A PINCH OF SALT 



young from their nest in a low bush, where there 

 was danger from cats, to a new nest which they had 

 just finished in the top of a near-by tree! Could 

 any person who knows the birds credit such a tale ? 

 The bank-teller throws out the counterfeit coin or 

 bill because his practiced eye and touch detect the 

 fraud at once. On similar grounds the experienced 

 observer rejects all such stories as the above. Dar 

 win quotes an authority for the statement that our 

 ruffed grouse makes its drumming sound by striking 

 its wings together over its back. A recent writer 

 says the sound is not made with the wings at all, 

 but is made with the voice, just as a rooster crows. 

 Every woodsman knows that neither statement is 

 true, and he knows it, not on general principles, but 

 from experience he has seen the grouse drum. 



Birds that are not flycatchers sometimes take 

 insects in the air; they do it clumsily, but they get the 

 bug. On the other hand, flycatchers sometimes eat 

 fruit. I have seen the kingbird carry off raspber 

 ries. All such facts are matters of observation. In 

 the search for truth we employ both the deductive 

 and the inductive methods; we deduce principles 

 from facts, and we test alleged facts by principles. 



The other day an intelligent woman told me this 

 about a canary-bird : The bird had a nest with 

 young in the corner of her cage; near by were some 

 other birds in a cage I forget what they were; 

 they had a full view of all the domestic affairs of the 

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