Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-27
THROUGH THE WOODS
FOLLOWING THE TRAITS OF
WINTER ANIMALS.
Tracks of the Shrew Invisible i'll the
Hard Snow-Antler Shed
by Deer.

Written for The Star.
The thermometer stood at 10 below, as,
kneeling, l frightened the last strap OF my
snow Shoes pulled on my mittens ana
started for a tramp through the woods. AT
each breath drawn through the nostrils the
sharp air bit like ammonia fumes. Aoso-
Iutely pure, too, 1t was, for the ground
was hidden under two feet of spotless, I'M
broken snow. The sun had just risen, there
was no wind, and the snow was firm out
not glassy-the snow-shoeing was perfect.
AS l entered the woodland something
moved in the underground. | heard 1t, TOT
the movement was close to me, but couio
not see a living thing. Quietly l STOOD
there, watching, and presently L saw
bright, dark eye, something larger than
shoe button, watching me closely from pc
meath the lower branches of white pine.
At first l could not see the owner or that
eve but by and by I made out a wobbly
nose and some dark lines which proved to
be the outlines of a pair of ears. Then /
saw that 1t was a snow-shoe hare In his
white winter coat, which rendered MN
practically invisible on winter day nke
this 1 moved quietly toward him and
then he jumped and went away in a series
of wonderful leaps, and was soon lost 10
view among the trees. But this shallow
trail remained sharply outlined on the
hard surface of the snow. The mark of
each of his four feet was distinct and sep
arate, and together they formed a per1ect
letter 'Y." The imprintS OF the two small
forefeet one directly in front of the other
made the stem of the letter, and something
in advance of these the much larger marks
left by the hind feet, the toes pointing out
ward, made the branches of the "
Trail of the Shrew Invisible.
Not caring to follow the trail of the hare
1 kept on my way. and beforesleng came
to level space quite clear of trees and
somewhat higher than the ground about It,
When l was quite near 1t small dark
mouse-like creature hurried across TINS
open space, and was followed Immediately
by another. Evidently they were shrews
and as they disappeared at once 1 was nat
urally curious to see what they had been
doing and where they had gone. The
first thing to do, of course, was to find their
footprints; but, alas! this first thing was
just what l couldn't do. The snow was so
firm that the delicate feet of the tiny crea-
lures had made no impression which was
visible to my eyes, whatever a microscope
might have revealed
To see the trail of shrew to the best ad-
vantage the conditions must be just so.
The snow should be firm, with Just a
sprinkling of powdery fakes on the sur
face; then the delicate tracery wrought by
the feet of these very small quadrupeds
will delight the eye of the student who
searches for ii.
The trails of white footed mice were
visible everywhere L went but even
these were much less conspicuous than
they would have been in softer snow.
Tracks of the Deer.
A few minutes later L crossed another
trail of quite a different character. 1t
consisted Of two parallel lines of holes.
Each hole was dumb-bell shaped; man
might make such q hole by plunging his
clenched fist into the snow twice, making
two round impressions, one directly In
front of the other, and then connecting
these by drawing walking stick
through the snow between. Plainly
enough this trail had been made by
deer. Each forefoot had made two holes
one where 1t went into the snow and
the other where it came out; between
was a line made by the slender leg as ii
moved forward before it was withdrawn.
The hind feet, of course, had followed in
practically the same tracks An elk
makes a similar trail, but much larger
AS l was going nowhere in particular
decided to follow the trail of the deer,
and l walked cautiously in order not to
spoil my chances of seeing any wild
creatures which might be abroad.
For time | saw nothing. Then a red
squirrel which had attracted my atten-
ton for several minutes by his chatter
ing suddenly appeared on top of a snow
covered rock, surrounded by the empty
shells of nuts he had eaten. He was just
beginning another when he caught sight
of me. With an appearance of terror and
dismay which l am sure he was far from
feeling he dropped the nut and clasped
HIS breast with his paws. If I had not
known him so well might have thought
he had been suddenly stricken with heart
failure. But he soon recovered what lit
tie composure he had lost, picked up the
nut he had dropped and began to chisel
the shell. Then, to give him taste Of
real fright I stamped with my snow
shoes and took a few strides toward him.
He dropped the nut again, and after stop
ping just long enough to make sure that
I was really coming, he jumped into a
tree and did not pause again until he was
well out of reach in the top of-it.
/ walked UP and examined the empty
nutshells-typical red squirrel workman
| ship in every case. The greater part of
| each shell was in one piece, but the cut
| ting was zig-Zag and of the irregular
| character one might expect from Little
| Scatterbrains, the red squirrel
Antler Of the Deer.
Taking up the trail of the deer again 1
soon reached a belt of young spruces
| through which the animal had passed I
was walking as quietly as possible, and
as parted the branches with my hands
| two mice darted Almost from under my
| snowshoes' and leaped away at high speed
across the snow Both made straight for
| a particular white pine growing not far
| away and ran nimbly up the trunk of 1t.
| Then I lost sight of one while watching
| twined his long silky tail spirally round
| a twig and sat peering at me from behind
| a bunch of pine needles.
| All this was more or less of an old story
what l wanted to know was what mis-
chief they were up to when l almost
| stepped on them. I stopped down, and,
| parting the lower branches of a young
! spruce i found. close to the toe of my
| snowshoe, the antler of a white stalled
1 deer 1t had five points, some of which
were partly buried in the snow. 1t had
probably belonged to the animal l was
| trailing, and having become ready to drop
/ It had doubtless done SO at the touch of
| the spruce boughs. On the beam there
| were few parallel cuts. evidently made
| by the teeth of mice; the little rascals
had begun to eat 1t, though it could not
/ have been OH the snow more than a few
| hours. Andsyet, how often are we asked
II 1t is true that deer shed their antIers
every year why don't we find the antlers
i that are shedf"