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JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



cat bereaved by the drowning of its lone 

 kitten, adopting a family of chickens 

 and bringing to them bits of bre.nd and 

 meat from its own supply nnd then 

 watching them lovingly while they ate 

 these gifts. 



After reading the story of Elijah, we 

 do not wonder at the kindly mention of 

 the ravens made elsewhere in the Bible. 

 Thus in the book of Job we read : "Who 

 provideth for the raven his food, when 

 his young ones cry unto God, and wan- 

 der for lack of meat?" In one of the 

 last of the psalms we find this question 

 answered; "Uegiveth to the beast his 

 food and to the young ravens which 

 cry." Is it not an exceedingly beautiful 

 thought that the call of the young bird 

 in distress is a cry unto God? Who 

 can be insensible to the profound truth 

 in these words, "The eyes of all wait 

 upon thee ; and thou givest them their 

 meat in due season. Thou openest 

 thine hand, and satisfieth the desire of 

 every living thing?" It certainly gives 

 dignity to our study of the birds to 

 regard them as sharers with us in the 

 care of the same Creator. The teach- 

 ings of the earlier Scriptures receive 

 increased emphasis fiom the words of 

 the great Teacher, "•Consider the ravens ; 

 for they neither sow nor reap, which 

 neither have storehouse nor barn, and 

 God feedeth them." Compare this con- 

 ception with the idea given us in Poe's 

 Raven and no one can doubt which is 

 the higher and the finer. 



But our smaller and more familiar 

 birds such as the Sparrows and the 

 Swallows are by no means unnoticed in 

 the literature of which we are speaking. 

 The eighty-fourth Psalm is the song of 

 the Sparrow and the Swallow and shows 

 clearly that these birds had the same 



familiar and home-loving character then 

 as now, that they had the same habit of 

 nesting around dwellings and other 

 buildings, "•Yea. the Sparrow hath found 

 her an iiousc, and the Swallow a nest 

 for herself, where she may lay her 

 young, even thine altars, () Lord of 

 Hosts, my King, and my God." How 

 beautifully in the Xiw Testament these 

 birds are made to teach us the lesson of 

 trust and comentment. "Are not two 

 Sparrows sold for a fartliing? and one 

 of them shall not fall on the ground 

 without your Father." "Behold the 

 birds of the air, for tlie}' sow not, neither 

 do they reap, yet your Heavenly Father 

 feedeth them." The pi'ayer ihat Shakes- 

 peare puts into the mouth of one of his 

 characters in "As You Like It," as he 

 generously offers to give up to his mas- 

 ter the five hundred crowns which he 

 had saved for the comfort of his old 

 age, shows that Shakespeare at least 

 understood this lesson, "Take that : and 

 He that doth the ravens feed. Yea, pro- 

 vidently caters to the Span-ow. Be 

 comfort to my age ! Here is the gold." 

 Birds come in flocks so often, in fam- 

 ily groups or in pairs at least, that a 

 solitary bird maj' well be taken as a 

 symbol of desolation. "I am like a 

 pelican of the wilderness, I am like an 

 owl of the desert; I watch and am as a 

 sparrow alone upon the housetop." 

 Here the very fact so plainly recognized 

 that the Sparrows are such social birds 

 and are usually seen in flocks, makes 

 the statement of isolation all the more 

 emphatic. It is like the sad cry of a 

 bird for its mate. 



The passing of the winter and the 

 return of the birds are beautifully de- 

 scribed in the Song of Solomon. "For 

 lo, the winter is past, the rain is over 



