208 Twelve Months With 



reference to the birds, their songs and nests. If 

 one should attempt to name a half dozen among 

 his friends who possess even an amateur's knowl- 

 edge of our common birds and their habits, he 

 would find the task difficult, if not impossible. 

 When we consider that the study of birds offers 

 such "endless entertainment and instruction," and 

 that it takes the student out into the woods and 

 fields, through the grass and flowers in summer, 

 and through the white snow in winter, when 



* * the p OOres t twig on the elm tree 

 Is ridged inch deep with pearl," 



one wonders at the lack of interest in this whole- 

 some subject. Of course we are all much too busy 

 nowadays collecting dollars to turn aside and 

 collect anything else, even so much as ideas about 

 other things! But, after all, the truly wise man 

 is he who always finds time for those broadening 

 and deepening influences which one never seeks in 

 vain in the woods and fields. 



"In the urgent solitudes 

 Lies the spur to larger moods." 



In some respects the winter months are more 

 favorable for bird study than summer, because 

 when trees are bare and many of the birds have 

 flown, the work of the student is naturally more 

 simple. 



