DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 7 



some insight into his character and attainments: ''You will find 

 him a most delightful acquaintance, with vast knowledge and 

 extended abilities." Waterton in another letter, after urging 

 Ord to visit him again at his English country seat, says : "I am 

 fully of the opinion that your polished mind was never destined 

 to waste its learning in Pennsylvania's matted woods." Audu- 

 bon, in this connection, refers casually to Ord's knowledge of 

 languages (Audubon and his Journals, Vol. I, p. 189); when 

 describing a meeting of the Royal Society of London, December 



18, 1826, he notes: "Prof. gave a long, tedious and 



laborious lecture on the origin of languages. * * * It 

 seemed a very poor mess to me. H= * >i< My friend Ord 

 would have doubtless swallowed it whole." 



As time advanced and his physical activities lessened, Ord, 

 at sixty years of age, writes under date of 1841: " My natural 

 history studies are nearly at an end. As age creeps upon me I 

 feel the necessity of retirement, but in yielding to that necessity 

 I derive consolation from pursuits which more than counter- 

 balance the pleasure of those which I relinquish. ' ' This alludes, 

 no doubt, to his philological studies, which I am assured both by 

 Mr. Gregory B. Keen and Dr. I. Minis Hays of Philadelphia, who 

 were for some years associated with him, were of the most pro- 

 found character. His valuable library, especially rich in such 

 works, from fear of fire, was removed by him from his house to 

 a room in the Philadelphia College of Physicians. Part of it 

 remains there, part is in the Ridgway branch of the Philadelphia 

 Library, and the remainder was purchased by Dr. J. Soils Cohen 

 of Germantown. 



Respecting Ord's personality I am much indebted for a lively 

 description from both of the above-named gentlemen, much of 

 which, however, is hardly germane to a sketch of this character. 

 Dr. Hays remembers him as a tall, rather spare and decidedly 

 stoop-shouldered man, using a cane in his walks about town. 

 An abundant shock of gray hair covered his head, even in old 

 age. He talked deliberately, but once aroused upon a favorite 

 theme, with much enthusiasm. His benign countenance com- 

 ported well with a tender-hearted, kindly disposition. His 

 literary humility, care and rigorous self-censorship not only 



