174 GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 



it for a sip of its pure water, and disappeared 

 in the woods beyond. The routine of his life 

 was probably as marked as that of any of ours. 

 He fished the waters of the Delaware all day, 

 probably never going beyond a certain limit, 

 and returned each night at sundown, as punc- 

 tual as a day-laborer, to his retreat in the for- 

 est. The sip of water, too, from the lake he 

 never failed to take. 



All the facts we possess in regard to the hab- 

 its of the song-birds in this respect point to the 

 conclusion that the same individuals return to 

 the same localities year after year, to nest and 

 to rear their young. I am convinced that the 

 same woodpecker occupies the same cavity in a 

 tree winter after winter, and drums upon the 

 same dry limb spring after spring. I like to 

 think of all these creatures as capable of local 

 attachments, and not insensible to the senti- 

 ment of home. 



But I set out to give some glimpses of the 

 wild life which one gets about the farm. Not 

 of a startling nature are they, certainly, but 

 very welcome for all that. The domestic ani- 

 mals require their lick of salt every week or so, 

 and the farmer, I think, is equally glad to get 

 a taste now and then of the wild life that has 

 so nearly disappeared from the older and more 

 thickly settled parts of the country. 



Last winter a couple of bears, an old one and 

 a young one, passed through our neighborhood. 

 Their tracks were seen upon the snow in the 

 woods, and the news created great excitement 



