BIRD MISCELLANY. 



Knowledge never learned of schools 

 Of the wild bee's morning chase, 

 Of the wild-flowers' time and place, 

 Flight of fowl and habitude 

 Of the tenants of the wood ; 

 How the tortoise bears his shell ; 

 How the woodchuck digs his cell 

 And the ground-mole makes his well ; 

 How the robin feeds her young ; 

 How the oriole's nest is hung. 



— Whittier. 



Consider the marvellous life of a bird and the manner of its whole 

 existence. . . . Consider the powers of that little mind of which the inner light 

 flashes from the round bright eye ; the skill in building its home, in finding its 

 food, in protecting its mate, in ser\-ing its offspring, in preserving its own 

 existence, surrounded as it is on all sides by the most rapacious enemies. . . . 



When left alone it is such a lovely little life— cradled among the hawthorn 

 buds, searching for aphidse amongst apple blossoms, drinking dew from the 

 cup of a lily ; awake when the gray light breaks in the east, throned on the 

 topmost branch of a tree, swinging with it in the sunshine, flying from it 

 through the air ; then the friendly quarrel with a neighbor over a worm or 

 berry ; the joy of bearing grass-seed to his mate where she sits low down amongst 

 the docks and daisies; the triumph of singing the praise of sunshine or of moon- 

 light ; the merry, busy, useful days ; the peaceful sleep, steeped in the scent of 

 the closed flower, with head under one wing and the leaves forming a green 

 roof above. 



— OUIDA. 



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