The Birds' Calendar 



after watching and listening, for example, to the 

 wood thrush, complacently and learnedly to say 

 to one's self, Turdida turdus mustelinus only 

 its official tag, as it were, but how it flatters the 

 mind to phrase a world - relationship in pon- 

 derous Latinity ! 



It remains to speak of an important aid to 

 the student in another class of books, less tech- 

 nical and less directly educational in design, 

 but of greater literary pretension and worth 

 books that in some ways afford as much inspir- 

 ation to the reader to pursue this line of study 

 as he will find in the results, however delight- 

 ful, of personal investigation, those books in 

 which he holds intercourse with Nature through 

 the eyes and ears of a writer whose senses are 

 more keen than his own, whose mind is more 

 discerning, whose spirit is more appreciative of 

 the finest touches of beauty, and whose oppor- 

 tunities of investigation have been mo"re varied 

 and ample. Such books are spiritual pabu- 

 lum, a finer revelation than can ever be com- 

 pressed into the formalities of a text-book, 

 transferring the reader to higher points of 

 vision than he can attain with his unripe expe- 

 rience. 



Pre-eminent among other well-known and 



330 



