Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis is denoted as _Italics_.

============================

A Hermit's Wild Friends

or

Eighteen Years in the Woods

By

Mason A. Walton

(The Hermit of Gloucester)

Boston

Dana Estes & Company

Publishers

============================

_Copyright, 1903_

By Dana Estes & Company

_All rights reserved_

A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS

Published October, 1903

Colonial Press

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.

Boston, Mass., U. S. A.

To the

Lovers of Nature,

everywhere,

this volume is fraternally dedicated.

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.