MAKING NEW FRIENDS 



A FRIEND once told me of a letter he had received 

 from a correspondent who is an enthusiastic 

 botanist. The writer, having just returned 

 from an excursion in which he found a flower that was 

 new to him, gave vent to his feelings of exultation by 

 exclaiming, " Oh, the joy! the joy!" A like experience 

 comes to the bird lover when he makes a new acquaint- 

 ance in the feathered domain, no matter how many other 

 observers may have seen and studied the species. "A 

 bird that is new to me is to all intents and purposes a 

 new bird," is his self-complacent mode of reasoning, 

 though it may not be distinguished for its logic. 



After studying the birds in Ohio and Indiana for a 

 good many years, I moved to eastern Kansas, where I 

 lived for five and a half years. My rambles were by no 

 means confined to the wooded bluffs and hollows that 

 bound the Missouri River on the west, for I also made 

 excursions out upon the prairies of Kansas, over into the 

 state of Missouri, and down into Oklahoma ; and every- 

 where I carried my field glass with me and kept both 

 eyes intent on the birds. You would expect an enthu- 

 siast in the pursuit of bird lore to do nothing else. What 



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