FIELD AND STUDY 



refinement. Domestication, or semi-domestication, 

 coarsens and vulgarizes the wild creatures; only in 

 the freedom of their native haunts do they keep 

 the beauty and delicacy of form and color that 

 belong to them. 



A nuthatch comes upon the apple-tree in front of 

 me, uttering now and then his soft nasal call, and 

 runs up and down and round the trunk and 

 branches, his boat-shaped body navigating the 

 rough surfaces and barely touching them. Every 

 moment or two he stops and turns his head straight 

 out from the tree as if he had an extra joint in his 

 neck. Is he on the lookout for danger .^^ He pecks a 

 little now and then, but most of the food he is in 

 quest of seems on the surface and is very minute. 

 A downy woodpecker comes upon the same tree. 

 His movements are not so free as those of the nut- 

 hatch. He does not go head foremost down the tree; 

 his head is always pointed upward. He braces and 

 steadies himself with his tail, which has stiif spines 

 at the ends of the quills. By a curious gymnastic 

 feat he drops down the trunk inch by inch, loosing 

 his hold for a moment and instantly recovering it. 

 He cannot point his beak out at right angles to the 

 tree as can the nuthatch. In fact, he is not a tree- 

 creeper, but a wood-pecker, and can penetrate fairly 

 hard wood with his beak. His voice has a harsh, 

 metallic ring compared with that of the soft, child- 

 like call of the nuthatch. His only contribution to 



160 



