In Field and Forest

Front matter

Mother Nature Series In Field and Forest

Row, Peterson and Company Evanston, Illinois New York Philadelphia San Francisco

Copyright, 1928 Row, Peterson and Company Third Printing

Stripey and His Family

If you have ever seen a chipmunk, you know why Stripey was a good name for the little animal that this story tells about. For that matter, it would be a good name for any chipmunk, because every one of these little creatures has a white stripe bordered with dark brown on each side of its soft brown body.

It was very early in spring when Stripey and Mrs. Stripey went house hunting. They had been asleep nearly all winter, in snug holes under a stone wall. During that time they had slept soundly except on those days when the sun shone very warm and bright. Then they had wakened and run about outside the nest for a bit of fresh air, or had eaten a nut or a dogwood berry from the pantries which they had filled the fall before. But most of the winter they had lain curled up like soft striped balls, and had slept soundly.

When spring came, things were different for the chipmunks. There was a great deal of work to be done. First a home would have to be made for the chipmunk babies that would soon be coming. Then a little later those babies would have to be cared for throughout the spring and early summer. In late summer the pantries of the chipmunks' home would have to be filled with food for the winter, for then there would be no more corn or berries or mushrooms or beetles to be found.

So, early in the spring, Mr. and Mrs. Stripey picked out the place for their home near an old stone wall. The home itself would be built underground, but the wall was a good protection. Nobody knew just how many chipmunks

lived near that wall. Almost any sunny day, from early in the spring till late in the fall, you might see a chipmunk running over the stones, or scurrying under them. Or you might see one of the furry little creatures standing upright on a stone, peering about to see what he could see. Or he might be sitting on a flat stone with his forepaws at his mouth, nibbling a hazel nut, a grain of corn, a June bug, a strawberry, or a mushroom.

It seemed almost as though the wall had been made for sheltering chipmunks. Among the stones were many chinks and crannies in which the little animals could hide safely. Then, too, bitter-sweet vines and Virginia creepers grew over the wall and hid it from sight. The wood with its great oaks and beech trees and thick hazel bushes grew very close on one side. On the other side, across the road, lay fields, where oats and wheat and corn waved in the wind and ripened in the sunshine.

Mr. and Mrs. Stripey picked out a big flat stone lying on the ground against the stone wall, and started to dig at the edge of it. Bushes grew thick around the hole they made there. But this hole was not to be the front door of the home, as you might think. There is never any newly dug earth piled about the front door of a chipmunk's home. That would make it too easy for an enemy to find it. A cat, a fox, a snake, a hawk, or some other enemy might be watching outside to catch the little animals as they started out for a morning scamper. So Mr. and Mrs. Stripey started to dig at a place far from where their front door was to be.

It was hard work for the little chipmunks to scoop out the long tunnels for their home. They dug down into the ground two or three feet, and there they made a big round room, nearly a foot across. This was the bedroom, and in it was the nest, a soft cozy bed made of grass and bits of dry leaves. It was such a big bed that it filled the room.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Stripey made a passageway between the bedroom and the front door. They also dug a passageway between their nest and the pantry. This was to be used by the chipmunk family in getting something to eat when the weather was bad. By using the underground passageway they would not have to go outside into the rain or the cold.

The Stripeys made a rubbish room in their new house, too. There all the dirt and trash could be dumped. The empty shells and husks of all the food eaten inside their nest could be stored there. In that way the nest room could be kept as clean as a nursery should be.

All the loose dirt which the Stripeys dug out of the tunnels was carried out the back way and scattered. Like the front door, the back door was also kept plugged with earth when the chipmunks were not at work. No one was going to find their home if the Stripeys could help it.

In May five baby chipmunks were born in the nest. They were helpless little things at first, cuddling close to Mrs. Stripey in the big cozy nest. But they grew very fast, and by the middle of the summer all of the family were running in and out among the stones of the old wall, waving their furry tails, the dark brown and white stripes on their sleek sides shining in the sunlight.

How busy the chipmunks were during the bright summer days. They feasted on the things they liked best in the fields and woods. Sometimes they ate the strawberries which they found ripening in the garden. Sometimes they feasted on snails or caterpillars or May beetles. At other times they ate oats or corn or grass seed.

There was a big flat-topped tree stump that the chipmunk family must have thought was their dinner table, for it was the place they liked best to sit and

eat. They did not brush the crumbs from the top of their table when they had finished eating. They always left little piles of nut shells, or chaff from seeds lying about the stump and showing what they had had for dinner.

Sometimes in June there were piles of another kind of shell lying about the chipmunks' dinner table. These shells were the hard wings of the May beetles.

The chipmunks bit holes in the beetles' horny skins just as they bit holes in nuts, but the hard covering of the beetle was not good to eat any more than the nut shells. They were left on the stump when the Stripeys finished their suppers.

In the middle of the summer the Stripeys found more good things than they could eat, for berries and oats and corn were ripening all about them. But even though there was more food than they could eat, the chipmunk family did not let anything go to waste. They made pantries in many parts of the stone wall and in near-by hollow trees.

These storerooms were made to hold food for pleasant days when the family, out for a scamper, might want a bite to eat on the way. When chipmunks are away from home and become hungry, they have either to go hunting for caterpillars, or beetles, or seeds, or berries; or else they have to go to their own storehouses.

Besides these storehouses that were scattered about outside the nest, there was the big storeroom in the chipmunks' home. All of these were filled with enough food to keep the little animals throughout the long winter. The whole family worked during the long days of summer and early fall. Before winter came, the Stripeys had stored away pints of chestnuts, acorns, cherry pits, beechnuts, dogwood berries, and seeds of all kinds.

But summer time was not all work time with the Stripeys. The little chipmunks were as playful as kittens, and they chased one another all over the rocks and logs that lay about their home. They raced along fence tops and scampered up tree trunks. Even Mr. and Mrs. Stripey sometimes joined in the frolic.

There were some sad times for the Stripeys, too. The saddest time of all was the day when one of the chipmunk children strayed away and never came home again. This little chipmunk, who had never been very quick or strong, wandered too far from a good hiding place, and a weasel caught him before he could slip into a safe hole.

It was no wonder that the poor little Stripey baby got caught. For the weasels are the worst enemies that chipmunks have. They are strong enough to kill small rabbits and ducks, and their bodies and heads are so slim they can slip through very small holes. They run very fast, and they can even climb trees. Sometimes they go down into the very bottom of the chipmunks' burrows.

On another day Mr. Stripey himself

came near to being caught. He was feasting on acorns on the top of his tree-stump table, when he saw a shadow moving in the grass. In an instant a big weasel darted at him.

Mr. Stripey squeaked loudly with fear, gave a big leap, and rushed as quickly as he could for the nearest tree-trunk. The weasel ran through the grass close behind him. Up the tree went the chipmunk, and after him climbed the weasel, up, and up, for twenty feet.

Then Mr. Stripey jumped to the ground. He spread out his legs as he fell and so landed safely on all four feet. In less than a wink he was off again. By the time the weasel had climbed down the tree, the chipmunk was safe out of the way.

Mr. and Mrs. Stripey and their family were full of curiosity, as all chipmunks are. When the boy who lived on the farm across the road came through the woods, he could almost always see one of the family peeping at him. Sometimes a chipmunk sat on a stone close to a hole in the wall to watch.

If the boy came close, the curious little chipmunk slipped into the cranny in the rock as quick as a flash. But if the boy passed by without stopping, the chipmunk often followed him to see what he was going to do.

So the boy began bringing something for the Stripeys when he went through the woods. Sometimes it was English walnut meats, sometimes it was a handful of oats, sometimes it was bread crumbs. By and by the chipmunk family came to know their friend. Then they came quite near and even took the dainties from the boy's fingers. But they were always a little shy, and quick to scamper off at any sign of danger.

So the summer went by, with work time and playtime, frolic and fear. There were sunny days when the whole family was out of the home, and cloudy or rainy days when all stayed inside and ate food from the nearest pantry.

As the fall days grew cooler and the frosts began to come, the little family spent a great deal of time in the warm nest under the stone wall. Sometimes they ate nuts and seeds from their pantry near by; sometimes they slept and woke and then slept again; sometimes in the middle of the day, when the sun was warm, they left their nest and ran about in the bright sunshine.

As the days grew cold and wet, the chipmunks hardly went outside at all. Instead they cuddled down in their warm bedroom and slept soundly. But they did not curl up and sleep for the whole winter, as do the bears and woodchucks. On warm days, even in the middle of winter, they sometimes slipped out of their holes to run about in the sunshine.

In March the chipmunks felt that spring was coming very soon. That meant that the time for making new homes had come. The little chipmunks of last year were now full grown. They must make homes for babies of their own. So each of the young chipmunks left his old home and went out to find a pleasant cranny of his own. And, as summer came on, more chipmunks than ever scampered over the old stone wall and up and down the tree trunks.

Who Will Feed the Dickey-birds?

Who will feed the dickey-birds on the garden wall? Winter time is very big— they are very small!

Who will feed the dickey-birds on the frozen trees? Every little twitter means, "Feed us, if you please!"

Who will feed the dickey-birds in the frost and snow? See them on the chimney-pot, cuddled in a row!

Who will feed the dickey-birds till the days of spring? Think of what they do for you and the songs they sing!

I will feed the dickey-birds, and when springtime comes, Every little song will mean, "Thank you for the crumbs!" >>—Unknown

Tree Tappers

"Tap, tap, tap!" Bobby woke from a sound sleep. He looked about the room. There was no one in sight.

"Tap, tap, tap!" Bobby thought someone must be tapping on the door.

"Father," he called, "someone is at the door." Mr. Burns went to the front door and opened it. There was no one there.

"You are mistaken, Bobby," said Mr. Burns. "You must have been dreaming."

"But listen, Father," cried Bobby. "Don't you hear that noise?" Mr. Burns listened.

"Tap, tap, tap!" came the noise again. It sounded as if it were outdoors. Mr. Burns went to the back door. But there was no one there either. He looked puzzled.

"Maybe it's a brownie or a tree fairy," said Bobby. "Let's see." Bobby jumped out of bed as quickly as he could.

"Tap, tap, tap!" Bobby and his father ran to the window. This time the tapping seemed to come from the maple tree.

Bobby was sure that there must be a brownie in the tree. But how had a brownie climbed the maple tree, he wondered.

Just then Bobby saw something move. He looked more closely. Up near the big limb of the maple tree he saw something black and white. It wasn't brown, so it couldn't be a brownie at all. It was a small black and white bird. On the back of his neck was a spot of red.

"Tap, tap, tap!" It did sound as though the little bird were knocking at

a door. But nobody was going to let him in. The little insect that lived inside the wood of the tree would do anything to keep his caller out.

The little black and white bird was a downy woodpecker, and downy woodpeckers like nothing better for dinner than white grubs that live in trees.

The grub did not come to see what Downy wanted. But Downy didn't mind. He knocked and knocked till he knocked a hole in the tree. Downy did not make a hole big enough to get into. He did not need to do that. All he needed was a hole big enough to get his tongue into. The woodpecker's tongue is his grub-catcher.

No bird has a better tongue for catching grubs than the downy woodpecker. He has a very long tongue, twice as long as his head. The end of it is a hard point, so that he can stick it into the grub like a little spear.

But this is not all. It would be hard to pull the grub out with a sharp-pointed tongue. The grub would slip off. So there are hooks or barbs on the sides of the woodpecker's tongue. They are something like the barbs on a fishhook, or on the end of a crochet hook.

The woodpecker's tongue is really like a long fishing hook, curled away in his mouth when he does not need it.

As soon as Downy had dug a hole deep enough to reach the grub, he stuck his tongue into it. Then he pulled his tongue from the hole and drew it back into his mouth, and that was the end of the grub.

It is a good thing for the trees that woodpeckers are so fond of grubs and of beetles, too. For if no one dug out the tree insects, they would go on eating and eating the wood. There would be hundreds and hundreds of them in every tree. By and by they would kill the trees.

So the woodpecker is a friend of the trees. He is always on the watch for grubs and beetles that might kill the trees.

But how can the woodpecker see the inside of the tree before he cuts a hole through the bark. He cannot, but his ears tell him when there is an insect inside. He taps on the tree. He can tell by the sound his tapping makes whether there is a hole inside. If there is a hole, a grub is almost sure to be inside it.

The woodpecker's bill is almost as wonderful as his tongue. And his neck is almost as wonderful as his bill.

The woodpecker has no other tools with which to make holes. He has only his bill and his strong neck. With them he can make as good a hole in wood as a carpenter can make with his tools.

You might think that Downy and his wife would fall off the tree backward when they tried to dig a hole in it. Perhaps they would, if they did not have the right kind of feet and tail with which to hold on.

Sparrows and wrens and other birds that perch on trees have toes that curl around a twig and hold on to it. They have three toes in front and one behind. But woodpeckers' feet are not made that way. They have two toes behind and two in front.

The two toes in front hook into the bark or wood on the side of the tree and keep the bird from slipping down. The toes behind and the stiff tail-feathers prop him up and keep him from falling away from the tree.

Little Downy not only digs his dinner out of the trunk of the tree. He makes his nest inside the trunk as well. He does this with his strong bill, too.

First the little carpenter chooses a decayed spot in a tree, where it will be easy to dig. Then with the little chisel on the front of his head he digs a tunnel a little way into the trunk. The front doorway is round, and just big enough for him to go in and out.

Next the woodpecker clears out a hole inside the tree, below the tunnel. His little wife helps him. They take turns. They make the hole deep and safe, so

the babies cannot fall out the front door. At the bottom of the hole they make the nest.

The babies' bed is made of fine chips at the very bottom of the hole. There will be four or five or six babies in the nest.

Downy is the smallest of all the woodpeckers. He has some big cousins. They are black and white, too, but there is only one of them that looks much like Downy. That is the big hairy woodpecker. The cousin that most people know is the red-headed woodpecker.

Red-headed woodpeckers like posts and stumps as much as they do trees. Sometimes they make their nests in posts or stumps.

These noisy red-headed birds eat some beetles, but they do not dig all their food out of trees. They eat a great many grasshoppers. Sometimes a redhead flies out and catches a grasshopper as it hops along. Sometimes he catches one on the ground.

When there are a great many grasshoppers, the woodpecker does not eat all he catches. He puts some of them away in his pantry. His pantry is a crack in a post or stump.

Red Head does not always kill the grasshoppers before he stores them away. But he pushes them into the crack so tightly that they cannot get loose.

Later in the fall, when there are not so many grasshoppers outdoors, Red Head eats some of the grasshoppers he has stored away. Sometimes his store of them lasts him nearly all winter.

People do not want only meat for their dinner, and neither do woodpeckers. All of them eat some berries, cherries, and wild grapes. Red-headed woodpeckers eat acorns and beechnuts, too. Sometimes they eat corn. But they like beechnuts perhaps more than anything else. They put a great many of them away for winter.

The woodpecker has all sorts of pantries for his beechnuts. Sometimes he stores the nuts in the hollow of a tree, just as the squirrel does. He brings pieces of bark and covers over his piles of nuts so that no one will find them. Often he hides them under the bark of the tree. Sometimes he drives just one nut into a crack in the wood.

A beechnut or a grain of corn is very hard. How can the woodpecker crack it before he eats it? He does it with his bill, but not as the goldfinches and canaries do.

The woodpecker takes a grain of corn in his bill and puts it into a small hole in a tree. Then he hammers it in with his bill till it is fastened tight. Then he draws his head back and strikes the corn so hard with his bill that the corn breaks.

When there are plenty of beechnuts, the woodpeckers have plenty to eat all winter. When there is not much to eat, the woodpeckers have to go south for the winter, so that they may find food.

The Woodmouse

Do you know the little woodmouse, That pretty little thing, That sits among the forest leaves, Or by the forest spring? Its fur is red like the chestnut, And it is small and slim, It leads a life most innocent, Within the forest dim.

It makes a bed of the soft, dry moss, In a hole that's deep and strong, And there it sleeps secure and warm, The dreary winter long; And though it keeps no calendar, It knows when flowers are springing, And it waketh to its summer life, When nightingales are singing. >>—Mary Howitt

Two Tree Frogs

If, on a hot summer day, you hear a queer noise in a tree in your yard and you ask what it is, somebody will probably say, "The tree frog is croaking for rain." Or you may be told that it is a tree toad that you hear. For some people call the little animal by one name, some by the other. Many people think that the tree frog's croaking is a sure sign of rain, but other people say it is not.

You may hear a tree frog almost any day, but you will have to watch and hunt a long time before you see him. He is very tiny, not more than two inches long. He may be green or gray or brown.

If he is resting on a leaf, he is green. If he clings to the gray bark of a tree, he is gray. If he rests on brown bark, the tree frog is brown. The tree frog changes his color somewhat to match whatever he sits upon. And how still he does sit! For hours and hours, through the long summer day, he never moves. He looks like a little knot on the side of the tree.

If you had eyes that could see at night, such as the owl has, it might not be hard for you to find the tree frog. For at night he goes hunting all over the tree in which he lives. If a mosquito buzzes too near him, out goes his tongue, and down the frog's throat goes the mosquito. The tree frog catches ants, gnats, flies, and lightning bugs; he does not seem to care which he eats. Down his throat they all go.

If bugs do not fly near enough for the tree frog to catch them easily, he even jumps after them. You will think,

of course, that jumping from one limb of a tree to another is not a very safe thing for any frog to do. Jumping is all right for birds, that have wings, but it seems to be unsafe for a frog that has no wings at all.

Suppose the tree frog should miss a limb and fall! That danger does not matter to him. For on the bottom of each of the tree frog's toes is a round sticky pad that catches and holds on to whatever it touches, just as the fly's foot does. A tree frog can even climb straight up a pane of smooth window glass. And if he wants to do so, he can even walk on the under side of a leaf. Then, too, whenever he jumps, one of his sticky-toed feet is sure to catch onto some leaf or twig before he falls very far.

Now, this hopping, leaping little creature you find has not always been a four-legged tree frog with pads on all his toes. Once he had no toes at all, no feet, and no legs. At that time he was a tiny egg, sticking to a blade of grass that floated on the water. Later he was a wee tadpole that was almost all tail. He did not live in the trees then, but down in a little pool in the marsh.

When the apple trees were blooming, the mother tree frog took a trip to a low marshy place. A great many other mother frogs went along, too. The little pools in the marsh were like great lakes to these tiny creatures, for even though the frogs were full grown, they were only about two inches long.

It was a pleasant time of year to go traveling. Skies were blue, birds were singing, and spring flowers were blooming along the wayside. There were already many other frogs and toads down in the marshes and little ponds. They were paddling and swimming and splashing about in the shallow water.

And sing! Those frogs sang so loudly that you could hear them a quarter of a mile away. There were so many of them that it sounded like a frog concert. The big bull frog sang bass, "Jug-o-rum! Jug-o-rum! Jug-o-rum!" The little spring peepers that had been in the pond ever since the snow began to melt sang a high shrill tune, "Knee-deep! Knee-deep! Knee-deep!" Per

they were trying to tell the tree frogs who had just come that the water was not deep enough to drown them.

But the big frogs need not have bothered, because the tree frogs were not afraid. Their feet are made for climbing trees, but they are made for swimming, too. Their toes are webbed like those of other frogs. So, as soon as they got to the puddles, in they waded. Soon they were swimming about and singing as loudly as the others. They were not singing the same song as the others, though. They were singing their own song, the one that people say is a sign of rain.

All kinds of frogs and toads come to the ponds in the springtime. The dusty brown toad that lives in the garden all summer, the tree frog that croaks for rain, the spring peeper, and many other kinds come hopping, hopping, from the places where they have been asleep all winter. Some come early and some come late, but at one time or another all of them come to the pools and puddles in the marshes. Should you like to know why? They come there to lay their eggs.

After the mother tree frogs have laid their eggs they do not pay any attention to them. They go back to the gray bark and leafy branches they left and let the babies that are to hatch out of the eggs take care of themselves.

Before long the eggs begin to hatch, but it is not a frog or toad at all that squirms free of the shell. A tiny tadpole comes out, and wriggles its tail in the water. Soon it is scraping green scum from the water weeds with its horny little jaws.

Tadpoles are only about a quarter of an inch long when they hatch and they are nearly all tail. At first they are pale yellow, but soon their color begins to get darker. Some of them have tails that are nearly red. Some of them are almost black.

The baby tadpoles grow very fast, and in three weeks their hind legs are beginning to show like wee buds on each side of their tails. In another month they are pretty green frogs, about half an inch long. They have four legs, and their tadpole tails are disappearing.

When the tiny, long-tailed tadpoles hatch, not one of them can breathe out of the water any more than a fish can. They have to stay under the water. But as their legs grow, the way they breathe changes. When they are ready to hop out on land, they can not breathe under water any more.

Then off they go, hippity-hop, to find trees and vines where they can live all summer, and catch all the spiders and flies and caterpillars they want. They eat a great deal, and by the end of the summer most of them are nearly grown.

The big tree where you heard the tree frog singing is just the kind of a tree that a tree frog likes. There is moss growing on some of its bark, and that means there are cool damp places where he can rest on hot summer days. There are little insects buzzing about and crawling on the leaves, and that means there is plenty for a tree frog to eat if he will hop around at night and look for it. So our tree frog picked this tree for his home, and from that time on, all through the warm summer, he has lived in it.