Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



herself older than the birds, and birds ages older 

 than the dawn of humanity, she rightly con- 

 siders that man, Nature's most recent after- 

 thought, should be a respectful listener only and 

 not assume to dictate. Even to offer advice is 

 impudent, and to presume to criticise ill-man- 

 nered. The rejoicing of the birds of a morning 

 in May is no novelty to the time-worn hill-side 

 along which I wander. The sweetness thereof 

 has drifted like a cloud in the summer sky from 

 the forest to the river, from the river to the 

 sea, a sweetness that has soothed many a 

 troubled breast in the days of our forefathers 

 and calmed my own fretfulness to-day. 



But a morning in May is not merely a matter 

 of bird-song. There enters into it bird activity 

 as well, and to the practised eye this activity, in 

 its various phases, is as characteristic of birds as 

 is their singing. Birds of different species are 

 alike in some ways, but are also, on the other 

 hand, as unlike as we are. What among man- 

 kind is called a family trait or peculiarity has its 

 analogue in the differences among species. It is 

 possible to recognize a bird by the wing move- 

 ment or flirt of the tail, its method of flight, or 



