THE HOME OF THE SWIFT. 93 



youthful mind, " Look how wonderfully the bird picks up 

 just one little seed at a time without disturbing the rest. 

 You could not do that with your mouth." " No/' replied 

 the boy, " nor could the canary squeeze into its beak a 

 whole half-penny bun, which I can do !" In this case out 

 of the mouth of a babe came words of wisdom. It requires 

 no more skill on the part of a canary to pick out one seed 

 from a heap without disturbing the rest of the seeds, than 

 it does for the baker's boy to pick up a loaf out of his basket 

 without moving the loaves underneath. To understand 

 birds it is necessary to see things as they see them not as 

 we see them. If the average builder were asked to watch a 

 pair of swifts at work and then report on them, he would tell 

 you that they are slow workmen, without method ; that they 

 put themselves to a great deal of unnecessary trouble ; that 

 the nest when complete would be condemned by the sanitary 

 inspector as allowing an insufficient number of cubic feet of 

 air per inmate. Show the same builder the nest of a bird that 

 builds in the midst of a thorny thicket so that the builder 

 cannot reach it without severely scratching his hands. He 

 will think that this is a very clever little bird to thus build its 

 nest in so inaccessible a place. To the bird, however, the 

 place is quite accessible, and the bird has built its nest 

 there because it lives in such thickets. It is no doubt diffi- 

 cult to cast away preconceived notions, and impossible to 

 see things as birds see them. Nevertheless he who makes 

 the attempt will be rewarded by finding that the actions of 

 birds and beasts suddenly acquire a fresh interest for him. 



