180 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



could food be got in no other manner, few, I imagine, 

 would starve before they learned to swim. 



To return to the bathers. It was a pretty sight to 

 watch the sparrow and cat-bird preening their feathers, 

 each perched upon a projecting pebble, from which they 

 could see themselves reflected in the water, albeit a quiver- 

 ing and distorted image. Did they recognize it? At 

 least, the wren did not, as it sat on the opposite side of 

 the stream, scanning the stone wall in hopes of a lunch. 

 Think of a house-wren contemplating a stone wall in 

 silence ! Yet this one did ; but it soon proved too great 

 a task, and as it darted through a knot-hole into the outer 

 world, I heard its fault-finding chatter, even above the 

 drip and rattle of the ponderous water-wheel. 



Before they left, the swallows went through a series of 

 bewildering antics in front of, above, and almost beneath 

 the wheel. In and out the rolling cloud of mist and 

 through every thin sheet of water pouring from the 

 wheel's broad front, these birds pursued some phantom 

 through the trackless air. Not for a second did they 

 check their course, nor cease to chatter as they threaded 

 like lightning the cramped quarter of the wheel-house. 

 What was their object? Do not ask. Although there 

 may be many who assume to know, it were, in truth, as 

 idle to question the Sphinx as to attempt to unravel the 

 mystery of bird ways. Again and again, as the year rolls 

 by, the rambler must be content to merely witness, not to 

 unfathom the why's and wherefores of a bird's doing ; but 

 still this unpleasant experience does not go for naught. 

 It very soon teaches him that birds are something beyond 

 what those who should know better have asserted them 

 to be. To learn this is a great gain. It is well to give 

 heed to him or her who carries a spy-glass ; but as to him 

 who merely carries a shot-gun, and robs birds' nests in 

 the name of science, faugh ! 



