19.? THE CONDOR VOL. XI observations, but built on the solid rock of facts, cemented together by the scientific training of brilliant minds. Think of the golden opportunities that lay before them! How well they took advantage of those opportunities are matters of record in various ornithological publications. Some are still with us and are as active as of yore; but many have past away, and with the exception of Denis Gale, whose biography has been so ably written by Judge Henderson, how many of us know anything of the individual life of those that have gone beyond ? A sketch of the life of any ornithologist who has become prominent either world wide or locally, and especially those who were engaged in that work in our own State, has always been a matter of great interest to me. The subject of this sketch, William Gilbert Smith, can justly be called the pioneer ornithologist of Larimer Coun- ty. Born June 20, 1841, at Sandwich, England, he spent the first thirty years of his life at his birthplace, and coming to this comatry in 1871, he settled at Rochester, New f York, where he followed his t trade of stair-building. He also did considerable taxider- mist work and bird study during his spare moments. It { was while living there that he joined the Society of American ? Taxidermists and met many ? men of national fame. He
counted W. T. Hornaday and the late Professor Ward among
his most intimate acquaint- ances. The Society about the year 1880 conducted an ex- hibit, and Smith entered some of his work. One piece, "The Story of Cock Robin," illus- trated by a group of animals V?'ILL1AM GILBERT SMITH: BORN. JUNE 20, 1841; grotesquely mounted, was DIED MAY 12, 19(}0 awarded a certificate of merit. Smith left Rochester in the fall of 1881 and came to Denver, where he opened a bird store and museum on Latimer Street between 15th and 16th streets, which he kept until the first of the year 1883 when he sold out to Mr. H. H. Tamman. He spent the year 1883 collecting in Platt Canyon and Buffalo Park, where he secured many specimens of birds, eggs, insects, and mammals. At that time he donated some rare specimens to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, among which was a set of three eggs of the Townsend Solitaire, at that time almost un- known to science. In 1884 he took up a homestead about six miles northeast of Loveland, Colorado, where he lived until the fall of 1892, when on account of failing
