WAYS OF NATURE 
kindreds of the wild. He went not furtively. He had 
no particular objection to making a noise. He did 
not consider it necessary to stop every little while, 
stiffen himself to a monument of immobility, cast 
wary glances about the gloom, and sniff the air for 
the taint of enemies. He did not care who knew of 
his coming, and he did not greatly care who came. 
Behind his panoply of biting spears he felt himself 
secure, and in that security he moved as if he held 
in fee the whole green, shadowy, perilous woodland 
world.” 
III. BIRDS AND STRINGS 
A college professor writes me as follows: — 
“Watching this morning a robin attempting to 
carry off a string, one end of which was caught in 
a tree, I was much impressed by his utter lack of 
sense. He could not realize that the string was fast, 
or that it must be loosened before it could be car- 
ried off, and in his efforts to get it all in his bill he 
wound it about a neighboring limb. If as little sense 
were displayed in using other material for nests, 
there would be no robins’ nests. It impressed me 
more than ever with the important part played by 
instinct.” . 
Who ever saw any of our common birds dis- 
play any sense or judgment in the handling of 
strings? Strings are comparatively a new thing with 
birds; they are not a natural product, and as a 
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