THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 215 



unmercifully and he cried for quarters but I 

 doubt he got them. The King birds were hardly 

 back on their watch tower ere a luckless Hawk 

 appeared within their self-appointed district 

 and away they flew after him. It was a livelier 

 skirmish but an unequal battle from the start. 

 The Kingbird is a born fighter and for some 

 harsh reason takes life too seriously and has 

 brought upon himself a bad name ; a fighter he 

 is but not a bully, and gives battle only, as he 

 thinks, in a just cause. 



' Often have I wished that I were a skilled 

 ornithologist, an expert in detecting the signifi- 

 cance of all bird calls, and easily following the 

 intricate and swift windings and variations of 

 their songs, and knew at sight their dress color 

 and just where and when to find them. So have 

 I wished I were a master botanist, for Nature 

 is so prolific in these old pastures ; but I am so 

 grateful for this deep Nature love and some 

 good degree of scientific and practical knowl- 

 edge. 



This many-acred pasture is in a half state of 

 untamed wildness, thick ^undergrowths cover 

 large patches, here and there are great trees, 

 hillocks, hummocks and rocks, stumps and old 

 first growth of pine logs gradually decaying, 

 you wander at will having a sort of delightful 



