462 Bird - Lore 



We may think of these lines as La Fontaine's message to us; and, truly, 

 it is in the spirit of the Christmastide, which ushers in not only "a world of 

 beauty" outside, but ''peace and good will" within. 



SUGGESTIONS 



1. Look up myth, pandit, folk-lore, admonition, Buddha, Brahman, snare, respon- 

 sible, artificial, maneuver, primitive, and ingenious. 



2. Do you think it would be easy to write a fable? • 



3. Why is Jotham's fable about the trees such a perfect fable? 



4. Who among your acquaintance can best tell a story? 



5. Why is the Crow so good a bird to use in a fable? 



6. How much of the description of the Heron in La Fontaine's fable is true, and how 

 much is imaginative? 



7. What sort of picture of a Heron do the lines 'with his long, sharp beak helved 

 on his slender neck' give you? 



8. What was La Fontaine's mood when he wrote about the "silent fun" of the 

 carp and the pike? 



9. What do you know about the feeding-habits of Herons? Do they "live by rule" 

 and eat only at certain hours? 



10. Why is the Lark associated with the Farmer? What is its nesting-habit? 



11. What is the earliest reference to snaring birds that you can find? What races of 

 men use the snare? 



12. What is the origin of the sling? Has it ever been used as an implement of war? 



13. Do you like true stories of animals and birds better than made-up ones? 



14. How many true things do you know about birds which you have seen with your 

 own eyes? 



REFERENCES 



Encyclopaedia Britannica, see fable, ^sop, sling. 



The Warner Library, see Vol. XX, under Pilpay and Vol. XV, under La Fontaine. 

 Also look up iEsop. 



Uncle Remus' Tales, by Joel Chandler Harris. 



Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling. 



American Ornithology, by Wilson and Bonaparte, Vol. I, see description of the Crow. 



The Swallow Book, by Guiseppe Pitre, translated from the Italian by Ada Camehl 

 in the form of a reading book. 



The Happy Prince and Other Tales, by Oscar Wilde. — .A. H. W. 



Two Quatrains from Thomas Bailey Aldrich 



MAPLE LEAVES 



October turned my maple's leaves to gold; 

 The most are gone now; here and there one lingers; 

 Soon these will slip from out the twigs' weak hold, 

 Like coins between a dying miser's fingers. 



DAY AND NIGHT 



Day is a snow-white Dove of heaven 

 That from the East glad message brings; 

 Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, 

 Wrapped to the eyes in his black wings. 



