WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



Every Jay was on a high perch sounding danger signals. With 

 a throb of great joy came the realization that I was at home and 

 accepted of my birds ; this other was a stranger, and her presence 

 was feared and rejected. 



So upon this basis I have gone among the birds, seeking not 

 only to secure pictures of them by which family and species can 

 be told, but also to take them perching in characteristic locations 

 as they naturally alight in different circumstances; but best and 

 above all else, to make each picture prove without text the disposi- 

 tion of the bird. A picture of a Dove that does not make that bird 

 appear tender and loving, is a false reproduction. If a study of 

 a Jay does not prove the fact that it is quarrelsome and obtrusive 

 it is useless, no matter how fine the pose or portrayal of markings. 

 One might write pages on the wisdom and cunning of the Crow, 

 but one study of the bird that proved it would obviate the neces- 

 sity of the text. A Dusky Falcon is beautiful and most intelli- 

 gent, but who is going to believe it if you illustrate the statement 

 with a sullen, sleepy bird, which serves only to furnish markings 

 for natural -history identification? If you describe how bright 

 and alert a Cardinal is, then see to it that you get a study of a 

 Cardinal which emphasizes your statements. 



A merry war has waged in the past few years over what the 

 birds know ; and it is all so futile. I do not know what the birds 

 know, neither do you, neither does any one else, for that matter. 

 There is no possible way to judge of the intelligence of birds, save 

 by our personal experience with them, and each student of bird 

 life will bring from the woods exactly what he went to seek, be- 

 cause he will interpret the actions of the birds according to his 

 temperament and purpose. 



If a man seeking material for a volume on natural history, 

 trying to crowd the ornithology of a continent into the working 

 lifetime of one person, goes with a gun, shooting specimens to 



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