BIRDS AND THEIR PARLOURS 171 



and according to their needs — ^which is, after all, 

 the extent of man's boasted accomplishments. And 

 birds will always live and thrive, despite local ca- 

 lamities, and the extinction of certain species. 



In form and structure they may change, the 

 spread of civilisation may rob them in time of all 

 their wild- wood haunts, but their race will live on; 

 and as man progresses in knowledge and under- 

 standing it will be a simple matter for them to ad- 

 just themselves to his proximity. But no change, 

 however gradual, due entirely to environment, could 

 reduce the sum of beauty among the birds; and 

 that which they have they will care for and nurture, 

 both because of necessity and because of that rare 

 esthetic taste which they possess in a hardly less 

 degree than man himself. 



