FEATHERED PHILOSOPHERS 87 



The character study of the bird is 

 beyond the mazes of classification, 

 beyond the counting of bones, out of 

 the reach of the scalpel and the litera- 

 ture of the mircoscope. We compre- 

 hend its air-filled bones, and its physi- 

 cal evolution, uses, and limitations. 

 We know that it is frailly mortal, — 

 but still a bird will seem like a voice 

 from some unknown region. The 

 beasts of the earth are bound to its 

 face, and man also, for science, as yet, 

 can guide but very poorly even the 

 most limited aerial navigation; but 

 the bird appears, in a way, to surmount 

 the attraction of gravitation, and, as 

 its eulogist Michelet says, " feels itself 

 strong beyond the limits of its action." 



Instinct may serve to designate such 

 acts as the sex impulse or that bear the 

 stamp of heredity, but a wider scope 

 must be allowed to the brain of the 



