Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Suzan Flanagan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: [Signature: John Burroughs]] The Riverside Literature Series THE WIT OF A DUCK AND OTHER PAPERS BY JOHN BURROUGHS The Riverside Press Cambridge HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO CONTENTS I. THE WIT OF A DUCK 5 II. AN ASTONISHED PORCUPINE 10 III. HUMAN TRAITS IN THE ANIMALS 14 IV. THE DOWNY WOODPECKER 22 V. A BARN-DOOR OUTLOOK 27 VI. WILD LIFE IN WINTER 47 VII. BIRD LIFE IN WINTER 54 VIII. A BIRDS' FREE LUNCH 63 IX. BIRD-NESTING TIME 70 X. A BREATH OF APRIL 77 XI. THE WOODCOCK'S EVENING HYMN 83 XII. THE COMING OF SUMMER 89 COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY E. H. HARRIMAN COPYRIGHT, 1904, 1905, 1908, AND 1913 BY JOHN BURROUGHS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A JOHN BURROUGHS John Burroughs was born April 3, 1837, in a little farmhouse among the Catskill Mountains. He was, like most other country boys, acquainted with all the hard work of farm life and enjoyed all the pleasures of the woods and streams. His family was poor, and he was forced at an early date to earn his own living, which he did by teaching school. At the age of twenty-five he chanced to read a volume of Audubon, and this proved the turning-point in his life, inspiring a new zeal for the study of birds and enabling him to see with keener eyes not only the birds themselves, but their nests and surroundings, and to hear with more discernment the peculiar calls and songs of each.