WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



nocturnal among the many which go abroad 

 after dark. He who quietly wanders through 

 our groves and forests during the warm, still 

 nights of summer, remarks an observer of these 

 things, marks a myriad of sounds that betoken 

 the presence and activity of animal life during the 

 hours of darkness. The faint rustling of leaves, 

 the pattering of light footsteps on the ground, the 

 constant dropping of something from the trees, 

 the sharp squeaking of unseen creatures, the lone- 

 some note of a wakeful bird, " the bustle and chip- 

 per of something chasing something else up the 

 trunk of a neighboring tree, the cry of distress as 

 some bird or beast of prey seizes its unhappy vic- 

 tim" — these and numberless other noises tell of 

 life, active and abounding. To this confusing cho- 

 rus of the night the flying - squirrels contribute 

 not a little, for from twilight until dawn they are 

 abroad, hunting and hunted, working and play- 

 ing, their big, black eyes expanded to catch what- 

 ever thin rays of light illumine the leafy recesses. 

 Quietly watching in some moonlit glade, you may 

 perhaps see their singular and graceful movements. 

 In these glidings they cannot change their di- 

 rection to any extent, nor acquire a new Impulse, 

 nor go beyond their power to sail down an inclined 



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