234: DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



their thoughts one to the other. The few kill-deers that 

 frequent the meadows in early spring at home had never 

 appeared to advantage as birds of brains; but here, in 

 southern Ohio, they were pre-eminently so. 



I have not exhausted the list of birds I found within 

 the limits of my daily walks while in camp, but they were 

 all alike in this one respect they were quick-witted. 

 Vultures were abundant, yet, though they often swept by 

 the trees upon the cliff, not even a timid sparrow lifted a 

 wing, knowing full well their harmlessness ; but if merely 

 the shadow of a passing hawk fell upon the leaves, the 

 timid birds that instant sought safety in the dense under- 

 growth beneath. I had noticed something of this before, 

 at home, but never until now in so marked a degree. 

 Here is an instance where discriminating knowledge has 

 been acquired. 



To see a bird poise upon a trembling twig or cut the 

 clear air with its pulsing wing, to hear it sing of a bright 

 May morning or warn its callow brood when danger is 

 near, is to see simply, but never to learn also, -what man- 

 ner of creature a bird really is. To live among them for 

 weeks, and to watch them daily and nightly, is to gain at 

 least an inkling of their true character ; and they who do 

 this are of one accord, I think, that a bird possesses a 

 goodly store of wit. 



And the same is equally true of other forms of life. 

 My tent had not been pitched more than an hour before I 

 had occasion to enter it, and to my surprise I found it al- 

 ready tenanted. A grim gray spider had an elaborate 

 web in one corner, in which a fly was already tangled ; a 

 gray lizard was dozing on the mattress ; shining beetles 

 crept through the cracks of the loose board floor. This 

 was encouraging. I was assured of many friends under 

 my canvas to entertain me during rainy days, and so it 

 proved. Beetles in abundance, but stupid to the last ; 



