270 HASTY OBSERVATION 



to the top of the tree where I had first disturbed 

 it, and in a moment or two more, forth came 

 the thrasher's song again. Then I went cau- 

 tiously back and caught the robin in the very 

 act of reproducing perfectly the song of the 

 brown thrasher. A bolder plagiarist I had 

 never seen; not only had he got the words, as 

 it were correctly, but he delivered them in the 

 same self-conscious manner. His performance 

 would probably have deceived the brown 

 thrasher himself. How did the robin come by 

 this song? I can suggest no other explanation 

 than that he must have learned it from the 

 brown thrasher. Probably the latter bird sang 

 near the nest of the robin, so that the young 

 heard this song and not that of their own kind. 

 If so it would be interesting to know if all the 

 young males learned the song. 



Close attention is the secret of learning from 

 nature's book, as from every other. Most 

 persons only look at the pictures, but the real 

 student studies the text; he alone knows what 

 tlie pictures really mean. There is a great deal 

 of by- play going on in the life of nature about 

 us, a great deal of variation and out-cropping of 

 individual traits, that we entirely miss unless 

 we have our eyes and ears open. 



It is not like the play at the theatre, where 

 everything is made conspicuous and aims to 

 catch the eye, and where the story clearly and 

 fully unfolds itself. On nature's stage many 

 dramas are being played at once, and without 

 any reference to the lookers-on, unless it be to 



