PORTER TYLER. 



4-7 



ture he knew little more than an outside view of fur, fin 

 and feather gave him ; yet his knowledge of many things 

 was far beyond what a scientific education could have 

 given him. Not that I wish to underrate such an educa- 

 tion, or to speak slightingly of it, for it is of very great 

 value ; but it is a fact that with most of our biologists struc- 

 ture and comparative anatomy are the beginning and end 

 of their knowledge of animal life, and a day spent with 

 Port Tyler would have opened up a new chapter to them. 

 Such a day might also have been of use to that class of 

 sportsmen who are mere butchers and measure the pleas- 

 ures of an outing by the amount of slaughter they have 

 done, and whose only knowledge of nature is where cer- 

 tain kinds of game could be found at certain seasons. 



A man who, when out shooting, would stop, lean his 

 gun against a tree and spend half an hour watching a little 

 chipmunk dig his hole, has higher tastes than a mere 

 game butcher, and Port Tyler did that one day when I 

 ran across him in the Indian Orchard. "It's cur'us how 

 he does it," he remarked, "and because you don't find the 

 dirt piled up about the hole they say he begins to dig at 

 the bottom; your brother Harleigh told me that, but I 

 think he was joking." This last by way of apology, for 

 his sense of humor was not keen, and he did not always 

 realize the fact that some people would trifle with such 

 questions, and that his innocent and unsuspecting nature 

 invited just such remarks as the above. "That little cuss 

 is cute," he said; "he leaves a clean hole between two 

 roots, with no sign that he has been diggin'. But Har- 

 leigh is wrong; he begins at the top and carries the dirt 

 away in his cheeks, and drops it when he gets far enough 

 so that it won't attract attention. Maybe when he gets 

 down he can pack it one side into some hollow and save 

 labor. He ran off when you came, and there he is on 



