FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



matter of size, showing, so far as I have ever 

 heard, no appreciable difference in the way of 

 plumage. 



The worst of it was that the longer I studied 

 the fellow, the worse off I found myself. One 

 minute it was large enough for the larger spe- 

 cies ; the next minute it was small enough for 

 the smaller one, which latter, I must confess in 

 the interest of truth, I was rather desirous of 

 calling it, since that is much the less common 

 of the two on the Pacific coast. As an honest 

 observer, desiring to play fair with myself, I was 

 bound to stand on my guard against being in- 

 fluenced by any such unscientific consideration. 



On the other hand, however, I reminded my- 

 self that I had been looking for the last hour at 

 hosts of very small sandpipers, and indeed was 

 looking at them now in this very pool ; naturally, 

 almost inevitably, therefore, by force of uncon- 

 scious comparison, (a force that I have often 

 found myself laboring under), this larger bird 

 would strike me as larger than it really was. 



Tossed thus, like a shuttlecock, between con- 

 trary opinions, I felt increasingly foolish, as a 

 man sensitive about his standing in his own eyes 

 of necessity will in such a predicament, though 

 as a matter of fact I was simply manifesting a 

 commendable spirit of scientific caution. If I 

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