884 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



troubled with insomnia. Wrens are hatched mad. 

 Turned out of their shells by an impatient parent, they 

 never know anything but high-tempered activity, and 

 die, I suppose, of sudden collapse. In the woods all 

 day there have been a half-dozen winter wrens spider- 

 hunting along the worm-fence; but not one of tliein 

 has spoken to another audibly, nor sung a single note. 

 Some sudden freak, to be atoned for to-morrow by a 

 wasteful wealth of music. 



Charming as are the upland fields, the hillside woods, 

 and level meadows, b}' moonlight, the creek offers at- 

 tractions on such a night that are not elsewhere to be 

 found. What though ice is forming and a cutting east 

 wind blows! There are sheltered nooks where one may 

 stand, as cosily fixed as at home, and see all that is going 

 on in the little world of Poaetquissings ; for although 

 but a week is left of this month, wherein the last of the 

 summer visitants are supposed to depart, there yet re- 

 main the herons and bitterns of the past summer and 

 half the kingfishers. Tiie musk rats seem to love just 

 such a night as this, and a dozen of them rippled the 

 quiet waters, as they frolicked, uttering a peculiar cry 

 at times which might readily be mistaken for the chirp 

 of a bird. Take the same stand by day and every day 

 for a month, and the chances are you would never im- 

 agine that such a creature as the muskrat dwelt in the 

 banks of the creek before you. 



Moonlight is not wholly satisfactory to man in which 

 to view the movements of various small and timid 

 animals; bnt the natnralist-rambler must not overlook 

 the fact that, to a considerable extent, the creatures he 



