INTRODUCTION. 
a large tannery, at 75 cents per day, from 7 o’clock a.m. to 6 p.m. A cruel overseer 
observed him hesitate at 2 p.m., to watch a schooner “back out,” and at once 
“ fired ” him, —the only position he ever lost in this way. He drew his pay, 50 cents, and 
on the way home invested in a shirt and a watermelon, totalling 50 cents, thus spending 
all of his capital, which he has succeeded in doing ever since.) 
In his early egg-collecting days in Kenosha, Richmond conceived the idea of rigging 
up a nesting box on top of his house, to attract some bird whose eggs he could take. A 
White-bellied or Tree-Swallow took possession, made a nest, and laid some eggs. Richmond 
had designs on that nest and eggs, but when he visited the roof of the house, pried off the 
cover of the box, and looked in on the clear, calm, trusting eye of the setting bird, he received 
a twinge of conscience that has rarely since deserted him. He replaced the cover on the 
box, made a hasty descent, and the bird raised her family in peace. 
Shortly after his arrival in Washington, Richmond, with his brother and two sisters, 
were taken to visit the Smithsonian Institution, which, at that time, had a large collection 
of birds’ eggs and nests exposed in its main hall. After revelling in this wonderful exhibit 
for some time, C.W.R. concluded he could never compete with such an institution, and 
decided to take his precious collection there and give it for what it was worth. He did 
did not know that adults were interested in such matters, thinking it only a boy’s pastime, 
and when he took his treasures to the main door of the Institution was surprised to have 
the old coloured doorkeeper of those days say to him : “ You will have to see Mr. Ridgway.” 
The doorkeeper directed him across the hall and up five flights of winding stairs, where 
he met a sign “ No admittance.” Timidly knocking at the door, he heard a cheery voice 
say “ Come in,” and upon so doing found Mr. Ridgway at work. The latter pulled up a 
chair for him, and Richmond sat down beside the first ornithologist he had ever heard of. 
With much diffidence he unwrapped the cigar boxes that contained his collection and told 
Mr. Ridgway his intentions. He expected to supply the names of the eggs, and thus set 
the Smithsonian right, but Mr. Ridgway seemed to have a supernatural gift in this direction 
and was able to identify them as fast as brought to view. In a few minutes he had given 
Richmond more items of interest than he had learned to date. A new world had been 
opened up. 
At the first opportunity Richmond returned to ask Mr. Ridgway a question, and from 
that time on must have bothered him unmercifully, though the latter never complained. 
He was given a copy of the Bulletin 21, or “ Nomenclature of North American Birds,” then 
recently published, and decided he would have to learn all of its scientific names. 
After considerable drilling, with the help of his brother, he had learned all but a few of 
the species of Puffins, which he could not master. Whenever his brother got tired of the 
work, he would turn to Puffinus, and thus end the lesson. 
His first experience with a foreign bird was in connection with one from Australia, 
a skin found in the possession of a neighbourhood boy. Richmond urged him to present 
the specimen to the Smithsonian, and together they took it down to Mr. Ridgway, who set 
them at work on Gould’s Birds of Australia to identify it by the plate. It proved to be 
Myzaniha garrula . Mr. Ridgway was satisfied with the determination, Richmond was 
proud of having identified a bird from a book, and the other boy was much elated at having 
added a specimen to the Smithsonian collection. This happened on September 30th, 1882. 
v. 
