INTRODUCTION. 



Many a time I have asked my friends the question "What is 

 life?" and have received such answers as "To be" and "To ex- 

 ist", but it was left for a little black-eyed and black-skinned boy 

 in a school where I was speaking, to give to me the answer that has 

 pleased me most. He said "It is to see things, Sir" and so it is 

 if only we see with our mind's eye as well as with our "lamps". 



To know 



"Of the wild bee's morning chase, 



Of the wild flower's time and place, 

 Flight of fowl, and habitude 



Of the tenants of the wood ; 

 How the tortoise bears his shell, 



How the woodchuck digs his cell, 

 And the ground mole sinks his well ; 



How the robin feeds her young, 

 How the oriole's nest is hung." 



'To know these things is to add to the resources of our lives, 

 and mightily so, if our knowledge is at first hand. To be sure, 

 most of it has to be served to us and usually it is creamed and 

 sugared for us. Oftentimes it has to be spiced to suit our jaded 

 mental palates. It is for that reason that we should do well to hark 

 back to nature. 



Let us get acquainted with the birds. They will take us over 

 the earth, the sea and the sky. They will reveal to us the best of 

 nature's secrets. 



We shall learn something of the skunk cabbage when we see 

 the dapper little yellow-throat building her home within it, choos- 

 ing to endure its horrid odor for the protection that it gives to her 

 helpless little babies. 



We shall learn that snakes crawl out of their skins when we 

 find the crested flycatcher working a cast-off skin into her nest to 

 scare her enemies away. 



We shall get a genuine pleasure in knowing that the little 

 bird we call a petrel was named after Saint Peter because it walks 

 upon the water. 



