GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 173 



for a sip of its pure water, and disappeared in the 

 woods beyond. The routine of his life was probably 

 as marked as that of any of ours. He fished the 

 waters of the Delaware all day, probably never go- 

 ing beyond a certain limit, and returned each night 

 at sundown, as punctual as a day-laborer, to his re- 

 treat in the forest. The sip of water, too, from the 

 lake he never failed to take. 



All the facts we possess in regard to the habits 

 of the song-birds in this respect point to the conclu- 

 sion that the same individuals return to the same 

 localities year after year, to nest and to rear their 

 young. I am convinced that the same woodpecker 

 occupies the same cavity in a tree winter after win- 

 ter, and drums upon the same dry limb spring after 

 spring. I like to think of all these creatures as 

 capable of local attachments, and not insensible to 

 the sentiment of home. 



But I set out to give some glimpses of the wild 

 life which one gets about the farm. Kot of a start- 

 ling nature are they, certainly, but very welcome for 

 all that. The domestic animals require their lick 

 of salt every week or so, and the farmer, I think, 

 is equally glad to get a taste now and then of the 

 wild life that has so nearly disappeared from the 

 older and more thickly settled parts of the country. 



Last winter a couple of bears, an old one and 

 a young one, passed through our neighborhood. 

 Their tracks were seen upon the snow in the woods, 

 and the news created great excitement among the 

 Nimrods. It was like the commotion in the water 



