Elliott Coues on the Death of John Cassin 



In a memorial on the late Dr. James G. Cooper, in a re- 

 cently issued number of the Condor, there is published a letter 

 written by Dr. Coues to Dr. Cooper, dated Fort ]\Iacon, N. C, 

 February 21, 1869, which contains the following beautiful 

 tribute to Cassin. As we read it we recall the similar thoughts 

 that passed through the mind of manj' an American ornitholo- 

 gist when, three years ago, we heard that Elliott Coues was no 

 more. 



"Of course you heard the sad, sad news that John Cassin's 

 labors are ended. The loss to science none of us can measure; 

 nor can those privileged to call him friend adequately express 

 the depth of that bereavement. And many as are our American 

 ornithologists— high as some stand in American Ornithology — 

 there is none left in all our land who can lift up the mantle that 

 has fallen from his shoulders. His good work is accomplished, 

 and he has gone to reap the rich reward of a life nobly spent in 

 the survey of Nature's beauties, in drinking from the perennial 

 fountain of Nature's truths. Since Audubon passed away from 

 the scene of his usefulness, death has struck no such cruel blow 

 to our beloved science. As Dr. Brewer has said to me, ' Which 

 one of our younger ornithologists will undertake to stand, after 

 thirty-five years of training, where Cassin stood at his death ? ' 

 The all-worthy, time-honored quartette has been rudely broken. 

 Now only a triangle, Lawrence, Brewer and Baird, remains of 

 the last generation of American ornithologists. Who shall lead 

 opinion when they, too, are gathered to their fathers ? A higher 

 trust than we perhaps appreciate is laid upon the few of us of 

 this later day who pay devotion to the beautiful study of orni- 

 thology. It is no less than the keeping bright and untarnished, 

 and transmitting to our successors, the name and fame of the 

 science that has absorbed such minds as those of Wilson, Nutt- 

 all, Audubon, Bonaparte and Cassin. May we prove worthy 

 servitors, guarding with jealous care our trust, watchful that the 

 vestal fires shall ever burn at the shrine we worship with a clear 

 and steady flame. 



' ' Ever yours, faithfully, Elliott Coues. ' ' 



(50,) 



