4 
intellectual and aesthetic values the paramount service of the birds lies 
in their power to destroy insects. For this great work we have a vast 
mechanism in nature, an army plastic almost as air, on wings, power¬ 
ful and beautiful, able to carry their literally flying squadrons hun¬ 
dreds and even thousands of miles whither food abounds and insects 
threaten destruction to vegetation. 
In studying living things we should bear constantly in mind this 
great truth, stated often in the words: “As long as there is life there 
is hope.” In everything that lives there are infinite possibilities. No 
seed is so tiny but that it may hide the possibility of covering the 
whole world with plants of its kind. Instead of mourning the loss 
of our forests, let us go to work. With a single living pine seed, 
properly cared for by man, we may cover the continent in an incredi¬ 
bly short time with a forest of pines. A pair of living bird’s eggs, 
with proper care by the children of the country, could produce in ten 
years a pair of birds for every child in the land. Let us consider for a 
moment the possibilities that lie hidden within the blue shells of a pair 
of robins’ eggs. Allowing that ten young robins may be produced by 
a pair each year, with the life of a robin as ten years, we shall have . 
1st year, ( 2 —|— 10) 
12 
2d 
(12 “ 60) 
72 
3 d 
“ (72 “ 360) 
432 
4th 
i ( 
2,592 
5 th 
< ( 
15,552 
6th 
( i 
93,312 
7th 
( < 
• 559,372 
8th 
i i 
3 , 358,232 
9 th 
< < 
20,149,392 
10th 
120,896,352 
50th 
1,616,400,000,000,000 
< < 
< i 
< ( 
< < 
< < 
A bird came down the walk : 
He did n’t know I saw ; 
He bit an angleworm in halves, 
And ate the fellow, raw. 
And then he drank a dew 
From a convenient grass, 
And then hopped sidewise to the wall 
To let a beetle pass. 
—Emily Dickinson , Poems , p. 140. 
The winds blow east, the winds blow 
west, 
The blue eggs in the robin’s nest 
Will soon have wings and beak and 
breast, 
And flutter and fly away.— Longfellow . 
If we do not have all the robins we want, and this applies to any 
living thing, it is because we do not know enough about rearing them 
or are not willing to act in accordance with our knowledge. 
In addition to this infinite power of multiplication we must never 
lose sight of another great law of biology, viz.: that every 7 living thing 
possesses great possibilities of development and improvement. No one 
has yet produced the best and most beautiful rose or peach or bird or 
