. Bird lore . TRACKS OF RUFFED GROUSE u Bird - Lore mouthful of feathers. I, too, came looking for a feast (to the eye), but theplatter is licked clean; my feast has literally taken wings, and there is leftme not even an eyeful of feathers. Then there are the tracks of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings amongthe stubble. What bird-student has not pored over these little trails, no-ting how they twisted and wound and ramified and criss-crossed! Herethey gather interestingly about a particular weed-stalk, then spread outaimlessly, or hurry along more or less parallel across a little barren reachof s
. Bird lore . TRACKS OF RUFFED GROUSE u Bird - Lore mouthful of feathers. I, too, came looking for a feast (to the eye), but theplatter is licked clean; my feast has literally taken wings, and there is leftme not even an eyeful of feathers. Then there are the tracks of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings amongthe stubble. What bird-student has not pored over these little trails, no-ting how they twisted and wound and ramified and criss-crossed! Herethey gather interestingly about a particular weed-stalk, then spread outaimlessly, or hurry along more or less parallel across a little barren reachof snow; again, they will focus on a sheltered corner of an old rail-fence,about which the flock has spent the past TRACKS OF HORNED LARKS What meaning you read into those tracks—what freedom, good-fellow-ship, intelligence! You congratulate yourself; what good fortune! Hownear you are to nature! Yes, you are even in one of natures very banquethalls and ball-rooms. But what is a banquet-hall and a ball-room whenthe revelry is over, the guests gone, and the music hushed? What misconceptions our feeble human vision gives rise to! Unlesswe read these signs, natures eternal wakefulness, we are apt to forgetthat the real day is twenty-four hours long, begins at moonrise with thematins of Owls, and the unfolding of the primrose, in its season. Whilethe sun shines, nature is really taking a cat-nap, though with one eye openWhy is the Owl so solemn and sage, staring us out of countenance withthose great, unfathomable, wise eyes of his? What a world of knowledge,indeed, he must have—knowledge which we little suspect! What if nature-lovers and nature-writers are all this while spending their enthusiasman
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
