SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 71 



group of American animals without finding references to the fruits of 

 those two expeditions. 



If Baird asked contributions from residents in distant parts, it was 

 all for the sake of science, as they well know ; yet he at his end did not 

 spare himself in serving the personal needs of his correspondents. At 

 one time we find him going out to purchase shoes for a whole family 

 in Costa Eica; at another, Mrs. Baird's cooperation was secured in the 

 selection of a ' lady's silk/ intended for the wife of a resident in a far 

 northern post. It was no easy matter to select the cloth, not even 

 knowing the color of the lady (she turned out afterwards to be a half 

 breed), but the purchase was entirely satisfactory. 



Baird only entered upon his labors at the Smithsonian in October, 

 1850, but a year had not passed before he received important and 

 abundant materials from the west. The following letter to the dis- 

 tinguished botanist, Dr. George Engelmann, of St. Louis, Mo., is suffi- 

 ciently characteristic : 



Smithsonian, Washington, Sept. 30, 1851. 

 Dear Doctor: 



The box arrived safely during my absence, and on my return a few days 

 ago I hastened to open it. I was enchanted out and out with the perfection of 

 the packing, and the interest of the contents, which greatly exceeded my 

 anticipations. Much obliged to you for the trouble you had. 



I am glad that you are at work for Agassiz and myself. Make a big col- 

 lection, and don't spare the liquor. Remember we want everything. Keep 

 Lindheimer spurred up [Lindheimer was a well-known botanical collector who 

 traveled in Texas]. Shall I send him some money, and how much; also what 

 kind passes there. 



Specimens coming in rapidly. I collected many myself and have as many 

 sent me. Let me know how I can serve you, and believe me ever yours, 



S. F. Baied. 



Then again, to the accomplished collector, Arthur Schott, then at 



Eagle Pass, Texas: 



Smithsonian Institution, Wash., May 15, 1852. 

 My Dear Sir: 



In a letter under date of Frontera of April 10 just received from Major 

 Emory, he was kind enough to say that he had requested you to make some 

 zoological collections on the Lower Rio Grande and forward them here, — or at 

 least would do so. I was much pleased to learn of the stationing so accom- 

 plished a collector as yourself in this rich region, and doubt not that you will 

 make the position tell greatly to the advantage of natural history. You, of 

 course, need no especial instructions in regard to the mode of collecting the 

 objects to be gathered. In so a virgin a field as the one you are now in, 

 everything without a single exception is desirable. 



My first favorites are as you well know, vertebrata, fishes and reptiles per- 

 haps above all, mammals and birds, however scarcely behind. . . . 



On April 2, 1853, he writes to Dr. Engelmann: 



I think all the western parties will go provided with naturalists. There 

 will be a most enormous mass of matter brought in this year from the west. 



