UNDER THE MAPLES 



our common sheep the horns are sexual manifes- 

 tations; yet the old ram does not shed his horns. 

 Nature will not be consistent. 



Back in geologic time we had a ruminant with 

 four horns, two on the nose and two on the crown, 

 and they were real, permanent, bony growths. 



What a powerful right fore limb Nature has given 

 to the shovel-footed mole, while the chipmunk, 

 who also burrows in the ground, has no special tool 

 to aid him in building his mound of earth; he is 

 compelled to use his soft, tender little nose as a 

 pusher. When the soil which his feet have loosened 

 has accumulated at the entrance to his hole, he 

 shoves it back with his nose. 



Even to some of her thistles Nature is partial. 

 The Canada thistle sows its seeds upon the wind 

 like the common native thistle; then in addition 

 it sends a big root underground parallel with its 

 surface, and just beyond the reach of the plough, 

 which sends up shoots every six or seven inches, so 

 that, like some other noxious weeds, it carries on 

 its conquests like a powerful besieging army, 

 both below ground and above. 

 I A bachelor of laws in Michigan writes me in a 

 rather peremptory manner, demanding an answer 

 by return mail as to why robins are evenly dis- 

 tributed over the country instead of collected in 

 large numbers in one locality; and if they breed 

 in the South; and he insists that my answer be 



202 



