260 KIVERBY 



and bluebirds. I question this observation, though 

 it may be true. The cousin of the kingbird, the 

 great crested flycatcher, builds in cavities in trees, 

 and its relative, the phoebe-bird, nests under bridges 

 and hay-sheds. Hence there is this fact to start 

 with in favor of my neighbor's observation. 



But when a lady from Pennsylvania writes me 

 that she has seen "swallows rolling and dabbling in 

 the mud in early spring, their breasts so covered 

 with it that it would take but little stretch of imagi- 

 nation to believe they had just emerged from the 

 bottom of the pond beside which they were play- 

 ing," I am more than skeptical. The lady has not 

 seen straight. The swallows were not rolling in the 

 mud; there was probably not a speck of mud upon 

 their plumage, but a little upon their beaks and feet. 

 The red of their breasts was their own proper color. 

 They were building their nests, as my correspondent 

 knew, but they did not carefully mix and knead the 

 mud, as she thought they did; they had selected 

 mortar already of the proper sort. 



The careful observer is not long in learning that 

 there is truth in the poet's remark, that " things are 

 not what they seem." Everywhere on the surface 

 of nature things seem one thing, and mean quite 

 another. The hasty observer is misled by the seem- 

 ing, and thus misses the real truth. 



The little green snake that I saw among the 

 " live-f or-evers " the other day, how nearly it escaped 

 detection by the close resemblance of its color to that 

 of the plant ! And when, a few days later, I saw 



