How to Attract the Birds 



nothing seems to daunt this pensive minstrel. When 

 midsummer silences nearly every other voice he still 

 sings on, with the indigo bunting and the red-eyed 

 vireo. How refreshing is the song sparrow's cheer- 

 ful, merry, but alas ! inimitable, outburst after the 

 solemn pewee ! But one soon learns that the bird 

 music which really enchants us the bobolink's, 

 cardinal's, thrush's or mocking-bird's, for example, 

 can never be imitated by human lips, albeit birds 

 and humans are the only creatures that can sing. 

 Andrew Carnegie said he would as lief shoot an 

 angel as a song-bird, for both must be akin because 

 they sing and fly. 



While a good whistler obtains satisfactory results 

 by repeating after the birds certain of the simpler 

 songs until they are learned perfectly, it is quite a 

 different matter to so record them on paper that 

 one who had never heard them before could whis- 

 tle them off, like ordinary tunes from a book, well 

 enough to deceive the feathered songsters them- 

 selves. I doubt if it could be done. Take, for 

 instance, the white-throated sparrow's familiar, well- 

 defined strain. When this comes to be set down 

 in cold type, no two books in the library record it 



alike. New Englanders think the bird devotes his 

 vocal energies to glorifying "Old Sam Peabody," 

 while our British cousins, over the border, are so 

 certain that he sings the praises of their land they 



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