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A Hermit's Wild Friends; or, Eighteen Years in the Woods cover

A Hermit's Wild Friends; or, Eighteen Years in the Woods

Chapter 3: NOTE
By Mason Augustus Walton
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About This Book

A retired naturalist recounts eighteen years living alone on Cape Ann woodlands, recovering health and building a simple cabin while observing and befriending local wildlife. The narrative mixes memoir and natural history: intimate portraits of raccoon, red squirrel, chickadee, wood-thrush, cowbird, white-footed mouse and many others; detailed anecdotes support claims about animal behavior such as foster care by cow-buntings, toe-drumming by mice, song instruction for thrush young, chickadee numeracy, and squirrel territory farming. Chapters move through daily life, seasonal changes, and specific episodes of rescue, study, and coexistence, emphasizing patient observation and the restorative power of nature.

NOTE

During my eighteen years of hermit life, I claim to have discovered several new features in natural history, namely:

That the cow-bunting watches over its young, assists the foster parents in providing food, and gradually assumes full care of the young bird, and takes it to the pasture to associate with its kind; that the white-footed mouse is dumb, and communicates with its species by drumming with its toes; that the wood-thrush conducts a singing-school for the purpose of teaching its young how to sing; that the chickadee can count; that the shadbush on Cape Ann assumes a dwarf form, and grows in patches like the low-bush blueberry, fruiting when less than a foot in height; that the red squirrel owns a farm or fruit garden, and locates his male children on territory which he preempts for the purpose. I am aware that my claims will be vigorously assailed, but I have verified these discoveries by years of patient observation, and would say to my critics: "You would better investigate carefully before denying the probability of any one of these claims."

Thanks are due the publishers of Forest and Stream and Youth's Companion for permission to republish articles which have appeared in these respective journals.

M. A. WALTON.

Gloucester, April 5, 1903.