para&fse Circle 



These books about birds, this flavor 

 of Thoreau, Burroughs, Seton-Thompson, 

 Dr. Abbott, this fragrant enthusiasm ex- 

 haled by the pages of Mrs. IVfiller's and 

 Mr. Bradford Torrey's works, — all this 

 composite message of literature and pic- 

 ture, — what a blessing ! For here we have 

 the fadeless tradition. Birds may be sac- 

 rificed for the appeasement of the mil- 

 liner's god ; all of our wide country may 

 lose its merry and gaily painted flakes of 

 frolic and feather: but the books are ours 

 forever. Dr. Van Dyke and Charles M. 

 Skinner have bottled up woodsy essences 

 for us which will keep fresh when all the 

 trees have gone to sawdust. The sketches 

 of H. E. Parkhurst, of Colonel Higginson, 

 and of Neltje Blanchan are so steeped in 

 real bird-life that to turn their leaves is 

 like having wings and flitting from grove 

 to grove, trailing behind us the arboreal 

 melodies of thrush and bobolink, with the 

 flowers under us and the sky a turquoise 

 splendor overhead. 



Still, I have no time for making cata- 

 logues, and a bird-book catalogue should 

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