230 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



hundred broods of wild birds, and know with what as- 

 tonishing rapidity they mature intellectually. In many 

 cases it is but a matter of two or three days, but it is a 

 transit from ignorance to knowledge, nevertheless. 



I had no glimpse even of these young quails after they 

 were four days old ; yet I knew they were very near me 

 many times each day. They had learned that mankind 

 were enemies not from instinct, but through instruction ; 

 their parents had told them so. This may seem strained 

 and overfanciful, but after being many weeks afield and 

 disposed to observe without preconceived notions, I, for 

 one, always fall back upon this leading thought, that 

 birds, at least, if not all animal life, are quite well gifted 

 with sound common sense, and this is their main safe- 

 guard. 



For a month a pair of Bewick's wrens dwelt opposite 

 my tent, holding our ample wood-pile against all comers. 

 At sunrise, let the weather be what it might, they were 

 astir, ready to resent the near approach of any bird, and 

 for an hour or more each day sang so sweetly that the best 

 efforts of the crested tit, the summer redbird, or the cardi- 

 nal seemed poor indeed. 



Close at hand was the rude oven of unhewed stones, 

 about which Katie, the cook, flitted industriously, and 

 her the suspicious wrens ignored entirely. As breakfast 

 was being prepared the old wren cheered her with his 

 song, but I was never to be so favored. Neither my com- 

 panion nor myself could do aught but listen from our 

 tents. The moment either appeared, the bird darted to 

 some safe cranny among the logs. This, as I have said, 

 was not a chance occurrence, but the established habit of 

 the wrens. They were not afraid of a woman ; they were 

 afraid of men. 



There was of course some reason for this, and I would 

 that I could report its discovery as mathematically demon- 



