600 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Ned's formal education was confined to the public schools of Dela- 

 van, where he liad the usual hio;h-school training but failed actuallj' 

 to graduate, a collecting trip having conflicted with the last few 

 days of the school year. Although he did not go to college, early 

 associations were made by which his natural tendencies received all 

 that was necessary to give him an understanding of scientific method 

 and an appreciation of absolute accuracy exceeding that of many 

 college-trained men. One of the first of these profitable contacts 

 was with Prof. Ludwig Kumlien, of Milton College, in the small 

 town of Milton, Wis., not far from Delavan. 



It is not uncommon for naturalists to show their inclinations early 

 in life and they often make leal contributions to knowledge while 

 still in their teens, but few, if any, have begun earlier than Ned 

 Hollister. In his joint work with L. Kumlien on The Birds of 

 Wisconsin, published in 1903, it is stated that conclusions were based 

 on 35 years' field work by the senior author and 15 by the junior. 

 This implies that Hollister regarded his field work as beginning 

 when he was 12 years old. If he says so, we may be quite sure it 

 did, not theoretically but actually, and the statement in The Birds 

 of Wisconsin undoubtedly means that at least some of the matter 

 published in the book was founded by definite observations or notes 

 made by the boy of 12. Further evidence is shown by the fact that 

 he began publishing in his sixteenth year, in 1892, when three papers 

 appeared under his name, one in The Oologist and two in a leaflet 

 called The Taxidermist. 



Early bird's-nesting and taxidermic efforts were made in the com- 

 pany of his brother Warren, and the collection of birds, eggs, and 

 latterly of mammals which was brought together was a joint affair, 

 Warren only relinquishing his interest after he had left home and 

 entered an active life of business. Young Ned and his brother evi- 

 dently were favorites among a coterie of sportsmen citizens of De- 

 lavan who took them on their semiannual shooting parties to the 

 near-by lakes and prairies where ducks, snipes, and other game birds 

 abounded. His father encouraged him, and an uncle, Mr. F. E. Bur- 

 rows, often accompanied him to photograph birds' nests. On his 

 father's farm near Delavan were several duck "holes" which fur- 

 nished him a private preserve, and on family farms in Minnesota 

 and Florida, he had welcome headquarters for hunting and collect- 

 ing. These early hunting associations Avere very dear to Hollister 

 and in later years, long after he had become immersed in scientific 

 study and executive work in Washington, he returned to Delavan 

 practically every season to shoot over the old ground and visit with 

 what he affectionately and truly termed "the old crowd," for most 

 of them Avere much older than he. 



