CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 73 
preted, comes, it may be, to no more than this, 
“ Fine feathers don’t make fine birds.” 
Even in families containing many closely 
allied species, I believe that every species has 
its own proper character, which sufficient inter- 
course would enable us to make a due report 
of. Nobody ever saw a song-sparrow manifest- 
ing the spirit of a chipper, and I trust it will not 
be in my day that any of our American spar- 
rows are found emulating the virtues of their 
obstreperous immigrant cousin. Of course it is 
true of birds, as of men, that some have much 
more individuality than others. But know any 
bird or any man well enough, and he will prove 
to be himself, and nobody else. To know the 
ten thousand birds of the world well enough to 
see how, in bodily structure, habit of life, and 
mental characteristics, every one is different 
from every other is the long and delightful task 
which is set before the ornithologist. 
But this is not all. The ornithology of the 
future must be ready to give an answer to the 
further question how these divergences of anat- 
omy and temperament originated. How came 
the chickadee by his endless fund of happy 
spirits? Whence did the towhee derive his 
equanimity, and the brown thrush his saturnine 
temper? ‘The waxwing and the vireo have the 
same vocal organs; why should the first do 
