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Growing worse, he returned, with his mother, to Bardstown, where he died, after extreme suffering. "All that friends and relatives and medical skill could do were of no avail. He died without an enemy, and was followed to the grave by the tears and tender regrets of all who had ever known him". 

During his connection with the Department of Birds of the National Museum, Mr. Beckham proved an intelligent and able assistant, while his gentle and unassuming manners, and gentlemanly deportment won for him the genuine regard of his associates. Owing to his ill health, he was not able to devote much of his leisure time to the labor of original research in his favorite study, but he managed to write several papers, each of which is a valuable contribution to the subject to which it relates, being characterized by an unusual degree of painstaking care and unbiased judgment; and had he been able to write more would undoubtedly have won for himself a high rank among ornithologists. 

A nearly complete list of Mr. Beckham's ornithological papers is subjoined herewith.