A SPLENDID COLLECTION. 141 
CHAPTER AVAIL. 
A SPLENDID COLLECTION. 
WE could never finish a book if we told all there is 
to know about birds. So we shall have to close our 
story about these people, hoping that children who read 
it will love the birds better than they ever did before. 
The birds will stay with you wherever you live, even 
if it is on a lonely island or a western prairie. There 
will be garden parties, and morning concerts, and even- 
ing serenades, and visiting birds will drop into your 
yards and stop awhile. Birds are just like other 
people; they like to take a meal with a neighbor now 
and then. It makes good feeling on both sides. 
Any one can have a fine collection of beautiful birds 
without going to the museums. Not dead, stuffed, 
songless creatures, who cannot say “Thank you” fora 
crumb, or warble you a melody in return for a home in 
your yard. You can have this splendid collection fly- 
ing from tree to tree, and making cradles among the 
flowers, and giving a garden party every day in the 
year, even though the snow hes on the ground. 
There are wise people who study birds all their lives, 
never killing the little things to put away_in a drawer 
with camphor balls. Such people come to love the 
birds very much, and to know their sweet, wise doings 
in a way that a person with a gun can never know 
