Year: 1879

From ''locnstH ana VIA Honey"


The whip-poor-will walks as awkwardly
as a swallow, which is as awkward as a
man in bag, and yet she manages to
lead her young about the woods. The
latter, think, move by leaps and sudden
spurts, their protective coloring shielding
them most effectively. Wilson once came
upon the mother.bird and her brood in
the woods, and, though they were at his
very feet, was so bafiled by the conceal
ment of the young that he was about to
give up the search, much disappointed,
when he perceived something like a
slight moldiness among the withered
leaves and, on STOPPING down, discovered
it to be young whip-poor'w seeming
ly asleep" Wilson's description of the
young is very accurate, as its downy GOV.
ering does look percisely like slight
moldiness." Returning few moments
atterward to the spot to get a pencil he
had forgotten, he could find neither old
nor young.


1t takes an eye to see partridge in the
woods, motionless upon the leaves; this
sense needs to be as sharp as that of smell
in hounds and pointers, and yet ! know
an unkempt youth that seldom fails to see
the bird and shoot it before it takes wing.
think he sees it as soon as it sees him
and before it suspects itself seen. What
a training to the eye is hunting! to pick
out the game from its surroundings, the
grouse from the leaves, the gray squirrel
from the messy oak-limb it hugs so close
ly, the red fox from the ruddy or brown
or gray field, the rabbit from the stubble,
or the white hare from the snow, require
the best powers of this sense. A woods
chuck, mOtiOness IN the fields or upon
rock, looks very much like large stone
or bowlder, yet keen eye knows the diff
ference at glance, Il quarter OF mile
away.


A man has n sharper eye than a dog, or a
fox or any of the wild creatures, but not
so sharp an ear or nose. But in the birds
he finds his match. How quickly the old
turkey discovers the hawk, mere speck
against the sky, and how quickly the hawk
discovers you if you happen to be secreted
in the bushes or behind the fence near
which he alights. One advantage the
bird surely has, and that is owing to the
form, structure and position of the eye,
it has much larger field of vision-in-
deed, can probably see in most every di.
rection at the same instant, behind as well
as before. Mans field OF observation en-
braces less than half circle horizontally
and still less vertically; his brow and
brain prevent him from seeing within
many degrees of the zenith without a
movement of the head; the bird, on the
other hand, takes in nearly the whole
sphere at glance.


] find see, almost without effort, near
ly every bird within sight in the field or
wood pass through Ia fit Of the wing,
ilirt of the tail, are enough, through the
hickering leaves do all conspire to hide
them, and that, with like ease they see
me, though, unquestionably the chances
are immensely in thclr favor The eye
sees what it has the means of seeing, truly.
You must have the bird in your heart be-
fore you can find it in the bush The eye
must have purpose and aim. No one ever
yet found the walking fern who did not
have the walking fern in his mind. A per-
son whose eye is full of Indian relics picks
them up in every field he walks through.