SPRING TWILIGHT
“Surely thus to sing, Robin,
Thou must have in sight,
Beautiful skies behind the shower,
And dawn beyond the night.
Would thy faith were mine, Robin!
Then, though night were long
All its silent hours would melt
Their shadow into song.”
Beautiful memories that soothed pain came to Helen Hunt Jackson at the mere shadow of a bird’s wing across her darkened window. Bird-song bowed Lucy Larcom’s heart in reverence:
“Then will the birds sing anthems: for the earth and sky and air
Will seem a great cathedral, filled with beings dear and fair;
And long processions, from the time that bluebird notes begin
Till gentians fade, through forest-aisles will still move out and in.”
All who appreciate Bryant’s great poem “To a Waterfowl” may see God, not only “flying over the hill with the bird,” but as the unfailing guide of the human soul.
“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.”
No more triumphant lines exist in literature than those in Browning’s “Paracelsus” which express faith in God’s guidance of man and bird:
“I go to prove my soul!
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive: what time, what circuit first,
I ask not: but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird.”
The poets of the past generations may have written much about birds, but it is quite probable that they possessed very little accurate information regarding the service they render to the world. Longfellow alone has bequeathed to us, in his beautiful “Birds of Killingworth,” a plea for the preservation of birds because of their practical use to man as well as their æsthetic and spiritual value:
“Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,
From his Republic banished without pity
The Poets; in this town of yours,
You put to death, by means of a Committee,
The ballad-singers and the Troubadours,
The street musicians of the heavenly city,
The birds, who make sweet music for us all
In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.
· · · · · · ·
“Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
As in an idiot’s brain remembered words
Hang empty ’mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
Make up for the lost music, when your teams
Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
The feathered gleaners follow to your door?
· · · · · · ·
“You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms,
Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms.”
During this past century, the period of scientific investigation, birds have received a large share of attention. The immortal pioneers in American Ornithology, Audubon, Wilson, and Nuttall have been followed by a host of scientists who have done work of distinction along various lines. They have described the birds of both fertile and arid regions, as well as far distant lands, such as Alaska and the tundra of the North. They have made complete and valuable collections, the most noted of which are in the National Museum of Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The latter contains famous Habitat Groups with beautiful backgrounds, painted by distinguished bird-artists.
Scientists have studied the anatomy of birds, their eggs, their nests, and nestlings; an army of field-men have been recording observations on migration, on the molt of birds, their songs and call-notes, their food habits, especially with relation to their economic importance. The work of the Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture at Washington has been of incalculable value; the examination of the contents of birds’ stomachs has given indisputable evidence of the relation the different species bear to insect-life and thus to vegetation. The bulletins published by the Department and the leaflets issued by the National Association of Audubon Societies have been enormous factors in the preservation of bird-life in the United States.
Dr. A. K. Fisher, Professor F. E. L. Beal, Dr. Sylvester D. Judd, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Dr. Henry W. Henshaw, Dr. E. W. Nelson, Dr. T. S. Palmer, and Dr. Wells T. Cooke have done work of special distinction in the Biological Survey, Mr. William Brewster and Mr. E. H. Forbush in Massachusetts, and Dr. Frank Chapman in New York.
To Dr. Fisher I am especially indebted for the right to incorporate into this book extracts from the bulletins of the Biological Survey, and to Mr. Forbush for permission to quote from his admirable book “Useful Birds and Their Protection.”
It has been my purpose to give, not only a portrait and a description of the birds I have chosen for this volume, but a summing up of the beneficial and injurious habits of each, gained from the highest authorities obtainable. The book is intended for beginners, or for those who long to know birds intimately and intelligently, and wish to belong to the great army of bird-students who are “doing their bit” to preserve the bird-life of our country.