many unsolved ones which meet you at every 

 turn on the woodland byways. 



A movement under the shore stopped my Tioskomenos 

 wondering, and the long lithe form of a hunt- the ^^Oufcasf 

 ing mink shot swiftly up stream. Under the 

 hole he stopped, raised himself with his fore 

 paws against the bank, twisting his head from 

 side to side and sniffing nervously. " Some- 

 thing good up there," he thought, and began 

 to climb. But the bank was sheer and soft ; 

 he slipped back half a dozen times without 

 rising two feet. Then he went down stream 

 to a point where some roots gave him a foot- 

 hold, and ran lightly up till under the dark 

 eaves that threw their shadowy roots over 

 the clay bank. There he crept cautiously 

 along till his nose found the nest, when he 

 slipped down and rested his fore paws on the 

 threshold. A long sniff of the rank fishy 

 odor that pours out of a kingfisher's den, a 

 keen look all around to be sure the old birds 

 were not returning, and he vanished like a 

 shadow. 



" There is one brood of kingfishers the 

 less," I thought, with my glasses focused on 



