Song Birds and Water Fowl 



us. 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 kirtd- This it is, chiefly, in 

 our own land, that gives its reputation to the 

 thrush, the purple finch, anji'inany another 

 species otherwise quite U!&;^etentious. And 

 yet, although the cliojiEest quality of all, it is 

 by no means so te^dominant, in the aggregate 

 of one's enjoyra^t, as he might think. Even 



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