AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 17 



An extensive correspondence was carried on with I. 

 Yearsley, Jr., of Coatesville, Pa., for whom he trained 

 many bird-dogs. He also raised and sold dogs registered 

 with the American Kennel Club of New York City. He 

 was also interested in game fowls as shown by the fol- 

 lowing note from his sister, Miss Mary E. Avery: "You 

 will notice that there are quite a number of hawks in the 

 collection. I am sure that my brother felt a peculiar 

 pleasure in stuffing them rather than they should stuff 

 themselves with his beautiful game fowls." Like all true 

 sportsmen the Doctor was keenly interested in guns, and 

 the two works following occupied a place among his 

 bird books: "The Gun and Its Development," 1884, by 

 W. W. Greener, and "The Dead Shot; or Sportsman's 

 Complete Guide : Being a Treatise on the Use of the Gun," 

 1867, by "Marksman." Another book, much used and 

 bound in cloth, probably by Dr. Avery himself, is "The 

 Wild-Fowler," 1864, by H. C. Fplkard. In a letter from 

 Amory R. Starr of Marshall, Texas, is the interesting 

 statement that Dr. Avery was the "first to introduce the 

 use of short guns into this section ; by short guns meaning 

 30 and 32 inch barrels." At that time (August 28, 1889) 

 however, one of Mr. Starr's friends was still addicted to 

 the use of a 48-inch muzzle-loader! Doctor Avery owned 

 several guns, of course, because he hunted deer as well 

 as quail. For his ornithological collecting he used a .44 

 caliber and No. 12 shot. 



Dr. Avery was an authority on Latin and Greek and 

 was not unacquainted with French, Spanish and German. 

 Much of his correspondence with Dr. Coues and Mr. Ridg- 

 way related to the etymology of ornithological names, 

 and Mr. Ridgway in several letters took occasion to thank 

 Dr. Avery for his criticisms of the nomenclature used in 

 the "Manual of North American Birds," 1887. A con- 

 siderable portion of Dr. Avery's correspondence with Dr. 

 Merriam was devoted to questions of nomenclature, par- 

 ticularly etymology, and to some of Dr. Avery's criti- 

 cisms of the nomenclature adopted by the American Or- 

 nithologists' Union Dr. Stejneger replied at length 

 rthrough Dr. Merriam. Dr. Avery was a stickler for the 



