302 CONCLUSION. 



ourselves return, when we shall be truly men, is exactly the con- 

 clusion this book has aimed at, and which I was about to write, 

 when the nightingale entered, and the father with the nightin- 

 gale. 



The bird himself has been, in that facile amnesty which he has 

 granted to us, his tyrants, my living conclusion. 



Those travellers who have been the first to penetrate into lands 

 hitherto untrodden by man, -unanimously report that all animals, 

 mammals, amphibians, birds, do not shun them, but, on the contrary, 

 rather approach to regard them with an air of benevolent curiosity, 

 to which they have responded with musket-shots. 



Even to-day, after man has treated them so cruelly, animals, 

 in their times of peril, never hesitate to draw near him. 



The bird's ancient and natural foe is the serpent ; the enemy of 

 quadrupeds is the tiger. And their protector is -man. 



From the furthest distance that the wild dog smells the scent of 

 the tiger or the lion, he comes to press close to us. 



And so, too, the bird, in the horror which the serpent inspires, 

 especially when it threatens his callow brood, finds a language of the 

 most forcible character to implore man's help, and to thank him if he 

 kills his enemy. 



For this reason the humming-bird loves to nestle near man. 

 And it is probably from the same motive that the swallows and the 



