Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-24
SOME ANIMAL coMBATs

A gentleman who lives in Georgia,
up the Ocmulgee river tells Of a Pc
culiar occurrence of which he was an
eye witness He was fishing in the
river when he saw a large hawk fly
down and light by the edge of the
stream. 1t was on a sandbar, and the
hawk waded out a few feet in the
shallow water. The man then observed
the hawk engaged in a desperate strug-
gle, as if held by something Finally,
with great effort, the bird rose in
the air and flew out into the field,
carrying with it large turtle which
it had attacked, but which, instead
of being caught, mad ciutched one of
the hawks feet in its powerful jaws
and held on Out in the field the
hawk tried in vain to get away from
the turtle, fighting with beak wing
and claws. The turtle held on grmly,
however, until the hawk sank down
exhausted, and then the man killed
both with hickory club.
That the raccoon is the smallest rep
resentative of the bear family is
fact very well known to naturalists,
and generally set forth in dictionaries,
but the average hunter refuses to rec
hunter in New York state, however,
who now believes the statement He
was hunting rattlesnakes from which
he extracts the oil, when his bull ter
rier treed a raccoon. The hunter had
no gun, and was obliged to climb the
tree to oust the coon. This he did
and then sat on a bough, thirty feet
above the ground, to watch the sport.
The terrier promptly seized the coon
by the threat, and the shaggy animal,
which, by the way, was larger than
the dog, made a desperate effort to re-
lease himself. Failing in this, the
raccoon stood upon it's hind feet, and,
throwing its strong fore legs around
it's enemy's body, gave him a deadly
hug. The dogs eyes bulged, and so
did those of the hunter in his sur
prise. He went rapidly to the rescue,
but he was too late. The raccoon
was gone and the terrier was as life
less as could be imagined. The squeeze
of the little bear had been more than
his seasoned frame could endure, and
his hunting days were over.
Just about ground hog day." which
all well-informed people know to be
February 2, New Jersey farmer
heard a flock of crows making a big
fuss in field near the woods. The
farmer Investigated and found the
cause of their disturbance to be
ground hog looking for something to-
eat For some reason the crows re-
sented the appearance of the little an
imal and assailed him on every side
with sharp beaks and claws AS good
luck would have it, the ground hog
was near his hole and in he went in a
hurry. His sudden disappearance
caused surprise and CONSERVATION
among the crows, and for a time they
flew around wildly. Then they held
a council, with the result that the
two old crows flew to the top of q
rail fence a few feet from the bur-
row as sentinels, while the others flew
away for some distance. Ten minutes
elapsed and then the ground hog re-
Instantly the sentinels caWed
the signal and the main army came
flying. But the animal was too quick
and lodged into his hole. The eXas-
perated crows Immediately fell to work
and in the course of fifteen minutes
plugged uD the hole with dirt and
stones. Then they INDUCED in
chorus of exultation, and were having
a joyous time when one old crow gave
a terrible cav of rage. He had dis
covered the ground hog sitting on
knoll fifty feet away, having emerged
from the other end of his burroW.
Then there was another council of
war, and the farmer expected to see
another attack. but it soon became
evident that the crows were disheart-
ened, and after awhile they arose as
one bird, and with a few rfaint-hearted
eaWs flew to the woods and disap
Deared thus acknowledging that the
ground hog was smarter than they.