POKING AROUND FOR BIRDS' NESTS 



BIRDNESTING! What memories that evokes 

 in almost every man who knew a country 

 boyhood! The predatory instincts of a boy 

 when a bird's nest is concerned is often, if not gen- 

 erally, regarded as a species of cruelty, a manifes- 

 tation of original sin, as it were. Yet, as I look 

 back upon my boyhood, I cannot feel that this belief 

 is justified. There was certainly as much rudi- 

 mentary scientific curiosity and unconscious self- 

 development through the training of the faculties 

 of observation as there was cruelty in our search 

 for birds' nests. To be sure, the finding of the nest 

 and the eggs was rather an end in itself; we lacked 

 the modern psychologist's interest in watching the 

 parents' behavior and the young birds' growth. 

 There may even have been a low spirit of emula- 



