Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America

Author:Boy Scouts of America
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486132815
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

1. Blarina in snow

2. Deermouse

TRACKS

3. Meadow mouse

4. Masked shrew

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

Meadow Mouse

The meadow mouse autograph (page 189) illustrates 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 spacing 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.

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