12 J°hn E. Cooper 



although questioned by others. As would be expected C.S. also described 

 many insect species, primarily in the orders hymenoptera and diptera. 

 These included 13 psammocharid and 5 sphecid wasps, one each of 

 stratiomyid, cyrtid, conopid, sarcophagid and ortalid flies, and 4 asilid, 3 

 syrphid and 2 sciomyzid flies. 



C.S. was a prolific writer who, before his career ended, published well 

 over 150 papers, notes and booklets on vertebrates, over 40 on inver- 

 tebrates, a 17-page paper on zoogeography, a partial bibliography of 

 North Carolina zoology, many popular natural history articles and ac- 

 counts, and a group of outlines for zoology lectures at the Biltmore 

 School. In addition to coauthoring the bird book with Pearson and his 

 brother, he wrote The Insects of North Carolina, which grew out of the early 

 manuscript begun by Sherman and others and included 35 years of 

 records on 9611 species. It was published in 1938 by the Department of 

 Agriculture. He also compiled the first supplement to this work, 

 published in 1942. A major summary of the amphibians and reptiles of 

 North Carolina, originally published as an annotated and illustrated 

 series in Carolina Tips from 1939 through 1943, was printed as a compila- 

 tion by Carolina Biological Supply Company in 1944. A similar collection 

 of North Carolina mammal accounts, written between 1944 and 1946, ap- 

 peared in 1946. Two installments toward a comprehensive series on fishes 

 of the state were published in the same outlet, but this project was in- 

 terrupted by C.S.'s death. 



His publications also included a 20-year history of the North Carolina 

 Academy of Science. He and H.H. were founders of the Academy, and 

 C.S. was the only person without a college degree to ever serve as its 

 president. They were founders and life members, too, of the Raleigh 

 Natural History Club, and helped organize the Raleigh Bird Club and 

 the North Carolina Bird Club (now the two-state Carolina Bird Club). 



In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the natural sciences, 

 on June 7, 1938 the University of North Carolina conferred on C.S. 

 Brimley the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. This honor was all the 

 more remarkable in light of the fact that, while far from unlettered, both 

 the Brimley brothers were largely unschooled in any formal sense. H.H. 

 spent eight years in the Bedford County School at Elstow, excelling in 

 mathematics, football, and swimming, but left for a clerical job in 

 Howard's Iron Works before receiving a certificate. C.S. was educated in 

 the "common schools of Willington" until 1877, then attended the Bed- 

 ford County School through the close of the second term in July 1880. 

 "Attained the highest honors to be gained at that school," he wrote, "my 

 education on leaving being equivalent at least to completing a high grade 

 High School course or perhaps Freshman year in college." One writer, 



