Boy Scouts Handbook Part 47

In the Zoo we spread the black pad and the white paper in a narrow, temporary lane, and one by one drove, or tried to drive, the captives over them, securing a series of tracks that are life-size, properly s.p.a.ced, absolutely authentic, and capable of yielding more facts as the observer learns more about the subject.

As related here, all this sounds quite easy. But no one has any idea how cross, crooked, and contrary a creature can be, until he wishes it to repeat for him some ordinary things that it has. .h.i.therto done hourly. Some of them balked at the paint, some at the paper, some made a leap to clear all, and thereby wrecked the entire apparatus. Some would begin very well, but rush back when half-way over, so as to destroy the print already made, and in most cases the calmest, steadiest, tamest of beasts became utterly wild, erratic, and unmanageable when approached with tracklogical intent.

Trying It on the Cat

Even domestic animals are difficult. A tame cat that was highly trained to do anything a cat could do, was selected as promising for a black track study, and her owner's two boys volunteered to get all the cat tracks I needed. They put down a long roll of paper in a hall, painted p.u.s.s.y's feet black, and proceeded to chase her up and down.

Her docility banished under the strain. She raced madly about, leaving long, useless splashes of black; then, leaping to a fanlight, she escaped up stairs to take refuge among the snowy draperies. After which the boys' troubles began.

Drawing is Mostly Used

These, however, are mere by-accidents and ill.u.s.trate the many practical difficulties. After these had been conquered with patience and ingenuity, there could be no doubt of the value of the prints.

They are the best of records for size, s.p.a.cing, and detail, but fail in giving incidents of wild life, or the landscape surroundings. The drawings, as already seen, are best for a long series and for faint features; in fact, the {197} drawings alone can give everything you can perceive; but they fail in authentic size and detail.

Photography has this great advantage--it gives the surroundings, the essential landscape and setting, and, therefore, the local reason for any changes of action on the part of the animal; also the aesthetic beauties of its records are unique, and will help to keep the method in a high place.

Thus each of the three means may be successful in a different way, and the best, most nearly perfect alphabet of the woods, would include all three, and consist of a drawing, a pedoscript and a photograph of each track, and a trail; i.e., a single footprint, and the long series of each animal.

My practice has been to use all whenever I could, but still I find free-hand drawing is the one of the most practical application. When I get a photograph I treasure it as an adjunct to the sketch.

A Story of the Trail

To ill.u.s.trate the relative value as records, of sketch and photograph, I give a track that I drew from nature, but which could not at any place have been photographed. This was made in February 15, 1885, near Toronto. It is really a condensation of the facts, as the trail is shortened where uninteresting. Page 189, No. 2.

At A, I found a round place about 5 x 8 inches, where a cottontail had crouched during the light snowfall. At B he had leaped out and sat looking around; the small prints in front were made by his forefeet, the two long ones by his hind feet, and farther back is a little dimple made by the tail, showing that he was sitting on it. Something alarmed him, causing him to dart out at full speed toward C and D, and now a remarkable change is to be seen: the marks made by the front feet are behind the large marks made by the hind feet, because the rabbit overreaches each time; the hind feet track ahead of the front feet; the faster he goes, the farther ahead those hind feet get; and what would happen if he multiplied his speed by ten I really cannot imagine. This overreach of the hind feet takes place in most bounding animals.

Now the cottontail began a series of the most extraordinary leaps and dodgings (D,E,F.) as though trying to escape from some enemy. But what enemy? There were no other tracks. I began to think the rabbit was crazy--was flying from an imaginary foe--that possibly I was on the trail of a March hare. But at G I found for the first time some spots of blood. {198} This told me that the rabbit was in real danger but gave no due to its source. I wondered if a weasel were clinging to its neck. A few yards farther, at H, I found more blood. Twenty yards more, at I, for the first time on each side of the rabbit trail, were the obvious marks of a pair of broad, strong wings. Oho! now I knew the mystery of the cottontail running from a foe that left no track.

He was pursued by an eagle, a hawk, or an owl. A few yards farther and I found the remains (J) of the cottontail partly devoured. This put the eagle out of the question; an eagle would have carried the rabbit off boldly. A hawk or an owl then was the a.s.sa.s.sin. I looked for something to decide which, and close by the remains found the peculiar two-paired track of an owl. A hawk's track would have been as K, while the owl nearly always sets its feet in the ground {199} with two toes forward and two toes back. But which owl? There were at least three in the valley that might be blamed. I looked for more proof and got it on the near-by sapling--one small feather, downy, as are all owl feathers, and bearing three broad bars, telling me plainly that a barred owl had been there lately, and that, therefore, he was almost certainly the slayer of the cottontail. As I busied myself making notes, what should come flying up the valley but the owl himself--back to the very place of the crime, intent on completing his meal no doubt. He alighted on a branch ten feet above my head and just over the rabbit remains, and sat there muttering in his throat.

The proof in this case was purely circ.u.mstantial, but I think that we can come to only one conclusion; that the evidence of the track in the snow was complete and convincing.

{198}

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRACKS; 1. Blarina in snow; 2. Deermouse; 3. Meadow mouse; 4. Masked shrew.]

{199 continued}

Meadow Mouse

The meadow mouse autograph (page 189) ill.u.s.trates the black-track method. At first these dots look inconsequent and fortuitous, but a careful examination shows that the creature had four toes with claws on the forefeet, and five on the hind, which is evidence, though not conclusive, that it was a rodent; the absence of tail marks shows that the tail was short or wanting; the tubercules on each palm show to what group of mice the creature belongs. The alternation of the track shows that it was a ground-animal, not a tree-climber; the s.p.a.cing shows the shortness of the legs; their size determines the size of the creature. Thus we come near to reconstructing the animal from its tracks, and see how by the help of these studies, we can get much light on the by-gone animals whose only monuments are tracks in the sedimentary rocks about us--rocks that, when they received these imprints, were the muddy margin of these long-gone creatures' haunts.

What the Trail Gives--The Secrets of the Woods

There is yet another feature of trail study that gives it exceptional value--it is an account of the creature pursuing its ordinary life. If you succeeded in getting a glimpse of a fox or a hare in the woods, the chances are a hundred to one that it was aware of your presence first. They are much cleverer than we are at this sort of thing, and if they do not actually sight or sense you, they observe, and are warned by the action of some other creature that did sense us, and so cease their occupations to steal away or hide. But the snow story will {201} tell of the life that the animal ordinarily leads--its method of searching for food, its kind of food, the help it gets from its friends, or sometimes from its rivals--and thus offers an insight into its home ways that is scarcely to be attained in any other way.

The trailer has the key to a new storehouse of Nature's secrets, another of the Sybilline books is opened to his view; his fairy G.o.dmother has, indeed, conferred on him a wonderful {202} gift in opening his eyes to the foot-writing of the trail. It is like giving sight to the blind man, like the rolling away of fogs from a mountain view, and the trailer comes closer than others to the heart of the woods.

Dowered with a precious power is he, He drinks where others sipped, And wild things write their lives for him In endless ma.n.u.script.

{200}

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tracks: Wild Turkey, Toad, Crow, 1. Jackrabbit 2. Cottontail 3. Gray squirrel 4. c.o.o.n 5. Ground bird, such as quail 6. Tree-bird 7. A bird living partly in tree, partly on ground]

{201}

Horses' Track _N.B.--The large tracks represent the hind feet_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tracks; Walking, Trotting, Canter, Galloping, Lame Horse Walking: Which leg is the lame in?]

These are the tracks of two birds on the ground. One lives generally on the ground, the other in bushes and trees. Which track belongs to which bird?

(_From Sir Robert Baden Powell's book_)

{202 continued}

The American Morse Telegraph Alphabet

[Ill.u.s.tration: Morse codes. (tr)]

Signals 4. Start me.

5. Have you anything for me?

9. Train order (or important military message)--give away.

13. Do you understand? {203} 25. Busy.

30. Circuit closed (or closed station).

73. Accept compliments.

92. Deliver (ed).

Abbreviations Ahr--Another.

Ans--Answer.

Ck--Check.

Col--Collect.

D H--Dead head.

G A--Go ahead.

G E--Good evening.

G M--Good morning.

G N--Good night.

G R--Government rate.

N M--No more.

Min--Wait a moment O B--Official business.