AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



33 



In March, 1882, my physicians were so dissatisfied with my condition that 

 they strongly urged a change of climate, and I was sent to Colorado Springs, 

 Colorado. I went with the fullest confidence that the change of scene and 

 air would soon completely restore my strength, and accordingly took with 

 me a collecting outfit for ornithological field work. My good friend William 

 Brewster, of Cambridge, joined me in a few weeks. I did not regain 

 strength, however, and found myself quite exhausted by a half mile walk. 



During the six weeks Mr. Brewster remained with me, we made many 

 collecting trips, by carriage, to the adjacent canons, forming a considerable 

 collection of bird skins and acquiring much greatly valued information 

 regarding the spring migration of birds at Colorado Springs. When he 

 returned, two months later, to the East I was in worse condition than when 

 I left home, and was compelled to spend the summer at a neighboring 

 ranch in the foothills of the Rockies, thoroughly mystified at my lack of 

 recuperative power, for the organic trouble that led to my being sent to 

 Colorado had quite disappeared. 



On returning to Cambridge in September I learned that my invalidism 

 was due to nervous breakdown. Recovery was exceedingly slow; after a 

 few months I regained strength for part time work at the Museum, and for 

 a small amount of literary work, slowly increasing it, month by month, but 

 for years afterward my physical condition was a serious handicap. 



Early in 1885, the financial resources of the Cambridge Museum be- 

 came much reduced, leading to the discharge of several of the assistants 

 and the prospective dismissal of others, including myself. Through the 

 kindness of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, three alternatives were open to me — 

 to remain at the Museum at the risk of its being soon closed; to accept a 

 position open to me on the United States Geological Survey; or to accept 

 a curatorship offered me by .the American Museum of Natural History 

 in New York. For family reasons (I had a motherless three-year-old boy 

 whom it was necessary to leave with friends in Massachusetts), field work 

 with the Geological Survey did not appeal to me, and led to my accept- 

 ance of the New York curatorship, which I have ever since felt was a wise 

 decision. 



Curator at American Museum of Natural History (since 1885). 



On May 1, 1885, I entered upon my duties as curator of the 'Depart- 

 ment of Ornithology and Mammalogy' at the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York. The collection of mammals then consisted of about 

 1000 mounted skins and 300 mounted skeletons, all on exhibition in the 



