TIME AND CHANGE 



the trunk of a tree, I do not fully appreciate the 

 spectacle till I know she is feeling for the burrow of 

 a tree-borer, Tremex, upon the larvae of which her 

 own young feed. She must survey her territory like 

 an oil-digger and calculate where she is likely to 

 strike oil, which in her case is the burrow of her host 

 Tremex. There is a vast series of facts in natural 

 history like this that are of little interest until we 

 understand them. They are like the outside of a 

 book which may attract us, but which can mean 

 little to us until we have opened and perused its 

 pages. 



The nature-lover is not looking for mere facts, 

 but for meanings, for something he can translate 

 into the terms of his own life. He wants facts, but 

 significant facts luminous facts that throw light 

 upon the ways of animate and inanimate nature. 

 A bird picking up crumbs from my window-sill does 

 not mean much to me. It is a pleasing sight and 

 touches a tender cord, but it does not add much to 

 my knowledge of bird-life. But when I see a bird 

 pecking and fluttering angrily at my window-pane, 

 as I now and then do in spring, apparently under 

 violent pressure to get in, I am witnessing a signi 

 ficant comedy in bird-life, one that illustrates the 

 limits of animal instinct. The bird takes its own 

 reflected image in the glass for a hated rival, and is 

 bent on demolishing it. Let the assaulting bird get 

 a glimpse of the inside of the empty room through 

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