Tilli WOODLANDS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BIRDS. 



OF all the inhabitants of the woods birds are the 

 most universal favourites. The most poetical eulogy 

 of them in prose is the volume entitled " The Bird," 

 by Michelet ; the most enchanting histories, those of 

 Wilson and Audubon. The former tells us that 

 " Man could not have lived without the bird, which 

 alone could save him from the insect and the reptile ; 

 but the bird had lived without man. Man or no 

 man, the eagle had reigned on his Alpine throne. 

 The swallow would not the less have performed 

 her yearly migration. The frigate-bird, unseen by 

 human eyes, had still hovered over the lonely ocean 

 waters. Without waiting for human listeners, and 

 with all the greater security, the nightingale had still 

 chanted in the forest his sublime hymn. And for 

 whom ? For her whom he loves, for his offspring, 

 for the woodlands, and, finally, for himself, his most 

 fastidious auditor." Then again he writes forcibly 

 of the services rendered to us by birds. " Many are 

 the assiduous guardians of our herds. The heron 

 gardebceuf, making use of his bill as a lancet, cuts 

 the flesh of the ox to extract from it a parasitical 

 worm which sucks the blood and life of the animal. 



