BIRD PARADISE ii 



leaves Newfoundland and, keeping well out from 

 the coast, passes to the tropics without making a 

 single stop. Some birds fly in the night, others 

 in the daytime. Some winter just on the edge 

 of the snow line, others near the Gulf. Others in 

 far-off South America. I have often heard their 

 call in the night-time as they were passing over 

 and have seen the flocks dropping down to the 

 ground in the early morning light. In their 

 flight northward the same rules govern as in the 

 passage to the South. With some birds as with 

 geese and ducks the migratory instinct seems to 

 be a gift to the flock, the single bird being unable 

 to use it. We often see birds of the migratory 

 species remaining at the North through the winter. 

 Someway they fall out of the regular line and 

 seem unable to pick it up again. As Artemus 

 Ward would say, " There is a good deal of hu- 

 man nature in birds." 



The best authority I can command makes the 

 assertion that nearly 400,000 species of creatures 

 have been discovered and classifled in this world 

 of ours. Think of it, think of the number, then 

 of the creatures — each by itself — and the longest 

 life vouchsafed to man in the realm of time affords 



