84 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[April 1, 1870. 



A BOOK OF BIRDS.* 



BUT, besides song," -writes Michelet, " the 

 Bird Las many other languages. Like man 

 lie prattles, recites, converses. He and man are 



and flight — these are the faculties in birds which 

 man cannot help but admire ; which he constantly 

 strives to imitate. Beautiful birds, they have many 

 enemies, but have they not also many friends ? 

 Books about birds always seem welcome to us. Is 



the only beings which have really a language. Man | it because we love birds more than other animals 



kMyf!^- lira 



Fig. 9G. Goldfinches and Nest. 



and the bird are the voice of the world." Song 



* " Cassell's Book of Birds," translated from the German 

 of Dr. Brehm, by Thomas Rymer Jones, F.R.S. Parts I. to IV. 

 London: Cassell, Petter, & Galpin. The woodcuts illus- 

 trating this notice are kindly lent by the publishers. 



or is it because there is something so ethereal, so 

 spirit-like in birds, so akin to a condition for which 

 the nature of man constantly yearns? Children 

 exhibit a love for birds, first of all created things 

 outside their own homes. And the full-grown man, 



