4T Auk 

 Henshaw, In Memoriam: William Brewster. \ j an 



how to use it without undue peril to himself and other people. 

 It happened that Daniel's father, also somewhat of a sportsman, 

 had learned to stuff and mount birds, and in his house were two 

 cases of specimens of his taxidermic skill. These at once attracted 

 Brewster's attention, and here we have the very beginning of 

 his interest in birds and the genesis of his ornithological career. 

 How natural it was that a little later he and his chums should be 

 keen to utilize the opportunity presented to learn how to stuff 

 birds, particularly since they had the means of obtaining specimens. 



In his 'Birds of the Cambridge Region' Brewster gives us the 

 exact date of his first lesson, and says: "On January 1, 1862, my 

 friend Mr. Daniel C. French called at our house to give me my 

 first lesson in taxidermy, an art known in those days to but very 

 few persons save the professional bird stuff ers." Mr. French no 

 doubt proved a willing teacher and presently we find a number of 

 lads, Will Brewster, Dan French, Ruth Deane, and Dick Dana, 

 all neighbors and of about the same age, on the alert to collect eggs 

 and stuff such birds as their skill enabled them to bring to bag. 



The other boys soon gave up active ornithological pursuits, one 

 to attain fame in the exacting career of a sculptor, another to suc- 

 cessfully pursue the no less exacting career of a lawyer, the third 

 to devote himself to business pursuits. Other tastes and duties led 

 them to different fields, but Brewster unknowingly had found his 

 life's work, which he was to follow to the end. He must have set to 

 work to study and collect birds with great ardor, for when I first 

 met him in 1865 he had several cases of birds mounted on stands, 

 the work of his own hands, with many nests and eggs, while his 

 knowledge of local Massachusetts birds was accurate and extensive. 



It was not until several years later that he learned how to make 

 skins. These were so quickly fashioned and so easily stored that 

 Brewster soon abandoned the mounting of birds when his collec- 

 tion must have numbered several hundred. 



Brewster's esthetic sense would not permit him to be content 

 with the unsightly, shapeless bird skins which too often found their 

 way into the museum cabinets of that day. He was a careful col- 

 lector, and the newly shot bird was lifted from the ground tenderly 

 and its ruffled plumage cleaned and gently smoothed as of some 

 precious thing, which indeed it was in his eyes. He soon became 



