The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-12
STALKING WILD ANIMALS
AS 1t Is Practiced in California and
Elsewhere.

From the Los Angeles Times.
He who is past master of the art of
| meeting bird or mammal upon its own
| ground, each after it's own fashion,
| need never be shy of game, though his
outfit be old and wild life in his region
scarce. But stalking does not mean
lying in wait all night at some water
hole for deer or wildcat or lion. nor
| yet the immolating of ones self in a
blind of tules surrounded by wooden
| ducks. Stalking in an open country
is alnestimably harder than the same
kind of sport as followed by our
granddaddies in the heavily-wooded
slopes of the Adirondacks and later by
our fathers in the Rockies, and even
| nearer Sierras. Hunting of this kind
requires infinite patience and not lit
tie knowledge of the animal life of the
hunters country, and was the main
standby OF the Indians before the COM
ing or the white man brought to his
use the shotgun and the rifle.
In stalking coyotes, the returns from
which, in this section, will be one or
more good hides and a days sport.
strike out in the early dawn of a mid
winter day, on foot, for a coyote will
not notice a man on foot when he
would run like a scared deer from the
same man on horse In the early dawn
all the little wolves will be coming up
the draws and dry washes from the
barnyards, where they have put in the
night. So 1T is wandering along the
foothills, down one little valley and up
the next that the stalker should go,
eyes and ears open, his whole body
ready to freeze" into a fence post or
crooked stump at the instant sight
of game. Then softly running low in
the shadow of bank of the shallow
wash, lodging imaginary hounds in
every clGmp of bush, comes the wild
gray dog of the foothills. Then, if ever,
the hunters muscles stiffen, he tries
to keep the coyote in eye without let
ting the animal see him. Slowly, as the
wind might raise the limb of a young
tree, the rifle comes to shoulder; but
the coyote sees and is off, splitting the
morning air like a gray cloud. All
at once he seems to melt into the land
scape; unless one keeps his eye on the
gray dog he is apt to lose his chance
If the eye is good and the arm quick
the 25-20's crack will be followed by
the sudden leap and fall of the coyote,
whose fur at this time of the year is
thick and long and brighter olored
than it will be later. Oftentimes a
good stalker, even a mediocre rifle
shot, can in this way pick up two or
three nice skins on a foggy morning,
when the animals hunt later in the
lowlands than on clear mornings.
Another favorite way to hunt these
wolves is by hiding at the edge of a
little pool or spring in the early morn
ing, as coyotes almost always stop
for a drink before going to "roost"
after a nights hunting. The writer
has killed coyote in this manner
that had for months outrun the dogs
Of about half a county and outgeneral-
Il H.,
he came to be a sort of Jonah to all
the hunting grounds of that section.
But probably the most difficult of all
California game animals to stalk is
any one of our deer. The large Virginia
deer is a particularly unaccommodat-
ing beast in this regard, seldom fire.
quenting country free enough from
underbrush to afford good stalking.
But the king of stalkers is the man
who can get out on foggy morning
and. beating up and down the cayons
of the lower hills, bring in bobcat.
OF all animals, not even man excepted,
the cat tribe are the most expert hunt
ers, and their whole system is based
on stalking. From the lion stealing
up on the Gland in the African glade
to the lynx creeping through the piny
woods to seize a sleeping grouse the
game is the same, always patient fol-
lowing. always waiting for time
when the blow cannot fail. Hunters
from the Canadian forests tell Of be-
ing followed by great tuft-eared lynx.
trailing like shadows from tree TO tree,
ever following. never offering TO at
tack. but merely sneaking along be-
hind from very Unborn love OF that
style OF hunting. The wolf tribe hunt
ing IN packs seldom exceed by speed
what the cats capture by stalking.
The hardest thing for the stalker 10
grasp az first Is the fact that unless
hunted animal catches his pursuer's
eye in seven cases out Of ten he viii
not see the hunter NJ All, ana the
greatest art Of the human hunter ~ 70
be able 20 see without being seen.
which H.. after al, much IKE the pre-
cent Of the old merchant tnst 70 %
without being done ia the cardinal
point cf success"