Old Friends and New 263 
hardly find any species which seemed alien 
to him. This encounter with birds less 
known to us in their connections is a cosmo- 
politan element in our bird society, and one 
which is greatly increased of course if we go 
into Mexico, where we soon meet the parrots, 
motmots, clarins, the anis, the xantus becards, 
and a number of other strange birds. 
It is certainly delightful to the outdoor 
man of social mood to have friends both in 
the East and in the West. Perhaps the old 
friends are the best—indeed I think none 
wholly supplant them in our affections, but 
there is much to be said for new friends as 
well, and we cannot take the old with us. 
The possibility, too, of a new friend appearing 
on the horizon is one of the jewels of this 
life. When I return to the East in the spring, 
it is with the assurance that I shall find the 
hermit and the veery still my friends—my 
very spiritual friends; the redeye and the 
warbling vireos still the faithful companions 
of the summer days; the oriole and the rose- 
breasted grosbeak the minstrels who will 
not let music and poetry die in me; the bob- 
olink my merry comrade of the fields. Again, 
when the bluebirds have sung their parting 
warble, when the wild geese have sounded 
