INTRODUCTION. 



created tilings? Poets out of number have sung their praises, 

 and no wonder, for birds are themselves the poets of the woods 

 and fields, and a fellow feeling, as the proverb says, makes men 

 "wondrous kind." Children especially delight in them; and this 

 need not surprise us, for musical sounds and graceful forms, bright 

 colours and lively motions, cannot fail to please a childish heart; 

 God meant that they should do so; and this belief, which I would 

 have my readers cherish, gives us an exalted idea of His good- 

 ness, as well as His wisdom. He created Birds like many other 

 things — like most of the common objects that we see around us, 

 to be pleasing as well as useful; and he is the wisest mortal, whe- 

 ther he be child or man, who is most grateful for these precious 

 gifts of the Almighty, and gathers from them the greatest amount 

 of pleasure, as well as instruction. 



But what can birds teach? Oh, many things. We may remem- 

 ber that Job, even in the depth of his affliction, reproved those 

 who would question the goodness of God, by saying — "Ask the 

 fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee." But what would 

 they tell, those free rejoicing creatures, that live from day to 

 day upon the bounty of Providence, and have no fear, no care 

 for the morrow. Let us turn to the sixth chapter of St. Matthew's 

 Gospel, and hear what our Saviour says: — "Behold the fowls of 

 the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into 

 barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them: are ye not much 

 better than they?" you that have an immortal soul to be saved, 

 an everlasting life to live, will not God, who suffereth not a 

 Sparrow to fall to the ground unnoted, take care for you? Assur- 

 edly He will; so take a lesson from the birds, and be happy 

 and contented with your lot, whatsoever it may be. 



"Their little lives are free from care, 



From bush to brake they fly, 

 Filling the rich ambrosial air 



Of summer's painted sky: 

 They flit about the fragrant wood; 

 Eiisha's God provides their food, 



And hears them when they cry. 

 For ever blithe and blest are they, 

 Their sinless course a summer's day." 



WHAT IS A BTED? 



It seems to us that we have not yet answered this question 

 properly — scientifically. Let us do so in the words of a British 

 naturalist named Macgillivray, who says that "Birds constitute 

 the secou 1 class • r vertebrate animals, and are characterized by 



