254 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



feats in weaving straw-plait for bonnets than any bird 

 accomplishes. A rook's nest looked at in the same 

 way is about as large to the bird as a small breakfast- 

 parlour, and is composed of poles. To understand birds 

 you must try and see things as they see them, not as 

 you see them. They are quite oblivious of your senti- 

 ments or ideas, and their actions have no relation to 

 yours. A whole system of sentiment and conduct has 

 been invented for birds and animals based entirely upon 

 the singular method of attributing to them plans which 

 might occur to a human being. The long-tailed tit 

 often builds its nest in the midst of blackthorn thickets 

 (which afford it the lichen it uses), or in deep hawthorn 

 bushes. A man comes along, sees the nest, and after 

 considerable exertion — having to thrust himself into the 

 hedge — and after some pain, being pricked by the thorns, 

 succeeds, with bleeding hands, in obtaining possession of 

 it. ' Ah/ he moralises, ' what wonderful instinct on the 

 part of this little creature to surround itself with a zareba 

 like the troops after Osman Digma ! Just look at my 

 hands.' Proof positive to him ; but not to any one who 

 considers that through the winter, up till nesting-time, 

 these little creatures have been creeping about such thorns 

 and thickets, and that they had no expectation whatever 

 of a hand being thrust into the bushes. The spot which 

 is so difficult of access to a man is to them easy of en- 

 trance. They look at the matter from the very opposite 

 point of view. The more thoroughly the artificial system 

 of natural history ethics is dismissed from the mind the 

 more interesting wild creatures will be found, because 

 while it is adhered to a veil is held before the eyes, and 

 nothing useful can ever be discovered. Put it aside, and 

 there is always something new and as interesting as a 

 fresh nest to a boy. 



