XXXI. THE SONG-BIRDS OF THE FARM 



" The woods were filled so full of song 

 There seemed no room for sense of wrong." 



— Tennyson. 



Nothing is more natural than that we should be interested 

 in birds. Their appeal to us is manifold. Their colors are 

 beautiful, and the texture and design of their garb are elegant 

 beyond comparison. Their sprightliness is wonderful. They 

 flit from morning till night unceasingly, and traverse the air 

 with a freedom that often moves us to say, enviously, with 

 Darius Green, "Birds can fly, and why can't I?" When we 

 shall have "conquered the air", our flying bids fair to be 

 serious work rather than play, such as theirs is. Their songs 

 are the finest vocal expressions of the animal world — expres- 

 sions apparently of contentment, of tender sentiments and of 

 exuberant joy. Their nests show fine discrimination in the 

 selection and use of materials, artistic sense of decorative 

 values, and in their construction they disclose the elements of 

 basketry and carpentry, and of both plastic and textile art. 

 Their family life is nearly ideal; the fidelity of mates to each 

 other and the devotion of parents to their brood being such 

 as human society aspires to, but has not yet fully attained. 



And if all these things were not enough, there would still 



remain the practical consideration that birds aid us in our 



agriculture. They feed on insect pests of field and orchard : 



and if any one were so devoid of sentiment as not to like a 



robin singing from the housetop, he might still appreciate the 



bird when found devouring cutworms in the garden. It is 



not economic, but esthetic values, however, that are to be the 



subject of this study. Let us get acquainted with the birds 



dwelling near us for the sake of the pleasure to be had from 



personally knowing creatures so beautiful, so tuneful and so 



artful. 



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