78 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



the facts as an inventory could be taken of them, but not 

 the charm of color or motion into which the details 

 blend." I am not quite sure about our mammals, which 

 certainly have essentially prosaic natures, but as far as our 

 birds are concerned, I am led to dispute the statement ; 

 and Mr. King intended that it should apply to them. 

 Does this asserted soul-condition fit with that love of lo- 

 cality that we know birds possess ? I think not. And 

 have we any right, as is done by many, to assume that 

 haunts are chosen wholly with reference to the food sup- 

 ply ? If so, many a birdless area should be thronging with 

 them throughout the summer. Why, if the beauty that 

 we recognize goes for naught among birds, does the grass- 

 finch sing most sweetly during the few moments of a brill- 

 iant sunset ? Time and again, as I have passed over the 

 upland fields at the close of the day, the sun has suddenly 

 broken through the cloud-banks on the horizon and filled 

 the world with crimson and golden light. In an instant 

 every grass-finch in the field mounts some low shrub and 

 sings his sweetest songs. Is this always mere coincidence ? 

 Do they not, rather, feel that same impulse which prompts 

 us to exclaim, " How beautiful " ? 



And I can not withhold from the falcons that I have 

 seen credit for some nobler motive, when gazing from the 

 top of the tallest tree about, than looking-for a mouse. 



But the typical April shower is not the only variation 

 during the month from fair-weather days. There are 

 other rains than these deliberate, partial, poetical ones ; 

 and I never fail to remember this latter fact, and am dis- 

 agreeable enough to thrust deadly statistics in the face of 

 those who quote with evident satisfaction pat phrases 

 about this strange month's beauties. The month has its 

 charms, and an abundance of them, and all try to forget 

 its unpleasant features ; but when I hear my friends extol 

 the beauty of tearful April, as though the month was a 



