The Birds' Calendar 



have lost their pecuh'ar springtime potency — 

 he has passed the meridian, the shadows are 

 beginning to fall more slantingly, and the 

 year's maturity and decline draw on apace. 

 It is difficult to prove one's assertions or de- 

 nials that birds think this or that, but it seems 

 most reasonable to accept their actions as a 

 valid interpreter of their thoughts. 



In the quiet and desultory life they are lead- 

 ing in the coming weeks, although devoid of 

 the characteristics displayed in migration and 

 nidification, one may still study them with 

 much interest, and with the assurance of find- 

 ing their individualities becoming ever clearer 

 to his mind. If further acquaintance some- 

 times reveals disagreeable qualities, we can 

 only take things as they are, for better or for 

 worse, the bitter with the sweet, remembering 

 that though the thistle has its sting, it has its 

 fragrance too, and that the better qualified any 

 cla.ss of objects in nature is to be a type of 

 man, the more v\'e must exi)ect to find the re- 

 production of his evil traits as well as of his 

 good ones. 



This paves the A^-ay for some ratlier dam- 

 aging remarks concerning the catbird, against 

 which no overt act of criminality has ever 



194 



