Vol 'i9i! XV ] Richmond, In Memoriam: Edgar A. Mearns. 15 



you to take charge of the scientific work of the expedition. I know 

 no one who could do it as well." 



The party, consisting of Col. Roosevelt, his son Kermit, Dr. 

 Mearns, and Messrs. Heller and Loring, sailed early in March, 

 1909, and was absent nearly a year. It traversed sections of British 

 East Africa, where Mearns seized the opportunity to collect material 

 on the slopes of Mount Kenia up to the snow line; Uganda, across 

 which he journeyed on foot, to enable him to make better collec- 

 tions and observations; finally passing through the Lado Enclave, 

 down the White Nile to the coast. The course of the expedition 

 and its results are matters of history, and it will suffice here to say 

 that of the upwards of 4000 birds collected over 3000 were obtained 

 by Dr. Mearns, who also secured many small mammals, plants 

 and other objects. 



Upon his return to Washington, Dr. Mearns began a general 

 report on the birds, and published several preliminary papers 

 describing new forms obtained on the expedition. While thus 

 engaged, he was requested by Mr. Childs Frick to undertake 

 another African journey, which was to include Abyssinia and little 

 travelled parts of eastern Africa. Although less physically fitted to 

 undertake difficult journeys than formerly, the advantage of having 

 more material for comparison appealed to him and he was unable 

 to resist the temptation. He became a member of this expedition, 

 and the latter part of the year 1911 found him again in Africa, 

 from which he returned in September, 1912. The party entered 

 at Djibouti, French Somaliland, and travelled inland to Dire 

 Daoua, thence to Addis Abeba, the Abyssinian capital. From there 

 it worked generally south by way of the Abaya lakes, through 

 the Galla country, making a loop round Lake Stephanie and skirt- 

 ing the south end of Lake Rudolf, and finally reached Nairobi. 

 Part of the territory traversed was previously unexplored, and the 

 liberal collections made over the whole route enabled Dr. Mearns 

 to add greatly to his knowledge of the birds of eastern Africa. In 

 April, 1912, when the expedition was in a remote part of southern 

 Abyssinia, his son, Louis Mearns, a most estimable and promising 

 young man, who had accompanied him on many lesser collecting 

 trips, died in Baltimore, Md. The news of this sad occurrence, 

 which was withheld by his family until his return to the United 

 States, proved a severe shock to him. 



