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 Elliott Coues on Audubon EDITOR'S NOTE /^HILE the guest of the late Mrs. John Woodhouse Audubon, at Salem, N. Y., in July, 1897, Df- Coues was afforded an opportunity of seeing Audubon's manuscript journals, letters, drawings and other material, which, with exhaustless patience and perseverance, Miss Maria R. Audubon had gathered from many sources to serve as the basis for the two volumes which form such a fitting tribute to the memory of her grandfather. Dr. Coues, it will be remembered, contributed certain zoological and other notes to this work, and we may magine his pleasure as, with the combined enthusiasm of the ornithologist, bibliophile and annotator, he gave himself to the fascinating task of a minute examination of Audubon's manuscripts. Four months later, at the fifteenth Congress of the American (Orni- thologists' Union, which was held in the American Museum of Natural History in New York city, under the title 'Auduboniana and Other Mat- ters of Present Interest,' Dr. Coues spoke of the great value of these manuscripts, and exhibited, through the courtesy of Miss Audubon, the original portfolio in which the then comparatively unknown 'American Woodsman ' had carried his drawings of birds about Great Britain and the continent, and also the manuscript of the first volume of the 'Ornitho- logical Biographies.' It was an unusually interesting occasion, and those who were privileged to be present are not likely to forget the keen enjoy- ment with which Dr. Coues exhibited relics so intimately associated with Audubon's life and works. A stenographer chancing to be present consented to record Dr. Coues' address, of which the portion relating to Audubon is here printed. Although a verbatim report, it conveys only a faint idea of the impression created by the delivery of the address itself. The attractiveness of the speaker's per- sonality, which never failed to hold the tense interest of his hearers, is lost in this reproduction of his words. We believe, however, that to those who knew him, they will clearly recall the genial but commanding presence of a man whose place in ornithology will never be filled. — F. M. C. DR. COUES' ADDRESS "Mr. I'rt'sitlitit, lu'lloiv M iiiihos, La/ltcs dii/l (itiit Itiititi : "We necessarily live in the present, but, as time passes on, the future grows more and more foreshortened and the past correspondingly- length- ens out for each one of us. Those who have reached a certain point are, however, inclined to think more of the lengthening past than the fore- shortened future. In other wonis, we reach a stage of the indiidual (9)