Vol. XIV 
1897 | 
Notes and News. 25 3 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Mayor CuHArRLES E. Benpire, U. S. A., one of the Founders, an 
Active Member, and a Councillor of the American Ornithologists’ Union, 
died at Jacksonville, Florida, February 4, 1897, of Brights’ disease, at the 
age of 61 years. He left Washington only five days before he died, in the 
hope of finding relief in the milder climate of Florida. His death, though 
sudden, was not altogether unexpected. 
Bendire’s chief work is his well-known ‘Life Histories of North 
American Birds,’ the second volume of which was recently reviewed in 
this journal (aztea, pp. 104-106), but for many years he was a frequent 
contributor to ‘The Auk’ and to other ornithological journals. His 
death is a sad loss — in truth an irreparable loss —to American ornithol- 
ogy, occurring, as it has, with his great work on North American Birds 
less than half completed. 
Major Bendire was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, April 27, 
1836, and came to this country in 1852. He soon enlisted as a private in 
the U. S. Army, and was gradually promoted till he reached the rank of 
Captain, in the Cavalry service, in 1886, and was shortly after retired for 
disability. In 1890 he was brevetted Major for gallant services rendered in 
fighting Indians in Montana in 1877! His long period of military 
service in the remote parts of the West gave him exceptional facilities for 
prosecuting his ornithological studies, which he evidently utilized to the 
fullest extent. His immense collection of birds’ eggs, gathered during his 
military wanderings, long since became the property of the U. S. 
National Museum, where their donor has held for some years the 
position of Honorary Curator of the Department of Odlogy. He by no 
means, however, restricted his interests to the nests and eggs of birds, but 
was in all respects a well-equipped ornithologists, intent on investigating 
for himself all questions touching the work he had in hand. 
He was well-known through correspondence, if not personally, to all 
working ornithologists in America, and to many abroad, but only those 
who knew him personally can appreciate his sterling integrity, his 
hearty friendship, his sincerity and earnestness. 
In accordance with a standing rule of the Union rasneeuins deceased 
Active Members (see Auk, XII, p. 199), a special memorial of Major 
Bendire will be presented at the next meeting of the American Ornitholo- 
gists’ Union, and published later in ‘ The Auk.’ 
