Vol. XVIII 

 igoi 



J Notes and News. 41^ 



In connection with the A. O. U. Congress there will be a conference of 

 representatives of the Audubon Societies, for the purpose of forming plans 

 for more effective cooperation. 



Newton Dexter, for a time an Associate Member of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, died suddenly of apoplexy, at Seaconnet Point, 

 near Providence, R. I., July 27, 1901. His father was Samuel Dexter, of 

 the eminent Rhode Island family of that name, and his mother was the 

 daughter of James Fenner, a former governor of Rhode Island. He was 

 educated at the Lyons Grammar School of Providence, where he prepared 

 for Brown University, but gave up his college course for a period of 

 foreign travel. He early displayed great interest in natural history pur- 

 suits, and especially in ornithology. He was an ardent sportsman-nat- 

 uralist, and although he acquired an excellent knowledge of birds, and 

 collected extensively, he published very little. In 1865 he was one of 

 the volunteer assistants who accompanied the elder Agassiz on his well- 

 known expedition to Brazil, and a large part of the extensive collection of 

 birds obtained on this expedition was due to the industry and enthusiasm 

 of Mr. Dexter. Later he traveled extensively in the Far West, while it 

 was still an ' Indian country,' and during recent years he usually spent his 

 winters in Florida, hunting and fishing, and collecting more or less inci- 

 dentally. He was very modest and unassuming, avoiding publicity, and 

 pursued his natural history investigations for the pleasure he took in 

 them, publishing vei-y few of the results. He presented from time to 

 time many rare birds to various natural history museums, and was espe- 

 cially interested in the Roger Williams Park Museum of Providence. An 

 intimate friend of his writes of him : " He was a staunch friend, genial 

 and liberal in disposition, and careful to disguise his many kind acts." 



Francis J. Birtwell, an Associate Member of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union, died at Willis, N. M., June 28, 1901. Mr. Birtwell was 

 spending the summer at this quiet mountain resort in the Pecos River 

 forest reserve that he might complete his book, 'The Ornithology of New 

 Mexico,' and record a series of careful investigations on the influence of 

 food and environment on the plumages of birds. 



It was in an attempt to secure a valuable nest some 65 feet from the 

 ground that the young scientist lost his life. 



Mr. Birtwell was born in London, Eng., in September, 18S0, and came 

 to this country at an early age. From the Boston high schools he entered 

 Bussey Institute, and from here had arranged to become a student in the 

 Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University; but, while studying, in 

 the summer of 1899, in the Brooklj'n Biological Laboratory, he found he 

 was the victim of tuberculosis, and went to New Mexico. He was in the 

 Territorial University for the next two years. Next year he was to have 

 taken a degree at the Territorial College of Agriculture, where they 

 " needed a man of his earnest ability." ' The Ornithology of New Mexico ' 

 had been accepted as a thesis for graduation. 



