NOTE 



During my eighteen years of hermit life, 

 I claim to have discovered several new fea- 

 tures in natural history, namely: 



That the cow-bunting watches over its 

 young, assists the foster parents in providing 

 food, and gradually assumes full care of the 

 young bird, and takes it to the pasture to 

 associate with its kind ; that the white-footed 

 mouse is dumb, and communicates with its 

 species by drumming with its toes ; that the 

 wood-thrush conducts a singing-school for 

 the purpose of teaching its young how to 

 sing; that the chickadee can count; that 

 the shad-bush on Cape Ann assumes a dwarf 

 form, and grows in patches like the low-bush 

 blueberry, fruiting when less than a foot in 

 height; that the red squirrel owns a farm or 

 fruit garden, and locates his male children 



