THE SNOW-WALKERS. 67 



acter with a suit that corresponds with his surround- 

 ings, reddish-gray in summer and white in winter. 



The sharp-rayed track of the partridge adds another 

 figure to this fantastic embroidery upon the winter 

 snow. Her course is a clear, strong line, sometimes 

 quite wayward, but generally very direct, steering 

 for the densest, most impenetrable places, lead- 

 ing you over logs and through brush, alert and ex- 

 pectant, till, suddenly, she bursts up a few yards from 

 you, and goes humming through the trees,, the 

 complete triumph of endurance and vigor. Hardy 

 native bird, may your tracks never be fewer, or your 

 visits to the birch-tree less frequent ! 



The squirrel -tracks sharp, nervous, and wiry 

 have their histories also. But who ever saw squirrels 

 in winter ? The naturalists say they are mostly tor- 

 pid ; yet evidently that little pocket-faced depredator 

 the chipmunk, was not carrying buckwheat for so 

 many days to his hole for nothing ; was he antici- 

 pating a state of torpidity, or providing against the 

 demands of a very active appetite? Red and gray 

 squirrels are more or less active all winter, though 

 very shy, and, I am inclined to think, partially noc- 

 turnal in their habits. Here a gray one has just 

 passed, came down that tree and went up this; 

 there he dug for a beech-nut, and left the bur on 

 the snow. How did he know where to dig ? During 

 an unusually severe winter I have known him to make 

 long journeys to a barn, in a remote field, where 

 wheat was stored. How did he know there was 



