Helen Mansfield. OUR KINSMAN. Alive in this world of beautiful forms, No form is alien to men, or apart, Each morning sunbeam our being warms, Each tree is a kinsman of friendly heart. We love the clear bird songs that fill our ear With melody ringing for us alone. The cricket’s chirp is for us, and we hear A human voice in the rivulet’s tone. Each lovely thing of nature finds room In our heart of hearts—our lover and mate, The star and the dew and the vine’s sweet bloom Are fitted to us, and our spirit innate. They are kinsmen—each century blazing star! Each snowclad summit, each rose-flushed peak Have most subtle oneness with us, for afar Of things sublime and eternal they speak. With all beautiful things that live, we are one. We are kin to the circle of nature’s whole. So, O beautiful trees that stand in the sun, Your beauty entrancing slips into the soul. For the children of one great Kinsman above Are the myriad forms of nature and we. Kinsman, Creator, He fits our love To the star and the flower, the bird and the tree. —Mrs. Merrill E. Gates. [Illustration: LONG-BILLED CURLEW. (Numenius longirostris). ⅓ Life-size. FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.] THE LONG-BILLED CURLEW. (_Numenius longirostris._) Each day are heard, and almost every hour, New notes to swell the music of the groves, And soon the latest of the feathered train At evening twilight come;—the lonely snipe, O’er marshy fields, high in the dusky air, Invisible, but, with faint, tremulous tones, Hovering or playing o’er the listener’s head. —Carlos Wilcox, “The Age of Benevolence.” The Long-billed Curlew is the largest of the American curlews and has a wide range covering nearly the whole of temperate North America. It is not a bird of high altitudes and in winter it seeks the milder climate of the Southern States, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Jamaica. During the breeding season, which is passed in the South Atlantic States or in the interior of North America as far north as Manitoba, it is not a social bird. While migrating, however, and in winter, it enjoys the society of its fellows and is generally observed in flocks of a greater or less number.