CALLING OF WILD ANIMALS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 79, 20 April 1937, Page 15

CALLING OF WILD ANIMALS

"BIG SMOKE."

Here is a pieco out of "Scouting For Boys," written by our Chief. He says: "Scout® in many parts of the world use the calls of wild animals and birds for eommunieating yvith each other, espeeially at night or in thick bush, or in fog, etc., but it is very useful to be able to imitate the calls if you want to watch the habits of the animals. You begin by calling chickens; or by talking to dog® in dog language, and you very soon find you can give the angry growlS, or the playful growl, of a dog. Owls, wood-pigeons nnd curlews are very easily called. "In India I have seen a certain tribe of gypsies who eat j'ackals. Now a jackal is one of the mo®t suspicious of animals that live, and is very difficult to catch' in a trap, but these gypsies catch thcta by calling in this way. "Several men with dogs hide theni* selves in the grass and bushes round a sraall field. • tn the middle of tliis open space one gipsy imitates the call of the jackals calling to each other; be gets louder and louder till they'secm to come together; then they begin to growl and linally taClcle eacjh other Avith violent Bnapping, suarling and yelling, and at the same time he shakes a bundle of dried leaves, wlnch sounds like tli© arimals rushing about among grass and reeds. Then lie flings himself down on the ground, and throW3 up dust in the air, so that he is eompletely liidden in it, still growling and fighting. If any jackal is within hcaring b£ this, lie comes tearing out of the jungle, and datekes into the dust to join in tho I fight. When he finds a mhn there he cOmes out again in a hurry; but meantime the dogs have bcen loosed from all sides, aua tlien quicjsly catch hiiu and kill him. "Mr. Nvilliam Long in kiis A'ery inlcresting book, called 'Beasts« of tho Field,' describes how he once called a u oose. The moose is a very huge kind i u£ a stag, with an ugly, bulging kind i of a nosc. He lives in the forests of | Fouh America aud Canada, ftnd is very ; haid to get near; and is pretty dangerous AVheii he is angry. | "Mr. Long was in a canOe, fishing, i v. lien lio keat'd a inoose-bull calling iu j the forcst — So just for fun ko welit : avh(«ro and cut a stfip of ,bafk oif a birch tree and rolled it up into a toue or trutnpet shape So as to liiako a f-Ort of megaphone (about fifteen inchbs long, five inches wido at the lai'ger erul, ancl an inch or tfvo at the smaller br mouth-piece «ud). With this he pro-

ceeded to imitate the roaring grunt of the bull-moose. The effect was tremcndou®; the old moose came tearing dowa and even came into the water and tried to get at him — and it was only by hard paddling that in tho end ho got away. "One of the best thiqgs in scoutiug in the jungle is the hunting of wild beasts and big game — that is, going after elephants, lions, rhino, wild boar, and those kind® of animals; and a fellow has to be a pretty good scout if he hopes to succeed at it. "You get'plenty of exciteinent and pl'cnty of danger, too; and all that I have told you about observation and tracking and hiding yourselves come in here. And in addition to these you must know all about the animals and their habits and way® if you want to be successful. "I have said that the 'hunting' or 'going after big game is one of the best things in scouting.' I did not Say sliooting~or killing the game was the be®t part; for, as you study animals, you get to like them more and more/ and you will soop find that you don't want to kill them for the mere sake of kidnng, and thnt the more you see of fJjcm the more you see the wonderful tvork of God in them. "All the fun of hunting iies in the ndventurous lii'e in the jungle, the cbance m many cases of the animal hunling you iustead of you hunting the an'mal, tho interest of tracking him up, stalking him aud watching all that he daes and learning hi® habits." The Chief goes on with some more Interesting bits, but I will have to keep them for another week.