° ' 1920 J Notes and News. 637 



Herbert Huntington Smith, Curator of the Alabama Museum of 

 Natural History, and one of the ablest and most experienced American 

 field naturalists, met his death on March 22, 1919, by being run over by a 

 freight train at Tuscaloosa, Ala. For some years he had been very deaf 

 and while walking on the railroad track he failed to hear the approaching 

 locomotive. 



Mr. Smith was born at Manlius, N. Y., January 21, 1851. He gradu- 

 ated from Cornell University in the class of 1872, and on October 5, 1880, 

 married Miss Amelia Woolworth Smith, of Brooklyn, N. Y. To his 

 wife, who was his constant companion in all his field trips and who pre- 

 pared many of his specimens, especially the birds, was due in large part 

 his success as a collector. When only 19 years of age and still a student 

 at Cornell, he accompanied his teacher, Prof. C. F. Hartt, to the Amazon 

 on what proved to be the first of a series of trips to the tropics. In 1873 

 he returned to Brazil to collect along the Amazon, spending about two 

 years in the vicinity of Santarem, a year on the northern branches of the 

 river and on the Tapajos, and a few months in Rio de Janeiro. Upon his 

 return home he was commissioned to write a series of articles on Brazil 

 for 'Scribner's Magazine,' and in 1879 appeared his book on 'Brazil— 

 the Amazons and the Coast.' 



A few months after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Smith went to south- 

 western Brazil, where most of the time between 1881 and 1886 was spent 

 in the vicinity ol Chapada and Cuyaba in the Province of Matto Grosso. 

 Of the large collections of birds secured in tins region about 4000 speci- 

 mens were acquired by the American Museum of Natural History and 

 538 by the British Museum. In 1889 the Smiths collected in southwestern 

 Mexico, chiefly in Guerrero and Oaxaca, for F. D. Godman, who was then 

 securing material for the 'Biologia Centrali- Americana.' The years from 

 1890 to 1895 were spent in the West Indies, in Trinidad and the Windward 

 Islands, in the interests of the West Indian Commission of the Royal 

 Society. From 1898 to 1902 Mr. Smith was connected with the Carnegie 

 Museum and during this time he spent three years in Colombia in the 

 Province of Santa Marta. Here he became so seriously ill that for a 

 t'me it was feared he would not recover and this experience put an end 

 to further work in the tropics. After a year in the Museum he deter- 

 mined to take up his residence in the South at Wetumpka, Ala., where he 

 devoted himself largely to collecting and studying freshwater shells. In 

 1910 he became curator of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, a 

 position which he held until his death. 



He was an accomplished linguist and in addition to his book on Brazil 

 he published, in 1886, in Portuguese, 'De Rio Janeiro a Cuyaba.' He 

 was also the author of 'His Majesty's Sloop Diamond Rock' which ap- 

 peared under the name of H. S. Huntington. He was a tireless collector, 

 but in addition he was a true field naturalist, perhaps one of the best 

 that America has produced. During his sojourn in Brazil his work at- 



