226 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



settliug the identity. Baird came up here to see the Great-footed 

 hawks which I was raising, settling the point of their nesting in 

 Connecticut. I gave him two wliicli were kept alive in Washing- 

 ton another year. My birds were ke[>t in Hartford by Mr. Moses 

 as food could be more easily procured for them there. I took 

 Prof. Baird down there where there were three alive and told him 

 all about capturing them, etc. In his work he gives Moses the 

 credit of being the douoj-. I hope others have got the credit due 

 them, but perhaps he may be like Agassiz who claimed every new 

 discovery by his ijupils as his, because they were pursuing inves- 

 tigations under his directions. Ilis students made bitter complaints 

 and had reason to. Every man ought to be credited with his own 

 discoveries. 



In 1879, writing of this subject again Dr. Wood says : 

 " I regret that I-have not a duplicate of the May number 

 of Familiar Science to send you, containing that chapter 

 of my work on the Rapacia where I take up the Rough- 

 legged Falcon — a point on which my views were at 

 variance with those of all the leading ornithologists of 

 this country and now my views are endorsed by all with- 

 out giving me credit. I do not claim to be the first 

 ornithologist who considered the Rough-legged and the 

 Black Falcon identical. I give Audubon and Wilson due 

 credit, but I do claim to have settled beyond dispute that 

 our later ornithologists were mistaken in making two 

 species of them. It is a pity that some persons who 

 know a little about birds — like your Portland man and 

 other writers for the press whom I might name — should 

 attempt to do what they know nothing about. It fills 

 our ornithological literature with blunders which are 

 credited as facts and copied all over the world and it 

 takes ages to rectify their mistakes." 



The correspondence of these two friends is most 

 intimate and confiding. Not only are their letters full of 



