166 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES, 



and had studied with especial care and inter- 

 est the subject of fossil birds. It now seemed 

 to me that my child-eyes had, in their swift 

 glance, seen far past that gaping young bird 

 far past Archceopteryx and Odontopteryx and 

 Ichthyornis to the original ancestor of the bird, 

 the ancient, honorable and unknown reptile. 

 I had received an impression of the archetype. 

 Sit down in the woods of spring-time and 

 listen to the brown-thrush or the cat-bird or, 

 better still, the mocking-bird, singing in the 

 fragrant boscage, and you may be sure that 

 you hear a lyre thousands upon thousands of 

 years old. The earth was a grand and beauti- 

 ful ball of water and forests and grassy plains, 

 with swarms of birds and insects, and legions 

 of wild beasts and myriads of reptiles, a 

 long, dreamy, odorous and tuneful age before 

 man stood up in presence of his Maker and 

 was called good. It would be charming, if 

 one could but have the record of the ages all 

 arranged, to read the bird-songs backward (as 

 one may read backward through the songs of 

 man) to their first bubblings in the oldest 

 groves. Where was the first blue-bird song 

 uttered ? Where did the cerulean wings first 

 tremble among the young leaves of spring ? 

 It is said that science and poetry are not 

 friends, that they refuse to walk arm in arm, 

 that they scorn each other ; yet to my mind 

 science seems to dig up the freshest germs of 

 poesy, and to set free the eternal essences of 

 that creative force which electrifies and puts 

 in motion the dormant functions of genius. 

 Facts are dry enough and the jargon of the 

 doctors is not suited to enrich the poet's vo- 

 cabulary, but between the facts hovers the 



