54 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Nov. 5, 
gradually from one degree of proficiency to another (for orni- 
thology is a science with ever- -opening vistas of continued pos- 
sibilities of progress) until, after a life passed in diligent and 
honest labor, so brief is our allotted time here, that one finds 
himself only upon the threshold of his subject, with vast sources 
of knowledge lying just beyond. Such, in brief, is the orni- 
thologist of to-day, an expert in no mean branch of scientific 
pursuit, and yet mindful of what is required to constitute such 
a savant, so little is the science appreciated and its acquire- 
ments understood, it is sad, indeed, to know that even in this 
late day there are those who believe that a man requires little 
or no training to become a naturalist, and that almost any one 
is competent to give instruction in the mysteries of zodlogy. 
The ornithologist is not made, but born to fill his role in life 
as is the poet; and as you cannot construct a naturalist, neither 
can you destroy that irresistible impulse which compels him to 
follow his allotted part, and which was implanted into his, very 
nature by the Great Ruler of Events with the first breath he 
drew. 
You may instal him in places of profit, and where material 
advancement is certain, and though he may honestly do all he 
can while so situated, it is not the best he can do, for his abili- 
ties have not their legitimate scope and his efforts are hampered 
by uncongenial surroundings. Like Audubon, it is rare that a 
man possessed with talents which enable him to succeed in any 
branch of natural science, even though it be of one apparently 
the least important, can command success in any business pur- 
suit. The heart is not in it; unwise and foolish as it may seem 
to the vast majority of mankind, material gain, such as wealth 
for itself alone, and the vain fictitious rank it gives to its pos- 
sessor, presents no attractions to the man of science. ‘To work 
to gather up money for itself allures him not; his heart and 
soul is with higher things, to seek and learn the truth, to strive 
and find out how God works, to study the creatures that, like 
himself, owe their existence to the Divine First Cause, and have 
been, through countless ages, progressing ever onward and up- 
ward from a lower to a higher degree of physical and mental 
attainments. 
As in the youthful age of the old earth the ungainly reptile, 
with its leathery skin and tooth-armed jaws, keeping down from 
undue expansion the equally unattractive creatures which 
formed its prey, has gradually through multifold evolutions 
during the changing ages been transformed into the graceful, 
fairy-like beauteous creature, the bird of our own time, fitted to 
fill a higher destiny in a more perfect world, so has the natural- 
