The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-04

Who that has read James Lane Aliens beautiful story, "The Kentucky Cardinal,' can fail to have a love of birds? In this tender little story of primitive Ken lucky the author has made a bird. the hero of one of the most readable books in fiction and it's purity and it's sweet ness leaves in one's heart something that is akin at least to love of the dear little feathered tribe, around which so much sentiment is clustered.
 It was a happy thought when the su- perintendent of education of the state of Alabama set apart today as Bird Day and chose the anniversary of the birth of John James Audubon, the worlds greatest bird-lover and naturalist, as the occasion of celebration.
 The little feathered tribe, while be- loved by all, in a measure may be said to have been neglected in so far as edu- cation is concerned, and this move in it's behalf will no doubt engender a deeper love and more thorough study or their habits and customs than ever before.
 Have you ever stopped to think what becomes of our feathered songsters when the cold blasts of winter come?
 These beautiful creatures live with us all summer long, they build their nests in the trees, raise their young and make us their trusted companions if we will allow 1t.
 It is remarkable what Intelligence they possess and how soon they realize who are their friends.
 Take the little swallow, for instance, from the beginning of poets swallows have been one of their favorite birds, sharing honors with the sky-larlz and the nightingale.
 According to Michilet a swallow is sup posed to make about 80 leagues an hour in flight, so that as MT Ruskin says, Leaving Devonshire after an early breakfast, he could be in Africa for lunch.'
 And so he could but that he Is the most easily tired of birds and delights in resting on church steeples, rails and telegraph wires. One really wonders what the little swallows did before man set up these devices.
 White of Selborne notes that swallows are almost always seen later in Oxford 
 there is some deep lying decorative rela- tion between the spires and machicolated gray stone towers of the great city and the slim, arrow-lixe bird When Athena encourages Ulysses to fight for his home, she flies to the house roof and thence, in the form of the swal- low, guides the arrow of vengeance" One of the most beautiful tributes to bird is Swinburne's 'Ttylus," even though it contains a reproach:
 70 sweet stray sister, shifting swallow, The hearts division divlAeth us; Thy heart is light as a leaf of tree, But mine goes forth among sea-gulls hollow
 To the place of the staying Itylus- The feast of Daulis, the Thracian sea-" In the Birmingham High school is a fine collection of stuffed birds, rare in species and beautiful in plumage. This collection is the gift of Mir. George Grif- fin, who took this means of perpetuating the memory of his daughter, Mary Grif- fin, and not only is it a lasting me- morial, but one that is of benefit to others as well.
 This collection is practically the nucleus for the museum which pr. Phillips, with his usual progressiveness and mindful ness of Birmingham's welfare, hopes to make possible for the schools. No better idea could have been evolved by MT. Griffin than the establishment of this collection, as it is instructive, val uable and ornamental. It brings into the school life of the child a more intimate acquaintance with the birds of this and other climes, and the mind is at once made to realize the importance of the feathered kingdom as they probably
 would not otherwise.
 The child has never been taught that the bird is to be protected but with the instinct to kill everything that comes his way, he impulsively strikes down this bit of life that has charmed the eye and ear of so many during the summer season. The robin is the most daring of birds, walking into the very face of danger, and how many know that this lovely singer mates with his sweetheart in the first spring of his life, and lives at her side so long as they both live?
 Just so with the Cardinal bird, who mates just once and then it is reputed that if the mate of this gorgeous bird of the south is killed, he is never known to mate again.
 Such fidelity should be rewarded. Fan cy the sickening of that birds heart to lose mate that he loves so much as to be faithful to her through his entire lifei If the thoughtless boy who shoots down