OUR COMMON BIRDS 309 



yet produced the best and most beautiful rose or peach 

 or bird or man or anything else that the world is capable 

 of yielding. By proper care we can have a world full not 



only of such birds as we The winds blow east, the winds blow west, 



, I . £ \ • 1 'fi The blue eggs in the robin's nest 



nave now, but or birds Wltn Will soon have wings and beak and breast, 



sweeter and sweeter song And flutter and % away. Longfellow. 



and more and more beautiful plumage. And in presence 

 of these infinite possibilities for good or for ill we must 

 above all things remember that every human action tends 

 to make the world a c^arden ^ , 1 u- 1 ^1 1 •., 



o lo i>roduce and nuiltiiily endlessly, with- 



or a desert, a paradise of o"^ e^'e-" '^aching tiie last possibility of 



excellence, and without committing herself 

 joy and beauty or a vale to any end, is the law of Nature. 



c . Burroughs, Birds and Poeis, p. 1^6. 



01 tears. 



If our birds felt a sense of security in our presence, they 

 might sing even more sweetly and more abundantly than 

 they do now. Indeed, Burroughs remarks of English birds : 

 ''They sins: with more con- „,,,-,, 



'' ^ Wood birds here are house and garden 



fidence and copiousness, and birds there [Eng.]. 



. Burroughs, FresAPz'e/ds, p. 136. 



as if they, too, had been 



touched by civilization." They sing more hours in the 

 day and more days in the year. Furthermore, if our 

 birds were uniformly safe Many haps fail in the field 



> 1 Seldom seen bv wishful eves ; 



m mans presence ana Un- But all her shows did Nature yield, 



disturbed, they would come To please and win this pilgrim wise. 



' -^ He saw the jiartndge drum in the woods; 



much closer to us, as they He heard the woodcock-s evening hymn ; 



He found the tawny thrushes' broods ; 



did to ThoreaU, and to Celia And the shy hawk did wait for him : 



. , , What others did at distance hear, 



1 haxter m her garden. AndguessedwitWn the thicket's gloom, 



W', 1 r Was shown to tliis philosopher, 



1th proper care many of And at his bidding seemed to come. 



our best sonsfsters and most Emerson, irooduotes, i, 2. 



useful birds that are now rare might become more common, 

 filling our parks and the thickly planted portions of our 



