MIND AND MEMORY OF BIRDS. 21 



flesh the game-bird has a host of greedy and 

 ever-watchful enemies, and therefore its life 

 has been an intensely tragic experience from 

 its beginning down to the present time. 



The aquatic birds, viewed in the light of 

 paleontology, have changed less than any 

 others in their structure and habit ; this be- 

 cause their habitat and their methods of feed- 

 ing have remained constant in a general way. 

 From the Ichthyornis and Aptornis of the 

 cretaceous shores and seas down to the terns 

 of the present time, the seas have been the 

 feeding places and the homes of this sort of 

 birds, and the food has changed little in its 

 character. Probably the marine fish-eating 

 birds are all of very ancient origin, and have 

 developed very slowly, while the kingfishers 

 and other fresh-water birds are, compara- 

 tively, of recent creation, or have been greatly 

 modified from some ancient form, because 

 the conditions and resources of fresh- water 

 bodies have always been less constant than 

 those of the salt oceans and seas. 



While my sojourn at the old gin-house 

 lasted I made the herons and shore- birds and 

 the noisy songsters of the pine wood and live- 

 oak swamps my boon companions. I was not 

 in a shooting mood most of the time, prefer- 

 ring to drift about in my "boat, or to walk 

 stealthily among the wild things, watching 

 their movements and studying their attitudes 

 always with reference to the suggestions 

 contained in the foregoing notes. It is curi- 

 ous how one's imagination helps one under 

 such circumstances, by lending to every visi- 

 ble thing that coloring which never was on 

 sea or land. I soon came to regard my stately 

 herons and wide-winged pelicans as venerable 

 birds, probably older than the land upon 



