The Unknown Pathway 271 



places it will be difficult to fill. The Biological 

 Survey in Washington got Cleasby, and Burrill 

 finally went West, but not till he had done yeo- 

 man's service in helping the writer in securing Bird 

 Sanctuaries aggregating more than sixty-five thou- 

 sand acres, throughout the State. Generous, big- 

 hearted Dr. A. M. Benson must come in for due 

 credit in having donated a full page in the Wis- 

 consin Humane Herald for Audubon work after 

 "By the Wayside," the organ of the Society, had 

 died a natural death. W. W. Cook, formerly of 

 Ripon, Wisconsin, and later on of Washington, 

 D. C., aided by Prof. Mitchell, of the Milwau- 

 kee Normal School, did valuable Bird Work, in 

 which our State had a special interest. 



Among the fine Nature Books written by Gene 

 Stratton-Porter, her "Birds of the Bible" stands 

 out in my recollection as having been especially 

 interesting, for it furnishes evidence that an in- 

 structive volume can be written, not only on birds 

 mentioned in the Bible, but on those mentioned 

 in Shakespeare and the beauty of much poetry 

 would be utterly destroyed, were we to attempt 

 to eliminate all references to birds. Poetry with- 

 out its birds, would be as silent and desolate as the 

 coming of spring in the Northland without its re- 

 turning migrants its very life, melody and glad- 

 ness. 



Through more than a half century of reading, 



