^°'- ^^1 Notes and News. Q I 



1903 J y 



Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army. For man v vears after tliis 

 he was stationed at various military posts in the West and Southwest, 

 where he devoted most of his leisure time to studying and collecting birds 

 and their nests and eggs. He also collected insects, especially beetles, 

 and to some extent mammals and fishes, and he was an ardent sportsman 

 and hunter of big game. Nearly all of his specimens were given to per- 

 sonal friends or to museums, the greater part of the bird skins going to 

 Mr. Brewster's collection, and most of the nests and eggs to the National 

 Museum. 



On November 16, 1892, Dr. Merrill was married to Mary Pitt Chase of 

 Maryland, and on March 13, 1894, he was made a full Surgeon with the 

 rank of Major. Three years later (April i, 1897) he was appointed Libra- 

 rian of the Surgeon General's Office at Washington. Here he spent the 

 remainder of his days, performing, with his accustomed steadfastness and 

 ability, tasks irksome to a man of liis temperament, and so very arduous 

 and confining that by degrees his health gave way under the strain. He 

 kept steadily at his work, however, until within a few months of his 

 death, although in the summer of 1902 he was induced to spend a few 

 weeks at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, in the vain hope that the rest 

 and change might do him permanent good. 



Dr. Merrill was elected an Active Member of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union at its first Congress in 1883. He was intensely loyal to its 

 interests and universally beloved and respected by its members, for he had 

 rare personal charm and marked ability as a naturalist, although his 

 extreme modesty prevented him from undertaking tasks and attaining 

 honors to which he might otherwise have successfully aspired. He was 

 by no means uninterested in purely technical matters of science and fully 

 qualified, both by nature and training, for dealing with them effectively, 

 but his published writings relate almost exclusively to personal field 

 observations on the habits and distribution of western birds and mammals. 

 They are not numerous but their quality is of the first order, for he was 

 an exceptionally accurate and intelligent observer as well as a pleasing 

 and finished writer. His more important ornithological papers are: — 

 ' Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas, being a list of birds 

 observed in the vicinity of Fort Brown, Texas, from February', 1876, to 

 June, 1S78' (Proc.U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. I, 1878, pp. 1 18-173); 'Notes on the 

 Birds of Fort Klamath, Oregon. With remarks on certain species by 

 William Brewster' (Auk, Vol. V, 1888, pp. 139-146, 251--262, 357-366) ; 

 and ' Notes on the Birds of Fort Sherman, Idaho' (Auk, Vol. XIV, 1897, 



pp- 347-357 ; Vol. XV, 1898, pp. 14-22). 



In accordance with a standing order of the Union respecting deceased 

 Fellows, a special memorial of his life and work will be presented at the 

 next Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union, and published 

 later in 'The Auk.' — W. B. 



