LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



wild animals, and for my own part I am almost 

 beginning to despair of ever finding out anything 

 more on the subject. 



From what little I have seen, I should class 

 them as creatures of singularly erratic habits, 

 sometimes dwelling alone in hollow stumps close 

 to the ground, or else high up in some deserted 

 crow's nest, and again congregating in communi- 

 ties of twenty or thirty in the hollow trunk of a 

 decaying sapling only a few inches in diameter 

 and scarcely large enough to accommodate them. 

 Farther south we frequently hear of their taking 

 up their quarters in the walls of a farmhouse, after 

 the manner of mice, but no instance of the sort 

 has ever come under my immediate notice, nor 

 can I now recall ever having read of anything of 

 the kind taking place in this part of the country. 

 Here they appear to keep themselves to the 

 thickest parts of the woods, and I have found 

 them most abundant in places removed at least a 

 mile from any dwelling. My father has told me 



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