OCTOBEB 28, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



401 



as respects the size, and the number of species, in 

 the temperate portions of the northern hemisphere. 

 The tropical species of this group are the smallest 

 of its representatives. Those of the temperate and 

 cold temperate regions are the largest, where, too, 

 the species are the most numerous. . . . The pos- 

 session of large, branching, deciduous antlers forms 

 one of the marked features of the family. These 

 appendages attain their greatest development in the 

 northern species, the tropical forms having been re- 

 duced almost to mere spikes, which in some species 

 never pass beyond a rudimentary state. . . . 



A paper published in 1871 " On the Mam- 

 mals and Winter Birds of East Florida, with 

 an Examination of certain assumed Specific 

 Characters in Birds " brought forth the fol- 

 lowing comment from Ooues: 



The article gained the Humboldt Scholarship, 

 and is one of the most important of American orni- 

 thological works. 



His work in taxonomy covered almost the 

 entire mammal fauna of the world, from 

 marsupials to monkeys, from shrews to whales, 

 while his field of research has been at times 

 in every one of the continental areas. The 

 greater number of his papers are systematic 

 taxonomic reports and the descriptions of 

 new forms. He is the author of nearly seven 

 hundred new mammal names, and fifty-three 

 bird names. 



Some of the most important of the ac- 

 complishments of Dr. Allen have been his 

 labors in the field of scientific nomenclature, 

 a field where authoritative workers are scarce 

 because of the exacting demands of the prob- 

 lems. His knowledge of scientific literature 

 was so deep, his memory for authors and 

 dates so unusual, that he took particular de- 

 light in the solution of the weightest nomen- 

 clatural problems. His opinions command 

 respect from scientists the world over and this 

 fact has long been recognized in the positions 

 held by the doctor on committees on nomen- 

 clature of both national and international 

 organizations. It is in this field that the 

 loss of his contributions will be most keenly 

 felt. 



He was a member of the Commission on 

 Nomenclature of the International Congress 



of Zoology since 1910 and attended the meet- 

 ing in Monaco in 1913. 



A man of extreme modesty and retiring 

 temperament, indeed bashful, he strove for no 

 titles, sought for no publicity. Honors, how- 

 ever, came to him unasked. In 1886 he was 

 granted the degree of Ph.D. by Indiana Uni- 

 versity; in 1903, he was awarded the "Walker 

 Grand Prize, Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory, and in 1916 the Medal of the Linnaean 

 Society of New York. He was a fellow or mem- 

 ber of no less than thirty-three scientific socie- 

 ties in the United States and abroad. 



He held high positions in many scientific 

 organizations, the more important being that 

 of president of the American Ornithologists 

 Union, 1883-1891 ; an incorporator of the (first) 

 Audubon Society for the Protection of Birds, 

 1886 ; a Founder and Director of the Audubon 

 Society of the State of New York, 1897-1912; 

 Vice-president of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, 1891-1894 ; President of the Linnsean 

 Society of New York, 1890-1897; etc. 



Dr. Allen possessed to a rare degree the 

 faculty of concentration and devotion to his 

 work. Not content with the amount of work 

 done at his office in the museum, he carried 

 books and material home with him, and his 

 ideal vacation was one where he might take 

 some special subject away with him where he 

 could study unmolested. In brief, he lived for 

 his work and to the psychology of this devotion 

 may possibly, in part, be attributed his ripe 

 age, attained in spite of long periods of ill 

 health. 



No one associated with Dr. Allen could fail 

 to be impressed, not only with the very evident 

 scholarly attainments of the man, but with his 

 sincerity and simplicity. From a profound re- 

 spect for his work, one passed readily to a love 

 for the man, and an association with him in 

 any work could be counted, not only as a most 

 valuable mental training, to be prized in later 

 years, but as a friendly contact no less to be 

 remembered. 



Dr. Allen married, in 1874, Mary Manning 

 Cleveland and a son, Cleveland Allen was born 

 to them. His wife died in 1879 and for seven 

 years the doctor remained single. In 1886 he 



