176 LITEEAEY VALUES 



active and inquisitive, and by those that reside much 

 in the country." He himself had the true inquisi- 

 tiveness and activity, and the loving, discriminating 

 eye. He saw the specific marks and differences at a 

 glance. Then, his love of these things was so well 

 known in the neighborhood, that this kind of know- 

 ledge flowed to him from all sides. He was a magnet 

 that attracted all the fresh natural lore about him. 

 People brought him birds and eggs and nests, and 

 animals or any natural curiosity, and reported to him 

 any unusual occurrence. They loaned him the use 

 of their eyes and ears. One day a countryman told 

 him he had found a young fern-owl in the nest of 

 a small bird on the ground, and that it was fed by 

 the little bird. " I went to see this extraordinary 

 phenomenon, and found that it was a young cuckoo 

 hatched in the nest of a titlark ; it was become 

 vastly too big for its nest, appearing to have its large 

 wings extended beyond the nest, 



' in tenui re 

 Majores pennas nido extendisse,' 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my 

 finger, as I teased it, for many feet from the nest, 

 and sparring, and buffeting with its wings like a 

 gamecock. The dupe of a dam appeared at a dis- 

 tance, hovering about with meat in its month, and 

 expressing the greatest solicitude." 



He observed that the train of the peacock was 

 really not its tail, but an entirely separate append- 

 age. He remarked how extremely fond cats are of 

 fish, and yet of all quadrupeds " are the least dis- 



