village of Titchborne there lives also the family of Titchborne, and in the old village church there is a tomb with figures of one of the Titchbornes and his wife who lived in the time of James the First; on it is inscribed the statement that he chose to be buried with his wife in this chapel, which was built by his ancestor in the time of Henry the First. That shows a continuous record of one family in one place for about eight hundred years. I forget whether we had time to go into the church and look at it, but the songs of the birds which we had come to hear are far more ancient. They must be the same songs that were heard by the inhabitants of England before the Romans came, for the songs of birds come down unchanged through great antiquity, and we are listening today, in whatever part of the world we may be, to songs which must have been familiar to races of men of which history has no knowledge and no record.

I was a little worried about this walk. I had had no personal acquaintance with Colonel Roosevelt before he came to England, and I thought to myself, “Perhaps, after all, he will not care so very much about birds, and possibly after an hour or so he will have had enough of them. If that be so and he does not care for birds, he will have nothing but my society, which he will not find sufficiently interesting for so long a time." I had relied upon the birds to provide entertainment for him. If that failed, I doubted my own resources.

I need have had no fear about his liking for birds. I found not only that he had a remarkable and abiding interest in them, but also a wonderful knowledge of them. Though I know something about British birds, I should have been lost and confused among American birds, of which unhappily I know little or nothing. Colonel Roosevelt not only knew more about American birds than I did about British birds, but he knew about British birds also. What he had lacked was an opportunity of hearing their songs, and one cannot get a knowledge of the songs of birds in any other way than by listening to them.

We began our walk, and when we heard a song I told him the name of the bird. As soon as I mentioned the name it was unnecessary to tell him more. He knew what the bird was like. It was not necessary for him to see it. He knew the kind of bird it was, its habits and appearance. He just wanted to complete his knowledge by hearing the song. He had, too, a well-trained ear for bird songs, which cannot be acquired without having spent much time in listening to them. How he had found time in his busy life to acquire this knowledge so thoroughly it is almost impossible to imagine, but there the knowledge and training undoubtedly were. He had one of the most perfectly trained ears for bird songs that I have ever known, so that if three or four birds were singing together he would pick out their songs, distinguish each, and ask to be told each separate name; and when farther on we heard any bird for a second time, he would remember the song from the first telling and be able to name the bird himself.

He had not only a trained ear; he had also keen feeling and taste for bird songs. He was quick to express preferences, and at once picked out the song of the English blackbird as being the best of the bird songs we heard. I have always had the same feeling about the blackbird's song. I do not say it is better than the songs of American birds, which I have not heard, and I think Colonel Roosevelt thought one or two of the American bird songs were better than anything we had in England; but his feeling for the English blackbird's song I found confirmed the other day in a book published by Dr. Chapman, of the Natural History Museum at New York. He has written a chapter on English birds and selects the song of the blackbird for excellence because of its "spiritual quality."

Colonel Roosevelt liked the song of the blackbird so much that he was almost indignant that he had not heard more of its reputation before. He said everybody talked about the song of the thrush; it had a great reputation, but the song of

the blackbird, though less often mentioned, was much sweeter than that of the thrush. He wanted to know the reason for this injustice, and kept asking the question of himself and me. At last he suggested that the name of the bird must have injured its reputation. I suppose the real reason is that the thrush sings for a longer period of the year than the blackbird and is a more obtrusive singer, and that so few people have sufficient feeling about bird songs to care to notice the differences.

I shall give one more instance of his interest and his knowledge. We were passing under a fir tree when we heard a small song in the tree above us. We stopped, and I said that was the song of a golden-crested wren. He listened very attentively while the bird repeated its little song, as its habit is. Then he said, "I think that is exactly the same song as that of a bird we have in America"; and that was the only English song that he recognized as being the same as any bird song in America. Some time afterwards I met a bird expert in the Natural History Museum in London and told him this incident; he confirmed what Colonel Roosevelt had said, that the song of this bird is about the only song that the two countries have in common. I think that a very remarkable instance of minute and accurate knowledge on the part of Colonel Roosevelt. It was the business of the bird expert in London to know about birds; Colonel Roosevelt's knowledge was a mere incident acquired, not as part of the work of his life, but entirely outside it. I remember thinking at the time how strange it seemed that the golden-crested wren, which is the very smallest bird which we have in England, should be the only song-bird which the great continent of North America has in common with us.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Explain why it is right for "Listening to the Songs of Birds' to follow the two poems which precede it, pp. 174 and 175. 2. What bird's song did the two men think is the best in England?

3. Why did Roosevelt think that the best singer had been unjustly treated? How does Grey's explanation differ?

4. How many songs did Roosevelt recognize as being heard in America as well as in England?

5. How many birds of your neighborhood do you know by name? What birds can you recognize by their songs? Make two lists on the board in response to these questions.

6. Look up in the glossary: antiquity, minute, obtrusive.

STUDY DIRECTIONS. Locating evidence. After you have finished reading an article like Grey's, you should be able to turn very quickly to paragraphs or sentences in it which contain the evidence for certain questions. Practise finding these, one at a time; work quickly.

1. Read evidence that Roosevelt planned his holidays carefully. 2. Find evidence of Grey's modesty.

3. How does Grey impress the fact that the songs of birds are ancient? 4. Did Roosevelt know more than Grey about British birds? Find the exact words which support your reply.

5. What evidence is there that Roosevelt had spent much time listening to birds in America? Find two passages.

Volunteer Work

1. If you have bird books, show them to the class and tell about the birds which have the sweetest songs.

2. Ask some one who can tell you about song birds to come to your class. Perhaps some older brother or sister can do it for you, or possibly one of the teachers.

3. If you have records of bird songs, bring them, and have a Bird Program, using the school phonograph.

Topics for Oral and Written Work

1. How the preservation of birds helps the farmer.

2. What is being done in our city to protect birds?

3. The obligation of Boy Scouts toward birds.

4. Making friends with birds. See John Burroughs, Harper's Magazine, 140: 837-845.

5. Have you ever "made friends" with a bird? If so, tell the class about it.

ADDITIONAL READINGS. in The Outlook, 95:614-616.

1. "English Song Birds," T. Roosevelt, 2. "A Call on the Birds of England,"

T. Roosevelt, in Literary Digest, 65:90-91. 3. "Outdoors and Indoors," T. Roosevelt, Autobiography, 318-348. 4. "The Blue Jay," H. Garland, Boy Life on the Prairie, 354. 5. "A New Method of Bird Study," in Literary Digest, 48: 102-103. 6. "The Wind in a Frolic,” W. Hewitt, in Children's Literature, 391–392. 7. “Bird Habits,” O. T. Miller, ibid., 549-557. 8. The Birds of the White House Grounds, T. Roosevelt.

4. THE THROSTLE

ALFRED TENNYSON

"Summer is coming, summer is coming.
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.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. What parts of the poem are supposed to be sung by the throstle? How did you tell?

2. Who is supposed to be talking to the bird?

3. Read the lines that tell of the coming of summer.