CHAPTER III.

THE BACK-YARD ZOO.

The king of beasts and the royal Bengal tiger are neither of them able to inspire such universal terror among the wild creatures of the forest as does man.

Bitter experience and terrible examples of man’s ferocious cruelty to all wild animals have taught even the most humble and inoffensive of them to dread the approach of the bloodthirsty two-legged destroyer.

It is high time that we redeem

Our Reputation among the Brutes.

It is time we ceased our wasteful, senseless slaughter of every wild thing to be met with in field and forest. It is time we began to study live animals, in place of uncanny dried skins and badly upholstered “specimens,” so-called.

This Gory Method of Study

belongs to the past. A new era has commenced, and real naturalists now drop their dry bones and moth-eaten skins to enjoy the study of live, healthy animals.

The boy who is really fond of animals never ill-treats his pets, or abuses and makes a slave of his dog. On the contrary, his dog is his companion and playmate.

The boy knows that a dog’s master is a god in the eyes of the poor brute, and is

Worshipped with Canine Devotion,

which again and again has been proved faithful unto death. Such knowledge makes the boy just and kind. But a dog is only a domesticated wolf, and the wolf is not the only wild creature which can be domesticated; neither is the wolf the only animal which

Can Appreciate Kindness.

The same care which transforms a red-mouthed wolf into a faithful dog can transform other undomesticated beasts into useful creatures. As soon as an animal learns that you are contributing to its comfort, you may notice it will greet you with a milder expression. As soon as you can make the wildest and fiercest beast understand that the use of jaws, claws, or sting is unnecessary, it will refrain from using them. It is not always possible to come to this understanding with the larger beasts, and such animals are not fitted for back-yard zoos.

A lad who loves his pets will bestow upon the little creatures that affection which shows itself in a sympathy which can understand their wants and necessities. Such a lad can perform wonders; birds will come at his call, the small beasts of the field will follow at his heels, and no child will fear him.

Unfortunately, in spite of the amount of land on this continent, it is difficult for any but the very wealthy to have access to much of it, hence many readers will say, “We have no yard in which to keep pets,” or, “Our yard is too small.” Of course, if you are living in a flat you must go without a zoo, but if you have a yard it will probably not be less than twenty-five feet wide, and Fig. 22 shows how a very comprehensive zoo can be placed in the rear of a twenty-five foot lot, without materially interfering with such domestic matters as the drying of clothes on wash-day. A city

Lot Twenty-five Feet Wide

is usually one hundred feet deep; this will allow plenty of room for the house and the clothes-lines, and still leave the end of the lot for a famous back-yard zoölogical garden.

When the writer was building back-yard zoos on the banks of the muddy Licking River, in old Kentucky, wire-cloth and wire-netting were unknown, and a few old barrels and dry-goods boxes, a saw, hatchet, and some nails, constituted the materials and tools with which he and his playmates made cages for pets, frog-ponds, and dove-cots.

The writer’s

Crow and Dog did the Bossing

of the work, and incidentally learned all the weak spots in the structures, a knowledge which they were not slow to use when the sheds and coops were finished, and occupied by creatures fascinatingly interesting to crows and dogs.

But you boys are lucky fellows! Everything that youth wants is now on the market at reasonable prices. Wire-cloth and galvanized wire-netting with double-twisted selvages, with meshes of any size to suit the occasion, and wire of any dimensions to suit the purpose, are now manufactured especially for the building of cages.

Galvanized Iron Wire-Cloth or Netting

comes in rolls, with either square or hexagonal mesh; in other words, the openings between the wires are in the form of a square, or are six-sided.

Wire is numbered from the very heavy, No. 000, which is over a third of an inch in diameter, to No. 40, which is only .00725 of an inch in diameter. It is not very likely that you will use either of these wires, unless your collection includes some very large and strong beasts and some very small insects. The wires which you will probably need will be between No. 14 and No. 22. No. 14 is eighth-tenths of an inch in diameter, and No. 22 is a little more than two-tenths of an inch in diameter.

The Mesh

is the distance from _centre to centre_ of the wire. No. 5 mesh means five meshes to the lineal inch--that is, a piece of netting five inches long will contain twenty-five meshes. The “space” means the opening between the wires--that is, the distance from _wire to wire_.

This is explained because some of the readers may not live near any dealer in wire-goods, and will be compelled to order what they want by letter. To do this intelligently they should understand the trade terms. Galvanized wire-netting, used for small bird-cages, comes in one-half, five-eighth and three-quarter-inch mesh, and is made of from No. 18 to No. 22 wire. The width of this netting varies from two feet to four feet. One-and-one-quarter-inch mesh is used for pigeon-houses, and the netting is from two feet to six feet wide. One-inch mesh is used for quail, ruffed grouse, pheasants, prairie-chickens, etc. A two-inch mesh is usually used for chicken-coops.

As a rule, the mesh which has square spaces is called wire-cloth, and that which has six-sided spaces is called netting. For mice, rats, chipmonks, flying-squirrels, gray and red squirrels, use about No. 2-1/2 square mesh of No. 17 galvanized wire.

For woodchucks and musk-rats use a rather small mesh and pretty heavy wire, for their teeth are strong chisels, and you will be surprised to see what skilled mechanics they are in the use of the tools with which nature has supplied them. For rabbits, a two-inch mesh or any of the nettings used for poultry answers all purposes; but for foxes, if you use a two-inch mesh, be careful to have it of heavy wire. The writer’s Skye terrier pup gnawed its way through the chicken-coop wire-netting on various occasions, and a fox has all the energy of a terrier, coupled with a most surprising amount of ingenuity and skill in jail-breaking.

A Pair of Foxes

I once owned could undo any knot or catch that I could invent with which to fasten them, and I was only made aware of the fact from the complaints of lost chickens which came from our neighbors.

While the neighbors were protesting, Faust and Mrs. Faust lay in front of their den, staring innocently at us with their great brown eyes, but investigation proved that the chains which apparently confined them were attached to nothing but their collars; and, furthermore, when I pushed the foxes aside with my foot, sundry quills and feathers, protruding from the fresh earth of their bed, showed only too plainly that our neighbors were not without reason in suspecting my innocent-looking rascally pets. I at last solved the problem by chaining the foxes together, and in spite of all their cunning, they never learned to go through the same opening in the fence, but each chose a different exit, and both were then held by their chain.

Each Cage

the reader makes will, of necessity, be of a form peculiar to his purpose and the location where it is placed. If it is for a fence-corner there will be but two sides to cover with wire-netting; if it be against the fence there will be three sides of netting: the fence forming the other side. In a hundred different ways will the surroundings modify the form of the cages, so, to simplify matters, we will suppose the proposed pen is to stand in the centre of the yard. In this case,

To Make a Cage of Galvanized Wire-Netting,

you first decide upon the wire and the mesh which are needed for this particular coop, next decide what are to be the dimensions; then, with a hand-saw, cut four wooden uprights exactly the same length, and fasten these posts together, temporarily, as shown in Fig. 23, A, B, C, D.

The strips connecting the uprights, and forming a box-like frame, should be only secure enough to keep the frame in shape. The nails in the strips must be driven just far enough to hold, leaving the head and enough of each nail above-board to render it a simple task to withdraw the nails when you wish to remove the strips.

When the temporary frame or mould is finished (Fig. 23), fasten the end of the wire-netting securely to the front of the upright A with staple tacks, then pass the roll to B (Fig. 24), draw it tight, and with more staple tacks secure it to this upright; continue the same process at C and D, ending at A, as shown in Fig. 24. The arrows show the direction to be observed in passing the netting around the uprights.

When all is snug and fastened firmly, nail a footboard and top moulding on, as shown in Fig. 25, after which remove the temporary inside strips, and your coop is done. It has no roof or floor as yet, but the roof can be made of wood or netting, as the occasion may require; the floor may be of wood or earth, to suit the purposes for which it is to be used. In large cages the doors must be framed and set in, as shown in the picture of fox-dens in the illustration of the back-yard zoo, but in small cages a small hole may be cut in the netting--this can be done with an old pair of shears. The square piece of netting from the cut can then be used as a door by fastening one edge with loops of wire to the edge of the opening just made. Picture-wire and copper wire are best for such purpose, because they are pliable and easily handled.

The Door

can, if desired, be made very neat by the following method: Cut some tin into strips of the proper dimensions, then fold the strips on their centre, lengthwise. Punch a series of holes by placing the folded strips of tin on a block of wood and driving a nail through. Slip the folded tin over the exposed edges of the wire-netting, and sew it in place by threading a fine wire through the holes. Bind the edges of the door in the same manner, then put a loop of wire on the door for a hasp, and a smaller one on the cage near the edge of the doorway for a staple, and the door may be fastened with a peg of wood or a nail; or, better still, wire a hook on the door in place of a hasp, and arrange it so as to hook into the loop on the cage.

It is often handy to have doors in the roof of a cage, as in the roofs of the gnawers’ cages, over the rabbit runway, in the illustration.

The Doors for the Runway

to the rabbit-house are on top, and open like a door to a bin, as shown in the illustration and in Fig. 26. While we are at the rodents’, or gnawers’, quarters, it is well to remember certain peculiarities about the habits of these animals. Rats, mice, squirrels, and their kind, will invariably seek a crack, angle or corner to commence work for a hole; knowing this, it is well to protect all such places by pieces of metal or tin, and none of the little fellows will make his escape, unless the door is left open.

Rabbits will seldom gnaw out, but if they have an opportunity they will tunnel out.

To prevent diggers from escaping, allow your wire-netting to extend a foot and a half underground, below the footboard.

A Reptile House

need not be more than three feet high. It is not shown in the illustration, but may be built as described and shown in Figs. 23, 24, and 25, after which a roof of wire-cloth must be added.

Into this house you put your turtles, frogs, toads, lizards, and snakes, and as most, if not all, of these require water in considerable quantity, it is well to have a tank for their use. But as every boy does not know how to build the tank, he may learn by following the directions in the following chapter, describing a back-yard fish-pond.

Be careful to set the tank level and pack it around with good hard earth. It is well to sod the ground on three sides, and cover the earth on the remaining side with clean sand and gravel.

There should be a strip of land at least two feet wide all around the tank, as a runway. When this is all arranged spread a layer of sand all over the bottom of the tank, fill it with water, and place the cage over all. You should have

An Old Piece of Canvas,

or some similar covering, for the cage, to be used when your sand is in danger of being washed away by a downpour of rain.

Everything is now ready, and you can turn loose in the enclosure

Your Whole Collection

of frogs, toads, lizards, and snakes, and they will soon make themselves at home. You must not be surprised if your pets in this cage feed upon one another. I once owned an old bull-frog who would attempt to swallow anything that moved, with the exception of snakes. This frog swallowed two live mice in one day, but he did not get hungry again for two weeks.[5]

There are but few poisonous snakes in our country, and in the Northern States we have but two kinds--copperheads and rattlesnakes. Neither of these will add to the interest of your collection, and must be left out and let alone.[6]

There are many beautiful and harmless little snakes to be found in every field. They abound within the city limits of New York.[7] I saw two sunning themselves on a neighbor’s lawn, and discovered their home in the gate-post.

You will be surprised at the many varieties of frogs you can find when you start to collect these comical little creatures. Some of them are very difficult to catch, and they often turn up in the oddest of places. I found a big toad in the top of a tree which I had climbed after young crows. It was a common hop-toad, not a tree-frog.

Silly Superstitions of Hoop-Snake Age.

It is high time that the American boys, in the dawn of the twentieth century, should forget all the fabulous stories of snakes with the power to “charm” persons, toads with death-dealing breath, deadly swifts and venomous lizards. All such yarns are handed down to us by our superstitious ancestors, and are a part of the witch belief of the old Salem folk. There are people living now who will tell you that they have seen a hoop-snake with his tail in his mouth, rolling down hill, and these people really believe what they say; but so did the Salem folks believe in witches.

Toads: Useful and Harmless.

If our comical, insect-destroying toads were venomous, the hand which pens these lines would have perished while it was still a chubby, dimpled, baby’s hand.

Neither Do Toads Make Warts;

otherwise the writer’s hands would be far too warty to wield either a pen or a brush; but in spite of the hundreds of toads handled by the writer he never was afflicted with warts on either hands or body.

In Pennsylvania there is a toad which has occupied the same back-dooryard for over ten years, and he will eat his own weight in “bugs” in a very short time.

The funniest toad ever owned by the writer was a Kentucky hop-toad with five well-developed legs, and the largest frog the writer ever caught was a New York bull-frog, which weighed one pound.

Frog Market.

St. Paul and Minneapolis are the great frog markets of the world. The receipts there last year, according to the daily papers, were something over six million frogs!

In the neighborhood of New York City one of the earliest frogs is the little brown cricket-frog. Next come the mysterious and shrill-voiced peepers, which make each marshy spot fairly shriek with their high-keyed notes.

Peepers

are hard to capture, because you can seldom see them. A dip-net run through the water where you have heard peepers will generally reward you with two or three little dusky imps, who, when captured, will sing in your coat-pocket, and the writer has had them sing while imprisoned in his hands.

A loud, coarse trill announces the appearance of

The Tree-Toad,

and this batrachian makes a most interesting addition to the collection. It is said that the tree-toad has the power of changing color, varying from ash-white, dull-gray or a brown to a bright-green hue.

You must look for the hermit-frogs or spade-frogs where they hide in holes in the ground, and in the damp wood you can hunt the lean-flanked, beautifully-spotted leopard-frog, his cousin, the pickerel-frog, and the brown wood-frog.

The bright-green-tree specimen, known as

The Anderson Frog,

is considered by frog-hunters as a great prize, and specimens can only be captured at rare intervals. When you secure a rare frog do not put him in the same place with larger frogs, for the latter will swallow their smaller companions the first time they feel hungry.

The Frog Has Teeth.

Put your finger in a frog’s mouth and you can distinctly feel a number of fine, sharp teeth, but if you put your finger in a toad’s mouth you will find no teeth; a frog grabs his prey with his jaws, a toad snips it up with his tongue.

Besides the common, funny old hop-toad, there are the Rocky Mountain hop-toads, the Southern hop-toads, and the hop-toads from Northeastern Massachusetts, which differ sufficiently from the common hop-toad to be classed by naturalists as sub-species.

Lizards.

With the exception of the Gila Monster _there are no poisonous lizards known_, and although many of the little creatures will try to bite you, their teeth are as harmless as so many needle points, and cannot be felt through a glove. Put on an old glove when handling them and you can hold them better; but be very careful and not be rude, or you may be surprised to find you have a stump-tailed lizard in your hand while the caudal appendage will be twisting around in a most astonishing manner at your feet.

Many beautiful and interesting lizards may be captured in all parts of the Union.

That it is not cruel to capture and confine wild animals is proved by the fact that almost all wild creatures, after they have become thoroughly familiar with their quarters, will not voluntarily leave their artificial homes for any protracted period. I have had wild pigeons return after giving them their freedom, and have had foxes return after securing their own freedom, by skill and cunning superior to that exercised by me in confining them. As for crows, coons, squirrels, and numerous other creatures possessed by me at different times, only death or forcible detention ever prevented them from returning to the place where plenty of food and kindness awaited them.

It is not necessary, or even desirable, to build all your cages at one time, for it is hardly possible that you will know just what you need until you have secured the creatures you wish to keep confined in the proposed pens and enclosures.

The Receiving-Cage.

Allow your cages to grow naturally, by adding additions or new ones as the occasion requires. Acting upon this plan the receiving-cage will be the first to be erected, and it should be strong enough to securely confine the largest of your captives, while the mesh of the wire-cloth should be fine enough to prevent the escape of the smallest pocket-mouse. The angles and corners should be well protected with metal, to resist the teeth of the gnawers, and the bottom protected with wire-cloth, to defeat the attempts of the diggers.

This cage will, at different times, furnish lodging for all the varieties of beasts or birds which are from time to time included in your ever-growing collection. Your new animals are first put in the receiving-cage, and must live there until suitable quarters are built for them.

The Value of Room.

Build all your cages as roomy as your available space and material will allow, and study to make their interiors as like the natural haunts of the imprisoned animals as is practicable. Avoid all attempts at ornamenting the cages, for no cage looks better and more artistic than the strictly practical one, built solely with a view to usefulness.

Clean sand will be found very useful for spreading over the floors of the wooden-bottomed cages, and a large box of it, kept in a dry place, will add greatly to your ability to keep things tidy.

Be particular about the nesting of your mice and squirrels; frequently remove the old nests and burn them, at the same time supplying the little creatures with a fresh lot of clean cotton, wool, fine grass, or even paper, and they will arrange a new bed for themselves out of the fresh material.

You will soon discover that all beasts prefer to keep clean, and have methods of their own by which they endeavor to keep themselves neat and presentable, without the use of soap. Any disagreeable odor proceeding from their cages simply means neglect on the part of the keeper of the zoo.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] An account of this frog is in “The American Boy’s Handy Book.”

[6] The South has also the venomous water-moccasin or cotton-mouth, and the poisonous but timid coral and harlequin-snakes.

[7] Snakes in neighborhood of New York: Dangerous--Banded rattlesnake, copperhead. Harmless, can be domesticated--Black-snake, worm-snake, ringnecked-snake, black pilot-snake, green-snake, water-snake, brown-snake, hognosed-snake (adder), milk-snake, garter-snake, ribbon-snake.