262 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 111. 



posts antedated the construction of tlie 

 ti-anscontinental railroads which now trav- 

 erse the States and Territories in which 

 most of them are located. 



Bendire was a man of energy, persever- 

 ance and courage, and in our Indian wars 

 naturally took a prominent part. This part 

 was sometimes that of a dreaded foe who 

 followed them relentlessly over mountain 

 and desert and penetrated their most dis- 

 tant retreats ; sometimes that of a peace- 

 maker, as when in the midst of the bloody 

 Apache war he boldly visited the camp of 

 Cochise, the celebrated Apache chief, and 

 induced him to abandon the war path. He 

 treated the Indians, as he did everyone 

 else, with perfect frankness and fairness, 

 and never deceived them. They were not 

 long in learning that they could rely abso- 

 lutely on his word, which gave him a posi- 

 tive advantage in all his dealings with them, 

 for they always respected him and when 

 not at war liked him. 



Aside from his movements in the field in 

 connection with Indian wars, he led a num- 

 ber of expeditions for other purposes, such 

 as laying out roads, surveying routes for 

 telegraph lines, and exploring unknown 

 country — as when he crossed Death Valley 

 in 1867, and explored the deserts of south- 

 central Kevada as far east as Pahranagat 

 Valley. No other American naturalist in 

 modern times has spent half so much time 

 in the field as Bendire, and his voluminous 

 note books attest the accuracy and range of 

 his observations. 



It is hard to say just when Bendire's 

 scientific work began, or even exactly when' 

 he commenced making his famous collec- 

 tion of birds' eggs, though it is certain that 

 he was collecting in 1870. Like many 

 other army ofiicers stationed in the West, 

 he sent Professor Baird from time to time 

 natural history specimens and notes. When 

 stationed at St. Louis he became an inti- 

 mate friend of the eminent botanist, Dr. 



George Engelmann, to whose herbarium he 

 was a valued contributor. 



His earliest published writings are in 

 the form of letters to well-known natur- 

 alists, chiefly Allen, Baird and Brewer. 

 The first volume of the Bulletin of the Nutt- 

 all Ornithological Club (1876) contains 

 several such letters, published by J. A. Al- 

 len. 



In 1877 he published an important paper 

 on the Birds of Southeastern Oregon, based 

 on three years' field work in the region 

 around Fort Harney. In all, he has 

 written about fifty papers, most of which 

 relate to birds and their eggs, though sev- 

 eral treat of mammals and fishes. But the 

 work which will carry his name and fame 

 to future generations is his ' Life Histories 

 of North American Birds,' of which the 

 second volume was reviewed in Sceence not 

 long ago (N. S. Vol. IV, No. 96, October 

 30, 1896, pp. 657-658). It is a calamity to 

 the science of ornithology, for which he 

 was in no way responsible, that the remain- 

 ing volumes of this great work, which con- 

 tains more original information on the 

 habits of our birds than any other since the 

 time of Audubon, Wilson and Nuttall, were 

 not made ready for publication. 



In his personal life Bendire was a man of 

 simple habits and unusual frankness. He 

 had an inborn aversion for all kinds of cir- 

 cumlocution and insincerity, and was him- 

 self a model of directness and truthfulness. 

 He was generous, kind hearted and ever 

 ready to help others, no matter at how 

 much personal inconvenience, if he believed 

 them worthy. He had a large number of 

 correspondents in all parts of the country 

 who considered it a privilege to contribute 

 notes and specimens for his use. These 

 and many others will mourn his loss, but 

 none so deeply as the small coterie who 

 were so fortunate as to be numbered among 

 his intimate personal friends. 



C. Hart Merriam. 



