The Birds' Calendar 



returned " Kane's Arctic Voyages " to a friend 

 of whom he had borrowed the book, with the 

 comfortable remark that "most of the phe- 

 nomena noted therein might be observed in 

 Concord" (!). 



And so poorly do even the best-trained 

 visual organs often serve the observer, that, 

 whereas we commonly suppose it necessary to 

 see an object in order to know it, it is quite as 

 often the case that we must first know it in 

 order to see it. This is strikingly illustrated in 

 the case of that same remarkably keen observer, 

 Thoreau, who, nevertheless, made the confes- 

 sion that it repeatedly befell him that, after re- 

 ceiving from a distance a rare plant, he would 

 presently find the same in his own haunts. 



Every fourth bird one sees at this season is a 

 robin. Poor fellow, he fails to get such admir- 

 ing looks as those that greeted him a few weeks 

 ago. He was a hero in March ; but times have 

 changed. Every dog has his day, and so has 

 every bird ; and now in May our old friend has 

 lost a little of his prestige. Yet he can well for- 

 give the world's little inconstancy, for it will 

 inevitably come back to its old-time regard, 



138 



