112 
NATURE) STUDY. 
horse, which enable it to push backward a load nearly as 
heavy as that which it can draw forward, and the poise of 
the bird, with one foot uplifted, listening intently, forming 
a judgment from the sights and sounds about it, and decid¬ 
ing whether to step forward, to retreat gracefully back¬ 
ward, or to take wing. In striking contrast is the helpless 
situation of the clam when he has pushed himself into 
trouble. The snail can turn slowly about, but is incapable 
of moving backward. The snake, too, however urgent the 
occasion, must turn upon himself if he would move in an 
opposite direction. There is much that is suggestive in 
this relation between brain development and the power to 
use the reasoning faculties which is associated with the 
ability to step backward as well as forward; but this is 
perhaps rather too much for the children. What they will 
take delight in, is to study the habits of all sorts of crea¬ 
tures, and, among many other interesting things, learn 
what they may about queer ways of walking. 
A Revised Creed. 
BY FREDERICK W. BATCHEEDER. 
These are the days of creed revision. Orthodox and het¬ 
erodox are hard at work trying to square old formulas with 
new facts. Therefore it can be no crime to change the read¬ 
ing of certain articles in the bird lovers’ hitherto accepted 
confession of faith. Prominent among the thirty-nine,— 
more or less,—of these articles is this: “I believe the Eng¬ 
lish sparrow to be the offspring of the Evil One, irredeem¬ 
ably bad by nature and an unmitigated nuisance to man¬ 
kind.” The general acceptance of this clause in the creed 
has naturally given the bird a bad name, and when a bird 
or dog has acquired a bad name he may as well be hanged 
and done with it. 
The first question which arises when “credo,” (which 
