FARMERS AND FIEL^ SPORTS 



the steadiest nerve, whether they hurtle 

 from an October-painted thicket or from 

 the blue shadows of untracked snow. 

 No one is likelier to see and hear the 

 strange wooing of the woodcock in the 

 soft spring evenings, and to the farmer's 

 ear first comes that assurance of spring, 

 the wail of the Bartram's sandpiper re- 

 turning from the South to breed in 

 meadow and pasture, and then in hollow 

 trees that overhang the river the wood 

 ducks begin to spoil their holiday attire 

 in the work and care of housekeeping. 

 The fox burrows and breeds in the 

 farmer's woods. The raccoon's den is 

 there in ledge or hollow tree. The hare 

 makes her form in the shadow of his 

 evergreens, where she dons her dress of 

 tawny or white to match the brown floor 

 of the woods or its soft covering of snow. 

 The bass comes to his river in May to 

 spawn, the pike-perch for food, and the 

 perch lives there, as perhaps the trout 

 does in his brook. 



All these are his tenants, or his sum- 

 mer boarders, and if he knows not some- 

 thing of their lives, and when and where 

 to find them at home or in their favorite 

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