Old Friends and New 265 
well-bred according to bird standards. Any 
show of pomposity shuts the gate of Eden in 
our faces—that magic door, imponderable, 
yet stronger than adamant. We must learn 
to slip into the bird world noiselessly as an 
owl, leaving behind us all that is conspicuous 
and man-like, assuming all that is shy and 
bird-like. Then, and then only, are the lisp- 
ing notes of the warblers flitting in the leafless 
woods not an alien speech. In place of 
stupid tourists we become like wise and ac- 
complished travellers, speaking the idiom 
of the country—even the dialect of the pro- 
vince. They reveal themselves to us now 
in the light of our understanding of bird 
nature, and let it not be forgotten that this 
bird world is a musical world, a fact which 
must ever elevate it above any other sphere 
of Nature that appeals to our interest and 
sympathy. 
Another element of bird life which lends it 
a peculiar fascination is the migration, for 
this dependence of the birds upon the seasons 
serves to further link their lives with our . 
own and to intimately relate them with those 
states of mind and outward changes we 
know as spring and summer and autumn. 
To me, it would not be spring without the 
