JUNE The Gala Days Of Birds 113 Turtle Traits 118 A Half-Hour In A Marsh 124 Secrets Of The Ocean 129
JULY Birds In A City 153 Night Music Of The Swamp 160 The Coming Of Man 167 The Silent Language Of Animals 170 Insect Music 176
AUGUST The Gray Days Of Birds 181 Lives Of The Lantern Bearers 188 A Starfish And A Daisy 191 The Dream Of The Yellow-Throat 195
SEPTEMBER The Passing Of The Flocks 199 Ghosts Of The Earth 204 Muskrats 207 Nature's Geometricians 210
OCTOBER Autumn Hunting With A Field Glass 217 A Woodchuck And A Grebe 223 The Voice of Animals 227 The Names Of Animals, Frogs, and Fish 234 The Dying Year 246
NOVEMBER November's Birds of the Heavens 249 A Plea for the Skunk 255 The Lesson Of The Wave 258 We Go A-Sponging 262
DECEMBER New Thoughts About Nests 269 Lessons From An English Sparrow 275 The Personality Of Trees 281 An Owl Of The North 297
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A fiery mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell; A jelly fish and a saurian, And the caves where the cave men dwell; Then a sense of law and beauty And a face turned from the clod, Some call it evolution, And others call it God. W. H. Carruth.
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No fact of natural history is more interesting, or more significant of the poetry of evolution, than the distribution of birds over the entire surface of the world. They have overcome countless obstacles, and adapted themselves to all conditions. The last faltering glance which the Arctic explorer sends toward his coveted goal, ere he admits defeat, shows flocks of snow buntings active with warm life; the storm-tossed mariner in the midst of the sea, is followed, encircled, by the steady, tireless flight of the albatross; the fever-stricken wanderer in tropical jungles listens to the sweet notes of birds amid the stagnant pools; while the thirsty traveller in the desert is ever watched by the distant buzzards. Finally when the intrepid climber, at the risk of life and limb, has painfully made his way to the summit of the most lofty peak, far, far above him, in the blue expanse of thin air, he can distinguish the form of a majestic eagle or condor.