4 THE CONDOR Vol. XXII 
familiar to him by years of association often recalled him vividly to mind, and 
renewed the keen sense of personal loss which came to me when I first heard 
of his death. In his paper entitled ‘‘An Appreciation of Spencer Fullerton 
Baird’’ (Science, n. s., vol. 48, July 12, 1918) Professor Edwin Linton, speak- 
ing of his death, pays the following tribute to the memory of this great natur- 
alist which so perfectly reflects my feelings and thoughts that I cannot forbear 
to quote his words. ‘‘Il remember the day and the hour. It was afternoon, and 
the tide was low. I recall a picture of a red sun hanging over Long Neck and 
reflected in the still waters of Great Harbor, of sodden masses of seaweed on 
the dripping piles and on the bowlder-strewn shore; and there rises again the 
thought that kept recurring then, that the sea is very ancient, that it ebbed and 
flowed before man appeared on the planet, and will ebb and flow after he and 
his works have disappeared; and a singular, indefinite impression came to me, 
as if something had passed that was, in some fashion, great, and mysterious, 
and ancient, like the sea itself.’’ 
MEETING WITH C. HART MERRIAM 
It was in 1872 that I first met Dr. Merriam, then a boy of sixteen, just back 
from his first trip to the Yellowstone region with the Hayden Survey. He had 
much to tell of the wonders of the region, which then had been seen only by a 
favored few, and where he had made a valuable collection of birds, which we 
examined together with mutual interest. This was the beginning of a close 
friendship which has endured with no lessening to the present time. 
COLLECTING SEASON OF 1873 
In 1873 I spent several weeks at Fort Garland in southern Colorado, and 
here was able to devote more uninterrupted time to the study of birds than at 
any other place during my connection with the Survey. It was near here, at 
the base of Mt. Baldy, in June, that I discovered that the Williamson and 
Brown-backed woodpeckers were one and the same species, the former being 
the male. Chancing to shoot a female first, almost immediately I shot a male, 
and, laying them side by side, their relationship was at once apparent. Later 
I found mated pairs occupying the same cavity in live aspens, their favorite 
nesting tree, which of course was proof positive of their relationship. While 
it is true that, contrary to the rule that obtains among the woodpeckers, the 
male and female of the species are very differently colored, it is difficult to 
understand why the true facts of the case should so long have escaped the no- 
tice of closet ornithologists. The subject is mentioned here, not because of its 
importance, but because of the great interest the statement of the facts at the 
time called forth. 
While spending a week on the Rio Grande, ninety miles northeast of the 
fort at the summer cavalry camp, a rather remarkable incident occurred which 
may be worth mentioning as it could hardly occur today. The ridges above 
and back from the river were clothed with pines and heavily brushed in places, 
and at that season (middle June) were a favorite resort of bears, signs of which 
abounded. One morning I shot a junco out of a small tree, which fell in a dense 
thicket, and I was a good deal surprised, to put it mildly, when, following the 
report, a large bear tore through the brush only a few feet away. That he made 
excellent time his tracks subsequently showed, but as I ‘had the down hill side 
of the proposition I am sure he did not run so fast as I did. On returning to 
