CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 61 



Leib in the spring, namely Ardea Exilis & Emberiza Grammaca. 

 There is a young man there named Cassin 17 has some very rare 

 birds. Flycatchers & White fronted Goose, Azure Warbler, White 



Ibis &c., Mr. Audubon is getting along with 



his drawings, has lately finished beautiful pictures of the mink, & 

 grey fox. I am now at the feet of the Golden Eagle & a pretty tough 

 job it is. Giraud here has thought that there is a permanent distinc- 

 tion between the large & small Black heads & has commenced a 

 description of the smaller kind as Fuligula Minor. The differences 

 are these. 1st, Size. 2d, In the smaller ones the white band on the 

 wing is distinctly of that color only on the secondaries & not extending 

 to the primaries as on the large one. 3d, the inside of the bill is dark 

 in the small one & whitish in the large. 4th, the small one is most 

 tufted and has a purplish reflection on the head instead of a greenish 

 one. 5th, the small one has the black on the lower abdomen, about 

 the anus finely undulated, while the large one has it in spots, & 6th, 

 the large ones have a white spot at the base of the under mandible 

 on the chin which the other has not. These two last characters I 

 want you to examine those in the Washington markets & let me know. 

 I think myself that they are distinct as I have seen many specimens 

 of each in the flesh. 



They are very anxious to have descriptions of our new birds to 

 publish in the Annals of the Lyceum here, but they had better be 

 put in the Journal of the Academy of Nat. Sciences of Phila. Have 

 you a full description of the flycatcher? Dr. Holbrook is going to 

 cancel the first edition of his Herpetology & supply subscribers 

 with a new one. Dr. Hallowell of Phila., Holbrook's right hand man 

 there asked me to write down all I knew of the habits of the reptiles 

 & give to him for Dr. Holbrook. 18 Will you send me what you know. 



17 John Cassin, born at Chester, Pa., Sept. 6, 1813, died Jan. 10, 

 1869. Curator of ornithology and Vice President of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences for many years, he stands in the first 

 rank of systematic ornithologists and in his day was more familiar 

 with exotic birds than any other American student. He was a life- 

 long friend and coadjutor of Baird in his favorite study. 



18 John Edwards Holbrook, born at Beaufort, South Carolina, 

 Dec. 30, 1794, of New England ancestry; graduated at Brown Uni- 

 versity in 1815, and in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania 



