I go to walk at 3 P. M., thermometer 18°. It has been about this (and 22°) at this hour for a week or two.
All the light snow, some five inches above the crust, is adrift these days and driving over the fields like steam, or like the foam-streaks on a flooded meadow, from northwest to southeast. The surface of the fields is rough, like a lake agitated by the wind.
I see that the partridges feed quite extensively on the sumach berries, e. g. at my old house. They come to them after every snow, making fresh tracks, and have now stripped many bushes quite bare.
At Tanager Glade I see where the rabbits have gnawed the bark of the shrub oaks extensively, and the twigs, down to the size of a goose-quill, cutting them off as smoothly as a knife. They have also gnawed some young white oaks, black cherry, and apple. The shrub oaks look like hedges which have been trimmed or clipped.
I have often wondered how red cedars could have sprung up in some pastures which I knew to be miles distant from the nearest fruit-bearing cedar, but it now occurs to me that these and barberries, etc., may be planted by the crows, and probably other birds.
The oak leaves which have blown over the snow are collected in dense heaps on the still side of the bays at Walden, where I suspect they make warm beds for the rabbits to squat on.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 4, 1856
It now occurs to me that these [red cedar] and barberries, etc., may be planted by the crows, and probably other birds. See January 22, 1856 (“After long study with a microscope, I discover that they [crow droppings] consist of the seeds and skins and other indigestible parts of red cedar berries and some barberries . . . from the cedar woods and barberry bushes by Flint’s Pond. “) See also October 16, 1860(Looking from a hilltop, I observe that pines, white birches, red maples, alders, etc., often grow in more or less regular rounded or oval or conical patches, while oaks, chestnuts, hickories, etc., simply form woods of greater or less extent, whether by themselves or mixed, and do not naturally spring up in an oval form. This is a consequence of the different manner in which trees which have winged seeds and those which have not are planted, - the former being blown together in one direction by the wind, the latter being dispersed irregularly by animals.); September 1, 1860: ("See how artfully the seed of a cherry is placed in order that a bird may be compelled to transport it."); September 18, 1859 (How little observed are the fruits which we do not use! How few attend to the ripening and dispersion of the pine seed!);August 9, 1851(The OEnothera biennis along the railroad now. Do the cars disperse seeds?); February 25, 1851 ( the crust of the meadow afloat,. . . Here is another agent employed in the distribution of plants.)
The oak leaves which have blown over the snow are collected in dense heaps on the still side of the bays at Walden, where I suspect they make warm beds for the rabbits to squat on. See December 9, 1856 ("Coming through the Walden woods, I see already great heaps of oak leaves collected in certain places on the snow-crust by the roadside, where an eddy deposited them.. . .The greater part that have fallen are deposited in clear and crispy heaps in particular places. They are beds which invite the traveller to repose on them, even in this wintry weather.") and note to December 11, 1858 ("Already, in hollows in the woods and on the sheltered sides of hills, the fallen leaves are collected in small heaps on the snow-crust, simulating bare ground and helping to conceal the rabbit and partridge, etc. They are not equally diffused, but collected together here and there as if for the sake of society. ")
It now occurs to me that these [red cedar] and barberries, etc., may be planted by the crows, and probably other birds. See January 22, 1856 (“After long study with a microscope, I discover that they [crow droppings] consist of the seeds and skins and other indigestible parts of red cedar berries and some barberries . . . from the cedar woods and barberry bushes by Flint’s Pond. “) See also October 16, 1860(Looking from a hilltop, I observe that pines, white birches, red maples, alders, etc., often grow in more or less regular rounded or oval or conical patches, while oaks, chestnuts, hickories, etc., simply form woods of greater or less extent, whether by themselves or mixed, and do not naturally spring up in an oval form. This is a consequence of the different manner in which trees which have winged seeds and those which have not are planted, - the former being blown together in one direction by the wind, the latter being dispersed irregularly by animals.); September 1, 1860: ("See how artfully the seed of a cherry is placed in order that a bird may be compelled to transport it."); September 18, 1859 (How little observed are the fruits which we do not use! How few attend to the ripening and dispersion of the pine seed!);August 9, 1851(The OEnothera biennis along the railroad now. Do the cars disperse seeds?); February 25, 1851 ( the crust of the meadow afloat,. . . Here is another agent employed in the distribution of plants.)
The oak leaves which have blown over the snow are collected in dense heaps on the still side of the bays at Walden, where I suspect they make warm beds for the rabbits to squat on. See December 9, 1856 ("Coming through the Walden woods, I see already great heaps of oak leaves collected in certain places on the snow-crust by the roadside, where an eddy deposited them.. . .The greater part that have fallen are deposited in clear and crispy heaps in particular places. They are beds which invite the traveller to repose on them, even in this wintry weather.") and note to December 11, 1858 ("Already, in hollows in the woods and on the sheltered sides of hills, the fallen leaves are collected in small heaps on the snow-crust, simulating bare ground and helping to conceal the rabbit and partridge, etc. They are not equally diffused, but collected together here and there as if for the sake of society. ")
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, February 4
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2023
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