Shufeldt, on First Birdskin of Elliott Coues. 79 



to receive into its cavity, close down upon, swallow and digest 

 another contribution in the way of a donation, that its life 

 might be prolonged, and strength given it to pass the torch 

 to the ornithological workers of the years to come. Here 

 indeed, ruthlessly heaped up on the floor, was the mass in 

 the main of the bird material of his own gathering, from 

 which Coues had, through the application of his merciless in- 

 tellectual hydraulic press, squeezed out that great store of 

 ornithological facts, which had furnished the food for hun- 

 dreds of his papers and books and memoirs, and upon which 

 his name was built. "Dei et piscictdcu/' as Gill would say, 

 what a classic poemi might have been written in the presence 

 of such a theme ! But to the great loss to American literature 

 and poetry, be it ever with regret said, the poet was not 

 there, and even had he been. I am not at all sure but what he 

 would have been quite asphyxiated in an atmosphere so 

 charged with ornithological lore, and so rendered unable to 

 command the necessary language to commemorate the inci- 

 dent. Aloreover this aerial density was by no means dimin- 

 ished when Coues himself and Henrv Elliott came at that 

 moment into the room. For the benefit of those who were 

 familiar with those two strenuous workers as they appeared 

 on such occasions, during the times of which I speak, no pen 

 sketch of mine is necessary, and others, who never knew 

 them, will spare me the attempt of description. 



x\fter a moment's banter, which invariably took place when 

 we three got together, and in which Ridgway took no part, 

 Coues, — who had just rolled a cigarette, — with a characteristic 

 wave of his hand, given to direct my attention to his heap of 

 birdskins in the middle of the floor, remarked in words to this 

 effect : 



"Well, Shufeldt, what do you think of them? — pretty gen- 

 erous, am I not? going to turn the whole bunch in — reckon I 

 am through with them, and I thought I would give the other 

 fellows a chance to see if they can find any new species among 

 them." This all in a breath, followed by a triple volume of 

 smoke from his mouth and nostrils, that consumed nearly 

 half of his cigarette to produce. 



