Introductory material
Reading edition
FIFTH REPORT
ON
THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS
IN THE
SPRING AND AUTUMN OF 1883.
"We had a succession of black nights going up the river, and it was observable that whenever we landed and suddenly inundated the trees with the intense sun-burst of the Electric Light, a certain curious effect was always produced: hundreds of birds flocked instantly out from the masses of shining green foliage, and went careering hither and thither through the white rays, and often a song bird turned up and fell to singing. We judged that they mistook this superb artificial day for the genuine article."—Mark Twain, in 'Life on the Mississippi,' p. 452.
"Yea, even the fowl— That through the polar summer months could see A beauty in Spitzbergen's naked isles, Or on the drifted icebergs seek a home— Even they had fled, on southern wing, in search Of less inclement shores."—The Fowler.