AUGUST 167 



believed in the almost unvarying character 

 of instinct, it is really remarkable to see how 

 this bird has taken possession of every sort 

 of string, yarn, silk, or ravelled rope that 

 man has thrown in her way, and applied it 

 to the purposes of her home building. 



When this pocket is finished, it forms so 

 thorough a shelter from prying eyes that 

 Madam Oriole herself dares, as female birds 

 in our latitude rarely do, to adorn herself 

 with the colors of her brilliant mate. But 

 she does so discreetly and with a modest 

 reserve that is befitting a member of a class 

 of animals in which beauty is distinctly a 

 male prerogative. 



A NEW FEARLESSNESS IN BIRDS 



There is a matter which I hardly dare 

 record, since it must be largely a question 

 of impression. But I have had my own 

 feeling corroborated from a number of un- 

 expected sources and I venture to set it 

 down. The summer of nineteen hundred 

 and two marked a turning-point in the social 

 relations existing between man and bird in 



