er tee UB ONG eB UL le He Lan 31 

Ruthven Deane—an Appreciation 
By WILFRED H. Oscoop 
“A PROPHET is not without honor save in his own country.” So it 
is written and so it often seems to be, but a rejoinder might be 
added to the effect that it depends upon the prophet. Outside of 
his home city and state, the subject of this sketch, Mr. Ruthven Deane, 
is one of the best known and best loved of American ornithologists. The 
same qualities which have given him credit abroad have endeared him 
at home, and the home folks, especially those of the Illinois Audubon 
Society, feel they would like to make public acknowledgment of their 
regard for him. The writer, although he would not yield to any of these 
in point of personal feeling, is here to be considered merely as the vehicle 
of their collective expression. 
Mr. Deane belongs to the “Old Guard” of American ornithology, 
being one of the fortunate youths in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who 
found others of like tastes in the Nuttall Ornithological Club, who had 
a part in the founding of the American Ornithologists’ Union and who 
from that day to this have never ceased their devotion to each other and 
to their chosen study. Although not actually present at the first meeting 
of the A.O.U., Deane’s membership began in 1883, the year of its found- 
ing, and since then it has had no more loyal member. He removed early 
from New England to make his home in Chicago and although meetings 
of the Union were invariably held in eastern cities, his record of attend- 
ance is scarcely equaled by that of any other member. 
Unlike several of his early associates, he did not take up ornithology 
as a profession but rather as a very absorbing hobby. Being quite suc- 
cessful in business and evidently satisfied with a modest competence, he 
was able to retire before the age of sixty. Thenceforward, he maintained 
a small office in the business district of the city, ostensibly for conven- 
ience in managing his estate, and spent an hour or two there daily, but, 
visitors to this office were likely to find his desk more occupied with 
ornithological correspondence than with business. His cozy apartment 
on North State Street has been for years and still is a storehouse of 
ornithological lore, and the passing bird men who have spent delightful 
evenings there include practically all those who ever visited Chicago. 
To ornithologists the country over, the one principal attraction of the 
great middle western metropolis has been Ruthven Deane. 
As a young man in Cambridge, in company with William Brewster, 
Henry W. Henshaw, C. J. Maynard, Henry Purdie and others, Deane 
was an enthusiastic collector and formed a nearly complete collection of 
skins of the smaller North American birds. Besides specimens collected 
