blow. Then he pried off the cover of a village of unknown 
inhabitants, upon which he feasted, like the — he 
seemed. 
Leisurely he climbed and gorged until he cee the 
-galal bonnet which crowned the top of the stump. There he 
_preened his striped wings with their brilliant orange lining, 
wiped his red mustaches on the leaves, scratched his ear 
with one long toe, stretching his short leg around and in 
front of his wing with a satisfied masculine air which plain- 
ly said that weather conditions affected not the doce Bauer 
_of a free lance such as he. 
‘This seemed his mental attitude, but who can ee the 
psychological outlook of a bird? In the long generations 
since man left his former home in the treetops he has lost 
touch with his old neighbors, and how little of their inner 
life he remembers. Some few have atavistic longings to | 
resume the old life, and with opera glasses or camera haunt 
their former habitat, perhaps recalling primeval days and 
deeds. They sometimes assign certain motives to particular 
acts, but who can know what is in the brain that guides the 
actions of the birds, who dares to feel that he knows in © 
certainty the contents of the mind that is certainly there? 
Their lovers watch their actions, study and record their | 
movements, but there is a wall which separates them and 
prevents communion. Yet a friendly eye often sees olimpses 
of curiosity, powers of communication, love of young and 
home, evidences of memory that indicate degrees of 
mentality. How much these creatures of the air may bring 
to the dwellers i in stone or wood! 
125 
