Song Birds and Water Fowl 
us. Our variety of song birds fully satisfies the 
mood that calls for creatures of their sort. Su- 
perabundance always spoils the best effect. If 
all were thrushes, where were the warblers? If 
all were finches, where were the woodpeckers ? 
And if all were chickadees and vireos, where 
were the herons and the gulls? One will quick- 
ly find that, in their own province, the water 
species are unapproachable, in effectiveness, by 
any of their fellow-creatures. 
The crowning excellence of birds, undoubt- 
edly, is their capacity for song. This gift 
eclipses any other single claim to admiration. 
Elegance of plumage, graceful form, and poetry 
of motion—each of these must yield the palm 
to the superiority of a melodious voice. It is 
the soul of Nature speaking to the heart of man. 
This it is that makes one of the most unpre- 
possessing, in appearance, of all European 
birds—the skylark—the idol of all poets, the 
beau tdéal of its kind. This it is, chiefly, in 
our own land, that gives its reputation to the 
thrush, the purple finch, and many another 
species otherwise quite unpretentious. And 
yet, although the choicest quality of all, it is 
by no means so predominant, in the aggregate 
of one’s enjoyment, as he might think. Even 
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