The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-03
TRACKS INkHh SNOW,

The presence of snow makes winter
the best of all seasons in which to
study the tracks Of animals, and if we
take advantage of this fact, and take
long walk through the woods after eve
ry snow-storm between now and the
spring, most of us will discover that in
the vicinity of our homes there are ami
mails of whose very existence we were
ignorant. To make the most of our op-
portunities, we should endeavor to
positively identify each track as we
come upon it. The only way in which
the novice can hope to do this at first
Is by getting glimpse of the animal
which made it, Later he viii become
so familiar with tracks, and with other
signs in connection with them, that he
will be able to Identify almost any trail
in his own locality, even though it may
bear a general resemblance to half q
dozen others.
If the student comes across a trail
which is unfamiliar to him, he should
follow it patiently; in this way he not
only stands good chance of seeing the
animal itself, or at least of discovering
its home, but he Is apt at any moment
to learn some new fact concerning it's
habits. If the creature has visited a
poultry yard, or climbed a tree, or dug
a burrow, or done any one of a hundred
things before going back to its den, the
student who follows the trail will know
it, and often a single fact learned in
this way will serve to identify a trail.
Suppose, for example, that a boy has
found a trail, but cannot decide wheth-
er it was made by small rabbit or
that it ends abruptly at the foot of
tree, he knows that it must have been
made by a squirrel, for rabbits don't
climb trees.
When the student sets out for his
first walk in search of footprints, he
will be almost sure to find series of
roundish tracks extending in two rows,
the foot prints on the right alternating
with those on the left, so that line
connecting all the tracks would form a
regular zig-zag. There will be no claw
marks visible, but If the snow is not
too deep the marks of the toes will be
plain enough. After a time, it may be
found that the footprints are no longer
in double rows but are ranged in
groups of four, each group separated
from the next by several feet of I'M
bl oxen snow. If the four footprints
are closely examined, it will be found
II at two Of them show the marks Of
four toes, and two the marks of five
30
the trail it will eventually lead him
into a garden, and probably to the back
door of a house, when he will discover
that he has been making notes on the
trail of the household cat Where the
tracks led through the bushes and
along the tops of stone walls, the foot
prints were in a double row, because
puss was walking; but, nearing home,
she had become alarmed at the barking
of a dog or had heard her mistress
calling her to be fed, and, bursting into
a galop, had left her footprints in
groups Of four. The tracks of wild
cats and other members of the feline
race resemble those of the doemstic cat
the chief difference being in the size.
The tracks Of most dogs may be dis
tinguished from those of the house cat
by their greater size alone, but dog
tracks also show the marks of the
claws, while cat tracks do not. The
talons of cats, being designed for catch
ing and holding struggling prey, are re-
quired to be sharp and are sheathed
except when in actual use, but the
claws OF dogs are strong and blunt, and
require no sheath to keep them in con-
dition for the rough uses to which they
are put The footprints of foxes and