Song Birds and Water Fowl 



lis. Our variety of song birds fully satisfies the 

 mood that calls for creatures of their sort. Su- 

 perabundance always spoils the best effect. If 

 all were thrushes, where were the warblers ? If 

 all were finches, where were the woodpeckers ? 

 And if all were chickadees and vireos, where 

 were the herons and the gulls ? One will quick- 

 ly find that, in their own province, the water 

 species are unapproachable, in effectiveness, by 

 any of their fellow-creatures. 



The crowning excellence of birds, undoubt- 

 edly, is their capacity for song. This gift 

 eclipses any other single claim to admiration. 

 Elegance of plumage, graceful form, and poetry 

 of motion — each of these must yield the palm 

 to the superiority of a melodious voice. It is 

 the soul of Nature speaking to the heart of man. 

 This it is that makes one of the most unpre- 

 possessing, in appearance, of all European 

 birds — the skylark — the idol of all poets, the 

 beau ideal of its kind. This it is, chiefly, in 

 our own land, that gives its reputation to the 

 thrush, the purple finch, and many another 

 species otherwise quite unpretentious. And 

 yet, although the choicest quality of all, it is 

 by no means so predominant, in the aggregate 

 of one's enjoyment, as he might think. Even 

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