154 SIDE THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS. 
SIDE THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS. 
BY FRANK E, COOMBS. 
In presenting this hastily prepared paper, it is due to say 
that my intention is not to submit a formal treatise upon 
birds from any definite standpoint, nor to specially discuss 
any single bearing of their relation to us. I take for granted 
that little which is new would be so added to the knowledge 
of those already versed in bird lore, but that a touch upon 
some of the manifold interests the subject holds for all, may 
turn the thoughts of others toward a field of natural history 
as accessible as it is fascinating and instructive. 
From the remotest times the forms of life surrounding him 
have pressed their claim in one or another way upon man’s 
attention. As food, as purveyors of clothing, or as cruel 
enemies, some plants and animals have everywhere been 
woven into his daily life, coming down to us in rude bone 
carvings and rock picturings, and in tribal legends and 
totem-posts, But it is interesting to note that while in the 
myths and folk-tales of nations the four-footed beasts were 
almost invariably connected with ideas of violence, cunning 
and terror—like the widespread story of the were-wolf, 
older than Greek civilization, and the Hindoo legends of the 
tiger—whenever the bird appears it is generally as the 
friend and protector of mankind. Thus the Arabs celebrate 
the mystic Roc ; the Hebrews made the Dove the messenger 
of a rejuvenated world; Grecian sailors loved the storm- 
pacifying Halcyon; and the house-top Stork is as sacred 
from harm in Holland to-day as the Ibis was in Egypt five 
thousand years ago. 
