parabfse Circle 



be a work of art. To borrow from a 

 Kentucky friend and suit his statement 

 to my subject, all bird-books are charm- 

 ing, but some are more so than others. 

 The one great masterpiece has not been 

 written; perhaps it never will be: for the 

 days of unhindered and unstinted luxury 

 by field and flood are gone forever — the 

 book of birds should have been the work 

 of a pioneer. Sometimes I dream that, 

 could I have been with De Soto on his 

 tour from Florida to the Mississippi, I 

 might have left behind me a volume of 

 incomparable interest and value. Yet not 

 a Spaniard of them all did a pen-stroke 

 worth remembering. Think what mar- 

 velous wealth of bird-life offered itself to 

 Bienville and his companions all along the 

 Louisiana coast and far up the great river ! 

 The Mexican invaders did have a follower 

 who spied upon the tropical birds to an 

 extent just sufficient to be now tantalizing ; 

 but think of the wasted opportunity (to 

 gladden a hundred generations) during the 

 palmy days of the Jesuit fathers from 

 Canada to South America ! When Ponce 

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