The Making of Birdcraft Sanctuary 



267 



low the leader." One tramped through the brush carrying a large ball of thin 

 cord, while the other followed, knotting the slack of the string to the bushes 

 as he passed. The natural swing of the body in taking the hills kept the curves 

 true, and made the cutting of the trails a matter of patience, a brush hook, 

 stub scythe, pruning-knife and shears — that is, patience, plus the intelligence 

 that knew just how much of fringed edge to spare. It was in the exercise of 





THE POND AND .\N OBSERVATION SHELTER 

 Photographed by Wilbur F. Smith 



this intelhgence on the part of a man who had come merely as a day worker, 

 owing to the closing down of a shop in a nearby town, that ended in the enlarg- 

 ing and altering our whole plan of work for Birdcraft Sanctuary. Having 

 once set his foot on the trail, we found not only that he understood what we 

 wished to accomplish, but that he was a bird-man and sportsman of field experi- 

 ence, and a taxidermist also. How this suggested new work will be told later; 

 sufficient to say that, instead of the caretaker of our first plan, we have a 



