Not so much as a bug or a single beetle’s egg has he stored: Why not, seeing that these are his food?
a piece of suet for him on a certain lilac bush: Whose bush might it be? Is there a piece on yours?
upon the telegraph-wires were the swallows—the first sign that the getting ready for winter has begun: What kind or kinds of swallows? Have you any earlier sign?
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the few creatures that find food and shelter in the snow: Name four of the animals that so find their food and shelter. Are there any others? Look them up.
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there will be suffering and death: In your tramps afield this winter look out for signs of suffering. There are many little things that you can do to lessen it—a little seed scattered, a piece of suet nailed up on a tree, a place cleared in the snow where gravel stones can be picked up.
or even three hundred pounds of honey: By not allowing the bees to swarm, and thus divide their strength, bee-keepers often get more than three hundred pounds of comb-honey (in the little pound boxes or sections) from a single hive. The bees themselves require only about twenty to twenty-five pounds to carry them through the winter.
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the witch-hazels: The witch-hazels do not yield honey so far as the author has observed. Suppose you watch this autumn to see if the honey-bees (do you know a honey-bee when you see her?) visit it. Whence comes this quotation? From which poem of Bryant’s:—
“when come the calm, mild days.”
put on their storm-doors: In modern bee-hives there is a movable board in front upon which the bees alight when entering the hive; this can be so turned as to make a large doorway for the summer, and a small entrance for the cold winter.
whole drove of forty-six woodchucks: The author at one time had forty-six inhabited woodchuck holes on his farm.
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as Bobolink among the reeds of the distant Orinoco: The bobolink winters even farther south—beyond the banks of the Amazon.
to sleep until dawn of spring: What is the name for this strange sleeping? What other American animals do it? Name three.