FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW 



419 



showing a single rabbit's prints, the 

 animal is travelling towards the fore- 

 ground, having come from the tree, and 

 stopped near the weed on the right, 

 where its droppings alongside the 

 bunch of tracks can be seen on the top 

 of the snow. In the other photograph, 

 the rabbit is making for the grassy 

 cover in the background ; over and 

 alongside its track is seen the big pads 

 of the pursuing hound. 



The squirrel makes his tracks in the 

 same manner as the rabbit, that is, his 

 hind feet are slightly in advance of his 

 forefeet when they touch the ground. 

 He does not travel any greater distance 

 in the woods than he can help while the 

 snow is on the ground, but when he 

 takes a notion to a spot, and he can get 

 one or more companions to join him 

 in a game of tag, or whatever it is 

 known as in squirrel language, there 

 you will find his tracks in plenty. There 

 is a spot in a piece of woods I fre- 

 quently visit, that is a rendezvous for 

 many of these frisky creatures, and any 

 bright day in winter, one may be al- 

 ways certain of finding a pair playing 

 over and under the fallen tree. I have 

 named it on their account, "The Squir- 

 rels' Playground," and it certainly has 

 earned the title during the past four 

 years. 



While certain members of the squirrel 

 tribe store their winter's supply of 

 food in hollow trees, I think most of 

 them hide it on the ground, under old 

 roots, brush piles, and even beneath 

 heaps of dead leaves. Their tracks in 

 the winter woods seem to bear this 

 out. While it may be that this fre- 

 quency of the tracks indicate a scarcity 

 of food, and the travelling about a de- 

 sire to find a supply, I believe in the 

 main, that these outings of the squirrels 

 have a definite destination, because 

 when you see them skip across the 

 snow, stop short, and scratch a hole 

 down to the ground, bringing up a 

 supply of nuts or cones placed there in 

 the months of plenty, you are apt to at- 

 tribute their luck more to a good mem- 

 ory than to any haphazard speculation. 



Of the squirrel family, the most 

 prominent in winter are the blacks. 

 He seems to be flowing over all the 

 time with pent up energy, which keeps 

 him in constant motion, and you some- 

 times feel that you would like him to be 

 able to talk and tell you how pleasant 

 it is to have the joy which flows from a 

 glad heart. Now watch him jump from 

 limb to limb, rush headlong down the 

 trunk, and course across the snow in 

 long graceful bounds, with no apparent 

 purpose but to exhibit the happiness 

 within him. 



His red cousin once in a while may 

 be seen at the entrance to his home in 

 the heights of some tree, but in him is 

 no sign of exultation. He looks around 

 as if he were looking and wishing for 

 spring to come, and clear away the 

 snow, and no amount of coaxing will 

 cause him to utter a note of scolding or 

 alarm. Not all the red squirrels, how- 

 ever, keep to the trees. Many of them, 

 through want of food have to take to 

 the earth, and their track in the deep 

 snow is a heavy floundering of labored 

 bounds as they go from tree to tree in 

 search of the scanty provisions hidden 

 beneath the surface. Here and there 

 we find the gummy scales of the pine 

 cones, the shells of the acorn, the seecl 

 cones of the birch and cedar scattered 

 about on the snow, showing the food 

 on which they subsist. In greater con- 

 trast to the delicacies just named, often 

 one will find during long and severe 

 winters that the squirrels have attacked 

 the hemlock trees by stripping them of 

 their bitter seeds. When one finds this, 

 it is evidence of great want, and a mer- 

 ciful act would be to bring some food 

 and scatter it about to assuage the 

 pangs of hunger which these little fel- 

 lows are enduring. 



In the greatest solitude lives the chip- 

 munk. Very seldom seen in winter, 

 he sleeps snug and secure in his bur- 

 row, and waits until the snow is gone 

 before he makes his appearance. 



A fox track is like that of a dog's, 

 only if anything it is straighter in its 

 course. The footprints are about a 



