Editorial 



231 



A Bi-Monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Contributing Editor, MABELOSGOOD WRIGHT 



Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XXIV Published August 1, 1922 No. 4 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, one dollar aud fifty cents a year; 

 outside the United States, one dollar and seventy-five cents, 

 postage paid, 



COPYRIGHTED, 1922, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Busb Is Worth Two in the Hand 



We have lately compared the self-written 

 histories of the boyhood of John Burroughs* 

 and J. A. Allenf with each other, and with 

 the record of their authors' achievements. 

 These men had much in common in environ- 

 ment and temperament. 



Burroughs was born in 1837, Allen in 1838; 

 both died in iq2i. Both were born and raised 

 on a farm, Burroughs in the Catskills, Allen 

 near Springfield, Mass. Both had brothers 

 from whom in tastes and mentality they 

 differed widely. Neither could attribute his 

 distinctive characteristics to inheritance. 

 Both were direct, simple, sincere, and unaf- 

 fected, shunning society but loving compan- 

 ionship. Both had a pronounced interest in 

 nature, but one was born a poet and the 

 other a scientist; and each developed true to 

 type, but Burroughs was much longer in 

 finding himself. 



The inherent desire to study nature, which 

 made Al'en one of the foremost technical 

 naturalists of his time, was soon manifested, 

 and was too clearly defined and insistent to 

 be denied. Burroughs' longings were more 

 vague. He was primarily responsive to litera- 

 ture and describes how the reading of certain 

 passages from the 'Life of Washington' al- 

 ways overwhelmed him with a wave of 

 emotion. A strange word at once commanded 

 his attention. Birds, mammals, toads, and 

 insects all attracted him. He used to watch 

 and woo the little piping frogs and induce 

 them to sit in his open hand and pipe; and 

 creep on hands and knees to see the partridge 



drum. He watched the mud-wasps building 

 their nests and studied the habits of bumble- 

 bees. But this sympathetic interest in the 

 various forms of life about him was not 

 accompanied by the deeper, stronger feeling 

 which characterizes the original investigator. 

 The boy Burroughs appears to have made no 

 collections. He knew nothing of specimens 

 or of the science of natural history. 



Allen, on the other hand, without ever 

 having met a naturalist or seen a book on 

 nature began at the age of thirteen to form 

 collections of birds, rocks, and plants, and 

 his specimens were measured, weighed, and 

 named. Thus he gave a wholly spontaneous 

 expression to the desire to acquire that 

 definite type of knowledge which can be 

 obtained only by close personal inspection. 

 He collected to gratify a desire for knowledge, 

 not a passion for acquisition. With un- 

 swerving steps he followed the star of his 

 destiny. Guided first by his own longings, 

 an amateur taxidermist, a school teacher and 

 an academy professor were links in the chain 

 of fate which brought him straight to the care 

 of Louis Agassiz. With his feet now firmly 

 on the road, his course was ever upward. 



Burroughs, less fortunate, heard no such 

 unmistakable call. Leaving the farm at the 

 age of seventeen, for the ensuing ten years 

 he taught in rural district schools. For the 

 succeeding decade he was a clerk in the 

 Treasury at Washington. It was during the 

 latter part of this period that the 'response 

 to literature,' which was perhaps his dominant 

 trait, found an outlet in an essay on 'Expres- 

 sion.' And when, soon after, he decided to 

 make nature his theme, the experiences of 

 his boyhood came to 'fruit and flower' in his 

 mind and 'Wake Robin' was the memorable 

 and imperishable result. Burroughs had now 

 found himself. The farm at Riverby was 

 purchased, and the Bark Study and Slab- 

 sides became laboratories wherein through 

 the alchemy of his mind Burroughs trans- 

 mitted experience and impression into the 

 living word. 



So these two farmer boys, in their very 

 different ways, fulfilled the promise of their 

 youth, one through the sentiment, the other 

 through the science of nature. 



*"My Boyhood." Doubleday, Page & Company. tAutobiographical Notes. Am. Mus. Nat. Hjst. 



