WHEN NATURE SMILED 303 



swoop like an enormous black butterfly with white- 

 starred wings. "Clack-clack-clack," he stirred the 

 echoes from the other shore, and ignored us as he 

 swooped and clanged. There was much in his song 

 of the Woodpecker tang; it was very nearly the spring- 

 time "duck-duck" of a magnified Flicker in black; 

 and I gazed with open mouth until 

 he thought fit to bound through 

 the air to another woods. This 

 was my first close meeting with 

 the King of the Woodpeckers; I j 



long to know him better. 



Mammals, too, abounded, but 

 we saw their signs rather than 

 themselves, for most are noctur- 

 nal. The Redsquirrels, so scarce Scatoiogy of Wolf 

 last spring, were quite plentiful, 

 and the beach at all soft places showed abundant trace 

 of Weasels, Chipmunks, Foxes, Coyotes, Lynx, Wolves, 

 Moose, Caribou, Deer. One Wolf track was of special 

 interest. It was 5J inches long and travelling with it 

 was the track of a small Wolf; it vividly brought back 

 the days of Lobo and Blanca, and I doubt not was an- 

 other case of mates; we were evidently in the range 

 of a giant Wolf who was travelling around with his 

 wife. Another large Wolf track was lacking the two 

 inner toes of the inner hind foot, and the hind foot 

 pads were so faint as to be lost at times, although the 

 toes were deeply impressed in the mud. This probably 

 meant that he had been in a trap and was starved 

 to a skeleton. 



