proceeds: 'At supper, in the Hotel du Nil, Ir elated the curious story to all present, but, naturally enough, found only unbelieving ears. The only one who did not laugh was the Privy-councillor von Heuglin, the famous African traveler, and, excepting Brehm, the most celebrated authority of our time on the birds of Africa.' On asking his opinion, he remarked, 'Let others laugh, they know nothing about it. I do not laugh, for the thing is well known to me. I should have made mention of it in my work, if I had had any personal proof to justify it. I consider the case probable, though I cannot give any warrant for it.' 'My discovery, if I may so call it (continues Herr Ebeling) I would have kept to myself, even after Heuglin had thus expressed himself, had I not since discovered a new authority for it. In the second edition of Dr. Petermann's great book of travels I find the following: 'Prof. Roth, of Munich, related to me, in Jerusalem, that the well-known Swedish traveler, Hedenborg, made an interesting observation on the island of Rhodes, where he was staying. In the autumn, when the storks came in flocks over the sea to Rhodes, he often heard the notes of small birds, without being able to see them; but on one occasion he observed a party of storks just as they alighted, and saw several small birds come off their backs, having been thus evidently transported by them across the sea.'

"In the face of such testimony, then, as that above mentioned, and the admission of his belief in the story by so experienced an ornithologist as Heuglin, the conclusion seems inevitable that there must be some truth in it, and it has received some confirmation from a singular observation since made in England. Mr. T. H. Nelson, of Redcar, writing to the Zoologist for February, 1882 (p. 73), reports an occurrence related to him by an eye witness, Mr. Wilson, the foreman on the South Gare Breakwater, at the mouth of the Tees, which bears directly on the question at issue.

"On the morning of Oct. 16, fine and cold, wind northerly, Wilson was at the end of the Gare, when he saw a 'woodcock owl' (short-eared owl) 'come flopping across the sea.' As it came nearer he saw something between its shoulders, and wondered what it could be. The owl came and lit on the gearing within 10 yd. of where he was standing, and directly it came down a little bird dropped off its back and flew along the Gare. He signalled for a gun, but the owl saw him move, and flew off. He followed the small bird, however, and secured it, and on taking it to the local bird-stuffer for preservation, learned that it was a goldencrested wren. To see its irregular, and apparently weak, flight in passing through the air on a stormy day, it would never be supposed that so tiny a creature as the golden-crested wren would attempt to cross the sea, or would succeed in doing so if it tried. But that it travels to and from the Continent in spring and autumn is a fact which has been well ascertained by many competent observers. On the coasts of Yorkshire and Lincoln

shire, says Mr. Cordeaux, the autumnal migration of the gold crest is as well known as that of the woodcock, and from its usually arriving just before that species, it is known as the 'woodcock pilot.' The North Sea fishermen assert that these little birds often alight on their boats, an in foggy weather perish by hundreds. The same thing has been observed by Mr. E. T. Booth off the coast of Norfolk. There is, then, nothing so improbable as might at first sight appear in a gold-crest crossing the North Sea and alighting tired on the broad platform afforded by the expansive back and wings of a short-eared owl traveling at slower speed beneath it. At any rate, the fact remains that the gold-crest was seen to descend from the owl's back when the latter alighted, and its identity was placed beyond doubt by its subsequent capture. There is, verily, in heaven and earth much that is still undreamed of in our philosophy." "J. E. HARTING."

Among the others of the Old World, who have discussed this belief among the primitive and ancient inhabitants of Asia and Europe, is Newton, whose remarks are worth quoting on the side of skepticism in respect to the possible truth of the belief.

"Of the same kind is the equally ancient belief that little birds get themselves conveyed from one country to another by their bigger brethern. Storks and cranes on their migration are manifest to beholders, but the transit of lesser birds of feebler flight is seldom evident, and when, as often happens, large and small birds disappear or arrive simultaneously, what is more natural than that the ignorant should suppose that the latter avail themselves of the former as a vehicle? Thus is 1740 the Tartars of Krasnojarsk, and the Assanians assured J. G. Gmelin (Reise durch sibirien, 3, pages 393, 394) that when autumn came each Crane took a Corncrake on its back and transported it to a warmer land, while the well-known belief of the Egyptian peasant that Cranes and Storks bring a living load was not long since gravely promulgated in this country as a truth."

A strange fallacy regarding the seasonal movement of swallows seems to have engaged the speculation of primitive north Europeans and even of such eminent naturalists as Olaus Magnus, Bishop of Upsala, in 1669 and Gilbert White in 1776. They entertained the belief that swallows hibernated beneath the mud of ponds and lakes and emerged again in the spring. Even Cuvier in 1835 did not contradict this curious fable. 1Newton, Dictionary of Birds, page 550.

Unlike the cosmopolitan idea we have just discussed this particular belief seems to be restricted to the inhabitants of the northern parts of Europe. Pliny did not record it in the Mediterranean region. I never could discover its correspondent anywhere among the American Indians. They evidently observed the passage of birds with more accuracy, if we forget for a moment their legend of the small birds migration on the backs of geese.

On the whole the impressions one gets from the naming of birds and animals and the fables associated with them are often extremely pleasing.

We have discovered that the system of bird, naming among the northern aborigines seems to follow two lines. About onethird of the 72 native birds named and identified are named from their utterances. The rest of the names are of a figurative and descriptive origin.

Errors have of course been absolutely unavoidable in getting this list and the notes together. One of the chief causes, however, has been the uncertainty in the minds of the informants themselves as to the differentiation among birds that look alike to the naked eye. Again I found that informants did not always agree upon the names applied to birds even after they had settled the identity to their satisfaction. In the matter of onomatopoeic names the birds seem to be somewhat more critically identified. Those who have attempted to interpret the songs of birds according to the European ear will find that the Indian names so derived are fully as diverse as are the song renderings given by ornithologists.

GOING TO CHURCH IN ANCIENT ROME

By GEORGE D. HADZSITS

Assistant Professor of Latin

"Going to Church in Ancient Rome" is a sufficiently ambiguous title to satisfy the most sophisticated craving for the paradoxical. But it is not merely your amused distraction that this title aims at,-for, on the contrary, it is meant to convey something of the profound contradictions inherent in a religious system that scarce required attendance at church at all. To the orthodox Roman believer there could be little question about the validity of his dogmatic faith in the existence of God. There could be little doubt as to his certain knowledge regarding the habitat of God. The only disturbing factor was how to retain the good will of gods, for despair followed upon such uncertainty. A world without God was unthinkable; a world without his favor became a mad dream. Religion was interpreted in terms of union and unity with divine dispensation, through ritual.

The when, the where and the why of Roman religious practices may well engage our attention for a brief hour, as we seek to catch the true spirit of religious institutions vitally affecting the lives of a great people for a thousand years and more. Temples, priests and gods there were, and I would conduct you into some of the rich associations of time, of legend and of history in order that we may comprehend the validity of applying to an ancient Roman, the dictum of a recent, great contemporary: "Without God, the bottom drops out of everything." To be sure, mountebanks were not lacking, of course skeptics scoffed, but the history of orthodox Roman religious practice is an epic in human religious experience, filled with deep and heroic emotions, an epoch that has not yet closed. The spirit of Roman worship

has survived the decay of temples and the fall of palaces and will continue to live. When the waters of Lethe pour over human experience, then the end may come to the influence of ancient Rome's religious beliefs and observances. It is to a consideration of the status of the marvellous institution as it existed when Rome was mistress of the world that I would invite your attention at this time.

After years of worship in public at state altars, set up on the hills and in the valleys, the Romans finally, in the time of Servius Tullius, erected the first temple in the city. Near the close of the regal period, Diana was thus worshipped on the Aventine. To Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline was erected a temple that in time became one of the greatest centers of worship not only in Roman religious history but in the religious history of the world. Constructed originally of the native tufa of the hill, this temple increased in splendor with the years, sheltering statues of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, having Corinthian columns, a pediment surmounted by a quadriga and a roof covered with gilt bronze. It contained works of art of all descriptions, its ceiling was gilded and a mosaic pavement was laid in the cella. The central chamber contained Jupiter's statue, represented as a triumphant general.

This Etruscan temple became a symbol of Rome to the mind of Horace, just as, long before, the incorporation of the cult of Terminus, the god of boundaries, in the temple was regarded as prophetic of the permanence of the cult and of Rome itself. "Provided a long stretch of sea rolls between Ilium and Rome, let the exiles rule contented whereso'er they will.

Provided the cattle gambol over the tomb of Priam and of Paris, provided the wild beasts hide their whelps, unhunted, On that condition, let the Capitoline rise refulgent and stern Rome give laws to the conquered Medes.”

It was to the Capitoline that Ovid, too, instinctively turned, when the order to leave Rome quite crushed his spirit.

"And now the cries of men were hushed and the baying