OUR COMMON BIRDS 309 



yet produced the best and most beautiful rose or peach 

 or bird or man or anything else that the world is capable 

 of yielding. By proper care we can have a world full not 



Only Of SUCh birds as We The winds blow east, the winds blow west, 

 , r i i -,1 The blue eggs in the robin's nest 



have now, but of birds with wm soon have wings and bea k and breast, 

 sweeter and sweeter song And flutter and fly away " LoNGFEL LOW : 

 and more and more beautiful plumage. And in presence 

 of these infinite possibilities for good or for ill we must 

 above all things remember that every human action tends 

 to make the world a garden To produce and multiply endlessly> with . 

 or a desert, a paradise of out f, ver reachin s u the last possibility of 



excellence, and without committing herself 

 joy and beauty Or a Vale to any end, is the law of Nature. 



c BURROUGHS, Birds and Poets, p. 156. 



of tears. 



If our birds felt a sense of security in our presence, they 

 might sing even more sweetly and more abundantly than 

 they do now. Indeed, Burroughs remarks of English birds : 

 - They sing with more con- Wood birds here are house and garden 

 fidence and copiousness, and birds there [ En s-]. 



BURROUGHS, Fresh Fields, p. 136. 



as if they, too, had been 



touched by civilization." They sing more hours in the 

 day and more days in the year. Furthermore, if our 

 birds were uniformly safe Many h aps fail in the field 



> i Seldom seen by wishful eyes ; 



in mans presence and un- But all her shows did Nature yield> 



disturbed, they WOUld COme To please and win this pilgrim wise. 



J He saw the partridge drum in the woods; 



mUCll Closer tO US, aS they He heard the woodcock's evening hymn ; 



He found the tawny thrushes' broods ; 



did to Thoreau, and to Celia And the sh y hawk did wait for him ; 



, , What others did at distance hear, 



in her garden. And guessed within the thicket's gloom, 



With proper care many of 

 our best songsters and most EMERSON, woodnotes, i, 2 . 



useful birds that are now rare might become more common, 

 filling our parks and the thickly planted portions of our 



