2G4 THE NATURAI^IST OF THE ST. CROIX 



can secure and send him. He writes : " Any that you 

 can procure would be a very valuable addition to my 

 material for studying this family. The external structure 

 of the ear appears to afford one of the most important 

 characters among those available as a basis of classifica- 

 tion and, of course, it is impossible to make any use of 

 dried skins for the examination of this organ. Not 

 recollecting just how complete was the list of desiderata 

 that I gave you, I take the liberty to mention here, since 

 you were so kind as to offer to obtain some of them for 

 me — those which I desire." Then follows a list of 

 fourteen New England and eight Florida species. To 

 this request Mr. Boardman made immediate response. 

 May 13, 1874, he tells Mr. Ridgway of a man who found 

 a bird that was new to him, exhausted on the ground. 

 He described the Sooty Tern exactly, and says: "It 

 is a new place for this bird. I have never seen it north 

 of Florida." In this letter Mr. Boardman wants to be 

 remembered to Henshaw and to know where he is going ; 

 to hear from Turner and what he got in Alaska ; from 

 Prof. Goode, Bean, Elliot, Milner and "all the folks." 



August 10, 1874, Mr. Boardman writes, sending him a 

 lark, "Very small and marked differently from any I have 

 before seen;" also a queerly marked warbler, "which 

 we call a yellow or red poll but in queer plumage," 

 about which he wants information. He adds : "I wish 

 you could come down here and see where lots of the 

 warblers breed. We have several considered rare, as Bay- 

 breasted, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, Golden- 

 crested, etc." To this Mr. Ridgway replies: 



