feet below the surface of a lake in New York, having dived
to that depth for a fish.

The wood pewee, like its relative, the phoebe, feeds
largely on the family of flies to which the house fly
belongs.

The birds of prey, the majority of which labor night and day
to destroy the enemies of the husbandman, are unceasingly
persecuted.

Seventy-five per cent of the food of the downy woodpecker is
insects.

The cow blackbird lays its eggs in other birds' nests, one
in a nest. What happens afterwards?

Why should not a man love a bird? If the palm of one could
clasp the pinion of the other, there would come together two
of the greatest implements God and nature have ever given
any two creatures to explore the world with, and when two
bipeds gaze at each other, eye to eye, the intelligence in
the one might well take off its hat to the subtle instincts
in the other.--JAMES NEWTON BASKETT.

A bird on the bonnet means so much less bread on the table.
A bird in the orchard is a sort of scavenger and pomologist
combined, and does his share in giving you a dish of fruit
for dinner. The scarlet tanager looks like a living ruby in
a green tree; but--I speak bluntly--it looks like a chunk of
gore on a woman's bonnet. In behalf of good taste and the
birds, I enter my protest against this barbarous
Custom.--LEANDER T. KEYSER.

What does it cost, this garniture of death?
It costs the life which God alone can give;
It costs dull silence, where was music's breath;
It costs dead joy, that foolish pride may live.
Ah, life, and joy, and song, depend upon it,
Are costly trimmings for a woman's bonnet.

--MAY RILEY SMITH.

The program may be diversified by songs about birds. Many suitable for
this occasion will be found in a collection called "Songs of Happy
Life," made by Sarah J. Eddy. It is published by the Nature Study
Publishing Company, of Providence, R. I.

VIII

THE POETS AND THE BIRDS

"The birds are the poets' own," says Burroughs. How could it be
otherwise? The bird, with his large brain, quick circulation, and high
temperature, is possessed of a tropical, ecstatic soul that blossoms
into music as naturally as a bulb bursts into bloom and fragrance. He
is a creature of marvelous inheritance. Poetry is a true bird-land,
where you shall hear the birds