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 withdrawn.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 is a 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 



