256 



BIRD WATCHING 



against his views. Gradually, however, it began to 

 be seen that they pointed rather in the opposite 

 direction, and now it is recognised that Darwin was 

 right. This being so, it does not appear to me 

 absolutely necessary to suppose that when the little 

 wood-warbler flies at his catkin and produces one of 

 the prettiest little effects imaginable, he does so 

 always merely to get a fly or a gnat. There are 

 other possibilities, and I think that if our common 

 birds were minutely and patiently watched, we might 

 trace here and there in their actions the beginnings 

 of some of those more wonderful ones, which obtain 

 amongst birds far away. 



