106 THE NIDOLOGIST 
Correspondence. 
DITOR NIDOLOGIST, Drar Srr;— 
In April number of the Osprey, Dr. 
Elliott Coues writes as follows: 
Since the deaths of Dr. Brewer, Prof. Baird and 
Maj. Bendire, I am probably the only person liv- 
ing who knows an episode of Bendire’s early 
career that led to the deposit of his egg collection 
in the U. S. National Museum. I “discovered” 
Bendire late in 1871, or early in 1872, when he was 
stationed iu Tucson, Ariz., and I was Post Surgeon 
at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Md. Some of the 
earliest, if not the very first results, of his field 
work were published by me in the ‘‘American Na- 
turalist”’ for June, 1872, upon the strength of the 
correspondence with him upon which I had al- 
ready entered. Later that year, when I had become 
Post Surgeon at Fort Randall, S. Dak., he sent 
me some novelties and rareties in birds and eggs, 
among the former being those new species which 
I named Harporhynchus bendirei and Peucea car- 
palis, About that time the bumptious and capt- 
lous German soldier, who was a man to take 
strong likes and dislikes on very small provoca- 
tion, had a falling out with Dr. Brewer and Prof. 
Baird, whose ‘‘History of North American Birds” 
was then well under way. He fancied himself 
slighted by them, or misused in some way—I have 
forgotten exactly how. So he poured out his 
grievances to me in long letters in which he abused 
them right heartily, and swore by ‘‘donner and 
biitzen” that they should never have anything 
from him. I supposed that Dr. Brewer, who was 
a narrow-minded, prejudiced, and tactless person, 
had wounded Bendire’s self-esteem in some way, 
and thought I would do what I could to heal the 
breach, especially as I did not want his eggs. I 
had no private collection: the Smithsonian always 
received whatever I collected in those days, and I 
thought Bendire’s eggs had ought to go there too. 
So I determined to tell Professor Baird about the 
doughty captain’s state of mind, feeling confident 
that Bairdian suavity, sagacity and tactfulness 
would easily set matters aright. I did so; and 
promptly came from Baird an urgent request to 
~ see Bendire’s letters to me, that he might learn 
exactly what the trouble was. Knowing that 
Baird’s astuteness could be trusted and having 
entire faith in his ability to manipulate men and 
measures, I send him the whole of the correspon- 
dence. It was a case in which somewhat question- 
able meaus were justified by the admirable results. 
I never knew exactly how Baird conducted his 
diplomacy, but he smooted Bendire’s ruffled 
plumes effectually, soon had him well in hand, 
and in due course thereafter the Bendire collection 
was in Baird’s hands also, becoming the nucleus 
of the present unrivaled oological cabinet in the 
National Museum, of which Bendire was honorary 
curator until his death. The same result would 
probably have been effected in the course of time 
without my friendly intervention, for few persons 
whom Baird ever got hold of escaped him after- 
ward, chiefly for the reason that few ever desired 
to get away from what he could and would do for 
them. But the fact remains that I was the one 
who turned Bendire over to Baird, shortly after 
my original discovery of him, and that this inter- 
mediation led directly to the consummation with 
which all are now familiar. Perhaps I will tell 
The Osprey’s readers some day about the writing 
and printing of Bendire’s two volumes, concern- 
ing which I also happen to be informed to some 
extent. But not now,—HE. C. 
In the above article Dr. Coues makes 
three distinct claims: — first. that he dis- 
covered Major Bendire; second, that he 
was the means of having a quarrel settled 
between Major Bendire and Dr. Brewer; 
last, that owing to him the Bendire collec- 
tion was secured for the National Museum. 
As an old friend of Major Bendire, I wish 
to show from his own letters the incorrect- 
ness of the last two claims. 
In a letter dated Fort Klamath, Oregon, 
February 11, 1883, Major (then Captain) 
Bendire writes: 
“You need not worry about repaying 
me. I'll give the birds to your daughter, 
and you can pay the express charges. I 
used [to haye] the same kind ofa time with 
the late Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston before 
we got to know each other personally. We 
had been corresponding for several years 
before we met, and I was stationed in Ari- 
zona at the time where almost every egg I 
found there then was almost new in eastern 
collections. As he was the leading odlogist 
in the United States those days, I always 
sent him any duplicates I had to spare, 
never keeping account of value, etc., and 
it used to trouble him terribly to try to get 
even with me. Most of his specimens were 
end-blown and not well prepared, and I 
have no use for such; but he kept on send- 
ing, and those he did send were the best he 
had. Poor man, he died too soon. I just 
missed seeing him by a week, and have a 
letter now, written only a day or two before 
his death. I had hoped to spend a few 
weeks with him and go carefully over his 
entire collection with him; had brought 
some of my rarest specimens on with me 
to describe in the last two volumes of 
“Birds of North America;’’ but it was too 
late. Dr. Brewer was one of the best friends 
I had, and I think we had many mutual 
likes and dislikes. I like Dr. Coues as well 
as he did, and the latter has never forgiven 
me for the strong friendship I always 
sbowed for Dr. Brewer. He is not satisfied 
even now to let him rest in his grave and 
loses no opportunity to belittle him when- 
ever he can.”’ 
From the foregoing it seems that at the 
very time when Dr. Coues claims to have 
been acting as a mediator, Dr. Brewer and 
