10 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



an awful pest. Those who introduced them thought 

 the English sparrow was insectivorous, but instead it is 

 granivorous; and I trust we will not have them here." 

 After all they have come to stay. 



To him no pleasure was equal to going off with gun, 

 game bag and note book and spending the whole day, 

 alone in the most unfrequented woods to watch the habits 

 of birds. 



Dr. Avery wrote very little for publication. His most 

 important articles are in the American Field; Vols. 

 XXXIV and XXXV, published in 1890 and '91. His cor- 

 respondence with ornithologists, mammalogists and taxi- 

 dermists was quite extensive and always instructive. 



He made a collection of 900 birds, preparing them 

 for scientific use, according to Audubon's plan. This col- 

 lection was purchased by the Geological Survey of Ala- 

 bama through Eugene A. Smith, State Geologist, and is 

 now in the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Univer- 

 sity of Alabama. 



In January, 1894, Dr. Avery seemed less capable of 

 enduring great fatigue. We feared heart trouble. And 

 thus it was for on March 11, 1894, God called him sud- 

 denly to his eternal rest. 



"He who dies believing, 



Dies safely through His love." 



On his father's side, Dr. Avery was a lineal descend- 

 ent of Dr. William Avery who came to America 

 from Berkshire, England, in 1650 ; of Robert and Thom- 

 as Cushman, who came to America in the Mayflower 

 in 1620 ; and of Isaac Allerton, likewise a Mayflower pass- 

 enger. 



On his mother's side he was closely related to Robert 

 Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of 

 Independence. 



