COUES

coues, elliott (1842-1899), american naturalist, was born at portsmouth, new hampshire, on the 9th of september 1842. he graduated at columbian (now george washington) university, washington, d.c., in 1861, and at the medical school of that institution in 1863. he served as a medical cadet at washington in 1862-1863, and in 1864 was appointed assistant-surgeon in the regular army. in 1872 he published his _key to north american birds_, which, revised and rewritten in 1884 and 1901, has done much to promote the systematic study of ornithology in america. in 1873-1876 coues was attached as surgeon and naturalist to the united states northern boundary commission, and in 1876-1880 was secretary and naturalist to the united states geological and geographical survey of the territories, the publications of which he edited. he was lecturer on anatomy in the medical school of the columbian university in 1877-1882, and professor of anatomy there in 1882-1887. he resigned from the army in 1881 to devote himself entirely to scientific research. he was a founder of the american ornithologists' union, and edited its organ, _the auk_, and several other ornithological periodicals. he died at baltimore, maryland, on the 25th of december 1899. in addition to ornithology he did valuable work in mammalogy; his book _fur-bearing animals_ (1877) being distinguished by the accuracy and completeness of its description of species, several of which are already becoming rare. in 1887 he became president of the esoteric theosophical society of america. among the most important of his publications, in several of which he had collaboration, are _a field ornithology_ (1874); _birds of the north-west_ (1874); _monographs on north american rodentia_, with j. a. allen (1877); _birds of the colorado valley_ (1878); _a bibliography of ornithology_ (1878-1880, incomplete); _new england bird life_ (1881); _a dictionary and check list of north american birds_ (1882); _biogen, a speculation on the origin and motive of life_ (1884); _the daemon of darwin_ (1884); _can matter think?_ (1886); and _neuro-myology_ (1887). he also contributed numerous articles to the century dictionary, wrote for various encyclopaedias, and edited the _journals of lewis and clark_ (1893), and _the travels of zebulon m. pike_ (1895). coulisse (french for "groove," from _couler_, to slide), a term for a groove in which a gate of a sluice, or the side-scenes in a theatre, slide up and down, hence applied to the space on the stage between the wings, and generally to that part of the theatre "behind the scenes" and out of view of the public. it is also a term of the paris bourse, derived from a _coulisse_, or passage in which transactions were carried on without the authorized _agents de change_. the name _coulissier_ was thus given to unauthorized _agents de change_, or "outside brokers" who, after many attempts at suppression, were finally given a recognized status in 1901. they bring business to the _agents de change_, and act as intermediaries between them and other parties. (see stock exchange: paris.)