86 Notes and News. 



Auk 

 Jan. 



Again, never having studied scientific ornithology, and having no time 

 at present if I had the wish to do so, and, moreover, having an intense 

 love of live birds, and an almost Buddhistic horror of having them killed, 

 I must admit to feeling the least bit out of my element among those who — 

 to put it mildly — feel otherwise. Let those who will spend their days 

 killing, dissecting and classifying; I choose rather to give my time to the 

 study of life, and to doing my small best toward preserving the tribes of 

 the air from the utter extinction with which they are threatened. 



And lastly, a confession : I should take pleasure in "sharing my dis- 

 coveries" were I so happy as to make any; but to me everything is a 

 discovery; each bird, on first sight, is a new creation; his manners and 

 habits are a revelation, as fresh and as Interesting to me as though they 

 had never been observed before. How am I to tell what is an old story 

 and what a new one? What to announce in a scientific journal, and what 

 to proclaim with delight to my fellow ignoramuses? 



I could study; I could learn? Doubtless; but that would take the 

 enthusiasm out of my work. Could I enjoy and sympathize with the 

 raptures of a little pair in feathers, if my mind was filled with doubts and 

 queries as to their proper niche in the world of classification ? — if I con- 

 cerned myself about the number of their tail feathers, the exact shade of 

 their plumage, or whether they were a species or a subspecies, and entitled 

 to two or three Latin names? 



No — forever no! Study these things who will. I study the beautiful, 

 the living, the individual bird, and to my scientific confreres I leave his 

 skin, his bones, and his place in the Temple of Fame. 



Olive Thorne Miller. 

 Brooklyn, N. ?"., Nov. 7, iSgj. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Charles Slover Allen, M.D., an Associate Member of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union, died in New York City on October 15, 

 1S93, after a brief illness. Dr. Allen was born at New Bern, North 

 Carolina, in 1S55. After graduating with honors from Columbia Col- 

 lege, New York City, he studied medicine under Dr. James B. Wood and 

 obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine from Bellevue Hospital. As 

 the result of a competitive examination, in which he took the highest 

 rank, he was appointed interne in the Charity Hospital on BlackevelPs 

 Island. At the completion of his term of service in this institution, he 

 went abroad and continued his studies at Heidelberg. 



