36 DIFFICULTIES OF BIRD STUDY. 



lyres of the birds so finely strung, or the strings so 

 delicately touched, as during the space between 

 daybreak and sunrise. Our feathered minstrels 

 get out of their leafy beds. early, so as to salute 

 the sun with song. Not to speak in a patronizing 

 tone, I have often pitied those dull people who 

 were snoozing away the glorious morning hours, 

 while I was enjoying the out-door voluntaries, all 

 free of charge. It is our own Lowell who says so 

 sweetly : 



•' No price is set on the lavish summer; 

 Jime may be had by the poorest comer." 



And that is true, save that one must pay the 

 cost of a little effort if one would make the fair 

 earth's possessions one's own. 



If we want Nature to confide her secrets to us, 

 we must go in quest of them to her out-of-the-way 

 haunts ; we must treat her as if we were in earnest, 

 and not in a cold, perfunctory spirit, and then she 

 wdll lay her heart open to us. Her language to 

 every student at every step is, " I will yet for this 

 be inquired of." 



The talisman of Emerson's " forest seer " that 

 won for him so many of nature's secrets, was alert- 



