SUMMER MEETING. 39 



Toast — "Our Birds," Response by Mrs. G. F. Benson, 

 Lake City: 



To the lover of nature there is no more delightful recreation than the 

 study of birds in their native haunts. In one of his charming essays, 

 Burroughs says that "people who have not made friends with the birds 

 do not know how much they miss." In this locality we are fortunate in 

 having a great variety of birds to observe, as the great valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi seems to be the place of meeting for those which are peculiar to the 

 eastern part of the continent, and those which belong more especially to 

 the western part. Then, in addition to the large number which breed 

 here, we have occasional visitors from the far north, and in spring and 

 fall thousands of migratory birds, the most dainty, the most bewitching 

 little creatures that can be found outside the tropics. Indeed, I some- 

 times wonder if the tropical birds can be, after all, more beautiful than 

 many which we can see any day, either around our homes, or by taking 

 a short drive into the country. 



A Minnesota author has said, "We Americans go to the ends of the 

 world in search of that which often times may be found at our very doors," 

 and I have often thought when looking through my field glass at one of 

 these highly colored warblers, that were it only a foreign bird many 

 would admire and exclaim at its beauty who now pass it by without a 

 thought. What can be more brilliant than our Scarlet Tanager or the in- 

 tense orange of the Baltimore Oriole? What color more exquisite than 

 the heart-shaped pendant on the breast of the Rosebreasted Grosbeak? 

 Look at the Blue Jay in his fresh full plumage! Notice in the sunlight 

 the bronze and purple and green iridescence of the large Blackbirds, the 

 blue and red of the Bluebird, the yellow and black of the Goldfinch, and 

 where will you find a picture -with such blending of shades and tints? 

 Add to all this combination of colors the charm of life, and it comes 

 nearer the heart than the most skillful painting ever done by the hand of 

 man. 



That birds are the friends of man and his helpers in the arts of hor- 

 ticulture and agriculture, is a fact long since acknowledged. Those who 

 are interested in birds simply because they love them, and not because of 

 their usefulness, are greatly indebted to horticulturists for their investi- 

 gations of the habits of birds, and for the laws that have been enacted 

 for their preservation. Were it not for these laws many species of our 

 song birds would become extinct. When man joins himself to the long 

 list of enemies which the song bird has to contend against, its doom is 

 sealed. A recent efl'ort to find a work of authority on our birds, resulted 

 in information being received from the state librarian that the only ac- 

 count of the birds of Minnesota is to be found in the reports of the state 

 horticultural society. 



Here in our own little city the birds have many friends. The laws are 

 generally well observed, and as a consequence many of the so-called wild- 

 woods birds build their nests and rear their young near our homes. This 

 forms one of the chief attractions of our villages, and it is sincerely to be 

 hoped that throughout the state people will awake to the appreciation of 

 this fact, and not only see that the laws respecting the safety of the birds 

 are enforced more strictly, but devise some means whereby the increasing 

 hordes of English Sparrows may be checked before our song birds are 



