SOME SCIENTIFIC RESUI.TS 115 



Woods Holl, June 22, 1871. These incidents show how 

 accurate Mr. Boardman was in his knowledge and how 

 quick he was to detect anything new or to notice the 

 slight variations in species which an ordinary sportsman 

 would pass unnoticed. 



One of Mr, Boardman's sons tells the following interest- 

 ing incident : ' ' Many years ago I was with my father 

 and Prof. Baird in the garden at Milltown, N. B., when 

 father said : ' I had a black buzzard, professor, the other 

 day, killed near here.' Prof Baird replied, ' Oh no, Mr. 

 Boardman, you must be mistaken ; they seldom come as 

 far north as Washington, It must have been a turkey 

 buzzard.' Father replied : ' I know a black buzzard as 

 well as I know a crow.' The professor, however, was 

 not satisfied. In a few minutes a man drove into the yard 

 with a box. I opened it, took out the bird and carried 

 it around where they were talking. Father said : ' Pro- 

 fessor, what do you call that ? ' He replied, ' a black 

 buzzard.' Then father took the bird to his bird house 

 and the professor said to me : * I find your father is always 

 correct in all our disputes about native birds. When we 

 read the manuscript of our book at Peaks Island (Baird, 

 Brewer and Ridgway's History of North American 

 Birds), your father did not agree with Dr. Brewer in 

 many of his statements, so I decided with your father. 

 Dr. Brewer has great knowledge of birds and eggs and 

 has long been a student in that line, but your father's 

 knowledge came from association with the birds and the 

 studies of their habits in the woods and his observations 

 were correct.' " 



Pioneer field ornithologist in Maine that he was, Mr. 

 Boardman made his studies and recorded his observa- 

 tions upon the birds of eastern North America before the 



