BIRDS. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR FttOTOGRftFHY. 



VOL. III. 



MARCH, 1898. 



No. 3. 



SOME BIRD LOVERS. 



(^ I HE happiness that is added to 



^ I human lives by love for the 



OJ I lower creatures is beyond tell- 



^ ing. Ernest von Vogelweide, 



the great German lyric poet of 



the middle ages, so loved the birds 



that he left a large bequest to the 



monks of Wurtzburg on condition that 



they should feed the birds every day 



on the tomb-stone over his grave. 



Of St. Francis of Assisi's love and 

 tenderness for birds and animals many 

 beautiful stories have been told. The 

 former he particularly loved, and 'tis 

 related they were wont to fly to him, 

 while he talked to, and blessed them. 

 From the hands of a cruel boy he 

 once rescued a pigeon, emblem of 

 innocence and purity, made a nest for 

 it, and watched over it and its young. 



Of George Stephenson, the inventor, 

 a beautiful story is told. One day in 



an upper room of his home he closed 

 the window. Two or three days after- 

 wards, however, he observed a bird 

 flying against, and violently beating 

 its wings as though trying to break 

 the window. His sympathy and curi- 

 osity were aroused. What could the 

 little creature want? The window 

 was opened and the bird, flew to one 

 particular spot. Alas ! one look into 

 the little nest and the bird with the 

 worm still in its beak which he had 

 brought to the mother and his four 

 little ones, fluttered to the floor. 

 Stephenson lifted the exhausted bird, 

 and tried to revive it. But all his 

 efforts proved in vain. At that time 

 the force of George Stephenson's mind 

 was changing the face of the earth ; 

 yet he wept at the sight of the dead 

 family and grieved because he had all 

 unconsciously been the cause of their 

 death. 



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