104 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



their songs the pure distilled sweetness of nature's 

 many voices. Their productions are sonatas of 

 the wild wood. 



It is strange indeed that so few human beings 

 are yet aware of the divine psalmistry of the birds. 

 We pay large sums to hear concert music, and we 

 never stop to think that the pieces are only the 

 musician's ideal of some aspect of nature. In his 

 complex civilisation man has grown away from ac- 

 cord with the world of wild things, and he cannot 

 give its essence so truly as his feathered brother of 

 the air. Birds render in their music the glorious 

 spirit of the universe as it really is, and will ever 

 be. 



The indifference of a large part of the human 

 race to the natural beauty that is everywhere re- 

 minds one of Stevenson's apt words: "If God 

 would charge so much a head for sunsets, or send 

 a drum around at the blossoming of the hawthorns, 

 perhaps then man would better appreciate and 

 adore what has been his neglected heritage since 

 first his race began." 



Appreciation in the sense of public recognition 

 is largely a matter of education, and it is most grati- 

 fying to note the present wonderful advance in the 

 appreciation of the beauties of nature. And with 

 our better understanding of the tiny intellects of 



