Page:CooperBull1(1).djvu/5

4 Montana, Wyoming and the Mojave, and are scattered through his later writings. On April I6, 1860, Gen. W. S. Scott issued special order No. 47, directing Dr. J. G. Cooper as Contract Surgeon, to report at New York, and to proceed thence to Fort Columbus, Department of Oregon, accompanying a detachment of recruits. This duty terminated Oct. 19, 1860, but his contract was continued to Dec. 1 of that year. Again as a student we find him collecting along the coast from San Francisco to San Diego. From now henceforward we view the energetic, thoughtful, scientific mind. From 1861 to 1874 was one continuous series of field observations and studies, the results of which are embraced in his numerous publications until the year 1890. This period will again be examined when we speak of his publications.

The gigantic struggle of the Civil War found him a student and an active worker in the field of science. Watching this struggle, listening to the roll-calls of the dead, sick and wounded, he again sought service in the army, and on May 24, 1864, Gov. F. F. Law commissioned him as Assistant Surgeon, 2d Cavalry, California Volunteers, and he served with this regiment until its muster out. Even during this period he did not relinquish his scientific work, which was that of identification of individual specimens, of reference, and in publishing his observations. He was now a systematist and not a collector. January 9, 1866, he was married to Miss Rosa M. Wells at Oakland, California.

It is not our purpose to draw aside the curtain that separates his scientific and public life from the sanctity of his home-life. At present we feel that we have no right to enter the home and to paint the picture of the peace and happiness of that home circle, where, surrounded by wife and children, he, in perfect security and the loving trust of a well spent life, calmly awaits the summons that shall bid him move to another home. Sometime it may be our duty and pleasure to draw the picture of his home life and to write more fully of his scientific life, but the time is not yet come, and it may be that other and better pens than ours may perform this duty, but none would bring to its accomplishment more loyal labor. Until I871 Dr. Cooper was in the active practice of his profession, when his health failing, he moved to Ventura County, California, and remained there engaged in collecting until in I875 he moved to Hayward, California where he now resides.

Thus far we have carried a brief running itinerary, as it were, of his scientific life, recounting his movements until the time that he moved to Haywards, at which it is our purpose to leave this view of his life, and take up the purely scientific portion and his publications. In 1858 Dr. Cooper was made a member of the New York Lyceum, now New York Academy of Sciences. Although not one of the charter members of the California Academy of Sciences, he is one of its early members, and until failing health prevented, one of its earnest and active workers, holding for several years the office of Vice President and one term as Second Vice President. During the time of the auxilliary clubs he was the President of the Zoological Club. Much of his active work in connection with the Academy has been in palæoutologypalæontology [sic], and he was for some time curator of this section. A large number of his works were first published in the Proceedings of the Academy. He did considerable work on the Geological Survey of California under Whitney, a portion of this being in pure geology and a portion in palæontology. He compiled the catalogue of California Fossils for the Mining Bureau.

Our first impulse was to give a full catalogue of his publications, but having arranged a full list of titles, we have thought it would meet the requirements of this sketch in a better manner if a synopsis by subjects were given in lieu of the catalogue: On Conchology, 43 papers, Botany, 6 papers, Ornithology, 12 papers, Mammals, 8 papers, other scientific subjects, 7 papers. Total, 76. While his scientific work has been a varied one, it is his ornithological work that particularly interests our Club, and it may be inappropriate for the to present any other phase, yet before examining his ornithological contributions we cannot refrain from mentioning other work for the reason that it bears so directly on certain phases of his purely ornithological work. Necessarily we must omit any reference to conchology and palæontology, as the scope of the will not admit of such discussion, Nor is it our present purpose to critically examine his ornithological writings, but rather to draw attention to the fact that Dr. Cooper is one of our best ornithologists, because, to many, the conchologist has overshadowed the ornithologist in his work. We wish now to refer directly to the work that in reality was the result of his meteorological observations and directed his attention to the question of the geographical distribution of