CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 101 



From John J, Audubon to S. F. Baird. 



NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 1844. 

 MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, 



Many happy Years to you and to Yours! I received your last 

 letter and also the descriptions of your two species of Muscicapae 

 and I now thank you for that. But as I figure some 12 or 14 New 

 Species for our small Work, I should like very much to place among 

 them your own valuable discoveries. Can you send me Specimens 

 of each forthwith? If So, lose not a moment. If not please to write 

 a few lines on this subject. 



When you come to New York, I trust that you will not forget 

 to come and see us "at home", where your cautious friends need not 

 fear "Rattlesnakes" or "Putrid fevers." 



Always very sincerely attached Friend, 



JOHN J. AUDUBON. 



Early in October he went with a few friends on a 

 hunting and collecting trip to Sterrett's Gap, Bloomfield 

 and the Little Juniata river country, which he describes 

 in the following letter to his brother William: 



From Spencer F. Baird to William M. Baird. 



CARLISLE, October 9. 1843 

 DEAR WILL, 



I send on the birds to be labelled which have accumulated since 

 the last Batch. I have been away so much since you left, that I have 

 stuffed but one bird. On the Friday after you left Alick Penrose 

 & I went over to Duncan's Island and came back on Saturday, down 

 the west side of the river to the railroad. I saw few ducks in the 

 river but a very large flock of partridges of about forty. There would 

 have been the most beautiful chance to shoot them ever seen, as 

 they were entirely hemmed in by the Cove Mountain. They had 

 but three fields to fly in. I had time only to shoot one, as I was afraid 

 of not getting down in time for the cars. They told me that partridges 

 were very plenty on Haldeman's Island, the one next to Mr. Duncan's. 

 We saw the greatest quantities of Papaws, all along the river, several 



