HOW THE BIRDS KNOW 311 



the eventual means of transportation. They have 

 moved forward in a slow, steady progression, di- 

 rected by a form of knowledge the source of which 

 we can not divine, since they are birds and we are 

 human beings. 



We feel that the birds are closer kin, of greater 

 interest, more nearly paralleling our life processes 

 than are forms of life lower than they. Yet to all 

 lower life, no matter how lowly, we must grant 

 the power to know how to live after the habits and 

 characteristics of its kind. The life processes of a 

 bee or ant are more complicated than those of a 

 bird, yet these tiny creatures, which would make 

 the average bird but a small mouthful, have the 

 same knowledge of how to live their lives. 



There seems to be no room for comparison be- 

 tween an oriole, exquisite in colour, tireless of wing, 

 of beautiful song, weaving her complicated ham- 

 mock of plant fibre in which to swing the nest for 

 her eggs and young, and a squashy, big caterpillar 

 on a hickory twig beside her. It is difficult to 

 discover eyes, brain, or much power of locomotion 

 in the worm, yet if that caterpillar is taken from its 

 hickory twig and carried a long distance, in case 

 it is a regalis, it will travel in a straight line to 

 the nearest hickory tree, which it will climb, feed 

 through a series of moults to maturity, descend to 

 earth, burrow to a depth of six inches, prepare its 

 winter residence, cast its skin, and take on the 

 form of the moth, which emerges in the spring. 



