IV 



BIRD INTIMACIES 



When, as sometimes happens, I feel an inclination 

 to seek out new lands in my own country, or in 

 other countries, to see what Nature is doing there, 

 and what guise she wears, something prompts me 

 to pause, and after a while to say to myself: 

 *Xook a little closer into the nature right at your 

 own door; do a little intensive observation at home, 

 and see what that yields you. The enticement 

 of the far-away is mostly in your imagination; 

 let your eyes and your imagination play once more 

 on the old familiar birds and objects." 



One season in my walks to the woods I was on 

 the lookout for a natural bracket among the tree- 

 branches, to be used in supporting a book-shelf. I 

 did not find it; but one day in a shad-blow tree, 

 within a few feet from the corner of my own house, 

 I found what I was searching for, perfect in every 

 particular — the right angle and the supporting 

 brace, or hypothenuse. It gave me a hint I have 

 not forgotten. 



I find that one has only to overcome a little of 

 his obtuseness and indifference and look a little 

 more closely upon the play of wild life about him 

 to realize how much interesting natural history is 



39 



