The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-25
OLD HUNTERS WOOD LORE.
zENAS CORTWRIGHT on PALACES
CONCERNING BEASTS.

Last Gray Wolf In the Mountains.
From the New York Times.
Kingston n. "a man learns many
of the subtle and interesting secrets of
the nature when he lives in the woods as
long as I have" said Zenas Cartwright,
the woodsman and Catskin guide Il Of
ten read bear stories in the New York
newspapers which are dated in the Cats
kill mountains, which, if they were true,
would completely throw awry the infaln-
BILE 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 accompanied 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 a cornfield, or a sucking pig
from a pig pen. The fellow who writes
about fierce encounters with a huge She
bear weighing $50 pounds, accompanied by
sucking cubs in the early spring, in the
month Of August, and just before snow
flies, is a pure and simple liary as the
she-bear of these mountains seldom, il
ever, weighs more than 100 pounds, ana
her cubs, which are born during her hi
! bernating period, leave her not later than
the month of May to shift for themselves.
Il have lived in these mountains for
nearly half a century" he continued, and
have hunted and trapped them from the
Helderbergs to the Delaware river, and
over in Pennsylvania, and while I have
learned many things ordinary people are
ignorant of, I haven't found out all the
| curious secrets of the woods yet, but am
finding out more every. day as ] travel
the woods, fields, and swamps.
Now, you read in the natural histories
that the mink and the muskrat are water.
animals and subsist largely on fish. This
is true to large extent, yet these two
fellows are among the most persistent and
unconscionable of robbers. I have known
both minks and muskrats to lay In hiding
behind tuft of grass, a 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 rabbits, and bite the unsus-
! pecting 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 sucksthe blood.
| There are many things about snakes
| which are curious also.' If the writers of
snake stories only knew this they wouldn't
| be filling the columns of the newspapers
! with stories about snake dens where rat
| tie snakes, copperheads, adders, black
snakes, and all other kinds venomous and
non-venomous, live together. venomous
| snake and a non-venomous snake never
! den together, but the Venomous snake is
| deadly afraid of a non-venomous reptile,
| and will run from it upon all occasions
| even if 1t is nothing but the little striped
| garter or milk snake. These snakes all
| ways give battle to the Venomous kind
but the latter will never fight unless they
! are cornered and then, conditions being
| anywhere even, the victory, ninety-nine
| times out of a hundred, lies with the nom
| venomous snake. All non-yenomous
| snakes, the most notable example of which
| we have in this part of the country, Is the
| racer or blacksnake, swallow their food
| whole, and If 1t is too large to swallow
| they enVelop 1t in their coils and crush 1t
! all out of shape They don't take the
trouble to do this with every one of their
| victims, as I had a chance to learn q
! few days ago. l killed blacksnake on
| the east branch of the Delaware, near
| Margaretville, and saw a big lump in his
| Ind h
open and released a much-distressed toad,
which, after stretching himself for a few
| minutes hoped away into the grass.
| "Whenever a venomous snake, particu-
! larly a rattlesnake, meets blacksnake,
| there is sure to be a battle. The rattle
| snake throws himself In coil, and his en-
envy begins to circle slowly about him, in
creasing his speed at every revolution, I'M
! til there seems to be nothing but streak
! of light dancing around the coiled rattle
| snake which, for a while, tries to keep
tab on the movements of his enemy He
| fails to do this, however, very long, and
| then. as if dazed, drops his head This is
the fatal movement, because as quick as
| fhe RATHER shows that he is bewildered,
the blacksnake, quick as thought, springs
| and catches the RATHER in his fanged
mouth in the back of the neck and
straightens up in the air, and when they
| come to the ground the rattler is envel-
Oped IN the IlBnLeutllS COILS VI the bidCh-
| snake, and is soon crushed to death. This
| is always the result when a blacksnake
and RATHER meet, and is also the way the
| smaller constructors and other venomous
snakes battle when they meet, the victory
! always being with the constructor Because
Of this | account for the fact that there
are fewer venomous snakes than non-ven-
| omous ones.
II have also noted that the rattiesnake
| never sounds his rattle to give warning of
his presence except when he IS lying Off
| taking a rest, and does not want to- be
| disturbed. He is lazy, and although he
will go miles out Of straight course to
| avoid meeting a blacksnake, when he is
summing himself he don't want to be dis
turbed, so he sounds his rattles to keep
off intruders, merely because he is too
lazy and shiftless to change his position.
When he wants to strike his fangs into
| anything he never springs his rattle. but
whatever is bitten is done so without
warning. lie is foxy and never betrays
his presence when ne bites.
Some of the most intFuctive things you
see in the woods are the queer traits OF
birds. The eagle, for instance, never
mates but once. If the male dies the wi
| ,Tste