V °^ 3 X ] Notes and News. 385 



a successful inventor. Later in life he became a solicitor of patents, which 

 profession he followed until the illness which caused his death. Through- 

 out his life he was an earnest student of natural history, and was especially 

 interested in ornithology. He was one of the founders of the Troy 

 Scientific Association, before which he gave many addresses on scientific 

 subjects. His collection of birds is one of the finest private collections in 

 the State, it including most of the species found in eastern North America. 

 He was especially interested in the study of the brains of birds, of which 

 he prepared many dissections, and accumulated an extensive series of 

 observations on the relative weight of the brain, and of its different parts, 

 in various species. It is to be regretted that he neglected to publish the 

 results of these investigations in some scientific journal, as was his inten- 

 tion. His ornithological publications are mainly limited to scattered 

 notes in various ornithological or other natural history journals, and arti- 

 cles in the Troy 'Times' newspaper. 



He is spoken of by those who best knew him as a kindly, genial man, 

 who possessed the affection of a wide circle of friends. 



Mr. Benjamin F. Goss, an Associate Member of the A. O. U., died at 

 his home in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, July 6, 1S93, aged 70 years. Although 

 Capt. Goss published very little, he is well known to a wide circle of 

 ornithologists as an enthusiastic and careful collector, especially of birds' 

 nests and eggs, and through his extensive correspondence with publish- 

 ing ornithologists many of his valuable observations have long since 

 found their way into the literature of ornithology. He was a valued 

 correspondent of the late Dr. Brewer, and frequent contributions from 

 his pen are acknowledged by Captain Bendire in his 'Life Histories of 

 North American Birds, ' and by his brother, the late Colonel N. S. Goss, 

 in his 'Birds of Kansas.' The brothers Goss were devotedly attached to 

 each other and shared man}' expeditions in company in pursuit of ornith- 

 ological treasures. As recorded by Col. Goss in inscribing to his 

 brother his 'History of the Birds of Kansas,' Mr. B. F. Goss's collection 

 of North American eggs and nests is well known as one of the most 

 important private collections in the West, which of late has been on 

 exhibition in the Milwaukee Public Museum. 



Mr. Charles F. Adams, of Champaign, 111., a zoological collector 

 of wide experience and a superior taxidermist, one of the Associate Mem- 

 bers of the American Ornithologists' Union, died suddenly in Chicago, 

 May 20, 1S93, of congestion of the brain. He was engaged at the time 

 on the installation of the ornithological exhibit of the Illinois State Lab- 

 orators' of Natural History in the Illinois State building at the Columbian 

 Exposition, — an exhibit to whose preparation he had devoted eighteen 

 months of continuous labor. 



Mr. Adams was born Aug. 23, 1857, near Champaign, Illinois, and 

 received his earl}' education in a country school. In 1S76 he entered the 

 University of Illinois, devqting much time to taxidermy. While an under- 

 graduate he made a successful collecting trip to Florida in the interest of 

 49 



