Mrs. Bailey’s natural girlhood’s interest in wild birds was greatly quickened by dwelling in a home in which scholarship and a love of scientific accuracy were taught daily; and she had the added advantage of living in a region of northern New York well supplied with bird-life. In a recent letter she wrote: “Having been brought up on Coues’s ‘Key,’ and trained by my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, on leaving College in 1886 I began doing careful field-work.” Since that day, no woman has studied the wild birds of America so systematically, so thoroughly, and so carefully as she. The amount of field-work she has done is perfectly astonishing, and probably few women have spent so many days in the wilds, or so many nights under canvas, as has Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey. Her work, partly conducted in company with her brother, Dr. Merriam, and her husband, Mr. Vernon Bailey, has been carried on not only in eastern and southern states and in the Bermudas, but also in Arizona, Oregon, California, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and New Mexico.
As a teacher of others, she has given bird-talks and conducted field-classes in bird-study in various parts of the country, and for thirty years her name has been before the public as a writer of popular and scientific articles. The titles of no less than seventy communications published in The Auk, Bird-Lore, The Condor, Forest and Stream, The Outlook, Popular Science, The American Agriculturist, and elsewhere, have come to my attention. Her first book, “Birds Through An Opera Glass,” was published in 1889. This was followed by “My Summer in a Mormon Village,” 1895; “A-Birding on a Bronco,” 1896; and “Birds of Village and Field,” 1898.
FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY
Her largest and most valuable contribution to the literature of ornithology is her “Handbook of Birds of the Western United States,” first published in 1902. From the day of its appearance, this was hailed as the most practical and useful book on our western birds that had ever been published, and for many years to come it will be regarded as the standard work on the subject. No serious student of bird-life in the western United States would think of being without this valuable book on his study-table.
Enrolled from January 1 to March 1, 1916.
| Life Members. Agnew, Miss Alice G. Andrews, J. Sherlock Arnold, Edward W. C. Barr, James H. Black, R. Clifford Blake, Mrs. Francis Brackenridge, George W. Burnham, William Butler, Mrs. Paul Butterworth, Mrs. William Campbell, John B. Childs, Eversley Clark, George H. Clementson, Mrs. Sidney Colgate, Richard M. Covell, Dr. H. H. Dahlstrom, Mrs. C. A. Dodge, Cleveland H. Doepke, Mrs. William F. Eddison, Charles Glazier, Henry S. Hamlin, Mrs. Eva S. Hanna, Mrs. H. M., Jr. Haskell, J. Amory Higginson, Mrs. James J. “Iowa Friend” Jenkins, Mrs. Joseph W. Keen, Miss Florence Keith, Mrs. D. M. Kingsbury, Miss Alice E. Langdon, Woodbury G. Lansing, Mrs. G. Y. Lawrence, Rosewell B. Low, Miss Nathalie F. MacLean, Mrs. Charles F. Marmon, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Miller, Mrs. E. C. T. Mitchell, Miss Mary Moore, Mrs. William H. Neave, Miss Jane C. Newberry, W. F. Oliver, Mrs. James B. Osborn, Mrs. William C. Prentiss, F. F. Rathborne, Richard C. Remsen, Miss Elizabeth Rodewald, F. L. Sanger, Mrs. C. R. Severance, John L. Stetson, Francis L. | Stillman, B. G. Stillman, Chauncey D. Thaw, J. C. Upson, Mrs. Henry S. Weld, Miss Elizabeth F. White, Windsor T. Woolman, Edward Sustaining Members. Adams, Mrs. Maud W. Aims, Miss Edith M. Allen, Charles D. Allen, Mrs. D. P. Armstrong, Mrs. C. R. Audubon Society of Illinois. Audubon Society of New Hampshire. Barber, Mrs. H. Barrows, Ira. Bayne, Howard Beacom, M. W. Benton, Andrew A. Biays, Miss Katherine Billard, Mrs. J. L. Bispham, David Boettger, Mrs. Theodore Booth, Mrs. Henry M. Brunswick, Mrs. E. Burton, Mrs. Robert M. Carey, Mrs. Frederic F. Cerf, Mrs. L. A. Choate, Miss Caroline Church, F. S. Clark, F. Ambrose Clark, George C. Clements, Mrs. G. H. Cochran, G. D. Cohn, Julius M. Colfelt, Mrs. R. McM. Colorado Audubon Society Cory, Daniel W. de Bary, A. Delta Duck Club DeMilt, Miss Aida R. deRham, H. Casimir Dinsmore, Mrs. W. B. Emerson, William Flint, Mrs. Austin Ford, Mrs. Bruce Foshay, Dr. P. Maxwell Fraser, Miss Ann C. Fuld, Solomon |