208 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



I think the imitation which pleased and surprised 

 me most was that of the willow - wren's exquisite 

 joyous yet tender melody. Until I heard it I could 

 not have believed that any feathered mocker could 

 reproduce that falling strain so perfectly. 



One of the greatest pleasures in life — my life I mean 

 — is to be present, in a sense invisible, in the midst of 

 the domestic circle of beings of a different order, 

 another world, than ours. Yet it is one which may be 

 had by any person who desires it. Some of the smaller 

 birds lend themselves easily to this innocent prying. 

 And one is more in sympathy with them than with 

 the smaller, more easily observed insects. The 

 absolute indifference of these to our presence only 

 accentuates the fact of their unlikeness to us in their 

 senses and faculties. There is a perpetual fascination 

 in some social insects, ants especially, but it disquiets 

 as well as delights us to mark their ways. They baffle 

 our curiosity, and if we be of animistic mind we 

 become when watching them uncomfortably conscious 

 of a spirit, an entity, in or behind nature that watches 

 us and our watching with an unfathomable look in its 

 eyes and a challenging and mocking smile on its lips. 



One of our most distinguished biologists, who has 

 written books on some lower forms of life which are 

 classics, has never included insects in his studies just 

 because he has never been able to free himself from a 

 sense of uncanniness they give him. In me, too, they 

 produce this feeling at times: — these myriads of 

 creatures that float like motes in the sunbeam; 



