I happened to be in town last week and picked up a copy of the Monitor, as I always do, and found an interesting story on the decline of fisher (cats) south of the notches.
Writer David Brooks repeatedly referred to “hunting” fishers. I’ve never heard of that. It’s called “trapping.” Okay, technically any pursuit of a creature can be called “hunting,” but is that truly the Monitor’s new policy? If so, I’m heading for camp to go fly-hunting for trout.
Also, Dave and Fish and Game’s Pat Tate speculated on where this apparently quaint term “fisher cat” came from. Just so you know, this is in wide use by a lot of us country folk, you know, forest elves with green felt caps.
We elves know, of course, that this neat little animal is not even in the cat family, but the people who stepped ashore in the early 1600s didn’t know it, and called just about anything that snarled or slinked around or looked fierce and killed things a “cat.” This was passed up through the generations, and so “fisher cat” is in the common vernacular today, one of those (to me) nice little links to the past.
Using “fisher cats” makes wildlife professionals wince, but the rest of us felt vindicated when this animal’s name was adopted by certain other professionals, namely a baseball team, which I happen to think plays way sharper baseball than you can find at Fenway Park.
JOHN HARRIGAN
Colebrook