58 In Touch with Nature. 



of surprises that have been theirs. Perhaps fish 

 are so far methodical that they may be unmis- 

 takably reported. Sunfish always make nests in 

 the sand, to the best of my knowledge ; but do not 

 be over-confident; next summer you may find a 

 pair of them doing otherwise. This was written 

 in 1889, and now the novelty is at hand: a pair 

 of sunfish took up their quarters in an old shoe, 

 and kept their offspring in it until August. This 

 was not a forced matter, but voluntary choice. 

 There was a half-acre of available nesting-ground 

 on both sides of them, and nothing to explain 

 their decision, unless they foresaw its security 

 against spawn-eating and fry-eating fishes. The 

 fish stories hardest to believe are the true ones. 

 My old grandmother, that knew the birds in her 

 garden for fifty years, I hold a better authority 

 than the collector, however professionally he col- 

 lects ; yet my grandmother did not know that 

 a cat-bird was a thrush. But she knew the birds 

 of the garden as so many individuals, and real- 

 ized what wealth of common sense was squeezed 

 into their little brains. 



Poor snakes, you have been quite forgotten ; but 



