The Birds’ Calendar 
discoverer ; and the same exhilaration of dis- 
covery is in store for each new beginner. It is 
entertaining to read others’ accounts of bird- 
life, but this is a mild satisfaction compared 
with seeing for one’s self what is transpiring in 
the woods and fields all about. However in- 
structive the experience of, others, one realizes 
only his own experience. It is the difference 
between shadow aud substance. Language is a 
clumsy medium for conveying beauty of form 
and color, grace of motion, tone and modula- 
tion of song. 
When one considers the various classes of 
birds—song-birds, birds of prey, game-birds, 
shore and swimming birds — and the diversi- 
ty of habits incident to their several modes of 
life, he realizes the endless field of investigation 
open to the student. Every region of the globe 
attracts an avifauna congenial to its physical 
and climatic conditions. Mountain and plain, 
forest and field, seashore and stream, from the 
tropics to the Arctic zone—all have their spe- 
cial types, each with its own functions, and all 
for the service and adornment of nature. And 
when we take a still broader outlook, and sur- 
vey the myriad varieties of organic forms 
throughout the world, from the depths of ocean 
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