278 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
incessant noise. Again, you will see some stead¬ 
ily tacking this way or that in the middle of the 
pond, and often they rest there asleep with 
their heads in their backs. They readily cross 
the pond, swimming from this side to that. 
March 80, 1859. 6 a. m. To Hill (across 
water). Hear a red squirrel chirrup at me 
by the hemlocks. It is all for my benefit, not 
that he is excited by fear, I think, but so full 
is he of animal spirits that he makes a great 
ado about the least event. At first he scratches 
on the bark very rapidly with his hind feet, 
without moving the fore feet. He makes so 
many queer sounds, and so different from one 
another, that you would think they came from 
half a dozen creatures. I hear now two sounds 
from him of a very distinct character, a low or 
base internal, worming, screwing kind of sound 
(very like that, by the way, which an anxious 
partridge mother makes), and at the same time 
a very sharp and shrill bark, clear, and on a 
very high key, totally distinct from the last, 
while his tail is flourishing incessantly. You 
might say that he successfully accomplished the 
difficult feat of singing and whistling at the 
same time. 
P. M. To Walden via Hubbard’s Close. 
. . . . See on Walden two sheldrakes, male 
and female (as is common), so they have for 
