668 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. ' 



ill'. Thompson-Setou lias really reformed, we 

 shall no longer be permitted to accuse him 

 of gullibility. Meanwhile alternative hypoth- 

 eses need not concern us here. 



That Mr. Long is a ' hopeless romancer ' 

 has already been abimdantly proved by Mr. 

 Burroughs's article in the Atlantic Monthly 

 for March, 1903,* which, although obviously 

 unfair in spots, must be regarded as essen- 

 tially sound, and in some respects even ' too 

 temperate,' as Mr. Wheeler has said. If any- 

 thing remained to be added to Mr. Bur- 

 roughs's effective criticism of Mr. Long's 

 ' sham natural history,' the deficiency has been 

 bountifully supplied by Mr. Wheeler and Mr. 

 Chapman, both eminent as scientific natural- 

 ists.-j- 



It would also seem a work of supererogation 

 to attempt further to establish Mr. Long's 

 gullibility, especially after Mr. Chapman's ex- 

 cellent letter, with its telling quotations. In- 

 deed, I have no intention of arguing the 

 matter further, but I happen to have in my 

 possession a carefully prepared outline sketch, 

 executed by Mr. Clifton Johnson, the well- 

 known illustrator, of a mare's nest which Mr. 

 Long has seen fit to describe as the work of 

 orioles, and (by the owner's permission) I beg 

 leave to reproduce it in your journal, that 

 your readers may judge for themselves of 

 Mr. Long's competency to instruct the youth 

 of our land in the ' Secrets of the Woods.' 

 I quote for comparison Mr. Long's own ac- 

 count of this nest and the manner of its 

 fabrication, from his article on ' The Modern 

 School of ISTature-Study and its Critics' in 

 the North American Review for May, 1903 

 (pp. 688-698) : 



* ' Real and Sham Natural History,' Op. cit., 

 pp. 298-309. 



t One could have wLshed that Mr. Wheeler had 

 not felt obliged to indulge in that rhetoric about 

 osteogenesis, etc., presumably intended to take 

 off Mi-. Long's manner, but incidentally serving 

 to prejudice certain readers against an otherwise 

 convincing criticism. Surely Mr. Wheeler does 

 not believe that the average country doctor, who 

 sets all the broken bones of his township is 

 ' deeply versed in osteogenesis ' ! Nor would he 

 deny him, on this aceoimt, his proper share of 

 intelligence. — A'ore potest non peccari. 



Last spring, two orioles built in a buttonwood 

 tree, after having been driven away from their 

 favorite elm by carpenters. They wanted a swing- 

 ing nest, but the buttonwood's branches were too 

 stiff and straight; so they fastened three sticks 

 together on the ground in the form of a perfectly 

 measured triangle. At each angle they fastened 

 one end of a cord, and carried the other end over 

 and made it fast to the middle of the opposite 

 side. Then they gathered up the loops and fast- 



ened them by the middle, all together, to a stout 

 bit of marline; and their staging was all ready. 

 They carried up this staging and swung it two 

 feet below the middle of a thick limb, so that 

 some leaves above sheltered them from sun and 

 rain; and upon this swinging stage they built 

 their nest. The marline was tied once around 

 the limb, and, to make it perfectly sure, the end 

 was brought down and fastened to the supporting 

 cord with a reversed double-hitch, the kind that 

 a man uses in cinching his saddle. Moreover, 

 the birds tied a single knot at the extreme end 

 lest the marline should ravel in the wind. The' 



