CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION 301 



his property exactly in the manner well breast and her bright black eyes look- 

 described in the note by Mr. Humph- ing up at me with a watchful and cal- 

 reys. It is a safe demonstration of culating scrutiny that impressed me as 

 anxiety, if not actually a ruse of the quite out of keeping with her attitude 

 bird; for the nest would seem to be of helplessness and pain. As I stood 

 each and every tussock ami bush, to quietly watching her, uncertain as to 

 judge only by the bird's rather wide- what her real condition was, she at- 

 spread alarm. Often several of the red- tempted to raise herself, fluttering her 

 wings will be hovering above you at wings and rustling noisily with her feet 

 once as you pass through a swamj) they in the dry leaves, only' to sink back 

 have colonized. again helpless as before. Not wishing 



Male and female alike have this to torture the mother heart I passed on. 



anxious hovering habit, usually accom- Returning in about twenty minutes I 



panied by loud cries in case of the male, looked under the bush again. No bird 



and by a feebler note from the female, was to be seen or any sign, nor any sign 



Nor is the habit by any means confined of her presence. 



to the redwing. Many birds differing t could not| of COU rse, be sure that 



widely m other respects, being distrib- this was a genuine case of feigning for 



uted among many families, have the the protection of her nest, but it seems 



same habit. Some of these are the king- quite reaS onable to assume that a bird 



bird, tree swallow, some ground-nest- really so WOU nded and disabled as she 



ing sparrows; though with no bird of appeared would not have rustled so 



my acquaintance is the habit as well noisily when she fdt herse if safe and 



marked as with the red-winged black- hidden from observation, nor would she 



ird - have had epiite so confident and judi- 



iVDMUND j. Sawyer, dally questioning an expression on her 



. . ~ bright little face if really in such a state 



Was it Feigning Death? of decrepitude as she so cleverly 



Brooklyn, New York, assumed. 



To the Editor:— Frances Blakeey. 



Was much interested in the article 



on "Our Wrens," in the September 



number of your magazine, and also in How One Finds God in Nature, 

 the "Interesting Observations of a Red- "I have been a botanist for fifty-four 

 Winged Blackbird." Such instances of years. When I was a boy I believed 

 intelligent mother love exhibited by our implicitly in God. I prayed to him, 

 little dumb friends always give me a having a vision of him — a person — be- 

 thrill of something akin to awe ; as if fore my eyes. As I grew older I con- 

 for an instant were unveiled an inner eluded that there was no God. I dis- 

 shrine behind nature's sterner front, missed him from the universe. I be- 

 where an enfolding tenderness broods lieved only in what I could see, or 

 untiringly. hear, or feel. I talked about Nature 



I had a similar experience, though and Reality." 



less striking, with a wood thrush in one He paused, the smile still lighting 



of my walks last spring in the woods his face, evidently recalling to himself 



near Washington, D. C. the old days. I did not interrupt him. 



I was walking along a narrow forest Finally he turned to me and said 



path where a dense undergrowth abruptly. 



crowded close on either hand. I heard "And" now — it seems to me — there is 



a sudden sharp rustle in the dead leaves nothing but God." — David Grayson in 



under a bush just ahead. I stopped and "Adventures in Contentment." 

 listened. The sound was repeated. 

 Stooping down I looked under the bush, 



and saw a wood thrush lying prone up- Nature will be found as busy in No- 

 on the ground with out-stretched wings, vember as in April — perhaps more so. 

 her larqc brown head sunk down in her — Backhaul. 



