THE OSPREY. 



141 



THE OSPREY. 



All Illustrated Magazine of ropular Ornitholocry. 



Published Monthly. 



By 



THE OSPREY COMPANY. 



- Edited by Theodore Gill in collaboration with Robert 

 Rid^way, LeonhardSiejneger. Frederic A. Lucas. Charles 

 VV. Richmond. Paul Bartsch, William Palmer and Harry 

 C. Oberholser of Washington, and Witmer .Stoue ol Phila- 

 delphia. 



Contributions of a relevant nature are respectfully soli- 

 cited, and should be addressed to The O.spkey COiMPANY. 

 3-n-;«3 434 Street N. W.. Washington. D. C. 



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Vol. IV. 



MAY, 1000. 



No. 9. 



Comments. 



BIRDS OF AFRICA.. 



The bird.s of Africa, and especialU' those of 

 South Africa, are attracting' much attention at 

 present. In the last number of The Ibis (April, 

 1900), two of the six main articles, ten com- 

 munications to the British Ornithologists' Club, 

 and five reviews, besides three letters or notes, 

 relate to African ornithology. The longest com- 

 munication to the British Ornithologi.sts' Clitb 

 is by Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, who indulg^ed 

 in a trip recently' to the Cape of Good Hope 

 where his son is the director of the Museum of 

 South Africa at Cape Town. Dr. Sclater kept 

 his eyes wide open when in the Cape peninsula 

 and has recorded his observations in such a 

 pleasant wa}', and gives such a good idea of the 

 ordinary- avian features of the country that we 

 think we will nterit the thanks of the readers of 

 the OSPRF.Y by reproducing his article in our 

 columns. It will be found among the "orig'inal 

 and selected articles." 



THE I.OVE OF NATURE. 



In the instalment of the Birds of the Road in 

 the current number of the Osprey, Mr. Bart.sch 

 has given vent to his enthusiastic love of Nature 

 and manifested the feeling .stirred up in him bj- 

 the music of the birds. The perusal of his 

 words brought back to the senior editor the 

 memory' of a passage which thrilled him in early 

 youth, and expressed his own sentiments. Forty 

 to fifty 3'ears ago Hugh Miller was a verj- pop- 

 ular author and his works had a wide circula- 

 tion. At the commencement of his career he 

 was a journej'man inason and when he had be- 

 come distinguished he published an autobiogra- 

 phy under the caption "'My Schools and School- 

 masters." He was a master of English, and 

 some of his descriptions of scenery are very 

 fine. While still an apprentice mason he worked 

 in the valley of the Conon, about 20 miles from 

 Cromarty (Scotland). Although the writer had 

 not opened the book for many years, he took it 

 down from the shelf and instantly turned to the 

 place he wanted. The book is scarcel3" read. 

 now, but it may give as much pleasure in these 

 daj's as when it was new. The editor would 

 share his pleasure with the readers of the Osprey 

 and has the passage reprinted. In "Chapter X," 

 Miller tells of delightful walks in the immediate 

 neighborhood of Conon-side, and the chapter is 

 headed by a quotation from Burns. 



The nuise, nae poet ever fand her, 

 Till by hinise!' he learned to wander 

 Adown some trottin' burn's meander, 



An' no think lang: 

 O, Sweet to music, and pensive ponder 



A lieart-felt sans;!" 



Later he gives the ideas we have admired. 



"There is a poetic age in the life of most indi- 

 viduals, as certain as in the histoiy of most 

 nations; and a verj' happy age it is. I had now 

 fully entered on it; and enjoj-ed, in my lonely 

 walks along the Conon , a happiness ample enough 

 to compensate for many a long hour of toil, and 

 manj' a privation. I have quoted, as a motto of 

 this chapter, an exquisite verse from Burns. 

 There is scarce another stanza in the wide round 

 of British literature that so faithfullj- describes 

 the mood which, regularly as the evening came, 

 and after I had buried myself in the thick woods, 

 or reached .some bosk^' recess of the river bank, 

 tised to come stealing over me, and in which I 

 have felt m^- heart and intellect as thoroughlj- 

 in keeping with the scene and hour as the still 

 woodland pool beside me, whose .surface reflected 

 in the calm every tree and rock that rose around 

 it, and every hue of the heavens above. And 



