JUNGLE PEACE 



As I walked slowly about beneath the tree or 

 lay back resting in the chair, I seemed to be 

 watching creatures of another world. Whether 

 I ogled them with glasses or now and then 

 brought one down with a charge of small shot, I 

 was a thing of no account to the berry-eating 

 flocks high overhead. A vulture soaring lower 

 than usual passed over the tree, and the shadow 

 of his partial eclipse of the sun froze every bird 

 to instant silence and complete immobility. But 

 my terrestrial activities wrought no excitement. 

 The shot whistled through the foliage, one of 

 their number dropped from sight, and life for 

 the rest went on without a tremor. To ances- 

 tral generations, danger had come always from 

 above, not below. 



The very difficulty of observation rendered 

 this mode of research full of excitement, and at 

 the same time made my method of work very 

 simple. Against the sky, green, blue, or black 

 feathers all appear black, and the first two days 

 my glasses helped but little. For several min- 

 utes I would watch some tiny bird which might 

 have been a yellow warbler had I been three 

 thousand miles farther north. After memoriz- 

 ing personal characters, scrutinizing its flight 



