What?

"Yessir, and the laigs on his right side are longer than the ones on his left side, so he kin stand straight as he goes around the hill feedin'. He kin only go 'round that one way, o' course, an' when he gets ready to go to bed he has to lie down an' crawl into his hole. . . ."

Thus is the tenderfoot regaled in lightly populated sections of the continent, where roam the sidehill gouger, the minktum, tigermonk, high-behind,* lava bear, hoop snake, jointed snake, Peruvian whiffen-whoofen, banana fish, mile-or-more bird and other creatures of times and times ago The fauna of folklore is too elusive for collectors but sometimes an unidentifiable species strays into the newspapers. Two summers ago northern New Jersey was terrorized by a "devil" which sounded, from the skimpy descriptions brought in by terrified natives, like a carnivorous cousin of the cougar and the kangaroo. Last week, one C. E. Miller let it be known that in some white gypsum hills near Estelline, Tex., he had found a colony of extraordinary creatures, captured one and made it a pet.

This gypsum gink or hillside hoopus--whatever its name might be--had soft black fur girdled with white, and white cuffs above its paws. Its front paws resembled human hands, Mr Miller said, except that the hairy black fingers reminded him of a tarantula. He could span the animal's neck with his thumb and forefinger, though it stood 30 inches high and weighed 20 pounds. The hind paws were sharply clawed, for climbing and scratching. A sharp-pointed face peered out from a fringe of mustache, like a monkey's. The nose was hard, smooth, rubbery. With its sharp white teeth, the creature tore only vegetables, no flesh. What, asked Mr. Miller of scientists, is it? Pending further particulars, scientists would not say.

*Nocturnal prowler which, preying only on the tinned goods of human campers, is said to have can-openers for canine teeth.