FREE FOR THE DAY. >ji 



than a rod before me. It was a king-rail. 

 With the thoughtlessness characteristic of a half 

 fool, I hurled a stone after it, with the usual re- 

 sult of frightening it and so losing a golden op- 

 portunity to observe a rather rare bird at a most 

 unusual season. Why will people be such nin- 

 nies? If a companion had been with me and 

 attempted this, I would have prevented him ; 

 yet, nine times in ten, I give way to the unfortu- 

 nate impulse to capture, if not destroy, the rarer 

 creatures I meet. Had I been born without 

 arms, I would by this time have become a natur- 

 alist. This tendency is due, without doubt, to 

 our non-human ancestry, but will we never out- 

 grow it ? 



The king-rail is a noble bird, and a few 

 haunt the marshes all summer long, nesting 

 where the tall grass is too rank and tangled even 

 to tempt a restless cow. Perhaps they have in 

 mind the danger of meddlesome mankind, and 

 dwell in such spots accordingly. Taking the 

 whole range of bird life into consideration, it 

 certainly would appear that birds give a good 

 deal of attention to such matters. And, before 

 leaving the subject, I will add that, to be intelli- 

 gible in discussing birds' ways, one must assume 

 that they have minds akin to ours; and this 

 leads to the suspicion on the part of some, and 

 conviction in my own case, that the birds' mind 

 6 



