Norwich bulletin., 1911-09-09
THE QUAIL TRAP
From Bungalow to Tepee-Foraging For Funge-Feath- CTS From the Fall Fliaht-For Butter and Cheese, Kind Sir, She Said

pitch dark, skimming the top of the tent so we could see the white starring on the wings. Aug. 31 five passed over and Sept. 1 six passed, going by in pairs and all noiselessly. Nearly every evening in summer night herons and marsh-ha passed over the woods from east to west-the herons home to a rookery not far from Ma sons ledges, and the harriers to an intersylvan meadow that we will ex
 plore next season for stake drivers. We hope that the two heronries near Norwich are still populous, and that the great communities of swifts whose summer home is in the chimney Hues of the Broadway schoolhouse and St. Patrick's church have increased in numbers so as to keep down the night flying insects in the heart of the Rose.
 A family of noisy downies were raised in the apple tree shading our tent, and we have kept red squirrels away from the vicinity Skunks have not bothered us. rabbits browse quietly near us. and one gray squirrel ventured under the canvas. got sweet apple, and nibbled sweet wafers. A short half a mile north of us another coyey of Hungarian cartridges were raised, and MT Frank Perrin saw part of the eovey cross the road near his house. This makes the sixth record of these introduced game birds breeding in the English .Neighborhood.. One of the local carriers has seen Mon golian pheasant in the road. MT. George Snow has seen golden pheasants, and another carrier has twice seen both quail and grouse in the public high way. From our perch we daily see an old mossback woodehuck in the oat stubble feeding on the rich aftermath. More than half the time he is upon his launches, bunny fashion, ever on faI, 4 hot I H 1nf get between hlm and the front and back door to his home. have always had a grain of doubt about the hlber- nation of bears and groundhogs and of their sucking fat paws for winter nourishment But perish all skepticisn nowt Mrs. Rawson's tame woodchuck went down in the bottom of a barrel of hay in the cellar and curled up for his long winters nap. Two or three times, when doubting Thomas called, Chucky would be brought up and placed under a stove to thaw out. and claws could not be seen, he would be apparently dead, but revivified by the heat, he would slowly thaw out and poke about the kitchen as big a nuisance as ever. But, when again exposed to cold, he ran for his winter as lifeless as before, and waited the advent of spring
 The finest growth of butter and eggs ever noted can be seen from our coign of vantage. Not at all like the com mon,' struggling roadside plant, but taller, with much bulkier blooms-a large solid bed of yellow. red, and old gold. If this wild flower was rare
 and always bIossomed as well as this showy mass, the old world florists would be over here after it for their conservatories as they have been after the buck laurel (Rhododendron maximum) of the Ledyard and Gales Ferry cedar swamps. The pasture we have pre-empted is covered with a very small growth of goldenrod so short as to be remarkable. But where can be found words vivid enough to describe the immense blotch of color from the cardinal which filled the empty ice pond. I am wondering if the rows of giant cardinal still fringe the marsh between Thamesville and Puritan spring. And also wondering if few marshmallow blossoms can still be found in the brackish marsh as far up the river as Poauetanuck cove For the benefit of the green and red parrot and the big red and blue macaw, and to make an extra show. we sowed broadcast a very wide swath of sunflower seed on side hill cornfield. And now. trimming the waving maize spind1es, it looks like 8 veritable lane of gold leading up to
 unseen heights above. c. l.. R.