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1865; at Drum liarracks, California — now San Pedro — until 

 April, 1868 ; at Fort Lapwai, Idaho, to June, 1871 ; and at (.'amp 

 Lowell, xA-rizona, to January, 1873. He was on recruiting service 

 at St. Louis until September, 1874; at Camp Harney, Oregon, to 

 May, 1878; at Fort Walla Walla, Washington, to May, 1882; at 

 Fort Klamath, Oregon, to September, 1883 ; in the East for about 

 one year, and at Fort Custer, Montana, to December, 1885, being 

 retired in the following spring. 



From this record it will be seen what exceptional facilities 

 Major Bandire enjoyed for collecting birds and studying their 

 habits in regions then but little known to ornithologists. During 

 these years he saw much hard field service which he performed 

 with the care and fidelity that characterized all that he did. It 

 should be recorded that the testimony of those who accompanied 

 him while in the field is unanniious to the effect that he never 

 allowed his interest in birds to interfere in the least vdth the 

 strict performance of duty ; and more than one anecdote is related 

 of his losing valuable specimens through his unwillingness to 

 delay his command for a few moments. 



It is probable that while stationed at Fort Lapwai, Idaho, from 

 1868 to 187 I, Major Bendire first began the systematic study and 

 collection of objects of natural history, and that he was led thereto 

 by his fondness for hunting and interest in the haunts and habits 

 of game mammals and birds. During the early period of his 

 work Major Bendire, while a most assiduous and successful 06I0- 

 gist, paid little attention to collecting birds except for the purpose 

 of identifying sets of eggs. This was unfortunate, because he 

 thus failed to add a number of southern species to our fauna in 

 localities where, at a later period, many such were secured by 

 other collectors. Still, he first obtained in the United States 

 several Mexican species and discovered certain new ones, as 

 Peiiccea carpalis, and Harporhynchiis bendirei; he was also the first 

 to investigate the breeding habits and procure the eggs of a con- 

 siderable number of our western birds. 



Many ornithologists do not, perhaps, realize that Major Bendire 

 was an assiduous collector in other fields and that at the instance 

 of Professor Baird he sent much good material to the National 

 Museum. In addition to the three species of birds that were 



