Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-27
NATURE In WINTER

notorious; the cleverness of rats in
adapting themselves to our ways is un-
canny. And even the squirrels seem in
some neighborhoods of Washington to
nave abandoned any alternating ten
denotes they may once have had.
Free doles of food from suburban
back porches or in public parks, as well
as the considerably higher Winter tenn
peratures in cities, have deprived the
squirrel Of his tinidity and invisibility.
Rabbits, too, are lured out of seclusion
on the chance of finding food near hu-
man habitation and this despite the
menace Of their natural enemy, the
dog.
Some Instincts Retained.
While it is true that, by taking up
with the ways of man, the rodent lam
lily has been, as the French would say,
turned out of the road" that is, misled
or perverted, in its alternating habits,
still even when the field mice take lodg-
lngs Tor the Winter in my attic, or bold
ana wicked Master Rat tries to estab-
fish himself in the basement, some, at
least, Of their rodent instincts do not
desert them.
An amateur naturalist finds plenty to
divert him in the ways of unlimited
guests that he entertains among the
rodent clan, and these little furry
scampers do great deal more sleeping.
and eat more at a time and eat less
often, than can imagine would be DOS
sible In wild life. Though I war on
them with trap and poison, and by
sealing up their little gates, still / am
compelled to admire their intelligence,
courage and persistence, as we'll as their
qulckness and cunning. While I sleep
they work, and work. moreover, to the
soie eno OF undoing my efforts against
tnem; when I am safely at work they
sleep. Perverse of them, but clever.
nave sometimes said that the epic
or saga OF the rodents has never been
written, but I hereby publicly and SOL
emmy Withdraw the remark. Nobody
mas ever written a better mouse story
tnan mas Beatrix Potter, in showing the
glamour OF the world in which men and
animals Dwell together. AS for the willy
[at, ne mas been made immortal by
| hennetn Grahame. once saw a letter
ne had written; the writing was like
nttle animal tracks-rat tracks. I
| shouldn't wonder He has left nothing
lurther to be said about the romance of
glpSylng, living on your wits. travelling
on your paws and experiencing life
through your whiskers.
10 you object that these are falsi-
neg accounts, whimsical, romanticized
Datneo IN the glamour Of poetry?
Granted, then; granted, too All the
mischief that they do, these doughty
little four-pawed adventurers. And Vet
as hear them of a Winter niSIt
scamper1ng about in the dead leaves
outside my window. seeking a wav in
IRON the cold and the hungry owl their
enemy, cannot restrain a sneaking
sympathy with them.
Domestic Cats.
:, There Is one animal that we see all
vle year round and ubiquitouslv that
ior me, at least, is a Winter animal I
can oHer no Justification for so CHASING
Ihe common domestic cat, but, lacking
pumas' cougars. lions, tigers or anv
ouisL Ienne providers in our native
mammal fauna, we are reduced IA
studying the ways Of Fels donestica
though perhaps it is not such q come
Gown even Tor an ardent nature lover.
FOR, though the dog Is one of us. and
we love him because he Ia faithful
ooedient and hattering by his alteration
OF us, Grimalkin has never grown tame
beyond point Just necessary to per.
suade us to feed him. He Is still a wild
animal. If man died of, the cat would
nave little trouble in adapting himself
70 a return Of the wilderness. I doubt
II the dog could make the change in
time to save his species.
They say that dogs resemble their
masters, and it is true; a dog going
through the woods is like a mamie
barks, dashes, crackles through under
brush, sending every little living wild
| thing within radius Of half a mile
into a panicky fight. He turns the
woods at once into a sort of vast back
yard Of his master, in which he consti-
tutes himself the chief inhabitant.
| Watch cat in the same patch of
woods, hunting through the Winter
weeds. AT once he is q wild thing,
starting at footstep, merging with the
landscape, moving without a sound.
Instead Of coming to resemble his mas
ter, which Grimalkin decidedly does
4 not, the cat has come to resemble his
| prey-a common occurrence in nature.
Owls have deliberately developed ears
| in order to hear the soft flight of mice
mice have deliberately developed ears in
order to hear the muiiled rush of the
owls wings. Similarly the ways of cats
and rats are remarkably alike. Both
| see well In the dark, hear accurately,
move quietly. smell everything, and feel
their way by their whiskers as we'll as
| by other senses.
Whether you observe the ways of
| Felis domestica out-of-doors, with the
wild Winter wind running his fur or in
the house. where he baSks beneath the
kitchen stove on gray days. or on sunny
ones lies upon the window ledge, the
small, beautiful and ungrateful friend
| that we have adopted into OUR houses is
| most himself in Winter, for then the
| real wildness. as John Burroughs says.
comes out In nature, and the cat be-