paraMse Circle 



netic power to illuminate my pages withal, 

 I would write you a bird-book. It is the 

 old fascination, the gnawing desire to im- 

 part the thrills that one has felt. I do not 

 feel lonely when I realize the barrier set 

 around my ambition. Who was it of old 

 that felt a mystery descend from the " way 

 of an eagle in the air " ? Dull indeed must 

 be the imagination into which a May 

 morning's twittering voices have not left 

 a delightful cacocthes scribendi. 



From Aristotle down to the charming 

 writers of to-day the bird-note has been a 

 fascinating one in literature, and it prob- 

 ably will never disappear so long as there 

 are green woods and sunny meadows where 

 the gay-winged and sweetly clamorous 

 songsters can have a safe abiding-place. 

 An esthetic instinct of man makes him, 

 even in his most savage state, an admirer 

 of pure colors and tender sounds. Birds 

 and flowers appeal to a sense of both 

 beauty and mystery through perfection of 

 color and form ; but birds add two further 

 fascinations — namely, flight and song. I 

 have seen a blue-bird flutter dreamily 

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