"Behold the Birds of the Air" 65 



bullied? Why does the cock Wren employ his spare 

 time during the breeding season in making fictitious 

 nests, wherein no egg is ever laid ? What governs birds 

 in their choice of building materials? A Chaffinch for 

 instance will as a general rule pick his moss and feathers, 

 and make of them a nest most artistically toned to its 

 surroundings. But only this last spring, 1 one such 

 bird, at least, gathered from a decayed stump a mass 

 of white touch-wood, and built it up plain for all 

 passers-by to see, conspicuous against the black bole 

 of a fir-tree. Was this departure from usage induced 

 by the fact that the builder's lot was cast where no 

 nest, however secreted, could remain undiscovered, 

 and where every nest, however unconcealed, was 

 safe? 



It seems not wonderful, therefore, that those, in whom 

 a love of nature is inborn, should find that animals 

 can afford them entertainment otherwise than as objects 

 of slaughter ; and that an addition to one's stock of facts 

 about them should be held as great a prize as a full creel 

 or heavy game-bag. 



It was in observations such as these that Gilbert White 

 and many a follower since his time have spent blameless 

 days, finding, no less than Isaak Walton himself, the long- 

 est summer day too short for all the uses they would fain 

 have put it to. Fortunatos nimium ! Their days and their 

 ways are not ours, and the pursuits they loved cannot be 

 for us what it was for them. A new presence that of 

 science has made itself conspicuous in this as in other 

 fields, and not for the first time the fruit of the tree of 

 knowledge has served to bring to an end the placid 

 peace that reigned, before it was tasted, in the paradise 

 of Nature. Gilbert White was satisfied to note the birds 

 without any questionings except those which his eyes 

 could answer, to discriminate a new species of Petty- 

 chaps, and speculate on the hibernation of Swallows. 

 But now the schoolmaster is abroad and has turned 



1 1887. 



