Winter Animals
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When the ponds were firmly frozen, they afforded not only newand shorter routes to many points, but new views from their surfaces
of the familiar landscape around them. When I crossed Flints Pond,
after it was covered with snow, though I had often paddled about and
skated over it, it was so uedly wide and se that I
could think of nothing but Baffins Bay. The Lin hills rose up
arou the extremity of a snowy plain, in which I did not
remember to have stood before; and the fishermen, at an
ierminable distance over the ice, moving slowly about with their
wolfish dogs, passed for sealers, or Esquimaux, or in misty weather
loomed like fabulous creatures, and I did not know whether they were
giants mies. I took this course when I went to lecture in
Lin in the evening, travelling in no road and passing no house
between my own hut and the lecture room. In Goose Pond, which lay
in my way, a y of muskrats dwelt, and raised their s high
above the ice, though none could be seen abroad when I crossed it.
Walden, being like the rest usually bare of snow, or with only
shallow and interrupted drifts on it, was my yard where I could walk
freely when the snow was nearly two feet deep on a level elsewhere
and the villagers were fio their streets. There, far from
the village street, and except at very long intervals, from the
jingle of sleigh-bells, I slid and skated, as in a vast moose-yard
well trodden, by oak woods and solemn pines bent down with
snow or bristling with icicles.
For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard
the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far;
such a sound as the frozeh would yield if struck with a
suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and
quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it
was making it. I seldom opened my door in a winter evening without
hearing it; Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer, hoo, sounded sonorously, and the
first three syllables ated somewhat like how der do; or
sometimes hoo, hoo only. One night in the beginning of winter,
before the pond froze over, about nine oclock, I was startled by
the loud honking of a goose, and, stepping to the door, heard the
sound of their wings like a tempest in the woods as they flew low
over my house. They passed over the pond toward Fair Haven,
seemingly deterred from settling by my light, their odore
honking all the while with a regular beat. Suddenly an unmistakable
cat-owl from very near me, with the most harsh and tremendous voice
I ever heard from any inhabitant of the woods, respo regular
intervals to the goose, as if determio expose and disgrace this
intruder from Hudsons Bay by exhibiting a greater pass and
volume of voi a native, and boo-hoo him out of cord horizon.
What do you mean by alarming the citadel at this time of night
secrated to me? Do you think I am ever caught napping at su
hour, and that I have not got lungs and a larynx as well as
yourself? Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo-hoo! It was one of the most
thrilling discords I ever heard. A, if you had a
discriminating ear, there were in it the elements of a cord such
as these plains never saw nor heard.
I also heard the whooping of the i the pond, my great
bed-fellow in that part of cord, as if it were restless in its
bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulend had
dreams; or I was waked by the crag of the ground by the frost,
as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the m
would find a cra the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third
of an inch wide.
Sometimes I heard the foxes as they ranged over the snow-crust,
in moonlight nights, in search of a partridge or ame, barking
raggedly and demoniacally like forest dogs, as if lab with some
ay, or seeking expression, struggling fht and to be dogs
ht and run freely ireets; for if we take the ages into
our at, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes
as well as men? They seemed to me to be rudimental, burrowing men,
still standing on their defence, awaiting their transformation.
Sometimes one came o my window, attracted by my light, barked
a vulpine curse at me, and thereated.
Usually the red squirrel (Sciurus Hudsonius) waked me in the
dawn, c over the roof and up and down the sides of the house,
as if sent out of the woods for this purpose. In the course of the
winter I<samp>藏书网</samp> threw out half a bushel of ears of sweet , which had
not got ripe, on to the snow-crust by my door, and was amused by
watg the motions of the various animals which were baited by it.
Iwilight and the night the rabbits came regularly and made a
hearty meal. All day long the red squirrels came a, and
afforded me mutertai by their manoeuvres. One would
approach at first warily through the shrub oaks, running over the
snow-crust by fits and starts like a leaf blown by the wind, now a
few paces this way, with wonderful speed and waste of energy, making
inceivable haste with his "trotters," as if it were for a wager,
and now as many paces that way, but never getting on more than half
a rod at a time; and then suddenly pausing with a ludicrous
expression and a gratuitous somerset, as if all the eyes in the
universe were eyed on him -- for all the motions of a squirrel, even
in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators as
much as those of a dang girl -- wasting more time in delay and
circumspe than would have sufficed to walk the whole distance
-- I never saw one walk -- and then suddenly, before you could say
Jack Robinson, he would be iop of a young pitch pine, winding
up his clod chiding all imaginary spectators, soliloquizing and
talking to all the universe at the same time -- for no reason that I
could ever detect, or he himself was aware of, I suspect. At length
he would reach the , aing a suitable ear, frisk about
in the same uain trigorical way to the topmost stiy
wood-pile, before my window, where he looked me in the face, and
there sit for hours, supplying himself with a new ear from time to
time, nibbling at first voraciously and throwing the half-naked cobs
about; till at length he grew more dainty still and played with his
food, tasting only the inside of the kernel, and the ear, which was
held balanced over the stick by one paw, slipped from his careless
grasp ao the ground, when he would look over at it with a
ludicrous expression of uainty, as if suspeg that it had
life, with a mind not<var>.9９lib.</var> made up whether to get it again, or a new one,
or be off; now thinking of , then listening to hear what was in
the wind. So the little impudent fellow would waste many an ear in
a forenoon; till at last, seizing some longer and plumper one,
siderably bigger than himself, and skilfully balang it, he
would set out with it to the woods, like a tiger with a buffalo, by
the same zig-zag course and frequent pauses, scratg along with
it as if it were too heavy for him and falling all the while, making
its fall a diagonal between a perpendicular and horizontal, being
determio put it through at any rate; -- a singularly frivolous
and whimsical fellow; -- and so he would get off with it to where he
lived, perhaps carry it to the top of a piree forty or fifty
rods distant, and I would afterwards find the cobs strewn about the
woods in various dires.
At length the jays arrive, whose discordant screams were heard
long before, as they were warily making their approa eighth of
a mile off, and in a stealthy and sneaking mahey flit from
tree to tree, nearer and nearer, and pick up the kernels which the
squirrels have dropped. Then, sitting on a pitch pine bough, they
attempt to swallow in their haste a kernel which is too big for
their throats and chokes them; and after great labor they disge
it, and spend an hour in the endeavor to crack it by repeated blows
with their bills. They were maly thieves, and I had not much
respect for them; but the squirrels, though at first shy, went to
work as if they were taking what was their own.
Meanwhile also came the chickadees in flocks, which, pig up
the crumbs the squirrels had dropped, flew to the wig and,
plag them uheir claws, hammered away at them with their
little bills, as if it were an i in the bark, till they were
suffitly reduced for their slehroats. A little flock of
these titmice came daily to pick a dinner out of my woodpile, or the
crumbs at my door, with faint flitting lisping notes, like the
tinkling of icicles in the grass, or else with sprightly day day
day, or more rarely, in spring-like days, a wiry summery phe-be
from the woodside. They were so familiar that at length one
alighted on an armful of wood which I was carrying in, and pecked at
the sticks without fear. I once had a sparrow alight upon my
shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I
felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstahan I
should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. The squirrels
also grew at last to be quite familiar, and occasionally stepped
upon my shoe, when that was the way.
When the ground was not yet quite covered, and agaihe
end of winter, when the snow was melted on my south hillside and
about my wood-pile, the partridges came out of the woods m and
evening to feed there. Whichever side you walk in the woods the
partridge bursts away on whirring wings, jarring the snow from the
dry leaves and twigs on high, whies sifting down in the
sunbeams like golden dust, for this brave bird is not to be scared
by winter. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said,
"sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains
cealed for a day or two." I used to start them in the open land
also, where they had e out of the woods at suo "bud" the
wild apple trees. They will e regularly every evening to
particular trees, where the ing sportsman lies in wait for them,
and the distant orchards he woods suffer thus not a little. I
am glad that the partridge gets fed, at any rate. It is Natures
own bird which lives on buds and diet drink.
In dark winter ms, or in short winter afternoons, I
sometimes heard a pack of hounds threading all the woods with
hounding cry and yelp, uo resist the instinct of the chase,
and the note of the hunting-horn at intervals, proving that man was
in the rear. The wo again, a no fox bursts forth on
to the open level of the pond, nor following pack pursuing their
Actaeon. And perhaps at evening I see the hunters returning with a
single brush trailing from their sleigh for a trophy, seeking their
inn. They tell me that if the fox would remain in the bosom of the
frozeh he would be safe, or if be would run in a straight line
away no foxhound could overtake him; but, havi his pursuers
far behind, he stops to rest and listen till they e up, and when
he runs he circles round to his old haunts, where the hunters await
him. Sometimes, however, he will run upon a wall many rods, and
then leap off far to one side, and he appears to know that water
will not retain his st. A huold me that he once saw a fox
pursued by hounds burst out on to Waldehe ice was covered
with shallow puddles, run part way across, and theurn to the
same shore. Ere long the hounds arrived, but here they lost the
st. Sometimes a pack hunting by themselves would pass my door,
and circle round my house, and yelp and hound witharding me,
as if afflicted by a species of madness, so that nothing could
divert them from the pursuit. Thus they circle until they fall upon
the ret trail of a fox, for a wise hound will forsake everything
else for this. One day a man came to my hut from Lexington to
inquire after his hound that made a large track, and had been
hunting for a week by himself. But I fear that he was not the wiser
for all I told him, for every time I attempted to answer his
questioerrupted me by asking, "What do you do here?" He
had lost a dog, but found a man.
One old hunter who has a dry tongue, who used to e to bathe
in Walden once every year wheer was warmest, and at such
times looked in upoold me that many years ago he took his gun
oernoon a out for a cruise in Walden Wood; and as he
walked the Wayland road he heard the cry of hounds approag, and
ere long a fox leaped the wall into the road, and as quick as
thought leaped the other wall out of the road, and his swift bullet
had not touched him. Some way behind came an old hound and her
three pups in full pursuit, hunting on their own at, and
disappeared again in the woods. Late iernoon, as he was
resting ihick woods south of Walden, he heard the voice of
the hounds far over toward Fair Haven still pursuing the fox; and on
they came, their hounding cry which made all the wo sounding
nearer and nearer, now from Well Meadow, now from the Baker Farm.
For a long time he stood still and listeo their music, so sweet
to a hunters ear, when suddenly the fox appeared, threading the
solemn aisles with an easy c pace, whose sound was cealed
by a sympathetic rustle of the leaves, swift and still, keeping the
round, leaving his pursuers far behind; and, leaping upon a rock
amid the woods, he sat ered listening, with his back to the
hunter. For a moment passioraihe latters arm; but
that was a short-lived mood, and as quick as thought follow
thought his piece was levelled, and whang! -- the fox, rolling over
the rock, lay dead on the ground. The huill kept his place
and listeo the hounds. Still on they came, and now the near
woods resouhrough all their aisles with their demoniac cry.
At length the old hound burst into view with muzzle to the ground,
<samp>..</samp>and snapping the air as if possessed, and ran directly to the rock;
but, spying the dead fox, she suddenly ceased her hounding as if
struck dumb with amazement, and walked round and round him in
silence; and one by one her pups arrived, and, like their mother,
were sobered into silence by the mystery. Then the hunte9９ｌｉb.r came
forward and stood in their midst, and the mystery was solved. They
waited in silence while he skihe fox, then followed the brush
a while, and at length turned off into the woods again. That
evening a Weston squire came to the cord hunters cottage to
inquire for his hounds, and told how for a week they had been
hunting on their own at from Weston woods. The cord hunter
told him what he knew and offered him the skin; but the other
deed it aed. He did not find his hounds that night,
but the day learhat they had crossed the river and put up
at a farmhouse for the night, whence, having been well fed, they
took their departure early in the m.
The hunter who told me this could remember one Sam Nutting, who
used to hunt bears on Fair Haven Ledges, and exge their skins
for rum in cord village; who told him, even, that he had seen a
moose there. Nutting had a famous foxhound named Burgoyne -- he
pronou Bugine -- which my informant used to borrow. In the
"Wast Book" of an old trader of this toas also a captain,
town-clerk, and representative, I find the followiry. Jan.
18th, 1742-3, "John Melven Cr. by 1 Grey Fox 0--2--3"; they are not
now found here; and in his ledger, Feb, 7th, 1743, Hezekiah Stratton
has credit "by 1/2 a Catt skin 0--1--4+"; of course, a wild-cat, for
Stratton was a sergeant in the old French war, and would not have
got credit for hunting less noble game. Credit is given for
deerskins also, and they were daily sold. One man still preserv<bdo>.</bdo>es
the horns of the last deer that was killed in this viity, and
another has told me the particulars of the hunt in which his uncle
was engaged. The hunters were formerly a numerous and merry crew
here. I remember well one gaunt Nimrod who would catch up a leaf by
the roadside and play a strain on it wilder and more melodious, if
my memory serves me, than any hunting-horn.
At midnight, when there was a moon, I sometimes met with hounds
in my path prowling about the woods, which would skulk out of my
way, as if afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had
passed.
Squirrels and wild mice disputed for my store of nuts. There
were scores of pitch pines around my house, from oo four inches
in diameter, which had been gnawed by mice the previous winter -- a
Nian winter for them, for the snow lay long and deep, and they
were obliged to mix a large proportion of pine bark with their other
diet. These trees were alive and apparently flourishing at
midsummer, and many of them had grown a foot, though pletely
girdled; but after another winter such were without exception dead.
It is remarkable that a single mouse should thus be allowed a whole
piree for its dinner, gnawing round instead of up and down it;
but perhaps it is necessary in order to thirees, which are
wont to grow up densely.
The hares (Lepus Amerius) were very familiar. One had her
form under my house all winter, separated from me only by the
fl, and she startled me each m by her hasty departure
when I began to stir -- thump, thump, thump, striking her head
against the floor timbers in her hurry. They used to e round my
door at dusk to nibble the potats which I had thrown out,
and were so nearly the color of the ground that they could hardly be
distinguished when still. Sometimes iwilight I alternately
lost and recovered sight of oting motionless under my window.
When I opened my door in the evening, off they would go with a
squeak and a bounce. Near at hand they oed my pity. One
evening o by my door two paces from me, at first trembling
with fear, yet unwilling to move; a poor wee thing, lean and bony,
with ragged ears and sharp nose, st tail and slender paws. It
looked as if Nature no longer taihe breed of nobler bloods,
but stood on her last toes. Its large eyes appeared young and
uhy, almost dropsical. I took a step, and lo, away it scud
with aic spring over the snow-crust, straightening its body
and its limbs into graceful length, and soon put the forest between
me and itself -- the wild free venison, asserting its vigor and the
dignity of Nature. Not without reason was its slenderness. Such
then was its nature. (Lepus, levipes, light-foot, some think.)
What is a try without rabbits and partridges? They are
among the most simple and indigenous animal products; a and
venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the
very hue and substance of Nature, allied to leaves and to
the ground -- and to one another; it is either winged or it is
legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a
rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be
expected as rustling leaves. The partridge and the rabbit are still
sure to thrive, like true natives of the soil, whatever revolutions
occur. If the forest is cut off, the sprouts and bushes which
spring up afford them cealment, and they beore numerous
than ever. That must be a poor try ihat does not support
a hare. Our woods teem with them both, and around every s may
be seen the partridge or rabbit walk, beset with twiggy fences and
horse-hair snares, whie cow-boy tends.
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