A Book on Birds 



their favor; for they have a universal way 

 of getting near to the heart of man. 



But in any event at this place their cheery 

 talk invariably appeared to invite and 

 attract me first. 



Of course I encountered only one species 

 — the House Wren; and who does not know 

 it almost as well as he knows himself? 



For, as his name suggests, he delights 

 in human companionship, this trait of his 

 being so pronounced that he is liable to 

 settle down and build his nest in almost 

 any place at all associated with the habita- 

 tions or haunts of men. 



I remember once finding one of these little 

 fellows — after searching high and low in 

 vain for a half hour, lured on by his excited 

 chatter — most comfortably ensconced for 

 the summer, with his tiny brood of seven, 

 in the recesses of an old boot caught tight 

 fast in the branching forks of a big apple 

 tree at the rear door of a farmhouse up 

 in the country — the very last nook in the 

 whole neighborhood where I had thought of 

 looking. 



[74] 



