VI 

 NEAR VIEWS OF WILD LIFE 



THE wild life around us is usually so unobtrusive 

 and goes its own way so quietly and furtively that 

 we miss much of it unless we cultivate an interest 

 in it. A person must be interested in it, to para- 

 phrase a line of Wordsworth's, ere to him it will 

 seem worthy of his interest. One thing is linked 

 to another or gives a clue to another. There is 

 no surer way to find birds' nests than to go berrying 

 or fishing. In the blackberry or raspberry bushes 

 you may find the bush sparrow's nest or the indigo- 

 bird's nest. Once while fishing a trout-stream I 

 missed my fish, and my hook caught on a branch 

 over my head. When I pulled the branch down, 

 there, deftly saddled upon it, was a humming- 

 bird's nest. I unwittingly caught more than I 

 missed. On another occasion I stumbled upon the 

 nest of the water accentor which I had never before 

 found; on still another, upon the nest of the 

 winter wren, a marvel of mossy softness and deli- 

 cacy hidden under a mossy log. 



Along trout-streams with overhanging or shelv- 

 ing ledges the fisherman often sees the nest of the 

 phcebe-bird, which does not cease to please for the 

 hundredth time, because of its fitness and exquisite 



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