FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



an abrupt embankment and where I would have driven the 

 water had been nine feet deep with a stiff current, so undoubtedly 

 the horse saved our lives by refusing to enter. 



After we left the meadow the last resort was to drive south 

 on the road until we reached the corn-field, cross that, and thus 

 approach the quarry on its west side. We stopped to take a 

 picture of the Kingfisher, fishing from an old fence-post; with a 

 small camera and long distance it was, but a beautiful thing. 

 Then we drove south. The road lay straight before us while at 

 no place was the water over two feet deep, so we were safe there. 

 We got into the field, then into the quarry, and were overjoyed 

 to find our birds. During our absence they had grown, it seemed, 

 fully a fourth larger, the pinfeathers around the base of the beak 

 had opened, making their faces much handsomer, the plumage 

 had developed and taken on colour, while the size of their eyes, 

 beaks and crests was comical. We sat on the ground and played 

 with them while we rested from our rough experiences. 



We used especial care with those studies of them, as we thought 

 they would be the last. In one of them we felt repaid for all our 

 efforts; but in field work one never can tell, for this was not the 

 end. That came unexpectedly two days later. Passing the 

 quarry with Raymond, I suggested to him that we see if the birds 

 were gone. As we approached, there were the youngsters in the 

 doorway, evidently meditating their first flight. They would 

 crowd up beside each other, half lift their wings, peep down over 

 the edge, draw back, then threaten to try again. 



" Oh, Raymond ! " I gasped. " That is my picture ! There is 

 the real natural-history picture of those birds. Fifty of them 

 made when taken from their nest and set up somewhere are not 

 worth that one ! Oh, I must have that ! " 



" Can't you take it?" asked Raymond. 



"I must," I answered, but I did not know what I was at- 



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