Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
WHEN SPRING COMES
Animals Know When Winter
is Over.
WATCHING SQUIRRELS
THE PEEPING FROG HAS EARLY
NEWS, TOO.
Solo Performances and Other Swamp
Choruses Tell the
Tale.

Written for The Evening Star.
1t seems early for out-of-door gardening,
but nature is forever preparing for the sea-
son to come. No human gardener perhaps
would be found sowing his seed when the
thermometer stood at fifteen below Zero
and when the snow lay three feet deep upon
the ground, yet under these conditions Ma
ture is sowing myriads of seeds of the
oerry-bearing shrubs and creepers. She en-
ploys as her sewers the grouse, the pine
grosbeaks. the redpolls and many other
plrds. which at this season live chiefly on
the pulp of the berries. and afterward dis
tribute the undigested seeds through the
forest, thus securing perpetuation Of the
shrubs whose berries they eat and provid-
ing winter food for future generations of
grouse and pine grosbeaks and redpolls.
If you walk across the swamps at this
season. and look down where the ice is thin
and clear. you will not see a lifeless brown
mass of decaying vegetation. but a living
army of plants looking upward hopefully at
the light above them and waiting perhaps
impat;ently, for Forward March, from
nature, that they may advance upon waver-
ing winter.
Nor is it necessary to visit the swamps to
be aware of the preparation for spring
Look at the treetops and note that swelling
buds give the branches a rosy hue: notice
that the willows turning golden yell
low, and that many of the shrubs TAX
ing on a purple tinge. In sheltered places
the pussy willows are showing their silky,
sivery paws, and rarely we may find in
some very well-protected spot an odd spring
flower in bloom. In fact, amongst all the
plants of forest. field and swamp there is
a whisper, not too loud. but quite audible,
that the spring is on the way.
Thou Kpow tho C;ope
Many of the animals, too, are aware OF
the approach of winters end, and they
show it. The skunk, who some six weeks
ago retired to his burrow lined with fat,
and who has snoozed through the time of
bitter weather and deep snow. now comes
out at night. and we may find his footprints
after every light snowfall. They are the
footprints of a plodder (for skunk rarely
goes out of walk if he can help it,, and
extend in double line The impressions of
the feet are not arranged in pairs, but al
ternately, right and left, and show the
marks of the prominent claws very plainly.
The woodchuckS will soon be turning over
in their Sleep and after we have had
warm day or two we may get glimpse or
a hoary head poked inquiringly from the
mouth of some sheltered burrow. But the
old fellow will surely go back and take an
other nap. for the feraging will not be quite
to his liking until March at least. The chip
never sleep so sound as the woodchuckS do,
and 1t will not be long before we hear the
startled chip" from some venturesome
little hackhee. darling back to his burrow.
pass by through the woods. And
the big black bear, lean and hungry, will
be leaving her den before long to seek food
for herself and her cubs and woe to the
lesser creature which crosses her path, for
she is not vegetarian at this season.
The gray squirrels, which have been seen
only off and on during the harder part of
raking up the leaves for nuts hidden long
ago, nibbling the tender buds of the
trees And before the cold weather has
really gone they will be caring for their lit
tie families in brown leafy nests in the tops
of the taller trees.
Peeping Frog Time.
AS yet we have had no sign from that
vigorous little herald of spring, the peeping
frog, but we know, we look down
through the thin ice at the water plants.
that he is down there with them, and that
even before them he will come to the sur
face and tune his shrill bagpipe. And the
country folk will laugh at him for venturing
to come up before the frost has gone, and
will say to him. You'll have to take a look
through the windows yet my boy" How
few, even among the country people, seem
to know this tiny frog, or, after having
seen him, will believe that 1T is he who
makes the loud piping they hear in the
swamps To be sure, on this point, all one
has TO do is to go down to the marsh
when the frogs are peeping and after wad-
ing into the water stand perfectly still.
Your approach will have been a signal for
all the musicians TO cease, but after time,
first one and then another will start their
pipes Single opt one particular voice, and
ever so gently move in the direction of it,
If the piping ceases, stand perfectly still
until it begins again, and then advance as
before. At last you will see, upon some
reed or close to the surface of the water
perhaps in a tangle of dead grass small
object which pulsateS at more or less regu-
lar intervals. At each pulsation you will
hear a shrlll peep" and you will know that
you have found what you sought. Slowly
and carefully put out your hand, and with
a last sudden movement put 1t over the
little pepper. You will see that your cap
tive is about an inch long. with a yellowish
brown back, on which you may trace a
cross of darker shade. If you take him
home and place him in a glass vessel, with
a little water for him to stand in, you may
at dusk see his white throat swell out into
glistening round bubble as he tunes his
pipe and sends forth his shrill peep peep,
peep" which means as plainly as anything |
does, spring, spring SPRING