36 BIRDS AND MAN 



this chapter is already longer than it was ever 

 meant to be, and something on another subject 

 yet remains to be said. 



The question is sometimes asked. What is 

 the charm which you find, or say you find, in 

 nature ? Is it real, or do these words so often 

 repeated have a merely conventional meaning, 

 like so many other words and phrases which men 

 use with regard to other things ? Birds, for 

 instance : apart from the interest which the 

 ornithologist must take in his subject, what 

 substantial happiness can be got out of these shy 

 creatures, mostly small and not too well seen, 

 that fly from us when approached, and utter 

 sounds which at their best are so poor, so thin, 

 so trivial, compared with our soul-stirring human 

 music ? 



That, briefly, is the indoor view of the 

 subject — the view of those who, to begin with, 

 were perhaps town-born and town-bred ; who have 

 existed amid conditions, occupied with work and 

 pleasures, the reflex effect of which, taken alto- 

 gether and in the long-run, is to dim and even 

 deaden some of the brain's many faculties, 

 and chiefly this best faculty of preserving 



