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Show tL Or Although lumberjacks and cowboys have been TWF GYASCUTUS - th Principal contributors to the origins of nn- r" In "7 iS X I WAr ,n natural history, too much credit cannot be given O NY O COLORADO to editors, and especially editors of country pa- I -rurrTcBAfN m-v ., h pers, for their part In preserving It for future VappebyVrt Although lumberjacks and cowboys have been . the principal contributors to the origins of on-' on-' natural history, too mncb credit cannot be given to editors, and especially editors of country pa- -pers, for their part in preserving It for future generations of Americans who are unlikely to "learn It at school" It Is to a number of them that the author of this article Is Indebted for Information about two creatures, without a description des-cription of which no unnatural history notebook would be complete. One Is the gllly-loo or phllly-loo phllly-loo bird and from descriptions furnished by R. F. Fuller of the Rhnme (N. D.) Review, Larry Flint of the Sharon (Pa.) Herald. "Uncle Jimmy" of the Harlowtown (Mont) Times, Ben E. Mannln? t the Riddle (Ore.) South Umpqua News, W. M Huff of the Claflln (Kan.) Clarjon and L. O. Johnson of Livingston, Mont., a fairly accurate Idea of the appearance and habits of the philly-loo philly-loo can be written as follows: The phtlly-loo is a comic supplement of the ancient rarustarus. Is related to the wild coldshuts and fuzzy-billed sidewinders and In some respects resembles the galliwampus. It has a beak like a stork, one arm to guide Itself, and a long lizard tail, which It usually carries In the shape of a Q and which leaves a track like a modern non-skid non-skid tire. It Is covered with horse feathers and from It Is obtained not only horse feathers but colt slaw. Its most distinguishing characteristic Is that It flies upside down and If It were not for this fact more would be known about It For when the hunter shoots the phllly-loo It falls up Instead of down snd therefore but few specimens have been collected. The reason' for Its flying npstde down Is that It can thus absorb more violet vio-let rays from the blue sky and stave off rheumatism. rheu-matism. 5 - .. The other Interesting animal Is the gyascutus. Edltba I. Watson of the Colorado Graphic, Denver, Den-ver, the daughter of an old-time country newspaper news-paper man, has written the following description of this creature: j THgTQTE ROAD SHAgAMAVV.MfCr fhera's.a lot of things you never learn at school. There'- a lot of thlnga that' never taught by rule; t here's an awful lot of knowledce That yon never set at college; There's a lot of thins ru never learn at echool. Old Bonn, Author Unknown. By ELMO SCOTT WAT80N Vi TIT N TIIE rade "cnooli children jrME ; are taking nature study. In ttyLJ jft'l ' ,llgh cn00' te' learn sootogy afi(v-5,7ll ancl 00tnny In college they Mfwliil hroadtm their knowledge of all MfMRTvllJ "vln" things by studying blol-iBaTTel blol-iBaTTel Km But there Is one branch of 3jjHjm' science which the textbook yitefft wr,ter n' n" teachers have J?$&fr'4C. neglected. It Is the somewhat-"sswaee4ei somewhat-"sswaee4ei less-than-exact science of unnatural unnat-ural history the best exemplification exemplifi-cation of the sentiment expressed In the old song quoted above. For nnnatural history Is one of the things "you never learn at school." To become acquainted with its fascinating facts yon must go not to books ' but to the source of all true knowledge, to people. peo-ple. And there Is one class of men who are better fitted than any other to give these facts. They are the simple men who lived close to the soli and whose brief snatches of leisure between long hours of hard work were usually given over to spinning yarns for the amusement of themselves and their fellows. In telling their tall tales they In-' In-' vented mythical characters of heroic proportions who performed prodigious feats and whose every activity was carried out on a vast scale. Such were the old-time lumberjack and the old-time old-time cowboy, who have given to us Paul Bunyan, the super-lumberjack, and Pecos Bill, the super-cowboy, super-cowboy, whom the students of folklore characterize charac-terize as the best and almost only examples of native American myth heroes. More than that, in telling of the deeds of these legendary heroes, these saga-singers peopled their world with strange creatures, bizarre in appearance and fantastic fan-tastic in bablts. Not only did they Invent their yarns for their own pleasure bnt they often repeated and embroidered em-broidered them for the express purpose of "stuffing "stuff-ing the tenderfoot" or "hazing the pilgrim." So if yon would learn the most Interesting "facts" in unnatural history, go to a lumberjack or a cowboy cow-boy and by your unsophisticated manner and naive questions, give him a chance to tell you about some of the strange creatures which he has seen In the course of bis career. If it's a lumberjack you're talking to, the chances are that one of the first animals he will tell you about Is the bodng. Although the bodag is now extinct, the one specimen having been captured cap-tured near Rhinelander, Wis., years ago, all lumberjacks lum-berjacks know about the bodag and how It cttme Into being. Once upon a time there was an ox which had led an unusually hard life at the hands . of his various drivers up in the north woods of Wisconsin. Among lumberjacks It Is believed that the hide of an ox Is Invulnerable to everything but the profanity of Its drivers. When the animal ani-mal dies, Its . customary burial ceremony is cremation, and It requires seven years of continuous con-tinuous fire to reduce to ashes all the profanity which has accumulated In Its body during Its lifetime. life-time. So when this particular ox died, a brush fire was built around Its body and kept going for seven years to obliterate all the curses which had been heaped upon It lu English, French, Irish, Scandinavian and German while It bad toiled In the lumber camps. At the end of the seventh year the fire was allowed to die down but Instead of there being left no trace of the ox, out of the heap of ashes, there rose, phoenlx-llke, a fearsome creature, such ss Is pictured above, which exhaled an obnoxious edor and the swish of whose tail made the earth tremble. For some time this monster preyed upon the lumber camps, Its favorite food being beef on the hoof. Then, according to "Lake Shore" Kearney of. Wausau, Wis., an old-time lumberjack who . has written a book on the bodag, E. S. Shepard .i of Rhinelander, Wis., 'another old-timer In the north woods, succeeded In cspturlng It by digging a hidden pit In a trail which the hodng was known to frequent and luring the hodng to It by having a young man of marathon fame and a noted ski Jumper lead an ox along this trail with the hodag In hot pursuit After its capture the hodag was put to death, skinned and mounted. For years It was exhibited In an old barn near Rhinelander and thousands of people Journeyed there to view it nntll the bam burned down and all traces of this creature vanished from the earth. But If yon go to Rhinelander today they will sell you picture pic-ture post cards of the hodag as proof of the fact that It did once exist But even though the hodag Is extinct there are other equally Interesting creatures still In the north woods, your lumberjack friend will tell you, some of whom make It exceedingly dangerous dan-gerous for a tenderfoot to stray far from the lum-' lum-' ber camp by himself. Of course, you may not see them, bnt that doesn't prove that they are not there. If you find In the woods a set of tracks that puzzle you, they were probobly left there by the tote road shngamaw. Its bind legs have the hoofs of a moose and 'Its forelegs the paws of a bear. When It la tired of traveling on one set of legs. It continues on Its wsy on the other, which sccounts for the peculiar trail which is so baffling to hunters. The tote road shsgamaw Is shy and harmless bnt look out for the agropelter snd the gumberoo ! . The agropelter has a long body and arms like a spider monkey. It has a perpetual grudge against mankind and It bides In hollow trees, out of which It springs, tears off a huge branch of a tree and . cracks the skull of the luckless tenderfoot as he . passes by. The gumberoo lives In burned-over ' forests and Is therefore easily avoided. It Is .' larger than a bear and has a round leathery body which nothing can pierce. If a hunter fires at It the bullet rebounds from its tough hide, strikes the marksman and usually kills him. The only thing that can kill It is fire and often during forest for-est fires the lumberjacks hear loud explosions .. which are gumheroos blowing up In the flames. All of the foregoing animals are known to lumberjacks lum-berjacks of the north woods from Maine to Minnesota. Min-nesota. When the lumber Industry expanded west, the lumbermen discovered many other Interesting creatures which are known both to them snd to the cowboys, the scene of whose activities bordered bor-dered on theirs. For Instance there is the rope-rite rope-rite which is ss large as a small pony and has a long rope-like beak with a sllp-noose on the end. With this natural lariat the roperlte catches even the swiftest Jackrabblt and sometimes ropes a tenderfoot. Then there is the tripodero with two telescopic legs. Its beak Is like the muzzle of a gun with a sight on the end. Going through the brush It raises and lowers Itself to look for game and, upon seeing some, tilts Itself to the right angle, sights along Its beak and then lets fly with a pellet of clay, a quantity of these quids being always carried In the left cheek. The tripodero tripo-dero has never been known to miss a shot and as a result the mortality among tenderfeet In some parts of the West Is said to be appalling. The ayaacutua la about the alia of a white-tall deer, haa ears like a rabbit, and teeth like a mountain moun-tain lion. Iti coat ta brlndle, and Ha eyea are red. It haa a lona and prehenBlle tall, which It wravs around rocka when It turns around, for a little extra levernse. . It haa teleacoplo legs, swhlch arrangement enable! en-able! It to' graze around the (Idea of mountains, the two right or left lega, aa the cane may be, teleacoplng to about half the length of the othfT two. For thla reason It ran eat either to the right or the left, but haa some difficulty In turning around, aa It appears that the two hind lega or the two front ones will not telescope at the same time, only one side at a time having thla power. Hence the long tall, which It wraps around tbe rocks, often pulling them out of the ground with the labor of Its exertiona In turning around. The gyascutus ents the tan' and green lichens which adhere closely to rocks on hills, and In tbe process, wears little traila around the mountainsides, mountain-sides, which many people have noticed. When disturbed, this animal digs a hole In the ground very rapidly, disappearing almost Immediately, Immedi-ately, so that sight of one is very rare. The holes are often mistaken for prospect holes, but the seeker for ore would be amaxed to find a gyascutus upon farther digging. The gyascutus is seen only after a snake-bite and the subsequent treatment by the observer. This causes one to wonder If this animal and the snake are not In sonie way affiliated. This -is a subject which will bear Investigation. . Gyascutt, while rare, are not extinct, but have been run Into the ground so often that they are almost unknown. , e. " , .7 Editors not only have done a good work In the Interests of unnatural history by preserving the accumulated dnta on many of these Interesting animals, but they have also contributed to the science of their observations on some of the fauna which are found only around print, shops. Go to any print shop and, If you will ask, the editor will be glad to show you some type lice. Then there Is the type lout which Is an apprentice type louse, whose Job It Is around the print shop to eat all punctuation marks which are Incorrectly placed and to correct typographical errors. A lout being an awkward fellow, the type lout sometimes some-times makes mistakes himself and that Is why you sometimes find your name misspelled In the newspaper. Another Interesting anlmnl Is the studio-inkerus. It was Just by chance that one of these appeared while Artist Walters was mak Ing the sketches for this article and he was able to draw the picture of this Interesting little fellowthe fel-lowthe first time In history that Its portrait has ever been made. Tbe studlo-ltikerus Is the reason why the Ink bottles and Ink wells on the desks of cartoonists and editors are always dry The studio-inkerus eats nothing and drinks only ink. ' |