The Birds' Calendar 



after watching and hstening, for example, to the 

 wood thrush, complacently and learnedly to say 

 to one's self, Turdidcc turdus mustelinus — only 

 its official tag, as it were, but how it flatters the 

 mind to phrase a world - relationship in pon- 

 derous Latinity ! 



It remains to speak of an important aid to 

 the student in another class of books, less tech- 

 nical and less directly educational in design, 

 but of greater literary pretension and worth — 

 books that in some ways afford as much inspir- 

 ation to the reader to pursue this line of study 

 as he will find in the results, however delight- 

 ful, of personal investigation, — those books in 

 which he holds intercourse with Nature through 

 the eyes and ears of a writer whose senses are 

 more keen than his own, whose mind is more 

 discerning, whose spirit is more appreciative of 

 the finest touches of beauty, and whose oppor- 

 tunities of investigation have been more varied 

 and ample. Such books are spiritual pabu- 

 lum, a finer revelation than can ever be com- 

 pressed into the formahties of a text-book, 

 transferring the reader to higher points of 

 vision than he can attain with his unripe expe- 

 rience. 



Pre-eminent among other well-known and 



330 



