The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and, Other Papers, by
John Burroughs

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Title: Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and, Other Papers

Author: John Burroughs

Commentator: Mary E. Burt

Posting Date: January 17, 2009 [EBook #3163]
Release Date: April, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS AND BEES ***

Produced by Patricia C. Franks, Lisa Carter, Danette Dulny,
Charles Duvall, Cheri Ripley, and Cheryl Sullivan

BIRDS AND BEES

SHARP EYES

AND OTHER PAPERS

By John Burroughs

With An Introduction

By Mary E. Burt

And A Biographical Sketch

CONTENTS

Biographical Sketch

Introduction By Mary E. Burt

Birds

Bird Enemies

The Tragedies of the Nests

Bees

An Idyl of the Honey-Bee

The Pastoral Bees

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Nature chose the spring of the year for the time of John Burroughs's
birth. A little before the day when the wake-robin shows itself, that
the observer might be on hand for the sight, he was born in Roxbury,
Delaware County, New York, on the western borders of the Catskill
Mountains; the precise date was April 3, 1837. Until 1863 he remained
in the country about his native place, working on his father's farm,
getting his schooling in the district school and neighboring academies,
and taking his turn also as teacher. As he himself has hinted, the
originality, freshness, and wholesomeness of his writings are probably
due in great measure to the unliterary surroundings of his early life,
which allowed his mind to form itself on unconventional lines, and to
the later companionships with unlettered men, which kept him in touch
with the sturdy simplicities of life.

From the very beginnings of his taste for literature, the essay was his
favorite form. Dr. Johnson was the prophet of his youth, but he soon
transferred his allegiance to Emerson, who for many years remained his
"master enchanter." To cure himself of too close an imitation of
the Concord seer, which showed itself in his first magazine article,
Expression, he took to writing his sketches of nature, and about this
time he fell in with the wri