This book is a collection of essays and anecdotes about 19 animals, 18 birds, 15 fish, 10 reptiles, 31 insects, 39 plants, 17 trees, and 6 other subjects encountered in nature by the author, mostly in the region from West Virginia to Vermont. Hopefully, it lends personality to these subjects and leaves the reader with a sense of the changing view of our natural world during the 20th century. It is not encyclopedic, being
limited to things the author has had experience with. On the other hand, it contains many off-beat details not to be found in other references.
Among stone-age peoples, one of the important duties the hunter had to fulfill when he returned home was to tell the other members of his tribe where he had been, what he had seen, and what he had done. That is what the author attempts to do in this book.
For instance, he tells of : Dealings with raccoons, both tame and wild. How to rescue a skunk from a storm drain. Home-made animal traps. What constitutes a successful backwoods fox hunt. How kingfishers and sparrow hawks mourn their dead. Why bluebirds are scarce. Why a killdeer will tease a dog. Where to find bluegills in the Ohio River or smelt in the Niagara River. A box turtle's prediction of dry weather and rain. Living where copperheads live. Playing with garter snakes. How to find a bee tree. The very different lives and habits of hornets, brown wasps, and mud dauber wasps. Sleeping with bedbugs. The psychological warfare of the deer fly. When to look for snow fleas. How to recognize chamomile by its aroma. The scarcity of ginseng. Trouble with jack-in-the-pulpit. Using jimson weed to kill flys. The forms and effects of poison ivy. Why black raspberries grow in smaller patches than red raspberries. Making use of elderberries. How Indians used acorns as food. Growing black walnut trees from seed.
There are no pictures in this book. Those would greatly increase the size and cost without adding enough to its message of how the subjects act and interact with us.
The author has found that no one knows all there is to know about nature. If you are woods-wise, you can still learn new things in this book. If you are not woods-wise, you can jump-start your own nature walk in these pages.
