BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
51 
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, horny hand to hand, while the villagers 
were discussing it in their slow ponderous fashion 
— how wildly its little wild heart must have palpi- 
tated ! — 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 inhospit- 
able 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 
countryman only knows the most common and 
the most conspicuous species. He plods through 
life with downcast eyes and a vision somewhat 
