WAYS OF NATURE 
ing itself in its fury to demolish its supposed rival! 
Yet I have often witnessed this little comedy. It is 
another instance of how the arts of our civilization 
corrupt and confuse the birds. It may be that in the 
course of many generations the knowledge of glass 
will get into their blood, and they will cease to be 
fooled by it, as they may also in time learn what a 
poor foundation the newspaper is to build upon. 
The ant or the bee could not be fooled by the glass 
in that way for a moment. 
Have the birds and our other wild neighbors 
sense, as distinguished from instinct? Is a change 
of habits to meet new conditions, or the taking 
advantage of accidental circumstances, an evidence 
of sense? How many birds appear to have taken 
advantage of the protection afforded by man in 
building their nests! How many of them build 
near paths and along roadsides, to say nothing of 
those that come close to our dwellings! Even the 
quail seems to prefer the borders of the highway 
to the open fields. I have chanced upon only three 
quails’ nests, and these were all by the roadside. 
One season a scarlet tanager that had failed with 
her first nest in the woods came to try again in a 
little cherry tree that stood in the open, a few feet 
from my cabin, where I could almost touch the nest 
with my hand as I passed. But in my absence she 
again came to grief, some marauder, probably a 
red squirrel, taking her eggs. Will her failure in 
6 
