If your dog roles in poo or roadkill it doesn't mean that he's an idiot. Quite the opposite, actually. It means he's a team player and a good storyteller. In ancient times, when packs of wild dogs roamed the landscape, a scout dog who returned to camp covered in fecal matter and/or decomposing viscera was the equivalent of an American Indian scout returning to camp with stories of a herd of buffalo...

 It's the middle of August, and the heat and humidity have chased me to the relative coolness of Centennial Woods, a 147-acre patch of forest owned by the University of Vermont. There's not much stirring in the midday heat. Until, that is, I hear the tapering whistle of an eastern wood peewee ringing out from the canopy above. The sound is striking against the noticeable absence of other birds singing this late in the season...

Reader Dick Pearson submitted this picture of two tiny fleur de lis'. What are they? And where did they come from?  

Every other week we run a photo of something unusual found in the woods. Guess what it is and you'll be eligible to win a copy of The Outside Story, a paperback collection of our Outside Story newspaper columns. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner's name, will appear in next week's column. 

This skull was found in southern Vermont in a small patch of woods at the edge of a farm field. What kind of animal is it? 

Note the pronounced sagittal crest (the Mohawk-looking ridge of bone on the top of the head), which indicates that this opossum was a mature animal. As an animal ages, and its jaw and neck muscles grow and develop, the sagittal crest becomes more pronounced.

To learn more about opossums, check out Tracking Tips in the summer issue.

 Visit our What In The Woods Is That? contest archive.