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Mrs. Robert Ridgway 
A Sketch 
Julia Evelyn Perkins was born in New York City, and until 
her fifteenth year lived in a house facing Central Park, where 
she first saw and became interested in birds. Her father was 
a wood-engraver, and at the time of moving with his family to 
Washington, D. C., was engaged in engraving wood-cuts to illus- 
trate a “History of North American Birds,” by Baird, Brewer 
and Ridgway—his removal to Washington being for the purpose 
of being more conveniently located for his work. 
While residing in New York it was Miss Evelyn’s custom to 
make frequent visits to Central Park to observe and feed the 
birds; thus from early childhood she developed a deep love 
for our feathered friends. She also took great interest in 
her father’s work, and assisted him materially by making 
proofs from the blocks which he 
had engraved. This was a spe- 
cial pleasure to her, and I have 
been informed (‘‘on good auth- 
ority”) that the pleasure became 
greater after she became ac- 
guainted with the junior author 
of the work which the engrav- 
ings were to illustrate, and to 
whom she was married on Oc- 
tober twelfth, 1875. 
Mrs. Ridgway’s love for birds 
has never flagged, and all her 
life she has been active, to the 
best of her opportunities, in 
their behalf. When we lived in 
a suburb of Washington she 
often returned from a visit to 
friends in the city or from a 
shopping trip with one or more 
“bean-shooters” or ‘‘nigger-kill- 
ers,” once with a _ pocketful, 
taken from boys who had been 
using these juvenile implements of destruction with birds as 
their targets. On one occasion she had taken three from some 
boys in one of the city parks, and on_ indignantly dis- 
playing them to a park policeman whom she hunted up, he said 
to her: “Madame, you ought to be appointed on the force. We 
uniformed policeman are helpless, because the boys know our 
beats and can easily spot us at a distance. ” On another occa- 
sion she attempted to take a bean-shooter away from a good- 
sized negro boy, who grabbed her by both wrists and held her in 
a vise-like grip until frightened by an approaching pedestrian. 

Af 
MRS. ROBERT RIDGWAY 
