20 A MARCH RAMBLE. 



Over the hemlocks a party of these birds have 

 gone into hysterics at sight of a hawk which sails 

 and circles in the air, without seeming to take any 

 notice of the passionate outbreak, and as if it were 

 intent on measuring, with its feathered calipers, a 

 certain extent of countiy before nightfall. With 

 a glass can be seen readily its chestnut tail, glis- 

 tening in the sun, and the silvery gray under parts, 

 marked with interrupted, faint brown bands. So 

 it is the red-tailed hen hawk that has spent his 

 winter in Southern New England, and perhaps has 

 surveyed a degree thus early to-day. In gracefully 

 describing its airy circles, the tips of the motion- 

 less wings are bent upward, and at a certain angle 

 of vision the bird is like a huge bracket against 

 the sky. 



A chipmunk is taking a constitutional after the 

 long burrowing season. It appears to be thirsty 

 and halts in its scampering over the bowlders, 

 where the snow has melted, to drink at the little 

 pools standing in the hollows. How has it man- 

 aged to wash down the hazel and beech-mast, 

 acorns and buckwheat in winter quarters? Its 

 mode of drinking is like that of cats and the car- 

 nivora in general, excepting the tongue is not pro- 

 truded so far from the mouth. It touches the tip 



