Elliott Coues Elliott Coues ( ; September 9 , 1842 – December 25 , 1899 ) was an American army , historian , ornithologist and author . Biography . Coues was born in Portsmouth , New Hampshire to Samuel Elliott Coues and Charlotte Haven Ladd Coues . He graduated at Columbian University , ( 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 in 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 , did much to promote the systematic study of ornithology in America . He was a founding member of the American Ornithologists ' Union in 1883 . His work was instrumental in establishing the currently accepted standards of trinomial nomenclature - the taxonomic classification of subspecies - in ornithology , and ultimately the whole of zoology . 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 was a careful bibliographer and in his work on the " Birds of the Colorado Valley " he included a special section on swallows and attempted to resolve whether they migrated in winter or hibernated under lakes as was believed at the time : 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 in Baltimore , Maryland . 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 were already becoming rare . Coues Deer are named after him . Spirituality . Coues took an interest in Spiritualism and began speculations in Theosophy . He felt the inadequacy of formal orthodox science in dealing with the deeper problems of human life and destiny . Convinced by the principles of evolution , he believed that these principles may be capable of being applied in psychic research and he proposed to use it to explain obscure phenomena such as hypnotism , clairvoyance , telepathy and the like . Coues had claimed to have witnessed levitation of objects and developed a theory to try and explain the phenomena . His " telekinetic theory of levitation " claimed that luminiferous ether or a similar energy causes the moving of tables and other objects under given conditions , and that the motions which are set up in the ether are in some way connected with mental activities , which enable the mind to control the movement of objects through the hands and the spheres flowing forth through them . He visited Madame Blavatsky in Europe . He then founded the Gnostic Theosophical Society of Washington , and in 1890 he became the president of the Esoteric Theosophical Society of America . Around this time he also exposed Blavatsky and lost his interest in the theosophical movement . Publications . Among the most important of his publications are : Coues also contributed numerous articles to the Century Dictionary , wrote for various encyclopaedias , and edited :