22 



TRAVELS ABOUT HOME 



tigation should yield results of unusual interest or scienti- 

 fic value, and I have nothing more important to record than 

 the mere joy of seeing and discovering objects which never 

 fail to excite a bird-lover 's enthusiasm ; with the added sat- 

 isfaction of being able, in some instances, to picture far 

 more graphically than could be done with pen alone, the 

 scenes from bird-life which are here presented. 



The difference between casual and continuous observa- 

 tion is eloquently illustrated by our comparative knowledge 



"She was peacefully sitting" 



of the first bird we visited the Phoebe. To me, she was in- 

 teresting simply as a Phoebe who had occupied a new nest- 

 ing-site the first season it was available, and already had 

 become so accustomed to man that she permitted herself to 

 be photographed at short range ; but this was only the final 

 incident in her known history. 



For a number of years, so Mr. Burroughs tells us in 

 ' ' Bird-Lore, ' ' a pair of Phoebes, presumably the birds in 

 question, had occupied a nesting-site beneath a rocky 

 ledge, at the side of the valley in which Slabsides hides. 

 The present year, they returned as usual and, when the 



