SHARP EYES. 17 



see the bird and shoot it before it takes wing. I 

 think he sees it as soon as it sees him, and before 

 it suspects itself seen. What a training to the eye 

 is hunting ! To pick out the game from its surround- 

 ings, the grouse from the leaves, the gray squirrel from 

 the mossy oak limb it hugs so closely, the red fox , 

 from the ruddy or brown or gray field, the rabbit from 

 the stubble, or the white hare from the snow, requires 

 the best powers of this sense. A woodchuck, motion- 

 less in the fields or upon a rock, looks very much like 

 a large stone or bowlder, yet a keen eye knows the 

 difference at a glance, a quarter of a mile away. 



A man has a sharper eye than a dog, or a fox, or 

 than any of the wild creatures, but not so sharp an ear 

 or nose. But in the birds he finds his match. How 

 quickly the old turkey discovers the hawk, a mere 

 speck against the sky, and how quickly the hawk dis- 

 covers you if you happen to be secreted in the bushes, 

 or behind the fence near which he alights ! One ad- 

 vantage the bird surely has, and that is, owing to the 

 form, structure, and position of the eye, it has a much 

 larger field of vision — indeed, can probably see in 

 nearly every direction at the same instant, behind as 

 well as before. Man's field of vision embraces less 

 than half a circle horizontally, and still less vertically ; 

 his brow and brain prevent him from seeing within 

 many degrees of the zenith without a movement of the 

 head ; the bird, on the other hand, takes in nearly the 

 whole sphere at a glance. 



I find I see, almost without effort, nearly every bird 

 within sight in the field or wood I pass through (a flit 

 of the wing, a flirt of the tail are enough, though the 

 flickering leaves do all conspire to hide them), and 

 that with like ease the birds see me, though, un- 



