The Birds’ Calendar 
returned ‘‘ Kane’s Arctic Voyages ’’ to a friend 
of whom he had borrowed the book, with the 
comfortable remark that ‘‘most of the phe- 
nomena noted therein might be observed in 
Concord ’’ (!). 
And so poorly do even the _best-trained 
visual organs often serve the observer, that, 
whereas we commonly suppose it necessary to 
see an object.in order to know it, it is quite as 
often the case that we must first know it in 
order to see it. ‘This is strikingly illustrated in 
the case of that same remarkably keen observer, 
Thoreau, who, nevertheless, made the confes- 
sion that it repeatedly befell him that, after re- 
ceiving from a distance a rare plant, he would 
presently find the same in his own haunts. 
> 
Every fourth bird one sees at this season is a 
robin. Poor fellow, he fails to get such admir- 
ing looks as those that greeted him a few weeks 
ago. He was ahero in March; but times have 
changed. Every dog has his day, and so has 
every bird; and now in May our old friend has 
lost a little of his prestige. Yet he can well for- 
give the world’s little inconstancy, for it will 
inevitably come back to its old-time regard, 
138 
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