224 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
for the instincts and impulses whicli link us to our 
remotest progenitors ; and we know that this 
mental phase, in a not unfavourable moral atmo- 
sphere, is usually outgrown. But where the 
love of animal life and of nature, the kindly 
and aesthetic instincts which mark a higher de- 
velopment, are manifested, we look for their con- 
tinuance. Individuals may fall back, just as others 
perish prematurely ; but to go on, to keep a hold 
on the higher thing we have grasped, is a law of 
our being. 
With such facts as I have mentioned before us, 
it is possible for any one, without being a mere 
silly optimist or visionary, to believe that the 
time is near when the readers of Courthorpe's 
brilliant fable will be able to say. It will not be 
necessary for any one to go in search of some 
remote and imaginary refuge of the feathered 
creatures to recover what we have lost ; for it is 
here in our own island, the refuge and paradise, 
where the economic value of the " winged wardens " 
of our gardens and fields is known and appreciated, 
and where their beauty and melody are so much to 
us that we no longer seek to impoverish the bird- 
life we possess, but, on the contrary, to enrich it 
by the addition of such species as we are able to 
acclimatize. 
And when we have reached that height, we 
