John Burroughs

“ All the finer play of nature, all the small deer, they miss. The little dramas and tragedies that are being enacted by the wild creatures in the fields and woods are more or less veiled and withdrawn; and the actors all stop when a spectator appears upon the scene. ”

“ The lives of wild creatures revolve about two facts or emotions, appetite and fear. Their keenness in discovering food and in discovering danger are alike remarkable. But man can nearly always outwit them, because while his perceptions are not so sharp, his power of reflection is much greater. His cunning carries a great deal further. The crow will quickly discover anything that looks like a trap or snare set to catch him, but it takes him a long time to see through the simplest contrivance. As I have above stated, I sometimes place meat on the snow in front of my study window to attract him. ”

“ It would also be interesting to know if the other snake was in the secret of this nest, and was waiting near to share in its contents. One rarely has the patience to let these little dramas or tragedies be played to the end; one cannot look quietly on, and see a snake devour anything. Not even when it is snake eating snake. Only a few days later my little boy called me to the garden to see a black-snake in the act of swallowing a garter-snake. ”

“ The crow has fine manners. He always has the walk and air of a lord of the soil. One morning I put out some fresh meat upon the snow near my study window. Presently a crow came and carried it off and alighted with it upon the ground in the vineyard. While he was eating of it, another crow came, and, alighting a few yards away, slowly walked up to within a few feet of his fellow, and stopped. I expected to see a struggle over the food, as would have been the case with domestic fowls or animals. ”

“ Birds sympathize with one another in their distress, and will make common cause against an enemy. Crows will pursue and fight a tame crow. They seem to look upon him as an alien and an enemy. He is never so shapely and bright and polished as his wild brother. ”

“ The entrance was hidden beneath dry leaves, and was surrounded by little passages and flourishes between the leaves and the ground. If any of my readers find a weasel's den, I hope they will he wiser than I was, and observe his goings and comings without disturbing his habitation.
II. Keen Perceptions. Success in observing nature, as in so many other things, depends upon alertness of mind and quickness to take a hint. One’s perceptive faculties must be like a trap lightly and delicately set; a touch must suffice to spring it. ”

“ These branches shoot out almost horizontally; indeed, the lower ones become quite so in spring, and the side shoots with which they are clothed droop down, forming the slopes of miniature ridges; where the slopes of two branches join, a little valley is formed, which often looks more stable than it really is. My sparrow selected one of these little valleys about six feet from the ground and quite near the walls of the house. "Here," she thought, "I will build my nest, and pass the heat of June in a miniature Norway. ”

“ I clubbed him about from branch to branch while my friends, with cautions and directions looked on from beneath. Neither man nor snake will trust himself to very lively antics in a tree-top thirty or forty feet from the ground. ”

“ III. A Sparrow's Mistake. If one has always built one's nest upon the ground, and if one comes of a race of ground-builders, it is a risky experiment to build in a tree. The conditions are vastly different. One of my near neighbors, a little song-sparrow, learned this lesson the past season. She grew ambitious; she departed from the traditions of her race, and placed her nest in a tree. ”

“ IV. A Poor Foundation. It is a curious habit the wood-thrush has of starting its nest with a fragment of newspaper or other paper. Except in remote woods I think it nearly always puts a piece of paper in the foundation of its nest. Last spring I chanced to be sitting near a tree in which wood-thrush had concluded to build. She came with a piece of paper nearly as large as my hand, placed it upon the branch, stood upon it a moment, and then flew down to the ground. A little puff of wind caused the paper to leave the branch a moment afterward. ”

“ Probably a pack of wolves would in the same way destroy a tame wolf should such a one appear among them.
The wild creatures are human—with a difference, a wide difference. They have the keenest powers of perception ”

“ The crows do not meet in parliaments and caucuses as has been fancied, and try offenders, and discuss the tariff or consider ways and means. They are gregarious and social, and probably in the fall have something like a reunion of the tribe. ”

“ I. A Weasel and His Den. y most interesting note of last season relates to a weasel. One day in early November my boy and I were sitting on a rock at the edge of a tamarack swamp in the woods hoping to get a glimpse of some grouse which we knew were in the habit of feeding in the swamp. We had not sat there very long before we heard a slight rustling in the leaves below us which we at once fancied was made by the cautious tread of a grouse. (We had no gun.) Presently through the thick brushy growth we caught sight of a small animal running along that we at first took for a red squirrel. ”

“ I worked my way carefully down the tree. and was about to drop upon the ground from the lower branches, when I saw another blacksnake coiled up at the foot of the tree, as if lying in wait for me. Had he started to his mate's rescue, and, seeing the battle over, was he now waiting to avenge himself upon the victor? ”

“ Then it followed a little watercourse, went under a rude bridge in a wood-road, then mingled with squirrel-tracks in a denser part of the thicket. If the mink met a muskrat or a rabbit in his travels, or came upon a grouse, or quail, or a farmer's hen-roost, he had the supper he was in quest of.
VI. A Legless Climber. The eye always sees what it wants to see, and the ear hears what it wants to hear. If I am intent upon birds' nests in my walk, I find birds' nests everywhere. Some people see four-leaved clovers wherever they look in the grass. ”