The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-08

Ability of Animals to Take Care of
 Themselves When They're Hunted
 by Man.
 "The tanning of animals, and espec- 1ally of our common birds and mann mals, is by noo means such a mys- terious art as many suppose it to be, said c. Alden Loring, who has served as field naturalist for the United States Biological survey and Smithsonian h. stitution. Most animals respond quickly to kind treatment.
 "Once assured of our friendliness they seek our company, build homes near ours and visit our grounds in search of food. Sometimes they become so confding that they enter our houses, take food from our fingers, and even perch on our hands
 But if we hunt them and do all we can to destroy them, their attitude toward us is just the reverse. They take to the open fields and forests and are ever on the alert for danger.
 Probably there are no better illus trations of the ability of some animals to take care of themselves once they understand we are their enemies than the cases of the red fox, woodchuck and common crow. Here we have three creatures that have been persecuted from the time when the country was first settled, yet within tthe last decade, despite the wonderful improvements in firearms, traps, &c., their numbers have not become smaller in the least while others of greater strength but weaker minds have been exterminated.
 What has been the result of the warfare against these animals? It has served to make them specialists in the art of preservation and today Brer Fox and Jim Crow have the reputation of being two of the smartest creatures living.
 Tt might surprise many of the Gen. tral Park visitors to know that little bunnies that take nuts from the hands and perch on their shoulders while eat ing them are so fearful of man in other parts of the country that without the utmost stealth and caution the hunter cannot approach within shooting dist ance.
 Why are the squirrels so tame in Central Park and so shy in other places? Simply becausethey are fed in one place and hunted in others, If the Central Park squirrels were hunted, they too, would become wild in a re- markedly short time,
 ITO a certain extent, the same is true with all animals-we make them our friends or our enemies. That ami mals are quick to discover and take advantage of a closed season has been proved by the deer in the Adirondacks and the western States. All the guides and mountaineers who live in a deer country must protect their gardens with wire netting, else the deer would soon ruin them.
 As soon as the bunting season opens sszAd several shots have been fired few deer are seen near houses, and from. that time until the season closes they are as shy as hawks.
 ITO appreciate fully what can be ac- complished by protecting animals we have only to turn to the Yellowstone National Park and compare the habits Of the animals living there with the habits of their kin who live in the coun- try just beyond the boundaries of the park Most striking of all is the change that has occurred in the habits of the bears that have become Uncle Sans wards.
 The sportsman who has hunted 41.a just outside the park, knows that Bruin is one of the most difficult of all large game to approach. Both his sight and his hearing are defective, but if you wish to get within rifle shot of him you must take advantage of the wind, else he will surely get scent of you and your chances of seeing him again that day, unless you have a pack of good bear dogs, is small indeed.
 But in the Yellowstone Park, where hunting has not been permitted for years, the bears have lost all fear of man. They have become so tame that it is one of the sights of the park to visit the garbage dumps near the hotels and watcb the bears feeding in the CNCiill5.
 Some of the huge, good natured brutes get impatient as the wagons carrying the refuse barrels approach, and without waiting for the drivers to dump the barrels climb into the back of a cart and in their efforts to appease their hunger tip over the barrels, with results that do not add to the dignity oe +ba;r nnaaranoe
 ''Yet tile park bears do not attack man-newspape stories to the contrary notwithstanding. The worst sin charged against them is the occasional mixing up of campers outfit during his absence
 "Other animals in the park are almost equally tame. Mountain sheep saunter up the slopes as tourists approach, occasionally pausing to look back Large bands of elk divide in order to let the stages pass. and on the parade ground of the fort and the lawns about the hotels mule deer feed without dis playing the least sign of timidity
 'In Biscayne Bay and on Lake Worth, Florida, the winter tourist have recently begun to feed the scaup ducks that winter in the South in immense numbers. It IS a common sight to see small pleasure craft passing in and out among the f1ocks, the tourists tossing bits of food to the ever watchful birds which scramble for it. Sometimes they
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