Isaac Norris DeHaven 



BY WITMER STONE 



When the Club first began to hold its meetings at the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, short accounts of the proceedings were pub- 

 lished in the daily papers with the idea of attracting the attention 

 of persons interested in bird study who might care to join our 

 organization. 



Among the first to respond was Isaac Norris DeHaven. The 

 fact that he was as unknown to us as we were to him is only an 

 illustration of how individuals interested in the study of nature 

 will carry on their work alone, within easy reach of one another 

 yet without the chance happening which might have brought them 

 together. In constituting that bond of union — that means of 

 communication between kindred spirits — lies perhaps the most 

 notable service that the Club has rendered. 



DeHaven was older than the twelve of us who constituted the 

 Club when he joined it on February 16, 1891, being then a man 

 of forty-four years of age, but none of us excelled him in enthusiasm 

 or energy, and the Club recognized his interest by electing him 

 President for the years 1897-98. He was then accustomed to take 

 week-end trips to Atlantic City, N. J., where he maintained a 

 cat boat, the * Widgeon, ' and we were soon enjoying the hospitality 

 of this little craft and her skipper at all seasons of the year. Now 

 we were stalking sandpipers, mayhap, on the broad salt marshes 

 in midsummer, lying out in the skifF in the bitter cold of winter 

 waiting for passing Black Ducks, or perhaps in early spring scour- 

 ing the strip of woodland that then lay back of Chelsea for Gnat- 

 catchers or moulting Myrtle Warblers, or in autumn collecting 

 series of Sharp-tailed Sparrows in search of the rare Nelson's 

 and Acadian Finches that now and then fell to our guns. 



Then in the cozy cabin at night, perhaps with wind and rain 

 outside and always the sound of water lapping against the hull, 

 we enjoyed the products of "Norrie's" cuHnary skill and slept 

 the sleep of the just on mattress bunks which rolled up under the 

 deck in the day time. Many a savory meal we had of sea bass 



