Song Birds and Water Fowl 
Although they are mostly the plainer sorts, and, 
except the chickadee, entirely songless, I think 
the winter species, after all, as parables of hope, 
light-heartedness, and trust, come more closely 
home to us, with their quiet lessons of encour- 
agement and reproof, than all the gayer and 
more tuneful throng that are wafted hither on 
spring’s glad wings, and luxuriate amid the 
bloom and balmy airs of May and June. 
The supposed inferiority of water fowl in re- 
spect of plumage calls for a word of correction. 
So far as the more brilliant effects are concerned, 
it is true that there are few of the aquatic spe- 
cies that can rival many of the showy tanagers, 
finches, and warblers ; even as the sea itself is 
colorless and sombre in comparison with all the 
gorgeous floral products of the earth. But, on 
the other hand, it can truthfully be said that, 
as regards the various softer tints, which are 
really the most prevalent among all species, the 
beauty of the water fowl, in the aggregate, is 
not inferior to that of their terrestrial kindred ; 
that in effects of pure white, and in the rich 
and striking combinations of black and white, 
many of the water fowl are unequalled by their 
allies on the land ; and that the very humblest of 
the group are not more plainly dressed than are 
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