I was interested and a little surprised to find that, unlike John Burroughs, John Muir cared little for birds or bird songs, and knew little about them.

The hermit-thrushes meant nothing to him, the trees and the flowers and the cliffs everything.

The only birds he noticed or cared for were some that were very conspicuous, such as the water-ousels--always particular favorites of mine too.

The second night we camped in a snow-storm, on the edge of the canyon walls, under the spreading limbs of a grove of mighty silver fir; and next day we went down into the wonderland of the valley itself.

I shall always be glad that I was in the Yosemite with John Muir and in the Yellowstone with John Burroughs.
Like most Americans interested in birds and books, I know a good deal about English birds as they appear in books.