TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 297 



I do not know whether this kind walks or hops. 

 This would be an interesting point for the young ob- 

 server to determine. All the other sparrows known 

 to me are hoppers, but from the unusually long and 

 strong legs of this species, its short tail and erect 

 manner, I more than half suspect it is a walker. If 

 so, this adds another meadowlark feature. 



Let the young observer follow up and identify 

 any one bird, and he will be surprised to find how 

 his love and enthusiasm for birds will kindle. He 

 will not stop with the one bird. Carlyle wrote in 

 a letter to his brother, "Attempt to explain what 

 you do know, and you already know something 

 more." Bring what powers of observation you al- 

 ready have to bear upon animate nature, and already 

 your powers are increased. You can double your 

 capital arid more in a single season. 



The first among the less common birds which I 

 identified when I began the study of ornithology 

 was the red-eyed vireo, the little gray bird with a 

 line over its eye that moves about with its inces- 

 sant cheerful warble all day, rain or shine, among 

 the trees, and it so fired my enthusiasm that before 

 the end of the season I had added a dozen or more 

 (to me) new birds to my list. After a while the 

 eye and ear become so sensitive and alert that they 

 seem to see and hear of themselves, and like sleep- 

 less sentinels report to you whatever comes within 

 their range. Driving briskly along the road the 

 other day, I saw a phoebe-bird building her nest un- 

 der a cliff of rocks. I had but a glimpse, probably 



