92 BIRD PARADISE 



the same way, robin submitting to the indignity 

 with no appearance of protest. 



My woodchuck parishioners have passed their 

 quiet winter and are now taking up the duties of 

 the rapidly advancing spring. What a curious 

 scheme it is that this little animal employs to tide 

 over the winter's storm and cold. Last fall all 

 the woodchuck residents of my parish folded their 

 hands and went to sleep in their burrows, no eat- 

 ing or drinking known by them until within the 

 last week. I have known them to pass to the 

 long sleep when the weather was warm and pleas- 

 ant and food plentiful. Then I have known 

 them to put aside the sleep in February, when 

 the frost and cold were everywhere in our 

 Northland. Once I was passing in the ravine 

 near the Bartlett woods in February. The 

 snow had drifted in until the bank on the 

 west side was some twelve or fifteen feet deep. 

 A woodchuck had dug through the snow and 

 when I looked into the burrow he was sitting on 

 the threshold of his earth cabin, evidently in a 

 great quandary as to what was best for him to do 

 next. I kept a little watch of the fellow and I 

 found as the days passed he got along very com- 



