Abstract
BY the death, on Christmas Day, of Dr. Elliott Coues, America loses one of its leading ornithologists; indeed, we may say, without disparagement of others, the most prominent since Spencer Baird was taken from us. Born in 1842, at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, and graduating in the Columbian University, Coue$ entered the medical service of the United States Army in 1862, receiving the brevet rank of Captain for his conduct during the war, after which he held several appointments of various kinds, and especially one in Arizona, which gave him the opportunity of indulging his inborn taste for natural history. Subsequently he held in succession the posts of Professor of Zoology in the University of Norwich, in the State of Vermont, of Anatomy in the National Medical College at Washington, and of Biology in the Virginia Agricultural College, besides being, in the interim, surgeon and naturalist to the United States Northern Boundary Commission, and from 1876 to 1880 secretary and naturalist to the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. The duties of these different offices seem only to have stimulated his efforts, and the number of his zoological papers contributed to various scientific journals would alone accord him a high place; but, apart from them, his “Birds of the North-West,” his “Fur-bearing Animals,” and “Birds of the Colorado Valley,” to say nothing of his “Key to North American Birds”—of which a third edition was announced for the ensuing spring—and his “Ornithological Bibliography,” each a model of accurate work, proclaim him to have been far in advance of any other contemporary of his own country, or indeed of many others. In the summer of 1884 Dr. Coues visited England, to the great satisfaction of British ornithologists, to most of whom he had been only known by name, for thus his attractive personality attached to him many warm friends. After taking a considerable share in the publication of the “Century Dictionary,” of which he was the Natural History editor, he latterly turned his attention to some of the earlier geographical explorations of his own country, and we owe to him admirable editions of the “Travels” of Lewis and Clark, and of General Pike.
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N., A. Dr. Elliott Coues . Nature 61, 278–279 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/061278b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061278b0