NATURE'S CALENDAR 



ing their kind, in which duty vast num- 

 bers of males desert their burrows and go 

 swimming about on the surface of the 

 sea. The crabs and other crustaceans 

 are becoming active in the same effort, 

 and now lobsters approach the shore 

 from deeper water in order to spawn, 

 and the lobster-fishing for market opens. 



This is the breeding-season of some of 

 the earlier mammals— especially the fur- 

 bearers. The skunk increases its burrow- 

 kept family, the raccoon brings forth, in 

 her lofty chamber in some hollow tree, 

 from four to six baby 'coons early in the 

 month, and the flying squirrel now intro- 

 duces its kittens to the world. " Flying 

 squirrels," says Dr. Merriam, " make their 

 nests in hollows of trees, frequently 

 taking possession of old woodpeckers' 

 holes. They are easily aroused and driven 

 out by hammering against the trunk. I 

 have thus expelled the occupants of as 

 many as half a dozen nests in a single 

 day's hunt. Their progeny must be 

 brought forth early in April, for on the 

 30th of April, 1878, Dr. C. L. Bagg and 

 myself took three half-grown young from 

 a woodpecker's hole, about fifteen feet 

 above the ground, in a decayed stub." 



The young of the red squirrel also are 

 born early in this month ; and now, too, 

 appears a new supply of one of their 

 enemies — the marten, which produces 

 this month a litter of half a dozen in a 

 nest in some hollow tree or log. Its 



