A LABRADOR SPRING 



streets and in other perching birds, and they 

 were always held in front. 



The modern study of birds by means of 

 powerful prismatic binoculars and occasionally 

 of telescopes reveals much that was concealed 

 from the students that depended on the naked 

 eye and the loaded gun, and those who were 

 brought up in the " collecting age," unless they 

 have fully adopted modern methods, are apt 

 to look with some suspicion on those who use 

 glasses. The student who leaves the gun at 

 home or keeps it judiciously in the background, 

 not only sees more with these glasses, but also 

 with the naked eye, for the birds soon recognize 

 the difference between the man with the gun 

 and the man with the glasses, and behave 

 accordingly, and this is a point that the old- 

 time student does not appreciate. For years 

 I never got nearer than a long gun-shot from 

 an adult turnstone and never observed him 

 for any length of time at that distance, but, 

 since adopting modern methods, I have spent 

 many interesting half -hours with these birds, 

 at times so close that I could not focus my 

 glasses on them, and have watched every detail 

 of their actions in turning over seaweed and 



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