SENTIMENT OP ORNITHOLOGY. 9 



Wordsworth's verses of their birds, how sadly mutilated what re- 

 mained would be 1 



But why leav^a knowledge of birds to poets and naturalists'? Go 

 yourself to the field and learn that birds do not exist solely in books, 

 but are concrete, sentient beings, whose acquaintance may bring you 

 more unalloyed happiness than the wealth of the Indies. John Bur- 

 roughs understands this when he writes of the study of birds : " There 

 is a fascination about it quite overpowering. It fits so well with other 

 things — with fishing, hunting, farming, walking, camping out — with 

 all that takes one to the fields and woods. One may go a blackberry- 

 ing and make some rare discovery ; or while driving his cow to pas- 

 ture, hear a new song, or make a new observation. Secrets lurk on all 

 sides. There is news in every bush. What no man ever saw before 

 may the next moment be revealed to you. What a new interest the 

 woods have I How you long to explore every nook and corner of 

 them ! " 



Human friends may pass beyond our ken, but our list of acquaint- 

 ances in the bird world increases to the end and shows no vacancies. 

 The marsh the Blackbirds loved may become the site of a factory, but 

 no event on the calendar is more certain than that in due time and 

 place we shall hear the tinkling chorus of the epauleted minstrels 

 rising and falling on the crisp morning air. 



" . . . . Time may come when never more 

 The wilderness shall hear the lion roar ; 

 But, long as cock shall crow from household perch 

 To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed thy wing, 

 And thy erratic voice be faithful to the spring !" 



The woods of our youth may disappear, but the Thrushes will 

 always sing for us, and their voices, endeared by cherished associa- 

 tions, arouse echoes of a hundred songs and awaken memories before 

 which the years will vanish. 



