OAK STUMP FUNGI. 177 



selves, keeping ever a sharp look-out for what- 

 ever savors of approaching danger. 



Often-times in the bends of the stream are 

 bunches of drift composed of logs, chips, pieces 

 of bark, limbs, rails, boards, dead weeds and 

 leaves, ilotsam and jetsam of the freshet days, 

 all heterogeneously mingled and forming a re- 

 treat into which the shy mink likes to dart, 

 either from his enemies or after some wood 

 mouse or winter wren which he thinks may also 

 have found shelter within. 



Here, too, the harmless but much dreaded 

 water moccasin 5 has its favorite abiding place, 

 and often rests stretched out alongside some 

 dead branch whose shape it cunningly simulates 

 while awaiting the approach of unsuspecting 

 frog or bird. 



An old oaken stump stands near the stream- 

 let's rim and from between the angles of its 

 base spring dense clumps of a deep orange fun- 

 gus. These fungi overlap and spread around 

 one another, as if each sought a shelter or hid- 

 ing place beneath its companions. The pileus 



*Tropidonotus sipedon (L.). 

 (12) 



