HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 69 



Several other valuable fur-bearing animals were once found 

 here, among them the sable or pine-marten, and Pennant's mar- 

 ten or fisher-cat. These were formerly trapped in great numbers 

 but are now generally confined to the White Mountain region 

 and northerly. We have seen the tracks of the fisher-cat along 

 the mountain brooks in Albany. 



There were several varieties of moles, some of which are still 

 with us. Among these were the star-nose, shrew, Say's least- 

 shrew, and Brewer's shrew mole. Similarly, we had Wilson's 

 meadow mouse, American white-footed mouse, Leconte's pine 

 or field mouse, the jumping mouse, and soon after the settlers 

 had provided themselves with homes the house mouse appeared. 

 The last-named are extremely dangerous. With advancing civ- 

 ilization came also black and Norway rats, which now make the 

 lives of women one long-drawn and suspicious misery. We have 

 also the common little slate-colored bat, which, unlike the flying 

 sqirrrel, actually flies. There is not the slightest truth in the 

 nursery fable that bats will suck the blood of sleeping infants, 

 or that they purposely fly into heads of hair. 



Concerning birds, now or formerly found here, it will be con- 

 venient to divide them into four classes : First, game birds or 

 birds fit for food, hunted for that purpose. Among these were 

 the wild turkey, spruce partridge, wild pigeon, and the ruffed 

 grouse ; our woods once abounded with these fine game-birds, 

 but they are now practically extinct. Of those surviving, the 

 brown partridge or American quail, woodcock, wild goose, the 

 black duck, wood duck and sheldrake, and very rarely upland 

 plover, may be mentioned. Second, song and other birds now 

 rare — bald eagle, golden eagle, black hawk, goshawk, great horn- 

 ed owl, and long-eared and short-eared owl; three-toed banded 

 woodpecker, the pileated, red-headed, yellow-bellied, and black- 

 banded-three-toed-woodpecker, and the green and night heron. 

 Third, in addition to the above the ears of the early settlers were 

 greeted with the notes of not less than twenty native birds, all 



