Resident naturalists in Central America are few, but the opportunities for such a person to make valuable contributions to ornithology are great. The late Fr.’ Bernard0 Ponsol, S. J,, of the Colegio Centro-America at Granada, Nicaragua, made a noteworthy collection of birds in that country and his enthusiastic pursuit of biological studies continued until his untimely death in 1946. Fr. Ponsol’s collection has been almost unknown except for his record of an American Golden Plover (Pluvialis dominica) in Nicaragua (Wetmore, 1945) and for some mention in a popular account of the country (Marden, 1944). Since Fr. Ponsol’s death there has been no one at the Colegio to continue his studies, and frequent changes in the staff made it unlikely that an active museum could be maintained. Therefore, the authorities of the institution generously donated those specimens for which there were adequate data to the University of California, Los Angeles, so that Fr. Ponsol’s contribution to ornithological study in Nicaragua could be made known. Bernard0 Ponsol was born at San Sebastian, Spain, on February 23, 1900, and entered the Society of Jesus at Loyola, Spain, on July 15, 1917. He studied Biology and other sciences at Ona, Spain, and studied Theology and was ordained priest at Innsbruck, Austria. He returned to Spain and studied Biology for at least two years in the Central University in Madrid. Fr. Ponsol came to Nicaragua (evidently in the late 1930’s) as Provincial of Central America, but despite the time-consuming duties of this office he managed to collect and prepare bird specimens-some as display mounts and others as study skins-and trained others in these activities. All accounts indicate that he was a most enthusiastic ornithologist, using as much time as he could spare to collect specimens and attempting to visit as many different habitats as possible. In 1943 he began correspondence with Alexander Wetmore, and through Dr. Wetmore was able to obtain some of the standard reference works on New World birds for the library of the Colegio Centro-America. In 1945, Fr. Ponsol prepared a manuscript, entitled “Zonas Biogeograficas de la Flora y Fauna Nicaragiienses,” that was a preliminary treatment of the subject; he intended to revise and extend it as more data were amassed and did not consider it ready for publication. This work was issued posthumously in 1958 as publication no. 6 of the Academia Nicaragiiense de la Lengua, with due notice of Fr. Ponsol’s view that the paper was not in final form. There is no doubt that Fr. Ponsol hoped to continue and expand his ornithological activities, but he met a tragic death in an airplane crash at La Libertad, Nicaragua, on April 22, 1946. Unfortunately some of his notes were either lost in the crash or were not preserved at the Colegio, but for many specimens there are adequate data on the labels or in some of his specimen catalogs that were saved. Fr. Ponsol made a tangible and lasting contribution to ornithology through his collecting activities, and he also made a contribution of another and perhaps less tangible nature. He is remembered with the greatest respect by former students at the Colegio and by all those with whom he came in contact throughout the country, and his widely-known enthusiasm for biology still encourages cooperation and assistance from people in all walks of life for zoological investigation in Nicaragua. For these reasons one can say with confidence that future students in this region will be indebted to Fr. Ponsol’s pioneering efforts on behalf of biological science in his adopted country.