64 CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 



had been on their own native heath, amid the 

 scrub-oaks and huckleberry bushes ; but after 

 their departure it was remembered that they 

 had not once been heard to utter a sound. If 

 self-possession be four fifths of good manners, 

 our red-eyed Pipilo may certainly pass for a 

 gentleman. 



We have now named four birds, the chickadee, 

 the goldfinch, the brown thrush, and the to- 

 whee, — birds so diverse in plumage that no 

 eye could fail to discriminate them at a glance. 

 But the four differ no more truly in bodily shape 

 and dress than they do in that inscrutable some- 

 thing which we call temperament, disposition. 

 If the soul of each were separated from the body 

 and made to stand out in sight, those of us who 

 have really known the birds in the flesh would 

 have no difficulty in saying, This is the titmouse, 

 and this the towhee. It would be with them as 

 we hope it will be with our friends in the next 

 world, whom we shall recognize there because 

 we knew them here ; that is, we knew them^ 

 and not merely the bodies they lived in. This 

 kind of familiarity with birds has no necessary 

 connection with ornithology. Personal inti- 

 macy and a knowledge of anatomy are still two 

 different things. As we have all heard, ours 

 is an age of science ; but, thank fortune, mat- 

 ters have not yet gone so far that a man must 



