8 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



provides. All the wild creatures of the woods 

 and fields are his very own his to study and 

 observe, his to record their ways and movements, 

 his to love, admire, and protect. 



The pleasures of the naturalist who delights to 

 chronicle the ever-changing phenomena of spring, 

 and loves the birds and flowers and insects for 

 their own sakes, and for the charming memories 

 they recall of seasons past and gone, may be 

 simple ones, yet, with all their simplicity, they 

 never fail to yield true happiness to a contem- 

 plative mind, and furnish more real gratification 

 than all the more costly enjoyments combined 

 that wealth can bestow. Bounteous Nature 

 showers her gifts with unsparing hand around us, 

 yet her varied pleasures never satiate or tire the 

 mind ; and what is more, no calamity can rob us 

 of the rich store of information we can glean in 

 her pleasant pathways once gathered, it remains 

 an endless source of delight and recreative 

 change. I firmly believe that if the charm of out- 

 door observation of Nature were more widely 

 known, attended as it is with all the benefits of 

 early hours, fresh air, and tranquillity of mind, the 

 mentally distracted would seek relief by becoming 

 naturalists ; and the heated ball-rooms and wild 

 dissipations of town life would lose their seductive 

 attractions in the higher and the nobler and the 

 healthier pursuit. I would not thrust upon such 

 novices the dry details and the drier jargon of 

 science, for such are apt to repel rather than con- 



