Old Friends and New 267 
well as continental and, strangely enough, 
mankind in the South-West, particularly in 
Mexico, has acquired the same habit and 
migrates up and down the mountain slopes, 
changing the climate with the altitude in a few 
hours’ travel. The birds discovered this 
long before it was known to man, even before 
man himself was known. Flocks of birds 
come down out of the mountains as the cold 
weather appears and find a winter home in the 
valleys, while spring takes them up into the 
hills again to breed and to rear their young. 
It is only natural that we should have our 
particular friends among the birds; a matter 
of the personal equation—of the bird’s and 
ourown. It is unnatural, though quite usual, 
to have no friends among them. This friend- 
less state of some forlorn folk is one which 
arouses in us a certain commiseration that 
they should remain strangers in the land and 
depart from it having missed so much that was 
admirable. One who has enjoyed the society 
of the best birds must feel some delicacy in 
speaking of his friends, for the friendless or 
unsocial, or those who have been denied the 
entrée to bird society, might take umbrage at 
this seeming boastfulness, this vaunting of 
social advantage, and when he speaks of his 
