A WINGED CHUM 177 



that afternoon he set ol¥ to the old fallen cedar, in 

 hopes of seeing the Thrush. 



Soon, sure enough, he heard the Wood Thrush 's 

 call: 



"Come to me!" followed by another group of 

 three notes and ending high up with a rippling 

 clink like the ring of blacksmith's hammer on an 

 anvil, far, far away. 



So much, at least, Shan had achieved. He was 

 in the neighborhood of the Thrush. Now, it was 

 necessary to find him. He remembered a saying 

 made by the Biological Survey expert: 



''The Kingdom of Nature is not closed by a 

 strait gate nor reached by a narrow way. On 

 the contrary, wide is the gate and broad is the way 

 that leads to it, only — you must go slowly and 

 in silence. You can walk through a wood a dozen 

 times, and never see more than a few of the com- 

 moner birds, but it is practically impossible to sit 

 in a wood, motionless, for half an hour, without 

 seeing a dozen different kinds of birds, many of 

 them rare to the casual observer. ' ' 



So selecting a background on which he would 

 be as inconspicuous as possible, the lad threw him- 

 self down on the ground and became still. From 

 time to time he whistled the call ''Come to me!" 



