BIKDS AND BATTLEFIELDS. 



I. 



If Chattanooga, Tenn., and its environments 

 are rich in reminders of military conquest, 

 they are also rich in lore of a more irenic 

 nature, especially the kind for which the bird 

 lover is ever on the alert. You will no longer 

 hear the stirring music of fife and drum leading 

 brave boys in blue and gray into the fierce on- 

 set ; but you will hear the reveille of the Caro- 

 lina wren and the clear bugle of the Baltimore 

 oriole on almost every historic field. An en- 

 thusiast can not help wondering what the birds 

 were doing on those autumn days when the 

 armies met, and the crack and boom of artil- 

 lery rent the air, and the groans of the wounded 

 and dying filled in every lull of the strife. 

 What did the birds think of such butchery on 

 the part of the liege lords of creation ? Did 

 they (][uestion man\s right to be in the van of 

 the animal kino^dom ? One miHit even wonder 

 whether the birds now singing so cheerfully 



172 



