Squirrels and Other Fur-bearers

by John Burroughs

Delightful sketches of small mammals familiar to country dwellers including the squirrel, chipmunk, woodchuck, rabbit, muskrat, skunk, fox, weasel, mink, raccoon, porcupine, opossum, and mouse. Anecdotes based upon the author's firsthand observations and personal encounters with these creatures of the wild.

Genres: Nature

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

In 1837, naturalist John Burroughs was born on a farm in the Catskills. After teaching, and clerking in government, Burroughs returned to the Catskills, and devoted his life to writing and gardening. He knew Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir and Walt Whitman, writing the first biography of Whitman. Most of his 22 books are collected essays on nature and philosophy. In In The Light of Day (1900) he wrote about his views on religion: "If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go." "When I look up at the starry heavens at night and reflect upon what is it that I really see there, I am constrained to say, 'There is no God' . . . " In his journal dated Feb. 18, 1910, he wrote: "Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all—that has been my religion." He died on his 83rd birthday. The John Burroughs Sanctuary can be found near West Park, N.Y., and his rustic cabin, Slabsides, has been preserved. D. 1921.

According to biographers at the American Memory project at the Library of Congress, John Burroughs was the most important practitioner after Henry David Thoreau of that especially American literary genre, the nature essay. By the turn of the 20th century he had become a virtual cultural institution[peacock term] in his own right: the Grand Old Man of Nature at a time when the American romance with the idea of nature, and the American conservation movement, had come fully into their own. His extraordinary popularity and popular visibility were sustained by a prolific stream of essay collections, beginning with Wake-Robin in 1871.

In the words of his biographer Edward Renehan, Burroughs' special identity was less that of a scientific naturalist than that of "a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world." The result was a body of work whose perfect resonance with the tone of its cultural moment perhaps explains both its enormous popularity at that time, and its relative obscurity since.

Since his death in 1921, John Burroughs has been commemorated by the John Burroughs Association. The association maintains the John Burroughs Sanctuary in Esopus, New York, a 170 acre plot of land surrounding Slabsides, and awards a medal each year to "the author of a distinguished book of natural history".

Twelve U.S. schools have been named after Burroughs, including public elementary schools in Washington, DC and Minneapolis, Minnesota, public middle schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Los Angeles, California, a public high school in Burbank, California, and a private secondary school, John Burroughs School, in St. Louis, Missouri. Burroughs Mountain in Mount Rainier National Park is named in his honor.There was a medal named after John Burroughs and the John Burroughs Association publicly recognizes well-written and illustrated natural history publications. Each year the Burroughs medal is awarded to the author of a distinguished book of natural history, with the presentation made during the Association's annual meeting on the first Monday of April.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/

Reviews

[Janelle]

Dnf. I was listening to this book via Librivox audiobooks to help me sleep at night; the narrator has a smooth steady voice, and at least to begin with, the anecdotes about animals were sweet and interesting to listen to. As the book progressed, the author moved onto animals that are more of a pest to farmers, and therefore he discussed ways in which these animals are dealt with, such as trapping. Although I don't object to farmers protecting their livelihoods, either in the past or the present, it wasn’t great night time listening for me. However I persisted in the hope the author would move onto less damaging animals. But it was to no avail. I reached the midway point to a chapter on porcupines in which the author describes beating a porcupine to make its spines come out. He seems to be doing this out of intellectual curiosity, but it disgusted me too much to continue reading.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent nature study book for reading aloud or having students read- elementary and middle grades, too. (Even I learned quite a bit, since this was definitely NOT covered well in my public school education)

Good illustrations.

We liked to supplement the readings with YouTube videos*, but even better is seeing them in real life.

*try Joseph Carter the Mink Man, Coyote Peterson, and ZeeKay's Wild World playlist.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars & 4/10 hearts. A little delightful book on wild animals, funny, interesting, educational, and beautiful. I can't remember any mentions of evolution or Mother Nature though there might have been some. Burroughs is usually a delight to read.

A Favourite Quote: “The quill of a porcupine is like a bad habit: if it once gets hold it constantly works deeper and deeper[.]”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “...just as we were sitting down to breakfast about sunrise, a red fox loped along in front of the window, looking neither to the right nor to the left[.] What of the wild and the cunning did he not bring! His graceful form and motion were in my mind’s eye all day. When you have seen a fox loping along in that way, you have seen the poetry there is in the canine tribe. It is to the eye what a flowing measure is to the mind, so easy, so buoyant; the furry creature drifting along like a large red thistledown, or like a plume borne by the wind.“
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “The next winter, two or more possums and a skunk took up their quarters under my study floor. It was not altogether a happy family. Just what their disagreements were about, I do not know, but the skunk evidently tried to roast the possums out. The possums stood it better than I could. I came heartily to wish they were all roasted out. I was beginning to devise ways and means, when I think the skunk took himself off. After that, my only annoyance was from the quarreling of the possums among themselves, and their ceaseless fussing around under there, both day and night. At times they made sounds as if they were scratching matches on the under side of the floor: then they seemed to be remaking or shifting their beds from one side to the other. Sometimes I think they snored in their sleep.”

[Dagwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful short book about the titular subject. Each chapter is about the author's casual observations of a specific furry little creature that one might encounter in many areas of the country (US). I have seen them all, save for the weasel and mink, in my own back yard. The setting of the observer is from a simpler time, the late 1800's. The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars is that there was a lot of talk about trapping, killing and death of some of the animals and I detest animal cruelty. However, that being said, trapping and killing animals was a fact of life in that day and age.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The chipmunk is quite a solitary creature; I have never known more than one to occupy the same den. Apparently no two can agree to live together. What a clean, pert, dapper, nervous little fellow he is!”

“There is one thing about a chipmunk that is peculiar: he is never more than one jump from home. Make a dive at him anywhere and in he goes. He knows where the hole is, even when it is covered up with leaves.”

“The legs of a woodchuck are short and stout, and made for digging rather than running. The latter operation he performs by short leaps, his belly scarcely clearing the ground. For a short distance he can make very good time, but he seldom trusts himself far from his hole, and, when surprised in that predicament, makes little effort to escape, but, grating his teeth, looks the danger squarely in the face.”

[Sharlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful book by John Burroughs. A playful and fun description of the various smaller mammals that roam our woods and fields. Burroughs is a wonderful writer and a well knowledged naturalist. This book will leave the reader with a great respect for the little critters of the wilderness and also educate the reader on their habitats, daily life and habits.

[Ralph Calhoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this John Burroughs book while looking for Edgar Rice Burroughs books, and wiht Squirrels as teh main subject I could not pass this up. Early on in my reading I love his rather romantic naturalist writing style. One author said Burrough's created "a body of work whose perfect resonance with the tone of its cultural moment perhaps explains both its enormous popularity at that time, and its relative obscurity since." Oh well, I tend to like stuff written at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries plus or minus 30 years. Just finihsed. Fun read, Burroughs is less science and more interesting stories of his observations. More than once he waxes about Turtles (both land and aquatic) which in this the 21st century are not considered fur-bearing.

[Slightly]

These stories are short and cute. A very thin line is drawn between personifying the animals, and treating them like pests. Within a matter of sentences, the tone will change from whimsical chance meetings with a Mr. Rabbit, or a Mr. Field Mouse to accounts of trapping and hunting the same animals. I think that's why I like the book so much. It never seems to cute and imaginary, nor logically inhumane. It's just the stories of years of wilderness experience.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In walking through the woods one day in early winter, we read upon the newly fallen snow the record of a mink's fright the night before." Thus begins the chapter on the Mink. Does that not just entice you to read the rest of it? Five stars because this is such a charming period piece. Published in 1900 and written, I think, for middle-school age children, but just as enjoyable for adults.

[Paxxy]

trying to track down a copy of this that matches my other Burroughs books. this is what i call the cat, 'fur-bearer'...

[Melissa Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute descriptive observant essays written about the wildlife the author enjoys.