Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan Part 6

Arbor-vitae swamp, signs.

Leather leaf bog, signs.

Black spruce--tamarack bog, 1.

Wet hardwood forest, signs.

Dry hardwood forest, 1.

Shrub stage, 7.

Paper birch--aspen stage, 1.

Cultivated-field, 1.

Edificarian, 1.

Rare during the season of 1920 in the areas visited. In the Cisco Lake Region an adult female was taken in a trap set for muskrat under water on a brushy point. Other hares were occasionally seen in the evenings in the shrubby clearing around the camp house; and one was even seen on the porch. Droppings were found in a leather leaf bog, and a hare was seen at the edge of a black spruce--tamarack bog. Near Little Girl's Point a juvenile was taken August 13 in the upland hardwood forest, but was partly eaten in the trap by some carnivore; several were seen in shrubby clearings; and a young one was reported captured in an oat field by a farmer. Droppings were found in an arbor-vitae swamp. Near Gogebic Lake in Ontonagon County droppings were found in wet hardwood forest, in a thick growth of aspen and white birch saplings, and in an extensive tamarack bog.

An adult female taken July 4 at Fish-hawk Lake had much milk in the mammae. At the camp on Lindsley Lake June 27 one was seen to eat some wood ashes; and June 30 one was seen to feed on the blades of quack gra.s.s (_Agropyron repens_), which was identified by E. A. Bessey.

_Odocoileus virginia.n.u.s borealis._ Northern White-tailed Deer.

Forest--sh.o.r.e, 1.

Mud-flat, signs.

Tall-sedge, 1.

Gra.s.sy-meadow, 1.

Alder-thicket, signs.

Black ash swamp, signs.

Arbor-vitae swamp, signs.

Black spruce--tamarack bog, signs.

Hemlock forest, signs.

Wet hardwood forest, 10.

Dry hardwood forest, 7.

Shrub stage, 8.

Paper birch--aspen stage, 1.

Deer are abundant in the Cisco Lake Region; they are less common near Lake Gogebic; and only a few were seen near Little Girl's Point. Most of those seen were in the hardwood forest and in the brushy clearings, but trails and signs were common in many habitats.

Wolves were reported to prey extensively on deer in the region, and wolf dung examined August 7 near Little Girl's Point contained much deer hair and some deer bones.

_Alces america.n.u.s._ Moose.

J. E. Marshall reports that a moose was seen near Gogebic Lake in the winter of 1885, and an individual, perhaps the same one, was killed on Flambeau Reservation that year.

NORTHERN MICHIGAN MAMMALS PLATE I

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. Beach of Lake Superior just east of Little Girl's Point. A dirt bluff at the right of the picture. August 10, 1920.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2. Tall-sedge habitat in a beaver meadow on the west side of Gogebic Lake, Ontonagon County. September 1, 1920.]

NORTHERN MICHIGAN MAMMALS PLATE II

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. Leather leaf bog invaded by tamaracks, Ontonagon River near Cisco Lake. August 3, 1920.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2. Arbor-vitae swamp four miles southeast of Little Girl's Point. The ground is very moist. August 16, 1920.]

NORTHERN MICHIGAN MAMMALS PLATE III

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. Dry hardwood on a ridge four miles southeast of Little Girl's Point. Sugar maple, yellow birch, and linden are dominant. Undergrowth low. August 16, 1920.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2. Virgin white pine grove, Gogebic County. Trunks up to four feet in diameter. Little undergrowth. August 17, 1920.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: H. T. Darlington, _Mich. Acad. Sci._, 22nd Ann. Rept., 1921.]

[Footnote 2: 1914. N. A. Wood, Occ. Pap. Mus. Zool., No. 6.]

[Footnote 3: N. A. Wood, _op. cit._]