Walden, Winter Animals summary

What happens

1. Frozen ponds give the narrator new routes and unfamiliar views, while owls, geese, foxes, and cracking ice fill winter with sound.
2. Corn outside his door attracts rabbits, squirrels, jays, and chickadees, whose movements and feeding habits he closely watches.
3. Partridges feed near the hut, while hunting packs and visiting men prompt accounts of foxes escaping or encountering hunters.
4. An old hunter describes shooting a fox, and the narrator recalls local hunting traditions and records of traded skins.
5. Mice damage nearby pines, and hares shelter beneath the house and feed outside his door.
6. A hare’s powerful escape overturns the narrator’s pity, and he celebrates rabbits and partridges as enduring woodland inhabitants.

In this chapter

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