THE AUK : 
A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
NOG ORE XIV: JOLY 19eL7, No.3: 
LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PROFESSOR F. E. L. BEAL.! 
BY W. L. MC ATEE. 
Plate VI. 
On Saturday, September 30, 1916, Professor Beal was in his 
usual health and busy all day at his accustomed tasks in the Biologi- 
cal Survey. On the next day, October 1, while at home and work- 
ing with his flowers, he was fatally stricken with cerebral hemor- 
rhage. All things point to the conclusion that loss of consciousness, 
if not death itself, was instantaneous. It was a good way to go 
and the Professor himself had often expressed a wish for such a 
passing. 
He had returned to Washington only a short time before, from 
a vacation spent in the land of his youth and was especially pleased 
with the trip. Professor Beal was in the 77th year of a life which 
began January 9, 1840, at South Groton (now called Ayer), Middle- 
sex County, Massachusetts. Professor Beal’s father, J. Foster 
Beal, at various times was a school teacher, teacher of penmanship, 
overseer of the poor, foreman of a railroad construction gang and 
farmer. He died of tuberculosis when his son was about 8 years 
of age. The career of the boy subsequent to the death of his 
father, I quote from an incomplete biographical sketch left by 
Professor Beal. “It became evident, “he writes, “that in taking 
1 Professor Beal’s given mames in full are: Foster Ellenborough Lascelles. 
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