介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 188)
15. Winter Animals (5)
[6] At length the jays arrive, whose discordant screams were heard long before, as they were warily making their approach an eighth of a mile off, and in a stealthy and sneaking manner they flit from tree to tree, nearer and nearer, and pick up the kernels which the squirrels have dropped. Then, sitting on a pitch pine bough, they attempt to swallow in their haste a kernel which is too big for their throats and chokes them; and after great labor they disgorge it, and spend an hour in the endeavor to crack it by repeated blows with their bills. They were manifestly thieves, and I had not much respect for them; but the squirrels, though at first shy, went to work as if they were taking what was their own.
[7] Meanwhile also came the chickadees in flocks, which, picking up the crumbs the squirrels had dropped, flew to the nearest twig and, placing them under their claws, hammered away at them with their little bills, as if it were an insect in the bark, till they were sufficiently reduced for their slender throats. A little flock of these titmice came daily to pick a dinner out of my woodpile, or the crumbs at my door, with faint flitting lisping notes, like the tinkling of icicles in the grass, or else with sprightly day day day, or more rarely, in spring-like days, a wiry summery phe-be from the woodside. They were so familiar that at length one alighted on an armful of wood which I was carrying in, and pecked at the sticks without fear. I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. The squirrels also grew at last to be quite familiar, and occasionally stepped upon my shoe, when that was the nearest way.
[8] When the ground was not yet quite covered, and again near the end of winter, when the snow was melted on my south hillside and about my wood-pile, the partridges came out of the woods morning and evening to feed there. Whichever side you walk in the woods the partridge bursts away on whirring wings, jarring the snow from the dry leaves and twigs on high, which comes sifting down in the sunbeams like golden dust, for this brave bird is not to be scared by winter. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said, "sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains concealed for a day or two." I used to start them in the open land also, where they had come out of the woods at sunset to "bud" the wild apple trees. They will come regularly every evening to particular trees, where the cunning sportsman lies in wait for them, and the distant orchards next the woods suffer thus not a little. I am glad that the partridge gets fed, at any rate. It is Nature's own bird which lives on buds and diet drink.
最后那松鸦们来了，那刺耳的尖叫好久以来就听到了，当他们谨慎地在八分之一英里远就准备着靠近，偷偷摸摸溜过来从一棵树飞掠到另一颗树，近了，近了，捡起了松鼠们掉落的玉米穗儿。然后坐在一颗油松枝头，他们急急地试图吞下对他们喉咙过大的玉米粒，呛着了；经过很大努力才呕出来，花了一小时时间试图把它弄碎，就是用硬嘴不住气地去啄。他们明显是些贼，我对他们缺少敬意；可是那些松鼠，虽然起先有点害羞，可接下来的做派仿佛那东西本来就属于他们自己。
同时还来了成群的山雀儿，他们捡拾松鼠掉落的碎屑，飞到最近的树枝，抱在爪子下，用他们的小嘴敲呀敲，仿佛那是藏在树瘤里的一只虫子，直到把碎屑瘦身到能让他们细小的喉咙充分咽下去。一小群这样的山雀儿，每天都来从我的柴堆那里啄食正餐，或我门前的面包屑，发着细微、飞速、浑浊不清的调子，像青草间冰柱相撞嘀铃铃的声响，或者活泼的“得得得”，或罕有地来个春天般雀跃的“得得”，真是一个来自林中夏天的金属技师。他们和我是如此熟悉，以至于最终有一只落在我正抱回屋的一抱柴上，毫不害怕地啄起了那些柴棍儿。一次，我在村镇的花园里锄土，一只麻雀竟然落在我的肩膀上呆了会儿，我感觉那一场面我更加杰出，比戴着任何什么别的肩章。那些松鼠后来也和我变得相当熟悉，偶尔抄近路时，也蹬着我的鞋面过去。
当大地到了没有完全被覆盖和再一次临近冬天的结束，当我那南山和周围柴堆上的雪被融化，松鸡，早晨和傍晚都走出林子来这里觅食。不管你在林子走在那边，松鸡都会翅膀搧得呼呼响爆出去，震撼了高处那枯叶枯枝上的雪，让它们在阳光之中泻下就像金色的粉尘，因为这勇敢的鸟才不惧怕冬天。它经常被雪掩埋，据说“有时候扑棱着翅膀暴跌入柔雪中，能掩藏一两天。”【原注：此引语查无可考。】我经常也在那开阔地启动他们，他们是夕阳落下走出林子去吃那些野苹果树蓓蕾“锦上添花”的。他们通常每晚都来而且去某些特定的树，那里狡猾的猎人埋伏就等着他们，远处那紧挨林子的果园可没为此少受损失。无论如何能养得起松鸡还是令我高兴。那是大自然自己的鸟靠蓓蕾为生，饮的是天上的精华。
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