BEEBE, CHARLES WILLIAM (1877— ), American ornithologist and explorer, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., July 29, 1877. In 1899, after receiving the degree of B.S. at Columbia university, and completing a year of graduate study, he be came honorary curator of ornithology of the New York Zoo logical society and was later made director of its department of scientific research. He originated the collection of living birds in the New York Zoological park and brought it up to the first rank with a census of goo species and 3,00o specimens. He also secured many rare marine specimens. His scientific expe ditions took him to British Guiana, the Himalayas, Borneo, the Sargasso Sea—places which he described in glamorous prose that won him a high rank among contemporary writers on nature. For his Monograph of the Pheasants, later published as Pheasants, Their Lives and Homes (1926), he was awarded the Elliott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences.
Beebe has published many scientific papers on birds and evolution. Some of his most popular books are: Two Bird-Lovers in Mexico (1905) ; Jungle Peace (1918) ; Galdpagos: World's End (1923) Jungle Days (1925) ; The Arcturus Adventure (1926) ; and Pheasant Jungles (1927).