Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109Dice, Lee R. (Lee Raymond)
History
Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109
June 30, and again on July 2, young individuals were closely observed
while feeding on the leaves of the yellow water lily. These individuals
were on the logs in an overflow swamp, and they reached down with a
fore foot into the water to secure the food, which was then presented
to the mouth with the same foot. One of these porcupines seemed to be
very disinclined to wet his feet, except the fore feet in reaching for
food; the other individual waded out on a log which was submerged
several inches, but he showed a ludicrous determination to hold the
tail up out of the water.
A juvenile weighing only 914 grams was taken as late as July 21 at
Fish-hawk Lake, but no embryos were found in the period between June 29
and September 3. It is often active throughout the day as well as in
the night.
A young individual taken in a trap July 3 was found surrounded by a
swarm of mosquitoes, which seemed to annoy him considerably, for he
shook his skin frequently to dislodge them. One mosquito settled on a
lower eyelid as we watched, and others kept alighting on his nose. When
he raised his quills on our approach many mosquitoes attacked the skin
exposed on the back.
_Marmota monax canadensis._ Canada Woodchuck.
Hemlock forest, 5.
Shrub stage, 9.
A few occur in the Cisco Lake Region, where they are most common in
the shrubby clearings. Several adults fed commonly on the refuse from
the camp. The stomach of a captured individual contained a considerable
quantity of cooked corn, spaghetti, and boiled ham. Three woodchucks
were noted at different times in hemlock forest along the lake shores.
A half-grown juvenile was seen to swim the Ontonagon River near its
entrance to Cisco Lake. This was on July 10, near noon, with bright
sunshine. The river here is at least 75 yards in width, but has no
perceptible current.
Juveniles taken in traps were observed to extrude scent glands from the
anus when approached. These glands are three in number, one on each
side of the anus and one beneath. They are small, whitish, and
cup-shaped. Normally they lie just inside the anus, but on excitement
they are everted and the fold of skin forming the edge of the anus is
rolled outward so that the glands lie outside. We detected a faint
musky odor which might have come from these glands.
In the Little Girl's Point district several inhabited a woodpile in
hemlock forest at the edge of a wide road. None were found near Gogebic
Lake.
_Eutamias borealis neglectus._ Lake Superior Chipmunk.
Tall-sedge, 1.
Grassy-meadow, 3.
Black spruce--tamarack bog, 1.
Hemlock forest, 1.
Wet hardwood forest, 1.
Shrub stage, 20.
Paper birch--aspen stage, 2.
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