Song Birds and Water Fowl 
proachable than water fowl ; not only by occu- 
pying, in a literal sense, common ground with 
ourselves, but by possessing a temperament 
that, in many ways, better harmonizes with our 
commonest feelings. However much there 
may be in regard to them that we cannot un- 
derstand, there is, if I may so express it, a pe- 
culiar frankness in their lives, and, among 
many of the species, such heartiness of song, as 
easily inspires a fellow-feeling, even before we 
come to have a definite sense of familiarity 
with them. One’s first impression of the water 
fowl, however, is not so favorable. They are 
certainly less demonstrative and open-hearted, 
and show a reserve that is likely to repel our 
advances, even while it piques our curiosity. 
As compared with our favorite songsters, their 
wilder and apparently cold and passionless nat- 
ure appears at a disadvantage. They live on 
the confines of an unknown world, from which 
they bring us scarcely any intelligible mes- 
sage ; and their lonely, bleak, and inhospitable 
habitat seems aptly to typify their character. 
Light-heartedness and warmth of feeling, so 
characteristic of the robin, chickadee, and 
finch, seem generally alien to these creatures ; 
which, as a class, are songless, if not silent, 
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