Sha ud 
ON BOSTON COMMON. 5 
infallibility. My own vision, by the way, is 
reasonably good, if I may say so; at any rate I 
am not stone-blind. Yet here have I been per- 
ambulating the Public Garden for an indefinite 
period, without seeing the first trace of a field- 
mouse or ashrew. I should have been in ex- 
cellent company had I begun long ago to main- 
tain that no such animals exist within our pre- 
cincts. But the other day a butcher-bird made 
us a flying call, and almost the first thing he did 
was to catch one of these same furry dainties 
and spit it upon a thorn, where anon I found 
him devouring it. I would not appear to 
boast ; but really, when I saw what Collurio 
had done, it did not so much as occur to me to 
quarrel with him because he had discovered in 
half an hour what I had overlooked for ten 
years. On the contrary I hastened to pay him 
a heart-felt compliment upon his indisputable 
sagacity and keenness as a natural historian ; — 
a measure of magnanimity easily enough af- 
forded, since however the shrike might excel me 
at one point, there could be no question on the 
whole of my immeasurable superiority. And I 
cherish the hope that my fellow townsmen, who, 
as they insist, never themselves see any birds 
whatever in the Garden and Common (their at- 
tention being taken up with matters more im- 
portant), may be disposed to exercise a similar 
