138 WINTER 



kind of joy in watching a live animal than in killing it; (3) the un- 

 fairness of hunting to kill ; (4) the rapid extinction of our wild ani- 

 mals, largely caused by guns ; (5) the necessity now for protection 

 for every pupil's doing all he can to protect wild life everywhere. 



FOR THE PUPIL 



Study the drawings of the tracks in this chapter, then go into the 

 woods and try to identify the tracks you find in the snow. Every 

 track you discover and identify will be quarry in your bag just as 

 truly as though you had killed a deer or a moose or a bear. You can 

 all turn snow-hunters without leaving blood and pain and death and 

 emptiness and silence behind you. And it is just as good and excit- 

 ing sport. 

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cushion-marked holes : Examine a cat's feet. Make a study of cat 

 tracks: how they are placed ; how wide apart ; how they look 

 when she walks, when she runs, when she jumps, when she gathers 

 herself together for a spring. You can learn the art of snow-hunt- 

 ing by studying the tracks of the cat in your own dooryards. 

 wood pussy : a polite name in New England for the skunk. 

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the great northern hare : The northern hare is not often seen here, 

 and I am not sure but that this may be the common brown rabbit. 

 PAGES 



slashings : The name for the waste limbs and tops left after cut- 

 ting forest trees. Tree wardens should compel the woodchoppers 

 to pile this brush up as they cut and burn it while the snow is on 

 the ground to prevent forest fires in summer. 

 hazelnuts : small brown nuts like the filberts of the stores. They 

 grow on a bush two to six feet high. There are two kinds, 

 common hazelnut and beaked hazelnut. The green husk looks 

 like a cap, hence its Saxon name haesle, a cap, and the scientific 

 name Corylus from the Greek corys, a helmet. 

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Burns : Robert Burns, the Scotch poet. 

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root and all, and all in all : from a poem by Lord Tennyson called 

 "Flower in the Crannied Wall." 



