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Animal Houses "How long we may have gazed on a particular scenery and think that we have seen and known it, when, at length, some bird or quadruped comes and takes posession of it before our eyes, and imparts to it a wholly new character." Thoreau, Journal Animals
use their houses for protection, storing food, and rearing their offspring.
Their homes can be underground or high in the trees, in the water or
dry land. Birds build nests in trees or other convenient place such
as a roof crevice in a house. Squirrels gather lots of leaves and build
nests between branches of the trees during the summer. In winter they
prefer a hole in the limb of a tree. Chipmunks rabbits, and woodchucks
burrow underground. So do foxes, They live in a den until the young
are able to care for themselves. A skunk likes a ready-made burrow.
Web spiders spin intricate geometric designs used for capturing food
while insects employ a variety of architectures Some wasps build their
homes with mud while others chew particles of wood that mixes with their
saliva to make a paper substance. Underwater houses consist of shallow
troughs in the sandy bottoms of ponds and streams where fish spawn.
The turtle carries his house on his back, but lays its eggs in the sand.
Why
do you suppose that D.B. Johnson has a turtle in the final page of the
story?
"A
turtle walking is as if a man were to try to walk by sticking his legs
and arms merely out the windows." Thoreau, Journal
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©
2002 Linda C. Joseph & Linda D. Resch
All Rights Reserved
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