60 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
blackbirds and orioles. What a woodsman the 
kingfisher must be! Do the hemlock’s longest 
branches tip to the east? Does the lichen grow 
on the north side of the trees? Ask him for his 
compass. He needs no trail. Follow him and he 
will teach you the secrets of the forest. For here 
lies the witchcraft of our new world halcyon, 
rather than in the charming of sailors’ lives, or in 
the stilling of the sea. 
XVII. 
CHIP-BIRD OR CHIPPY; HAIR-BIRD; CHIPPING 
SPARROW ; SOCIAL SPARROW. 
WE have already had “chimney swallows” that 
were not swallows, crow blackbirds that were not 
crows, partridges that were grouse, and kinefishers 
that dug holes in the ground, besides bluebirds 
and humming-birds and robins and chickadees and 
eatbirds and cuckoos, all crowded together; and 
now we are coming to that vexatious family, the 
sparrows. How can any one be expected to re- 
member such a medley long enough to know the 
birds out of doors? I never really knew them 
until I pigeon-holed them, and I believe that is 
the best way. But how shall we go to work ? 
Ornithologists separate our birds into seventeen 
orders, and divide these into numerous families 
and genera and species. We should have to turn 
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