The Masters of Melody. 83 



outlook is good and dispute the approach of every 

 wren and bluebird. There is not a lilac hedge or an 

 old box-bush in which the jolly "chippy" can now 

 feel sure of freedom from molestation, and the song- 

 sparrows that once asked for crumbs in midwinter at 

 the kitchen door and paid for them in song now 

 seldom venture over the garden fence. Not one 

 of our common birds, not even the wren, is as tame 

 as it might be and willingly would be, though many 

 of the shy dwellers in deep woods and far-off swamps 

 and unfrequented fields would come at least within 

 hearing if they had assurance of safety. The vast 

 majority of birds that are now associated in our 

 minds with the remote forests, those farthest re- 

 moved from man, do not prefer these regions to cul- 

 tivated areas, but realize their greater immunity from 

 danger in such localities. These birds do not flee 

 from the single cabins of backwoodsmen, nor are 

 they disturbed by the camp-fires of true sportsmen ; 

 but they dread the unthinking crowd that open new 

 lands to civilization, and who apparently consider 

 it a duty to persecute the earlier occupants. It may 

 be necessary to kill the wolves and the wild-cats, but 

 the slaughter should cease before bird-life is extermi- 

 nated or driven away. It may be asked, How can the 

 wild birds be again made tame ? and the reply — a 

 confident one — is ready. By not doing anything that 

 we now do, and by doing a great deal that we leave 

 undone. The great obstacle is ignorance ; a scarcely 

 minor one is greed ; a lesser one, yet of much mag- 

 nitude, is indifference. To overcome these is a 



