BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 59 



and handled it and had finished the discussions 

 about it, he released it and saw it fly away ; but, to 

 his astonishment, it was back in his orchard a few 

 hours later. In a few weeks it brought out its five 

 or six young from the hole he had caught it in, and 

 for several years it returned each season to breed 

 in the same hole until the tree was blown down, 

 after which the bird was seen no more. 



What an experience the poor bird had suffered ! 

 First plastered up and left to starve or suffocate in 

 its hollow tree ; then captured and passed round 

 from rough, homy hand to hand, while the villagers 

 were discussing it in their slow ponderous fashion — 

 how wildly its little wild heart must have palpitated ! 

 — and, finally, after being released, to go back at 

 once to its eggs in that dangerous tree. I do not 

 know which surprised me most, the bird's action 

 in returning to its nest after such inhospitable 

 treatment, or the ignorance of the villagers concerning 

 it. The incident seemed to show that the wryneck 

 had been scarce at this place for a very long period. 



The villager, as a rule, is not a good observer, 

 which is not strange, since no person is, or ever can 

 be, a good observer of the things in which he is 

 not specially interested ; consequently the country- 

 man only knows the most common and the most 

 conspicuous species. He plods through life with 

 downcast eyes and a vision somewhat dimmed by 



