1893
Jan 10.
NO. 3.
under the snow for a distance of a rod or two at a time the en-
trance and egress holes, as well as the tunnels, being surprising-
ly round and firm in outline. His course across the meadow was
straight in the main but in one place he made a great loop,
tunnelling here persistently, probably in search of mice. A
man (one of the employees of the cemetery) whom I met said that
the track led nearly straight to the Winchester place and ended
there at a pile of logs under which the animal had evidently
sought shelter for the day. According to this man no less than
nine Minks have been killed in the cemetery during the last few
years. Of these six, an old female and her five young were
slaughtered at one time two years ago. He also told me that
wild Rabbits lingered in small numbers on the Winchester place
up to within two years, but that none exist there now.
  Perhaps the least changed of all these familiar scenes was the
round hill which formed the limit of my walk. It has the same 
belt of noble black oaks on the meadow side with a shaggy old
gray birch rising in twin stems which lean out towards the 
marsh. Under the oaks are a few wild apple, rum cherry, and
privet trees, while on the open summit scraggy old cedars stand
sprinkled about. Around the western base winds the rough cart
path with time scarred buttonwoods, neglected wild apple trees 
and abundant privet overrun with green briars forming a belt
along the edge of the meadow precisely as when I first saw the