
pet BO hn = 8 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. II.— DECEMBER, 1868.—No. 10. 
ogee Ss 
BIRD’S-EYE VIEWS. 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U.S.A. 

. Bens alone, of all animate beings, may be truly said to 
“fall asleep” in death. When the silver cord of a bird’s life 
8 loosened, the “windows of the soul” are gently closed by 
Unseen hands, that the mysterious rites attending the divorce 
of the spirit from the body may not be profaned by prying 
| looks. With us, the first office rendered by sorrowing 
: friends to one departed, is to close the eyes, to hide from 
_ New the mockery of life that looks out from between mo- 
tiouless lids. And when any mammal expires, the eyes 
“main wide open. With all, the stony stare of the glazed 
bal i the sign of dissolution. Only birds close their eyes 
it dying, 








ola one of the differences between birds and mammals. 
RP and wonderful as birds are in this respect, which 
ay to the reflective mind fraught with significance, we 
k find them scarcely less beautiful and wonderful even 
a the material, physical structure of their eyes. Let 
i into a bird’s eye. Though the flash and glow of life 
‘aging and only dead tissues left, we shall still find more 
vill icy tie fully comprehend, and everything that we see 
“Xcite interest and admiration. 
Soyer ore MY OF 
NCE, in the Grey Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the PEABODY ACADE 
AMER. N Clerk’s Ottice of ihe District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
%4 64 (505) 
