FOREWORD 



"Then will the birds sing anthems: for the earth and sky and air 

 Will seem a great cathedral, filled with beings dear and fair; 

 And long processions, from the time that bluebird notes begin 

 Till gentians fade, through forest-aisles will still move out and 

 in." 



All who appreciate Bryant's great poem "To a Water- 

 fowl" may see God, not only "flying over the hill with the 

 bird," but as the unfailing guide of the human soul. 



*'He who, from zone to zone, 

 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight. 

 In the long way that I must tread alone. 



Will lead my steps aright." 



No more triumphant lines exist in literature than those 

 in Browning's "Paracelsus" which express faith in God's 

 guidance of man and bird: 



"I go to prove my soul! 

 I see my way as birds their trackless way. 

 I shall arrive: what time, what circuit first, 

 I ask not: but unless God send his hail 

 Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow. 

 In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: 

 He guides me and the bird." 



The poets of the past generations may have written 

 much about birds, but it is quite probable that they pos- 

 sessed very little accurate information regarding the serv- 

 ice they render to the world. Longfellow alone has be- 

 queathed to us, in his beautiful "Birds of Killingworth," 

 a plea for the preservation of birds because of their prac- 

 tical use to man as well as their aesthetic and spiritual 

 value: 



[xiii] 



