UNDER THE MAPLES 



scream, "Murder!" whenever any of us go to the 

 well a few feet away? 



What is the real explanation of the fact that so 

 many of our birds nest so near our dwellings and 

 yet show such unfriendliness when we come near 

 them? Their apparent confidence, on the one 

 hand, contradicts their suspicion on the other. Is 

 it because we have here the workings of a new 

 instinct which has not yet adjusted itself to the 

 workings of the older instinct of solicitude for the 

 safety of the nest and young? My own interpre- 

 tation is that birds are not drawn near us by any 

 sense of greater security in our vicinity. It is evi- 

 dent from the start that there is an initial fear of 

 us to be overcome. How, then, could the sense of 

 greater safety in our presence arise? Fear and 

 trust do not spring from the same root. How 

 should the robins and thrushes know that their 

 enemies the jays, the crows, and the like are 

 more afraid of human beings than they are them- 

 selves? Hunted animals pursued by wolves or 

 hounds will at times take refuge in the haunts of 

 men, not because they expect human protection, 

 but because they are desperate, and oblivious to 

 everything save some means of escape. If the 

 hunted deer or fox rushes into an open shed or a 

 barn door, it is because it is desperately hard- 

 pressed, and sees and knows nothing but some ob- 

 ject or situation that it may place between itself 



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