is covered with
moist leaves OF some aromatic herb that
hides the scent of the human hand. The
hunter must, moreover. observe the pre-
caution of wrapping his boots I'm bundles
Of similar herbs. and of approaching the
trap sideward through grass or hrushwood
but 10 may be doubted IL all those strait
agems would impose upon the sagacitv OF
ain American night prowleA the Elutton
or wolverine The Michigan variety has
become so shy that veteran hunters deny
the possibility of trapping It at all IL
travels only IN dark nights and shrinks
back into the painless thicket whenever
IT'S track crosses that Of It's hereditary
foe Further west. especially I'm the foot
hills OF the Rocky Mountains, the glutton
Is the terror Of trappers and appears 10