SOME SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 111 



given to literary composition. He was so intensely 

 engrossed in business and, after business cares had been 

 largely given over to others, was so devoted to travel and 

 collecting, making brief notes of his specimens and carry- 

 ing on an extensive correspondence with naturalists, 

 that he had little time for finished composition, or plac- 

 ing in elaborate form the results of his observations and 

 studies. It was rather his work to assist others, to study 

 points of difference, to note peculiarities in species, to 

 suggest lines of inquiry to other workers. When the 

 first results of his studies were published through the 

 Boston Society of Natural History as early as 1862, it 

 was done at the solicitation of Prof. A. E. Verrill who 

 edited the list of birds then printed, because, as he says, 

 " Mr. Boardman could not attend to it himself." And so 

 it was for many years. He was so much engaged in 

 collecting and in field study that he had no time for 

 extended literary composition. It was only in late life, 

 after his ornithological field had been thoroughly 

 explored that he found time for writing those delightful 

 autobiographical and historical sketches which for two or 

 three years appeared regularly in the Calais and St. 

 Stephen newspapers. These show what interesting 

 chapters he could have written on the fauna of the St. 

 Croix, based upon his own collections and field studies, 

 had he had the opportunity and set himself about it earlier 

 in life. 



Mr. Boardman's habits of observation were very acute 

 and his published statements noted for their accuracy and 

 correctness. If there was anything which he could not 

 tolerate it was a hasty, imperfect or misleading statement 

 regarding natural history in any published work. These 



