BECOMING AN ILLUSTRATOR 55 



upon terms of close intimacy with the home hfe of 

 birds ever since I began to walk, and heretofore 

 I have hesitated to put into print many of the 

 experiences I have had with them, simply because 

 the public is not yet educated to the point where 

 it will credit my statements. 



If I were compelled to pass an examination as to 

 the number of bones in the bodies of my bird 

 friends I should be in sad perplexity. I never have 

 had the slightest desire or necessity to know so I do 

 not intend to learn. If it became necessary for me 

 to shoot one hundred and fifty rose-breasted gros- 

 beaks in order to determine the number of potato 

 bugs or of some certain "very tough worm," in their 

 "little insides" then I should remain in ignorance 

 as to the exact number they consume. On any 

 point pertaining to the life, habits, and characteris- 

 tics of the birds I can stand securely beside the 

 doctors of ornithology, for few of them have had 

 the incalculable advantage of beginning life with a 

 gift of the birds, where birds ho:ned in flocks. 



