Birds and Death

The bird, however hard the frost may be, flies briskly to his customary roosting-place, and, with beak tucked into his wing, falls asleep. He has no apprehensions; only the hot blood grows colder and colder,

the pulse feebler as he sleeps, and at midnight, or in the early morning, he drops from his perch---death.

Yesterday he lived and moved, responsive to a thousand external influences, reflecting earth and sky in his small brilliant brain as in a looking-glass; also he had a various language, the inherited

knowledge of his race, the faculty of flight, by means of which he could shoot, meteor-like, across the sky, and pass swiftly from place to place; and with it such perfect control over all his organs, such

marvelous certitude in all his motions, as to be able to drop himself plumb down from the tallest tree-top , or out of the void air , on to a slender spray , and scarcely cause its leaves to tremble . Now ,

on this morning , he lies stiff and motionless ; if you were to take him up and drop him from your hand , he would fall to the ground like a stone or a lump of clay-so easy and swift is the passage from life

to death in wild nature! But he was never miserable.

请您参考好学英文网提供中文翻译：

尽管天气是如此的寒冷，鸟儿还是矫捷地飞上一惯栖息的地方．把喙埋在翅膀下面，慢慢沉入梦乡．它没有丝毫的恐惧；睡梦中，只有滚烫的血液变得越来越冷；有力的脉搏也越来越微弱．在深夜或者第二天一大早，它便从栖身的树枝上跌落下来，死掉了。

昨天它还活蹦乱跳，回应外界无数刺激。它那奇异的小脑袋宛如明镜一般，映照着天地；它还会种种不同的语言，这是它们种族遗传下来的知识；还有飞行的技能，凭此它能流星般划过天空，迅速地从一个地方飞到另一个地方；它能如此完美地控制每一个器官，且每个动作都如此惊人地平稳，以致于它可以从最高的树顶垂直飞下，从空旷的空中飞落到细小的树枝上而几乎不让树叶抖动。

而现在，在这个清晨，它僵硬地躺在那儿一动不动；假如你把它捡起来，抛向空中，它就会像石头或者泥巴那样掉落在地------在野生自然界中，由生到死是多么容易多么迅速的一个过程呀！但那鸟却永远不会觉得悲痛。