296 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



world wants is familiarity with the life about it ; 

 an intelligent knowledge of beast, bird, and in- 

 sect, and this is sometimes, yes, often, to be 

 had from the pages of amateurs, or literally, 

 lovers or enthusiasts of the subjects treated, 

 rather than from the technical pages of the pro- 

 fessional. Certainly it cannot be said that the 

 knowledge of the latter is necessarily accurate, 

 or why should these self-elected wiseacres differ 

 so among themselves? The earnest amateur 

 has as clear vision, as acute ears, and as critical 

 a mind as any professional that ever lived. An 

 artist, on having his attention called to a brilliant 

 sunset, exclaimed, impatiently, that the colors 

 were ill arranged ; a musician, on being asked 

 his opinion of the sunset song of a thrush, re- 

 plied that the discord jarred upon his nerves ; 

 so the professional ornithologist seeing a bird 

 out of place, nesting out of time, or singing 

 when it was expected to be silent, shrugs his 

 shoulders and mutters, " It is not recorded so in 

 any book." Happy amateurs ! that are moved 

 to take Nature as they find it and see beauty in 

 the sunset sky, hear melody in the wild-bird's 

 song, and only wish they too had been equally 



