THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



i57 



study. The idea is to get young folks 

 interested in the home newspaper by 

 maintaining a department in it for 

 them. In this way it is hoped the AA 

 may become known in places and 

 through avenues not now reached by 

 The Guide to Nature. 



Insignificant as the country news- 

 paper may seem, it has its special field 

 and that field is not necessarily con- 

 fined to the town or county where it 

 is published. It is capable of reach- 

 ing to the antipodes. My first re- 

 sponse came from the far away Philip- 

 pines, and another was from the At- 

 lantic coast of New England. If there 

 are other corresponding members of 

 the AA who can offer helpful sugges- 

 tions in promoting this idea, I shall 

 be glad to hear from them. 



As to my actual nature study dur- 

 ing 1908, it has been of a varied char- 

 acter. Besides keeping diary, I make 

 notes of little incidents observed in 

 the domain of nature. Some pertain 

 to new facts learned and some to com- 

 mon incidents observed, such as the ar- 

 rival or departure of the migratory 

 birds. Some of the most common birds 

 are loved because their songs, needing 

 no revision, are the same as they were 

 ages ago, and to hear them is to be 

 carried back in imagination to the 

 sunny days of youth. Of the rare va- 

 rieties of birds it is an event worth 

 while to observe the occasional pres- 

 ence of one. They also recall other 

 days when their forest homes were 

 not totally devastated and they were 

 more common neighbors with us. 



Twenty-five years ago the red squir- 

 rel was almost unknown here ; but 

 there were a few gray squirrels and 

 the fox squirrel was common. Now 

 the latter two species are seldom seen, 

 while the red squirrels are common. 

 The red squirrel is enough rat-like in 

 its nature that it boldly comes to the 

 corn crib or orchard to search for 

 food and if too closely pressed by dogs 

 or other enemies, is very quick and 

 skillful in making its escape and does 

 not hesitate to go into hollow logs or 

 holes in the ground in order to elude 

 its pursuer. I witnessed an escape of 

 this kind. Treed on two low spread- 



ing butternut trees near each other on 

 a hill-side, the red squirrel outwitted 

 the dog by rapidly running down the 

 trunk of one tree nearly to the dog r 

 then quickly back among the branches 

 to the other tree, repeating this ma- 

 neuver until the dog became confused 

 by having to run first to the foot of 

 one tree and then to the other. The 

 squirrel finally darted safely to the 

 ground and found refuge either in or 

 under some old rotten logs or in holes 

 made in the ground by chipmunks. I 

 saw a number of summer nests of the 

 red squirrel in the same thicket men- 

 tioned in former observations and in 

 the vicinity of the old oak tree illus- 

 trated in the December Guide to Na- 

 ture. I examined one of these nests 

 and found it to be made wholly of dry 

 grass. Much of the grass near the cen- 

 ter of the nest was cut or ground up 

 fine. The nest was about ten feet from 

 the ground on a group of bushy sap- 

 lings covered with grape vines. 



In my walk to the woods, the dog 

 which accompanied me "treed" an 

 opossum in a hollow ash stump 

 near a paw paw thicket. The stump 

 was only a few feet high, sawed off 

 flat on top and contained an opening 

 at the center just large enough to ad- 

 mit the opossum, and widening out 

 below just right to make a comfortable 

 nest nicely lined with dry leaves. I 

 brought the pocket-mirror into use, 

 reflecting the sunlight in on the ani- 

 mal, which acknowledged the intru- 

 sion by the sparkle of its eyes, and 

 turning its pointed snout up toward 

 me, indulged in the usual threatening 

 " 'possum grin." It was near enough 

 that I could have touched it with my 

 hand, but I did not want to make 

 closer acquaintance with those sharp 

 teeth. The dog also could see the 

 opossum, but could not reach it with- 

 out my assistance ; so, after watching 

 the little forest denizen for a while, 

 we went away, leaving it in peaceful 

 possession. The next time I visited 

 that place the stump was empty, and 

 a few weeks later was destroyed by 

 forest fires. 



Along a railroad, more than a half 

 mile from that place I saw where an 

 opossum had been killed by the cars, 



