2o8 THE INVITATION. 



upon the bank had dropped some of its fruit in the 

 water. As I stood there, half-leg deep, picking them 

 up, a wood-duck came flying down the creek and 

 passed over my head. Presently it returned, flying 

 up ; then it came back again, and, sweeping low around 

 a bend, prepared to alight in a still, dark reach in the 

 creek which was hidden from my view. As I passed 

 that way about half an hour afterward, the duck start- 

 ed up, uttering its wild alarm note. In the stillness I 

 could hear the whistle of its wings and the splash of 

 the water when it took flight. Near by I saw where a 

 raccoon had come down to the water for fresh clams, 

 leaving , his long, sharp track in the mud and sand. 

 Before I had passed this hidden stretch of water, a 

 pair of those mysteVious thrushes, the gray-cheeked, 

 flew up from the ground and perched on a low branch. 



Who can tell how much this duck, this foot-print in 

 the sand, and these strange thrushes, from the far 

 North, enhanced the interest and charm of the autumn 

 woods ? 



Ofnithology cannot be satisfactorily learned from 

 the books. The satisfaction is in learning it from 

 nature. One must have an original experience with the 

 birds. The books are only the guide, the invitation. 

 Though there remain not another new species to de- 

 scribe, any young person with health and enthusiasm 

 has open to him or her the whole field anew, and is 

 eligible to experience all the thrill and delight of the 

 original discoverers. 



