SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 135 



ably spoken of as ponds) in our vicinity, on the 

 borders of which 'the village " gunners " built 

 pine-branch booths in the season. 



But now, as I have said, my ignorance was 

 converted all at once into a kind of bless- 

 ing ; for no sooner had I begun to read bird 

 books, and consult a cabinet of mounted speci- 

 mens, than every turn out-of-doors became full 

 of all manner of delightful surprises. Could it 

 be that what I now beheld with so much won- 

 der was only the same as had been going on 

 year after year in these my own familiar lanes 

 and woods ? Truly the human eye is nothing 

 more than a window, of no use unless the man 

 looks out of it. 



Some of the experiences of that period seem 

 ludicrous enough in the retrospect. Only two 

 or three days after my eyes were first opened I 

 was out with a friend in search of wild-flowers 

 (I was piloting him to a favorite station for 

 Viola pubescens), when I saw a most elegant 

 little creature, mainly black and white, but 

 with brilliant orange markings. He was dart- 

 ing hither and thither among the branches of 

 some low trees, while I stared at him in amaze- 

 ment, calling on my comrade, who was as igno- 

 rant as myself, but less excited, to behold the 

 prodigy. Half trembling lest the bird should 

 prove to be some straggler from the tropics, the 



