CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 41 



William M. Baird, Spencer's elder brother, was his 

 especial chum, with a taste for natural history which 

 made a common bond between them, although there 

 was four years' difference in their ages. They roamed the 

 country together and undertook the collection of a com- 

 plete series of the birds of Cumberland County, specimens 

 from which are still extant in the collection of the United 

 States National Museum. 



This collection was kept in an old fashioned secretary- 

 bureau which was lent for the purpose by their Grand- 

 mother Biddle. It had belonged to Mrs. Fullerton, a 

 great-aunt whose son Spencer had died about the time 

 Spencer Baird was born and after whom he was named, 

 Mrs. Fullerton being a favorite aunt of our Spencer's 

 mother. This bureau was given to his wife on her mar- 

 riage and cherished as a relic after Professor Baird's 

 collection far outgrew its capacity. 



After the appointment of his Uncle Penrose to the post 

 of Solicitor of the United States Treasury Department 

 by President Harrison and the removal of the Penrose 

 family to Washington in 1841, William was appointed 

 to a clerkship in the Treasury and went to Washington, 

 residing with his uncle's family. Here he remained 

 several years, but kept up his habit of studying and col- 

 lecting birds, and held a very active correspondence with 

 his brother Spencer at Carlisle. 



John K. Townsend, the well-known naturalist, with his 

 wife, visited Washington during the period when William 

 was still connected with the Treasury. The lady was a 

 daughter of Robert Holmes, the inventor of the Holmes life- 

 boat, and in 1847 William Baird married her sister Harriet. 



He resigned from the Treasury and went to Reading, 

 which was his home for the rest of his life. He took up 



