CHAPTER XV. 
BEAUTIES AND MARVELS OF BIRD LIFE. 
RECURRENCE of the appointed even- 
^ ^ ing found the usual company assembled 
in the library at Willow Brook. 
“ Since our last interview,” said Doctor Dean, 
“the subject of bird life, with which our last 
conversation closed, has lingered with a pleas¬ 
ing freshness in my thoughts, creating an in¬ 
terest that will not allow the topic to rest 
without further illustration. Their curious 
structure, their gifts of beauty and song, and 
their instincts, that sometimes approach so 
nearly to reason, invest the songsters of our 
groves with an unflagging interest. 
“A simple feather is a marvel of construc¬ 
tion. Notice its horny, tubular stem, and its 
delicate fringing of soft filaments, laminated and 
interlaced by minute barbs, and all held togeth¬ 
er by a wonderful electric attraction. A small 
