SKETCH OF JAMES BLYTBE ROGERS. 261 



the topmost, ever-swaying branch of an orange or lemon tree, he 

 finds well suited to his taste. He is a pretty sight when in some 

 similar position, steadfastly facing the strong ocean wind which 

 tosses his soft gray feathers in breezy fashion, he carols his sweet- 

 est to some half -indifferent inamorata not far distant. His little, 

 slender body quivers with excitement in his efforts to drown the 

 song of some stout-lunged rival, who sits gayly perched upon the 

 gilded vane that surmounts the house top ; now stopping short 

 in the very middle of a note to hear if that other fellow has dis- 

 covered his new combinations, and then, as he finds to his dismay 

 that the rascal has them already down to a very fine point (with 

 the addition of several new and surprising twists of his own), 

 starting off again at a tearing pace with a bewildering variety of 

 kinks, quirks, and quavers ! 



Soon darkness comes upon the scene for twilight is short in 

 the sunny South and our musical mocker has sought his snug 

 feather bed in the tree tops ; but, by midnight, should the moon 

 chance to be in her full glory of semitropical splendor, the hated 

 memory of that unconquered rival stirs his little brain, and he 

 awakens to pour out his pent-up jealousy in notes that make the 

 welkin ring. The longer he sings the more ecstatic he grows, and 

 after a few sleepy attempts to keep up with the torrent of music, 

 the rival ignominiously subsides, and our little hero has the field 

 to himself, undisputed, till the dawn of another day. 



SKETCH OF JAMES BLYTHE ROGERS. 



SCIENCE has need of all manner of men among its votaries. 

 He whose career will be traced in this memoir devoted to its 

 service a warm sympathy, an inspiring utterance, a high degree 

 of constructive faculty, and a conscientiousness which caused him 

 ever to give his best efforts to the duty before him. 



James Blythe Rogers was born in Philadelphia, February 11, 

 1802, being the first child of Hannah (Blythe) and Patrick Kerr 

 Rogers. His grandfather, Robert Rogers, was one of the gentry 

 of County Tyrone, Ireland. At the age of twenty-one he married 

 Sarah Kerr, daughter of a gentleman living near, whose family, 

 like his own, were adherents of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. 

 Rogers was owner of the Edergole or Knockbrack estate, lying 

 between Omagh and Fintano, forty miles from Londonderry, 

 and held on lease a piece of land adjoining it. Dr. W. S. W. 

 Ruschenberger, whose excellent memoir on The Brothers Rogers * 

 is the chief available source of information concerning this family, 



* Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. xxiii, pp. 104-146. 



