682 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Kumlien was a close observer of all fauna and flora; he knew 
all the birds, animals, and insects, and through years of observa¬ 
tion found out all their habits. The plants and flowers were all 
intimately familiar to him. All who wrote on any of these sub¬ 
jects of natural history had free and welcome access to all this 
information, and many failed to give due credit for its source. 
For forty years he furnished much of the detail of papers and 
books on natural history subjects published in America. It is 
to be regretted that he went to his rest with all or most of that 
wonderful story of detail of natural history accumulated through 
the years unpublished. Mr. W. M. Wheeler has written of this 
looting of the brains of the expert: 
“Mr Kumlien’s arrival in our country at a time when many of our na¬ 
tive species were still very imperfectly understood opened a wide field 
for work. Too modest to think his own often very valuable observations 
sufficiently important to publish, he devoted many years of his life to 
helping other naturalists by sending them large and carefully prepared 
collections. Mr. Kumlien was a singularly accurate observer, though his 
powers of observation were stimulated by an intense and childlike love of 
natural objects rather than by any interest in their importance from a 
speculative standpoint. Hence his conversation teemed with interesting 
facts, but seldom rose to wide generalizations. He was satisfied to ob¬ 
serve, to collect and prepare plants and birds because they were full of 
marveolus beauty and offered endless material for comparative study” ( 3 ). 
Prof. E. A. Birge had spoken to Kumlien several times about 
writing out his information on natural history, and on Septem¬ 
ber 17, 1879, wrote him as follows: 
“I want to urge again on you what I spoke of to you sometime ago, 
vis., that you give the Wisconsin Academy a paper on some subject next 
winter. You know a great deal about the habits, etc., of our birds and 
mammals which no one else knows and much of which no one else can 
ever know now. It ought to be put on record and I hope that you will 
find time to set down some of it before next Christmas.” 
He wrote again in 1882. It is much to be regretted now that 
these kind invitations were not accepted. 
The magnificent museum at Milwaukee had been founded by 
the Wisconsin Natural History Society in the days of Increase 
Allen Lapham. In the year 1881, Kumlien was engaged as taxi¬ 
dermist and conservator at this museum, a position he held under 
that society until May, 1883, when the museum was taken over 
by the city of Milwaukee. Kumlien was engaged at once by the 
new management and remained in that position until his acci¬ 
dental death by poison (3). 
