Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/103

Bird- Nesting with Burroughs BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN With photojjraphs from nature by the author WHEN two men whose combined years closely approach five -score can go a-bird-nesting with an enthusiasm which knows no decrease, and count mere discovery a sufficient reward for hours of searching, the occupation is evidently worthy of investigation by every boy who would prolong his youth. I say boy advisedly, for the bird-nesting habit is not to be acquired in later life, and, indeed, had better never be acquired at all if its object be the taking of the nests and eggs. One does not search for a rare or beautiful flower to uproot and destroy it, but to admire it, and to cherish the memory of its perfections until, with returning spring, it renews itself and our delight in its existence. Bird-nesting, then, does not mean egg-collecting. The latter holds no antidote for age, but loses its powers as gratified desire checks species after species of? the list, or increasing years bring a realization of its folly. Your true bird-nester values his good fortune too highly to rob the nest and himself at the same time. The discovery of a bird's nest is the discovery of a bird's home with all the fascinating possibilities attending the study of a bird's home life. It is an event. One never forgets the circumstances attending the finding of any but the com- monest birds' nests. The species then becomes the individual. One may claim an actual acquaintance in the bird world and perhaps establish personal relations with some feathered neighbor, whose family affairs become matters with which we are intimately concerned. Witness Mr. Burroughs' story of his Phoebe neighbor in the preceding pages. Furthermore, that almost universal heritage, the hunting instinct, finds a natural outlet in bird-nesting. The farmer's boy who hunts hens' nests just to triumph over some particular fowl whose eggs have long defied search, exhibits in primitive form the motive which impels one again and again to look for the nest of a more or less common bird whose home has been discovered many times before. And, finally, as Mr. Burroughs has said, "Bird-nesting is by no means a failure even though you find no birds' nests. You are sure to find other things of interest; plenty of them." Perhaps, after all, this is the true secret of the perennial charm of bird-nesting. The discovery of the nest is only the crowning event of a quest which has been filled with pleasant incidents. Certain it is that in the outing here briefly described there were "other things of interest" besides birds' nests, and "plenty of them," too. First among them was (88j