SANCTUARY 287 



ears, poets have described a bird 's life as a happy 

 and an easy one. 



*'It is nonsense to talk about happiness or mis- 

 ery, as we know the words, in a bird's life, for 

 we have no means of judging it. To ascribe 

 human characteristics or human ways of reasoning 

 to birds, Shan, is to do something that has a very 

 ugly name. It is 'nature-faking.' But it is 

 equally nonsense to declare that a bird has an 

 easy life. Often the little twitterings and cries 

 which please us in the woods are cries of alarm and 

 fear. 



" 'Put yourself,' says Thompson, 'in the oriole's 

 place. It is May. The leaves are coming out on 

 the maples and the tassels adorn the oaks. It is 

 early morning of a cloudless day. 



" 'The Oriole spreads his bright wings and 

 starts in search of breakfast. From twig to twig, 

 from spray to spray, he flits, finding here a little 

 larva, there a little grub, just enough to keep him 

 hungry. 



" 'A Blue Jay attacks and drubs him, a house 

 cat makes a lunge at him as he flies by a garden 

 waU. Frightened almost to death, he seeks the 

 depths of a thick grove, where a Cooper's Hawk 

 tries to catch him, and, escaping from it, he flies 



