[16] The trick was seen to fuller advantage on subsequent occasions, and I came to the settled conclusion that the birds turned but halfway over; that is to say, they lay on their backs for an instant, and then, as by the recoil of a spring, recovered themselves. How they acquired the trick, and for what purpose they practice it, are questions beyond my answering. Since my return home, indeed, I have discovered that Gilbert White, who noted so many things, noted this same habit on the part of the European raven. According to him, the birds “lose the centre of gravity” while “scratching themselves with one foot.” How he knows this he does not inform us, and I must confess myself unconvinced.
[17] They are not to be found on the desert, I afterward learned, but along the watercourses. There I often saw them.
[18] I visited more than one of them afterward.
[19] And so they were, on the testimony of the Washington ornithologist above quoted, who knows both bird and song.
[20] It should be said, nevertheless, that straggling flocks of Western bluebirds—lovely creatures—were met with on the desert on rare occasions, and once, at Old Camp Lowell, three robins—Westerners, no doubt—passed over my head, flying toward the mountains, in which they are said to winter.
The Riverside Press
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.