54 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [NOV. 5, 



gradually from one degree of profieiene_y to another (for orni- 

 tliology is a science with ever-opening vistas of continued pos- 

 sibiliUes 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 3'et mindful of what is recjuired 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 Itelieve 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 zoology. 



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 honestl}' 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 etforts are ham]3ered 

 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 ])ur- 

 suit. The heart is not in it; unwise and foolish as it may seem 

 to the A'ast 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 woi'ks, to study the creatures that, like 

 himself, owe their existence to the Diyine 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 pre_y, 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 i)erfect world, so has the natural- 



