50 The Ottawa Naturalist [June 



features that influence surface atmospheric currents are for our 

 ephemeral existence unchanged, yet who doesn't remember that 

 "the weather is so different now from what it was the same time 

 of the year ten 3-earsago." It seems absolute certainty then that 

 the causa belli must be sought in our source not only of all heat 

 but also of all life and of all energy of whatsoever nature upon 

 the earth the sun. 



A good deal is known about the sun, but a good deal inore 

 is not known. The sun as has been said is our furnace. Now 

 the trouble is we don't know how the furnace is run, we don't 

 know what kind of heating material is used; it doesn't seem to 

 be fed regularly; we haven't been able to measure accurately 

 yet just how much heat is poured out, on to say a square foot; 

 it is a seething boiling cauldron that is now under pretty close 

 scrutiny, although at rather long range, and its inner working 

 must yield up its story ere we can hope to give a satisfactory 

 answer as to the "why" of weather; for the sun and weather 

 stand in the relation of cause and effect to each other. Variation 

 in the cause produces corresponding variations in the effect. 

 The most promising investigation in solar ph^^^sics at the present 

 time is the one begun at Mt. Wilson, California, and supported 

 by the Carnegie Institution for at least eleven years, a sun-spot 

 cycle. 



What the weather is going to be to-morrow we know, but 

 whv it is not the same as last vear, we don't know. 



PECULIAR NESTING SITE OF AMERICAN BITTERN. 



Last evening while walking through a clover field where 

 bobolinks were breeding abundantly, I flushed an American 

 bittern off a nest containing four fresh eggs. The nest was 

 placed in some long, coarse grass about 1^ feet high and was 

 merely com.posed of a little dead grass flattened out by the 

 bird. I was rather surprised at this find, as there is no marsh 

 within a mile of the locality. Evidently this bird does not 

 always nest in or near swanips. Six other nests of this species 

 have been examined this year, but they were all located in 

 large areas of bulrush swamps. 



W. J. Brown. 

 Westmount, Que., June 13th, 1907 



