_then doubling once more_: This is all figurative language. I am thinking of myself as the fox. The dogs have run themselves to death on my trail, and I am turning back, “doubling,” to have a look at them and to rejoice over their defeat. PAGE 71 _pine marten_: The marten is so rare in this neighborhood that I am inclined to think the creature was the large weasel. PAGE 73 _the heavy bar across their foreheads_: a very unusual way of yoking oxen in the United States. The only team I ever saw here so yoked. PAGE 74 _San Francisco_: alluding to the earthquake and fire which nearly wiped out the city in 1906. CHAPTER IX FOR THE PUPIL The picture of the young buzzard is as true as a photograph; the bumped-up drawing of the old bird looks precisely as she did atop her dead tree, watching my approach. This vulture rarely soars into New England skies; down South, especially along the coast, the smaller black vulture (_Catharista urubu_) is found very tame and in great abundance; while in the far Southwest lives the great condor. PAGE 80 _tulip poplar_: tulip-tree (_Liriodendron tulipifera_). “_For it had bene an auncient tree_”: from Edmund Spenser’s “Shepherd’s Calendar.” PAGE 85 _a dozen kinds of cramps_: Perhaps you will say I didn’t find much in finding the buzzard’s nest, and got mostly cramps! Yes, but I also got the buzzard’s nest--a thing that I had wanted to see for many years. It was worth seeing, however, for its own sake. Even a buzzard is interesting. See the account of him in “Wild Life Near Home,” the chapter called “A Buzzard’s Banquet.” CHAPTER XI TO THE TEACHER The point of the story is the enthusiasm of the naturalists for their work--work that to the uncaring and unknowing seemed not even worth while. But all who do great things do them with all their might. No one can stop to count the cost whose soul is bent on great things. FOR THE PUPIL PAGE 94 _Burlington_: in Vermont. _Concord and Middleboro_: in Massachusetts. _Zadoc Thompson_: a Vermont naturalist. _D. Henry Thoreau_: better known as Henry D. Thoreau; author of “Walden,” etc. _J. W. P. Jenks_: for many years head of Pierce Academy, Middleboro, and later Professor of Agricultural Zoölogy in Brown University. PAGE 96 _Contributions_: used in place of the whole name: Go yourself into the public library and read this and look at the four large volumes. PAGE 101 _spatter-docks_: yellow pond-lily (_Nuphar advena_). PAGE 102 _dinosaurian_: one of the fossil reptile monsters of the Mesozoic, or “middle,” period of the earth’s history, before the age of man. CHAPTER XII TO THE TEACHER