Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/171

Rh facilities for work and say a little about some of the workers. I begin with Colorado Springs, merely because it is near at hand. We have in this town a few good naturalists. The senior member of the fraternity is Mr. Aiken, after whom the snowbird Junco aikeni was named. Mr. Aiken has, I suppose, the best collection of birds in this part of the country, and what is more to the purpose, has a really critical knowledge of them. A few days ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing with him a woodpecker which he believes to be new, and I hope he will publish an account of this and other interesting birds which he has studied. Our other bird man, Mr. Edward K. Warren, is also interested in mammals, and is making a remarkably interesting collection of small mammals. Mr. Warren is much interested in the photography of living wild animals and birds; and some of his photographs, especially those showing the ptarmigan in all plumages, are exceedingly beautiful. Professor Cragin, the well-known paleontologist and zoologist, is resident here, but now devotes himself entirely to the history of the west. The types of most of his new species of fossils are in the museum of Colorado College. Professor Sturgis, formerly of Connecticut, now shares with the present writer a laboratory in the new Palmer Hall, and is very busy working on myxomycetes, making colored drawings of innumerable forms. As a result of his work the boundaries between several so-called species are becoming decidedly obscure.

Palmer Hall, the great new building of Colorado College, is the wonder and admiration of all who see it. From quarters which would have disgraced a high school, the scientific departments have moved into those which would do credit to any university. It is not possible to do everything at once, and it must be confessed that the equipment is not yet nearly up to the standard of the building. At the same time, there are very good facilities for teaching, and the museum contains a large amount of useful material. As regards the means for research, it seems to me that they are even now sufficient to keep any ambitious investigator from idleness. Of course the great opportunities are in the country itself, with the splendid mass of Pikes Peak close at hand, easily ascended by means of the cog railway. In the college, the large series of fossils—especially Cretaceous—collected by Professor Cragin invites study. Most of the material is from Kansas and Texas, but it would be invaluable for comparison to any one engaged in the study of the Colorado Cretaceous. There is also the herbarium of the late Edward Tatnall, of Wilmington, Delaware, which, although not rich in Eocky Mountain plants, is, on the whole, remarkably good, containing apparently most of the standard sets from the United States and Mexico which have been distributed in recent years.

The literature on biology at present possessed by the college is very insufficient, though the library contains many good things. There