CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 2. PASSERES. 191 



Such is the Bobolink of our meadows, and such has he been from "creation's dawn" — a gay, 

 rollicking fellow^, satisfied with himself, and therefore content with the world around him. Wc, 

 in our conceit, imagine that he lives in our fields because he loves us, and that he sings because 

 his song pleases us ; but the fact is, that he prefers our meadows only because they aff"ord 

 him food and shelter. lie is not indebted to man for his existence, nor dependent upon man 

 for his happiness. No doubt that he and his kindred migrated to these temperate zones, and 

 built their nests and poured out their ditties, just as they do now, in the dim ages of the past, 

 long, long before civilized man had settled or even discovered America. The morning and the 

 evening hymn of these birds filled the air when only the stolid Indian Avas their listener, or 

 even before, just as at the present day. The other familiar birds — robins, sparrows, bluebirds, orioles, 

 fly-catchers, swallows — which nestle around our houses, arc attracted to these places, not by any 

 sympathy with man, but by the fruits he produces, and the worms and insects that flourish in 

 the rich soil which he creates; perchance in some cases by the protection which the presence of 

 man aflfords to them and their offspring, from hawks, owls, eagles, and other enemies. Birds are 

 quick observers; if by chance one of them finds a feast in a field, in his visits to it he is noticed, 

 and thus becomes a telegraph to others. In the spring of 1858 I had a rich garden-lot plowed 

 up and laid down to grass, sowing it first w'ith oats and then with grass-seed. In a week it was 

 the general resort of birds of many kinds — robins, orioles, cat-birds, blackbirds, sparrows, linnets, 

 and finches. The circumstances permitted me to observe their proceedings, and I readily per- 

 ceived that the orioles, seeing the robins attracted to this spot, followed them ; the cat-birds fol- 

 lowed the orioles, the blackbirds followed the cat-birds, and so on. A group of school-boys are 

 not sooner informed of a deposit of nuts, than are the birds, of a harvest of seeds or insects. Thus 

 it is that cultivated districts become the chief resort of many species, especially during the breed- 

 ing season. By the facilities of support thus aff"orded, many kinds of birds may be, and doubtless 

 are, increased in numbers; many, certainly, are thus drawn around the abodes of man. But by 

 far the larger ])art of the birds throughout the world are never seen by man. Not a twentieth 

 part of the world's surface is occupied even by the thousand millions of human inhabitants. The 

 morning — that daily miracle of the universe — that diurnal creation of a world of light out of the 

 chaos of darkness — rises upon the surface of the boundless sea, the lone mountain, the remote 

 wilderness, scattering on every side its light, and everywhere waking its anthem of life, though man 

 is not there to witness it, or to participate in it. The depths of the ocean are illumined with gems 

 and coral, and fishes of purple and gold, yet from these boundless realms man is forever banished. 

 Tlie gorgeous trogons of Central America, the superb macaws of Brazil, the glittering touracos of 

 Africa, the satin bower-birds of Australia — the myriads of feathered tribes, cither glorious in the 

 splendor of their plumage or the melody of their songs — have enlivened their native haunts for 

 thousands of years without the presence of man ; nay, the very instincts of many of these birds, 

 endowed with surpassing beauty, lead them to hide their splendors in the remote, undiscovered re- 

 cesses of the wildei'uess. Here, in these hermit retreats, they flourish, singing, sporting, and 

 spreading their golden feathers to the sun, so long as man is not there ; when he approaches, they 

 dwindle away and perish ; for man, in respect to many of the feathered tribes, is not their friend, 

 but their enemy and destroyer. In the Astor Library is a magnificent work by Gould on the birds of 

 Australia — seven volumes, folio — and all these diversified tribes — some of them of a splendor of plu- 

 mage that defies description — have remained till the present century unknown to civilized man. 

 Nay, whole races of birds, with all their shining feathers and delicious melody, have lived, flour- 

 ished, and passed away, ages before man was an inhabitant of the cai'tli. It is manifest that man, 

 in a physical sense, is not necessary to the great movement of life and light, of majesty and do- 

 minion, in the universe. He is only a humble incident in creation ; the birds sing and the trees 

 wave, equally unconscious of his presence and his absence. They were not made for him, nor he 

 for them ; all are subservient to the Creator. How strange, how mysterious, how humiliating is 

 the state of man, self-banished, by atheistic doubt or infidelity, from the great Author of Life and 

 Light, since he, and he alone, of all created things, can know his isolation and appreciate his con- 

 dition ; how glorious his hopes and expectations, when viewed in that Mirror of Faith which carries 

 him beyond this transient being — this alliance with birds and beasts — into everlasting communion 

 with his Maker ! 



