The Coconino sun., 1927-09-30

flooring the cameron UIluSS ONSI IuS
Little Colorado, says he wonders II
the people here Is years hence will
decide it gave as good service rs the
floor of Flagstaff pine which had been
there the last Is years.
Wonder how much the fellows who
rescued Jensen's lion in the Tonto
Basin, where Jensen and the hon
crashed with their airplane, got fof
their rescue work? Considering the
S25 Jensen paid his navigator in the
hop to Honolulu, on that basis they
should have drawn down about 25
cents apiece.
They should have left the African
lion there. If Zane Grey, who will be
here soon to go to the Tonto for his
annual bear hunt, didn't bag Leo this
fall. maybe there'd be a lot of little
half-Leos there for him next year.
The experiment of turning an African
lion loose among a lot of Arizona lions
would be interesting.
Gus Pearson's young son Arthur S
pet porcupine has been living under
an alias, or sailing under false coIors,
or something like that. He answered
to the name Jimmy" never protest
ing once no matter how many times
he was called by that name Then
Don Gilchrist, state rodent exterml-
nator, borrowing Jimmy to take to
some of the county fairs with other
native animals, and seeing Jimmy
for the first time, advised the porky S
young owner that ''Jenny" or "Cae-
saria' or "Imogene" or something like
that would suit porky very well, but
Jimmy, never.
She was born last May and is a
friendly little rascal Never once has
she raised her formidable quills at
anyone. She is a genuine pet. Some
times, when asked to do anything she
doesn't want to, she scolds vehement
" in her falsetto chatter, but never
tries to retahate. She weighs about
10 pounds.
Don took her to the Navajo county
fair with numerous other animals,
clubbing the collection the rodent
circus" It included chipmunks, squir-
rels, prairie dogs, trade rats, weasels
and numerous other things.
Weasels never were known around
Flagstaff-though they are numerous
in the south part of the state-untll
recently One was caught few days
ago at Ben Doney's place. Others
have been trapped since. They are
invading the prairie dog colonies, what
few there are left of the latter since
the intensive poison crusade, and Kill
ing the dogs preempt their burrows
Don says perhaps they are good
I'LL off bn
tered prairie dogs remaining. Alter
they have succeeded in that, though,
the farmers chickens will suffer.
The weasels here are pretty good
sized, longer and taller than the aver
age prairie dog which they resemble
somewhat in colorlng.
The weasel is the quickest animal
known. Don, knowing the weasefs
propensity to dive Immediately into
hole when he sees one, fixed box
in which there was a partition. In
the partition he bored hole, with a
slide covering it, and IN one end OF
the box another hole. Chasing IN a
side of the box, he placed a weasel IN
one end of it so when the sllde was
pulled from the hole in the partition
the weasel had that hole and the one
in the far end of the box to dive
through.
Then Don tried to get picture OF
the weasel in action as he made ms
double dives He tried 1t again ana
again, but so rapidly did the weasei
move that the film registered nothing
hut a streak. When one realizes that
a camera will get a good picture OF a
horse or car racing at top speed, 1t
gives an idea how fast a weasei
moves.
Walter Durham won't make the
mistake this fall he did last. Last fall
his domestic ducks, whose playground
is Stoneman Lake where Walter lives.
got real friendly with the wild ducks
and when the latter left went with
them.
A couple weeks later, when all the
wild ducks had disappeared, flock of
ducks circled around and lighted IN
the lake. Walter got busy right
away. He let fly couple shots and
was surprised at how tame the birds
seemed to be. 1t was easy. He killed
couple more Then he rested and
began to study the thing out. He
went in and got some grain and went
to the edge Of the lake and called the
ducks. They gathered around him
and ate it.
The four ducks Walter killed were
good eating, all right, but he'd rather
they'd been wild ones.
Here's a description of ball game
in June, 1899, between Flagstaff and
Ash Fork as written for The Sun at
that time by Doc Soper:
1t was a perfect day in June. Old
Sol's translucent rays smeared them
selves over the scene and all nature
smiled as the soft, soughing, south
wind combed her hair. The town of
Flagstaff was full of climate and peo-
pie. A stray bee buzzed his sacchar-
inc song on the window pane as the