Knowledge never learned of schools
Of the wild bee's morning chase,
Of the wild-flowers' time and place,
Flight of fowl and habitude
Of the tenants of the wood;
How the tortoise bears his shell;
How the woodchuck digs his cell;
And the ground-mole makes his well;
How the robin feeds her young;
How the oriole's nest is hung.
--WHITTIER.
* * * * *
Consider the marvellous life of a bird and the manner of its whole
existence.... Consider the powers of that little mind of which the inner
light flashes from the round bright eye; the skill in building its home,
in finding its food, in protecting its mate, in serving its offspring,
in preserving its own existence, surrounded as it is on all sides by the
most rapacious enemies....
When left alone it is such a lovely little life--cradled among the
hawthorn buds, searching for aphidae amongst apple blossoms, drinking dew
from the cup of a lily; awake when the gray light breaks in the east,
throned on the topmost branch of a tree, swinging with it in the
sunshine, flying from it through the air; then the friendly quarrel with
a neighbor over a worm or berry; the joy of bearing grass-seed to his
mate where she sits low down amongst the docks and daisies; the triumph
of singing the praise of sunshine or of moonlight; the merry, busy,
useful days; the peaceful sleep, steeped in the scent of the closed
flower, with head under one wing and the leaves forming a green roof
above.
--OUIDA.