216 HILLS AND LAKES. 



his sides, as if dressing himself for a tea-party or a 

 ball. Presently he straightened himself up, on tip- 

 toes, beat his wings not against the log on which he 

 stood, but against his sides, slow at first, and then 

 faster and faster until the " drumming" was for a few 

 seconds a continuous sound. I saw him thus drum 

 some eight or ten times during the half hour that I 

 was watching him. He did not discover me and I 

 did not disturb him. I was anxious to learn, if I could, 

 his object in thus beating a tattoo on his own ribs, and 

 thought I discovered it when I saw a hen partridge 

 hop on the other end of the log, and walking leisure- 

 ly up to the drummer, seat herself quietly by his side. 

 They sat together a few minutes, and then left the log 

 and sauntered away among the bushes. 



While I sat watching them, I was greatly amused 

 with the conduct of a squirrel in my neighborhood. 

 I first saw him as he came down from the branches 

 of a tree, a short distance from where I sat, and went 

 hopping about, turning over the leaves, and, every 

 now and then, cocking himself up on his haunches, to 

 eat the beech-nut he had picked up. He jumped, after 

 a little, upon the log where I sat perfectly still, and 

 came within some ten feet of me, before he discovered 



