POAETQUISSINGS IN WINTER. 33 



shrews, and star-nosed moles ; its banks, thick-set with 

 birches, that tempt the red-wing blackbirds in Febru- 

 ary, and the stretches of level meadow that, even in 

 winter, may be studied to advantage — this "decent 

 ditch" may well tempt any one abroad, and, if not a 

 wholly unreasonable person, such a doubtfully compli- 

 mentary name will be dropped forthwith, and my fa- 

 vorite rambling-ground will, with due respect, be called 

 Poaetquissings henceforth and forever. 



My friend, the microscopist, takes Poaetquissings 

 home by the tumblerful, and has recorded species and 

 genera of strange animals that, until then, were unknown 

 to science. He holds it a very respectable ditch, I am 

 sure. My well-read friend, who supposed all life to hi- 

 bernate with mathematical precision, if it hibernated at 

 all, found, in January, under ice a foot thick, the ma- 

 jority of the fishes that he had seen with delight during 

 his summer vacation. I coaxed a lover of spring birds 

 to take a winter walk along the banks of the stream, 

 and a boyish romp of run and slide over its frozen sur- 

 face, and how puzzled, yet pleased, was he to hear the 

 song-sparrows, the pine-finches, linnets, crossbills, foxy 

 sparrows, and a cardinal grosbeak all singing at once. 

 How quickly he forgot where the thermometer was 

 ranging as he bared his mufiled ears, that he might 

 catch the clear notes that came so crisply through the 

 keen air from the birches hard by. Poaetquissings is 

 something more than a " decent ditch " to him. 



Pushing through the shallows for a hundred rods or 

 more, the creek suddenly widens to a respectable extent, 

 and the canoeist at last feels that he is fairly afloat. 



