 His thesis was an extensive account of the genus "Lampropeltis", the king snakes.From 1913 until 1916 he taught zoology at Massachusetts State College in Amherst, Massachusetts.In 1918 he became an aide in the division of reptiles for the Smithsonian Institution, working under Leonhard Hess Stejneger until 1920, when he became a zoology professor at the University of Michigan.