64 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



present memoir at a very early age became interested not merely in 

 killing birds, but in studying them. These brothers in their early 

 ' teens ' began to form a collection, of which they were joint proprietors. 

 This was really the nucleus of what is now the National Museum series, 

 and possesses a historical interest in relation to the museum similar 

 to that possessed by the Sloane collections in relation to the British 

 Museum. It is said that some of the early specimens were prepared 

 'by the simple process of evisceration, followed by stuffing the body- 

 cavities full of cotton and arsenical soap ' ; but the later ones were 

 admirably prepared, and all are alike precious to those who are inter- 

 ested in the foundations of American ornithology. 



Spencer Baird was ready to enter Dickinson College a year before 

 he actually did so ; but Miss Baird informs me that he used to say that 

 he regretted that he had not been kept back longer, as he thought that 

 a boy of thirteen was mentally too immature to reap the full benefit of 

 a college course. The opportunities for scientific study in the college 

 were, of course, very small in those days; but there is no doubt that 

 Baird at this time had fully acquired the ' scientific spirit,' and all he 

 needed was reasonable opportunity. His diary, beginning in 1838, 

 when he was only fifteen years old, shows the same close observation 

 and painstaking exactness which characterized the work of his later 

 years. Thus we read on May 25, 1839 : 



About one a.m. gust came up; light wind — some thunder — rained violently 

 for one quarter hour. Very warm all day. About two p.m. went out to creek 

 with gun. Shot some small birds, principally flycatchers. Home at seven. 

 Skinned and opened birds until ten. 



Another entry in the diary reads: 



15th, Saturday. Eode part of way home; shot six robins, young and old, 

 under mulberry tree; warbling vireo; read-head, and downy woodpecker. 



A later note, dated December 1842, states that the last-mentioned 

 woodpecker was apparently a distinct species, and was named after 

 Baird by J. G. Bell, of New York. 3 ' It was on a high horizontal 

 limb in the first bottom.' 



Dickinson College must have been somewhat in advance of the 

 times, for lectures on zoology were offered. The diary under June 18, 

 1839, has the record, ' Attended one of Mr. Hamilton's lectures on 

 zoology to the senior class in the afternoon.' Baird was then a junior, 

 but no one could deny his fitness to rank with the seniors in zoology. 



After leaving college, Baird continued his natural history studies 

 with unabating zeal, and it is evident that at this time his mission in 



3 It was, apparently, never published. I could find no reference to it, and 

 Dr. Ridgway, to whom I applied for help, is also unaware of any such bird 

 having been published. 



