Natural Telepathy 



an explanation that your senses can approve, 

 though it is probably wrong or only half right: 

 from a distance they chanced to see wings speeding 

 in the direction of your yard, and followed them 

 expectantly because wings may be as eloquent as 

 voices, the flight of a bird when he is heading for 

 food being very different from the flight of the 

 same bird when he is merely looking for food. 

 But these most rare visitors, kinglets or pine- 

 finches or grosbeaks or bob-whites, that never be- 

 fore entered your yard, and that would not be 

 here now had you not thought to scatter food this 

 morning, at these you shake your head, calling 

 it chance or Providence or mystery, according to 

 your mood or disposition. To me, after observing 

 the matter closely many times, the reasonable ex- 

 planation of these rare visitors is that either wild 

 birds know how to send forth a silent food-call or, 

 more likely, that the excitement of feeding birds 

 spreads powerfully outward, and is felt by other 

 starving birds, alert and sensitive, at a distance 

 beyond all possible range of sight or hearing. By 

 no other hypothesis can I account for the fact that 

 certain wild birds make their appearance in my 

 yard at a moment when a number of other birds 

 are eagerly feeding, and at no other time, though 

 I watch for them from one year's end to another. 

 Like every other explanation, whether of stars 

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