BIRDS AND ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



BIRDS has entered upon a new year 

 with the satisfaction of having 

 pleased its readers as well as hav- 

 ingrendered actualservice to the 

 cause of education, ornithological liter- 

 ature and art. Nature with her usual 

 prodigality has scattered thousands of 

 rare and attractive birds throughout 

 the world, and of these the editor of 

 Birds selects the most interesting spe- 

 cies, the loveliest forms and the richest 

 plumage for preservation by means of 

 magnificent illustrations, obtained 

 through the expensive process of color 

 photography. A unique treatment of 

 text makes the magazine interesting 

 and instructive to old and young alike. 

 The people of this locality are noted 

 for being lovers of birds and students 

 of nature, and it has given the three 

 greatest naturalists the world has ever 

 known. This is the native heath of 

 Audubon and Robert Dale Owen. Mr. 

 S. G. Evans, the well-known dry goods 

 merchant of this city, has a very fine 

 and complete set of Audubon's birds. 

 All this fills our eyes to think what the 

 world lost in the death of William 

 Hamilton Gibson. He made all life 

 seem related to our lives, all being to 

 appear one substance, all to be worthy 

 of interest, sympathy, love, and rever- 

 ence. There are strange and beautiful 



stories told of his power to attract and 

 handle the shyest creatures. Once, it 

 is said, he went to a public library in 

 Brooklyn to make a sketch of some 

 rare butterfly, and had found a book of 

 plates from which he was studying his 

 subject, when, lo! there floated into the 

 great room one of the very specimens 

 he desired to picture, fluttered down 

 upon the open page, and at last rested 

 with throbbing wings beside its own 

 portrait. On one election day, Mr. 

 Gibson went to vote, and as he was 

 studying his ticket, there came in at 

 the open door, no one knew whence, 

 a stray pigeon, which flew at once to 

 him and perched upon his shoulder. 

 He caressed it in his tender fashion, 

 and murmured to it, and then it flew 

 away, no one knew whither. Once, too, 

 as he sat upon his veranda at The Su- 

 macs, his country home in Connecti- 

 cut, describing to a visitor the pe- 

 culiar m.arkings upon the wings of a 

 certain song-bird, he suddenly arose, 

 stepped to a bush upon the lawn, and 

 coaxed into his hand the very bird of 

 which he was talking, and which he 

 brought to show to his astonished 

 guest. This sympathy with the world 

 of life outside of man fills his text and 

 his illustrations to overflowing. — Evans- 

 ville {Ind.) Courier. 



ACCORDANCE OF NATURE. 



For Nature beats in perfect tune. 

 And rounds with rhyme her every 



rune, 

 Whether she work in land or sea, 

 Or hide underground her alchemy. 

 Thou canst not wave thy staff in air. 

 Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 

 But it carves the bow of beauty there, 

 And the ripples in rhymes the oar for- 

 sake. 

 The wood is wiser far than thou; 

 The wood and wave each other know. 

 Not unrelated, unafified. 

 But to each thought and thing allied. 

 Is perfect Nature's every part. 

 Rooted in the mighty heart. 



— Emerson. 



U painter of the fruit and flowers. 



We thank thee for thy wise design. 

 Whereby these human hands of ours 



In Nature's garden work with thine. 

 And thanks that from our daily need 



The joy of a simple faith is born. 

 That he who smites the summer weed 



May trust thee for the autumn corn. 

 Give fools their gold and knaves their 

 power. 



Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall. 

 Who sows a field or trains a flower 



Or plants a tree is more than all. 

 For he who blesses most is blest, 



And God and manshall have his worth 

 Who toils to leave as a bequest 



An added beauty to the earth. 



— Whittier. 



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