302 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



the surface of the earth was rapidly changing, 

 forests turned to treeless fields, swamps turned 

 to dry pastures, streams obliterated or directed 

 into artificial channels, Nature's handiwork, in 

 short, swept out of existence ; so, if wild life 

 was to stay at all, it must face the problem of 

 a changed surrounding and alter its ways of 

 living accordingly. The fact that the frog's 

 epithalamium is a characteristic feature of spring 

 is no reason for supposing that the creature 

 must necessarily be mute as an oyster at all 

 other times ; but to say so seemed so pretty a 

 statement when originally made by some closet 

 naturalist, that down into the books it went and 

 there it stays. I do not know how long a flying- 

 squirrel lives, but there has been a colony of 

 them in the attic of my house for more than 

 half a century. Those now living over my head, 

 and that turn night into day, are as much crea- 

 tures of the house as any mouse in the wall. 

 It is true they go abroad more and have not 

 lost their flight power, but I am sure they would 

 feel strangely enough if suddenly taken to a 

 forest and found themselves with no such shelter 

 as my house affords. They have learned to 



