Wood folk at school

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_Wood Folk at School_

[Illustration]

[Illustration: "THERE AT A TURN IN THE PATH, NOT TEN YARDS AHEAD, STOOD
A HUGE BEAR."]




WOOD FOLK AT SCHOOL

BY

WILLIAM J. LONG

_WOOD FOLK SERIES
BOOK FOUR_

GINN & COMPANY
BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON


ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

COPYRIGHT, 1902, 1903
BY WILLIAM J. LONG

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


The Athenæum Press
GINN & COMPANY · CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS




PREFACE


It may surprise many, whose knowledge of wild animals is gained from
rare, fleeting glimpses of frightened hoof or wing in the woods, to
consider that there can be such a thing as a school for the Wood Folk;
or that instruction has any place in the life of the wild things.
Nevertheless it is probably true that education among the higher order
of animals has its distinct place and value. Their knowledge, however
simple, is still the result of three factors: instinct, training, and
experience. Instinct only begins the work; the mother's training
develops and supplements the instinct; and contact with the world, with
its sudden dangers and unknown forces, finishes the process.

For many years the writer has been watching animals and recording his
observations with the idea of determining, if possible, which of these
three is the governing factor in the animal's life. Some of the results
of this study were published last year in a book called "School of the
Woods," which consisted of certain studies of animals from life, and
certain theories in the form of essays to account for what the writer's
eyes had seen and his own ears heard in the great wilderness among the
animals.

A school reader is no place for theories; therefore that part of the
book is not given here. The animal studies alone are reproduced in
answer to the requests from many teachers that these be added to the
Wood Folk books. From these the reader can form his own conclusions as
to the relative importance of instinct and training, if he will. But
there is another and a better way open: watch the purple martins for a
few days when the young birds first leave the house; find a crow's nest,
and watch secretly while the old birds are teaching their little ones to
fly; follow a fox, or any other wild mother-animal, patiently as she
leaves the den and leads the cubs out into the world of unknown sights
and sounds and smells,--and you will learn more in a week of what
education means to the animals than anybody's theories can ever teach
you.

These are largely studies of individual animals and birds. They do not
attempt to give the habits of a class or species, for the animals of the
same class are alike only in a general way; they differ in interest and
intelligence quite as widely as men and women of the same class, if you
but watch them closely enough. The names here given are those of the
Milicete Indians, as nearly as I can remember them; and the incidents
have all passed under my own-eyes and were recorded in the woods, from
my tent or canoe, just as I saw them.

WILLIAM J. LONG.

STAMFORD, CONN., March, 1903.




CONTENTS


                               PAGE
WHAT THE FAWNS MUST KNOW         1

A CRY IN THE NIGHT              11

ISMAQUES THE FISHHAWK           31

A SCHOOL FOR LITTLE FISHERMEN   48

WHEN YOU MEET A BEAR            58

QUOSKH THE KEEN EYED            75

UNK WUNK THE PORCUPINE         111

A LAZY FELLOW'S FUN            124

THE PARTRIDGES' ROLL CALL      134

UMQUENAWIS THE MIGHTY          151

AT THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET    175

GLOSSARY OF INDIAN NAMES       187




FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS


"THERE AT A TURN IN THE PATH, NOT TEN YARDS AHEAD,
  STOOD A HUGE BEAR"                                    _Frontispiece_

                                                         FACING PAGE
"THE WHITE FLAG SHOWING LIKE A BEACON LIGHT AS SHE
  JUMPED AWAY"                                                    9

"HER EYES ALL ABLAZE WITH THE WONDER OF THE LIGHT"               24

"PRESENTLY THEY BEGAN TO SWOOP FIERCELY AT SOME ANIMAL"          43

"GRIPPING HIS FISH AND _pip-pipping_ HIS EXULTATION"             53

"A DOZEN TIMES THE FISHER JUMPED, FILLING THE AIR WITH
  FEATHERS"                                                     104

"BOTHERS AND IRRITATES THE PORCUPINE BY FLIPPING EARTH AT HIM"  118

"THEY WOULD TURN THEIR HEADS AND LISTEN INTENTLY"               145

"PLUNGING LIKE A GREAT ENGINE THROUGH UNDERBRUSH AND OVER
  WINDFALLS"                                                    152

"A MIGHTY SPRING OF HIS CROUCHING HAUNCHES FINISHED THE WORK"   183




What the Fawns Must Know

[Illustration]


To this day it is hard to understand how any eyes could have found them,
they were so perfectly hidden. I was following a little brook, which led
me by its singing to a deep dingle in the very heart of the big woods.