Jardin des Plantes, and on his return to the United States 

 took up the study of Palaeontology, being among the first 

 in our country to engage in this science. He became the 

 warm friend of Schoolcraft who afterwards made for him- 

 self a name as a historian of the Indian races. William 

 Cooper was the friend, correspondent and co-laborer of 

 Lucien Bonaparte, and edited the last two volumes of 

 Bonaparte's works, who showed his appreciation of the 

 assistance by dedicating to Cooper one of the finest of his 

 new species, Falco cooperi, the type specimen of which 

 was shot by Cooper in Hudson County, N. Y., and an- 

 other type specimen, sEtodrormas cooperi, was also taken 

 by him, and it is unique in the fact that no second speci- 

 men has been secured. The result of William Cooper's 

 ornithological work is largely incorporated in Bonaparte's 

 works. He was the friend of Audubon, and Nuttall, and 

 gave them the use of his specimens and notes, and assist- 

 ed them in their works. He died April 20, 1864, and at 

 this time, he and his life long friend, John Torrey, were 

 the only surviving members of the original Lyceum, Mr. 

 Cooper having been a member forty-seven years. 



Nurtured by such influences, his education superin- 

 tended by such a father, his earliest memory being of the 

 conversations of such men, it would be impossible for the 

 subject of our sketch to be other than that which he has 

 been, an authority in his own field of study. In 1851 

 James G. Cooper graduated from the College of Phy- 

 sicians and Surgeons, New York, and henceforth will be 



