CHAPTER IX 



Watching Birds in tlie 

 Greenwoods 



I HAVE called attention in the last chapter to that 

 independent or self-reliant quality which so many- 

 birds possess, and by virtue of which they often act 

 differently to their fellows, even when there is a strong 

 inducement to them to act as they do. This seems 

 to me an important point, for it must be as the 

 foundation-stone upon which change of habit would 

 be built, and change of habit points out a certain 

 path along which change of structure, were it to 

 occur, would be preserved, and a new species be 

 thus formed. 



One might think that the most timid birds would, 



under ordinary circumstances, be the ones least liable 



to change their habits, for such change would often 



mean a penetrating into " fresh fields and pastures 



p 225 



