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diff --git a/20448.txt b/20448.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fcacd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/20448.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2816 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: January 25, 2007 [EBook #20448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIT OF A DUCK AND OTHER PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Suzan Flanagan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: [Signature: John Burroughs]] + + + + +The Riverside Literature Series + + + THE WIT OF A DUCK + + AND OTHER PAPERS + + BY + + JOHN BURROUGHS + + + + The Riverside Press Cambridge + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +I. THE WIT OF A DUCK 5 + +II. AN ASTONISHED PORCUPINE 10 + +III. HUMAN TRAITS IN THE ANIMALS 14 + +IV. THE DOWNY WOODPECKER 22 + +V. A BARN-DOOR OUTLOOK 27 + +VI. WILD LIFE IN WINTER 47 + +VII. BIRD LIFE IN WINTER 54 + +VIII. A BIRDS' FREE LUNCH 63 + +IX. BIRD-NESTING TIME 70 + +X. A BREATH OF APRIL 77 + +XI. THE WOODCOCK'S EVENING HYMN 83 + +XII. THE COMING OF SUMMER 89 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY E. H. HARRIMAN + +COPYRIGHT, 1904, 1905, 1908, AND 1913 BY JOHN BURROUGHS + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + The Riverside Press + CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS + U . S . A + + + + +JOHN BURROUGHS + + +John Burroughs was born April 3, 1837, in a little farmhouse +among the Catskill Mountains. He was, like most other country +boys, acquainted with all the hard work of farm life and enjoyed +all the pleasures of the woods and streams. His family was poor, +and he was forced at an early date to earn his own living, which +he did by teaching school. At the age of twenty-five he chanced +to read a volume of Audubon, and this proved the turning-point in +his life, inspiring a new zeal for the study of birds and +enabling him to see with keener eyes not only the birds +themselves, but their nests and surroundings, and to hear with +more discernment the peculiar calls and songs of each. + +About the time of the Civil War he accepted a clerkship in the +Treasury Department at Washington, where he remained nine years. +It was here that he wrote his first book, "Wake-Robin," and a +part of the second, "Winter Sunshine." He says: "It enabled me to +live over again the days I had passed with the birds and in the +scenes of my youth. I wrote the book sitting at a desk in front +of an iron wall. I was the keeper of a vault in which many +millions of banknotes were stored. During my long periods of +leisure I took refuge in my pen. How my mind reacted from the +iron wall in front of me, and sought solace in memories of the +birds and of summer fields and woods!" In 1873 he exchanged the +iron wall in front of his desk for a large window overlooking the +Hudson, and the vault for a vineyard. Since then he has lived on +the banks of the Hudson in the midst of the woods and fields +which he most enjoys, adding daily to his fund of information +regarding the ways of nature. His close habit of observation, +coupled with his rare gift of imparting to the reader something +of his own interest and enthusiasm, has enabled him to interpret +nature in a most delightfully fascinating way. He gives the key +to his own success when he says, "If I name every bird I see in +my walk, describe its color and ways, etc., give a lot of facts +or details about the bird, it is doubtful if my reader is +interested. But if I relate the bird in some way to human life, +to my own life,--show what it is to me and what it is in the +landscape and the season,--then do I give my reader a live bird +and not a labeled specimen." + +Mr. Burroughs thoroughly enjoys the country life, and in his +strolls through the woods or in the fields he is always ready to +stop and investigate anything new or interesting that he may +chance to see among the birds, or squirrels, or bees, or insects. +His long life of observation and study has developed remarkably +quick eyesight and a keen sense of hearing, which enable him to +detect all the activities of nature and to place a correct +interpretation upon them to an extent that few other naturalists +have realized. + +When he writes he is simply living over again the experiences +which have delighted him, and the best explanation of the rare +pleasure that is imparted by his writings to every reader is +given in his own words: "I cannot bring myself to think of my +books as 'works,' because so little 'work' has gone to the making +of them. It has all been play. I have gone a-fishing or camping +or canoeing, and new literary material has been the result.... +The writing of the book was only a second and finer enjoyment of +my holiday in the fields or woods; not till the writing did it +really seem to strike in and become part of me"; and so the +reader seems to participate in this "finer enjoyment" of a +holiday in the fields or woods, walking arm-in-arm with the +naturalist, feeling the influence of his poetic temperament, +learning something new at every turn, and sharing the master's +enthusiasm. + + + + +I + +THE WIT OF A DUCK + + +The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most +remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill +in finding their way back when removed to a distance. It seems +at times as if they possessed some extra sense--the home +sense--which operates unerringly. I saw this illustrated one +spring in the case of a mallard drake. + +My son had two ducks, and to mate with them he procured a drake +of a neighbor who lived two miles south of us. He brought the +drake home in a bag. The bird had no opportunity to see the road +along which it was carried, or to get the general direction, +except at the time of starting, when the boy carried him a few +rods openly. + +He was placed with the ducks in a spring run, under a tree in a +secluded place on the river slope, about a hundred yards from the +highway. The two ducks treated him very contemptuously. It was +easy to see that the drake was homesick from the first hour, and +he soon left the presence of the scornful ducks. + +Then we shut the three in the barn together, and kept them there +a day and a night. Still the friendship did not ripen; the ducks +and the drake separated the moment we let them out. Left to +himself, the drake at once turned his head homeward, and started +up the hill for the highway. + +Then we shut the trio up together again for a couple of days, but +with the same results as before. There seemed to be but one +thought in the mind of the drake, and that was home. + +Several times we headed him off and brought him back, till +finally on the third or fourth day I said to my son, "If that +drake is really bound to go home, he shall have an opportunity to +make the trial, and I will go with him to see that he has fair +play." We withdrew, and the homesick mallard started up through +the currant patch, then through the vineyard toward the highway +which he had never seen. + +When he reached the fence, he followed it south till he came to +the open gate, where he took to the road as confidently as if he +knew for a certainty that it would lead him straight to his mate. +How eagerly he paddled along, glancing right and left, and +increasing his speed at every step! I kept about fifty yards +behind him. Presently he met a dog; he paused and eyed the animal +for a moment, and then turned to the right along a road which +diverged just at that point, and which led to the railroad +station. I followed, thinking the drake would soon lose his +bearings, and get hopelessly confused in the tangle of roads that +converged at the station. + +But he seemed to have an exact map of the country in his mind; he +soon left the station road, went around a house, through a +vineyard, till he struck a stone fence that crossed his course at +right angles; this he followed eastward till it was joined by a +barbed wire fence, under which he passed and again entered the +highway he had first taken. Then down the road he paddled with +renewed confidence: under the trees, down a hill, through a +grove, over a bridge, up the hill again toward home. + +Presently he found his clue cut in two by the railroad track; +this was something he had never before seen; he paused, glanced +up it, then down it, then at the highway across it, and quickly +concluded this last was his course. On he went again, faster and +faster. + +He had now gone half the distance, and was getting tired. A +little pool of water by the roadside caught his eye. Into it he +plunged, bathed, drank, preened his plumage for a few moments, +and then started homeward again. He knew his home was on the +upper side of the road, for he kept his eye bent in that +direction, scanning the fields. Twice he stopped, stretched +himself up, and scanned the landscape intently; then on again. It +seemed as if an invisible cord was attached to him, and he was +being pulled down the road. + +Just opposite a farm lane which led up to a group of farm +buildings, and which did indeed look like his home lane, he +paused and seemed to be debating with himself. Two women just +then came along; they lifted and flirted their skirts, for it was +raining, and this disturbed him again and decided him to take to +the farm lane. Up the lane he went, rather doubtingly, I thought. + +In a few moments it brought him into a barnyard, where a group +of hens caught his eye. Evidently he was on good terms with hens +at home, for he made up to these eagerly as if to tell them his +troubles; but the hens knew not ducks; they withdrew suspiciously, +then assumed a threatening attitude, till one old "dominic" put up +her feathers and charged upon him viciously. + +Again he tried to make up to them, quacking softly, and again he +was repulsed. Then the cattle in the yard spied this strange +creature and came sniffing toward it, full of curiosity. + +The drake quickly concluded he had got into the wrong place, and +turned his face southward again. Through the fence he went into a +plowed field. Presently another stone fence crossed his path; +along this he again turned toward the highway. In a few minutes +he found himself in a corner formed by the meeting of two stone +fences. Then he turned appealingly to me, uttering the soft note +of the mallard. To use his wings never seemed to cross his mind. + +Well, I am bound to confess that I helped the drake over the +wall, but I sat him down in the road as impartially as I could. +How well his pink feet knew the course! How they flew up the +road! His green head and white throat fairly twinkled under the +long avenue of oaks and chestnuts. + +At last we came in sight of the home lane, which led up to the +farmhouse one hundred or more yards from the road. I was curious +to see if he would recognize the place. At the gate leading into +the lane he paused. He had just gone up a lane that looked like +that and had been disappointed. What should he do now? Truth +compels me to say that he overshot the mark: he kept on +hesitatingly along the highway. + +It was now nearly night. I felt sure the duck would soon discover +his mistake, but I had not time to watch the experiment further. +I went around the drake and turned him back. As he neared the +lane this time he seemed suddenly to see some familiar landmark, +and he rushed up it at the top of his speed. His joy and +eagerness were almost pathetic. + +I followed close. Into the house yard he rushed with uplifted +wings, and fell down almost exhausted by the side of his mate. A +half hour later the two were nipping the grass together in the +pasture, and he, I have no doubt, was eagerly telling her the +story of his adventures. + + + + +II + +AN ASTONISHED PORCUPINE + + +One summer, while three young people and I were spending an +afternoon upon a mountaintop, our dogs treed a porcupine. At my +suggestion the young man climbed the tree--not a large one--to +shake the animal down. I wished to see what the dogs would do +with him, and what the "quill-pig" would do with the dogs. As the +climber advanced the rodent went higher, till the limb he clung +to was no larger than one's wrist. This the young man seized and +shook vigorously. I expected to see the slow, stupid porcupine +drop, but he did not. He only tightened his hold. The climber +tightened his hold, too, and shook the harder. Still the bundle +of quills did not come down, and no amount of shaking could bring +it down. Then I handed a long pole up to the climber, and he +tried to punch the animal down. This attack in the rear was +evidently a surprise; it produced an impression different from +that of the shaking. The porcupine struck the pole with his tail, +put up the shield of quills upon his back, and assumed his best +attitude of defense. Still the pole persisted in its persecution, +regardless of the quills; evidently the animal was astonished: he +had never had an experience like this before; he had now met a +foe that despised his terrible quills. Then he began to back +rapidly down the tree in the face of his enemy. The young man's +sweetheart stood below, a highly interested spectator. "Look out, +Sam, he's coming down!" "Be quick, he's gaining on you!" "Hurry, +Sam!" Sam came as fast as he could, but he had to look out for +his footing, and his antagonist did not. Still, he reached the +ground first, and his sweetheart breathed more easily. It looked +as if the porcupine reasoned thus: "My quills are useless against +a foe so far away; I must come to close quarters with him." But, +of course, the stupid creature had no such mental process, and +formed no such purpose. He had found the tree unsafe, and his +instinct now was to get to the ground as quickly as possible and +take refuge among the rocks. As he came down I hit him a slight +blow over the nose with a rotten stick, hoping only to confuse +him a little, but much to my surprise and mortification he +dropped to the ground and rolled down the hill dead, having +succumbed to a blow that a woodchuck or a coon would hardly have +regarded at all. Thus does the easy, passive mode of defense of +the porcupine not only dull his wits, but it makes frail and +brittle the thread of his life. He has had no struggles or +battles to harden and toughen him. + +That blunt nose of his is as tender as a baby's, and he is +snuffed out by a blow that would hardly bewilder for a moment any +other forest animal, unless it be the skunk, another sluggish +non-combatant of our woodlands. Immunity from foes, from effort, +from struggle is always purchased with a price. + +Certain of our natural history romancers have taken liberties +with the porcupine in one respect: they have shown him made up +into a ball and rolling down a hill. One writer makes him do this +in a sportive mood; he rolls down a long hill in the woods, and +at the bottom he is a ragged mass of leaves which his quills have +impaled--an apparition that nearly frightened a rabbit out of its +wits. Let any one who knows the porcupine try to fancy it +performing a feat like this! + +Another romancer makes his porcupine roll himself into a ball +when attacked by a panther, and then on a nudge from his enemy +roll down a snowy incline into the water. I believe the little +European hedgehog can roll itself up into something like a ball, +but our porcupine does not. I have tried all sorts of tricks with +him, and made all sorts of assaults upon him, at different times, +and I have never yet seen him assume the globular form. It would +not be the best form for him to assume, because it would partly +expose his vulnerable under side. The one thing the porcupine +seems bent upon doing at all times is to keep right side up with +care. His attitude of defense is crouching close to the ground, +head drawn in and pressed down, the circular shield of large +quills upon his back opened and extended as far as possible, and +the tail stretched back rigid and held close upon the ground. +"Now come on," he says, "if you want to." The tail is his weapon +of active defense; with it he strikes upward like lightning, and +drives the quills into whatever they touch. In his chapter called +"In Panoply of Spears," Mr. Roberts paints the porcupine without +taking any liberties with the creature's known habits. He +portrays one characteristic of the porcupine very felicitously: +"As the porcupine made his resolute way through the woods, the +manner of his going differed from that of all the other kindreds +of the wild. He went not furtively. He had no particular +objection to making a noise. He did not consider it necessary to +stop every little while, stiffen himself to a monument of +immobility, cast wary glances about the gloom, and sniff the air +for the taint of enemies. He did not care who knew of his coming, +and he did not greatly care who came. Behind his panoply of +biting spears he felt himself secure, and in that security he +moved as if he held in fee the whole green, shadowy, perilous +woodland world." + + + + +III + +HUMAN TRAITS IN THE ANIMALS + + +That there is a deal of human nature in the lower animals is a +very obvious fact; or we may turn the proposition around and say, +with equal truth, that there is a deal of animal nature in us +humans. If man is of animal origin, as we are now all coming to +believe, how could this be otherwise? We are all made of one +stuff, the functions of our bodies are practically the same, and +the workings of our instincts and our emotional and involuntary +natures are in many ways identical. I am not now thinking of any +part or lot which the lower orders may have in our intellectual +or moral life, a point upon which, as my reader may know, I +diverge from the popular conception of these matters, but of the +extent in which they share with us the ground or basement story +of the house of life--certain fundamental traits, instincts, and +blind gropings. + +Man is a bundle of instincts, impulses, predilections, race and +family affinities, and antagonisms, supplemented by the gift of +reason--a gift of which he sometimes makes use. The animal is a +bundle of instincts, impulses, affinities, appetites, and race +traits, without the extra gift of reason. + +The animal has sensation, perception, and power of association, +and these suffice it. Man has sensation, perception, memory, +comparison, ideality, judgment, and the like, which suffice him. + +There can be no dispute, I suppose, as to certain emotions and +impulses being exclusively human, such as awe, veneration, +humility, reverence, self-sacrifice, shame, modesty, and many +others that are characteristic of what we call our moral nature. +Then there are certain others that we share with our dumb +neighbors--curiosity, jealousy, joy, anger, sex love, the +maternal and paternal instinct, the instinct of fear, of +self-preservation, and so forth. + +There is at least one instinct or faculty that the animals have +far more fully developed than we have--the homing instinct, which +seems to imply a sense of direction that we have not. We have +lost it because we have other faculties to take its place, just +as we have lost that acute sense of smell that is so marvelously +developed in many of the four-footed creatures. It has long been +a contention of mine that the animals all possess the knowledge +and intelligence which is necessary to their self-preservation +and the perpetuity of the species, and that is about all. This +homing instinct seems to be one of the special powers that the +animals cannot get along without. If the solitary wasp, for +instance, could not find her way back to that minute spot in the +field where her nest is made, a feat quite impossible to you or +me, so indistinguishable to our eye is that square inch of ground +in which her hole is made; or if the fur seal could not in spring +retrace its course to the islands upon which it breeds, through a +thousand leagues of pathless sea water, how soon the tribe of +each would perish! + +The animal is, like the skater, a marvel of skill in one field +or element, or in certain fixed conditions, while man's varied +but less specialized powers make him at home in many fields. Some +of the animals outsee man, outsmell him, outhear him, outrun him, +outswim him, because their lives depend more upon these special +powers than his does; but he can outwit them all because he has +the resourcefulness of reason, and is at home in many different +fields. The condor "houses herself with the sky" that she may +have a high point of observation for the exercise of that +marvelous power of vision. An object in the landscape beneath +that would escape the human eye is revealed to the soaring +buzzard. It stands these birds in hand to see thus sharply; their +dinner depends upon it. If mine depended upon such powers of +vision, in the course of time I might come to possess it. I am +not certain but that we have lost another power that I suspect +the lower animals possess--something analogous to, or identical +with, what we call telepathy--power to communicate without words, +or signs, or signals. There are many things in animal life, such +as the precise concert of action among flocks of birds and fishes +and insects, and, at times, the unity of impulse among land +animals, that give support to the notion that the wild creatures +in some way come to share one another's mental or emotional +states to a degree and in a way that we know little or nothing +of. It seems important to their well-being that they should have +such a gift--something to make good to them the want of language +and mental concepts, and insure unity of action in the tribe. +Their seasonal migrations from one part of the country to another +are no doubt the promptings of an inborn instinct called into +action in all by the recurrence of the same outward conditions; +but the movements of the flock or the school seem to imply a +common impulse that is awakened on the instant in each member of +the flock. The animals have no systems or methods in the sense +that we have, but like conditions with them always awaken like +impulses, and unity of action is reached without outward +communication. + +The lower animals seem to have certain of our foibles, and +antagonisms, and unreasoning petulancies. I was reminded of this +in reading the story President Roosevelt tells of a Colorado bear +he once watched at close quarters. The bear was fussing around a +carcass of a deer, preparatory to burying it. "Once the bear lost +his grip and rolled over during the course of some movement, and +this made him angry and he struck the carcass a savage whack, +just as a pettish child will strike a table against which it has +knocked itself." Who does not recognize that trait in himself: +the disposition to vent one's anger upon inanimate things--upon +his hat, for instance, when the wind snatches it off his head and +drops it in the mud or leads him a chase for it across the +street; or upon the stick that tripped him up, or the beam +against which he bumped his head? We do not all carry our anger +so far as did a little three-year-old maiden I heard of, who, on +tripping over the rockers of her chair, promptly picked herself +up, and carrying the chair to a closet, pushed it in and +spitefully shut the door on it, leaving it alone in the dark to +repent its wrong-doing. + +Our blind, unreasoning animal anger is excited by whatever +opposes or baffles us. Of course, when we yield to the anger, we +do not act as reasonable beings, but as the unreasoning animals. +It is hard for one to control this feeling when the opposition +comes from some living creature, as a balky horse or a kicking +cow, or a pig that will not be driven through the open gate. When +I was a boy, I once saw one of my uncles kick a hive of bees off +the stand and halfway across the yard, because the bees stung him +when he was about to "take them up." I confess to a fair share of +this petulant, unreasoning animal or human trait, whichever it +may be, myself. It is difficult for me to refrain from jumping +upon my hat when, in my pursuit of it across the street, it has +escaped me two or three times just as I was about to put my hand +upon it, and as for a balky horse or a kicking cow, I never could +trust myself to deal reasonably with them. Follow this feeling +back a few thousand years, and we reach the time when our +forbears looked upon all the forces in nature as in league +against them. The anger of the gods as shown in storms and winds +and pestilence and defeat is a phase of the same feeling. A wild +animal caught in a steel trap vents its wrath upon the bushes and +sticks and trees and rocks within its reach. Something is to +blame, something baffles it and gives it pain, and its teeth +and claws seek every near object. Of course it is a blind +manifestation of the instinct of self-defense, just as was my +uncle's act when he kicked over his beehive, or as is the +angler's impatience when his line gets tangled and his hook gets +fast. If the Colorado bear caught his fish with a hook and line, +how many times would he lose his temper during the day! + +I do not think many animals show their kinship to us by +exhibiting the trait I am here discussing. Probably birds do not +show it at all. I have seen a nest-building robin baffled and +delayed, day after day, by the wind that swept away the straws +and rubbish she carried to the top of a timber under my porch. +But she did not seem to lose her temper. She did not spitefully +reclaim the straws and strings that would persist in falling to +the porch floors, but cheerfully went away in search of more. So +I have seen a wood thrush time after time carrying the same piece +of paper to a branch from which the breeze dislodged it, without +any evidence of impatience. It is true that when a string or a +horsehair which a bird is carrying to its nest gets caught in a +branch, the bird tugs at it again and again to free it from +entanglement, but I have never seen any evidence of impatience or +spite against branch or string, as would be pretty sure to be the +case did my string show such a spirit of perversity. Why your dog +bites the stone which you roll for him when he has found it, or +gnaws the stick you throw, is not quite clear, unless it be from +the instinct of his primitive ancestors to bite and kill the game +run down in the chase. Or is the dog trying to punish the stick +or stone because it will not roll or fly for him? The dog is +often quick to resent a kick, be it from man or beast, but I have +never known him to show anger at the door that slammed to and hit +him. Probably, if the door held him by his tail or his limb, it +would quickly receive the imprint of his teeth. + +In reading Bostock on the "Training of Wild Animals," my +attention was arrested by the remark that his performing lions +and tigers are liable to suffer from "stage fright," like +ordinary mortals, but that "once thoroughly accustomed to the +stage, they seem to find in it a sort of intoxication well known +to a species higher in the order of nature;" and furthermore, +that "nearly all trainers assert that animals are affected by the +attitude of an audience, that they are stimulated by the applause +of an enthusiastic house, and perform indifferently before a cold +audience." If all this is not mere fancy, but is really a fact +capable of verification, it shows another human trait in animals +that one would not expect to find there. Bears seem to show more +human nature than most other animals. Bostock says that they +evidently love to show off before an audience: "The conceit and +good opinion of themselves, which some performing bears have, is +absolutely ridiculous." A trainer once trained a young bear to +climb a ladder and set free the American flag, and so proud did +the bear become of his accomplishment, that whenever any one was +looking on he would go through the whole performance by himself, +"evidently simply for the pleasure of doing it." Of course there +is room for much fancy here on the part of the spectator, but +bears are in so many ways--in their play, in their boxing, in +their walking--such grotesque parodies of man, that one is +induced to accept the trainer's statements as containing a +measure of truth. + + + + +IV + +THE DOWNY WOODPECKER + + +I + +It always gives me a little pleasurable emotion when I see in the +autumn woods where the downy woodpecker has just been excavating +his winter quarters in a dead limb or tree-trunk. I am walking +along a trail or wood-road when I see something like coarse new +sawdust scattered on the ground. I know at once what carpenter +has been at work in the trees overhead, and I proceed to +scrutinize the trunks and branches. Presently I am sure to detect +a new round hole about an inch and a half in diameter on the +under side of a dead limb, or in a small tree-trunk. This is +Downy's cabin, where he expects to spend the winter nights, and a +part of the stormy days, too. + +When he excavates it in an upright tree-trunk, he usually +chooses a spot beneath a limb; the limb forms a sort of rude +hood, and prevents the rainwater from running down into it. It is +a snug and pretty retreat, and a very safe one, I think. I doubt +whether the driving snow ever reaches him, and no predatory owl +could hook him out with its claw. Near town or in town the +English sparrow would probably drive him out; but in the woods, I +think, he is rarely molested, though in one instance I knew him +to be dispossessed by a flying squirrel. + +On stormy days I have known Downy to return to his chamber in +mid-afternoon, and to lie abed there till ten in the morning. + +I have no knowledge that any other species of our woodpeckers +excavate these winter quarters, but they probably do. The +chickadee has too slender a beak for such work, and usually +spends the winter nights in natural cavities or in the abandoned +holes of Downy. + + +II + +As I am writing here in my study these November days, a downy +woodpecker is excavating a chamber in the top of a chestnut post +in the vineyard a few yards below me, or rather, he is enlarging +a chamber which he or one of his fellows excavated last fall; he +is making it ready for his winter quarters. A few days ago I saw +him enlarging the entrance and making it a more complete circle. +Now he is in the chamber itself working away like a carpenter. I +hear his muffled hammering as I approach cautiously on the grass. +I make no sound and the hammering continues till I have stood for +a moment beside the post, then it suddenly stops and Downy's head +appears at the door. He glances at me suspiciously and then +hurries away in much excitement. + +How did he know there was some one so near? As birds have no +sense of smell it must have been by some other means. I return to +my study and in about fifteen minutes Downy is back at work. +Again I cautiously and silently approach, but he is now more +alert, and when I am the width of three grape rows from him he +rushes out of his den and lets off his sharp, metallic cry as he +hurries away to some trees below the hill. + +He does not return to his work again that afternoon. But I feel +certain that he will pass the night there and every night all +winter unless he is disturbed. So when my son and I are passing +along the path by his post with a lantern about eight o'clock in +the evening, I pause and say, "Let's see if Downy is at home." A +slight tap on the post and we hear Downy jump out of bed, as it +were, and his head quickly fills the doorway. We pass hurriedly +on and he does not take flight. + +A few days later, just at sundown, as I am walking on the +terrace above, I see Downy come sweeping swiftly down through the +air on that long galloping flight of his, and alight on the big +maple on the brink of the hill above his retreat. He sits +perfectly still for a few moments, surveying the surroundings, +and, seeing that the coast is clear, drops quickly and silently +down and disappears in the interior of his chestnut lodge. He +will do this all winter long, coming home, when the days are +stormy, by four o'clock, and not stirring out in the morning till +nine or ten o'clock. Some very cold, blustering days he will +probably not leave his retreat at all. + +He has no mate or fellow lodger, though there is room in his +cabin for three birds at least. Where the female is I can only +conjecture; maybe she is occupying a discarded last year's lodge, +as I notice there are a good many new holes drilled in the trees +every fall, though many of the old ones still seem intact. + +During the inclement season Downy is anything but chivalrous or +even generous. He will not even share with the female the marrow +bone or bit of suet that I fasten on the maple in front of my +window, but drives her away rudely. Sometimes the hairy +woodpecker, a much larger bird, routs Downy out and wrecks his +house. Sometimes the English sparrows mob him and dispossess him. +In the woods the flying squirrels often turn him out of doors and +furnish his chamber cavity to suit themselves. + + +III + +I am always content if I can bring home from my walks the least +bit of live natural history, as when, the other day, I saw a +red-headed woodpecker having a tilt with a red squirrel on the +trunk of a tree. + +Doubtless the woodpecker had a nest near by, and had had some +experience with this squirrel as a nest-robber. When I first saw +them, the bird was chasing the squirrel around the trunk of an +oak-tree, his bright colors of black and white and red making his +every movement conspicuous. The squirrel avoided him by darting +quickly to the other side of the tree. + +Then the woodpecker took up his stand on the trunk of a tree a +few yards distant, and every time the squirrel ventured timidly +around where he could be seen the woodpecker would swoop down at +him, making another loop of bright color. The squirrel seemed to +enjoy the fun and to tempt the bird to make this ineffectual +swoop. Time and again he would poke his head round the tree and +draw the fire of his red-headed enemy. Occasionally the bird made +it pretty hot for him, and pressed him closely, but he could +escape because he had the inside ring, and was so artful a +dodger. As often as he showed himself on the woodpecker's side, +the bird would make a vicious pass at him; and there would follow +a moment of lively skurrying around the trunk of the old oak; +then all would be quiet again. + +Finally the squirrel seemed to get tired of the sport, and ran +swiftly to the top and off through the branches into the +neighboring trees. As this was probably all the woodpecker was +fighting for, he did not give chase. + + + + +V + +A BARN-DOOR OUTLOOK + + +I have a barn-door outlook because I have a hay-barn study, and I +chose a hay-barn study because I wanted a barn-door outlook--a +wide, near view into fields and woods and orchards where I could +be on intimate terms with the wild life about me, and with free, +open-air nature. + +Usually there is nothing small or stingy about a barn door, and a +farmer's hay-barn puts only a very thin partition between you and +the outside world. Therefore, what could be a more fit place to +thresh out dry philosophical subjects than a barn floor? I have a +few such subjects to thresh out, and I thresh them here, turning +them over as many times as we used to turn over the oat and rye +sheaves in the old days when I wielded the hickory flail with my +brothers on this same barn floor. + +What a pleasure it is to look back to those autumn days, +generally in September or early October, when we used to thresh +out a few bushels of the new crop of rye to be taken to the +grist-mill for a fresh supply of flour! How often we paused in +our work to munch apples that had been mellowing in the haymow by +our side, and look out through the big doorway upon the sunlit +meadows and hill-slopes! The sound of the flail is heard in the +old barn no more, but in its stead the scratching of a pen and +the uneasy stirring of a man seated there behind a big box, +threshing out a harvest for a loaf of much less general value. + +As I sit here day after day, bending over my work, I get many +glimpses of the little rills of wild life that circulate about +me. The feature of it that impresses me most is the life of fear +that most of the wild creatures lead. They are as alert and +cautious as are the picket-lines of opposing armies. Just over +the line of stone wall in the orchard a woodchuck comes +hesitatingly out of his hole and goes nibbling in the grass not +fifty feet away. How alert and watchful he is! Every few moments +he sits upright and takes an observation, then resumes his +feeding. When I make a slight noise he rushes to the cover of the +stone wall. Then, as no danger appears, he climbs to the top of +it and looks in my direction. As I move as if to get up, he drops +back quietly to his hole. + +A chipmunk comes along on the stone wall, hurrying somewhere on +an important errand, but changing his course every moment. He +runs on the top of the wall, then along its side, then into it +and through it and out on the other side, pausing every few +seconds and looking and listening, careful not to expose himself +long in any one position, really skulking and hiding all along +his journey. His enemies are keen and watchful and likely to +appear at any moment, and he knows it, not so much by experience +as by instinct. His young are timid and watchful the first time +they emerge from the den into the light of day. + +Then a red squirrel comes spinning along. By jerks and nervous, +spasmodic spurts he rushes along from cover to cover like a +soldier dodging the enemy's bullets. When he discovers me, he +pauses, and with one paw on his heart appears to press a button, +that lets off a flood of snickering, explosive sounds that seem +like ridicule of me and my work. Failing to get any response from +me, he presently turns, and, springing from the wall to the +bending branch of a near apple-tree, he rushes up and disappears +amid the foliage. Presently I see him on the end of a branch, +where he seizes a green apple not yet a third grown, and, darting +down to a large horizontal branch, sits up with the apple in his +paws and proceeds to chip it up for the pale, unripe seeds at its +core, all the time keenly alive to possible dangers that may +surround him. What a nervous, hustling, highstrung creature he +is--a live wire at all times and places! That pert curl of the +end of his tail, as he sits chipping the apple or cutting through +the shell of a nut, is expressive of his character. What a +contrast his nervous and explosive activity presents to the more +sedate and dignified life of the gray squirrel! One of these +passed us only a few yards away on our walk in the woods the +other day--a long, undulating line of soft gray, silent as a +spirit and graceful as a wave on the beach. + +A little later, in the fine, slow-falling rain, a rabbit suddenly +emerges into my field of vision fifty feet away. How timid and +scared she looks! She pauses a moment amid the weeds, then hops +a yard or two and pauses again, then passes under the bars +and hesitates on the edge of a more open and exposed place +immediately in front of me. Here she works her nose, feeling of +every current of air, analyzing every scent to see if danger is +near. Apparently detecting something suspicious in the currents +that drift from my direction, she turns back, pauses again, works +her nose as before, then hurries out of my sight. + +Yesterday I saw a rat stealing green peas from my garden in the +open day. He darted out of the stone wall six or eight feet away +to the row of peas, rushed about nervously among the vines; then, +before I could seize my rifle, darted back to the cover of the +wall. Once I cautiously approached his hiding-place in the wall +and waited. Presently his head emerged from the line of weeds by +the fence, his nose began working anxiously, he sifted and +resifted the air with it, and then quickly withdrew; his nose had +detected me, but his eye had not. The touchstone of most animals +is the nose, and not the eye. The eye quickly detects objects in +motion, but not those at rest; this is the function of the nose. + +A highhole alights on the ground in full view in the orchard +twenty yards away, and, spying my motionless figure, pauses and +regards me long and intently. His eye serves him, and not his +nose. Finally concluding that I am not dangerous, he stoops to +the turf for his beloved ants and other insects, but lifts his +head every few seconds to see that no danger is imminent. Not one +moment is he off his guard. A hawk may suddenly swoop from the +air above, or a four-footed foe approach from any side. I have +seen a sharp-shinned hawk pick up a highhole from the turf in a +twinkling under just such conditions. What a contrast between the +anxious behavior of these wild creatures and the ease and +indifference of the grazing cattle! + +All the wild creatures evidently regard me with mingled feelings +of curiosity and distrust. A song sparrow hops and flirts and +attitudinizes and peers at me from the door-sill, wondering if +there is any harm in me. A ph[oe]be-bird comes in and flits +about, disturbed by my presence. For the third or fourth time +this season, I think, she is planning a nest. In June she began +one over a window on the porch where I sleep in the open air. She +had the foundation laid when I appeared, and was not a little +disturbed by my presence, especially in the early morning, when I +wanted to sleep and she wanted to work. She let fall some of her +mortar upon me, but at least I had no fear of a falling brick. +She gradually got used to me, and her work was progressing into +the moss stage when two women appeared and made their beds upon +the porch, and in the morning went to and fro with brooms, of +course. Then Ph[oe]be seemed to say to herself, "This is too +much," and she left her unfinished nest and resorted to the empty +hay-barn. Here she built a nest on one of the bark-covered end +timbers halfway up the big mow, not being quite as used to barns +and the exigencies of haying-times as swallows are, who build +their mud nests against the rafters in the peak. She had +deposited her eggs, when the haymakers began pitching hay into +the space beneath her; sweating, hurrying haymakers do not see or +regard the rights or wants of little birds. Like a rising tide +the fragrant hay rose and covered the timber and the nest, and +crept on up toward the swallow's unfledged family in the peak, +but did not quite reach it. + +Ph[oe]be and her mate hung about the barn disconsolate for days, +and now, ten days later, she is hovering about my open door on +the floor below, evidently prospecting for another building-site. +I hope she will find me so quiet and my air so friendly that she +will choose a niche on the hewn timber over my head. Just this +moment I saw her snap up a flying "miller" in the orchard a few +rods away. She was compelled to swoop four times before she +intercepted that little moth in its unsteady, zigzagging flight. +She is an expert at this sort of thing; it is her business to +take her game on the wing; but the moths are experts in zigzag +flying, and Ph[oe]be missed her mark three times. I heard the +snap of her beak at each swoop. It is almost impossible for any +insectivorous bird except a flycatcher to take a moth or a +butterfly on the wing. + +Last year in August the junco, or common snowbird, came into the +big barn and built her nest in the side of the haymow, only a few +feet from me. The clean, fragrant hay attracted her as it had +attracted me. One would have thought that in a haymow she had +nesting material near at hand. But no; her nest-building +instincts had to take the old rut; she must bring her own +material from without; the haymow was only the mossy bank or the +wood-side turf where her species had hidden their nests for +untold generations. She did not weave one spear of the farmer's +hay into her nest, but brought in the usual bits of dry grass and +weeds and horsehair and shaped the fabric after the old pattern, +tucking it well in under the drooping locks of hay. As I sat +morning after morning weaving my thoughts together and looking +out of the great barn doorway into sunlit fields, the junco wove +her straws and horsehairs, and deposited there on three +successive days her three exquisite eggs. + +Why the bird departed so widely from the usual habits of +nest-building of her species, who can tell? I had never before +seen a junco's nest except on the ground in remote fields, or in +mossy banks by the side of mountain roads. This nest is the +finest to be found upon the ground, its usual lining of horsehair +makes its interior especially smooth and shapely, and the nest in +the haymow showed only a little falling-off, as is usually the +case in the second nest of the season. The songs of the birds, +the construction of their nests, and the number of their eggs +taper off as the season wanes. + +The junco impresses me as a fidgety, emphatic, feather-edged sort +of bird; the two white quills in its tail which flash out so +suddenly on every movement seem to stamp in this impression. My +junco was a little nervous at first and showed her white quills, +but she soon grew used to my presence, and would alight upon the +chair which I kept for callers, and upon my hammock-ropes. + +When an artist came to paint my portrait amid such rustic +surroundings, the bird only eyed her a little suspiciously at +first, and then went forward with her own affairs. One night the +wind blew the easel with its canvas over against the haymow where +the nest was placed, but the bird was there on her eggs in the +morning. Her wild instincts did not desert her in one respect, at +least: when I would flush her from the nest she would drop down +to the floor and with spread plumage and fluttering movements +seek for a moment to decoy me away from the nest, after the habit +of most ground-builders. The male came about the barn frequently +with three or four other juncos, which I suspect were the first or +June brood of the pair, now able to take care of themselves, but +still held together by the family instinct, as often happens in +the case of some other birds, such as bluebirds and chickadees. + +My little mascot hatched all her eggs, and all went well with +mother and young until, during my absence of three or four days, +some night-prowler, probably a rat, plundered the nest, and the +little summer idyl in the heart of the old barn abruptly ended. I +saw the juncos no more. + +While I was so closely associated with the junco in the old barn +I had a good chance to observe her incubating habits. I was +surprised at the frequent and long recesses that she took during +school-hours. Every hour during the warmest days she was off from +ten to twelve minutes, either to take the air or to take a bite, +or to let up on the temperature of her eggs, or to have a word +with her other family; I am at a loss to know which. Toward the +end of her term, which was twelve days, and as the days grew +cooler, she was not gadding out and in so often, but kept her +place three or four hours at a time. + +When the young were hatched they seemed mainly fed with +insects--spiders or flies gathered off the timbers and clapboards +of the inside of the barn. It was a pretty sight to see the +mother-bird making the rounds of the barn, running along the +timbers, jumping up here and there, and seizing some invisible +object, showing the while her white petticoats--as a French girl +called that display of white tail-feathers. + +Day after day and week after week as I look through the big, +open barn door I see a marsh hawk beating about low over the +fields. He, or rather she (for I see by the greater size and +browner color that it is the female), moves very slowly and +deliberately on level, flexible wing, now over the meadow, now +over the oat or millet field, then above the pasture and the +swamp, tacking and turning, her eye bent upon the ground, and no +doubt sending fear or panic through the heart of many a nibbling +mouse or sitting bird. She occasionally hesitates or stops in her +flight and drops upon the ground, as if seeking insects or frogs +or snakes. I have never yet seen her swoop or strike after the +manner of other hawks. It is a pleasure to watch her through the +glass and see her make these circuits of the fields on effortless +wing, day after day, and strike no bird or other living thing, as +if in quest of something she never finds. I never see the male. +She has perhaps assigned him other territory to hunt over. He is +smaller, with more blue in his plumage. One day she had a scrap +or a game of some kind with three or four crows on the side of a +rocky hill. I think the crows teased and annoyed her. I heard +their cawing and saw them pursuing the hawk, and then saw her +swoop upon them or turn over in the air beneath them, as if to +show them what feats she could do on the wing that were beyond +their powers. The crows often made a peculiar guttural cawing and +cackling as if they enjoyed the sport, but they were clumsy and +awkward enough on the wing compared to the hawk. Time after time +she came down upon them from a point high in the air, like a +thunderbolt, but never seemed to touch them. Twice I saw her +swoop upon them as they sat upon the ground, and the crows called +out in half sportive, half protesting tones, as if saying, "That +was a little too close; beware, beware!" It was like a skillful +swordsman flourishing his weapon about the head of a peasant; but +not a feather was touched so far as I could see. It is the only +time I ever saw this hawk in a sportive or aggressive mood. I +have seen jays tease the sharp-shinned hawk in this way, and +escape his retaliating blows by darting into a cedar-tree. All +the crow tribe, I think, love to badger and mock some of their +neighbors. + +How much business the crows seem to have apart from hunting +their living! I hear their voices in the morning before sun-up, +sounding out from different points of the fields and woods, as if +every one of them were giving or receiving orders for the day: +"Here, Jim, you do this; here, Corvus, you go there, and put that +thing through"; and Jim caws back a response, and Corvus says, +"I'm off this minute." I get the impression that it is convention +day or general training day with them. There are voices in all +keys of masculinity and femininity. Here and there seems to be +one in authority who calls at intervals, "Haw-ah, haw, haw-ah!" +Others utter a strident "Haw!" still others a rapid, feminine +call. Some seem hurrying, others seem at rest, but the landscape +is apparently alive with crows carrying out some plan of +concerted action. How fond they must be of one another! What boon +companions they are! In constant communication, saluting one +another from the trees, the ground, the air, watchful of one +another's safety, sharing their plunder, uniting against a common +enemy, noisy, sportive, predacious, and open and aboveboard in +all their ways and doings--how much character our ebony friend +possesses, in how many ways he challenges our admiration! + +What a contrast the crow presents to the silent, solitary hawk! +The hawks have but two occupations--hunting and soaring; they +have no social or tribal relations, and make no show of business +as does the crow. The crow does not hide; he seems to crave the +utmost publicity; his goings and comings are advertised with all +the effectiveness of his strident voice; but all our hawks are +silent and stealthy. + +Let me return to the red squirrel, because he returns to me +hourly. He is the most frisky, diverting, and altogether impish +of all our wild creatures. He is a veritable Puck. All the other +wild folk that cross my field of vision, or look in upon me here +in my fragrant hay-barn study, seem to have but one feeling about +me: "What is it? Is it dangerous? Has it any designs upon me?" +But my appearance seems to awaken other feelings in the red +squirrel. He pauses on the fence or on the rail before me, and +goes through a series of antics and poses and hilarious gestures, +giving out the while a stream of snickering, staccato sounds that +suggest unmistakably that I am a source of mirth and ridicule to +him. His gestures and attitudes are all those of mingled mirth, +curiosity, defiance, and contempt--seldom those of fear. He comes +spinning along on the stone wall in front of me, with those +abrupt, nervous pauses every few yards that characterize all his +movements. On seeing me he checks his speed, and with depressed +tail impels himself along, a few inches at a time, in a series of +spasmodic starts and sallies; the hind part of his body +flattened, and his legs spread, his head erect and alert, his +tail full of kinks and quirks. How that tail undulates! Now its +end curls, now it is flattened to the stone, now it springs +straight up as if part of a trap, hind feet the while keeping +time in a sort of nervous dance with the shrill, strident +cackling and snickering. The next moment he is sitting erect with +fore paws pressed against his white chest, his tail rippling out +behind him or up his back, and his shrill, nasal tones still +pouring out. He hops to the next stone, he assumes a new +position, his tail palpitates and jerks more lively than ever; +now he is on all fours, with curved back; now he sits up at an +angle, his tail all the time charged with mingled suspicion and +mirth. Then he springs to a rail that runs out at right angles +from the wall toward me, and with hectoring snickers and shrill +trebles, pointed straight at me, keeps up his performance. What +an actor he is! What a furry embodiment of quick, nervous energy +and impertinence! Surely he has a sense of something like humor; +surely he is teasing and mocking me and telling me, both by +gesture and by word of mouth, that I present a very ridiculous +appearance. + +A chipmunk comes hurrying along with stuffed cheek-pouches, +traveling more on the side of the wall than on the top, stopping +every few yards to see that the way is clear, but giving little +heed to me or to the performing squirrel. In comparison the +chipmunk is a demure, preoccupied, pretty little busybody who +often watches you curiously, but never mocks you or pokes fun at +you; while the gray squirrel has the manners of the best-bred +wood-folk, and he goes his way without fuss or bluster, a picture +of sylvan grace and buoyancy. + +All the movements of the red squirrel are quick, sharp, jerky, +machine-like. He does nothing slowly or gently; everything with a +snap and a jerk. His progression is a series of interrupted +sallies. When he pauses on the stone wall he faces this way and +that with a sudden jerk; he turns round in two or three quick +leaps. So abrupt and automatic in his movements, so stiff and +angular in behavior, yet he is charged and overflowing with life +and energy. One thinks of him as a bundle of steel wires and +needles and coiled springs, all electrically charged. One of his +sounds or calls is like the buzz of a reel or the whirr of an +alarm-clock. Something seems to touch a spring there in the old +apple-tree, and out leaps this strident sound as of spinning +brass wheels. + +When I speak sharply to him, in the midst of his antics, he +pauses a moment with uplifted paw, watching me intently, and then +with a snicker springs upon a branch of an apple-tree that hangs +down near the wall, and disappears amid the foliage. The red +squirrel is always actively saucy, aggressively impudent. He +peeps in at me through a broken pane in the window and snickers; +he strikes up a jig on the stone underpinning twenty feet away +and mocks; he darts in and out among the timbers and chatters and +giggles; he climbs up over the door, pokes his head in, and lets +off a volley; he moves by jerks along the sill a few feet from my +head and chirps derisively; he eyes me from points on the wall in +front, or from some coign of vantage in the barn, and flings his +anger or his contempt upon me. + +No other of our wood-folk has such a facile, emotional tail as +the red squirrel. It seems as if an electric current were running +through it most of the time; it vibrates, it ripples, it curls, +it jerks, it arches, it flattens; now it is like a plume in his +cap; now it is a cloak around his shoulders; then it is an +instrument to point and emphasize his states of emotional +excitement; every movement of his body is seconded or reflected +in his tail. There seems to be some automatic adjustment between +his tail and his vocal machinery. + +The tail of the gray squirrel shows to best advantage when he is +running over the ground in the woods--and a long, graceful, +undulating line of soft silver gray the creature makes! In my +part of the country the gray squirrel is more strictly a +wood-dweller than the red, and has the grace and elusiveness that +belong more especially to the sylvan creatures. + +The red squirrel can play a tune and accompany himself. +Underneath his strident, nasal snicker you may hear a note in +another key, much finer and shriller. Or it is as if the volume +of sound was split up into two strains, one proceeding from his +throat and the other from his mouth. + +If the red squirrels do not have an actual game of tag, they +have something so near it that I cannot tell the difference. Just +now I see one in hot pursuit of another on the stone wall; both +are apparently going at the top of their speed. They make a red +streak over the dark-gray stones. When the pursuer seems to +overtake the pursued and becomes "It," the race is reversed, and +away they go on the back track with the same fleetness of the +hunter and the hunted, till things are reversed again. I have +seen them engaged in the same game in tree-tops, each one having +his innings by turn. + +The gray squirrel comes and goes, but the red squirrel we have +always with us. He will live where the gray will starve. He is a +true American; he has nearly all the national traits--nervous +energy, quickness, resourcefulness, pertness, not to say +impudence and conceit. He is not altogether lovely or blameless. +He makes war on the chipmunk, he is a robber of birds' nests, and +is destructive of the orchard fruits. Nearly every man's hand is +against him, yet he thrives, and long may he continue to do so! + +One day I placed some over-ripe plums on the wall in front of me +to see what he would do with them. At first he fell eagerly to +releasing the pit, and then to cutting his way to the kernel in +the pit. After one of them had been disposed of in this way, he +proceeded to carry off the others and place them here and there +amid the branches of a plum-tree from which he had stolen every +plum long before they were ripe. A day or two later I noted that +they had all been removed from this tree, and I found some of +them in the forks of an apple-tree not far off. + +A small butternut-tree standing near the wall had only a score or +so of butternuts upon it this year; the squirrels might be seen +almost any hour in the day darting about the branches of that +tree, hunting the green nuts, and in early September the last nut +was taken. They carried them away and placed them, one here and +one there, in the forks of the apple-trees. I noticed that they +did not depend upon the eye to find the nuts; they did not look +the branches over from some lower branch as you and I would have +done; they explored the branches one by one, running out to the +end, and, if the nut was there, seized it and came swiftly down. +I think the red squirrel rarely lays up any considerable store, +but hides his nuts here and there in the trees and upon the +ground. This habit makes him the planter of future trees, of +oaks, hickories, chestnuts, and butternuts. These heavy nuts get +widely scattered by this agency. + +One morning I saw a chipmunk catch a flying grasshopper on the +wing. Little Striped-Back sat on the wall with stuffed pockets, +waiting for something, when along came the big grasshopper in a +hesitating, uncertain manner of flight. As it hovered above the +chipmunk, the latter by a quick, dexterous movement sprang or +reached up and caught it, and in less than one half-minute its +fanlike wings were opening out in front of the captor's mouth and +its body was being eagerly devoured. This same chipmunk, I think +it is, has his den under the barn near me. Often he comes from +the stone wall with distended cheek-pouches, and pauses fifteen +feet away, close by cover, and looks to see if any danger is +impending. To reach his hole he has to cross an open space a rod +or more wide, and the thought of it evidently agitates him a +little. I am sitting there looking over my desk upon him, and he +is skeptical about my being as harmless as I look. "Dare I cross +that ten feet of open there in front of him?" he seems to say. He +sits up with fore paws pressed so prettily to his white breast. +He is so near I can see the rapid throbbing of his chest as he +sniffs the air. A moment he sits and looks and sniffs, then in +hurried movements crosses the open, his cheek-pockets showing +full as he darts by me. He is like a baseball runner trying to +steal a base: danger lurks on all sides; he must not leave the +cover of one base till he sees the way is clear, and then--off +with a rush! Pray don't work yourself up to such a pitch, my +little neighbor; you shall make a home-run without the slightest +show of opposition from me. + +One day a gray squirrel came along on the stone wall beside the +road. In front of the house he crossed an open barway, and then +paused to observe two men at work in full view near the house. +The men were a sculptor, pottering with clay, and his model. The +squirrel sprang up a near-by butternut-tree, sat down on a limb, +and had a good, long look. "Very suspicious," he seemed to think; +"maybe they are fixing a trap for me"; and he deliberately came +down the tree and returned the way he had come, spinning along +the top of the wall, his long, fine tail outlined by a narrow +band of silver as he sped off toward the woods. + + + + +VI + +WILD LIFE IN WINTER + + +To many forms of life of our northern lands, winter means a long +sleep; to others it means what it means to many fortunate human +beings--travels in warm climes; to still others, who again have +their human prototypes, it means a struggle, more or less fierce, +to keep soul and body together; while to many insect forms it +means death. + +Most of the flies and beetles, wasps and hornets, moths, +butterflies, and bumblebees die. The grasshoppers all die, with +eggs for next season's crop deposited in the ground. Some of the +butterflies winter over. The mourning cloak, the first butterfly +to be seen in spring, has passed the winter in my "Slabsides." +The monarch migrates, probably the only one of our butterflies +that does. It is a great flyer. I have seen it in the fall +sailing serenely along over the inferno of New York streets. It +has crossed the ocean and is spreading over the world. The yellow +and black hornets lose heart as autumn comes on, desert their +paper nests and die--all but the queen or mother hornet; she +hunts out a retreat in the ground and passes the winter beyond +the reach of frost. In the spring she comes forth and begins life +anew, starting a little cone-shaped paper nest, building a few +paper cells, laying an egg in each, and thus starting the new +colony. + +The same is true of the bumblebees; they are the creatures of a +summer. In August, when the flowers fail, the colony breaks up, +they desert the nest and pick up a precarious subsistence on +asters and thistles till the frosts of October cut them off. You +may often see, in late September or early October, these tramp +bees passing the night or a cold rain-storm on the lee side of a +thistle-head. The queen bee alone survives. You never see her +playing the vagabond in the fall. At least I never have. She +hunts out a retreat in the ground and passes the winter there, +doubtless in a torpid state, as she stores no food against the +inclement season. Emerson has put this fact into his poem on "The +Humble-Bee":-- + + "When the fierce northwestern blast + Cools sea and land so far and fast, + Thou already slumberest deep; + Woe and want thou canst outsleep; + Want and woe, which torture us, + Thy sleep makes ridiculous." + +In early August of the past year I saw a queen bumblebee quickly +enter a small hole on the edge of the road where there was no +nest. It was probably her winter quarters. + +If one could take the cover off the ground in the fields and +woods in winter, or have some magic ointment put upon his eyes +that would enable him to see through opaque substances, how many +curious and interesting forms of life he would behold in the +ground beneath his feet as he took his winter walk--life with the +fires banked, so to speak, and just keeping till spring. He would +see the field crickets in their galleries in the ground in a +dormant state, all their machinery of life brought to a +standstill by the cold. He would see the ants in their hills and +in their tunnels in decaying trees and logs, as inert as the soil +or the wood they inhabit. I have chopped many a handful of the +big black ants out of a log upon my woodpile in winter, stiff, +but not dead, with the frost, and brought them in by the fire to +see their vital forces set going again by the heat. I have +brought in the grubs of borers and the big fat grubs of beetles, +turned out of their winter beds in old logs by my axe and frozen +like ice-cream, and have seen the spark of life rekindle in them +on the hearth. + +With this added visual power, one would see the wood frogs and +the hylas in their winter beds but a few inches beneath the moss +and leaf-mould, one here and one there, cold, inert, biding their +time. I dug a wood frog out one December and found him not +frozen, though the soil around him was full of frost; he was +alive but not frisky. A friend of mine once found one in the +woods sitting upon the snow one day in early winter. She carried +him home with her, and he burrowed in the soil of her flower-pot +and came out all right in the spring. What brought him out upon +the snow in December one would like to know. + +One would see the tree-frogs in the cavities of old trees, +wrapped in their winter sleep--which is yet not a sleep, but +suspended animation. When the day is warm, or the January thaw +comes, I fancy the little frog feels it and stirs in his bed. One +would see the warty toads squatted in the soil two or three feet +below the surface, in the same way. Probably not till April will +the spell which the winter has put upon them be broken. I have +seen a toad go into the ground in late fall. He literally elbows +his way into it, going down backwards. + +Beneath rocks or in cavities at the end of some small hole in the +ground, one would see a ball or tangle of garter snakes, or black +snakes, or copperheads--dozens of individual snakes of that +locality entwined in one many-headed mass, conserving in this +united way their animal heat against the cold of winter. One +spring my neighbor in the woods discovered such a winter retreat +of the copperheads, and, visiting the place many times during the +warm April days, he killed about forty snakes, and since that +slaughter, the copperheads have been at a premium in our +neighborhood. + +Here and there, near the fences and along the borders of the +wood, these X-ray eyes would see the chipmunk at the end of his +deep burrow with his store of nuts or grains, sleeping fitfully +but not dormant. The frost does not reach him and his stores are +at hand. One which we dug out in late October had nearly four +quarts of weed-seeds and cherry-pits. He will hardly be out +before March, and then, like his big brother rodent the +woodchuck, and other winter sleepers, his fancy will quickly +"turn to thoughts of love." + +One would see the woodchuck asleep in his burrow, snugly rolled +up and living on his own fat. All the hibernating animals that +keep up respiration, must have sustenance of some sort--either a +store of food at hand or a store of fat in their own bodies. The +woodchuck, the bear, the coon, the skunk, the 'possum, lay up a +store of fuel in their own bodies, and they come out in the +spring lean and hungry. The squirrels are lean the year through, +and hence must have a store of food in their dens, as does the +chipmunk, or else be more or less active in their search all +winter, as is the case with the red and gray squirrels. The fox +puts on more or less fat in the fall, because he will need it +before spring. His food-supply is very precarious; he may go many +days without a morsel. I have known him to be so hungry that he +would eat frozen apples and corn which he could not digest. The +hare and the rabbit, on the other hand, do not store up fat +against a time of need; their food-supply of bark and twigs is +constant, no matter how deep the snows. The birds of prey that +pass the winter in the north take on a coat of fat in the fall, +because their food-supply is so uncertain; the coat of fat is +also a protection against the cold. + +Of course, all the wild creatures are in better condition in the +fall than in the spring, but in many cases the fat is distinctly +a substitute for food. + +The skunk is in his den also from December till February, living +on his own fat. Several of them often occupy the same den and +conserve their animal heat in that way. The coon, also, is in his +den in the rocks for a part of the winter, keeping warm on +home-made fuel. The same is true of the bear in our climate. The +bats are hibernating in the rocks or about buildings. The +muskrats are leading hidden lives in the upper chambers of their +snow-covered houses in the marshes and ponds or in the banks of +streams, feeding on lily-roots and mussels which they get under +the ice. + +The lean, bloodthirsty minks and weasels are on the hunt all +winter. Our native mice are also active. That pretty stitching +upon the coverlet of the winter snow in the woods is made by our +white-footed mouse and by the little shrew mouse. The former +often has large stores of nuts hidden in some cavity in a tree; +what supply of food the latter has, if any, I do not know. In the +winter the short-tailed meadow or field mice come out of their +retreat in the ground and beneath stones and lead gay, fearless +lives beneath the snow-drifts. Their little villages, with their +runways and abandoned nests, may be seen when the snow disappears +in the spring. Their winter life beneath the snow, where no +wicked eye or murderous claw can reach them, is in sharp contrast +to their life in summer, when cats and hawks, owls and foxes, +pounce upon them day and night. It is only in times of deep snows +that they bark our fruit-trees. + +We have in this latitude but one species of hibernating +mouse--the long-tailed jumping mouse, or kangaroo mouse, as it is +sometimes called from its mode of locomotion. Late one fall, +while making a road near "Slabsides," we dug one out from its +hibernation about two feet below the surface of the ground. It +was like a little ball of fur tied with a string. In my hand it +seemed as cold as if dead. Close scrutiny showed that it breathed +at intervals, very slowly. The embers of life were there, but +slumbering beneath the ashes. I put it in my pocket and went +about my work. After a little time, remembering my mouse, I put +my hand into my pocket and touched something very warm and +lively. The ember had been fanned into a flame, so to speak. I +kept my captive in a cage a day or two and then returned it to +the woods, where I trust it found a safe retreat against the +cold. + + + + +VII + +BIRD LIFE IN WINTER + + +The distribution of our birds over the country in summer is like +that of the people, quite uniform. Every wood and field has its +quota, and no place so barren but it has some bird to visit it. +One knows where to look for sparrows and thrushes and bobolinks +and warblers and flycatchers. But the occupation of the country +by our winter residents is like the Indian occupation of the +land. They are found in little bands, a few here and there, with +large tracts quite untenanted. + +One may walk for hours through the winter woods and not see or +hear a bird. Then he may come upon a troop of chickadees, with a +nuthatch or two in their wake, and maybe a downy woodpecker. +Birds not of a feather flock together at this inclement season. +The question of food is always an urgent one. Evidently the +nuthatch thinks there must be food where the chickadees flit and +call so cheerily, and the woodpecker is probably drawn to the +nuthatch for a similar reason. + +Together they make a pretty thorough search,--fine, finer, +finest. The chickadee explores the twigs and smaller branches; +what he gets is on the surface, and so fine as to be almost +microscopic. The nuthatch explores the trunks and larger branches +of the trees; he goes a little deeper, into crevices of the bark +and under lichens. Then comes Downy, who goes deeper still. He +bores for larger game through the bark, and into the trunks and +branches themselves. + +In late fall this band is often joined by the golden-crowned +kinglet and the brown creeper. The kinglet is finer-eyed and +finer-billed than even the chickadee, and no doubt gathers what +the latter overlooks, while the brown creeper, with his long, +slender, curved bill, takes what both the nuthatch and the +woodpecker miss. Working together, it seems as if they must make +a pretty clean sweep. But the trees are numerous and large, and +the birds are few. Only a mere fraction of tree surface is +searched over at any one time. In large forests probably only a +mere fraction of the trees are visited at all. + +One cold day in midwinter, when I was walking through the +snowless woods, I saw chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers +upon the ground, and upon roots and fallen branches. They were +looking for the game that had fallen, as a boy looks for apples +under the tree. + +The winter wren is so called because he sometimes braves our +northern winters, but it is rarely that one sees him at this +season. I think I have seen him only two or three times in winter +in my life. The event of one long walk, recently, in February, +was seeing one of these birds. As I followed a byroad, beside a +little creek in the edge of a wood, my eye caught a glimpse of a +small brown bird darting under a stone bridge. I thought to +myself no bird but a wren would take refuge under so small a +bridge as that. I stepped down upon it and expected to see the +bird dart out at the upper end. As it did not appear, I +scrutinized the bank of the little run, covered with logs and +brush, a few rods farther up. + +Presently I saw the wren curtsying and gesticulating beneath an +old log. As I approached he disappeared beneath some loose stones +in the bank, then came out again and took another peep at me, +then fidgeted about for a moment and disappeared again, running +in and out of the holes and recesses and beneath the rubbish like +a mouse or a chipmunk. The winter wren may always be known by +these squatting, bobbing-out-and-in habits. + +As I sought a still closer view of him, he flitted stealthily a +few yards up the run and disappeared beneath a small plank bridge +near a house. + +I wondered what he could feed upon at such a time. There was a +light skim of snow upon the ground, and the weather was cold. The +wren, so far as I know, is entirely an insect-feeder, and where +can he find insects in midwinter in our climate? Probably by +searching under bridges, under brush heaps, in holes and cavities +in banks where the sun falls warm. In such places he may find +dormant spiders and flies and other hibernating insects or their +larvae. We have a tiny, mosquito-like creature that comes forth in +March or in midwinter, as soon as the temperature is a little +above freezing. One may see them performing their fantastic +air-dances when the air is so chilly that one buttons his +overcoat about him in his walk. They are darker than the +mosquito,--a sort of dark water-color,--and are very frail to the +touch. Maybe the wren knows the hiding-place of these insects. + +With food in abundance, no doubt many more of our birds would +brave the rigors of our winters. I have known a pair of bluebirds +to brave them on such poor rations as are afforded by the +hardhack or sugarberry,--a drupe the size of a small pea, with a +thin, sweet skin. Probably hardly one per cent. of the drupe is +digestible food. Bluebirds in December will also eat the berries +of the poison ivy, as will the downy woodpecker. + +Robins will pass the winter with us when the cover of a pine or +hemlock forest can be had near a supply of red cedar berries. The +cedar-bird probably finds little other food in the valley of the +Hudson and in New England, yet I see occasional flocks of them +every winter month. + +Sometimes the chickadees and nuthatches, hunting through the +winter woods, make a discovery that brings every bird within +hearing to the spot,--they spy out the screech owl hiding in the +thick of a hemlock-tree. What an event it is in the day's +experience! It sets the whole clan agog. + +While I was walking in the December woods, one day, my attention +was attracted by a great hue and cry among these birds. I found +them in and about a hemlock-tree,--eight or ten chickadees and +four or five red-bellied nuthatches. Such a chiding chorus of +tiny voices I had not heard for a long time. The tone was not +that of alarm so much as it was that of trouble and displeasure. + +I gazed long and long up into the dark, dense green mass of the +tree to make out the cause of all this excitement. The chickadees +were clinging to the ends of the sprays, as usual, apparently +very busy looking for food, and all the time uttering their +shrill plaint. The nuthatches perched about upon the branches or +ran up and down the tree trunks, incessantly piping their +displeasure. At last I made out the cause of the disturbance,--a +little owl on a limb, looking down in wide-eyed intentness upon +me. How annoyed he must have felt at all this hullabaloo, this +lover of privacy and quiet, to have his name cried from the +treetops, and his retreat advertised to every passer-by! + +I have never known woodpeckers to show any excitement at the +presence of hawk or owl, probably because they are rarely +preyed upon by these marauders. In their nests and in their +winter quarters, deeply excavated in trunk or branch of tree, +woodpeckers are beyond the reach of both beak and claw. + +The day I saw the winter wren I saw two golden-crowned kinglets +fly from one sycamore to another in an open field, uttering their +fine call-notes. That so small a body can brave the giant cold of +our winters seems remarkable enough. These are mainly birds of +the evergreens, although at times they frequent the groves and +the orchards. + +How does the ruby-crowned kinglet know he has a brilliant bit of +color on his crown which he can uncover at will, and that this +has great charms for the female? During the rivalries of the +males in the mating season, and in the autumn also, they flash +this brilliant ruby at each other. I witnessed what seemed to be +a competitive display of this kind one evening in November. I was +walking along the road, when my ear was attracted by the fine, +shrill lisping and piping of a small band of these birds in an +apple-tree. I paused to see what was the occasion of so much +noise and bluster among these tiny bodies. There were four or +five of them, all more or less excited, and two of them +especially so. I think the excitement of the others was only a +reflection of that of these two. These were hopping around each +other, apparently peering down upon something beneath them. I +suspected a cat concealed behind the wall, and so looked over, +but there was nothing there. Observing them more closely, I saw +that the two birds were entirely occupied with each other. + +They behaved exactly as if they were comparing crowns, and each +extolling his own. Their heads were bent forward, the red crown +patch uncovered and showing as a large, brilliant cap, their +tails were spread, and the side feathers below the wings were +fluffed out. They did not come to blows, but followed each other +about amid the branches, uttering their thin, shrill notes and +displaying their ruby crowns to the utmost. Evidently it was some +sort of strife or dispute or rivalry that centred about this +brilliant patch. + +Few persons seem aware that the goldfinch is also a winter +bird,--it is so brilliant and familiar in summer and so neutral +and withdrawn in winter. The call-note and manner of flight do +not change, but the color of the males and their habits are very +different from their color and habits in summer. In winter they +congregate in small, loose flocks, both sexes of a dusky +yellowish brown, and feed upon the seeds of grasses and weeds +that stand above the snow in fields and along fences. + +Day after day I have observed a band of five or six of them +feeding amid the dry stalks of the evening primrose by the +roadside. They are adepts in extracting the seed from the pods. +How pretty their call to each other at such times,--_paisley_ or +_peasely_, with the rising inflection! + +The only one of our winter birds that really seems a part of +the winter, that seems to be born of the whirling snow, and to +be happiest when storms drive thickest and coldest, is the +snow bunting, the real snowbird, with plumage copied from the +fields where the drifts hide all but the tops of the tallest +weeds,--large spaces of pure white touched here and there with +black and gray and brown. Its twittering call and chirrup coming +out of the white obscurity is the sweetest and happiest of all +winter bird sounds. It is like the laughter of children. The +fox-hunter hears it on the snowy hills, the farmer hears it when +he goes to fodder his cattle from the distant stack, the country +schoolboy hears it as he breaks his way through the drifts toward +the school. It is ever a voice of good cheer and contentment. + +One March, during a deep snow, a large flock of buntings stayed +about my vineyards for several days, feeding upon the seeds of +redroot and other weeds that stood above the snow. What boyhood +associations their soft and cheery calls brought up! How plump +and well-fed and hardy they looked, and how alert and suspicious +they were! They evidently had had experiences with hawks and +shrikes. Every minute or two they would all spring into the air +as one bird, circle about for a moment, then alight upon the snow +again. Occasionally one would perch upon a wire or grapevine, as +if to keep watch and ward. + +Presently, while I stood in front of my study looking at them, a +larger and darker bird came swiftly by me, flying low and +straight toward the buntings. He shot beneath the trellises, and +evidently hoped to surprise the birds. It was a shrike, thirsting +for blood or brains. But the buntings were on the alert, and were +up in the air before the feathered assassin reached them. As the +flock wheeled about, he joined them and flew along with them for +some distance, but made no attempt to strike that I could see. + +Presently he left them and perched upon the top of a near maple. +The birds did not seem to fear him now, but swept past the +treetop where he sat as if to challenge him to a race, and then +went their way. I have seen it stated that these birds, when +suddenly surprised by a hawk, will dive beneath the snow to +escape him. They doubtless roost upon the ground, as do most +ground-builders, and hence must often be covered by the falling +snow. + + + + +VIII + +A BIRDS' FREE LUNCH + + +One winter, during four or five weeks of severe weather, several of +our winter birds were pensioners upon my bounty,--three blue jays, +two downy woodpeckers, three chickadees, and one kinglet,--and +later a snowbird--junco--appeared. + +I fastened pieces of suet and marrow-bones upon the tree in front +of my window, then, as I sat at my desk, watched the birds at their +free lunch. The jays bossed the woodpeckers, the woodpeckers bossed +the chickadees, and the chickadees bossed the kinglet. + +Sometimes in my absence a crow would swoop down and boss the +whole crew and carry off the meat. The kinglet was the least of +all,--a sort of "hop-o'-my-thumb" bird. He became quite tame, and +one day alighted upon my arm as I stood leaning against the tree. +I could have put my hand upon him several times. I wonder where +the midget roosted. He was all alone. He liked the fare so well +that he seemed disposed to stop till spring. During one terrible +night of wind and snow and zero temperature I feared he would be +swept away. I thought of him in the middle of the night, when the +violence of the storm kept me from sleep. Imagine this solitary +atom in feathers drifting about in the great arctic out-of-doors +and managing to survive. I fancied him in one of my thick +spruces, his head under his tiny wing, buffeted by wind and snow, +his little black feet clinging to the perch, and wishing that +morning would come. + +The fat meat is fuel for him; it keeps up the supply of animal +heat. None of the birds will eat lean meat; they want the clear +fat. The jays alight upon it and peck away with great vigor, +almost standing on tiptoe to get the proper sweep. The woodpecker +uses his head alone in pecking, but the jay's action involves the +whole body. Yet his blows are softer, not so sharp and abrupt as +those of the woodpecker. Pecking is not exactly his business. + +He swallows the morsel eagerly, watching all the time lest some +enemy surprise him in the act. Indeed, one noticeable thing about +all the birds is their nervousness while eating. The chickadee +turns that bead-like eye of his in all directions incessantly, +lest something seize him while he is not looking. He is not off +his guard for a moment. It is almost painful to observe the state +of fear in which he lives. He will not keep his place upon the +bone longer than a few seconds at a time lest he become a mark +for some enemy,--a hawk, a shrike, or a cat. One would not think +the food would digest when taken in such haste and trepidation. + +While the jays are feeding, swallowing morsel after morsel very +rapidly, the chickadees flit about in an anxious, peevish manner, +lest there be none left for themselves. + +I suspect the jays carry the food off and hide it, as they +certainly do corn when I put it out for the hens. The jay has a +capacious throat; he will lodge half a dozen or more kernels of +corn in it, stretching his neck up as he takes them, to give them +room, and then fly away to an old bird's-nest or a caterpillar's +nest and deposit them in it. But in this respect the little +kettle cannot call the big pot black. The chickadee also will +carry away what it cannot eat. One day I dug a dozen or more +white grubs--the larvae of some beetle--out of a decayed maple on +my woodpile and placed them upon my window-sill. The chickadees +soon discovered them, and fell to carrying them off as fast as +ever they could, distributing them among the branches of the +Norway spruces. Among the grubs was one large white one half the +size of one's little finger. One of the chickadees seized this; +it was all he could carry, but he made off with it. The mate to +this grub I found rolled up in a smooth cell in a mass of decayed +wood at the heart of the old maple referred to; it was full of +frost. I carried it in by the fire, and the next day it was alive +and apparently wanted to know what had brought spring so +suddenly. + +How rapidly birds live! Their demand for food is almost +incessant. This colony of mine appear to feed every eight or ten +minutes. Their little mills grind their grist very rapidly. Once +in my walk upon the sea beach I encountered two small beach birds +running up and down in the edge of the surf, keeping just in the +thin, lace-like edging of the waves, and feeding upon the white, +cricket-like hoppers that quickly buried themselves in the sand +as the waters retreated. I kept company with the birds till they +ceased to be afraid of me. They would feed eagerly for a few +minutes and then stop, stand on one leg and put their heads under +their wings for two or three minutes, and then resume their +feeding, so rapidly did they digest their food. But all birds +digest very rapidly. + +My two woodpeckers seldom leave the tree upon which the food is +placed. One is a male, as is shown by his red plume, and the +other a female. There is not a bit of kindness or amity between +them. Indeed, there is open hostility. The male will not allow +the female even to look at the meat while he is feeding. She will +sidle around toward it, edging nearer and nearer, when he will +suddenly dart at her, and often pursue her till she leaves the +tree. Every hour in the day I see him trying to drive her from +the neighborhood. She stands in perpetual dread of him, and gives +way the instant he approaches. He is a tyrant and a bully. They +both pass the night in snug chambers which they have excavated in +the decayed branch of an old apple-tree, but not together. + +But in the spring what a change will come over the male. He will +protest to the female that he was only in fun, that she took him +far too seriously, that he had always cherished a liking for her. +Last April I saw a male trying his blandishments upon a female in +this way. It may have been the same pair I am now observing. The +female was extremely shy and reluctant; evidently she was +skeptical of the sincerity of so sudden a change on the part of +the male. I saw him pursue her from tree to tree with the most +flattering attention. The flight of the woodpecker is at all +times undulating, but on such occasions this feature is so +enhanced and the whole action so affected and studied on the part +of the male that the scene becomes highly amusing. The female +flew down upon a low stump in the currant-patch and was very busy +about her own affairs; the male followed, alighted on something +several rods distant, and appeared to be equally busy about his +affairs. Presently the female made quite a long flight to a tree +by the roadside. I could not tell how the male knew she had flown +and what course she had taken, as he was hidden from her amid the +thick currant-bushes; but he did know, and soon followed after in +his curious exaggerated undulatory manner of flight. I have +little doubt that his suit was finally successful. + +I watch these woodpeckers daily to see if I can solve the mystery +as to how they hop up and down the trunks and branches without +falling away from them when they let go their hold. They come +down a limb or trunk backward by a series of little hops, moving +both feet together. If the limb is at an angle to the tree and +they are on the under side of it, they do not fall away from it +to get a new hold an inch or half inch farther down. They are held +to it as steel to a magnet. Both tail and head are involved in the +feat. At the instant of making the hop the head is thrown in and +the tail thrown out, but the exact mechanics of it I cannot +penetrate. Philosophers do not yet know how a backward-falling cat +turns in the air, but turn she does. It may be that the woodpecker +never quite relaxes his hold, though to my eye he appears to do so. + +Birds nearly always pass the night in such places as they select +for their nests,--ground-builders upon the ground, tree-builders +upon trees. I have seen an oriole ensconce himself for the night +amid the thick cluster of leaves on the end of a maple branch, +where soon after his mate built her nest. + +My chickadees, true to this rule, pass the arctic winter nights +in little cavities in the trunks of trees like the woodpeckers. +One cold day, about four o'clock, while it was snowing and +blowing, I heard, as I was unharnessing my horse near the old +apple-tree, the sharp, chiding note of a chickadee. On looking +for the bird I failed to see him. Suspecting the true cause of +his sudden disappearance, I took a pole and touched a limb that +had an opening in its end where the wrens had the past season had +a nest. As I did so, out came the chickadee and scolded sharply. +The storm and the cold had driven him early to his chamber. The +snow buntings are said to plunge into the snow-banks and pass the +night there. We know the ruffed grouse does this. + + + + +IX + +BIRD-NESTING TIME + + +The other day I sat for an hour watching a pair of wood thrushes +engaged in building their nest near "Slabsides." I say a pair, +though the female really did all the work. The male hung around +and was evidently an interested spectator of the proceeding. The +mother bird was very busy bringing and placing the material, +consisting mainly of dry maple leaves which the winter had made +thin and soft, and which were strewn over the ground all about. +How pretty she looked, running over the ground, now in shade, now +in sunshine, searching for the leaves that were just to her +fancy! Sometimes she would seize two or more and with a quick, +soft flight bear them to the fork of the little maple sapling. +Every five or six minutes during her absence, the male would come +and inspect her work. He would look it over, arrange a leaf or +two with his beak, and then go his way. Twice he sat down in the +nest and worked his feet and pressed it with his breast, as if +shaping it. When the female found him there on her return, he +quickly got out of her way. + +But he brought no material, he did no needful thing, he was a +bird of leisure. The female did all the drudgery, and with what +an air of grace and ease she did it! So soft of wing, so trim of +form, so pretty of pose, and so gentle in every movement! It was +evidently no drudgery to her; the material was handy, and the +task one of love. All the behavior of the wood thrush affects one +like music; it is melody to the eye as the song is to the ear; it +is visible harmony. This bird cannot do an ungraceful thing. It +has the bearing of a bird of fine breeding. Its cousin the robin +is much more masculine and plebeian, harsher in voice, and ruder +in manners. The wood thrush is urban and suggests sylvan halls +and courtly companions. Softness, gentleness, composure, +characterize every movement. In only a few instances among our +birds does the male assist in nest-building. He is usually only a +gratuitous superintendent of the work. The male oriole visits the +half-finished structure of his mate, looks it over, tugs at the +strings now and then as if to try them, and, I suppose, has his +own opinion about the work, but I have never seen him actually +lend a hand and bring a string or a hair. If I belonged to our +sentimental school of nature writers I might say that he is too +proud, that it is against the traditions of his race and family; +but probably the truth is that he doesn't know how; that the +nest-building instinct is less active in him than in his mate; +that he is not impelled by the same necessity. It is easy to be +seen how important it is that the nesting instinct should be +strong in the female, whether it is or not in the male. The male +may be cut off and yet the nest be built and the family reared. +Among the rodents I fancy the nest is always built by the female. + +Whatever the explanation, the mother bird is really the head of +the family; she is the most active in nest-building, and in most +cases in the care of the young; and among birds of prey, as among +insects, the female is the larger and the more powerful. + +The wood thrush whose nest-building I have just described, laid +only one egg, and an abnormal-looking egg at that--very long and +both ends of the same size. But to my surprise out of the +abnormal-looking egg came in due time a normal-looking chick +which grew to birdhood without any mishaps. The late, cold season +and the consequent scarcity of food was undoubtedly the cause of +so small a family. + +Another pair of wood thrushes built a nest on the low branch of +a maple by the roadside, where I had it under daily observation. +This nest presently held three eggs, two of which hatched in due +time, and for a few days the young seemed to prosper. Then one +morning, I noticed the mother bird sitting in a silent, +meditative way on the edge of the nest. As she made no move +during the minute or two while I watched her, I drew near to see +what was the matter. I found one of the young birds in a state of +utter collapse; it was cold and all but lifeless. The next +morning I found the bird again sitting motionless on the rim of +the nest and gazing into it. I found one of the birds dead and +the other nearly so. What had brought about the disaster I could +not tell; no cause was apparent. I at first suspected vermin, but +could detect none. The silent, baffled look of the mother bird I +shall not soon forget. There was no demonstration of grief or +alarm; only a brooding, puzzled look. + +I once witnessed similar behavior on the part of a pair of +bluebirds that were rearing a brood in a box on a grape post near +my study. One day I chanced to observe one of the parent birds at +the entrance of the nest, gazing long and intently in. In the +course of the day I saw this act several times, and in no case +did the bird enter the box with food as it had been doing. Then I +investigated and found the nearly fledged birds all dead. On +removing them I found the nest infested with many dark, +tough-skinned, very active worms or grubs nearly an inch long, +that had apparently sucked the blood out of the bodies of the +fledglings. They were probably the larvae of some species of +beetle unknown to me. The parent birds had looked on and seen +their young destroyed, and made no effort to free the nest of +their enemy. Or probably they had not suspected what was going +on, or did not understand it if they beheld it. Their instincts +were not on the alert for an enemy so subtle, and one springing +up in the nest itself. Any visible danger from without alarmed +them instantly, but here was a new foe that doubtless they had +never before had to cope with. + +The oriole in her nest-building seems more fickle than most other +birds. I have known orioles several times to begin a nest and +then leave it and go elsewhere. Last year one started a nest in +an oak near my study, then after a few days of hesitating labor +left it and selected the traditional site of her race, the +pendent branch of an elm by the roadside. This time she behaved +like a wise bird and came back for some of the material of the +abandoned nest. She had attached a single piece of twine to the +oak branch, and this she could not leave behind; twine was too +useful and too hard to get. So I saw her tugging at this string +till she loosened it, then flew toward the elm with it trailing +in the air behind her. I could but smile at her thrift. The +second nest she completed and occupied and doubtless found her +pendent-nest instinct fully satisfied by the high swaying elm +branch. + +One of our prettiest nest-builders is the junco or snowbird; in +fact, it builds the prettiest nest to be found upon the ground, +I think--more massive and finely moulded and finished than that +of the song sparrow. I find it only in the Catskills, or on +their borders, often in a mossy bank by the roadside, in the woods, +or on their threshold. With what delicate and consummate art it +is insinuated into the wild scene, like some shy thing that grew +there, visible, yet hidden by its perfect fitness and harmony with +its surroundings. The mother bird darts out but a few yards from +you as you drive or walk along, but your eye is baffled for some +moments before you have her secret. Such a keen, feather-edged, +not to say spiteful little body, with the emphasis of those two +pairs of white quills in her tail given to every movement, and yet, +a less crabbed, less hasty nest, softer and more suggestive of shy +sylvan ways, than is hers, would be hard to find. + +One day I was walking along the grassy borders of a beech and +maple wood with a friend when, as we came to a little low mound +of moss and grass, scarcely a foot high, I said, "This is just +the spot for a junco's nest," and as I stooped down to examine +it, out flew the bird. I had divined better than I knew. What a +pretty secret that little footstool of moss and grass-covered +earth held! How exquisite the nest, how exquisite the place, how +choice and harmonious the whole scene! How could these eggs long +escape the prowling foxes, skunks, coons, the sharp-eyed crows, +the searching mice and squirrels? They did not escape; in a day +or two they were gone. + +Another junco's nest beside a Catskill trout stream sticks in my +memory. It was in an open grassy place amid the trees and bushes +near the highway. There were ladies in our trouting party and I +called them to come and see the treasure I had found. + +"Where is it?" one of them said, as she stopped and looked around +a few paces from me. + +"It is within six feet of you," I replied. She looked about, +incredulous, as it seemed an unlikely place for a nest of any +sort, so open was it, and so easily swept by the first glance. + +As she stepped along, perplexed, I said, "Now it is within one +yard of you." She thought I was joking; but stooping down, +determined not to be baffled, she espied it sheltered by a thin, +mossy stone that stood up seven or eight inches above the turf, +tilted at an angle of about that of one side of a house-roof. +Under this the nest was tucked, sheltered from the sun and rain, +and hidden from all but the sharpest eye. + + + + +X + +A BREATH OF APRIL + + +I + +It would not be easy to say which is our finest or most beautiful +wild flower, but certainly the most poetic and the best beloved +is the arbutus. So early, so lowly, so secretive there in the +moss and dry leaves, so fragrant, tinged with the hues of youth +and health, so hardy and homelike, it touches the heart as no +other does. + +April's flower offers the first honey to the bee and the first +fragrance to the breeze. Modest, exquisite, loving the evergreens, +loving the rocks, untamable, it is the very spirit and breath of +the woods. Trailing, creeping over the ground, hiding its beauty +under withered leaves, stiff and hard in foliage, but in flower +like the cheek of a maiden. + +One may brush away the April snow and find this finer snow +beneath it. Oh, the arbutus days, what memories and longings they +awaken! In this latitude they can hardly be looked for before +April, and some seasons not till the latter days of the month. +The first real warmth, the first tender skies, the first fragrant +showers--the woods are flooded with sunlight, and the dry leaves +and the leaf-mould emit a pleasant odor. One kneels down or lies +down beside a patch of the trailing vine, he brushes away the +leaves, he lifts up the blossoming sprays and examines and +admires them at leisure; some are white, some are white and pink, +a few are deep pink. It is enough to bask there in the sunlight +on the ground beside them, drinking in their odor, feasting the +eye on their tints and forms, hearing the April breezes sigh and +murmur in the pines or hemlocks near you, living in a present +fragrant with the memory of other days. Lying there, half +dreaming, half observing, if you are not in communion with the +very soul of spring, then there is a want of soul in you. You may +hear the first swallow twittering from the sky above you, or the +first mellow drum of the grouse come up from the woods below or +from the ridge opposite. The bee is abroad in the air, finding +her first honey in the flower by your side and her first pollen +in the pussy-willows by the watercourses below you. The tender, +plaintive love-note of the chickadee is heard here and there in +the woods. He utters it while busy on the catkins of the poplars, +from which he seems to be extracting some kind of food. Hawks are +screaming high in the air above the woods; the plow is just +tasting the first earth in the rye or corn stubble (and it tastes +good). The earth looks good, it smells good, it is good. By the +creek in the woods you hear the first water-thrush--a short, +bright, ringing, hurried song. If you approach, the bird flies +swiftly up or down the creek, uttering an emphatic "chip, chip." + +In wild, delicate beauty we have flowers that far surpass the +arbutus: the columbine, for instance, jetting out of a seam in a +gray ledge of rock, its many crimson and flame-colored flowers +shaking in the breeze; but it is mostly for the eye. The +spring-beauty, the painted trillium, the fringed polygala, the +showy lady's-slipper, are all more striking to look upon, but +they do not quite touch the heart; they lack the soul that +perfume suggests. Their charms do not abide with you as do those +of the arbutus. + + +II + +These still, hazy, brooding mid-April mornings, when the farmer +first starts afield with his plow, when his boys gather the +buckets in the sugar-bush, when the high-hole calls long and loud +through the hazy distance, when the meadowlark sends up her +clear, silvery shaft of sound from the meadow, when the bush +sparrow trills in the orchard, when the soft maples look red +against the wood, or their fallen bloom flecks the drying mud in +the road,--such mornings are about the most exciting and +suggestive of the whole year. How good the fields look, how good +the freshly turned earth looks!--one could almost eat it as does +the horse;--the stable manure just being drawn out and scattered +looks good and smells good; every farmer's house and barn +looks inviting; the children on the way to school with their +dinner-pails in their hands--how they open a door into the past +for you! Sometimes they have sprays of arbutus in their +buttonholes, or bunches of hepatica. The partridge is drumming in +the woods, and the woodpeckers are drumming on dry limbs. + +The day is veiled, but we catch such glimpses through the veil. +The bees are getting pollen from the pussy-willows and soft +maples, and the first honey from the arbutus. + +It is at this time that the fruit and seed catalogues are +interesting reading, and that the cuts of farm implements have a +new fascination. The soil calls to one. All over the country, +people are responding to the call, and are buying farms and +moving upon them. My father and mother moved upon their farm in +the spring of 1828; I moved here upon mine in March, 1874. + +I see the farmers, now going along their stone fences and +replacing the stones that the frost or the sheep and cattle have +thrown off, and here and there laying up a bit of wall that has +tumbled down. + +There is rare music now in the unmusical call of the +ph[oe]be-bird--it is so suggestive. + +The drying road appeals to one as it never does at any other +season. When I was a farm-boy, it was about this time that I used +to get out of my boots for half an hour and let my bare feet feel +the ground beneath them once more. There was a smooth, dry, level +place in the road near home, and along this I used to run, and +exult in that sense of lightfootedness which is so keen at such +times. What a feeling of freedom, of emancipation, and of joy in +the returning spring I used to experience in those warm April +twilights! + +I think every man whose youth was spent on the farm, whatever his +life since, must have moments at this season when he longs to go +back to the soil. How its sounds, its odors, its occupations, its +associations, come back to him! Would he not like to return again +to help rake up the litter of straw and stalks about the barn, or +about the stack on the hill where the grass is starting? Would he +not like to help pick the stone from the meadow, or mend the +brush fence on the mountain where the sheep roam, or hunt up old +Brindle's calf in the woods, or gather oven-wood for his mother +to start again the big brick oven with its dozen loaves of rye +bread, or see the plow crowding the lingering snow-banks on the +side-hill, or help his father break and swingle and hatchel the +flax in the barnyard? + +When I see a farm advertised for rent or for sale in the spring, +I want to go at once and look it over. All the particulars +interest me--so many acres of meadow-land, so many of woodland, +so many of pasture--the garden, the orchard, the outbuildings, +the springs, the creek--I see them all, and am already half in +possession. + +Even Thoreau felt this attraction, and recorded in his Journal: +"I know of no more pleasing employment than to ride about the +country with a companion very early in the spring, looking at +farms with a view to purchasing, if not paying for them." + +Blessed is the man who loves the soil! + + + + +XI + +THE WOODCOCK'S EVENING HYMN + + +The twilight flight song of the woodcock is one of the most +curious and tantalizing yet interesting bird songs we have. I +fancy that the persons who hear and recognize it in the April or +May twilight are few and far between. I myself have heard it only +on three occasions--one season in late March, one season in +April, and the last time in the middle of May. It is a voice of +ecstatic song coming down from the upper air and through the mist +and the darkness--the spirit of the swamp and the marsh climbing +heavenward and pouring out its joy in a wild burst of lyric +melody; a haunter of the muck and a prober of the mud suddenly +transformed into a bird that soars and circles and warbles like a +lark hidden or half hidden in the depths of the twilight sky. The +passion of the spring has few more pleasing exemplars. The +madness of the season, the abandon of the mating instinct, is in +every move and note. Ordinarily the woodcock is a very dull, +stupid bird, with a look almost idiotic, and is seldom seen +except by the sportsman or the tramper along marshy brooks. But +for a brief season in his life he is an inspired creature, a +winged song that baffles the eye and thrills the ear from the +mystic regions of the upper air. + +When I last heard it, I was with a companion, and our attention +was arrested, as we were skirting the edge of a sloping, rather +marshy, bowlder-strewn field, by the "zeep," "zeep," which the +bird utters on the ground, preliminary to its lark-like flight. +We paused and listened. The light of day was fast failing; a +faint murmur went up from the fields below us that defined itself +now and then in the good-night song of some bird. Now it was the +lullaby of the song sparrow or the swamp sparrow. Once the +tender, ringing, infantile voice of the bush sparrow stood out +vividly for a moment on that great background of silence. "Zeep," +"zeep," came out of the dimness six or eight rods away. Presently +there was a faint, rapid whistling of wings, and my companion +said: "There, he is up." The ear could trace his flight, but not +the eye. In less than a minute the straining ear failed to catch +any sound, and we knew he had reached his climax and was +circling. Once we distinctly saw him whirling far above us. Then +he was lost in the obscurity, and in a few seconds there rained +down upon us the notes of his ecstatic song--a novel kind of +hurried, chirping, smacking warble. It was very brief, and when +it ceased, we knew the bird was dropping plummet-like to the +earth. In half a minute or less his "zeep," "zeep," came up again +from the ground. In two or three minutes he repeated his flight +and song, and thus kept it up during the half-hour or more that +we remained to listen: now a harsh plaint out of the obscurity +upon the ground; then a jubilant strain from out the obscurity +of the air above. His mate was probably somewhere within +earshot, and we wondered just how much interest she took in the +performance. Was it all for her benefit, or inspired by her +presence? I think, rather, it was inspired by the May night, by +the springing grass, by the unfolding leaves, by the apple bloom, +by the passion of joy and love that thrills through nature at +this season. An hour or two before, we had seen the bobolinks in +the meadow beating the air with the same excited wing and +overflowing with the same ecstasy of song, but their demure, +retiring, and indifferent mates were nowhere to be seen. It would +seem as if the male bird sang, not to win his mate, but to +celebrate the winning, to invoke the young who are not yet born, +and to express the joy of love which is at the heart of Nature. + +When I reached home, I went over the fourteen volumes of +Thoreau's Journal to see if he had made any record of having +heard the "woodcock's evening hymn," as Emerson calls it. He had +not. Evidently he never heard it, which is the more surprising as +he was abroad in the fields and marshes and woods at almost all +hours in the twenty-four and in all seasons and weathers, making +it the business of his life to see and record what was going on +in nature. + +Thoreau's eye was much more reliable than his ear. He saw +straight, but did not always hear straight. For instance, he +seems always to have confounded the song of the hermit thrush +with that of the wood thrush. He records having heard the latter +even in April, but never the former. In the Maine woods and on +Monadnock it is always the wood thrush which he hears, and never +the hermit. + +But if Thoreau's ear was sometimes at fault, I do not recall that +his eye ever was, while his mind was always honest. He had an +instinct for the truth, and while we may admit that the truth he +was in quest of in nature was not always scientific truth, or the +truth of natural history, but was often the truth of the poet and +the mystic, yet he was very careful about his facts; he liked to +be able to make an exact statement, to clinch his observations by +going again and again to the spot. He never taxes your credulity. +He had never been bitten by the mad dog of sensationalism that +has bitten certain of our later nature writers. + +Thoreau made no effort to humanize the animals. What he aimed +mainly to do was to invest his account of them with literary +charm, not by imputing to them impossible things, but by +describing them in a way impossible to a less poetic nature. The +novel and the surprising are not in the act of the bird or beast +itself, but in Thoreau's way of telling what it did. To draw upon +your imagination for your facts is one thing; to draw upon your +imagination in describing what you see is quite another. The new +school of nature writers will afford many samples of the former +method; read Thoreau's description of the wood thrush's song or +the bobolink's song, or his account of wild apples, or of his +life at Walden Pond, or almost any other bit of his writing, for +a sample of the latter. In his best work he uses language in the +imaginative way of the poet. + +Literature and science do not differ in matters of fact, but in +spirit and method. There is no live literature without a play of +personality, and there is no exact science without the clear, +white light of the understanding. What we want, and have a right +to expect, of the literary naturalist is that his statement shall +have both truth and charm, but we do not want the charm at the +expense of the truth. I may invest the commonest fact I observe +in the fields or by the roadside with the air of romance, if I +can, but I am not to put the romance in place of the fact. If you +romance about the animals, you must do so unequivocally, as +Kipling does and as AEsop did; the fiction must declare itself at +once, or the work is vicious. To make literature out of natural +history observation is not to pervert or distort the facts, or to +draw the long bow at all; it is to see the facts in their true +relations and proportions and with honest emotion. + +Truth of seeing and truth of feeling are the main requisite: add +truth of style, and the thing is done. + + + + +XII + +THE COMING OF SUMMER + + +Who shall say when one season ends and another begins? Only the +almanac-makers can fix these dates. It is like saying when +babyhood ends and childhood begins, or when childhood ends and +youth begins. To me spring begins when the catkins on the alders +and the pussy-willows begin to swell; when the ice breaks up on +the river and the first sea-gulls come prospecting northward. +Whatever the date--the first or the middle or the last of +March--when these signs appear, then I know spring is at hand. +Her first birds--the bluebird, the song sparrow, the robin, the +red-shouldered starling--are here or soon will be. The crows have +a more confident caw, the sap begins to start in the sugar maple, +the tiny boom of the first bee is heard, the downy woodpecker +begins his resonant tat, tat, tat, on the dry limbs, and the +cattle in the barnyard low long and loud with wistful looks +toward the fields. + +The first hint of summer comes when the trees are fully fledged +and the nymph Shadow is born. See her cool circles again beneath +the trees in the field, or her deeper and cooler retreats in the +woods. On the slopes, on the opposite side of the river, there +have been for months under the morning and noon sun only slight +shadow tracings, a fretwork of shadow lines; but some morning in +May I look across and see solid masses of shade falling from the +trees athwart the sloping turf. How the eye revels in them! The +trees are again clothed and in their right minds; myriad leaves +rustle in promise of the coming festival. Now the trees are +sentient beings; they have thoughts and fancies; they stir with +emotion; they converse together; they whisper or dream in the +twilight; they struggle and wrestle with the storm. + + "Caught and cuff'd by the gale," + +Tennyson says. + +Summer always comes in the person of June, with a bunch of +daisies on her breast and clover blossoms in her hands. A new +chapter in the season is opened when these flowers appear. One +says to himself, "Well, I have lived to see the daisies again and +to smell the red clover." One plucks the first blossoms tenderly +and caressingly. What memories are stirred in the mind by the +fragrance of the one and the youthful face of the other! There is +nothing else like that smell of the clover: it is the maidenly +breath of summer; it suggests all fresh, buxom, rural things. A +field of ruddy, blooming clover, dashed or sprinkled here and +there with the snow-white of the daisies; its breath drifts into +the road when you are passing; you hear the boom of bees, the +voice of bobolinks, the twitter of swallows, the whistle of +woodchucks; you smell wild strawberries; you see the cattle upon +the hills; you see your youth, the youth of a happy farm-boy, +rise before you. In Kentucky I once saw two fields, of one +hundred acres each, all ruddy with blooming clover--perfume for a +whole county. + +The blooming orchards are the glory of May, the blooming +clover-fields the distinction of June. Other characteristic June +perfumes come from the honey-locusts and the blooming grapevines. +At times and in certain localities the air at night and morning +is heavy with the breath of the former, and along the lanes and +roadsides we inhale the delicate fragrance of the wild grape. The +early grasses, too, with their frostlike bloom, contribute +something very welcome to the breath of June. + +Nearly every season I note what I call the bridal day of +summer--a white, lucid, shining day, with a delicate veil of mist +softening all outlines. How the river dances and sparkles; how +the new leaves of all the trees shine under the sun; the air has +a soft lustre; there is a haze, it is not blue, but a kind of +shining, diffused nimbus. No clouds, the sky a bluish white, very +soft and delicate. It is the nuptial day of the season; the sun +fairly takes the earth to be his own, for better or for worse, on +such a day, and what marriages there are going on all about us: +the marriages of the flowers, of the bees, of the birds. +Everything suggests life, love, fruition. These bridal days are +often repeated; the serenity and equipoise of the elements +combine. They were such days as these that the poet Lowell had in +mind when he exclaimed, "What is so rare as a day in June?" Here +is the record of such a day, June 1, 1883: "Day perfect in +temper, in mood, in everything. Foliage all out except on +button-balls and celtis, and putting on its dark green summer +color, solid shadows under the trees, and stretching down the +slopes. A few indolent summer clouds here and there. A day of +gently rustling and curtsying leaves, when the breeze almost +seems to blow upward. The fields of full-grown, nodding rye +slowly stir and sway like vast assemblages of people. How the +chimney swallows chipper as they sweep past! The vireo's cheerful +warble echoes in the leafy maples; the branches of the Norway +spruce and the hemlocks have gotten themselves new light green +tips; the dandelion's spheres of ethereal down rise above the +grass: and now and then one of them suddenly goes down: the +little chippy, or social sparrow, has thrown itself upon the +frail stalk and brought it to the ground, to feed upon its +seeds; here it gets the first fruits of the season. The first red +and white clover heads have just opened, the yellow rock-rose +and the sweet viburnum are in bloom; the bird chorus is still +full and animated; the keys of the red maple strew the ground, +and the cotton of the early everlasting drifts upon the air." +For several days there was but little change. "Getting toward +the high tide of summer. The air well warmed up, Nature in her +jocund mood, still, all leaf and sap. The days are idyllic. I lie +on my back on the grass in the shade of the house, and look up +to the soft, slowly moving clouds, and to the chimney swallows +disporting themselves up there in the breezy depths. No hardening +in vegetation yet. The moist, hot, fragrant breath of the +fields--mingled odor of blossoming grasses, clover, daisies, +rye--the locust blossoms, dropping. What a humming about the hives; +what freshness in the shade of every tree; what contentment in the +flocks and herds! The springs are yet full and cold; the shaded +watercourses and pond margins begin to draw one." Go to the top +of the hill on such a morning, say by nine o'clock, and see how +unspeakably fresh and full the world looks. The morning shadows +yet linger everywhere, even in the sunshine; a kind of blue +coolness and freshness, the vapor of dew tinting the air. + +Heat and moisture, the father and mother of all that lives, when +June has plenty of these, the increase is sure. + +Early in June the rye and wheat heads begin to nod; the +motionless stalks have a reflective, meditative air. A little +while ago, when their heads were empty or filled only with chaff +and sap, how straight up they held them! Now that the grain is +forming, they have a sober, thoughtful look. It is one of the +most pleasing spectacles of June, a field of rye gently shaken by +the wind. How the breezes are defined upon its surface--a surface +as sensitive as that of water; how they trip along, little +breezes and big breezes together! Just as this glaucous green +surface of the rye-field bends beneath the light tread of the +winds, so, we are told, the crust of the earth itself bends +beneath the giant strides of the great atmospheric waves. + +There is one bird I seldom hear till June, and that is the +cuckoo. Sometimes the last days of May bring him, but oftener it +is June before I hear his note. The cuckoo is the true recluse +among our birds. I doubt if there is any joy in his soul. +"Rain-crow," he is called in some parts of the country. His call +is supposed to bode rain. Why do other birds, the robin for +instance, often make war upon the cuckoo, chasing it from the +vicinity of their nests? There seems to be something about the +cuckoo that makes its position among the birds rather anomalous. +Is it at times a parasitical bird, dropping its eggs into other +birds' nests? Or is there some suggestion of the hawk about our +species as well as about the European? I do not know. I only know +that it seems to be regarded with a suspicious eye by other +birds, and that it wanders about at night in a way that no +respectable bird should. The birds that come in March, as the +bluebird, the robin, the song sparrow, the starling, build in +April; the April birds, such as the brown thrasher, the barn +swallow, the chewink, the water-thrush, the oven-bird, the +chippy, the high-hole, the meadowlark, build in May, while the +May birds, the kingbird, the wood thrush, the oriole, the orchard +starling, and the warblers, build in June. The April nests are +exposed to the most dangers: the storms, the crows, the +squirrels, are all liable to cut them off. The midsummer nests, +like that of the goldfinch and the waxwing, or cedar-bird, are +the safest of all. + +In March the door of the seasons first stands ajar a little; in +April it is opened much wider; in May the windows go up also; and +in June the walls are fairly taken down and the genial currents +have free play everywhere. The event of March in the country is +the first good sap day, when the maples thrill with the kindling +warmth; the event of April is the new furrow and the first +seeding;--how ruddy and warm the soil looks just opened to the +sun!--the event of May is the week of orchard bloom; with what +sweet, pensive gladness one walks beneath the pink-white masses, +while long, long thoughts descend upon him! See the impetuous +orioles chase one another amid the branches, shaking down the +fragrant snow. Here the rose-breasted grosbeak is in the blooming +cherry tree, snipping off the blossoms with that heavy beak of +his--a spot of crimson and black half hidden in masses of white +petals. This orchard bloom travels like a wave. In March it is in +the Carolinas; by the middle of April its crest has reached the +Potomac; a week or ten days later it is in New Jersey; then in +May it sweeps through New York and New England; and early in June +it is breaking upon the orchards in Canada. Finally, the event of +June is the fields ruddy with clover and milk-white with daisies. + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + +The "oe" ligature is represented as [oe]. + +Title page: Changed typo "Cambridg" to "Cambridge." + +Table of Contents/Chapter VIII: Retained punctuation error in +chapter title. + +Page 18: Added missing period to sentence: "The bear was fussing +... to burying it." + +Page 30: Changed typo "sudddenly" to "suddenly." + +Pages 31, 79, 95: Retained inconsistent spellings of +highhole/high-hole. + +Pages 32 & 58: Retained inconsistent spellings of +treetops/tree-tops. + +Page 38: Changed single quote to double quote in sentence: "Here, +Jim, you do this ... thing through". + +Chapter XII: Changed typo "IIX" to "XII." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers, by +John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIT OF A DUCK AND OTHER PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 20448.txt or 20448.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/4/20448/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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