Merriam, Clinton Hart (1885-1942)

US ornithologist and physician who directed the Bureau of Biological Survey and helped to found the National Geographic Society.

Merriam was born in New York, and even as a child collected birds. When he was 16 years old he participated in Hayden's geological and geographical survey of the territories to collect bird skins and eggs. He studied medicine at Yale, graduating 1879. He returned to Locust Grove, where he had grown up, to practise medicine.

He gave up medicine 1905 to become an ornithologist at the Bureau of Biological Survey. He continued to direct the Bureau until 1910 when he received funding from the Harriman fund to research Californian Indians. By this time, he had published many papers and built up a large collection of mammals at the Biological Survey. He was extremely interested in conservation and was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society.