Winter Animals
When the ponds were firmly frozen, they afforded not only new and shorter routes to many points, but new views from their surfaces of the familiar landscape around them. When I crossed Flint's Pond, after it was covered with snow, though I had often paddled about and skated over it, it was so unexpectedly wide and so strange that I could think of nothing but Baffin's Bay. The Lincoln hills rose up around me at the extremity of a snowy plain, in which I did not remember to have stood before; and the fishermen, at an indeterminable distance over the ice, moving slowly about with their wolfish dogs, passed for sealers, or Esquimaux, or in misty weather loomed like fabulous creatures, and I did not know whether they were giants or pygmies. I took this course when I went to lecture in Lincoln in the evening, travelling in no road and passing no house between my own hut and the lecture room. In Goose Pond, which lay in my way, a colony of muskrats dwelt, and raised their cabins high above the ice, though none could be seen abroad when I crossed it. Walden, being like the rest usually bare of snow, or with only shallow and interrupted drifts on it, was my yard where I could walk freely when the snow was nearly two feet deep on a level elsewhere and the villagers were confined to their streets. There, far from the village street, and except at very long intervals, from the jingle of sleigh-bells, I slid and skated, as in a vast moose-yard well trodden, overhung by oak woods and solemn pines bent down with snow or bristling with icicles.
For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it. I seldom opened my door in a winter evening without hearing it; Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer, hoo, sounded sonorously, and the first three syllables accented somewhat like how der do; or sometimes hoo, hoo only. One night in the beginning of winter, before the pond froze over, about nine o'clock, I was startled by the loud honking of a goose, and, stepping to the door, heard the sound of their wings like a tempest in the woods as they flew low over my house. They passed over the pond toward Fair Haven, seemingly deterred from settling by my light, their commodore honking all the while with a regular beat. Suddenly an unmistakable cat-owl from very near me, with the most harsh and tremendous voice I ever heard from any inhabitant of the woods, responded at regular intervals to the goose, as if determined to expose and disgrace this intruder from Hudson's Bay by exhibiting a greater compass and volume of voice in a native, and boo-hoo him out of Concord horizon. What do you mean by alarming the citadel at this time of night consecrated to me? Do you think I am ever caught napping at such an hour, and that I have not got lungs and a larynx as well as yourself? Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo-hoo! It was one of the most thrilling discords I ever heard. And yet, if you had a discriminating ear, there were in it the elements of a concord such as these plains never saw nor heard.
I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and had dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.
Sometimes I heard the foxes as they ranged over the snow-crust, in moonlight nights, in search of a partridge or other game, barking raggedly and demoniacally like forest dogs, as if laboring with some anxiety, or seeking expression, struggling for light and to be dogs outright and run freely in the streets; for if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as men? They seemed to me to be rudimental, burrowing men, still standing on their defence, awaiting their transformation. Sometimes one came near to my window, attracted by my light, barked a vulpine curse at me, and then retreated.
Usually the red squirrel (Sciurus Hudsonius) waked me in the dawn, coursing over the roof and up and down the sides of the house, as if sent out of the woods for this purpose. In the course of the winter I threw out half a bushel of ears of sweet corn, which had not got ripe, on to the snow-crust by my door, and was amused by watching the motions of the various animals which were baited by it. In the twilight and the night the rabbits came regularly and made a hearty meal. All day long the red squirrels came and went, and afforded me much entertainment by their manoeuvres. One would approach at first warily through the shrub oaks, running over the snow-crust by fits and starts like a leaf blown by the wind, now a few paces this way, with wonderful speed and waste of energy, making inconceivable haste with his "trotters," as if it were for a wager, and now as many paces that way, but never getting on more than half a rod at a time; and then suddenly pausing with a ludicrous expression and a gratuitous somerset, as if all the eyes in the universe were eyed on him -- for all the motions of a squirrel, even in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators as much as those of a dancing girl -- wasting more time in delay and circumspection than would have sufficed to walk the whole distance -- I never saw one walk -- and then suddenly, before you could say Jack Robinson, he would be in the top of a young pitch pine, winding up his clock and chiding all imaginary spectators, soliloquizing and talking to all the universe at the same time -- for no reason that I could ever detect, or he himself was aware of, I suspect. At length he would reach the corn, and selecting a suitable ear, frisk about in the same uncertain trigonometrical way to the topmost stick of my wood-pile, before my window, where he looked me in the face, and there sit for hours, supplying himself with a new ear from time to time, nibbling at first voraciously and throwing the half-naked cobs about; till at length he grew more dainty still and played with his food, tasting only the inside of the kernel, and the ear, which was held balanced over the stick by one paw, slipped from his careless grasp and fell to the ground, when he would look over at it with a ludicrous expression of uncertainty, as if suspecting that it had life, with a mind not made up whether to get it again, or a new one, or be off; now thinking of corn, then listening to hear what was in the wind. So the little impudent fellow would waste many an ear in a forenoon; till at last, seizing some longer and plumper one, considerably bigger than himself, and skilfully balancing it, he would set out with it to the woods, like a tiger with a buffalo, by the same zig-zag course and frequent pauses, scratching along with it as if it were too heavy for him and falling all the while, making its fall a diagonal between a perpendicular and horizontal, being determined to put it through at any rate; -- a singularly frivolous and whimsical fellow; -- and so he would get off with it to where he lived, perhaps carry it to the top of a pine tree forty or fifty rods distant, and I would afterwards find the cobs strewn about the woods in various directions.
At length the jays arrive, whose discordant screams were heard long before, as they were warily making their approach an eighth of a mile off, and in a stealthy and sneaking manner they flit from tree to tree, nearer and nearer, and pick up the kernels which the squirrels have dropped. Then, sitting on a pitch pine bough, they attempt to swallow in their haste a kernel which is too big for their throats and chokes them; and after great labor they disgorge it, and spend an hour in the endeavor to crack it by repeated blows with their bills. They were manifestly thieves, and I had not much respect for them; but the squirrels, though at first shy, went to work as if they were taking what was their own.
Meanwhile also came the chickadees in flocks, which, picking up the crumbs the squirrels had dropped, flew to the nearest twig and, placing them under their claws, hammered away at them with their little bills, as if it were an insect in the bark, till they were sufficiently reduced for their slender throats. A little flock of these titmice came daily to pick a dinner out of my woodpile, or the crumbs at my door, with faint flitting lisping notes, like the tinkling of icicles in the grass, or else with sprightly day day day, or more rarely, in spring-like days, a wiry summery phe-be from the woodside. They were so familiar that at length one alighted on an armful of wood which I was carrying in, and pecked at the sticks without fear. I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. The squirrels also grew at last to be quite familiar, and occasionally stepped upon my shoe, when that was the nearest way.
When the ground was not yet quite covered, and again near the end of winter, when the snow was melted on my south hillside and about my wood-pile, the partridges came out of the woods morning and evening to feed there. Whichever side you walk in the woods the partridge bursts away on whirring wings, jarring the snow from the dry leaves and twigs on high, which comes sifting down in the sunbeams like golden dust, for this brave bird is not to be scared by winter. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said, "sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains concealed for a day or two." I used to start them in the open land also, where they had come out of the woods at sunset to "bud" the wild apple trees. They will come regularly every evening to particular trees, where the cunning sportsman lies in wait for them, and the distant orchards next the woods suffer thus not a little. I am glad that the partridge gets fed, at any rate. It is Nature's own bird which lives on buds and diet drink.
In dark winter mornings, or in short winter afternoons, I sometimes heard a pack of hounds threading all the woods with hounding cry and yelp, unable to resist the instinct of the chase, and the note of the hunting-horn at intervals, proving that man was in the rear. The woods ring again, and yet no fox bursts forth on to the open level of the pond, nor following pack pursuing their Actaeon. And perhaps at evening I see the hunters returning with a single brush trailing from their sleigh for a trophy, seeking their inn. They tell me that if the fox would remain in the bosom of the frozen earth he would be safe, or if be would run in a straight line away no foxhound could overtake him; but, having left his pursuers far behind, he stops to rest and listen till they come up, and when he runs he circles round to his old haunts, where the hunters await him. Sometimes, however, he will run upon a wall many rods, and then leap off far to one side, and he appears to know that water will not retain his scent. A hunter told me that he once saw a fox pursued by hounds burst out on to Walden when the ice was covered with shallow puddles, run part way across, and then return to the same shore. Ere long the hounds arrived, but here they lost the scent. Sometimes a pack hunting by themselves would pass my door, and circle round my house, and yelp and hound without regarding me, as if afflicted by a species of madness, so that nothing could divert them from the pursuit. Thus they circle until they fall upon the recent trail of a fox, for a wise hound will forsake everything else for this. One day a man came to my hut from Lexington to inquire after his hound that made a large track, and had been hunting for a week by himself. But I fear that he was not the wiser for all I told him, for every time I attempted to answer his questions he interrupted me by asking, "What do you do here?" He had lost a dog, but found a man.
One old hunter who has a dry tongue, who used to come to bathe in Walden once every year when the water was warmest, and at such times looked in upon me, told me that many years ago he took his gun one afternoon and went out for a cruise in Walden Wood; and as he walked the Wayland road he heard the cry of hounds approaching, and ere long a fox leaped the wall into the road, and as quick as thought leaped the other wall out of the road, and his swift bullet had not touched him. Some way behind came an old hound and her three pups in full pursuit, hunting on their own account, and disappeared again in the woods. Late in the afternoon, as he was resting in the thick woods south of Walden, he heard the voice of the hounds far over toward Fair Haven still pursuing the fox; and on they came, their hounding cry which made all the woods ring sounding nearer and nearer, now from Well Meadow, now from the Baker Farm. For a long time he stood still and listened to their music, so sweet to a hunter's ear, when suddenly the fox appeared, threading the solemn aisles with an easy coursing pace, whose sound was concealed by a sympathetic rustle of the leaves, swift and still, keeping the round, leaving his pursuers far behind; and, leaping upon a rock amid the woods, he sat erect and listening, with his back to the hunter. For a moment compassion restrained the latter's arm; but that was a short-lived mood, and as quick as thought can follow thought his piece was levelled, and whang! -- the fox, rolling over the rock, lay dead on the ground. The hunter still kept his place and listened to the hounds. Still on they came, and now the near woods resounded through all their aisles with their demoniac cry. At length the old hound burst into view with muzzle to the ground, and snapping the air as if possessed, and ran directly to the rock; but, spying the dead fox, she suddenly ceased her hounding as if struck dumb with amazement, and walked round and round him in silence; and one by one her pups arrived, and, like their mother, were sobered into silence by the mystery. Then the hunter came forward and stood in their midst, and the mystery was solved. They waited in silence while he skinned the fox, then followed the brush a while, and at length turned off into the woods again. That evening a Weston squire came to the Concord hunter's cottage to inquire for his hounds, and told how for a week they had been hunting on their own account from Weston woods. The Concord hunter told him what he knew and offered him the skin; but the other declined it and departed. He did not find his hounds that night, but the next day learned that they had crossed the river and put up at a farmhouse for the night, whence, having been well fed, they took their departure early in the morning.
The hunter who told me this could remember one Sam Nutting, who used to hunt bears on Fair Haven Ledges, and exchange their skins for rum in Concord village; who told him, even, that he had seen a moose there. Nutting had a famous foxhound named Burgoyne -- he pronounced it Bugine -- which my informant used to borrow. In the "Wast Book" of an old trader of this town, who was also a captain, town-clerk, and representative, I find the following entry. Jan. 18th, 1742-3, "John Melven Cr. by 1 Grey Fox 0--2--3"; they are not now found here; and in his ledger, Feb, 7th, 1743, Hezekiah Stratton has credit "by 1/2 a Catt skin 0--1--4+"; of course, a wild-cat, for Stratton was a sergeant in the old French war, and would not have got credit for hunting less noble game. Credit is given for deerskins also, and they were daily sold. One man still preserves the horns of the last deer that was killed in this vicinity, and another has told me the particulars of the hunt in which his uncle was engaged. The hunters were formerly a numerous and merry crew here. I remember well one gaunt Nimrod who would catch up a leaf by the roadside and play a strain on it wilder and more melodious, if my memory serves me, than any hunting-horn.
At midnight, when there was a moon, I sometimes met with hounds in my path prowling about the woods, which would skulk out of my way, as if afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed.
Squirrels and wild mice disputed for my store of nuts. There were scores of pitch pines around my house, from one to four inches in diameter, which had been gnawed by mice the previous winter -- a Norwegian winter for them, for the snow lay long and deep, and they were obliged to mix a large proportion of pine bark with their other diet. These trees were alive and apparently flourishing at midsummer, and many of them had grown a foot, though completely girdled; but after another winter such were without exception dead. It is remarkable that a single mouse should thus be allowed a whole pine tree for its dinner, gnawing round instead of up and down it; but perhaps it is necessary in order to thin these trees, which are wont to grow up densely.
The hares (Lepus Americanus) were very familiar. One had her form under my house all winter, separated from me only by the flooring, and she startled me each morning by her hasty departure when I began to stir -- thump, thump, thump, striking her head against the floor timbers in her hurry. They used to come round my door at dusk to nibble the potato parings which I had thrown out, and were so nearly the color of the ground that they could hardly be distinguished when still. Sometimes in the twilight I alternately lost and recovered sight of one sitting motionless under my window. When I opened my door in the evening, off they would go with a squeak and a bounce. Near at hand they only excited my pity. One evening one sat by my door two paces from me, at first trembling with fear, yet unwilling to move; a poor wee thing, lean and bony, with ragged ears and sharp nose, scant tail and slender paws. It looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of nobler bloods, but stood on her last toes. Its large eyes appeared young and unhealthy, almost dropsical. I took a step, and lo, away it scud with an elastic spring over the snow-crust, straightening its body and its limbs into graceful length, and soon put the forest between me and itself -- the wild free venison, asserting its vigor and the dignity of Nature. Not without reason was its slenderness. Such then was its nature. (Lepus, levipes, light-foot, some think.)
What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground -- and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as rustling leaves. The partridge and the rabbit are still sure to thrive, like true natives of the soil, whatever revolutions occur. If the forest is cut off, the sprouts and bushes which spring up afford them concealment, and they become more numerous than ever. That must be a poor country indeed that does not support a hare. Our woods teem with them both, and around every swamp may be seen the partridge or rabbit walk, beset with twiggy fences and horse-hair snares, which some cow-boy tends.
等到湖水冻成结实的冰，不但跑到许多地点去都有了新的道路、更短的捷径，而且还可以站在冰上看那些熟悉的风景。当我经过积雪以后的茀灵特湖的时候，虽然我在上面划过桨，溜过冰，它却出入意料地变得大了，而且很奇怪，它使我老是想着巴芬湾。在我周围，林肯的群山矗立在一个茫茫雪原的四极，我以前仿佛并未到过这个平原；在冰上看不清楚的远处，渔夫带了他们的狼犬慢慢地移动，好像是猎海狗的人或爱斯基摩人那样，或者在雾蒙蒙的天气里，如同传说中的生物隐隐约约地出现，我不知道他们究竟是人还是倸儒。晚间，我到林肯去听演讲总是走这一条路的，所以没有走任何一条介乎我的木屋与讲演室之间的道路，也不经过任何一座屋子。途中经过鹅湖，那里是麝鼠居处之地，它们的住宅矗立在冰上，但我经过时没有看到过一只麝鼠在外。瓦尔登湖，像另外几个湖一样，常常是不积雪的，至多积了一层薄薄的雪，不久也便给吹散了，它便是我的庭院，我可以在那里自由地散步，此外的地方这时候积雪却总有将近两英尺深，村中居民都给封锁在他们的街道里。远离着村中的街道，很难得听到雪车上的铃声，我时常闪闪跌跌地走着，或滑着，溜着，好像在一个踏平了的鹿苑中，上面挂着橡木和庄严的松树，不是给积雪压得弯倒，便是倒挂着许多的冰柱。
在冬天夜里，白天也往往是这样，我听到的声音是从很远的地方传来的绝望而旋律优美的枭嗥，这仿佛是用合适的拨子弹拨时，这冰冻的大地发出来的声音，正是瓦尔登森林的1inguavernacula，后来我很熟悉它了，虽然从没有看到过那只枭在歌唱时的样子。冬夜，我推开了门，很少不听到它的“胡，胡，胡雷，胡”的叫声，响亮极了，尤其头上三个音似乎是“你好”的发音；有时它也只简单地“胡，胡”地叫。有一个初冬的晚上，湖水还没有全冻，大约九点钟左右，一只飞鹅的大声鸣叫吓了我一跳，我走到门口，又听到它们的翅膀，像林中一个风暴，它们低低地飞过了我的屋子。它们经过了湖，飞向美港，好像怕我的灯光，它们的指挥官用规律化的节奏叫个不停。突然间，我不会弄错的，是一只猫头鹰，跟我近极了，发出了最沙哑而发抖的声音，“在森林中是从来听不到的，它在每隔一定间歇回答那飞鹅的鸣叫，好像它要侮辱那些来自赫德森湾的闯入者，它发出了音量更大、音域更宽的地方土话的声音来，“胡，胡”地要把它们逐出康科德的领空。在这样的只属于我的夜晚中，你要惊动整个堡垒，为的是什么呢？你以为在夜里这个时候，我在睡觉，你以为我没有你那样的肺和喉音吗？“波-胡，波-胡，波-胡！”我从来没有听见过这样叫人发抖的不协和音。然而，如果你有一个审音的耳朵，其中却又有一种和谐的因素，在这一带原野上可以说是从没有看见过，也从没有听到过的。
我还听到湖上的冰块的咳嗽声，湖是在康科德这个地方和我同床共寝的那个大家伙，好像他在床上不耐烦，要想翻一个身，有一些肠胃气胀，而且做了恶梦；有时我听到严寒把地面冻裂的声音，犹如有人赶了一队驴马撞到我的门上来，到了早晨我就发现了一道裂痕，阔三分之一英寸，长四分之一英里。
有时我听到狐狸爬过积雪，在月夜，寻觅鹧鸪或其他的飞禽，像森林中的恶犬一样，刺耳地恶鬼似地吠叫，好像它有点心焦如焚，又好像它要表达一些什么，要挣扎着寻求光明，要变成狗，自由地在街上奔跑；因为如果我们把年代估计在内，难道禽兽不是跟人类一样，也存在着一种文明吗？我觉得它们像原始人，穴居的人，时时警戒着，等待着它们的变形。有时候，一只狐狸被我的灯光吸引住，走近了我的窗于，吠叫似地向我发出一声狐狸的诅咒，然后急速退走。
通常总是赤松鼠（学名Sciurus Hudsonius）在黎明中把我叫醒的，它在屋脊上奔窜，又在屋子的四侧攀上爬下，好像它们出森林来，就为了这个目的。冬天里，我抛出了大约有半蒲式耳的都是没有熟的玉米穗，抛在门口的积雪之上，然后观察那些给勾引来的各种动物的姿态，这使我发生极大兴趣。黄昏与黑夜中，兔干经常跑来，饱餐一顿。整天里，赤松鼠来来去去，它们的灵活尤其娱悦了我。有一只赤松鼠开始谨慎地穿过矮橡树丛，跑跑停停地在雪地奔驰，像一张叶子给风的溜溜地吹了过来；一忽儿它向这个方向跑了几步，速度惊人，精力也消耗得过了份，它用“跑步”的姿态急跑，快得不可想象，似乎它是来作孤注一掷的，一忽儿它向那个方向也跑那么几步，但每一次总不超出半杆之遥；于是突然间做了一个滑稽的表情停了步，无缘无故地翻一个觔斗，仿佛全宇宙的眼睛都在看着它，——因为一只松鼠的行动，即使在森林最深最寂寞的地方，也好像舞女一样，似乎总是有观众在场的，——它在拖宕，兜圈子中，浪费了更多的时间，如果直线进行，早毕全程，——我却从没有看见过一只松鼠能泰然步行过，——然后，突然，刹那之间，它已经在一个小苍松的顶上，开足了它的发条，责骂一切假想中的观众，又像是在独白，同时又像是在向全宇宙说话，一我丝毫猜不出这是什么理由，我想，它自己也未必说得出理由来。最后，它终于到了玉米旁，拣定一个玉米穗，还是用那不规则三角形的路线跳来跳去，跳到了我窗前堆起的那一堆木料的最高峰上，在那里它从正面看着我，而且一坐就是几个小时，时不时地找来新的玉米穗，起先它贪食着，把半裸的穗轴抛掉；后来它变得更加精灵了，拿了它的食物来玩耍，只吃一粒粒的玉米，而它用一只前掌擎起的玉米穗忽然不小心掉到地上了，它便做出一副不肯定的滑稽的表情来，低头看着玉米穗，好像在怀疑那玉米穗是否是活的，决不定要去拣起来呢，还是该另外去拿一个过来，或者干脆走开；它一忽儿想看玉米穗，一忽儿又听听风里有什么声音。就是这样，这个唐突的家伙一个上午就糟蹋了好些玉米穗；直到最后，它攫起了最长最大的一支，比它自己还大得多，很灵巧地背了就走，回森林去，好像一只老虎背了一只水牛，却还是弯弯曲曲地走，走走又停停，辛辛苦苦前进，好像那玉米穗太重，老是掉落，它让王米穗处在介乎垂直线与地平线之间的对角线状态，决心要把它拿到目的地去；——一个少见的这样轻桃而三心二意的家伙；——这样它把玉米穗带到它住的地方，也许是四五十杆之外的一棵松树的顶上去了，事后我总可以看见，那穗轴被乱掷在森林各处。
最后樫鸟来了，它们的不协和的声音早就听见过，当时它们在八分之一英里以外谨慎地飞近，偷偷摸摸地从一棵树飞到另一棵树，越来越近，沿途拣起了些松鼠掉下来的玉米粒。然后，它们坐在一棵苍松的枝头，想很快吞下那粒玉米，可是玉米太大，梗在喉头，呼吸都给塞住了；费尽力气又把它吐了出来，用它们的嘴嚎啄个不休，企图啄破它，显然这是一群窃贼，我不很尊敬它们；倒是那些松鼠，开头虽有点羞答答，过后就像拿自己的东西一样老实不客气地干起来了。
同时飞来了成群的山雀，拣起了松鼠掉下来的屑粒，飞到最近的桠枝上，用爪子按住屑粒，就用小嘴喙啄，好像这些是树皮中的一只只小虫子，一直啄到屑粒小得可以让它们的细喉咙咽下去。一小群这种山雀每天都到我的一堆木料中来大吃一顿，或者吃我门前那些屑粒，发出微弱迅疾的咬舌儿的叫声，就像草丛间冰柱的声音，要不然，生气勃勃地“代，代，代”地呼号了，尤其难得的是在春天似的日子里，它们从林侧发出了颇有夏意的“菲-比”的琴弦似的声音。它们跟我混得熟了，最后有一只山雀飞到我臂下挟着进屋去的木柴上，毫不恐惧地啄着细枝。有一次，我在村中园子里锄地，一只麻雀飞来停落到我肩上，待了一忽儿，当时我觉得，佩戴任何的肩章，都比不上我这一次光荣。后来松鼠也跟我很熟了，偶然抄近路时，也从我的脚背上踩过去。
在大地还没有全部给雪花覆盖的时候，以及在冬天快要过去，朝南的山坡和我的柴堆上的积雪开始溶化的时候，无论早晨或黄昏，鹧鸪都要从林中飞来觅食。无论你在林中走哪一边，总有鹧鸪急拍翅膀飞去，震落了枯叶和桠枝上的雪花；雪花在阳光下飘落的时候，像金光闪闪的灰尘；原来这一种勇敢的鸟不怕冬天。它们常常给积雪遮蔽了起来，据说，“有时它们振翅飞入柔软的雪中，能躲藏到一两天之久。”当它们在黄昏中飞出了林子，到野苹果树上来吃蓓蕾的时候，我常常在旷野里惊动它们。每天黄昏，它们总是飞到它们经常停落的树上，而狡猾的猎者正在那儿守候它们，那时远处紧靠林子的那些果园里就要有不小的骚动了。无论如何，我很高兴的是鹧鸪总能找到食物。它们依赖着蓓蕾和饮水为生，它们是大自然自己的鸟。
在黑暗的冬天早晨，或短促的冬天的下午，有时候我听到一大群猎狗的吠声，整个森林全是它们的嚎叫，它们抑制不住要追猎的本能，同时我听到间歇的猎角，知道它们后面还有人。森林又响彻了它们的叫声，可是没有狐狸奔到湖边开阔的平地上来，也没有一群追逐者在追他们的阿克梯翁。也许在黄昏时分，我看到猎者，只有一根毛茸茸的狐狸尾巴拖在雪车后面作为战利品而回来，找他们的旅馆过夜。他们指点我说，如果狐狸躲在冰冻的地下，它一定可以安然无恙，或者，如果它逃跑时是一直线的，没有一只猎犬追得上它；可是，一旦把追逐者远远抛在后面，它便停下来休息，并且倾听着，直到它们又追了上来，等它再奔跑的时候，它兜了一个圈子，回到原来的老窝，猎者却正在那里等着它。有时，它在墙顶上奔驰了几杆之遥，然后跳到墙的另一面，它似乎知道水不沾染它的臊气。一个猎者曾告诉我，一次他看见一只狐狸给猎犬追赶得逃到了瓦尔登湖上，那时冰上浮了一泓泓浅水，它跑了一段又回到原来的岸上。不久，猎犬来到了，可是到了这里，它们的嗅觉嗅不到狐臭了。有时，一大群猎犬自己追逐自己，来到我屋前，经过了门，绕着屋子兜圈子，一点不理睬我，只顾嗥叫，好像害着某一种疯狂症，什么也不能制止它们的追逐，它们就这样绕着圈子追逐着直到它们发觉了一股新近的狐臭，聪明的猎犬总是不顾一切的，只管追逐狐狸。有一天，有人从列克星敦到了我的木屋，打听他的猎犬，它自己追逐了很长一段路，已经有一个星期了。可是，把我所知道的告诉了他以后，恐怕他未必会得到好处，因为每一次我刚想回答他的问题，他都打断了我的话，另外问我：“你在这里干什么呢？”他丢掉了一只狗，却找到了一个人。
有一个老猎户，说起话来枯燥无味，常到瓦尔登湖来洗澡，每年一回，总在湖水最温暖的时候到来，他还来看我，告诉过我，好几年前的某一个下午，他带了一枝猎枪，巡行在瓦尔登林中；正当他走在威兰路上时，他听到一只猎犬追上来的声音，不久，一只狐狸跳过了墙，到了路上，又快得像思想一样，跳过了另一堵墙，离开了路，他迅即发射的子弹却没有打中它。在若干距离的后面，来了一条老猎犬和它的三只小猎犬，全速地追赶着，自动地追赶着，一忽儿已消失在森林中了。这天下午，很晚了，他在瓦尔登南面的密林中休息，他听到远远在美港那个方向，猎犬的声音还在追逐狐狸；它们逼近来了，它们的吠声使整个森林震动，更近了，更近了，现在在威尔草地，现在在倍克田庄。他静静地站着，长久地，听着它们的音乐之声，在猎者的耳朵中这是如此之甜蜜的，那时突然间狐狸出现了，轻快地穿过了林间的走廊，它的声音被树叶的同情的飒飒声掩盖了，它又快，又安详，把握住地势，把追踪者抛在老远的后面；于是，跳上林中的一块岩石，笔直地坐着，听着，它的背朝着猎者。片刻之间，恻隐之心限制了猎者的手臂；然而这是一种短命的感情，快得像思想一样，他的火器瞄准了，砰——狐狸从岩石上滚了下来，躺在地上死了。猎者还站在老地方，听着猎犬的吠声。它们还在追赶，现在附近森林中的所有的小径上全部都是它们的恶魔似的嚎叫。最后，那老猎犬跳入眼帘，鼻子嗅着地，像中了魔似的吠叫得空气都震动了，一直朝岩石奔去；可是，看到那死去了的狐狸，它突然停止了吠叫，仿佛给惊愕征服，哑口无言，它绕着，绕着它，静静地走动；它的小狗一个又一个地来到了，像它们的母亲一样，也清醒了过来，在这神秘的气氛中静静地不做声了。于是猎者走到它们中间，神秘的谜解开了。他剥下了狐狸皮，它们静静地等着，后来，它们跟在狐狸尾巴后面走了一阵，最后拐入林中自去了，这晚上，一个魏士登的绅士找到这康科德的猎者的小屋，探听他的猎犬，还告诉他说，它们自己这样追逐着，离开了魏士登的森林已经一个星期。康科德的猎者就把自己知道的详情告诉他，并把狐狸皮送给他，后者辞受，自行离去。这晚上他找不到他的猎犬，可是第二天他知道了，它们已过了河，在一个农家过了一夜，在那里饱餐了一顿，一清早就动身回家了。
把这话告诉我的猎者还能记得一个名叫山姆·纳丁的人，他常常在美港的岩层上猎熊，然后把熊皮拿口来，到康科德的村子里换朗姆酒喝；那个人曾经告诉他，他甚至于看见过一只糜鹿。纳丁有一只著名的猎狐犬，名叫布尔戈因，——他却把它念作布经，——告诉我这段话的人常常向他借用这条狗。这个乡镇中，有一个老年的生意人，他又是队长，市镇会计，兼代表，我在他的“日记账簿”中，看到了这样的记录。一七四二——三年，一月十八日，“约翰，梅尔文，贷方，一只灰色的狐狸，零元二角三分”；现在这里却没有这种事了，在他的总账中，一七四三年，二月七日，赫齐吉阿·斯特拉登贷款“半张猫皮，零元一角四分半”；这当然是山猫皮，因为从前法兰西之战的时候，斯特拉登做过军曹，当然不会拿比山猫还不如的东西来贷款的。当时也有以鹿皮来换取贷款的；每天都有鹿皮卖出。有一个人还保存着附近这一带最后杀死的一只鹿的鹿角，另外一个人还告诉过我，他的伯父参加过的一次狩猎的情形。从前这里的猎户人数既多，而且都很愉快。我还记得一个消瘦的宁呢，他随手在路边抓到一张叶子，就能在上面吹奏出一个旋律来，如果我没记错的话，似乎比任何猎号声都更野，更动听。
在有月亮的午夜，有时候我路上碰到了许多的猎犬，它们奔窜在树林中，从我面前的路上躲开，好像很怕我而静静地站在灌木丛中，直到我走过了再出来。
松鼠和野鼠为了我储藏的坚果而争吵开了。在我的屋子四周有二三十棵苍松，直径一英寸到四英寸，前一个冬天给老鼠啃过，——对它们来说，那是一个挪威式的冬天，雪长久地积着，积得太深了，它们不得不动用松树皮来补救它们的粮食短细。这些树还是活了下来，在夏天里显然还很茂郁，虽然它们的树皮全都给环切了一匝，却有许多树长高了一英尺；可是又过了一个冬天，它们无例外的全都死去了。奇怪得很，小小的老鼠竟然被允许吃下整个一株树，它们不是上上下下，而是环绕着它来吃的；可是，要使这森林稀疏起来，这也许还是必要的，它们常常长得太浓密了。
野兔子（学名Lepus Americanus）是很常见的，整个冬天，它的身体常活动在我的屋子下面，只有地板隔开了我们，每天早晨，当我开始动弹的时候，它便急促地逃开，惊醒我，——砰，砰，砰，它在匆忙之中，脑袋撞在地板上了。黄昏中，它们常常绕到我的门口来，吃我扔掉的土豆皮，它们和土地的颜色是这样的相似，当静着不动的时候，你几乎辨别不出来。有时在黄昏中，我一忽儿看不见了，一忽儿又看见了那一动不动呆坐在我窗下的野兔子。黄昏时要是我推开了门，它们吱吱地叫，一跃而去。靠近了看它们，只有叫我可怜。有一个晚上，有一只坐在我门口，离我只有两步；起先伯得发抖，可是还不肯跑开，可怜的小东西，瘦得骨头都突出来了，破耳朵，尖鼻子，光尾巴，细脚爪。看起来，仿佛大自然已经没有比它更高贵的品种，只存这样的小东西了。它的大眼睛显得很年轻，可是不健康，几乎像生了水肿病似的。我路上一步，瞧，它弹力很足地一跃而起，奔过了雪地，温文尔雅地伸直了它的身子和四肢，立刻把森林搬到我和它的中间来了，——这野性的自由的肌肉却又说明了大自然的精力和尊严。
它的消瘦并不是没有理由的。这便是它的天性。(它的学名Lepus，来自Levipes，足力矫健，有人这样想。)
要没有兔子和鹧鸪，一个田野还成什么田野呢？它们是最简单的土生士长的动物；古时候，跟现在一样，就有了这类古老而可敬的动物；与大自然同色彩，同性质，和树叶，和土地是最亲密的联盟，——彼此之间也是联盟；既不是靠翅膀的飞禽，又不是靠脚的走兽。看到兔子和鹧鸪跑掉的时候，你不觉得它们是禽兽，它们是大自然的一部分，仿佛讽讽的木叶一样。不管发生怎么样的革命，兔子和鹧鸪一定可以永存，像土生士长的人一样。如果森林被砍伐了，矮枝和嫩叶还可以藏起它们，它们还会更加繁殖呢。不能维持一只兔子的生活的田野一定是贫瘠无比的。我们的森林对于它们两者都很适宜，在每一个沼泽的周围可以看到兔子和鹧鸪在步行，而牧童们在它们周围布置了细枝的篱笆和马鬃的陷阱。