214 In Touch with Nature. 



the river and return was a short journey that 

 was often made. When at the water's edge, 

 the behavior of the birds was widely different. 

 Some merely drank, others bathed, and a cat-bird 

 seemed wholly absorbed in contemplation, for it 

 stood quietly on a flat stone and looked up and 

 down the river. Did as I have done many a time, 

 pausing before I pushed the boat into the stream, 

 to determine which way to go. Here is a nice 

 question for students of animal intelligence : Do 

 animals of any kind ever contemplate ? Closing 

 my eyes to the busy world about me, I look back- 

 ward and recall many a ramble in this same river 

 valley. The nesting-birds of many a spring-tide 

 are pictured on memory's tablet, and how often, as 

 I interpreted it, a puzzled bird stopped to think! 

 How evidently plans were changed ! How fre- 

 quently advanced work was abandoned ! Why ? 

 If we can describe a bird at all, we must do so as 

 we state our own actions. If sudden thoughts 

 did not come to these birds ; if unforeseen occur- 

 rences did not change their plans ; if they were 

 not moved as men are moved, then every move- 

 ment was backed by some unknown phase of 



