FLIGHT OF COMMON 

 BIRDS 



IN walking through the woods or fields, 

 by the shores of a lake, or along the 

 river-banks, there is apparent always 

 a woven tissue of bird flight. There are 

 few persons who have noted the distinctive 

 peculiarities of the more common birds, so as 

 to be able to tell one from the other at long 

 distances. Observation and experience will 

 give one the power to read the channels and 

 winding aisles of light and air as a book's 

 pages may be scanned, and in this sym- 

 pathetic perceptiveness the veil of Isis lifts, 

 be it ever so little, and nature's secrets are 

 mistily revealed to the gazer. It is not to be 

 thought of as study, for that presupposes the 

 judging, dissecting, photographing, number- 

 ing, and theorizing which kills the freshness 

 out of such things. 



Bird flight is the warp and woof of the 

 seasons, spun in the wind's looms, visible as 

 it passes, yet fading as it is seen. No painter 

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