hand than when heard in the distance. They sweep about like
great dark shadows, hoo-hoo-hooing and frolicking in their own uncanny
way; then go off to their separate watch towers and their hunting. But
the chances are that you will be awakened with a start more than once
in the night, as some inquisitive young owl comes back and gives the
hunting call in the hope of finding out what the first summons was all
about.

V. CHIGWOOLTZ THE FROG.

[Illustration: Chigwooltz]

I was watching for a bear one day by an alder point, when Chigwooltz
came swimming in from the lily pads in great curiosity to see what I
was doing under the alders. He was an enormous frog, dull green with a
yellowish vest--which showed that he was a male--but with the most
brilliant ear drums I had ever seen. They fairly glowed with
iridescent color, each in its ring of bright yellow. When I tried to
catch him (very quietly, for the bear was somewhere just above on the
ridge) in order to examine these drums, he dived under the canoe and
watched me from a distance.

In front of me, in the shallow water along shore, four more large
frogs were sunning themselves among the lily pads. I watched them
carelessly while waiting for the bear. After an hour or two I noticed
that three of these frogs changed their positions slightly, turning
from time to time so as to warm the entire body at nature's fireplace.
But the fourth was more deliberate and philosophical, thinking
evidently that if he simply sat still long enough the sun would do the
turning. When I came, about eleven o'clock, he was sitting on the
shore by a green stone, his fore feet lapped by tiny ripples, the sun
full on his back. For three hours, while I watched there, he never
moved a muscle. Then the bear came, and I left him for more exciting
things.

Late in the afternoon I came back to get some of the big frogs for
breakfast. Chigwooltz, he with the ear drums, was the first to see me,
and came pushing his way among the lily pads toward the canoe. But
when I dangled a red ibis fly in front of him, he dived promptly, and
I saw his head come up by a black root, where he sat, thinking himself
invisible, and watched me.

Chigwooltz the second, he of the green stone and the patient
disposition, was still sitting in the same place. The sun had turned
round; it was now warming his other side. His all-day sun bath
surprised me so that I let him alone, to see how long he would sit
still, a