10 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
an awful pest. Those who introduced them thought 
the English sparrow was insectivorous, but instead it is 
granivorous; and I trust we will not have them here.” 
After all they have come to stay. 
To him no pleasure was equal to going off with gun, 
game bag and note book and spending the whole day, 
alone in the most unfrequented woods to watch the habits 
of birds. 
Dr. Avery wrote very little for publication. His most 
important articles are in the American Field; Vols. 
XXXIV and XXXV, published in 1890 and ’91._ His cor- 
respondence with ornithologists, mammalogists and taxi- 
dermists was quite extensive and always instructive. 
He made a collection of 900 birds, preparing them 
for scientific use, according to Audubon’s plan. This col- 
lection was purchased by the Geological Survey of Ala- 
bama through Eugene A. Smith, State Geologist, and is 
now in the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Univer- 
sity of Alabama. 
In January, 1894, Dr. Avery seemed less capable of 
enduring great fatigue. We feared heart trouble. And 
thus it was for on March 11, 1894, God called him sud- 
denly to his eternal rest. 
“He who dies believing, 
Dies safely through His love.” 
On his father’s side, Dr. Avery was a lineal descend- 
ent of Dr. William Avery who came to America 
from Berkshire, England, in 1650; of Robert and Thom- 
as Cushman, who came to America in the Mayflower 
in 1620; and of Isaac Allerton, likewise a Mayflower pass- 
enger. 
On his mother’s side he was closely related to Robert 
Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. 
