PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



NO doubt there are tides in the affairs of our 

 wild neighbors no less than in the affairs of 

 men vicissitudes of fortune that affect not merely 

 individuals, but whole tribes and races. I noticed 

 the past season in widely different parts of the 

 country that the goldfinches did not breed as freely 

 as they usually do. Not one nest could I find in the 

 orchards or bushy fields of the home farm, where, 

 the season before, I had found half a dozen. What 

 was the matter? The old birds were there, and the 

 thistles bloomed as usual, but no nests could be 

 found, and only two or three young birds were seen 

 in August and September, where I used to see and 

 hear scores of them. What caused the ebb in the tide 

 of goldfinch life? Some other season may bring the 

 flood, as it has in the case of our pretty little rodent 

 the chipmunk. For twenty years or more the chip- 

 munks have been slowly disappearing from all 

 parts of the country with which I am familiar; 

 hardly one of late years where there used to be ten 

 when I was a boy. But suddenly last year they be- 

 gan to be noticeable, and the present season they 

 are here in something like their old-time numbers. I 

 hear of them from different parts of the State the 



