y to more
bright-hued plumage (which indeed might be fatal to their safety, by
betraying them to their enemies, the falcons and eagles), but those
which most fully embodied and carried furthest the ideal specific
gracefulness of the wading type? ... Forestine flower-feeders and
fruit-eaters, especially in the tropics, are almost always brightly
colored. Their chromatic taste seems to get quickened in their daily
search for food among the beautiful blossoms and brilliant fruits of
southern woodlands. Thus the humming-birds, the sun-birds, and the
brush-tongued lories, three very dissimilar groups of birds as far as
descent is concerned, all alike feed upon the honey and the insects
which they extract from the large tubular bells of tropical flowers; and
all alike are noticeable for their intense metallic lustre or pure tones
of color. Again, the parrots, the toucans, the birds of paradise, and
many other of the more beautiful exotic species, are fruit-eaters, and
reflect their inherited taste in their own gaudy plumage. But the waders
have no such special reasons for acquiring a love for bright hues. Hence
their aesthetic feeling seems rather to have taken a turn toward the
further development of their own graceful forms. Even the plainest
wading birds have a certain natural elegance of shape which supplies a
primitive basis for aesthetic selection to work on.

JAMES LANE ALLEN

(1850-)

The literary work of James Lane Allen was begun with maturer powers and
wider culture than most writers exhibit in their first publications. His
mastery of English was acquired with difficulty, and his knowledge of
Latin he obtained through years of instruction as well as of study. The
wholesome open-air atmosphere which pervades his stories, their pastoral
character and love of nature, come from the tastes bequeathed to him by
three generations of paternal ancestors, easy-going gentlemen farmers of
the blue-grass region of Kentucky. On a farm near Lexington, in this
beautiful country of stately homes, fine herds, and great flocks, the
author was born, and there he spent his childhood and youth.

About 1885 he came to New York to devote himself to literature; for
though he had contributed poems, essays, and criticisms to leading
periodicals, his first important work was a series of articles
descriptive of the "Blue-Grass Region," published in Harper's Magazine.
The field was new, the work was fresh, and the author's ability was