Stránka:book 1912.djvu/404

372 The Book of Woodcraft leaves its own clearly recognizable track. One of my daily pastimes when the snow is on the ground — which is the easiest and ideal time for the trailer, and especially for the beginner — is to take up some trail early in the morning and follow it over hill and dale, carefully noting any change and every action as written in the snow, and it is a won- derfully rewarding way of learning the methods and life of an animal. The trail records with perfect truthfulness everything that he did or tried to do at a time when he was unembarrassed by the nearness of his worst enemy. The trail is an autobiographic chapter of the crea- ture's Hfe, written unwittingly, indeed, and in perfect sincerity. Whenever in America during the winter I have found myself with time to pass between trains, I endeavor to get out into the country, and rarely fail to find and read one of these more or less rewarding chapters, and thus get an insight into the life of the animal, as well as into the kinds that are about; for most quadrupeds are noc- turnal, and their presence is generally unsuspected by those who do not know how to read the secrets of the trail. DOG AND CAT The first trails to catch the eye and the best for first study are those nearest home. Two well-marked types are the tracks of cat and dog. Most anatomists select the cat as the ideal of muscular and bony structure. It is the perfect animal, and its track also is a good one to use for standard. (Illustration i, p. 374.) In these separate prints the roundness of the toe-pads tells the softness; their spread from each other shows the suppleness of the toes; the absence of claw-marks tells of the retractability of these weapons. The front and hind