HASTY OBSERVATION 269 



pretty poem, in which a hawk was represented 

 poised in mid-air, on motionless wing, during 

 ♦^■he calm of a midsummer day. 



Now, of a still day, this is an impossible feat 

 for a hawk or any other bird. The poet had not 

 observed quite closely enough. She had noted 

 (as who has not ?) the ha\vk stationary in the 

 air on motionless wing, but she failed to note, or 

 she had forgotten, that the wind was blowing. 



He cannot do it on a calm day; the blowing 

 wind furnishes the power necessary to buoy him 

 up. He so adjusts his wings to the moving 

 currents that he hangs stationary upon them. 

 When the hawk hovers in the air of a still day, 

 he is compelled to beat his wings rapidly. He 

 must expend upon the air the power which, in 

 the former case, is expended upon him. 



Thus does hasty and incomplete observation 



mislead one. 



One day in early April as I was riding along 



the road I heard the song of the brown thrasher. 



The thrasher is not due yet, I said to myself, 



but there was its song, and no mistake, with 



all its quibs and quirks and interludes, being 



chanted from some tree -top a few yards in ad^ 



vance of me. Let us have a view of the bird, 



I said, as I approached the tree upon which I 



fancied he was perched. The song ceased and 



no thrasher was visible, but there sat a robin, 



which, as I paused, flew to a lower tree in a field 



at some distance from the road. Then I moved 



on, thinking the songster had eluded me. On 



looking back I chanced to see the robin fly back 



