IN THE OPEN [ [ 



One who is possessed with the idea of finding a 

 certain bird or plant is in a fair way to the dis- 

 covery, and sooner or later each will come into 

 the field of vision. How the robin discovers the 

 worm is a mystery to be explained on the score 

 of attention ; it is perfedt concentration on a single 

 point, with faculties trained in that direction. 

 That the footsteps of ants were audible had not 

 occurred to me till one day in watching the prog- 

 ress of the annual raid of the red ants upon the 

 black colonies, I plainly heard the patter of their 

 feet, as the column marched at double-quick over 

 the floor of dry leaves. There are many sounds in 

 Nature that only become evident when we give 

 absolute attention, when we become all ear, as 

 there are things seen only when we become for 

 the time an eye. 



Sensitive and sympathetic natures rarely confuse 

 one person with another, whereas the cold or 

 obtuse really never see the finer distinctions in a 

 face. They make poor observers. Any one un- 

 acquainted with birds will show by an attempted 

 description that he has not in the least seen the 

 bird. I have known old lumbermen who had not 

 noticed the difference in the needles of the species 



