1 865 TO 1865 379 



the structure prevented the destruction of the invaluable 

 collections and library, which Baird and Jewett had toiled 

 so hard to bring together. Though regret at what was 

 lost must have been great, yet the chief feeling of the 

 Professor must have been that of intense gratitude that 

 the disaster spared the things most precious to him. 

 Mr. Varden, the old curator of the National Institute 

 collection, died February loth. During the summer 

 Baird made his usual northward journey. He visited 

 Mr. George A. Boardman, an enthusiastic ornithologist, 

 at Eastport, Maine, and in October was back at 

 Washington. 



To Spencer F. Baird from George A. Boardman. 



MILLTOWN, MAINE, Jany. 4, 1865. 

 DEAR BAIRD: 



I reed, your last letter and should be glad if I could give you any 

 information that would be new in the Northern distribution of many 

 common birds. I have long been a close observer of the habits and 

 for some time have been a collector of birds, and in my journeyings 

 from Massachusetts and Western Maine to this neighborhood, North- 

 eastern Maine and New Brunswick, there appears to be a different 

 fauna. We do accidentally find many more Southern birds, but only 

 as stragglers; and in this neighborhood, have found 240 species, and 

 I think this is about the Southern locality for the breeding in abun- 

 dance of many Northern birds, and too far North and East for the 

 breeding grounds of many most common Massachusetts and Western 

 Maine birds. Among the birds that breed commonly with us and 

 are best known, are the little blue snow birds one of the most com- 

 mon birds , the white-throat sparrow very common , yellow 

 rump warbler very common , black poll warbler, hermit thrush, 

 Canada jay, pine finch, both red and white crossbills, spruce par- 

 tridge, blue back three-toed woodpecker, yellow bellied ditto, yellow 

 red poll , very common , as are most of the above all summer. 

 The duck hawk, pigeon hawk, and goshawk are not at all uncommon. 



