•>p 







Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 



he gave 179 species as occurring there. 

 In 1870 he began a series of excellent 

 articles in The Detroit Free Press. In 

 these he described many of our common 

 song and game birds. A number of his 

 writings were reprinted. Several of these 

 may be found in early issues of The School 

 Moderator. 



Hughes' writings were a oleasant 

 combination of the poetic and scientific 

 nature. They not only gave valuable 

 notes to the student of birds, but they 

 were also of interest to the general reader. 

 They were therefore widely read, and the 

 interest therefrom was disseminated to 

 many minds. For this reason and because 

 Hughes was the first one to introduce our 

 birds to the people of Michigan, we may 

 well consider him the founder of the 

 ornithology of our state. His place in the 

 history of Michigan ornithology is similar 

 to that of Audobon or Wilson in the 

 history of American ornithology. 



Some information regarding the life 

 and work of Hughes was given me in a 

 letter from his old friend, Dr. Morris 

 Gibbs. Thinking they >may be of interest, 

 I will give a few facts therefrom. Hughes 

 was a lawyer first practicing at Marshall, in 

 Calhoun County. He kept a book of notes 

 in which he recorded his personal observa- 

 tions on nature in 1867, '68, '69, '70 and 

 '71. He moved to Grand Rapids probably 

 in 1872. Hughes left his fine collections, 

 which tell of his earnest work as a student 

 of birds, to the Kent Scientific Institute 

 at Grand Rapids. He was a good man, a 

 reliable lawyer, and a faithful worker in 

 all he undertook. 



Shortly after Hughes began to write, 

 there appeared a number of workers in the 

 field. Among them were several students 

 that have since become well known in 

 ornithological circles. These were A. H. 

 Boies of Hudson, Morris Gibbs of 

 Kalamazoo, Chas. W. Gunn of Grand 

 Rapids, H. A. Atkins of Locke, W. H. 

 Collins of Detroit, and A. B. Covert of 

 Ann Arbor. Prof. A. J. Cook of the 

 Michigan Agricultural College began to 

 write on economic ornithology in state 

 bulletins as early as 1872; Boies, Gibbs 

 and Collins became known in 1875 ; Gunn 

 and Covert were doing active work in 

 1876, and Atkins' first notes were published 

 in 1878. 



Perhaps no man has given more atten- 



tion to our birds or has written more about 

 them than has Dr. Morris Gibbs. He has 

 written profusely, and nearly every year 

 since he began to write in 1875, he has 

 been a constant contributor to scientific 

 literature. His annotated list of 309 

 species of Michigan birds was published 

 in the Bulletin of the U. S. Geographical 

 and Geological Survey of the Territories 

 for 1879. Dr. Gibbs is a man of great 

 energy and enthusiasm in all scientific 

 work, and his interesting notes and articles 

 add much of pleasure and value to our 

 bird literature. Although Dr. Gibbs has 

 been a worker for many years, his career 

 as an ornithologist is not ended. He still 

 resides at Kalamazoo and is a constant 

 contributor to the scientific journals in 

 this country. 



W. H. Collins was another active worker 

 to whom I need to make especial mention 

 He studied the birds especially in that 

 interesting region about St. Clair Flats. 

 Some of his valuable notes may be found 

 in the columns of those numbers of the 

 Ornithologist and Oologist issued from 

 1880 to 1882. 



Mr. A. H. Boies contributed much to 

 our knowledge of birds by notes obtained 

 from many years of careful study of the 

 birds in the southern part of the state. 

 He added a number of species to our 

 avi-fauna; and in 1875 he published his 

 4 'Catalogue of the Birds Ascertained to 

 Occur in Southern Michigan. ' : This was 

 an annotated list of the 211 species that 

 were then known in the region mentioned. 

 Mr. Boies is now a civil engineer, but he 

 remains faithful to the study for which he 

 has done so much. 



Among these early workers in the 

 ornithological field, there was that enthus- 

 iastic student and excellent observer, 

 Chas. W. Gunn. He began writing on 

 birds in 1876. For several years he pub- 

 lished a little paper of his own called the 

 Naturalist and Fancier. Not only did he 

 study the birds of Michigan, but he 

 traveled for knowledge of the birds of 

 other regions. He visited California four 

 times and Florida twice, and he also went 

 to Colorada, Panama and other quarters 

 in the East and the West. G unn's magnifi- 

 cent collection of many hundred skins is 

 now in the museum of the Kent Scientific 

 Institute at Grand Rapids. The members 

 of the Michigan Ornithological Club are 



