284 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The author as a Danvinian: — 



(The Red-headed Woodpecker). "In a century from now the 

 bills of his descendants will be broader, their eyes keener, their 

 throats wider, and they will be part swallow, part woodpecker, 

 creatures better adapted to the life they have adopted. For he 

 is slowly changing from a simon-pure woodpecker, where the struggle 

 for life grows ever more bitter, as the forests grow fewxr, into a 

 cleaver of the air, a swallower on the wing, a contortionist who can 

 rise and fall, twist and turn in rapid flight after his oft-times elusive 

 prey." (p. 203). 



The author's philosophy: — 



''Long may, and doubtless long will, the world wag on without 

 me. My turn at the wheel has ended. Content am I to sit in 

 the shade and practice shooting at a marmot's head." (p. 171). 



The author's religious opinions: — 



"Great oaks like these were most worthy to be the Gods of the 

 Druids. As much right to worship them had they as I the sun. 

 I revere or worship only that which I know exists — that which is 

 the highest, most powerful of all things known to me. Back of or 

 above the sun there may be somewhere — but where we know not, 

 nor shall we ever know — a power higher than the sun, master of 

 him, and of all other suns — the Overlord of all. Until I know, 

 which I shall never do, that there is such an Overlord, until then I 

 w^orship, if you may call it worship, that highest power, that ruler 

 w^hich my senses ken." * * * * ''-fh^n let the oak tree my 

 Sabbath temple be, let the sun be the God unto whom this morn 

 my reverence is due, and this spot of mother earth the altar at which 

 I kneel to do homage unto him." (pp. 228 and 229). 



The "God-gifted organ-voice of England," telling of other 

 devotions, breathes a different spirit from that expressed in the 

 last quotation . It says:— 



"Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul, 

 Acknowledge Him thy greater; sound His praise 

 In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st 

 And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st." 



— Adam's Prayer in Paradise Lost. 



The writer of this article ventures to express an earnest hope 

 that the author of Woodland Idyls may attain unto the higher 

 knowledge — the knowledge spoken of by the "MASTER," in His 

 address to His Father Almighty: — "This is life eternal that they 

 might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou 

 hast sent."— St. John XVII. : 3. T. W. F. 



Mailed September 18, 1912. 



