There is no god that pities us or weeps over our sufferings, save the god in our own breasts. We have life on heroic terms. Nature does not baby us nor withhold from us the bitter cup. We take our chances with all other forms of life. Our special good fortune is that we are capable of a higher development, capable of profiting to a greater extent by experience, than are the lower forms of life. And here is the mystery that has no solution: we came out of the burning nebulæ just as our horse and dog, but why we are men and they are still horse and dog we owe to some Power, or, shall I say, to the chance working of a multitude of powers, that are beyond our ken. That some Being willed it, designed it, no; yet it was in some way provided for in the constitution of the world.
Bee, honey, spirit of the hive, 152, 158-62; intelligence, 156, 157; communication, 159, 160; their world, 161; sting, 165.
Birds, living with, 31; flight, 32-38; and cats, 56; nesting near houses, 54-59; home sense, 59; nests of most species built by the females, 64, 65; and dead trees, 84, 85; song, 86; at Pine Knot, Va., 102-05; of southern California, 129-32; community of mind in flocks, 153, 154.
Bluebird, endearing qualities, 43; nesting, 43, 44, 54; experience with a pair, 44-48.
California, southern, observations in, 127-51; coast, 127; mountains, 127, 128; climate and soil, 128; bird-song, 128, 129; birds, 129-32; change of climate in, 210-12.
Catbird, 30; stealthiness, 60, 67, 68; experience with a pair, 60-66; fondness for butter, 66; theatrical, 68; notes, 87.
Chipmunks, two in a den, 11; storing currants, 17; carrying provender, 96, 97.
Cosmos, the, order and harmony of, 191-93.
Crow, flight, 37; needs no great wing-power, 180.
Cuckoo, 71, 72, 87; solemnity, 88; nesting, 88, 89; young, 89; nest, 90; food, 90.
Cuckoo, black-billed, notes, 87, 88; nesting-habits, 88.
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., at San Diego, 210, 211.
Darwin, Charles, quoted, 5,17, 18, 33; his eager study of natural history, 17, 18; observations during the voyage of the Beagle, 18, 19; failure of his theory, 147, 167-69; his mind, 173; treated man as an animal, 174.
Darwin, George Howard, on the tides, 169, 170.
Darwinism, a cause of the World War, 172-75.