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Stephen Alfred Forbes 
An Appreciation 
Frank Smith—Urbana, Illinois 
HE very interesting article on Ruthven Deane, Chicago’s much 
loved ornithologist, which appeared in a recent number of the 
Audubon Society BULLETIN is introduced by a statement to the 
effect that whether or not the old proverb concerning the lack of honor 
for a prophet in his own country expresses the truth “depends upon 
the prophet.” Doctor Stephen A. Forbes of Urbana, Illinois, is another 
Illinois ornithologist who is honored and appreciated at home as well 
as abroad. I have designated him as an Illinois ornithologist because he 
is an Illinois man who has been very much interested in the birds of 
the State and has contributed much to our knowledge of them and to 
an appreciation of their important relation to agriculture and to our 
welfare in other ways. The designation is misleading in so far as it 
conveys an implication that his interest in the birds has been chiefly in 
the accumulation of collections of specimens, or of data pertaining to 
local distribution, or in morphological and taxonomic studies. Doctor 
Forbes has been interested in the birds because they are members of 
the great complex group of animal organisms, including man, which 
exists in Illinois, and because he has been interested in a study of the 
interrelations and interdependence of the various members of this 
complex group. 
Endowed with an unusual mental equipment and actuated by a strong 
desire for service, Doctor Forbes has found his vocation and avocation 
in the promotion of an extensive series of investigations and publications, 
in part his own and in part by numerous other scientists whose aid he 
has been able to enlist in carrying on the work of the Illinois Natural 
History Survey and of the office of the State Entomologist. These 
activities cover a period of more than fifty years. 
Following four years of service in the War of the Rebellion, during 
which, at the age of 20 years, he became a captain, Doctor Forbes 
studied for a time at a medical school and taught a few years in public 
schools. 
He then, in 1871, became connected with the State Normal University 
at Normal, Illinois, first as student and later as a teacher of zoology. 
In 1872 he became Curator of the Illinois State Museum of Natural 
History at Normal, which later, in 1877, was converted by legislative 
enactment into the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History with 
Doctor Forbes as Director. His relations to the work of preparation of 
