152 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 
caught on thorns, etc. Muskrat and deermouse drag their 
tails, leaving a groove on the surface of the snow between the 
double line of footprints. The crow drags his front toe, 
leaving a narrow trailing mark between his sole-prints. 
Tracks are the signs chiefly used by the woodsman, and next 
to tracks, are the evidences of feeding. Where the quadruped 
halts, there are apt to be 
found, gnawings of bark, or 
digging of roots, or descents 
into burrows, or ascents for 
scouting. The woodsman fol- 
lows the animal’s trail, and 
from such signs as these reads 
his successive doings like a 
book. 
The trails that birds leave 
are less continuous, because 
{ 
Pp y “4 betimes the birds betake them- 
’ selves to the trackless air; but 
t in awood where crows feed, one 
é : ; 
j i may see such diverse things as 
. the wastage from their pick- 
ings of sumach and poison-ivy 
Fig. 61; Bird tracks; #% crow; @ berries, corncobs from ears 
brought from a neighboring 
field, leaves of cabbage stolen from someneighborhood garbage 
heap, and fragments of charcoal, which the crows have picked 
from a burnt stum>, perhaps to use as a condiment, perhaps 
to improve their complexion. And the birds that work in 
the treetops leave the evidences of their feeding scattered 
about over the surface of the fresh snow beneath the trees. 
Much pleasure may be derived from observing the winter 
activities of wild birds near at hand if one will feed them. It 
is easy to attract them to feeding places within view from 
