32 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



thereto, in order to find food. If the saying be true, 

 the summer food of the flying-squirrel must be more 

 plentiful on the ground than in the tops of the tallest 

 trees. What that food is exactly, I am not aware ; nor 

 have I had any opportunity to verify the statement that 

 flying-squirrels frequent the ground during " dry spells." 

 Those that I have seen near home are so strictly cre- 

 puscular that only the initial movements of their noc- 

 turnal journeys are readily traced; but, whenever I 

 have seen them sally from their retreats, it was to take 

 a tree-top route for several rods and then to be lost to 

 Bight. Take the year through, it is probable that they 

 seldom come to the ground to forage. When they do 

 so, is it an evidence of continued dry weather ? I can 

 neither contradict nor affirm ; but are not the probabil- 

 ities against such being the case ? 



Speaking of the opossum, it is said that if found in 

 autumn in hollow trees rather than occupying a burrow 

 in the ground, the winter will be milder. 



This seems to be very reasonable, and would pass ad- 

 mirably as a weather sign, but for one unfortunate cir- 

 cumstance. While you may find one or more in a tree, 

 your neighbor may find as many in the ground. I have 

 known this to be the case more than once. Under these 

 circumstances, meet your neighbor at the line-fence and 

 compare notes. What about the winter ? 



From their greater abundance and never-failing pres- 

 ence, it might be thought that the weather-lore of birds 

 would be much more elaborate than that referring to 

 other classes of animals; but my observations do not 

 confirm this. There is simply a greater number of 



