CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 73 



preted, comes, it may be, to no more than this, 

 " Fine feathers don't make fine birds." 



Even in families containing many closely 

 allied species, I believe that every species has 

 its own proper character, which sufficient inter- 

 course would enable us to make a due report 

 of. Nobody ever saw a song-sparrow manifest- 

 ing the spirit of a chipper, and I trust it will not 

 be in my day that any of our American spar- 

 rows are found emulating the virtues of their 

 obstreperous immigrant cousin. Of course it is 

 true of birds, as of men, that some have much 

 more individuality than others. IJut know any 

 bird or any man well enough, and he will prove 

 to be himself, and nobody else. To know the 

 ten thousand birds of the world well enough to 

 see how, in bodily structure, habit of life, and 

 mental characteristics, every one is different 

 from every other is the long and delightful task 

 which is set before the ornithologist. 



But this is not all. The ornithology of the 

 future must be ready to give an answer to the 

 further question how these divergences of anat- 

 omy and temperament originated. How came 

 the chickadee by his endless fund of happy 

 spirits ? Whence did the towhee derive his 

 equanimity, and the brown thrush his saturnine 

 temper ? The waxwing and the vireo have the 

 same vocal organs ; why should the first do 



