36 In Touch with Nature. 



ducks at a shot ; but now (in 1748) you were forced 

 to ramble about all day and perhaps not see but 

 three or four. It is marvellous that a duck ever 

 appears on the Delaware now, and yet there are 

 often very many to be seen, and he who is awake 

 early or out late can hear the over-flying geese, 

 and possibly see them, when fog-bound on the 

 river. Wildness is not yet quite an unknown 

 element, even though man, for two centuries, has 

 been trying to rub it out. 



Much is missed by those who value a bird 

 merely because of its fine song or bright feathers. 

 Here, in the valley of the Delaware, such birds are 

 in the minority; but the great host of songless 

 and plainly-dressed birds have compensating 

 merits. Many a bird is cunning to a degree, and 

 needs but to be watched a little closely to be ap- 

 preciated for its winsome ways. There is now a 

 merry flock of tree-sparrows in the cedars that do 

 little but chatter in matters vocal, and offer only a 

 color-study of blended browns and black ; but see 

 these birds when at leisure, playing bo-peep in the 

 dead grasses on the meadow ; see them flutter and 

 scold the venturesome meadow-mice as they dart 



