LIFE AT "MINNIES LAND 219 



covered, under the very noses, as it were, of all the orni- 

 thologists in America. With that fine sense of modesty 

 which characterized the man in after life, for his name 

 was Spencer Fullerton Baird, he wrote: 'You see 

 Sir that I have taken (after much hesitation) the liberty 

 of writing you. I am but a boy, and very inexperienced, 

 as you no doubt will observe from my description of 

 the Flycatcher." 



Audubon, who had just returned from the sick-bed 

 of his daughter-in-law, replied promptly as follows: 



Audubon to Spencer Fullerton Baird 



New York, June 18, 1840. 

 Dear Sir, 



On my return home from Charleston S. C. yesterday, I 

 found your kind favor of the 4th inst. in which you have the 

 goodness to inform me that you have discovered a new species 

 of fly-catcher, and which, if the bird corresponds to your de- 

 scription, is, indeed, likely to prove itself hitherto undescribed, 

 for although you speak of yourself as being a youth, your 

 style and the descriptions you have sent me prove that an old 

 head may from time to time be found on young shoulders ! 



I wish you would send me one of the stuffed specimens as 

 well as the one preserved in spirits, and wish you also to rest 

 assured that if the little Muscicapa stands as a nondescript 

 that I shall feel pleased to name it after your friend. 



I have never seen a male of the Cape May warbler with 

 the upper part of the head pure black. Have you compared 

 the Regulus with the description of Regidus Cuvierif Could 

 you not send me your bird to look at? Being on the eve of 

 publishing the Quadrupeds of our Country, I have thought 

 that you might have it in your power to procure several of the 



"See Ruthven Deane (Bibl. Nos. 47 and 49-51), The Auk, vols, xxi, 

 xxiii, and xxiv (1904-7), Passim; and William H. Dall, Spencer Fullerton 

 Baird, a Biography (Bibl. No. 52) (1915); to these admirable accounts 

 I am indebted for such abstracts of this correspondence as are here 

 reproduced. 



