THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 60. 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY 



VOL. XIX. SEPTEMBER, 1907. NO. 3 



.THE FIRST RIRDSKIN OF ELLIOTT COUES. 



(a bit of history.) 



by dr. r. w. shufeldt. 



What I am about to relate must have taken place along 

 some time in the early 80's, but as to the exact year, or the 

 month and much less the day of the month, Fve quite for- 

 gotten. However, to the best of my recollection it was in the 

 summer of 1882, as that year I was on duty in the Surgeon 

 General's office at Washington. 



In those days Doctor Coues was in his prime, both in the 

 matter of physical health, as well as in literary activity. 

 He occupied Professor Baird's old desk in a room of the 

 north tower of the Smithsonian Institution, and was princi- 

 pally engaged in driving away at the second edition of the 

 Key to North American Birds, that subsequently appeared in 

 1884. The room adjoining his was occupied by Doctor Gill 

 and Henry W. Elliott, while the present writer was a privileged 

 daily visitor at the twin sanctums. 



Among us four Doctor Gill passed familiarly under the 

 cognomen of "The Pope" ; Coues somehow had come to be 

 simply designated as '"Couesi" ; Elliott none other than the 

 "Pygmy," owing to the comparative humble nature of his 



