266 



SHARP EYES 



your way to school this morning, and look at the feet 



of the grouse. Nature has not asked this bird to walk 



the snows for its living without providing it with proper 



means of locomotion. With its 



slender summer foot it would 



sink in the soft drift at every 



step, while now it walks with 



perfect ease on the lightest 



snow, for each foot is provided 



with a snow-shoe. 



Every autumn the shoe begins 

 to grow, a stiff fringe of horny 

 bristles spreading around the 

 sole and on both sides of 

 each toe, until, by the time 



