One day while I was at West Park, John Burroughs and I had started over
the mountains to Slabsides, and just as we had crossed the railroad we
noticed a small flock of English sparrows in some nearby trees. We both
halted suddenly and after a moment's silence he said: "I think the
English sparrow will eventually develop some form of song. Listen to
that suppressed sound so near to song! I have often wondered if all
birds do not develop song by degrees, and if so, how long it takes or
has taken such birds as the thrushes, the song sparrows and the wrens to
develop their songs. Bird songs have always been an interesting study to
me." It would be hard for me to conceive of one of his books being
complete without some mention of bird life in it. I am sure he would not
attempt to complete a Nature book and leave birds out of it.
One of our first American Bird Societies, which was organized in 1900,
was named after him, but I am not sure that this ever pleased him, as he
was not an ornithologist in any restricted sense, and he certainly sees
how much better it is for the organization to have been renamed and
after Audubon, our greatest Ornithologist. Whenever I have been with
him, and a bird of any kind appeared in sight or in hearing, he was sure
to observe it first, and has been the means of sharpening my eyes and
ears. Each of the little stories that follow, has been the result
directly, or indirectly, of my walks in the woods with him. No school
library is quite complete without a copy of his Wake Robin as it savors
of that peculiar delight with which out-door life imbues him, as no
other book he ever wrote, and I must say, puts one in tune with Nature
as no book with which I am acquainted. The two essays _Spring at the
Capitol_ and _The Return of the Birds_, give one the true spirit of the
Naturalist, and have the best spirit of the out-door world in every
paragraph and sentence.
Mr. Sharpe rightly thinks that Burroughs is more than a scientist, for
he is always hiding his science in love and genuine interest, though he
is generally true to the facts. As an evidence of his genuineness he
refuses to go to Nature in 'the reporter fashion, but must camp and
tramp with her' in order for the truth to sink in and become part of
him. Then he gives up only that which has clung to him, and certainly we
do not find in his writings anything but the reflection of some phase of
Nature. Go to the fields and the mountains with him, and you will soon
be impressed that he is on speaking terms with bird life in almost
every detail. This sincerity has impressed me as much as his ability to
see and read Nature.