THE NATURALIST'S VISION 359 



tertainment, as we walked along my friend said 

 to me : " It seems great work, but I do not exactly 

 understand what you want to do with those ma- 

 caws. What can you learn from them ? " My 

 answer was : 



" I don't know ; but I do know that there is 

 opportunity," and I related the following story. 



Many years ago, on the night of October 19, 

 1880, I paid a long-delayed visit to Professor 

 Charles A. Young. I was very busy as a field- 

 naturalist in those days, and so thoroughly occu- 

 pied that I had failed to take advantage of an 

 opportunity which was within my reach. Shortly 

 after I came to Princeton, Professor Young was 

 called to the chair of astronomy, and a radical re- 

 organization of the astronomical laboratories and 

 observatories was undertaken. When the whole 

 was completed under his direction, he was natur- 

 ally proud of the facilities, and was anxious for 

 the staff of the university to realize the excel- 

 lence of the equipment. He had invited me 

 many times, during an entire year, to visit the 

 laboratory at night, but one thing after another 

 prevented. However, I think the chief reason 

 for my delay was that I did not appreciate that 

 there was any special relation between the great 

 science of astronomy and the problems of life 

 and distribution which I was engaged in study- 

 ing. 



