VIII PUBLICATIONS OF SPENCER F. BAIRD. 



soap. The brother, William M. Baird, diverged into other paths, and 

 at the time of his death in 1872 was United States collector of internal 

 revenue at Eeading. 



The inheritance of a love of nature and a taste for scientific classifiea. 

 tion, the companionship of a brother similarly gifted, tended to the 

 development of the young naturalist, and a still more important element 

 was the encouragement of a judicious mother by whom he was per- 

 mitted to devote the five years immediately following his graduation 

 to his own devices and plans instead of being pushed at once into a 

 profession. In 1841, at the age of eighteen, we find him making an 

 ornithological excursion through the mountains of Pennsylvania, walk- 

 ing 400 miles iu twenty-one days, the last day 60 miles between day- 

 light and rest. The following year he walked more than 2,200 miles. 

 His fine physique and consequent capacity for work are doubtless due in 

 part to his outdoor life during these years. 



IV. • 



An important stimulus to the eftbrts of this young naturalist was the 

 friendship which he formed as early as 1838 with Audubon, with whom 

 he was for many years in correspondence, and who, in 1842, gave to 

 him the greater part of his collection of birds, including most of his 

 types of new species. Young Baird contributed many facts and speci- 

 mens for the History of North American Quadrupeds at that time in 

 preparation, as well as to the Ornithological Biography, and was only 

 prevented by ill healch from accompanying Audubon as his secretary 

 on his six months' expedition to the Yellowstone in 1840. In those 

 days were formed many of the friendships and partnerships with scien- 

 tific men which influenced his after life. Among his early correspond- 

 ents were George K Lawrence (1841), John Cassin (1843), John G-. 

 Morris (1843), Thomas M. Brewer (1845), and S. S. Haldeman (1845). In 

 1847 he met Agassiz, then just arrived from Switzerland in company 

 with Desor and Girard. At this time or a year later was projected the 

 work of Agassiz and Baird on "The Fresh- water Fishes of the United 

 States," which was, however, never published, although a number of 

 illustrations and some pages of text were elaborated. In 1843 he trans- 

 lated Ehrenberg's "Corals of the Eed Sea" for J. D. Dana, who was 

 then preparing his reports for the United States exploring expedition. 

 As early as 1846 we find him engaged in the preparation of a synonymy 

 of North American birds, and visiting Boston to consult the libraries of 

 Amos Binney and the Boston Society of Natural History for works not 

 possessed by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. This 

 material was utilized twelve years later in the "Birds of North 

 America." 



As professor of natural history in Dickinson College he taught the 

 seniors in physiology, the sophomores in geometry, and the freshmen in 

 zoology. He found time, however, to carry on the works begun in pre- 



