The Birds’ Calendar 
The sentiment of ambition, in the abstract, 
is regarded as a most laudable instinct, but 
when the various impelling motives are stated 
in clear detail, most of them will shrink from 
close scrutiny. Even to surpass one’s self is 
not an ideal motive, and still less to surpass 
one’s neighbor, which is the essence of emula- 
tion. It is ungrateful for the steam in the 
boiler to make slighting remarks about the kind 
of coal that goes into the furnace, and yet it is 
curious, all the same, to watch the ornitholo- 
gist who is under the spell of this numerical 
craze, who finds that everything feathered, 
from a hawk to a humming-bird, is grist for his 
hopper. He needs to know nothing about the 
habits or the habitat of the bird—and for the 
time being perhaps cares nothing—while a sin- 
gle view of it is just as good as a thousand ; 
when he has had one full look at it—or, with 
a lack of conscience, half a look—he has, so to 
speak, bagged his game, added a new name to 
his list, and is inexpressibly happy. This fever 
is at its height in May, and as the migrants 
must be caught on the wing, as it were, he can- 
not stop fully to enjoy anything he sees, for fear 
that in the meantime something else will escape 
him. After the migrations are over—that is, 
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