Unitep States N ATIONAL ° 2 {si Ce) o)d (2 fomapon ay Further discovery of fossil bones in Georgia and remarks on their identity with those of the Megatherzum of Paraguay, 1827. WILLIAM COOPER under the patronage of President Jefferson, and afterwards by many others, induced Mr. Cooper to undertake a visit there in 1828, chiefly at his own expense, traveling across the Alleghanies, which were then as wild as the Rocky Mountains are now, in so far as the voice of the iron horse had not yet startled nature in their recesses. With one assistant he made the journey in his own conveyance, making collections and observations of various kinds on the way, and spending some weeks at Big-Bone Lick, obtained much information and many speci- mens. The chief part of these were after- wards described in an article published in the American Monthly Journal of Geology.° His botanical collections were contributed to Worrey and) Grays) Flora of) North America,’ and the other collections went to the New York Lyceum of Natural History. Later on Mr. Cooper visited Albany and Troy, where active scientific workers were already forming societies under the patronage of the Van Rensselaer family, Gov. De Witt ® Observations on Big-Bone Lick, 1831. 13 BIOGRAPTITCAL (SKETCH, Clinton and others. Afterwards he married and settled in his native city—New York— where, for some years following, his house was the resort of all interested in science, foreigners as well as Americans ; and he de- voted considerable time to making collections and descriptions of the living animals of the State, anticipating a future demand for gen- eral works on the subject.’ He found little more material for research on fossils, only one more article appearing on that subject under his authorship,’ but he continued to employ collectors in all branches of Zoology. In 1838 considerations for his own health 7 Mr. Cooper’s father-in-law was Mr. E. Wilson, Jr. (known to that generation as Squire Wilson), of Troy, N. Y., where his ability as a lawyer, his kindness of heart, and his ever-flowing wit and humor are well remembered. Squire Wilson was called by the countrymen of that vicinity “the Honest Lawyer,” and the children of Troy would leave their play and run to receive a smile and merry word from “‘ Gran’pa,” as every one called him, when they saw, advancing on the street, his tall, commanding figure and handsome, benev- olent face, with its halo of silver hair. * A Report on some Fossil Bones of the Megalonyx, from Virginia, 1833. 14 WILLIAM COOPER and that of his family induced him to leave New York for a country life on his farm in New Jersey, on the banks of the Hudson, now the site of the village of Guttenberg. The same year the Lyceum published his first monograph relating to New York zoology, and two papers on species of bats found be- yond the limits of the State. 9°" The investigation of this, one of the most difficult orders of the class Mammalia, was made first in accordance with the scientific classification then prevailing ; and though col- lecting much towards a continuation of the sub- ject, he never published more in his own name. He was offered the pleasant and profitable employment of preparing the Zoology for the great work on the Natural History of New York, but feeling that he could not do justice to the subject, not being in sound health, and * Description of five species of Vesfertziéo that inhabit the environs of the city of New York. 0 On two species of Mo/ossus inhabiting the Southern United States. 1 On two species of Plecotus inhabiting the United States Territories. (Reprinted as “ Researches on the Chezroftera.”’) 15 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH living at what was in those days an inconven- ient distance from the libraries and museums of the city, he declined it, and his friend, Dr. James E. DeKay, who undertook the work, had the use of the materials which Mr. Cooper had collected. As an example of his style of scientific work, the articles on the bats exhibit great accuracy and thoroughness, only seven sfeczes being admitted by him as well determined, out of twenty-four previously named from this coun- try, adding ¢wo as new species, viz., Plecotus Townsendi and Molossus fuliginosus (included under Nyctinomus nasutus, by Allen). With the few specimens then obtainable, many of them in poor condition, it was im- possible to identify more from the imperfect descriptions of the older authors; but he thought sevex of the others might prove good species. Later students, however, have only identified two of them, finding little of Mr. Cooper’s work requiring alteration. Finally, various cares and the want of ro- bust health prevented the continuation of scientific studies, and Mr. Cooper found it 16 WILLIAM COOPER best to part with most of his collections and library, which could not be well preserved when not used. But the chief object of country life—the health and well being of his family—was gained. In 1853, his eldest son having graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and his other children fast growing up, Mr. Cooper sold his farm and removed to Ho- boken, desiring again to enjoy the advan- tages of city life, and also to remain in the neighborhood in which he had lived so long that it had become more homelike than the changed and changing city of New York. For several years he occupied the honorable office of Associate Judge of the District Court, attending the quarterly sessions, and, though not a lawyer, giving universal satis- faction. He was now again able to do something in natural science, but as his former fields of labor were filled by numerous workers, who enjoyed, through societies or governments, the aid of public funds such as no individual could afford, he resolved to make a collection 17 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of shells, which could be obtained more easily and better in New York than anywhere else, were easy to preserve and always of value for ornament and study. The restraint of a limited income did not prevent the accumulation of a very fine cab- inet, chiefly of excellent specimens, during the ten remaining years of his life. By thor- oughly identifying and labeling these, he in- creased their value so that they were eagerly bought by the late Prof. Stimpson for the Chicago Academy of Sciences, after Mr. Cooper’s death. The collections of shells made by his son, Dr. J. G. Cooper, and others on the west coast of North America were made the sub- ject of a report forming one of the Pacific R. R. series for 1860, the last work written by Mr. Cooper and intended only as a prelim- inary article. Mr. Cooper himself collected during these years on the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia, where he made dredging excursions with his second son, William, during the summers of 1858 and 1862, obtaining numerous rare 18 WILLIAM COOPER mollusks, etc., as quoted in Binney’s edition of the Invertebrates of Massachusetts, 1870; also at Greenport, L. I., and other places in the vicinity of New York, and at the Bahama Islands. The results of Mr. Cooper’s former collec- tions in other branches, although chiefly pub- lished long before this time, and investigated by Prof. Baird, furnished two new species, re- markable when compared with the extensive series of specimens obtained by the Govern- ment expeditions. One was a new genus of field-mouse allied to the Lemmings, founded on two very imper- fect specimens, probably collected in the Northwestern States by Schoolcraft or some other unskilled taxidermist. It was named ‘“AZyodes Coopere” by Baird in 1857, but between ’57 and ’67 it was obtained in great numbers from Illinois and northwest to Alaska, proving to be of a new genus (Syn- aptomys Baird), of which Coues writes, in 1877, that it is ‘the most remarkable genus of the sub-family; one singularly combining the peculiarities of two other widely separated 19 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Arvicoline genera.” (‘Monograph of North American Rodentia,” page 228.) It is no wonder that Mr. Cooper, with a cautious desire for accuracy, left undescribed such imperfect and puzzling specimens in hope of some day obtaining means for their proper comparison and identification. The other species was a bird of the sand- piper family, shot May 24, 1833, at Raynor South, Long Island, and also kept, in hope of obtaining more before describing it as a new species of that very difficult and obscurely de- termined group. But no second specimen has ever been obtained, and now, after more than twenty years’ test, the name of 77zuga Coopert, Baird, seems likely to remain, as given to it in the Pacific R. R. Report on Birds, page 716, and in Baird’s Birds of North America. In disposition Mr. Cooper was retiring and free from personal ambitions, perhaps too apt to give way to the desires and interests of others, as he had never been trained in the ‘struggle for existence,” or else, allowing for his delicacy of constitution, his early 20 WILLIAM COOPER promise of distinction in the scientific world would probably have led him into positions of high honor. Notwithstanding his extreme gentleness, he was a ‘good hater” of dishonesty, oppression, injustice, and all else that dishonors man. Clear in perception, sound in reason, full of self-control and well informed on all points, he was in advance of the age in his opinions on politics and the progress of science, and his judgment was deferred to, even by those whose views differed from his, but who in the course of time generally found he was right. He served for years as vestryman in St. Paul’s P. E. Church in Hoboken, and was a true example of a Christian gentleman. He had great fondness for animals; cruelty to them roused him to an indignation and resist- ance which personal wrongs would hardly excite; and one of the last great pleasures of his life was the rising up of Henry Bergh to be the “Great Heart” of these helpless, suf- fering companions of our pilgrimage through iites nee His gradually failing health resulted in en- 2r WILLIAM COOPER largement of the heart, from which he died, April 20, 1864, and, we may believe, entered that region where abide the just, the merciful, and the pure in heart, and where the innu- merable wonders of creation shine in the clear light of eternity. as Cae Z-€ (4 C CE ee: eli eI