BIRD-NESTING WITH BURROUGHS 



When two men whose combined years exceed five-score, 

 can go a-bird-nesting with an enthusiasm which knows no 

 decrease, and count mere discovery a sufficient reward for 

 hours of searching, the occupation is evidently worthy of 

 investigation by every boy who would prolong his youth. 



I say boy advisedly, for the bird-nesting habit is not to 

 be acquired in later life, and, indeed, had better never be ac- 

 quired at all if its object be the taking of the nests and eggs. 

 One does not search for a new or beautiful flower to uproot 

 and destroy it, but to admire it, and to cherish the memory 

 of its perfections until, with returning spring, it renews it- 

 self and our delight in its existence. 



Bird-nesting, then, does not mean egg-collecting. The 

 latter holds no antidote for age, but loses its powers as grat- 

 ified desire checks species after species off the list, or in- 

 creasing years bring a realization of its folly. 



Your true bird-nester values his good fortune too high- 

 ly to rob the nest and himself at the same time. The dis- 

 covery of a bird's nest is the discovery of a bird's home 

 with all the fascinating possibilities attending the study of 

 a bird's home life. It is an event. One never forgets the 

 circumstances attending the finding of any but the common- 

 est birds ' nests. The species then becomes the individual. 

 One may claim an actual acquaintance in the bird world and 

 perhaps establish personal relations with some feathered 

 neighbor, whose family affairs become matters with which 

 he is intimately concerned. 



Furthermore, that almost universal heritage, the hunt- 

 ing instinct, finds a natural outlet in bird-nesting. The 

 farmer's boy who hunts hens 'nests just to triumph over 

 some particular fowl whose eggs have long defied search, 



