EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 207 
for another spring by raising its head and 
looking off, and away it went in admirable 
style, more like a bird than any quadruped I 
had dreamed of, and far surpassing the impres¬ 
sion I had received from naturalists’ accounts. 
I marked the spot it started from and the place 
where it struck, and measured the height and 
distance carefully. It sprang off from the ma¬ 
ple at the height of twenty-eight feet and a 
half, and struck the ground at the foot of a tree 
fifty and one half feet distant measured horizon¬ 
tally. Its flight was not a regular descent. It 
varied from a direct line both horizontally and 
vertically. Indeed, it skimmed much like a 
hawk, and part of its flight was nearly horizon¬ 
tal. It diverged from a right line eight or ten 
feet to the right, making a curve in that direc¬ 
tion. There were six trees from six inches to 
a foot in diameter, one a hemlock, in a direct 
line between the termini, and these it skimmed 
partly round, passing through their thinner 
limbs. It did not, so far as I could perceive, 
touch a twig. It skimmed its way like a hawk 
between and around the trees. Though it was 
a windy day, this was on a steep hillside covered 
with wood and away from the wind, so it was 
not aided by that. As the ground rose about two 
feet, the distance was to the absolute height as 
fifty and one half feet to twenty-six and one half 
