WAYS OF NATURE 



There is probably nothing in human experience, 

 at this age of the world, that is like the helpless terror 

 that seizes the rabbits as it does other of our lesser 

 wild creatures, when pursued by any of the weasel 

 tribe. They seem instantly to be under some fatal 

 spell which binds their feet and destroys their will 

 power. It would seem as if a certain phase of nature 

 from which we get our notions of fate and cruelty 

 had taken form in the weasel. 



The rabbit, when pursued by the fox or by the 

 dog, quickly takes to hole. Hence, perhaps, the wit 

 of the fox that a hunter told me about. The story was 

 all written upon the snow. A mink was hunting a 

 rabbit, and the fox, happening along, evidently took 

 in the situation at a glance. He secreted himself 

 behind a tree or a rock, and, as the rabbit came 

 along, swept her from her course like a charge of 

 shot fired at close range, hurling her several feet over 

 the snow, and then seizing her and carrying her to 

 his den up the mountain-side. 



It would be interesting to know how long our 

 chimney swifts saw the open chimney-stacks of the 

 early settlers beneath them before they abandoned 

 the hollow trees in the woods and entered the chim- 

 neys for nesting and roosting purposes. Was the act 

 an act of judgment, or simply an unreasoning im- 

 pulse, like so much else in the lives of the wild crea- 

 tures ? 



In the choice of nesting-material the swift shows 

 8 



