206 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



talking and soon calls up all the feathered folk 

 within hearing to help decide what interests it. 

 Frequently in case of flight the bird reconsiders 

 and cautiously approaches at times very near the 

 object which first alarmed it. Some birds are 

 much more curious than others. A wren or a vireo 

 among small birds, or a catbird or a jay among 

 larger ones, can assemble the whole wood to in- 

 vestigate a camera, which, until their attention was 

 called to it, the other birds were passing with indif- 

 ference. My father used to say that more wild 

 turkeys fell victim to their own curiosity than 

 to the snares and traps of men. Wild and 

 domestic animals have a manifest propensity to 

 run from an object that frightens them at first 

 sight, then reconsider, return to investigate, and 

 frequently the wild animals, through curiosity, enter 

 a trap from which the first impulse was to run. 



Once as I lay tired out in the bottom of a boat 

 on the Wabash, a tiny red-eyed vireo came peeking 

 and peering, softly repeating to himself: "Du, du, 

 du!" Nothing happened, so he ventured closer, 

 until he was on a twig not a yard from my face. 

 ' ' Peai ? " he began asking. ' ' Peai ? ' ' No response 

 or motion was made, so he ventured even nearer, 

 raised his voice, and bravely screamed, "Tishvon! 

 Tishvoo!" at me, until he awakened the woods. 

 The birds of all kinds came flocking from all direc- 

 tions, and, following the example of the vireo, 

 drew close to investigate. I was having one of 



