Project Gutenberg's The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers, by John Burroughs

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Title: The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers

Author: John Burroughs

Release Date: January 25, 2007 [EBook #20448]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[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