Besides being the means by which they capture their prey, the talons of an eagle, hawk, or owl are their weapons of defence. Their bill can really inflict but little injury. When wounded one of these birds will throw itself upon its back, and strike with its feet, burying its talons deep in the flesh of its adversary.

December Second

The gray or wood gray fox lives about the rocks and ledges. It is a noted tree climber, and, being less fleet than the red fox, it often eludes pursuing dogs by taking shelter in the rocks, or amid the branches of a tree. Running a short distance, it will spring to the side of a tree and scramble up the trunk. Sometimes it falls back and is obliged to repeat the performance several times before it is able to gain the first branches, from which it can easily climb from limb to limb as high as it chooses.

December Third

The junco and the horned lark in some localities are called "snowbird," but the snow bunting, or snowflake, is the only bird correctly so called. These birds do not look alike, but the appearance of the three species in large numbers during the winter is confusing to one not versed in bird-lore.

Notes

December Fourth

Why is it that most carnivorous animals, as well as most birds of prey, refuse to eat shrews and moles? It may be due to the strong pungent odor of their bodies. Cats will catch them and play with them, but owls are the only creatures that seem to care for them for food.

December Fifth

Mr. Newhall says that a lady told him that an Oneida Indian once cured her grandfather of a severe illness. He afterward learned that the medicine used was an extract of witch-hazel, and later prepared and sold it widely.

December Sixth

The great-horned owl, hoot owl, or cat owl, is the only bird that from choice will feed upon skunks. Although rabbits are abundant and easy to capture, his Owlship seems to prefer to battle against the long teeth and disagreeable odor of the skunk in order to dine upon its flesh. Nearly all owls of this species that are killed in winter are strongly scented with the skunk's odor.

Notes

December Seventh

The two glands that hold the skunk's vile-smelling fluid are about the size and shape of a pecan nut. They are strictly organs of protection and are never used except in extreme cases of defence. They are situated between the skin and the flesh near the root of the tail. When brought into use, a number of strong muscles encircling them contract, and a fine spray of the fluid is thrown off; the tail taking no part in its distribution.

December Eighth

Snakes are not slimy and clammy; they do not cover their food with saliva before swallowing it, and the forked flexible member which darts in and out of their mouth is not a "stinger," but the tongue. They do not swallow their young in cases of danger, and they have no power to "charm," or hypnotize.

December Ninth

The bald-faced hornet attaches his large, cone-shaped, paper nests under the eaves of houses, in garrets, or to the limbs of trees. Collecting the minute fibres that adhere to the weather-beaten fences and buildings, the hornets mix it with saliva and make a crude quality of paper. To enlarge a nest, the inside walls are torn away and the material is used to add to the outside layer. Like bumblebees, the workers and drones die in the fall, the queen hibernating.

Notes

December Tenth

Beautiful as the deer are and innocent as they seem, they cannot be trusted, as attendants in zoological parks can testify. A bear will seldom attack a keeper without provocation, and when he does he will usually give warning before he charges. Not so with a buck of the deer family. Greeting his best friend in the most cordial manner, he may, without warning, charge when the man's back is turned, and gore or trample him to death.

December Eleventh

The American eagle is more often spoken of as the "bald eagle," a name which misleads many people since the bird is not "bald" at all. The top of its head is as thickly feathered as the heads of most birds. Probably some one thought that the white head and neck made the eagle appear bald, hence the name. The birds reach the third year before the head and tail begin to turn white.

December Twelfth

The little striped skunk, or hydrophobia skunk of the South, West, and Southwest, is about half the size of our common skunk. It frequently goes mad and attacks people with great fury. Cowboys and other persons compelled to sleep on the ground in the open have been bitten by it and have died of hydrophobia. It is the only North American animal that will deliberately attack a sleeping person.

Notes

December Thirteenth

"Till a comparatively recent date it was not certainly known that eels have eggs which develop outside of the body. Even now the breeding habits are scarcely known, but it is supposed that the spawning takes place late in the fall or during the winter, near the mouth of rivers, on muddy bottoms." (Bean.)

December Fourteenth

The so-called glass snake is truly speaking not a snake, but a legless lizard. It forms part of the food of the true snakes. Its body is very brittle, a light blow with a stick being sufficient to break it in two. Although it is true that another tail will grow (provided not more than a fourth of the body is missing), it is not true that the broken pieces will eventually unite, or that a head and body will grow on the tail piece.

December Fifteenth

How often you read of, or heard some one speak of, the whale as "the largest of fish." A whale is a mammal, because it suckles its young. It is not only the largest of living mammals, but, according to Mr. Lucas, the large ones are larger than any of the enormous reptiles that inhabited the world before the advent of man, and whose fossil remains may be seen in any of our large museums.

Notes

December Sixteenth

The quiet little tree sparrows spend the winter with us feeding on the seeds of weeds and grasses. You will find their tracks in the snow where flocks have been eating ragweed seeds, and you are likely to see some of them fluttering about in the bushes along the river banks, or in the frozen swamps uttering a pleasing call note. They can be identified by the distinct black spot on the breast and their pinkish bills.

December Seventeenth

There is no better time to study the tracks and nightly doings of animals than after the first fall of snow. Start early in the morning and see how many stories the tracks have written.

December Eighteenth

Following the tracks of a white-footed mouse in the woods, they lead you to a hollow log, at the entrance of which are a number of beech-nut shells, remains of a midnight feast taken from a winter store-house. From here the mouse went into the field, and then the tracks stop abruptly, leaving you to guess the rest. Possibly one of the several species of owls that inhabit your locality could explain the sudden ending of the trail.

Notes

December Nineteenth

Continuing through the woods, you soon discover the trail of two birds whose feet are not quite the size of those of bantam chickens. Following them a few hundred yards you come to a bedded spot in the snow, beneath the drooping branches of a spruce. Not far from here, two ruffed grouse rise, with a loud whirr of wings, and speed off before your startled eyes. These are the birds whose tracks you have been following.

December Twentieth

Don't follow a fox track with the intention of overtaking the maker, unless you have dogs. He may be ten miles away at that very moment, and even if you should draw near to him, he is almost certain to elude your sight by sneaking away.

December Twenty-first

You may find where a muskrat has left the stream and started across the meadow to a marsh near by. Suddenly a mink's track breaks into the trail and follows in the same direction, and you soon come to a spot where the snow is much disturbed, and the tracks mingle in confusion. Blood-stains on the snow and matted places show where the two have fought a battle for existence. A broad, deep trail leading to a stump indicates that some object has been dragged across the snow, and there you find the half-eaten remains of the muskrat.

Notes

December Twenty-second

What tracks are these, trailing along the fence between a brush-lot and a buckwheat field? At the corner of the fence human footprints and those of a dog join them. All now travel in the same direction, first on one side of the fence, then on the other. Finally the bird tracks stop abruptly and the marks of wings on each side of them show that the birds have taken flight. The dog has suddenly bolted, and where his tracks turn back is a dash in the snow and a few quail feathers which tell the story; a hunter has bagged his game.

December Twenty-third

An open brush-lot bordering woods is the best place to find cotton-tail rabbit tracks. Judging from the number of tracks and the spaces between them, the rabbits have been playing tag, or attempting to break the record for running and jumping. They did rest, however, for beneath a bush, and by the side of a stump, we find impressions in the snow where they sat down. If it is a warm day, you are apt to surprise one taking a sun-bath.

December Twenty-fourth

Save in the dome of the Capitol, could our national bird, the bald eagle, select a more appropriate place for its nest than at Washington's home? In a patch of heavy timber at Mt. Vernon, Va., a pair of eagles have nested for several years.

Photograph by J. Alden Loring.

COTTONTAIL RABBIT TAKING A SUNBATH.