The Birds’ Calendar 
** Every copse 
Deep tangled, tree irregular, and bush 
Bending with dewy moisture, o’er the heads 
Of the coy quiristers that lodge within, 
Are prodigal of harmony?” 
The anomaly is only explicable by the fact of 
the general impression that for the world at large 
ornithology is an utterly impracticable pursuit, 
exclusively reserved for the few who can, as it 
were, make a business of it; that it is a sci- 
ence to be mastered before one can reap any 
reward from it; that any smattering in this 
subject is profitless. 
Such a notion in regard to any study is a 
permanent discouragement and an insuperable 
barrier to popular interest in its pursuit. But 
it is a misconception indeed as regards orni- 
thology. For this science is almost unique in 
its simplicity, in the absence of necessary pre- 
liminary technical study, and in the possibility 
of immediate, definite, and pleasurable results, 
greater or less according to the circumstances 
of the individual. 
One commonly feels helpless to undertake 
botany, chemistry, biology, etc., without a 
teacher, and supposes that ornithology requires 
the same formality of instruction, as well as 
4 
