6 Merrill, In Mcmoriam : Charles Emil Bendire. Fjan 



them. The present writer was in a position to know with what 

 painstaking care and accuracy Major Bendire compared the suc- 

 cessive proofs of the plates in the first volume with the individual 

 eggs selected as types, and how often he returned the ' final ' 

 proofs to the lithographers for changes in some minute detail that 

 his critical eye detected. It should be stated emphatically that 

 Major Bendire is in nowise responsible for the many serious and 

 inexcusable typographical errors that so disfigure the second 

 volume. \ 



There are few Active Members of the Union who were not 

 personally acquainted with Major Bendire, as he was one of its 

 founders and rarely failed to be present at the annual meetings. 

 On different occasions he was a member of several of the' Com- 

 mittees, and at the time of his death was one of the Council of 

 the Union. 



Major .Bendire was not a voluminous writer. His earlier 

 records were mostly in letters to Allen, Baird, Brewer, and Coues, 

 who sometimes, beginning about 1872, published them as special 

 notes, at others brought them together as a local list. Later he 

 wrote more freely over his own signature, publishing brief records 

 as well as longer articles, as oh the breeding habits of Sphyrapiais^ 

 Passerella^ Glaucidium^ and others. His correspondence increased 

 to burdensome proportions before his death, but he attended to it 

 faithfully and gladly, not only obtaining good material for his 

 work, but doing much to establish Oology on a broader and safer 

 basis, and to impress upon the younger collectors the paramount 

 importance of properly identifying such specimens as they might 

 collect. He was often consulted as to the identification of eggs, 

 and did not hesitate to expose such men as he was convinced 

 were given to fraudulent practices. This detestation of fraud 

 and insincerity was a marked feature of his character. Frank 

 yet reserved, bluff, honest and truthful to bluntness, he had 

 the courage of his convictions, which he did not fail to make 

 clear when occasion required. Simple in habits, unselfish, and 

 always ready to help others. Major Bendire is sincerely mourned, 

 not only by the members of this Union, but by all those to whom 

 he was known only by correspondence or by his secure title to 

 scientific remembrance, his 'Life Histories of North American 

 Birds.' 



