THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



B. F. Bowdish Dead. 



At the breaking out of the war be- 

 tween the United States and Spain, 

 among the volunteers from this section 

 was Beecher S. Bowish, who enlisted 

 with the National Guard of the stite of 

 New York, sfoiog with the Geneva com- 

 pany. Although the company never 

 reached the front, but spent its time 

 subject to call at Camp Black and in 

 Virginia, he remained ready for duty 

 until the company was must-^red out. 

 Following a short stay here at home, he 

 reinlisted in the 11th Infantry, becom- 

 a private in Company , E. and was or- 

 dered at once to Porto Rico, where he 

 has been on duty since last spring. 

 During his sojourn there very interest- 

 ing letters from his pen have been re- 

 ceived, giving minute descriptions of 

 soldier life, the habits and customs of 

 the natives, together with a full de- 

 scription of the country, its scenery, 

 products and other interesting features. 



Yesterday morning the regular com- 

 munication from Mr. Bowdish, under 

 date of December 18, was received, and 

 with it a note dated Viegues, Porto Ri- 

 co, Decem ber 23, which reads as follows : 



"I regret to have to inform you of 

 the loss of Private Beecher S. Bowdish, 

 the news having just been brought in 

 by a native that Private Bowdish, while 

 in a boat with two natives, was capsized 

 and drowned. I believe news has been 

 sent to headquarters at San Juan and 

 from there to his relatives. 



Yours respectfully, 

 "OSCAR V. ROWE, 

 Company E, 11th Infantry." 



Mr. Bowdish leaves a father and 

 mothor, formerly ""f this place, but now 

 reslHing in Nt^w York (^itv.— Phelps N. 

 ¥. Correspondent in Rochester Herald, 

 Jan. 6th 



Death of Elliott Coues. 



n Elliott Coues, the naturalist, died" 



Baltimore on December 25, and in his 



demise American science has lost one 

 of her greatest men. He wis born in 

 Portsmouth, N. H., in 1842. His father, 

 Samuel Elliott Coues, was the author 

 of several scientific treatises of great 

 value, so that Elliott Coues the young- 

 er came naturally to study science. He 

 graduated from the Columbian Univer- 

 sity in 1851, and from its medical de- 

 partment in 1863, and entered the Unit- 

 ed States Army as medical cadet and 

 was appointed by Surgeon-General 

 Hammond as Assistant Surgeon in the 

 United States Army, retaining that 

 office until his resignation in 1881. His 

 first post of duty was in Arizona and 

 then in Colorado and Illinois. In both 

 stations he investigated the natural his- 

 toi'y of the i-egion and published sev- 

 eral important papers. In 1873, he was 

 appointed Surgeon and Naturalist of 

 the United States Northern Boundary 

 Commission which surveyed the line 

 along the 49th parallel from the Lake 

 of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. 

 After his return to Washington he pub- 

 lished, in 1872, his "Key to North 

 American Birds," and in 1874. "Field 

 Ornithology." His reputation as a nat- 

 uralist now became thoroughly estab- 

 lished and he was appointed as secre- 

 tary and naturalist of the United States 

 Geological Survey under the late Dr. F. 

 V. Hayden. He edited the publications 

 of the Survey from 1876-1880, mean- 

 while conducting explorations in the 

 West. He published "Birds of the 

 Nortliwest" in 1874, "Fur-Bsaring Ani- 

 mals" in 1877, and "Birds of Colorado 

 Valley," 1878. H^ was ordered by the 

 War Department to the frontier, but 

 his services to science were so import- 

 ant that he tendered his resignation 

 and continued his scientific career. He 

 was a member of most of the scientific 

 s >-'iR*i'^s of the United States and many 

 of Europe. He was elected to the chair 

 of anatomy at the National Medical 

 College, in Washington, and pursued 

 some of his favorite studies for ten 

 years, teaching human anatomy upon 

 the broad basis of morphology and up- 

 on the principle of evolution. — Scien- 

 tific Americmi. 



