The great work was completed in 1838 and, when bound, consisted of four elephant folios containing 1,065 life-size portraits of birds in their natural surroundings. "The text was published separately under the title, 'Ornothological Biography.' Later (in 1844) the original plates, reduced by the camera lucida, were published with a part of the text in seven octavo volumes as "The Birds of America.'

After a futile attempt at city life in New York, the family home was established in a beautiful woodland region on the banks of the Hudson, now Audubon Park and included within the city limits.

There, after many short journeys and one long and difficult one up the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone, surrounded by children and grandchildren, with his beloved wife by his side, the long, active life ended peacefully.

津

OUR PATRIOTS WERE NIMRODS

F

ROM the beginning there has been implanted in the being of man an impulse to pursue and take the wild denizens of the animal kingdom. Whether it be for sport or for food, for numberless centuries man of high and low degree, in every country and every clime, has roamed the forests and matched. his skill against the fleetness and cunning of its wary creatures. Indeed, even now in every thinly populated land where game exists in abundance a man lives according to his skill as a sportsman.

The royal hunts led by the kings of Europe into the forests in quest of the stag and wild boar were inspired by the same impulse that impelled the savages of darkest Africa, the Aboriginees of Central and South America and the Eskimoes of the Arctic Circle.

On account of having been trained to hit the running deer in the forests, during the War of the Revolution, the patriots under Washington poured into the soldiers of George III such a deadly and effective fire as to put them to rout and compel the tyrant to accord us the freedom which we now enjoy.

During the War of 1812, the soldiers under Andrew Jackson, equipped with sporting rifles, having been trained to bring down. squirrels from the tallest trees of Tennessee by merely hitting them through the eye, by taking aim at every man at which they fired instead of shooting "breast high," made every shot count a kill and won for our country the battle of New Orleans, one of the greatest victories recorded in the annals of our brilliant history.

The effective work done by the Alabama soldiers on the firingline in the War Between the States was due to the fact that they were trained in the hunting field and were thus enabled to place deadly missiles, with unerring aim.

It can thus be well said that game not only furnishes a medium of healthful recreation and enjoyment but that it likewise trains in its pursuit the men of the country in the art of the use of fire-arms and renders them valiant and almost invincible foemen when they respond to the call to arms.

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS

T

HERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet

As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
'Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no-it was something more exquisite still.

"Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest

In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

-Thomas Moore.

THE THROSTLE

UMMER is coming, summer in coming

"SU

I know it, I know it, I know it.

Light again, leaf again, life again, love again." Yes, my wild little poet.

Sing the new year in under the blue,

Last year you sang it as gladly,

"New, new, new, new!" Is it then so new

That you should carol so madly?

"Love again, song again, nest again, young again," Never a prophet so crazy!

And hardly a daisy as yet, little friend,
See, there is hardly a daisy.

"Here again, here, here, here, happy year!" O warble, unchidden, unbidden!

Summer is coming, is coming, my dear,

And all the winters are hidden.

-Alfred Tennyson.

MY WISH

F ANY little word of mine

"I May make a life the brighter,

If any little song of mine.

May make a heart the lighter,
God help me speak the little word,
And take my bit of singing
And drop it in some lonely vale,
To set the echoes ringing.

"If any little love of mine.

May make a life the sweeter,

If any little care of mine

If

May make a friend's the fleeter,

any

life of mine may ease

The burden of another,

God give me love, and care, and strength

To help my toiling brother."

-Endeavor Herald.

REDPOLL

HE male of this species has a rosy breast, but the female

T has not. In winter these northern birds may be found in

flocks gathering seeds from weeds by the roadside and

stonewalls. Their actions greatly resemble those of our Goldfinch, but their flight is more rapid.

The song of the Redpoll is strong, sweet and canary-like. The nest is constructed at low elevations in bushes or trees; the eggs are three to five in number, and are pale greenish blue with brown specks. These birds breed in the extreme north, and winter south to the northern part of the United States.

The sup-species are Holboell Redpool, which is slightly larger, and the Greater Redpoll, which is still larger and darker.

The Greenland Redpoll is a larger and much whiter species found in Greenland and migrating to Labrador in winter.

Note: See illustration on front cover.

-Bird Guide.