140 What Birds Have Done With Me 



more public than the selection of a nesting place. 

 It was on Hotel grounds and not two hundred feet 

 from a tennis court and from the beginning of the 

 nest building to the flight of the brood, people 

 passed constantly and visitors frequently came in 

 crowds. All this disturbed the birds not at all, 

 and it did not require a whole lot of imagination 

 to fancy the proud parents posing the babies for 

 their pictures after they came out of the hole in the 

 tree. It was a beautiful Summer-school where 

 little children, world-weary people born and reared 

 in cities, entered together a kindergarten where 

 the teachers were birds that stood for the earth 

 and the sky. 



Time spent in bird study that does not trans- 

 form the student into the lover is time thrown 

 away. Only spiritual forces can conquer material 

 brute lust and selfishness. London-Bridge can be 

 fiddled down and love can conquer Jungle-land. 

 Just as soon as a large number of people place 

 upon our bird neighbors proper aesthetic value 

 a value not to be computed in dollars and in 

 cents but in heart throbs and pure joy we 

 will be assured that love will bring about the ful- 

 filling of the law. 



Nobody does anything in this world worth 

 while except where action is the expression of an 

 emotion, a sentiment not all of the earth earthy. 

 Horse breeders, dairy-men, shepherds, chicken 



