8 BRITISH BIRDS 



Arts, that confirmed the original bent of his mind to so 

 the observation and description of the phenomena of 

 external nature. How complete and enduring that 

 bent became is acknowledged in his own prose-preface 

 to Winter : ' I know no subject more elevating, more . 

 amusing, more ready to awake the poetical enthusiasm, 

 the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment 

 than the works of nature : there is no thinking of 

 them without breaking out into poetry.' And his 

 achievement amply justifies the sincerity and the 

 truth of his pronouncement. All the grander and *o 

 many of the minuter aspects and expressions of 

 nature he has delineated with a force and fidelity 

 simply astonishing. Often with a single word or 

 phrase which has caught the significant characteristic 

 of his subject he flashes upon our imagination a whole 

 vast and varied scene. 



Thom- In dealing with animate nature Thomson, like 



Gilbert White, gives the foremost place to the beauty 

 ird-book and mystery of bird-life. Little short of the half of 



ofpoetiy. hj s p oem on Spring is devoted to this one theme, so 

 It may almost be regarded as the Bird-book of poetry. 

 Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls is its only rival. 



Thomson's general references to birds may be con- 

 sidered first. They are variously designated in the 

 mass (as was the poetical fashion of his age) 'the 

 plumy people ', ' the gentle tenants of the shade ', 

 ' the gay troops ', * the glossy kind ', ' Nature's quiris- 

 ters ', ' our brothers of the grove ', ( the feathered 



The song race ', ' the wanderers of heaven ', &c. It is their 



birds singing that first engages his attention. He hears so 

 before he sees them, and is charmed. They sing con- 

 cealed amid a full luxuriance of leaves and blossoms. 



