THE *AU DOB ONS (BU i aie 
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ii) 

and prepared by himself, others were obtained by exchange and his very 
strong collecting instinct was given its first serious exercise. A special 
hobby was albinos and for years after he had ceased general collecting, 
he continued to pick up albino birds and to publish notes about them in 
ornithological journals. This special collection was later deposited in the 
Chicago Academy of Sciences and more recently was presented to the 
Field Museum, where it forms a great part of what is probably the largest 
collection of albino birds in America. 
The historical and biographical side of ornithology early became very 
attractive to Mr. Deane and all his life he has shown even keener interest 
in manuscripts, books, and personalities connected with birds than in 
birds themselves. He was born a bibliophile, and not unnaturally, for his 
father, Charles Deane, was a noted collector of books and a distinguished 
writer in the field of early American history. His own library, while not 
especially large, is chosen to represent many sides of natural history and 
includes various scarce items and quantities of associational material, 
letters, autographs, portraits, reviews and comments, practically all 
gathered and arranged by himself. Here, as elsewhere, the human inti- 
mate personal relation dominates his interest. His well-known collection 
of portraits of ornithologists, his studies of Audubon and Auduboniana, 
his searching out of living descendants and relatives, not only of Audu- 
bon but of many less known early ornithologists, all testify to the same 
characteristic. 
A great phrase maker and keen judge of men, no less than former 
President Roosevelt, once characterized Ruthven Deane as a “heart 
ornithologist.” This is related by Col. E. B. Clark, a friend of Roosevelt 
as well as of Deane, and occurred on one of Roosevelt’s visits to Chicago. 
Knowing that Roosevelt would always find time to meet an ornithologist, 
Clark arranged for his two friends to come together and in doing so, 
remarked that perhaps it wasn’t necessary to explain who and what 
Mr. Deane was. To this Roosevelt quickly replied, in effect: “‘I should 
say not. I haven’t met him, but I know of him and he is what I call a 
heart ornithologist.”’ It would be difficult for those who have known him 
long and intimately to come nearer the truth in so few words. 
There is perhaps nothing for which Mr. Deane is so well known as his 
voluminous correspondence and his wide acquaintance among natural- 
ists. In late years, one of his especial hobbies has been the collecting of 
bookplates and in this his correspondence has gone far beyond ornitho- 
logical circles but has not diminished what may be called his regular 
output. Many of his letters to his confreres, perhaps most of them, are 
simply “‘heart”’ letters, sending a word of congratulation on some work 
performed, a bit of news, a new joke with an avian turn to it or, surest 
of all, a warm sympathy if all is not well. His eye for personal news of 
ornithologists is phenomenal. Doubtless often through his personal cor- 
respondence, but sometimes by means which to the rest of us seem 
