18 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
classic Latin and Greek and of course his ideas did not 
conform to the A. O. U. rules on original spelling. Miss 
Mary E. Avery in a letter to Dr. T. M. Owen writes that 
“Tt would be difficult to say whether he loved the study 
of languages or of nature best.” 
Dr. Avery became an Associate Member of the Ameri- 
ean Ornithologists’ Union in 1887, and his name was 
listed in “The International Scientists’ Directory,” pub- 
lished by S. E. Cassino, Boston, 1888. 
Though Dr. Avery’s serious interest in ornithology did 
not awake until late in life, he then surrounded himself 
with the best books that could be had at that time on the 
subject. In his library were found among others, the 
following: Coues’ ““Key to North American Birds,” 1872; 
Ridgway’s “Manual of North American Birds,” 1887, 
and ‘‘Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists,” 1886; 
Davie’s “Nests and Eggs of North American Birds,” 
1889; A. O. U. “Code of Nomenclature and Check-List of 
North American Birds,” 1886; Maynard’s “Naturalist’s 
Guide,” 1887; and Hornaday’s “Taxidermy and Zoological 
Collecting,” 1891. 
Dr. Avery was much concerned over the increasing 
searcity of birds and scattered through his journals are 
many references to the subject. The following are of 
interest: ‘Sept. 5th, 1889. Saw on the edge of a piece 
of woods many warblers, gnatcatchers, and cuckoos feed- 
ing evidently upon the army worms on the cotton in the 
adjacent field. Shot a blue yellow-back warbler; too 
badly shot to preserve; this individual with several others 
of the same species, and numerous blue-gray gnatcatch- 
ers were feeding on army worms. 
“T have often seen the fields around woods completely 
protected against worms by the birds; but that was fifteen 
or twenty years ago. The birds have decreased so since 
that time that they seem to make little impression on 
the army of worms even around forests.” 
“Jan. 22, 1892. Birds have been scarcer this winter 
than I have ever known them before; a few myrtle warb- 
lers, and sparrows, with now and then a robin, or a small 
bunch of cedar waxwings are nearly the sum total of our 
