10 Richmond, In Memoriam: Edgar A. Mearns. [j" n 



there he joined the Newport Natural History Society, and took an 

 active part in its work, especially in collecting information relative 

 to the present and former status of the mammalian fauna of the 

 State. Toward the close of the year 1900, he suffered a nervous 

 breakdown, probably complicated by earlier attacks of malaria, 

 and was granted several months sick leave, part of which time he 

 passed in Florida in an effort to regain his health. Three months 

 or more were spent in camp in the Kissimmee prairie region, and 

 while there, in February, 1901, he received notice of his advance- 

 ment to Surgeon, with the rank of Major. Upon his return in May, 

 much benefited by his outdoor life, he stopped at Washington and 

 devoted several weeks to a study of the series of jaguars and other 

 tropical American cats at the National Museum, the results of 

 which appeared in a number of papers published during the next 

 few months. 



At Fort Yellowstone, where he was on duty in 1902, he was 

 particularly active in gathering botanical material. It was here 

 that he became aware of the destruction of bird and animal life 

 through the presence of a heavy gas, supposed to be carbon dioxide, 

 which settled in certain depressions and cavities of the earth, 

 causing the death of all small animals that ventured into them. 

 In the course of a few months he detected 16 species of birds, 

 numbering many individuals, that had perished in this manner, 

 and he was of the opinion that "hundreds, if not thousands" died 

 from this cause during the year. He recorded the observations 

 made here in a paper entitled ' Feathers beside the Styx,' x and 

 before leaving the Park, he requested the superintendent to have 

 the most dangerous spots provided with wire screens, to prevent 

 the birds entering them. 



Military service in the Philippines, which he visited in 1903- 

 1904 and again in 1905-1907, afforded Dr. Mearns his first oppor- 

 tunity to study nature in an entirely new dress. The Islands 

 possessed a rich and varied fauna, with many areas still unexplored 

 or but slightly known, while many problems bearing on the dis- 

 tribution of species within the group remained to be solved. He 

 was largely responsible for the formation of the " Philippine Scien- 



i Condor, V, 1903, 36-38. 



