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life. Much of our best literature would lose some of its charm 

 and appeal were it shorn of poetic allusions to birds. 



Birds often have inspired the poets. Bryant's lines "To a 

 Waterfowl" and Shelley's "Skylark" each exhibit a phase of 

 noble inspiration. These are but instances of the stimulating 

 power exerted on the mind of man by the bird and its associa- 

 tions. Some of the grandest poems ever written have been 

 dependent on their author's observations of birds for some touch 

 of nature which has helped to render them immortal. Thus 

 Gray, in his famed "Elegy Written in a Country Church- 

 yard": 



The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, 

 The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, 



The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 

 No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 



Who, reared in a country home, can fail as he reads these 

 lines to recall the twittering of the swallows under the spreading 

 rafters in the cool of early morning? The mental contemplation 

 of that peaceful scene, the train of tender recollections of the 

 time of youth and innocence, all tending toward better impulses 

 and higher aspirations, are largely due to the mention of the 

 familiar bird in its association with the home of childhood. Is 

 not literature the richer for the following lines of Longfellow, in 

 his "Birds of Passage"? 



Above in the light 



Of the star-lit night, 



Swift birds of passage wing their flight 



Through the dewy atmosphere. 



I hear the beat 



Of their pinions fleet, 



As from the land of snow and sleet, 



They seek a southern lea. 



How much of life and color the presence of birds adds to the 

 landscape! The artist appreciates this. What marine view is 

 complete without its sea birds in flight? How much of life and 

 action a flock of wild-fowl add to a lake or river scene! 



