28o 



Bird - Lore 



most important studies were made, and which he had visited almost yearly 

 since boyhood. The last years of his life were devoted to the preparation of 

 this work, and, although he did not live to complete it, that portion which was 



finished should by all means be 

 published. 



Brewster's thoroughness as 

 an observer and his painstaking 

 habit of recording his observa- 

 tions at length in his journal 

 gave him a large fund of data 

 upon which to draw for pub- 

 lication, but at this point his 

 difficulties began. His passion 

 for accuracy, his fear of produc- 

 ing an incorrect impression, 

 either by faults of commission 

 or of omission, in connection 

 with his high literary standards, 

 made the preparation of manu- 

 script for publication a tedious 

 operation. No trace of this 

 travail of authorship, however, 

 is apparent in the published 

 results which stand as models 

 of clear and finished composi- 

 tion. 



Brewster did not often at- 

 tempt to give full expression to 

 that intense and reverent love 

 of nature which formed the very 

 fiber of his being, for the forced 

 artificiality of 'fine writing' was 

 abhorrent to him. Neverthe- 

 less, he ' could not, at times, 

 particularly in his earlier years, 

 resist the desire to share with 

 others the supreme pleasure he 

 derived in the study of birds in 

 their haunts and the results 

 form rarely beautiful contribu- 

 tions to the true literature of 



PREPARIN(; SPECIMICXS IN' AN IMPROMPTU -.u l u f 1 



LABORATORY ON THE SUWANNEE RIVER omithology. Here, for example, 



Photographed by F. M. Chapman, March 30, 1890 Is a quotation from hls aCCOUnt 



