THE ALERT EYE. 19 



whose veracity I have no reason to doubt, when, 

 as I concluded, my interlocutor turned upon me 

 with the startling inquiry : " Do you believe that 

 story ? " How I controlled my rising impulse of 

 anger I do not know. Why should my friends 

 invent an ornithological fiction, and then palm it 

 off on me for the truth? The real gist of the in- 

 quiry was that the doubter himself had never wit- 

 nessed the wise tricks of the titmouse — indeed, 

 he would not have known a titmouse if he had 

 seen one — and so it was a foregone conclusion that 

 no one else had. 



On more than one occasion have persons said to 

 me, with a very skeptical intonation in their voice, 

 " Did you really see all the birds you mentioned in 

 your article — all in one day ? " or, " Did you really 

 hear that medley of bird song ? " And they man- 

 age to throw a volume of doubt into the word 

 really. As well might they ask, " Are you really 

 telling the truth?" Such expressions of doubt 

 are, to say the least, not very complimentary. But, 

 after all, the real question is. How shall we observ- 

 ers of nature convey information to others if our 

 testimony is not to be accepted by non-observers ? 

 It is, therefore, in the interest of natural history 

 that we solicit the confidence of our readers. 



