December 



to the tops of the mountains, and even pervad- 

 ing the atmosphere, ranging from microscopic 

 protozoa up through all degrees of magnitude 

 and of organic complexity of vegetable and 

 animal life, and the countless specimens of each 

 type distributed within the bounds of its habi- 

 tation, each a perfectly developed and inces- 

 santly energizing force fulfilling its prescribed 

 purpose from time immemorial in the economy 

 of nature, such a sweeping glance gives a faint 

 idea what an amazingly intricate and magnifi- 

 cent piece of mechanism is this world. Of all 

 the sciences that come to view in this stupen- 

 dous panorama, ornithology is perhaps the most 

 poetic and picturesque.* 



Song - birds, not those whose natures are 

 mocked in brass prisons, but in the wild free- 

 dom of their native haunts, have in themselves 

 something akin to the human heart, bringing 

 them almost to the plane of fellowship with 

 mankind. There is sublimity in the imperial 

 flight and bearing of the eagle, like the rugged 



* It lifts a corner of the curtain to our view of the infin- 

 ity of life on the globe, to be told that there are 100,000 

 species of animalcules alone, and that of one of these, 

 30,000 individuals can inhabit a single drop of water ; 

 while another is so prolific that in four days its descend- 

 antsnumber 70,000,000,000. 



39 



