Coues at His First Army Post 7 



arriving in camp with many specimens. Clad in a corduroy suit of many 

 pockets and having numerous sacks and pouches attached to his saddle, 

 he regularly rode out of column every morning astride of his buckskin - 

 colored mule, which he had named Jenny Lind on account of her musical 

 bray. Rarely did we see him again until we had been some hours in the 

 following camp, but we sometimes heard the discharge of his double- 

 barreled shotgun far off the line of march. He usually brought in all 

 his pockets and pouches rilled with the trophies of his search, and when 

 he sat upon the ground and proceeded to skin, stuff and label his speci- 

 mens he was never without an interested group of officers and men about 

 him. To any one interested to learn the art of preparing the specimens 

 he became an earnest and painstaking instructor. In time pretty much 

 every person in the command was contributing something to the Doctor's 

 packing cases. 



When we reached the most dangerous part of our march and frequent 

 attempts to stampede our grazing flock and herds were made by the 

 lurking red man, the Doctor was cautioned to remain near the escort, but 

 the flitting of rare plumage or the utterance of a strange note would 

 often tempt him away and give us great anxiety until he returned. In 

 three collisions with the Indians he showed us he was possessed of true 

 soldierly spirit. 



At one point the danger became so great that the discharge of fire- 

 arms by any member of our party was strictly forbidden and all were 

 told that should a shot be heard we were all to rally in its direction. 

 One day we rallied in hot haste to the rear, only to meet the ornithologist 

 holding up a beautiful and rare specimen, saying: "I really could not 

 allow this bird to escape without causing a serious loss to science." 



"Well," replied the commanding officer, "I shall deprive science of 

 any further collections for a week by placing you in arrest and taking 

 possession of your gun and ammunition." 



The arrest, however, did not last until next morning, when the colonel, 

 having slept off his vexation, delivered Doctor Coues a lecture on military 

 science, with particular reference to service in an Indian country, and 

 told him what he might expect if he did not remain near the escort and 

 refrain from firing until we were out of that region. 



Professionally, the Doctor was a good surgeon, and never neglected 

 his duty. In Arizona for a year he continued his collecting throughout a 

 large portion of the territory, and, when he was relieved from duty and 

 ordered to Washington in November of 1865, he told me he should take 

 with him over two hundred and fifty distinct species of birds and six 

 hitherto unknown to science. 



