A PINCH OF SALT 
young from their nest in a low bush, where there 
was danger from cats, to a new nest which they had 
just finished in the top of a near-by tree! Could 
any person who knows the birds credit such a tale? 
The bank-teller throws out the counterfeit coin or 
bill because his practiced eye and touch detect the 
fraud at once. On similar grounds the experienced 
observer rejects all such stories as the above. Dar- 
win quotes an authority for the statement that our 
ruffed grouse makes its drumming sound by striking 
its wings together over its back. A recent writer 
says the sound is not made with the wings at all, 
but is made with the voice, just as a rooster crows. 
Every woodsman knows that neither statement is 
true, and he knows it, not on general principles, but 
from experience — he has seen the grouse drum. 
Birds that are not flycatchers sometimes take 
insects in the air; they do it clumsily, but they get the 
bug. On the other hand, flycatchers sometimes eat 
fruit. I have seen the kingbird carry off raspber- 
ties. All such facts are matters of observation. In 
the search for truth we employ both the deductive 
and the inductive methods; we deduce principles 
from facts, and we test alleged facts by principles. 
The other day an intelligent woman told me this 
about a canary-bird: The bird had a nest with 
young in the corner of her cage; near by were some 
other birds in a cage —I forget what they were; 
they had a full view of all the domestic affairs of the 
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