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FOREST AND STREAM' 
May, 1921 
FORESTand STREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
CARE E. AKE LEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3d, Washingon, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
MAY SIGHTS AND SOUNDS 
IT E who is abroad these bright May days sees 
*1 many interesting things. Weeks ago the snakes 
were seen coiled up in warm sheltered spots en- 
joying the grateful warmth of the sun. Now most 
of the summer bird residents have come again, and 
some of them are already building their nests. The 
ivory, brown-dotted eggs of the phoebe bird have 
been resting for a week or more in their cradle 
on the piazza pillar; robins are plastering their 
new-built homes; bluejays and a hundred other 
sorts of birds are carrying building material about, 
while in the gnarled old apple tree in the fence 
row the bluebird warbles to his mate, sitting in a 
hole in the rotten branch below. Among the birds 
and the small mammals this is a time of activity 
and much may be seen and much learned by him 
who will use his eyes. Acts by this animal or that 
which, to the unobservant or the uninstructed, are 
meaningless, may have a profound interest for the 
trained observer. 
Few recreations are more delightful than to 
wander abroad over the fields or through lanes or 
woods where now the ground begins to be carpeted 
with wild flowers, to learn to know the flowers, 
and to observe the ways of the birds. This is a 
time of hurry and work for the student of botany, 
who finds the plants blooming for him more rapid- 
ly than he can identify them. It is a time when 
all of us wish to be abroad. 
Most of the birds are now in full song, and their 
melody is often confusing to the ear — so many 
songs are heard at once. From some piece of wood- 
land not far away may be heard now and then the 
dull boom of the drumming partridge, the strokes 
slow at first and gradually increasing in speed un- 
til the thunderous roar at last dies away to silence. 
Vainly — unless you are a trained woodsman — shall 
you strive to creep up to the mating bird and see 
him as he sounds his call. Perhaps, if the day is 
dull and gray and misty, as you sit on a hillside 
watching the birch sprouts and surrounding shrub- 
bery for warblers, you may see coming toward you 
a bird whose appearance for a moment will 
puzzle you. He seems to fly uncertainly as he 
comes, and tips and turns, while the downward 
curved points of his wings suggest the ducks of 
your winter shooting; but when he passes you the 
mystery is revealed, for the long bill, the great 
head and the general aspect of the bird seen in 
profile show you that a woodcock has flown by. 
You rejoice that at least one brood is to be raised 
near home, and for a moment your thoughts fly 
forward to the crisp days of October and Novem- 
ber, so different from these soft airs. 
JOHN BURROUGHS 
r T HE world is poorer for the loss of John Bur- 
1 roughs, who died March 29th, almost eighty- 
four years old. 
Beginning life as a school teacher, and later be- 
coming a treasury clerk and then a national bank 
examiner, John Burroughs many years ago retired 
to his place on the Hudson and devoted his time to 
literature and to farming. 
Kindly, observant, sympathetic in spirit, yet 
always simple and direct, his writings have a pecu- 
liar charm. In this country not many books are 
more familiar or more admired than his “Wake 
Robin,” “Locusts and Wild Honey,” and “The Ways 
of Nature.” Few men have written so much as 
he, and few with such simplicity and beauty. His- 
work continued up to the end of his life. He died 
in harness, as we all would wish to die. 
Mr. Burroughs was widely known and greatly 
beloved. His gentle nature saw and enjoyed the 
good in all the children and men and women he met, 
however diverse their characters. With naturalists 
and outdoor men he had most in common, and 
former President Theodore Roosevelt and John 
Muir were his old and valued friends. 
Mr. Burroughs was a lover of life and of natural 
life, and his was the gift of telling in forceful yet 
tender language of the beautiful things that he saw 
in living nature and the inspiring thoughts that 
came to him about it. His love of life included the 
plants, the flowers, the trees, the birds, the animals, 
and his fellowmen. To all these he did good by his 
clear and sympathetic explanations of the relations 
of each to the other. Most of all, he aided his fel- 
lowmen by showing to them the wonders that exist 
all about them in the natural world — wonders to 
which so many of them are blind. He was thus a 
potent educational force. This influence will long 
endure and he will long live and be helpful in his 
works. 
Mr. Burroughs had measured out more than the 
full snan of man’s life — yet in a way he seemed one 
of the immortals, and we never thought of him as 
likely to die. His death now causes a sense of sad- 
ness and loss all over the land. 
TO BEAUTIFY HIGHWAYS 
'THE desirability of protecting and making beau- 
1 tiful the highways of the country is obvious. Over 
these highways are continually passing great num- 
bers of people whose pleasure is added to or less- 
ened according to the excellence of the road and the 
beauty of its surroundings. The effort now being 
made in California and Oregon to protect the giant 
redwoods which, in so many places, shade and beau- 
