BIOLOGY IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 165 



facilities for work and say a little about some of the workers. I 

 begin with Colorado Springs, merely because it is near at hand. We 

 have in this town a few good naturalists. The senior member of the 

 fraternity is Mr. Aiken, after whom the snowbird Junco aikeni was 

 named. Mr. Aiken has, I suppose, the best collection of birds in this 

 part of the country, and what is more to the purpose, has a really 

 critical knowledge of them. A few days ago, I had the pleasure of 

 reviewing with him a woodpecker which he believes to be new, and I 

 hope he will publish an account of this and other interesting birds 

 which he has studied. Our other bird man, Mr. Edward K. Warren, is 

 also interested in mammals, and is making a remarkably interesting 

 collection of small mammals. Mr. Warren is much interested in the 

 photography of living wild animals and birds; and some of his photo- 

 graphs, especially those showing the ptarmigan in all plumages, are 

 exceedingly beautiful. Professor Cragin, the well-known paleontol- 

 ogist and zoologist, is resident here, but now devotes himself entirely 

 to the history of the west. The types of most of his new species of 

 fossils are in the museum of Colorado College. Professor Sturgis, 

 formerly of Connecticut, now shares with the present writer a laboratory 

 in the new Palmer Hall, and is very busy working on myxomycetes, 

 making colored drawings of innumerable forms. As a result of his 

 work the boundaries between several so-called species are becoming 

 decidedly obscure. 



Palmer Hall, the great new building of Colorado College, is the 

 wonder and admiration of all who see it. From quarters which would 

 have disgraced a high school, the scientific departments have moved 

 into those which would do credit to any university. It is not possible 

 to do everything at once, and it must be confessed that the equipment 

 is not yet nearly up to the standard of the building. At the same time, 

 there are very good facilities for teaching, and the museum contains 

 a large amount of useful material. As regards the means for research, 

 it seems to me that they are even now sufficient to keep any ambitious 

 investigator from idleness. Of course the great opportunities are in 

 the country itself, with the splendid mass of Pikes Peak close at hand, 

 easily ascended by means of the cog railway. In the college, the large 

 series of fossils — especially Cretaceous — collected by Professor Cragin 

 invites study. Most of the material is from Kansas and Texas, but 

 it would be invaluable for comparison to any one engaged in the study 

 of the Colorado Cretaceous. There is also the herbarium of the late 

 Edward Tatnall, of Wilmington, Delaware, which, although not rich 

 in Eocky Mountain plants, is, on the whole, remarkably good, contain- 

 ing apparently most of the standard sets from the United States and 

 Mexico which have been distributed in recent years. 



The literature on biology at present possessed by the college is 

 very insufficient, though the library contains many good things. There 



