HARVEST OF WILD PLACES 115 



He taps the yellow birches, also, for they have a very 

 considerable flow of sap in Spring, which, in an un- 

 boiled state, tastes nearly as sweet as maple. Later he 

 favours apple trees. 



The squirrels, likewise, are sap-drinkers at this 

 season. If you will break the twig of a sugar maple in 

 Spring you will soon find a crystal drop depending from 

 the abrasion. The squirrels know this, and they either 

 nip several twigs off or bite deeply into the larger 

 shoots, and then go back over their tracks, drinking the 

 sweet sap drops. I have seen them do it in the maple 

 at my own door, as well as in the woods. 



Our investigation of that deer's diet has taken us far 

 afield from our abandoned pasture, over the snow, 

 through the woods, even into our own gardens. Let us 

 return once more to the sunny slope where the stray 

 sheep wander and the finches dart and dip above the 

 nodding thistle-tops. The small wild apples are al- 

 ready forming in the trees, for future harvest. The 

 little trickle of water which runs away from the spring 

 over a ribbon of emerald grass into the woods, tempts 

 our feet for another brief excursion, till we stand on the 

 edge of a swamp and see amid the weeds the winding 

 canals of the muskrats, where they swim in their search 

 for lily-roots. As we retrace our steps a squirrel chat- 

 ters at us amid the pines, and when, a moment later, we 

 break into the clearing once more, a startled cock 

 pheasant rises from his feeding and skims away, his 



