26 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
utility of birds as money can measure to some of the higher 
and nobler uses which birds subserve to man. Among these 
may be named the culture of the intellect. I speak now of 
the study of birds from a scientific standpoint—in a word, of 
ornithology. It is quite true that every page of the text- 
book of nature is educational. The most simple and lowly 
class of creatures, alike with those most complex and exalted 
in the scale of organization, may serve as objects of interested 
attention which train our powers of observation, as food for 
thought and reflection which nourishes and develops the 
mental faculties, as proper pabulum for intellectual growth. 
But it certainly seems to me that there is no fairer page in 
the whole book, none more open to the student of nature, 
none more legible to the lover of nature who can bring aver- 
age abilities to bear upon it, than that on which is inscribed 
the life-history of a bird. Perhaps I am partial to that par- 
ticular page, for my eyes first fell upon it when I was very 
young and plastic, and have never since that time been wholly 
withdrawn. But if so, it isa pardonable partiality, and one, 
moreover, with which the members of this Congress are in 
full sympathy. The first bird that ever arrested my atten- 
tion, to the best of my recollection, was a scarlet tanager, 
which flashed through the green foliage like a vision, and 
vanished. This was a revelation to a child; my senses 
seemed rapt, as if by a visitation from another sphere of 
wondrous, unspeakable beauty. The fiery trail of a meteor 
could not have left a more indelible impression than my 
mind received at that instant. I verily believe the sight of 
that tanager determined to some extent the particular bent 
of my mind for ornithology rather than for any other branch 
of natural history, and to an equal extent has colored my mind 
from that day to this. So far am I from regretting this, that I 
think the best mental training I have ever had, be it in the 
exercise of powers of observation, or in the correlated 
growth of capacity for ratiocination, has been in the study 
of birds, whether in the field or in the closet; and certainly 
