48 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



On the 3Oth of November he shot a wild cat near the 

 town. This was a sufficiently rare animal, even then, 

 to create excitement, and he notes that its stomach was 

 filled with the long brown hair of a deer. 



His correspondence with Audubon continued, and the 

 following letter not in the Deane collection has some 

 interest: 



From John J . Audubon to Spencer F. Baird. 



NEW YORK, June 22, 1840. 

 MY DEAR SIR, 



Your favor of the 2Oth inst. came to hand this morning, and I 

 will answer to its contents at once. 



It is impossible at present for me to give you any precise idea of 

 the work on our quadrupeds which I have in contemplation to publish, 

 any further than to say to you, that it is my intention, as well as 

 that of my friend, the Rev d John Bachman, of Charleston, S. C., 

 assisted by several others of our best naturalists, to issue a work 

 on the Mammalia of North America worthy of the naturalist's 

 attention, both at home and abroad. Through our joint efforts, 

 and assisted as we hope and trust to be, by numerous friends and 

 acquaintances in different portions of our Wide Union, we expect to 

 collect, not only new species, but much of valuable matter connected 

 with their geographical range, and particular habits. For instance, 

 in your assistance in this department as well as in ornithology, you 

 may be able to send us valuable intelligence respecting the Shrews, 

 Mice, Rats, Squirrels, etc., found in your immediate vicinity &c. 

 and by saving and forwarding specimens to us, be able also, in all 

 probability, to place into our hands, objects never before known to 

 the World of Science. Whatever information we thus receive is 

 sacredly published under the name of the friend from whom we 

 receive the information, etc. I have sent you the Zoological report 

 of Doc r . De Kay. 10 His Corvus cocolotle is really our Raven. Supposed 

 by some inexperienced European naturalists to be distinct from the 

 Raven of Europe, which, however, is a gross error. . . . 



10 James Ellsworth De Kay, M.D., born in Lisbon in 1792; died 

 at Oyster Bay, Long Island, N. Y., Nov. 21, 1851. Author of the 

 Zoology of New York, in the great series of reports issued by the 

 State toward the middle of the last century. 



