The Audubon Societies 



3i7 



THE LIFE WORK OF WILLIAM DUTCHER 



By T. S. PALMER 



In his work for bird-protection William 

 Dutcher has erected an enduring monu- 

 ment and left a record which should prove 

 a source of inspiration to many. Deeply 

 engrossed with the cares of an active 

 business life in New York City, he found 

 recreation among the birds and developed 

 a vocation from what was at first merely 

 an avocation. Energy, sincerity, sympathy 

 and a remarkable tenacity of purpose were 

 some of the characteristics which enabled 

 him to overcome obstacles that would have 

 disheartened a less determined man and 

 made it possible to score success under con- 

 ditions that seemed to invite nothing but 

 failure. 



His published contributions to orni- 

 thology and bird-protection began when 

 he was 33 years of age and continued dur- 

 ing a period of somewhat more than 

 thirty years. These contributions number 

 about 100 titles and comprise notes on the 

 birds of Long Island, a few general papers 

 on birds, a series of annual reports and 

 brief notes on bird-protection, and twenty 

 or more popular leaflets on common birds. 



As a young man he was fond of hunting 

 and spent his holidays during the hunting 

 season shooting on the shores of Long 

 Island. Here, in May, 1879, he secured a 

 strange bird which proved to be rare in 

 that locality. This bird was Wilson's 

 Plover, a species which Alexander Wilson, 

 father of American ornithology, had col- 

 lected in 1813 at Cape May, N. J., three 

 months before his death, and which was 

 subsequently described and named in his 

 honor. It is now known to be common 

 along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 

 but is uncommon north of Delaware Bay. 

 Dutcher's specimen was the subject of his 

 first published note which appeared in the 

 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 

 the following October. To the casual 

 reader this modest paragraph of six lines 

 may seem rather unimportant, but it 

 marked the beginning of a long series of 

 notes on the birds of Long Island, a sub- 

 ject in which he never lost interest and one 



on which he was generally recognized as 



an authority. It was his ambition to 

 publish a comprehensive work on Long 

 Island birds and he brought together a 

 valuable collection of specimens and all the 

 literature obtainable, but when other sub- 

 jects later absorbed his attention, he gen- 

 erously placed his notes at the disposal of 

 others and deposited his collection in the 

 American Museum of Natural History in 

 New York. 



In the course of his collecting he became 

 interested in certain species which were 

 made the subject of special investigation 

 as, for example, the Labrador Duck and 

 the Herring Gull. In the case of the former 

 he gathered all the data available regard- 

 ing the North American specimens and 

 was able to increase the list of known 

 specimens of this extinct bird at least 

 30 per cent. In the case of the latter, in 

 cooperation with W. L. Bail}', he sum- 

 marized the observations of three seasons 

 on the coast of Maine. 



Dutcher's work in scientific organiza- 

 tions began about the time of his first pub- 

 lication, when he became a member of the 

 Linnaean Society of New York, and all his 

 later work was done in connection with 

 some organization. When the American 

 Ornithologists' Union was founded in 1883, 

 he was elected an associate member, and 

 the following year was appointed on the 

 Committee on Protection of North 

 American Birds. The real work of the 

 committee began at a meeting held in his 

 office at 51 Liberty Street, New York 

 City, in December, 1885. The chairman 

 was George B. Sennett and two of the most 

 active members were George Bird Grinned, 

 editor of Forest and Stream, and William 

 Dutcher. The important accomplishments 

 of this committee during the three years of 

 its activity were the organization of the 

 original Audubon Society with a large mem- 

 bership and the drafting of a model law 

 for the protection of non-game birds. This 

 law, subsequently known as the 'A. O. U. 

 Law' and the 'Audubon Law,' has been 



