WINTER ACTIVITIES OF WILD ANIMALS 



151 



wood may be overrun with their tracks. Where we have seen 

 no snow-birds, the weed patch may be littered with the husks 

 from their feeding. If we are beginners in woodcraft, we will 

 need to see the animals that make the snow-records in order 

 to identify them; but we may perhaps learn the difference 

 between tracks of a skunk walking and of one running by 

 trying out these gaits, and observing the results, with the 

 family cat. Later, knowing what animals are to be expected, 



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FIG. 59. Tracks on 

 the snow of mam- 

 mals, walking, a, 

 rabbit; b, skunk. 

 (Drawn from 

 photographs) . 



FIG. 60. The record of a morning excursion of a red 

 squirrel in search of a breakfast. Arrow indicates direc- 

 tion taken; A, hole where a nut was obtained. (Drawn 

 from a photograph) . 



we may identify some tracks by exclusion of the others which 

 we have already learned. If the only large birds in a wood 

 are grouse and crows, the tracks will differ plainly in the 

 position of the foot and in the size of the print of the hind toe. 

 Knowledge of number and length and freedom of toes, and 

 a knowledge of gaits and postures of body, will be of great 

 value in identifying all tracks. 



The "signs" of animals that a woodsman knows are very 

 numerous: footprints, tail prints, wing prints (as of a 

 strutting turkey gobbler; or the outspread pinions of a bird 

 taking flight), dung, marks of teeth in gnawings, bark, 

 scales, chips, borings, diggings, detached feathers and hair 



