VALUK OF BIRDS TO MAN. 89 
ground. This travelling about of those in search of birds bids 
fair eventually to assume considerable proportions, and can- 
not fail to be of some pecuniary importance to transportation 
companies, as well as to those who minister to the wants of 
man and beast. Many people prefer to spend their vacations 
in localities where both the larger and smaller birds are plen- 
tiful. Thus the esthetic value of the soaring Hawk or the 
wading Heron becomes of practical importance to the farmer 
and hotel keeper who are looking for summer boarders. 
People of means are fully sensible of the many advantages 
of life in the country, and are making homes for themselves 
on our farms. Buta merchant prince who established such 
a home found his enjoyment of the place greatly abridged by 
the scarcity of birds. With the growing interest in birds, 
towns or localities where birds are plentiful will have an 
added value as places of residence. 
Possibly, however, the greatest boon that the study of 
birds can confer upon man is seen in the power of the bird 
lover to keep his spirit young. One who in his early years 
is attracted to the study of birds will find that with them he 
always renews his youth. Each spring the awakening year 
encompasses him with a flood of joyous bird life. Old friends 
are they who greet him, and they come as in the days of 
‘ childhood, bringing tidings of good cheer. Thus it is ever. 
Years roll on, youth passes, the homes and woods of our 
childhood disappear, the head becomes bowed with sorrow 
and frosted by the snows of time, the strong hand trembles, 
the friends of youth pass away ; but with each returning spring 
the old familiar bird songs of our childhood come back to 
us, still unchanged by the passing years. The birds turn 
back, for us, the flight of time. Their songs are voices 
from our vanished youth. Let us, then, teach our children 
to love and protect the birds, that these familiar friends of 
their childhood may remain to cheer them with song and 
beauty, when, toward the sunset of life, the shadows will 
grow long upon the pathway. 
