120 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 10-No. 8 



THE 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND — 



U()LOGIST. 



A ilOXTULy MAGAZINE OF 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



kLLT DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OP 



BIRDS. 



THEIR NESTS AND EGOS. 



ilUNED AS A MEANS TOK TOE INTEKCHANBE OF NOTES 

 AND OBSERVATIONS ON BIRD LIFE. 



FBA-NK B. WEBSTER, Publisher, 

 PAWTUCKET, K. I. 



Editor's Notes. 



In oiu' September number we shall give 

 the first of a series of articles on Practical 

 Taxidermy, by Mr. F. B. Webster. We 

 confidently expect these papers will be of 

 permanent value to our readers. They 

 will form an important feature of our num- 

 bers for the rest of the year. 



The "Ibis" for July gives some inter- 

 esting facts in regard to the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union. The total membership 

 is 174, being an increase of twenty-four 

 since the last anniversary meeting. The 

 finances were reported to be in a satisfac 

 tory condition. 



Obituary. 



DR. H. A. ATKINS, LOCKE, MICH. 



It is with sincere regret that we find 

 ourselves called upon to record the death 

 of one of our most valued co-laborers. To 

 those who have been readers of the O. and 

 O. for some years, the name of Dr. Atkins 

 is known as that of a sincere lover of 

 natiu'e and a man of acute observation. 



Born August '20th, 182], in Erie County. 

 N. Y., Dr. Atkins moved to Locke, Ing 

 ham Co., Mich, in 1842, where he began 



the practice of medicine which he followed 

 for nearly forty years. He came to Mich- 

 igan when it was a wilderness, and located 

 among the Indians and early settlers when 

 the country was an almost unbroken 

 forest. Here in the midst of a country 

 the flora and fauna of which offered many 

 points for observation and research, he 

 lived a quiet life, ever learning more of the 

 objects of his interest. For twenty-nine 

 years, he carefully recorded day by day the 

 arrivals, presence and abundance of a large 

 series of birds, and his accuracy and 

 painstaking effort have rarely, if ever, been 

 equalled. His notes, a few of which were 

 inserted from time to time in our pages, 

 were always the result of his own obser 

 vations. We valued them especially for 

 the care, so plainly shown, with which 

 each stated fact was personally endorsed. 

 For the last few years his health failed him, 

 his letters to us accompanying some short 

 notes show with what increasing toil he 

 pursued the investigations which were his 

 delight. Dr. Atkins had long planned the 

 issue in book form of his many notes on 

 the Ornithology of Michigan, and hoped 

 next year to be able to do it. He did not 

 live to see this accomplished, but we ven- 

 ture to hope that nevertheless some means 

 may be found of bringing his ornithologi 

 cal investigations before the world. Our 

 last letter from him is dated March 2Gth 

 of this year. He said the Winter had been 

 very severe, and he had been ill — hardly 

 able to sit up — but hojaed to improve with 

 the Spring. This was the last we heard 

 of him, until we received notice of his 

 death which took place May 19th, in the 

 64th year of his age. 



We had no opportunity of personal ac- 

 quaintance with Dr. Atkins, but his letters 

 to us from time to time revealed a kindly 

 heart, full of interest in our success, and 

 zeal for the objects we had in common. 



[We are indebted to a valued Michigan 

 contributor for many of the facts required 

 for this sketch.] 



