Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders

Front matter

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Chapr_.L____ Copyright No...

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Preface

There are few things more gratifying to the lover of Nature than those momentary glimpses of wild life which he obtains while passing through the field or forest. Wild animals do not confine themselves exclusively to the wilderness ; quite frequently they venture upon the highway, and we are apt to regard the meeting with one of them there as a rare and fortunate occurrence.

The daisy and the wild rose appear in their appointed places on the return of summer, and the song sparrow sings in the same tree he frequented the year before ; but the woodchuck, the raccoon, and the deer are not so often found exactly where we think they belong. To seek an interview with such wild folk is like taking a chance in a lottery : there are numerous blanks and but few prizes.

But because wild life is not in constant evidence,

like the wild flower, is no proof that it is uncommon.

To those who keep in touch with Nature it becomes

iii iv FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST.

a very familiar thing, and to live a while where the wild creatures make their homes is to cross their paths continually. I have not failed to meet that much-slandered animal, the skunk, every summer for seven years past, yet with no unhappy results ; I have haunted a fox's hole the better part of one season, and have evidently crossed his freshly made tracks, but with not one lucky chance at the sight of him ; yet when I had no thought of Reynard and was searching the woods for the Cypripedium, there he was ! On another occasion he was unexpectedly encountered in the open pasture by some of the members of the household, and still later he was seen seated on the highway not very far from the pet cat.

One can never tell at what moment some surprising demonstration of wild life will occur at one's very doorstep. What with two deer, nine weasels, and a performing bear, all of which appeared in one day last summer close to my studio, I concluded that our tame mountain retreat had relapsed again to the wild and happy conditions of the primitive forest. But I was forced to change my mind a few days after, when an Italian with his organ ground out " Johnny, get your gun" within forty feet of the spot where the wild deer had stood.

It may be largely a matter of good fortune if one catches a glimpse of some wild creature of the woods

PREFACE. v

in the way I have just described ; but in the forest it unquestionably depends upon the skillful movements and quiet demeanor of the observer that he can see without being seen. The wild animals never become familiar to one who is heedless and impatient. The waggle of a leaf or the snapping of a twig sends the timid borrower to the depths of his hole, and it requires more than the patience of Job to await his reappearance. It is necessary to count time by heart-throbs rather than seconds when one enters the woodland; indeed, it is possibly better to take no account of it at all, but lavish it generously upon chances. Perhaps such an apparent waste of time would be called loafing; if so, then Thoreau was a magnificent loafer. But loafers do not bequeath to us a world of woodland knowledge such as Thoreau did. We are at fault because we do not enter the wood and do a little thinking on our own account. Perhaps if we did we would discover that the deer, the marten, the loon, and the bear were not half so uncommon as we thought they were. ]STor can we rely wholly upon what the books say. Audubon, Wilson, Rymer Jones, and Elliott Coues are all well enough in their way, but they smack somewhat of ancient history. The development of natural history in this country is of very recent date ; one naturalist has informed me that up to about ten years ago one vi FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST.

of the most remarkable and typical little mammals of Florida, a water rat (Microtus neofiber allenii\ had absolutely no record whatever. In a pamphlet entitled The Land Mammals of Florida, by Mr. Outram Bangs (1898), of seventy-three forms described, seventeen are new. When Wilson wrote, in 1812, he knew positively nothing at all of the songs of the nightingale of America — the hermit thrush — and the veery, the thrush named for him ! Even in so late a book as The Fur-bearing Animals of Elliott Coues, the European ermine is confused with two of our American weasels. Such an error as that in these days of greater light would be deemed inexcusable.

It is to some of the younger students of Nature that we are indebted for a more concise knowledge of the relationship of animals — in other words, the exact identification of distinct species and varieties. Dr. Merriam makes this fact plain in the following tribute to the work of Mr. Bangs. He says : " Until very recently the group of weasels has been in a state of chaos, but now, thanks to Mr. Outram Bangs's excellent paper entitled A Review of the Weasels of Eastern North America, the obscurity that has so long surrounded our Eastern species has been cleared away." *

* Vide United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Ornithology and Mammals. Bulletin No. 11, June, 1896.

PREFACE. vii

There is more in a name in natural history than one would suppose. The change, in these latter days, of a Latin name generally means that the exact nature of the beast is at last discovered. For instance, the flying squirrel, Scvaropterus sabrin us, is a large, and in winter a distinctly yellow-tinged, gray-coated creature, whose white chest fur, if you blow it, is lead-colored at the base. The commoner species, Sciuropterus volans volans, is a different animal, whose under fur is quite white. Xot many years ago these two squirrels were not distinguished apart and therefore were known by one name. To-day the old name for the Virginia deer, Cariacus virginianns, is displaced by the newer one, Odocoileus virginianus* The recent change means that until this last winter (1898) this particular species has not been properly distinguished apart from other species.

But I can not lightly pass the old and inestimably valuable works of Audubon, Wilson, and Elliott Coues without a tribute to their excellence. These great naturalists were pioneers, and all they have to say is worthy of the closest study; consequently I have freely quoted such passages from their works as I considered would throw a strong light on the sub-

* Vide Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, p. 99, 1898.

viii FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST.

ject. Regarding Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam's Animals of the Adirondacks, I can only add that I consider it a classic, and until some writer shall exceed its simple and attractive presentation of important facts, it must be regarded, as far as it goes, as the best biography of American animals which we to-day possess.

It should be borne in mind that the times change, a scientific knowledge of animals grows, and the wild creatures themselves shift their position over the land. What was supposed to be uncommon or extinct twenty years ago can not be regarded so to-day. The borders of abandoned farms are constantly — not rarely — invaded by animals who were not supposed to live within miles of the old places. Occasionally an otter, a lynx, a deer, or a bear turns up most unexpectedly, and immediately all the country turns out to hunt the creature down.

Unfortunately, we have no proper appreciation of the inherent good in a wild animal ; one would think, by the way men acted, that it had no right to live. There is no logical reason why we should slay a snake, skunk, fox, weasel or raccoon unless it becomes a public nuisance and we are compelled to put an end to its depredations.

There is something satisfactory in the feeling of our own harmlessness in the presence of some poor

PREFACE. i x

frightened creature whose wild eyes betray the fear that we are a deadly enemy; and with what comforting assurance we hasten to say, " No, you are greatly mistaken, I bear you no ill ; I am your friend." If only the poor tiling could know that, how much happier the world would wag on !

One feels just a bit of exultant pleasure when one sees the little wild thing approach, timidly accept a proffered nut or a crust of bread, and actually eat it within reaching distance. I recall with no small feeling of satisfaction the time when, idly paddling my canoe beside the ^^ river bank, I met a great blue heron slow- ^^%^\ ^7 strolling

along the sandy margin, ^^JIJP%V anc ^

remained beside him for fully ^|^P%k twenty minutes an acceptable com- \\ ij^ilk

panion. Xor do I forget the time V. fpi|^! when I approached, softly whistling the H |l|

while, a brown heron standing motion- \ H v less on the meadow, and got so near him that I could see the round shape of his eye as plainly as I have drawn it here. There is a certain charm in music for the wild animals. I have whistled by the half hour to the hermit thrush and have received an appreciative and cordial response ; the veery grows quite excited if I imitate his spiral song; the red squirrel sits transfixed if I play for

X FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST.

him on an insignificant ten-cent harmonicon. One time I noticed a particularly vociferous fellow subside, cross his hands on his breast, and listen respectfully to the soothing strains of " Home, sweet home."

All this goes to prove that the wild life of the woods is not unapproachable. It may be difficult to cultivate its friendship, but it responds. It is an easy matter to pick a daisy and carelessly throw it away ; but when we have persuaded a wild biid or a squirrel to eat from our hand, we never throw the memory of that away : it abides with us forever !

Guns and traps are all very well in their way, but a conscience void of offense to the animal world is better. There never was a world more peculiarly beset with enemies of all kinds and degrees than the wild animal world ; it has to make a fight of life, anyway ; and then there is the common enemy, man, to reckon with, who crushes the snake, hunts the fox and bear, worries the woodchuck, shoots the bird, traps the marten, kills the deer, and makes war generally upon all wild life without discrimination. One of these days, when the cutworm, the grasshopper, the field mouse, the army worm, and the gypsy moth devour the farm, house and all, we will wonder what has become of the beneficent skunk, weasel, and snake. Perhaps we have yet time enough to give these poor creatures a chance to learn we are friends, and not enemies.

PREFACE. -v-i

I have no excuse for these imperfect records of my own experience with wild animals except the one that I have lived long enough among them to respect their rights of life and sj)eak a good word for them when occasion offers. There is only one creature I know of who seems to be a thoroughly ugly character, afflicted with a most uncontrollable and vicious temper — that is, the Injun Devil, or wild cat {Lynx canadensis). Fortunately, he rarely appears this side of the Canadian border; when he does, the hunter gives him no peace, for there is no peace where he exists.

I wish to add, that without the valuable assistance of Prof. Samuel Garman, Mr. Outram Bangs, and Mr. Samuel Henshaw, which I most gratefully acknowledge, I never would have been able to gather together the latest scientific facts regarding the animals. Also, the book would have lost much without Mr. W. Lyman Underwood's contribution of photographs from Nature. But the fact is, two heads are always better than one ; and consequently the book, which is not the selfish outcome of one man's thoughts, escapes at least one fault — it is not onesided.

F. Schuyler Mathews.

El Fureldis, Blair, Campton, N. H., May, 1898.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I.— Early voices of spring 1

II. — The croakers 22