THE LURE OF FIELD WORK 69 



been obliged to go to the woods alone and to work 

 with no disturbance whatever to the birds beyond 

 my presence, which through days of intimacy they 

 had been taught to ignore. Wherever it has been 

 possible I have made photographic records to sus- 

 tain my statements, but very frequently this was 

 manifestly impossible because the subject was in 

 motion in a place too dark or secluded for a snap- 

 shot, and some of the most wonderful things I 

 record I have seen when passing through a wood 

 alone, having no camera with me. Some of these 

 happenings I have been able to verify by different 

 birds of the same species, often enough that I have 

 felt they might be attributed to the species as a 

 characteristic; but most of the occurrences here 

 described are isolated cases having been met with 

 only once in my experience afield, so that nothing 

 habitual or characteristic of an entire species could 

 be adduced from such records; they are merely 

 straws showing which way the wind blows. 



