On the night of February 22 my wife and I were awakened at 11:30 P. M. by a very unusual noise near the Ohanapecosh Ranger Station. I got up and went out on the front porch but by that time everything was quiet. Thinking that the noise as made by a coyote or owl I returned to my bed, but the next morning, being curious as to the cause of the disturbance of the previous evening, I put on my snowshoes and struck out in the direction from which the racket had come.

Not more than fifty yards from the cabin the tracks of two deer were encountered. They had been on the run and headed for the river. About forty yards farther on another set of deer tracks was found -- also headed down hill toward the river -- and these were marked with blood. These I followed toward the Hot Springs, past the tent of Mr. Lawrence Kosnockii and the cabin occupied by Mr. Bob Cope, caretaker of the Ohanapecosh Hotel, and thence up the mountainside. Backtracking, then, along these same tracks to discover th cause of the deer's fright and injury I came upon the carcass of one of this year's fawns not sixty feet from the point where the tracks of the injured deer were discovered. And as evidence of the culprit's guilt numerous coyote tracks covered the snow about the dead animal.

During the afternoon, while on a further tour of investigation, I found where the coyotes had chased and caught another deer, had had it down twice in the snowy but, as it was a larger animal, it had managed to make its get-a-way. No doubt the coyotes wait until the snow is just right or such attacks -- snow that is hard enough to carry their weight but which breaks beneath the weight of the deer - as to other places were found where the coyotes had succeeded in putting the deer in the river.

The abundance of white, or "goat's beard", moss on the trees felled to clear the right of way for the highway to this point has encouraged the presence of deer about the Ranger Station all winter. The deer feed largely upon this moss and, whenever possible, the coyotes feed upon the deer.

H. B. Barnett, District Ranger
Ohanapecosh District

During the past few months there have appeared many articles of interest to the general public on natural history subjects. Perhaps you have read these that are listed below but, if you haven't, no doubt you will find it worth while to spend a little time in your local library enjoying these descriptive, entertaining and instructive articles.

"Flickerings" (Romanes) -- Nature Magazine, Feb. 1932

"Insect Eggs" (Phillips) -- Nature Magazine, Feb. 1932.

"Half a Mile Away" (Peterson) -- Nature Mag., Feb. 1932.

"The First Legion Carries On" (Hursh) - January issue American Forests, 1932.

"The Snowy Egret" (Bailey) - Am. Forests, Jan. 1932.

"Earth and Neighbor Worlds" (Fisher) -- Natural History January-February, 1932

"Kangaroos and Their Young" (Sheak) -- Natural History January-February, 1932.

"Befriending Nature's Children" (Atkinson) -- National Geographic, February, 1932.

"Some Trees Washington Knew" (Kauffman) -- American Forests, February, 1932.

"A Motherly Knight in Armor" (Beebe) -- Nature Magazine, March 1932.

"The Stinging Sorority" (Aaron) -- Nature Mag., Mar. 1932.