I read with keen interest your gripping article on the hotheaded naked ice borers and was reminded of another savage carnivore here in the Pacific Northwest: the dreaded Puget Sound fanged slug.

While this shell-less snail (class Gastropoda; subclass Pulmonata) measures only four to six inches long, convergent evolution has bestowed on it dentition identical to that of the great white shark. Additionally, this mollusk is capable of oozing forward with hideous speed, being clocked at 1.3 meters per hour during an attack.

Hunting in packs, the gastropods prefer to prey on the Northwest spotted owl, which the slugs stalk by smearing unspeakable slime trails on tree branches that the owl cannot then firmly grasp. As the slugs hunker in ambush, the unsuspecting bird (order Strigiformes) lands and suddenly finds itself upside-down and swinging like a pendulum from the buttered perch, talons gripping in astonishment. As is well known, the owl cannot initiate flight from this position and is thus forced to dangle stoically as the herd of maddened snails rushes in, fangs flinging spit.


It is the horror of every nature walker to come upon the disgusting aftermath of this plunder--two knobby owl legs suspended from a tree limb, a beak and feathers on the woodland floor, the forest serenity shattered by the belches of satiated slugs.

William Peters
Bothell, Wash.


I was quite surprised by your report on Pazzo's discovery of Mukluk moccasini borealis in Antarctica.

Long known by its more common name, feater (presumably a contraction of "feet" and "eater"), this small animal has been hunted by generations of northern Minnesotans both for food and for leather. To fend off starvation, early Swedish immigrants would locate a soft spot in the ice, have a Norwegian immigrant sit on it, and, when he would abruptly rise after a short interval, pick the featers off his backside. Lacking a handy Norwegian, less frugal hunters were known to substitute a chicken on a rope. Properly prepared, feater meat tastes like well-aged bald eagle.

After the carcass is carefully cleaned through a slit down its spine, the hide can be stretched and cured over a small shoe tree to form a moccasin. These were sold in clothing stores across the nation as bedroom slippers during the middle of this century and could be recognized by the small rodentlike face and ears on the toe area.

Overexploitation of this lucrative market and the nearly insatiable hunger of Swedish immigrants essentially wiped out the wild featers. Surviving populations may be found under sawdust in northern icehouses, where they are raised commercially year-round and sold to those of Swedish extraction who still consider lutefisk a delicacy.

G. James van Osdol
Nokomis, Fla.


Aprile Pazzo's claim to have "discovered" the ice borer is unfortunately false. While Pazzo may have discovered a new species, residents of the northern forests of Michigan and lower Canada have long known about the ice borer's cousin, the woodland hellion mole (Noncompos mentis). This small, hairless predatory mammal is nocturnal and hunts in packs, ambushing and devouring prey many times its size. Although few people have seen the hellion mole, residents of the North Woods rarely risk traveling alone on foot at night. While the mole is believed to supplement its diet with deer, its favored prey is the rare northern jackalope. Last year United States Forestry Service biologist Harry Duphis discovered an abandoned hellion mole nest containing dozens of antlers and bones, including one four-foot-long bone resembling a human humerus. Duphis speculates that the hellion mole may be responsible for the possible extinction of the Canadian yeti.

Rick Campbell
Rochester, Mich.