Brewster, In Manor iain: Henry Augustus Purdie. [jan. 



in a machine shop, which he did not Hke, was in Boston, about 

 1859, as a clerk with Lemme, Price & Company, manufacturing 

 jewelers. After the dissohition of this firm, he was for about a 

 month simihirly emph)yed l)y Shreve, (rump & Low. The Civil 

 War being then well under way, he, with two of his friends, in 

 February, 1802, (>nlist(Hl in the navy, serxing for over a year as 

 yeoman, having charge of guns and anununition on the U. S. 

 baniue 'JaiH<>s L. Davis' of the Gulf blockading squadron. The 

 life, as it appears in his journals, was not very eventful or exciting 

 except wh(>n, as occasionally happened, a blockade runner was 

 pursued and captm-cMJ. Whenever the men went ashore to forage 

 for supplies and lie accompanied them, he seems to have given his 

 attentifm chiefly to observing birds, sometimes collecting a few 

 eggs. He had two or three warm friends aboard the vessel, but 

 most of his associates were vmcongenial, and the constant discipline 

 and routine of naval life were very irksome to him, while he was 

 rarely free from seasickness. In the spring of 1863, he obtained 

 his discharge and returned to Boston, where he soon found employ- 

 ment at the State House in the office of the iVIassachusetts State 

 Board ot" ('hariti(>s, under Mr. Frank B. Sanborn. Here he per- 

 formed clerical work and visited, inspected and reported on, 

 various State institutions, such as almshouses, asylums, etc. He 

 continued to hold this position for about thirty-five years. After 

 retiring from it in 1898, he greatly enjoyed his well-earned freedom 

 and the ()p])ortunities it brought for indulging in the study of orni- 

 thology, botany and nature, to which he devoted himself during 

 the remainder of his life. Living with his sister in a quiet side 

 street on Beacon Hill, he had not far to go to reach his favorite 

 reading haunts, the Boston Athenannn and Public Libraries, in 

 one or another of which he might be found at almost any hour 

 of the day or evening, espocitdly in winter, poring over some book 

 or pamphlet relating to birds or plants. Being a diligent and 

 methodical student of all such literature past and present, he kept 

 himself intimately informed respecting it and apparently derived 

 from it quite as much pleasure and satisfaction as he did from 

 the acquisition of first-hand knowledge obtained in woods and 

 fields. The latter were not neglected, of course. On the contrary, 

 he visited them frequently in all .seasons, and sometimes almost 



