36 Passing of the Bluebird 



sung fifty years ago, and saw the people who 

 were then nearest to me, and now 



" All, all are gone, the old, familiar faces." 



The process of extinction, inaugurated by 

 ignorant men, may continue to the end in 

 our villages and about the average farm- 

 house, but there are spots where its blight 

 cannot reach, and the literal fulfilment of 

 the bluebird's doom is yet afar off. There 

 are islands and hill-sides, deep ravines and 

 remote woodland tradls, that offer no attrac- 

 tions to the invading sparrow, and here the 

 bluebird can and does find a congenial home. 

 It is true that in years past we almost domes- 

 ticated it, but before that, in Indian times, it 

 was a bird of the woods, and so can again 

 become, unless our forest fires do away with 

 timbered trafts. The passing of the blue- 

 bird is no empty phrase, but the passing is 

 not that of out of existence, but out of reach. 

 It is greatly to be deplored, but there seems 

 to be no help for it. 



And now the question arises, Are there no 

 other birds to take their place ? I think so. 

 By consideration for their welfare, by con- 

 tributing to their needs, by preventing their 



