8 CuapMan, In Memoriam: Daniel Giraud Elliot. a 
no ornithologists. Neither Allen nor Brewster had appeared, 
and their predecessor, Brewer, had hardly been heard from. Phila- 
delphia was much better off. It had its Academy, collections and 
library, donated mainly by Dr. Wilson, and for its Curator of 
Ornithology, John Cassin, one of the most erudite and competent 
ornithologists this country has ever produced, and the only one 
of his time familiar with exotic forms. Leidy was at the height 
of his career, engaged upon the works which have brought him such 
a celebrated name. I worked a good deal in the old building, cor- 
ner of Broad and Sansom Streets, my companion often having been 
Cope, then starting upon his career, and we used to labor at the 
same table, he with his alcoholic snakes and lizards, and I with 
my birds; and as I was shy of having my material brought in con- 
tact with his, he usually occupied the greater part of the table. 
“With Cassin I was brought into rather intimate communica- 
tion, because when I began to publish my monographs the plates 
were colored at the establishment of Bowen and Company, who 
served Audubon for so many years, and of which firm Cassin was 
then the head, and we were in constant correspondence as well as 
personal communication for a number of years. In Washington, 
Baird had only lately come to the Smithsonian Institution, and 
with that great patience for which he was noted and the methods 
of diplomacy which carried him so far in after years, he was feeling 
his way in his position as Assistant Secretary, not having much of 
the sympathy of his chief, Henry, who did not hesitate to declare 
that he would have sent all the specimens of mammals and birds 
out of the Institution if he had his way. There was no other natu- 
ralist then in Washington. Gill had just begun his study of fishes, 
but Ridgway or Coues had not yet peeped. In all the length and 
breadth of the land there was not a periodical devoted to the ways 
of birds, and it was hard sledging for a budding ornithologist.” 
Fortunately Dr. Elliot was so situated that he could give himself 
both time and opportunity to develop this obviously inborn taste. 
With the exception of his Curatorship in the Field Museum, he 
never held a paid position as a naturalist, and his pursuit of his 
researches at a time when studies of this kind were far from being 
encouraged, is an indication of the strength of the interest which 
never lost its fascination for him, 
