FEATHERED TOURISTS 



looking ahead to other migrant birds, I built me a 

 blind of driftwood and boxes at the hither end of 

 the beach, between two low cedars, where I had a 

 clear view of the shrubs, grass, sand and water 

 which composed the hundred yards of the crescent 

 cove. 



And by the way, when age forecloses my life 

 mortgage of activity, and I can only hobble, I shall 

 use up a year to good advantage near a beach like 

 this — studying and recording the amazing 

 changes, day by day, in physical geography, in its 

 wracks and wrecks, its seaweed, shells, jellyfish, the 

 storm-driven pieces of broken boats, and things 

 dropped overboard — all so beloved of Jabim : 

 And far from least, the migrant birds which come, 

 and feed, and rest, and go. 



My blind which, when finished, looked uncom- 

 fortably like a front trench dug-out, was my Mecca 

 for a short time early every morning. I found that 

 just before sun-up gave the best visibility. I began 

 with Zeiss Number 3's, then 6's and finally swept 

 the beach with Number 12's, only the last had to be 

 rested on the topmost box and swivelled like a 

 machine-gun. Each glass spoiled me for the pre- 

 ceding, and one day I completed my optical down- 

 fall, and laid up bad trouble ahead. I see in the 

 future, times of muscle agony, of weary, overladen 

 tramps through swamps, through bitter cold, 

 through blistering heat ; scores of times of physical 

 exhaustion but mental and emotional ecstasy. All 

 because I was tempted to lug my giant telescope- 



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