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ESTHETIC, SENTIMENTAL AND EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF BIRDS. 



Thus far in this bulletin birds have been regarded solely from 

 the standpoint of "enlightened self-interest." They have been 

 looked at strictly from the utilitarian point of view, and it has 

 been demonstrated that their contributions to man's material 

 welfare are very considerable. Now let us turn for a moment 

 from the contemplation of such utility of birds as money can 

 measure to "some of the higher and nobler uses which birds 

 subserve to man." 



At once we step from the beaten path of economic ornithology 

 into a realm made sacred by art, letters, sentiment and poetry, 



into intellectual fields where the fascinating study of birds 

 may either provide delightful experiences or may lead to the 

 classroom, the museum, the laboratory or the closet of the 

 systematist. Wherever it may lead, this phase of our subject 

 is important and demands the most serious consideration. Al- 

 though presented last, its benefactions should be reckoned first 

 among the items which go to make up the sum of our indebted- 

 ness to the feathered race. 



The beauty of birds, the music of their songs, the weird 

 wildness of their calls, the majesty of their soaring flight, and 

 the mystery of their migrations always have been subjects of 

 absorbing interest to poets, artists and lovers of nature. Promi- 

 nent among the undying memories of men are mental pictures 

 of the birds of childhood, their coming in the spring, their nest- 

 ing and their chosen haunts. Many an exiled emigrant longs 

 in vain to hear again the outpouring melody of the skylark, as 

 it soars above the fields of England. Many a New England 

 boy, shut in by western mountains, yearns for the bubbling, 

 joyous song of the bobolink in June meadows. The characters 

 and traits of birds, their loves and battles, their skill in home 

 building, their devotion to their young, their habits and ways, 



all are of exceeding interest to mankind. Birds have become 

 symbolic of certain human characteristics, and therefore some 

 common species have come to be so interwoven with our art 

 and literature that their names are almost household words. 

 What biblical scholar is not familiar with the birds of the Bible? 

 Shakespeare makes over six hundred references to birds or bird 



