HEV. GEO. B. PRATT. 'j'j 



Half-hid in tip-top apple blooms he swings, 



Or climbs against the breeze with quivering wings, 



Or, giving way to 't in a mock despair, 



Runs down, a brook of laughter, through the air.' 



" He is the joUiest bird that flies. There is no other who 

 sings with such joyful, enthusiastic abandon. He is always 

 hilariously happy. He not only sings from his perch, but in 

 his flight he rains down a perfect shower of tinkling, rollick- 

 ing, ecstatic jubilation. His is not the highest style of art, 

 but as a comic opera-singer he is unrivaled. His lack of 

 the purest quality of voice does not disturb him in the least. 

 He probably consoles himself with the thought that when 

 the Lord gives any one a fine tenor voice he does not seem 

 to think it necessary to give him either manners or morals." 



There is one bird to which I was always attracted in my 

 home in Minnesota — the Nuthatch. I shall never forget his 

 way of climbing around the boles of trees, particularly when 

 he went spirally head downward — a feat that no other bird 

 is able to do. He also roosts, I have read, with his head 

 downward, hanging on to the bark. 



I found in my first observations that I needed some book 

 to be my guide. I was directed to Jordan's " Vertebrates," 

 which gives a fair and short key to North American birds, 

 and is also an excellent guide to mammals, reptiles, and fishes. 

 Upon the margins of my book, opposite many birds, is the 

 letter " M," which means a check list of Minnesota birds, 

 taken from a list made by Dr. Coues before he published his 

 " Key to North American Birds," which has since become 

 my special court of appeal. 



A series of books, however, is a necessity. My library 

 began to increase. It was apparent that as the dollars 

 went out for books my pocket-book flattened, so that my 

 wife was occasionally startled at the docking off of one end 

 of the household machinery to supply the other end. I 

 gradually accumulated all of Thoreau's works, ending with 

 the one called " Winter," containing Thoreau's notes com- 



