The Minneapolis journal., 1904-06-04
New Yok Telegraph.

|
The talk round the campfire had
been Of the rambling sort, running
chiefly over the events of the day,
which were trivial enough. The
colonel had taken little part. He
seemed to be in a brown study. When
the conversation eventually tagged he
gave a preliminary "ahemH and!
glanced around to see if he command
ed the attention due his age and ex-
perience. The hush Of expectation
fell on the rest Of us.
"a mans character" began the
colonel, lis nodded by his associations.
I have observed it to be the same with
the lower animals. An excitable mas
ter makes an excitable dog. Every
living thing is teachable, and many
animals acquire very readily certain
traits of their owners or keepers. On
this fact rests the whole system of
successful training, tho patience in the
| trainer is a necessary adjunct.
"The COW is admittedly the most
stupid Of animals. Yet Belt, the Eng
| lish naturalist, tells Of a COW he saw
| in Nicaragua that had been trained
| by it's owner to hunt deer. The meth
Cd was peculiar but successful. The
man would lead the COW to the edge
of a plain where deer were feeding,
| and then turn it loose. The COW, ap-
| parently grazing, would slowly ap-
| proach the deer, and the man, in a
crouching attitude, keep close to it
| on the off side. AS the deer suspected
no harm Of the COW, they permitted
it to come quite close, and the man
In this manner he could kill two or
three deer in a day whenever he was
so disposed.
| ''You are all aware Of the use Of
| live geese and ducks as decoys in kill
! ing water fowl. 1t is the wild geese,
1 a AS% -, hxy o,,Sr,,, inn
| or raised in captivity. The duck en-
| ployed is the black duck, or black
mallard, that breeds along our north
4 ern Atlantic coast. It is easily tanned
4 and will breed well in captivity. The
l goose, when used as a decoy, is al
ways tethered close to the blind; the
4 duck not invariably. I have heard OF
4 decoy ducks so we'll trained that they
would swim out to a flock of ducks
lighting beyond range, and lead them
in to the blind. The black duck sell
dom stools well, and it has habit
Of lighting in front Of the decoys, but
out Of gunshot.
''In Texas once I came across the
most remarkably trained bird ever
saw or heard Of. It was a domestic
turkey cock of rich bronze color. He
had been trained by his owner to hunt
his wild brother. He would follow
his master at call like dog. The
hunter would go into the woods a
early morning or late afternoon WITT
heels. Arrived at the haunts of the
wild turkey, the domestic bird, at {
signal from his master, would alter
nately call and gobble. When he go
an answer, as he generally did with
out much delay, he would use ever!
persuasion possible in turkey Ian
guage to bring the birds to him. Hi
i oc a oaffua hi
I tongue, and as soon as he heard O
saw his dupes coming he would spread
3 his tail, drop his wings and strut abou
| in the most bellicose and approvet
). turkey fashion, but always in clos
range Of his concealed master. Tn
7 cocks and hens, would come runnin,
= blithely into the jaws Of death. An
i 1.-THE strangest trait Of the cunning oil
!. cock was that he seemed to take rea
E pleasure in the slaughter Of his vii
. relatives. BY his assistance his owne
e killed SO many turkeys that he mad
8 a good living sending them to tn
9 neighboring markets.
= "But to act as a decoy was not tn
q sum Of that old birds accomplish
q ments. He was also trained to tax
{ the turkeys alive. His master ha
(, discovered that live bird is some
e times worth more than dead on,
IIe pI dCIlCS VI VI oppAAlS laA ASSS w
q formerly common in the south, tn
y now, I believe, it is forbidden by til
: laws Of most, if not all, states, an
n the method was ridiculously si1npl
s Al pen ten or twelve feet square we
4, built of logs set a little into each otf
er, SO that the interstices would NJ
e be too wide. The pen was about fol
n feet high and covered with logs tt
ls same distance apart as those in tt
Sides A trench large enough to az
NIT the turkeys was dug under or
side and baited with corn and pc;
en- en- or unhulled rice, as was also Il
ground in front Of the trench and Il