AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 15 



logical Survey (then the Division of Ornithology and 

 Mammalology), the analyses of v^hich are included in 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher's classic work on "The Hawks and 

 Owls of the United States in Their Relation to Agricul- 

 ture." His correspondence with Dr. Fisher was exten- 

 sive and it is very interesting to learn from Dr. Fisher 

 that he himself, by mail, through the medium of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow, taught Dr. Avery to make bird skins. Spar- 

 row skins were prepared in such a way as to show the 

 different operations necessary to produce a good museum 

 skin and forwarded to Dr. Avery who thus was enabled 

 to copy them in preparing other birds. Dr. Fisher also 

 identified many of the more obscure species for Dr. Avery. 



Dr. Avery also corresponded actively with the officials 

 of the U. S. National Museum and the American Museum 

 of Natural History, notably : Dr. Elliott Coues, Major 

 Charles E. Bendire, Robert Ridgway, Dr. J. A. Allen, and 

 Dr. Frank M. Chapman. He contributed many speci- 

 mens to both museums, including birds, eggs, nests, and 

 notes which were sent to Maj. Bendire. Among the old 

 Avery papers is quite a bundle of the diploma-like ac- 

 knowledgments of these specimens by the Smithsonian 

 Institute, all signed by G. Brown Goode, Assistant Sec- 

 retary. His sets of Peucaea aestivalis bachmani were of 

 considerable importance ; and Davie's quotation in "Nests 

 and Eggs of North American Birds" of Bendire's descrip- 

 tion of "5 nests and several full sets" form the greater 

 part of the information regarding the nesting of Bach- 

 man's sparrow published in that work. A series of 

 specimens of Quiscaliis quiscula was collected to aid Mr. 

 Ridgway in working out the relationships of the different 

 subspecies. Besides the aforementioned scientists. Dr. 

 Avery corresponded more or less regularly with the fol- 

 lowing: Dr. Harrison Allen, University of Pennsylvania; 

 Frank B. Armstrong, Brownsville, Texas; Prof. Spencer 

 F. Baird, Smithsonian Institution ; William Brewster, 

 Cambridge, Mass.; C. S. Brimley, Raleigh, N. C. (Brim- 

 ley visited Avery at Greensboro in September, 1890) ; 

 George G. Cantwell, Lake Mills, Wisconsin ; F. H. Car- 

 penter, Rehoboth, Mass. ; William Dutcher, New York 



