Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/218

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204
EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

that his ribs are driven round upon his back. It is wonderful to see what a perfect piece of dovetailing his house is, the different plates of his shell fitting into each other by a thousand sharp teeth or serrations, and the scales always breaking joints over them so as to bind the whole firmly together, all parts of his abode variously interspliced and dovetailed. An architect might learn much from a faithful study of it. There are three large diamond-shaped openings down the middle of the sternum covered only by the scales, through which perhaps he feels, he breasts the earth. His roof rests on four stout posts. This young one is very deep in proportion to its breadth.

March 22, 1855. p. m. Fair Haven Pond via Conantum. . . . . On the steep hill-side south of the pond I observed a rotten and hollow hemlock stump about two feet high, and six inches in diameter, and instinctively approached with my right hand ready to cover it. I found a flying squirrel in it, which, as my left hand covered a small hole at the bottom, ran directly into my right hand. It struggled and bit not a little, but my cotton gloves protected me, and I felt its teeth only once or twice. It also uttered three or four dry shrieks at first, something like Cr-r-r-ack cr-r-r-ack cr-r-r-ack. I rolled it up in my handkerchief, and holding the ends tight