NATURE'S CALENDAR 



when it is naturally discarded in the 

 spring, is applied to a secondary utility, 

 and forms a blanket for the duck's eggs 

 and young. We are really using third- 

 hand material. 



Birds sometimes acquire at this time 

 of the year special parts of aid to them 

 during the impending bad season. Thus 

 there grows on the toes of the ruffed 

 grouse, in the late fall, fringes of sharp 

 points which act as snowshoes, enabling 

 it to run over the snowdrifts and hunt for 

 buds, cones, berries, and catkins, and at 

 night to paw its way into a drift and lie 

 there, well sheltered, as are the habits of 

 the bird in northerly regions. The feath- 

 ers which clothe the feet of the ptarmigan, 

 whose home is on lofty mountain-tops, 

 or in the snowy North, are much broader 

 and stiffer in winter than in summer, thus 

 forming real snowshoes. Both of these 

 birds scratch deeply in the snow for ever- 

 green leaves and clinging berries lying 

 close to the warm ground underneath, 

 such as the wintergreen, partridge berry, 

 creeping snowberry, and, in the far North, 

 the numerous and abundant sorts of cran- 

 berries. All these fruits mature late in 

 the fall and hang on until spring — a store- 

 house of food for birds and deer. 



Apropos of this, it will be pertinent to 

 quote a paragraph from Signs and Sea- 

 sons, in which Mr. John Burroughs dis- 

 courses as follows : 



" It is plain why the sugar-berry, or 



J59 

 December 8 



December 9 



