REV. GEO. B. PRATT. 75 
of whom it is said that when in his profound study he gets 
tired of one book he turns to another on an entirely different 
subject, 
Year after year new birds come into the life of an amateur. 
I have found if I obtained observations of only one or two 
new birds in a season—birds that I had never seen before, 
there is a feeling of great satisfaction. I realize that there 
comes a time when a scientist has pretty nearly exhausted 
his field of migration; but in the department of habits I 
doubt whether the field is ever exhausted. 
A bonafide ornithologist may laugh when I say I never 
knew a Wood-thrush until three years after I began work. 
Location has something to do with this. Certain birds are 
never seen in certain localities. Some are in one part of 
the country, some in another. Mr. John Burroughs wrote 
at one time of the valley of the Hudson River, that if he 
found a Brown Thrasher in a circle of six miles he was fortu- 
nate. The red squirrel andthe Cow-bird were their greatest 
enemies, as these are also of scores of other birds. I think he 
said three-fourths of the destruction of birds was due to these 
tworascals, In Minnesota I stood one day where, on the tops 
of three magnificent trees, I could hear and see three Brown 
Thrashers singing away for dear life. I knew also that three 
nests were situated somewhere within the circumference 
of half a mile, one of which I found afterward. This bird 
always sings at quite a little distance from his nest. And 
what a repertory it is! Magnificent! Cat-bird, Mocking- 
bird, Oriole, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Robin, all com- 
bined in a flow of song which ripples out from just one set 
of reeds, just one marvellous throat-formation! I prefer a 
Brown Thrasher to a Mocking-bird. If cages must be in 
houses and birds in cages, give me a cage with a Brown 
Thrasher in it. ‘ 
I cannot forget the pleasure I felt when I first found a 
Bobolink in his summer dress. The night-cap covering of the 
little fellow was very striking. Ihad in Philadelphia eaten 
