BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixxi 
Whitman’s life was simple and studious; it was passed almost 
entirely between his house and his laboratory. A large part of 
his work, since 1891 certainly, was done at home, and from about 
1895 when he began the study of pigeons, by far the major part. 
He gradually collected a large number of species of pigeons from 
all parts of the world, and in the latter part of his life the collection 
comprised some 550 individuals representing about thirty species. 
His house was surrounded by pigeon cotes, and he always had 
some birds under observation indoors, so that the cooing of doves 
was for years a dominant sound in his house. He took care of 
the birds for the most part himself, though he usually had the 
assistance of one or two maids. He thus actually lived with his 
birds constantly, and very rarely was absent from them even for 
a single day. He made observations and kept notes on all aspects 
of the life and behavior of each species, as well as of such hybrids 
as he was able to produce. He always had one Japanese artist 
at work continuously drawing pigeons, and for several years 
two—Hyashi and Toda. Thus he accumulated an immense 
amount of material for his magnum opus, which, however, he was 
not permitted to finish. It is hoped that a considerable portion 
of his work may be available for posthumous publication, owing 
to the self-sacrificing labor that has been put on it first by Dr. R. 
M. Strong, and then by Dr. Oscar Riddle, one of his students, 
who is now devoting his entire time to editing the manuscripts. 
For many years Whitman carried his pigeons with him to Woods 
Hole in June and back again in September, as already related. 
But the burden became intolerable, especially as he always bore 
the entire expense of his pigeon work personally. He was finally 
obliged to relinquish the annual trip to Woods Hole and all the 
cherished associations of the Marine Biological Laboratory. 
His work probably flourished better under these conditions, but 
it is to be feared that his health suffered from too close applica- 
tion to work and from lack of variety in his life. 
With all of his close application to his study, he was neverthe- 
less most devoted to his friends; he was always pleased to see 
them, and would spend hours in conversation with them as though 
he had no other concern in the world. Although he was no smoker 
