SKETCH OF THK LIFE OF ANDREW DOWNS PIERS. CV11 



Mr. Downs claimed lie had stuffed about eight hundred moose- 

 heads and supplied King Victor Emmanuel with many thousand 

 dollars' worth of animals and specimens. At one time this sovereign 

 had in his acclimatization garden at Pisa a number of living moose and 

 caribou supplied by the Nova Scotian naturalist. Specimens of his 

 taxidermic work were supplied other European sovereigns, and large, 

 quantities went to the great museums and private collections on both 

 sides of the Atlantic, and a number are incorporatsd in the collection 

 of the Provincial Museum at Halifax. His own private collection of 

 some fourteen cases, which he had at the time of his death, is still the 

 property of his estate. 



He was one of those connected with the foundation of the Nova 

 Scotian Institute of Natural Science, although he did not take up his 

 membership until December, 1863. He was also a corresponding 

 member of the Zoological Society of London, having been elected early 

 in 1862. 



He published, unfortunately, but little. His papers, all in the 

 " Transactions of the N. S. Institute of Natural Science," were : 



On the Land Birds of Nova Scotia. Vol. i, pt. 3 (1864-5), pp. 

 38-51 (read Jan. 9, 1865) ; vol. i, pt. 4 (1865-6), pp. 130-136 (read 

 May 3, 1866). 



[An annotated list, giving a total of 91 nominal species, being the result of 

 " forty years' experiences in bird life."] 



Pied, or Labrador, Duck. Vol. vi, (Trans, for 1885-6), pp. 326-327 

 (read May 10, 1886). 



[Notes on two specimens in Dalhousie College Museum, Halifax, and other 

 notes regarding the occurrence of the species in Nova Scotia, &c.] 



A Catalogue of the Birds of Nova Scotia. Vol. vii, (Trans, for 

 1887-8), pp. 142-178. 



[An annotated list, giving 240 nominal species, the result of " sixty-six 

 years of practical field work." Prepared in summer of 1888. The note to the 

 title, " read May 14, 1888," should be struck out.] 



At a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in May, 1888, he 

 presented a paper "On the Birds and Mammals of Nova Scotia," 

 which was not, however, published. 



He was a man of very quiet and retiring disposition, disseminating 

 his stores of knowledge mostly verbally or through a large correspon- 

 PROC. & TRANS. N. S. INST. Sci., VOL. X. PKOC.-L. 



