WINTER ACTIVITIES OF WILD ANIMALS 15! 
wood may be overrun with their tracks. Where we have seen 
no snow-birds, the weed patch may be littered with the husks 
from their feeding. If we are beginners in woodcraft, we will 
need to see the animals that make the snow-records in order 
to identify them; but we may perhaps learn the difference 
between tracks of a skunk walking and of one running by 
trying out these gaits, and observing the results, with the 
family cat. Later, knowing what animals are to be expected, 
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Fic. 59. Trackson 
the snow of mam- 
mals, walking. a, Fic. 60. The record of a morning excursion of a red 
rabbit; 6, skunk. squirrel in search of a breakfast. Arrow indicates direc- 
(Drawn from tion taken; h, hole where a nut was obtained. (Drawn 
photographs). from a photograph). 
we may identify some tracks by exclusion of the others which 
we have already learned. If the only large birds in a wood 
are grouse and crows, the tracks will differ plainly in the 
position of the foot and in the size of the print of the hind toe. 
Knowledge of number and length and freedom of toes, and 
a knowledge of gaits and postures of body, will be of great 
value in identifying all tracks. 
The “‘signs” of animals that a woodsman knows are very 
numerous: footprints, tail prints, wing prints (as of a 
strutting turkey gobbler; or the outspread pinions of a bird 
taking flight), dung, marks of teeth in gnawings, bark, 
scales, chips, borings, diggings, detached feathers and hair 
