1672 Deer Run Road, Catawba, South Carolina 29704 USA Augusto Ruschi, elected an Associate of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1960 and a Corresponding Fellow in 1969, died 5 June 1986 in vittoria, 300 miles northeast of Rio de Ja- neiro. He was born 12 December 1915 in Santa Teresa, E. E. Santo, Brazil. A man of wide and varied interests, Ruschi devoted his life to studying the flora and fauna of the vanishing Atlantic coastal rain forest of his native Espirito Santo state and in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru. He wrote the two-volume "Aves do Brasil," published in 1979 and 1981. Ruschi was an active or honorary member of nearly two dozen scientific societies. He was founder and director of the Museu Biologia Prof. Mello Leito in Santa Teresa. He attended the 1960 AOU meeting and International Ornitho- logical Conferences in 1962 and 1966. He par- ticipated in the First Pan-African Ornithologi- cal Conference in July 1957. Ruschi published nearly 400 scientific papers in the disciplines of botany, mammalogy, and ornithology and on the anthropology of the indigenous Indian tribes of Brazil. At his home, he maintained an aviary where Crawford H. Greenewalt photographed many of the hum- mingbirds illustrating his articles in The Na- tional Geographic Magazine and his book, "Hum- mingbirds" (1960, Garden City, New York, Doubleday and Company, Inc.). Ruschi has been honored in his own country and worldwide for his contributions to science and for drawing attention to the need for con- serving Brazil's rapidly vanishing tropical rain forests. On 19 March 1969, the President of Italy awarded him the title of Commander of Italy of the Order of the Star of Fellowship. The last year of Ruschi's life involved events that commanded worldwide attention. It was thought that he had become ill with a liver problem because of having touched poisonous toads while carrying out research in the Ama- zon in 1975. Brazilian President Jos Sarney had Indian shamans or medicine men brought to Brasilia to treat Ruschi, but their ministrations were to no avail. A physician who had previ- ously treated him said that toads had nothing to do with his fatal illness. Rather, he said, Ruschi died from an overdose of medication used to combat malaria. Ruschi's many contributions to science will long be remembered. It is to be hoped his pi- oneering efforts to save Brazil's tropical rain forests will not have been in vain.