[Auk 

 Jan. 



reflecting upon what has been accomplished in solving its mys- 

 teries, we look back upon the past, and behold, from out the 

 mists of by-gone years shadowy forms arise refulgent with the 

 glory of illustrious names, won by their possessors when in the 

 flesh they struggled in this earthly literary arena, and who by 

 the influence they exert in their works, remain with us still con- 

 querors in the fight, though dead. How long that shadowy line 

 has grown, and how far back into the silent past it reaches, 

 and how rapidly, alas for the living, is that column augmented, of 

 those scientific soldiers', who though they were members of 

 different companies and regiments, yet each and all battled for 

 the same cause, and died conscious of having fought a good 

 fight, and upheld the scientific faith. In their written words they 

 still speak to us, and point out the lines which their successors 

 are to follow. While our thoughts are thus directed to this 

 invisible army of once earnest earthly workers, we are reminded 

 that we have assembled here to-day to pay our tribute of respect 

 to one who but lately has gone to join that shadowy host, and 

 who while with us was an honored member of this Union, a 

 distinguished ornithologist, and to some of us a personal valued 

 friend. 



In the death of George Newbold Lawrence, though the great 

 number of his accomplished years had diminished his scientific 

 activity, ornithology has met with a serious loss. Born in the 

 city of New York in 1806, his life was lengthened to almost 

 thrice the period usually given to the generations of men, but 

 the judgment passed by the Psalmist, on the years that exceeded 

 those allotted to man, that they should bring nothing but "labor 

 and sorrow," was never written for him, and the evening of his 

 days was the most peaceful of his long life. Born in 1806, and 

 gone from among us, as it seems but yesterday, think of the 

 •extent of time encompassed in the duration of this single life. 

 Almost a century of active work, in the daily pursuit of an 

 engrossing business, in the field studying the ways of our 

 feathered creatures, in the closet laboring to solve perplexing 

 problems that had to be met, in all that busy century of his 

 existence there was little time yielded to idle recreation. Dur- 

 ing the period covered by this life was witnessed the rise, 



