652 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



geog. distribution of tlie Bds. Very many ornitliologists of tlie present day 

 receive with incredulity many statements of the old naturalists, which may be 

 worthy of perfect credence. Now, if De Kay and Giraud, who are about our 

 only N. Y. State authorities had made specific instead of general statements 

 regarding such species as Euspiza Americana, LophopTianes hicolor, Thryo- 

 thorus Indoviciamts, Parus Carolinensis and Corvus ossifragus, their observa- 

 tions would be of the greatest value ; but many persons now doubt the accuracy 

 of these observations. I think the tables of specimens captured and their meas- 

 urements would be useful in this way if in no other. However I am quite 

 willing to be advised in this matter. 



This paper, "A List of the Birds of the Hudson Highlands, with 

 annotations," was begun shortly in the " Bulletin of the Essex In- 

 stitute," ^ seven installments appearing between 1879 and 1881, with 

 an "Addendum " issued in " The Auk," in 1890. As printed, it lacks 

 the tables of measurements, these having been reduced to a simple 

 statement of the average dimensions of each species. Doctor Allen, 

 in reviewing the first four parts, said : 



* * * His own notes, even when relating to some of our best known birds, 

 are replete with new information attractively presented, few lists having ap- 

 peared which ofler so much that Is really a contribution to the subject in a field 

 where so little really new is to be looked for. 



In announcing later parts, the same reviewer wrote : 



The high praise accorded the earlier installments is equally merited by those 

 now under notice, Mr. Mearns's " List of the Birds of the Hudson Highlands " 

 ranking easily among the best of our long list of contributions to local orni- 

 thology. There is much said about the habits of various species that is enter- 

 taining or new * * * 



Doctor Mearns intended this paper as the beginning of a complete 

 catalogue of the vertebrates of the region, but his entrance into the 

 Army in 1883 caused the abandonment of this plan, although he later 

 (1898) published part of his data on the remaining subjects in a 

 paper entitled ''A Study of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Hudson 

 Highlands, with Observations on the Mollusca, Crustacea, Lepidop- 

 tera, and the Flora of the Eegion." ^ 



After completing his medical course in 1881, he married Miss Ella 

 Wittich, of Circleville, Ohio, who shared his love of natural history, 

 especially botany, and gave him considerable assistance with his col- 

 lections. They had two children, a son, Louis di Zerega Mearns, and 

 a daughter, Lillian Hathaway Mearns. 



In 1882 Doctor Mearns took an examination for entrance into the 

 Medical Department of the Army, but the events of that period are 

 best told in the following extract from a letter he afterwards wrote 



iBull. Essex Inst, X, 1878 (1879), 166-179; XI, 1879, 43-52; XI, 1879. 154-168; 

 XI, 1880, 189-204; XII, 1880, 11-25; XII, 1881, 109-128; XIII, 1881, 75-93. 

 2 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, 1898, 303-352. 



