December 



an incomparable background on which to pro- 

 ject the tone and temper of all the other sea- 

 sons of the year — the joy of spring, the luxuri- 

 ance of summer, and the glory of autumn. 



Sky-filling and half-formless phantom shadow- 

 ing the earth, and whose essential elements are 

 darkness, clouds, and icy winds. Winter is the 

 dread image of a scourge that devastates the 

 world, 



"And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year." 



School ornithology means, a bird in the 

 hand — field ornithology, a bird in the bush ; 

 and in its wild freedom its life-history is com- 

 prised under four aspects, viz., appearance {i.e., 

 plumage and physique), migrations, general hab- 

 its and song, and nidification. When one pro- 

 ceeds to study these creatures he finds how the 

 details involved in this summary begin to mul- 

 tiply, so that thorough knowledge of any spe- 

 cies, which at first seemed an easy matter to 

 acquire, proves to be an affair of prolonged and 

 perhaps endless research. It befits the purpose 

 of this book to speak briefly of the foregoing 



303 



