66 KEPOKT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of tlie International Exposition in Sydney, Australia, in jiresenting to it 

 a bronze medal, although no exhibit of any kind was made by the Institu- 

 tion on that occasion. 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. 



Loss of Employes and Collaborators. — It is seldom that a year i)asses 

 without entailing the mournful task of recording the loss by death of 

 one or more of those who have been either directly employed hj the 

 Institution, or have rendered it assistance in the prosecution of its varied 

 scientific operations. In the necrology of the past jear, several valued 

 names are to be included. 



In the death of Dr. Tho3IAS M. Brewer, at his residence in Boston, 

 on the 2d of January last, the Smithsonian Institution loses one of its 

 best and earliest friends, and one who always rendered important serv- 

 ice in his capacity as editor of a leading Boston daily journal, and did 

 much toward keeping the public advised of the true spirit of the opera- 

 tions of the Institution. 



In his death the science of ornithology loses one of its earliest votaries, 

 constituting, as he did, a connecting link between the i)resent epoch and 

 the period of Audubon and Nuttall. Dr. Brewer's specialty Avas in his 

 knowledge of the history and the habits of birds, and especially of their 

 nidification, and he has always been the highest authority on every thing- 

 relating to the eggs of North American species. Many years ago he 

 planned an exhaustive work on Korth American Oology, to be illustrated 

 by the best drawings that could be i:!rocured, and an agreement was 

 made by the Smithsonian Institution to publish this work in successive 

 parts. The first number of this Korth American Oology was i)ublished 

 by the Institution, and embraced more particularly the rapacious birds, 

 the swallows, the goat suckers, and the king-fishers. This publication 

 took jilace at a time when the knowledge of North American birds was 

 undergoing many changes, resulting from the expansion of the territory 

 of the United States and the better knowledge of its different portions. 



The further i)ublication was deferred for a time, but arrangements 

 were being made at the time of his death to take up the work again and 

 carry it to its completion. 



Dr. Brewer has done a great deal towards popularizing American 

 ornithology by his investigations and correspondence with ornithologi- 

 cal students of all grades of advancement. To no one so much as to Dr. 

 Brewer is due the love of ornithology that is so i^revalent in Xew Eng- 

 land. In 1840, he published an American edition of Wilson's Ornithol- 

 ogy, which met for a time a much felt want, and he has also published 

 a large number of j^apers on ornithological subjects. His most im- 

 portant work, however, was in connection with the History of North 

 American Birds, by Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway, printed by Messrs. 

 Little & Brown, in 1873, of which three volumes have so far appeared, 

 namely, those on land species. Of these the entire biological text was 



