116 
NATURE STUDY. 
The desert and illimitable air,— 
Lone wandering, but not lost. 
All day thy wings have fanned, 
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, 
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 
Though the dark night is near. 
******* 
Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven 
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart 
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 
He who, from zone to zone, 
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone 
Will lead my steps aright. 
Concerning Some Kindly Criticisms. 
BY FREDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 
“ Nature Study,” being the official organ of the Manchester 
Institute, is the proper medium through which notices of the 
first volume of Proceedings should be acknowledged and critic¬ 
isms answered. It was inevitable that some errors should be 
made in the compilation of Preliminary Lists, the territory under 
investigation being new and the workers comparatively inexper¬ 
ienced. To those who honestly seek the truth a criticism by 
experts, however severe, should be a source of pleasure rather 
than of mortification. Accordingly it is with sincere pleasure 
that the compilers of the Preliminary List of Birds have received 
a very candid criticism of their work, accompanied with some 
suggestive inquiries, from a member of the A. O. U., Mr. Walter 
Deane, of Cambridge, Mass , and, through him, from Mr. Wil¬ 
liam Brewster. 
These gentlemen, after warmly commending the list as a 
whole, proceed to question the notes regarding the breeding 
range of some of the species and to suggest that several other 
species ought to be added either as migrant or resident. A 
consideration of these criticisms will be extremely useful to 
local observers and I will accordingly note them for tueir bene- 
