Ne | McArter, In Memoriam F. E. L. Beal. 249 
The newly married pair spent their honeymoon in Professor Beal’s 
old haunts in Massachusetts and proceeded to Ames, Iowa, in 
March, 1877. 
Professor Beal went to Ames as professor of civil engineering. 
On July 23, 1879, he notes, “heard my first class in Natural History”’ 
and on July 24, he was elected Professor of Zodlogy and Compara- 
tive Anatomy. In his 39th year, therefore, he finally was enabled 
to take up as a vocation what all his life had been his favorite 
avocation. The occasion must have been a happy one though 
possibly tinged with regret for the lost time. There is no doubt 
that Professor Beal took the course in Civil Engineering at the 
Institute of Technology chiefly because he did not know that a 
living could be made in Natural History. However, he was 
destined to work almost continuously in that field for the next 
38 years, longer than most people are able to follow out any one 
line of endeavor. 
During his stay at Ames, Professor Beal worked unceasingly 
at natural history problems; the long vacation in the midwinter 
was occupied largely in study of minute forms with the microscope, 
in research in comparative anatomy, and in collecting and mount- 
ing birds and mammals. He wrote numerous articles on the birds 
of Iowa which were published in Iowa newspapers, and sent a 
number of short contributions to the American Naturalist. It was 
at this period that his interest in the economic value of birds came 
to the fore; he examined the contents of birds’ stomachs and his 
accounts of various species always contained some discussion of 
the food habits. Professor Beal’s early studies of Economic 
Ornithology, thus were strictly contemporaneous with those of 
Professor S. A. Forbes of Illinois. These two are the founders of 
the scientific method of studying the economic value of birds. 
Professor Forbes dealt with the subject in a broad, philosophical 
way, but soon gave it up, while Professor Beal devoted himself 
practically for the remainder of his life to piling up detailed evi- 
dence, leaving the general principles to become apparent of them- 
selves. In an article published while he was at Ames, Professor 
Beal gave the famous estimate that the tree sparrows of Iowa 
annually destroyed 196,000 bushels of weed seeds, which has been 
quoted hundreds of times, and which apparently will go on forever. 
Perhaps, the greatest privilege enjoyed by Professor Beal at 
