THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



robin dashing at a supposed rival its own reflected 

 image on the window-pane of a darkened room to 

 appreciate what witless machines the birds are under 

 certain conditions; or watch the raccoon seriously 

 engaged in the farce of washing its food in the sand 

 or the straw on the bottom of its cage, to reach the 

 same conclusion. Yet in the field of their normal 

 free activity, away from conditions imposed by man, 

 how clever these creatures are ! The animals show 

 little wit in dealing with human problems, but their 

 own natural problems they are fitted, both by or- 

 ganization and by instinct, to solve. Birds in nest- 

 ing will often avail themselves of human handiwork 

 and shelter, as when they build in our barns, or on 

 our porches, or in our chimneys; but in so doing they 

 are solving their own problems, and not ours. I 

 heard of a well-authenticated case of a pair of robins 

 building their nest under the box on the running- 

 gear of a farmer's wagon which stood under a shed, 

 and with which the farmer was in the habit of mak- 

 ing two trips to the village, two miles away, each 

 week. The robins followed him on these trips, and 

 the mother bird went forward with her incubation 

 while the farmer did his errands, and the birds re- 

 turned with him when he drove home. And, strange 

 to say, the brood was duly hatched and reared. But 

 in this case the bird's primary problem, that of nest- 

 building, was her own; human agency came in only 

 accidentally, furnishing the nest's support. The inci- 

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