Nature's First Law 



The unarmed turkey vultures or buzzards, so 

 common in our Southern States, keep adversaries 

 av^ay by the foul trick ot 

 disgorging over them the 

 contents of their carrion- 

 filled stomachs. Roosters 

 fight with spurs ; eagles 

 and hawks with beak and 

 talons; geese and other 

 birds still strike as effect- 

 ive a blow with their 

 wings as did those which 

 wore ivory spurs long 

 ago. Even the tiny hum- 

 ming-bird is a desperate 

 fighter and will longe his 

 rapier-like bill at a rival 

 like any duelist. The 

 largest animal fears hav- 

 ing his eyes put out by 

 the pecks of the smallest 

 bird. Why should the 

 guilty crow fly away 

 from the outraged king- 

 bird's nest at his fastest 

 speed if not that the 

 big, powerful thief fears 

 blindness from the stabs 

 of the infuriated little 

 parent dashing about his 



head in hot pursuit ? No bird is so poor as to be 

 without some method of self-defense. The tree of 

 life in Nature, as in Eden, must be guarded. 



109 



An egg-sucker. A foe of the ground 



