Alabama, ipi8. 19 



If I could come when springtime comes 



And on my brow its breath, 

 Oh, well-a-day the dreamless years 



In quiet halls of death! 

 If I could drink of the ruby wine, 



And watch the blooms again, 

 And hear the birds, and see the leaves. 



And feel the April rain! 



— Exchange. 



^ 



THE AESTHETIC AND SENTIMENTAL VALUE OF BIRDS 



♦ © ♦ 



OMITTING all mention of various other material benefits 

 which birds confer on man, I will notice briefly their aesthetic 

 and sentimental values. 



Bird life is the part of the creation in which nature has done 

 more in the way of bestowing mental benefactions on man than in 

 any other of her works. Unconsciously received, yet born of it, 

 there is a spiritual teaching, an uplifting influence, in the study of 

 birds which tends to make a man act more constantly from prin- 

 ciple, which tends to give a new and a more wholesome tone to his 

 whole life. » 



The companionship of birds affords a happiness as pure, per- 

 haps, and as permanently exquisite as a man in his present state of 

 being can possibly enjoy. Never came purer joy into my life than 

 when, rising at dawn from my couch of fern, I heard the approach 

 of the coming day heralded by a chorus of glad bird voices. Never 

 have I experienced emotions which have so lastingly impressed my 

 mind as when, in the inexpressible mystery of the darkened forest, 

 with the stars drifting over, I listened to the sublime notes of some 

 feathered psalmist, itself in night invisible. 



The world itself is but an outline sketch ; it is the birds which 

 fill in the details and complete the picture. Towered vapors of the 



