The Birds' Calendar 



The sentiment of ambition, in the abstract, 

 is regarded as a most laudable instinct, but 

 when the various impelHng motives are stated 

 in clear detail, most of them will shrink from 

 close scrutiny. Even to surpass one's self is 

 not an ideal motive, and still less to surpass 

 one's neighbor, which is the essence of emula- 

 tion. It is ungrateful for the steam in the 

 boiler to make slighting remarks about the kind 

 of coal that goes into the furnace, and yet it is 

 curious, all the same, to watch the ornitholo- 

 gist who is under the spell of this numerical 

 craze, who finds that everything feathered, 

 from a hawk to a humming-bird, is grist for his 

 hopper. He needs to know nothing about the 

 habits or the habitat of the bird — and for the 

 time being perhaps cares nothing — while a sin- 

 gle view of it is just as good as a thousand ; 

 when he has had one full look at it — or, with 

 a lack of conscience, half a look — he has, so to 

 speak, bagged his game, added a new name to 

 his list, and is inexpressibly happy. This fever 

 is at its height in May, and as the migrants 

 must be caught on the wing, as it were, he can- 

 not stop fully to enjoy anything he sees, for fear 

 that in the meantime something else will escape 

 him. After the migrations are over — that is, 



172 



