THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



WINTER, 1917-1918 



Published by the 



ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



(For the protection of wild birds) 



Robert Ridgway, Ornithologist 



A series of sketches is planned for the Bulletin to make its readers 

 better acquainted with Illinoisans that have done productive work in orni- 

 thology or that have been of conspicuous service in arousing an interest in 

 the study of bird life. The dean of them all, Mr. Robert Ridgway, is 

 naturally the subject of the first of the series, and through him Southern 

 Illinois takes precedence over other portions of the state. It was as a 

 boy of 14, living at Mt. Carmel on the Wabash River, a community far 

 removed from railroads, that the future ornithologist learned that there 

 were in the outside world scholarly men devoting their lives to the study 

 of the very things that interested him most. Three years later he was in 

 the employ of the United States Government as a zoologist and was 

 entering upon the career that has placed him in the foremost rank of living 

 ornithologists. Access to some autobiographical notes has made it possible 

 to give here an intimate glimpse of those early days in which a new heaven 

 and a new earth unfolded themselves before the wondering gaze of the 

 young naturalist. 



Referring to his school days, Mr. Ridgway has written : 



"I was not a very good boy; was too fond of play and especially of 

 running off to the woods and fields. Most of my whippings were for the 

 latter ; but I must say, in justice to my parents, that I never received a 

 whipping at home that I did not thoroughly deserve, and that I surely 

 deserved many a one that I was fortunate enough to escape ! [The only 

 whipping I ever received that I did not deserve, and much the worst, was 

 at school. The teacher (a man) was a very strict disciplinarian, and so 

 far as I have been able to figure out his only reason for whipping me was 

 that I was about the only boy in school that he had not whipped and he 

 didn't want any "left-overs" ; this, plus a bad temper. My back was 

 crossed by green stripes for six weeks afterward.] 



"I was exceedingly fond of sports, especially those involving action, as 

 ball-playing, running, jumping, swimming, etc., but was always ready to 

 forsake any game in order to go to the woods. I never cared for sedentary 

 games, such as checkers, puzzles, etc., and never could become interested in 

 cards, which always seemed to me dull and tedious, and a waste of valu- 

 able time. 



"The only study which interested me at school was geography, especially 

 physical geography ; grammar I detested, and arithmetic was too much for 

 me. as I could comprehend only the rudiments of mathematics. 



