26 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
Volume XXXYI 1 I, January ist, 1921, 
secure in its field as one of the leading 
ornithological publications in the coun- 
try, as well as the only publication in 
America devoted to oology. Its sub- 
scribers are found in every state in the 
Union and most foreign countries. 
Mr. Barnes, the present owner of 
“The Oologist,” is a lawyer by profes- 
sion, and an ardent bird student and 
collector, having now the largest pri- 
vate collection of North American 
birds’ eggs in existence outside of The 
United States National Museum. He is 
also Curator of Oology of the Field 
Museum of Natural History of Chicago, 
and has but recently completed on his 
home place at Lacon a private museum 
building fifty by thirty-two feet in size 
with two floors and a basement all fully 
equipped. 
“The Oologist” has outlived about a 
hundred similar amateur bird publica- 
tions that have been started, flourished 
for a time and died. Truly there must 
be a “place in the sun” "for the little 
“Oologist” to have enabled it to outlast 
so many of its kind, and to live to begin 
its thirty-eighth annual volume. There 
is no magazine known in which the sub- 
scribers individually seem to take a 
more personal interest, or between 
which and its readers there is a more 
real bond of sympathy. 
The Little Animals’ Point of View. 
Our good friend. Mr. Theodore H. 
Cooper of Batavia. New York, sends us 
an interesting account of his explora- 
tions of a marsh in company of Don 
Mayled, a fourteen year old. good-na- 
tured. intelligent boy. who is rapidly 
developing an interest in nature. Mr. 
Cooper, who in our April number was 
pictured in his library, tells of his suc- 
cess in interesting his friend by showing 
him how much the pussy willow looks 
like real fur when viewed under a mag- 
nifying glass. He points out that the 
picture of a puddle has upon close study 
revealed a great many interests and 
looks like the approach to the bend of a 
small stream or a clear spot in a swamp 
with bushes on each side and yet it is 
only a puddle three or four feet across. 
Setting up the camera much lower than 
the point of view of the human observer 
the camera lens portrayed some inter- 
esting reflections, and he wisely tells 
us when we find a pool to look at it 
from various heights. When we lower 
our eye to the height of a mouse we 
see an entirely different landscape than 
when standing. 
This also calls to the mind of the 
editor a suggestion that one may travel 
far and wide in varied scenery by 
photographing any one place at differ- 
ent points of view at different seasons 
of the year. 
It is not necessary to travel far to get 
foreign lands. A man once saw his 
friend peering in the grass and upon in- 
quiring what he was doing received the 
reply, “I am traveling in a foreign 
land.” Whittier somewhere says some- 
thing similar, which I am quoting: 
"The eye may well be glad that looks 
Where Pharpar’s fountains rise and fall; 
But he who sees his native brooks 
Laugh in the sun, has seen them all.” 
We especially like this view of Mr. 
Cooper and his friend. It is exactly 
what we are trying to bring out in our 
Rest Cottage here at ArcAdiA, the 
spirit of the Japanese in their nature 
study. A single flower in a vase affords 
enough joy for a day. I am glad that 
these two young men have found the 
joy of studying a little pool in the dried 
grass in a swamp. 
Let me say to other boys that there 
is more in a pool than chasing frogs 
and throwing stones at the turtles and 
yelling like a lunatic if you happen to 
see a snake. The pool itself is joy 
enough for a day. I wish I could get 
my young friends everywhere to realize 
this point of view that Mr. Cooper and 
his young friend are so well portraying. 
A Robin’s Unique Nest. 
BY A. ASHMUN KELLY, DOWNINGTOWN, PA. 
When our women folks went to take 
in the wash they were surprised to find 
that some choice lace that had been 
placed on the line was missing. Later 
the}' observed a robin sitting on the line 
with his gaze directed to a garment to 
which he soon flew and began to pull 
at a part of it. Knowing that a pair 
of robins had built a nest in the tree 
near-by, the folks thought that perhaps 
the birds had taken the lace into their 
nest. Investigation proved this to be 
correct, as the lace formed a part of 
the nest walls. After the robins were 
done with the nest the lace was re- 
covered, but in hardly a good condition. 
