late as the early eighties most of us had come to believe that practically all the mammals of the country had been collected and described, and it was not until the days of the Biological Survey that a hint of the real richness of the mammal life of the country way made known. By 1885 Merriam had revolutionized the making of mammal skins, following in a general way the model of the perfected bird skin. Instead of flat and shapeless things, mammals skins became for the first time, if not things of beauty, at least shapely and durable specimens, which admirably served the purposes of scientific study.
Having employed Vernon Bailey in Minnesota about 1883 to trap small mammals, Merriam soon learned what could be accomplished by the use of traps in skilled hands. The Survey was established in 1885, but it was not until several years later that the survey naturalists began a systematic and exhaustive search for mammals, which they were able to do owing to the invention of the several types of small traps. These proved a practical and efficient means of securing small mammals in any numbers desired for systematic study. The result was series of small mammals hitherto undreamed of, and scores of new forms were obtained in the very territory which the earlier naturalists had found comparatively barren.
Thus in 1885 there were known from the territory north of Mexico approximately only 363 species of mammals, large and small. In 1900, 1450 had been described and recorded while in 1912 the number recorded by Miller in his check list had reached a total of 2138! At the present time the number of described forms is probably not far from 2500. These figures are only approximately correct, since authorities differ rather widely as to the status of many of the forms, and as to the concept of species and varieties. Nevertheless the greater number of the forms described were new to science in every sense of the word, and their discovery was chiefly due to improved methods of search, especially to improved traps and to skilful and systematic trapping.
THE OLD SOUTH TOWER
In the seventies, Robert Ridgway and Doctor Coues used to do much of their writing in a room near the top of the old south tower of the Smithsonian building, and many were the pleasant hours I spent there in their company and that of visiting ornithologists, as Wheaton, Sennett, Brewster, Merriam and others, who occasionally made pilgrimages to Washington with specimens for examination and field experiences to narrate.
Doctor Coues' readiness to break off work for a chat was always signified by pulling forth the human skull in which he stored his tobacco and rolling a cigarette, when he was ready for reminiscences or discussion. It may interest my readers to know that Dr. Coues' real "working day" at home began about nine or ten o'clock at night and continued till early morning, say two or three o'clock. Then he slept for several hours followed by breakfast whenever he felt inclined to arise. Hence he usually reached the Smithsonian about noon, when he opened his mail, and began his afternoon's labor of writing, or examing specimens, as the mood prompted him.
He had a small collection of birds in the tower, about 300 in number, which I remember as a somewhat miscellaneous assortment, many of which, no doubt, had been given him by friends. These he presented to the Museum in 1881, and the same year Mr. Ridgway turned in his fine collection of North American and tropical birds, amounting to some 2300 skins. Later, a rule of the Museum was
