X 



GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 



A NY glimpse of the wild and savage in nature, 

 -^-^ especially after long confinement indoors or in 

 town, always gives a little fillip to my mind. Thus, 

 when, in my walk from the city the other day, I 

 paused, after a half hour, in a thick clump of red 

 cedars crowning a little hill that arose amid a marshy 

 and bushy bit of landscape, and found myself in the 

 banqueting-hall of a hawk, something more than my 

 natural history tastes stirred within me. 



No hawk was there then, but the marks of his 

 nightly presence were very obvious. The branch of 

 a cedar about fifteen feet from the ground was his 

 perch. It was worn smooth, with a feather or two 

 adhering to it. The ground beneath was covered 

 with large pellets and wads of mouse-hair; the 

 leaves were white with his droppings, while the 

 dried entrails of his victims clung here and there to 

 the bushes. The bird evidently came here nightly 

 to devour and digest its prey. This was its den, its 

 retreat; all about lay its feeding-grounds. It re- 

 vealed to me a new trait in the hawk, — its local 



