54 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 7 



the savant, and beneath which he delights 

 to pose as the custodian of a knowledge 

 too profound for ordinaiy mortals to com- 

 i:)rehend. 



Tliis love of appearing possessed with 

 super-human capabilities is no new devel- 

 opment; it is as old as the human heart 

 and has asserted itself luider all the diverse 

 phases of man's existence. It was the in- 

 spiring motive of the Sorcerers and As- 

 trologers — the wise men of Bible days 

 — and guided the founders of the religious 

 systems of all savage races. It flourished 

 amidst the mystic philosophy of Egyptian 

 symbolism and drew vigor from the warm 

 breast of the Collegia Artificum, founded 

 by King Numa for the Romans; and it 

 still lives, in the height of its arrogant pre- 

 sumption, not only beneath the shadow of 

 barbaric priestcraft but in the broad light 

 * of the nineteenth century's civilization and 

 culture. 



But the intelligence of this age has no 

 faith in the oracles or the mysticism which 

 swayed such power in the darker ages of 

 history ; such miunmeries have no place in 

 the economy of a peojile who have ceased 

 to believe that the knowledge attained by 

 the few cannot be itnderstood by the many ; 

 and the practical common sense of to-day 

 declares that if the savant has a mission it 

 clearly is to teach the people how they may 

 read the sermons which are written in the 

 stones ; how they may gather the thoughts 

 which are voiced by the running brooks, 

 how they may discern the true and the 

 beautiful — the good, which a beneficent 

 Creator has implanted in everything. And 

 unless the savant does his part in the ful- 

 filment of this mission, unless he helps to 

 make the world wiser and better, he is of 

 no more use here than — a dead rat. 



It would be base ingratitude not to ad- 

 mit frankly that the world owes much 



very much, of its present advanced condi- 

 tion to the efforts of men of science. That 

 they have done a great work in the educa- 

 tion of the people is most true, but that 



there is vastly more yet undone is equally 

 as certain, and it will not be done, and the 

 responsibility for the failure must fall upon 

 scientists so long as they expend their best 

 efforts for the sole benefit of their co-labor- 

 ers — the small body of specialists, so long 

 as they make their books i-epulsive to the 

 people. 



Considering all these things the amateur 

 ornithologists should rejoice that for one 

 year moi-e, at least, the antiquated rubbish 

 which was imposed upon science by a child- 

 ish vanity shall be discarded from these 

 pages, and the annals of the bird's lives be 

 recorded here in " Plain English." — Mon- 

 tague Chamberlain^ St. John, N. JB. 



Bewick's Wren. 



May 17, 1882, I found a nest of Be- 

 wick's Wren containing four eggs. May 

 8th, of the present year, I found two nests 

 of this wren, one containing four and the 

 other six eggs. The set of four were 

 partly incubated. The nest of '82 was in 

 a mortise hole in an old barn in the south- 

 ern part of this State. The two found 

 yesterday were in the central section of 

 this State. One was upon the rafter of a 

 porch, the other upon the top of a window 

 of a wood-shed. All three nests are very 

 similar, being open at the top and lined 

 with feathers. I caught with my hand two 

 of the birds before they could leave their 

 nests, and examined them carefully. The 

 nest of '82 is figured in part 14 of " Nests 

 and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio," and is 

 the first record of the nesting of this 

 species in this State. The two specimens 

 taken yesterday thoroughly establishes 

 this w}'en as an Ohio summer resident. I 

 believe Bewick's Wren is somewhat com- 

 mon in some localities, and is confounded 

 by the country peoj^le with the common 

 House Wren. I can recall a set of eggs 

 which I took about twelve years ago, that I 

 now believe were those of Bewick's Wren. 

 — Howard Jones, Circleville, Ohio. 



